CAO-25-5149

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TranscriptWhat was said at each appearance is below it. Machine transcription, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 76% of 62 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.

1. 1Jun 17, 2025
   Board of County CommissionersRS2ProclamationNo disposition in the minutes

   Open this item →▶ Play from 44:06
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   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   44:06Okay, um I think we have another resolution. One more. Resolution two.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   44:10So R S two. So anyone here um for waste and recycler recycling workers week, please come to the podium. I think we have a big group.

   Lisa Yeager

   44:22Well.

   Jack MarianoVice Chair

   44:32Commissioner Starkey.

   44:39I'm gonna make a motion that we make sure that no hundred year old person ever has to buy a drink.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   44:46Not in my bar. All right. They're free in my bar.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   44:54As your team is coming up to the podium, I'll start reading, okay? All right. So this is resolution number 25-259, a resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the week of June 15th through 21st, 2025, as Waste and Recycling Workers Week in Pasco County. Whereas the nation celebrates the week of June 15 through 21, 2025 as National Professional Waste and Recycling Workers Week to show

   45:25appreciation for those who work in the garbage, sanitation, and recycling industry. And whereas the earliest recorded garbage regulation efforts began in 3000 BC when the first landfill was developed in Konos, Crete, where large holes were dug for refuse. And whereas since that time, sanitation workers have worked selflessly and tirelessly in all types of environments and at

   45:55risk to themselves to provide sanitation services to protect communities and residents, prevent disease, and keep our communities clean, safe, and beautiful. And whereas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the eradication of many diseases in the Western world is due in large part to higher public sanitation standards resulting from effective garbage disposal. And whereas,

   46:25according to the National Library of Medicine, sanitation workers face significant occupational risk related to health outcomes across a range of conditions from occupational injuries to environmental hazards. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics demonstrates that there are ten times as many fatal injuries of sanitation workers compared to workers in other industries. And whereas the employees working for the Pasco County Solid Waste

   46:55Department make significant contributions to the safety, health, and welfare of our residents by processing over 500,000 tons of solid waste and recycling annually. And whereas during the back-to-back hurricanes of 2024, Stories of service above and beyond the call of duty came from all parts of the organization. The Pasco County Solid Waste Team's dedication and selfless

   47:26service were instrumental in the timely collection and safe management of over 1.3 million cubic yards of storm-related debris. And whereas Pasco County values and celebrates our Solid Waste workers for their commitment to our residents, businesses, and communities, and we want to elevate solid waste history, individuals, and the profession. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Board of County

   47:56Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, that said board hereby declares the week of June 15 through 21, 2025, as Waste and Recycling Workers Week in Pasco County and encourages all citizens to support solid waste activities this week and throughout the year. Done and resolved in regular session with a quorum present in voting this 17th day of June 2025.

   Ron Oakley

   48:21Move approval.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   48:22Second. All in favor? Aye. Um this is Commissioner Weightman.

   Ron Oakley

   48:27Yes. Who's working today? Everything's done by nine, right? Early early business. Yeah, you guys start before

   48:39No, truly um the industry, your team, Um No offense to the first responders in the room. But you all are just as vital to every community throughout this state, throughout this country, throughout the world, and keeping our communities safe and healthy. You showed during COVID when volume shifted You know, from Commercial and every everything closed down and the volume shifted to the curb,

   49:09and you have to work with your haulers to pick it up how to get get rid of it. The world was sick. Our world would have only gotten sicker if y'all had not kept showing up every day and making sure that everything that was there was disposed of safely and responsibly. And um, you know, it was no secret the work you do is very dangerous, so safety is always a priority. uh in the in the industry, in the business and um, you know, it's a it's a thankless job, it's a smelly job.

   49:40But somebody's gotta do it and once it's in your blood it's hard to hard to walk away. And uh those of you that are been in the business a while you know what I'm what I'm talking about. So, honor to have you all here this morning and uh very grateful for all the incredible work that you do to keep our county. uh healthy and um

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   49:59Clean.

