Pasco County meeting record

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1Oct 7, 2025
Board of County CommissionersC8Consent agendaApproved
Approved minutes
Approved Staff’s recommendation for Agenda Items C8 and C9 with Commissioner Weightman and Commissioner Mariano voting nay.
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14m1/2
Kathryn StarkeyChair
All right, we are now on to the consent.
And um I have some items that have been pulled. C8 by Weightman and Jaeger. C9 by Weightman and C thirty-four by Commissioner Mariano. Are there any other items that uh we'd like to have pulled from the consent agenda?
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Move
Kathryn StarkeyChair
approval no made
Jack MarianoVice Chair
of consent.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Other items. All right. Moved and seconded. All in favor? Aye. Opposed. All right. C eight. Commissioner. Well, two of you pulled it. So we know what Weightman wants to say. say Yeager.
Lisa Yeager
Okay, well I just wanted to um just have a discussion about this that um With this surplus property, it will be used for low-income families at or below eighty percent AMI with habitat, it's zero percent interest. Um I also