   Ron Oakley

   50:01Thank you.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   50:02Thank you. Commissioner Oakley?

   Ron Oakley

   50:04Yeah. I certainly thank y'all for all the work you do. Um your job never ends. It just continues every day as there's more trash, there's more trash and when we go through the storms and all the pickup and the m movement of all the debris and everything y'all are still continuously working hard. We get you a little extra help at times but Uh y'all just continuously do a great job at at what you do and for all the citizens of Pasco County and help keep us clean throughout the county. So I certainly appreciate

   50:34everything you do.

   Lisa Yeager

   50:35Commissioner Yeager. Yep. I just wanna say thank you for everything you guys do. I know it is a tireless job and sometimes a thankless job and um I found out today a very dangerous job. I did not know that. So um thank you for everything you do for our county and uh keeping us clean and Picked up and especially like during the storms, you you guys were heroic, and um we thought the governor put you know, tough standards on us. Uh the county was we

   51:05did it in record time. So thank you. Commissioner Mariano.

   Jack MarianoVice Chair

   51:09And I want to say the the whole organization runs so well. Um the facility that we've invested a lot of money into, you guys keep it spotless, you keep it running smooth, the people at the at the gates are very friendly. So to do all that is phenomenal. But to talk about the storm, the dedication. I mean you guys in the booth at the EOC continually working things through, trying to work with the state, trying to work with FEMA, trying to find a way. What can we do to get the trash picked up? And your diligence and pushing so hard to try to get the trash picked

   51:39up. uh led to us picking up on Penellas County's order they had and made it to all sixty seven counties after that. But that made such a difference when you could see the people that in the neighborhood wanted to go work to go pick up their trash. It was just inspiring. And I remember there was one grappling truck we had. We had a lady who just was next door to all the house that had just got burnt. She got stuck in traffic and her refrigerator went. She had to put all the trash out and what happened out there was you had household trash with other trash. And when that trash started to stink so

   52:10bad She was like panicking, what can we do? And went over and picked it up. And one of you guys in the grappler truck that I talked to, is he there? Come on up here.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   52:21Come

   52:21on up here, please. This man inspired me.

   Jack MarianoVice Chair

   52:27I'm picking up the trash, we're trying to get it set up alongside. And I say to him, you know, how you know we're working and working working. And I s he says, and I think I got this right, so you can correct me if I'm wrong, Jim. He says, I work fifty seven days in a row and for my county I'll work another fifty-seven days in a row to help us get us out of this. Hi, thank you, sir.

   52:55But what you guys have done is just phenomenal. You help people get through it. So I I just can't thank you guys enough. Great great work. Great leadership, great teamwork. Tremendous.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   53:03And um and I would echo um gosh what we went through. I hope we don't go through that again, but Thank you for always answering my calls when I'm calling for um in um yeah over and above and great job all of you. And I I know our citizens are very grateful to the great work that you all do. So thank you so much. I think there's too many people for all of us to go down. So can we can I say a word? Oh yeah. Yes, and then um if any of you all want to speak.

   Mike Carballa

   53:29Yeah, I I think I want to echo off of what Commissioner Weightman said. And you know, it's no you know, our public safety uh folks can can share the limelight uh uh today because quite honestly, as the resolution points out, the work that we do, whether it's on the collection side or ultimately landfilling and disposing of stuff, you've saved more lives and transformed the the the foundation of modern society as a result of your work. And if you've ever traveled to third world countries, or outside, even even there where they they are collecting trash and they are doing things, you guys do it way, way better. And

   53:59uh and it's amazing uh just the tireless hours that I know go into it. Uh you are the silent service and we just appreciate everything that you do. So thank you.

   Ron Oakley

   54:07Now

   Mike Carballa

   54:08now's your time to recruit.

   Ron Oakley

   54:09Okay, now's your time to start.

   Unidentified speakerVoice A

   54:13Try to keep it brief. It's tough to top the previous two people that spoke up here. Um Kevin Pliska, uh Director of Solid Waste. Thankfully I've got John Batista as a wingman as I'm pretty new to doing this for countywide, but got a great team around us. Commissioner Weightman, thank you so much for the sponsorship. Your expertise in the industry really has been a very helpful to our department. You challenge us. But also you support us and uh thank you so much for that. Uh when we learned

   54:43about the resolution, John and I were talking and John Bautista said, Hey, let's get the haulers in here as well, right? Which is smart. Without the haulers, what are we? And they do such a great job for us on solid waste and recycling. And on the flip side, we brought in representatives from ReWorld, Covanta, operating our waste to energy facility. Same thing, best in class facility. They do such an excellent job for us. And in the middle, we've got the Pasco County Solid Waste Team. Which, you

   55:14know, unless you go over to a self-drop-off, sometimes you don't see them that much, but they do so much for the community. If it's community outreach, education, recycling services, household hazardous waste, you know, they have to do the difficult job on assessments sometimes. And then there's a lot of administrative support that goes along with that, and they do really a great job. And they do it with an attitude of safety, environmental compliance, and a can do attitude.

   55:44Um this team is great. I've never seen such a energized group. very low turnover, inspired and engaged and to your point that goes to the hurricane and what we went through. So many of these team members were either affected or had relatives that were affected and they continued to show up and do the job. Uh as you mentioned, Commissioner Mariano, right? Tim fifty-seven days straight. You had Tim Treschler that I think almost became a fixture in the ERC a piece of furniture.

   56:15Um within 24 hours of Governor DeSantis saying you have to do 24-7 operations, we were doing that. So many people went from day shift to operating night shift with four hours to sleep. And they they've done so many of these things that at the end of the day, no injuries, no accidents during that period. And we had four unannounced environmental compliance visits from Army Corps Engineers, OSHA, EPA. And uh DEP. And it's just

   56:45so proud to see everything that was done with this team, and really it's about their their dedication. Jones two.

   Unidentified speakerVoice B

   56:56John Batista Operations Director, Solid Waste. Uh I just wanna thank you guys. Um Everybody was involved, especially during the storm. I mean, you know, Jack was doing people's laundry for God's sakes. Uh Lisa was uh recruiting haulers. Uh You know, Seth was I was on the phone two AM with Seth, you know, in the middle of the night. So and and Commissioner Starkey, same thing. You know, lots of phone calls and communication and I appreciated Everybody uh you know, you guys are

   57:26Good. Is just as good as doing this as we are. We have a great team. We have great haulers, waste management, waste connections, republic. waste pro, waste aid Who am I missing? Coastal. Coastal. uh and the Coventa people uh reworld uh and such a great team. Recycling, uh uh assessments, uh environmental so we have a great team and uh

   57:57thank you. Yeah that's it

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   58:00All right. Um Commissioner Weightman will come down and we'll stand behind here for a photo.

   Unidentified speakerVoice C

   58:08Everyone come on up here we're gonna go. Yeah

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   58:10you guys

   Unidentified speakerVoice C

   58:10come

   Unidentified speakerVoice D

   58:10up here. You guys come on up here.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   58:24She's gonna try to think back on it.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   58:32Yeah, that's that's that's cast in Florida working on the hotel.

   Ron Oakley

   58:39No, go right

   Mike Carballa

   58:40in.

   Unidentified speakerVoice D

   58:55Good, good. All right, here we go. Just a couple.

   59:02And we got it. Perfect. Thank you.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   59:09I got a cold, so don't shake it back. It's it's it's better, but just in case.

   Unidentified speakerVoice D

   59:15Like yeah. Yeah.

   Kathryn StarkeyChair

   59:24All right, we're not gonna make it through all these, I think.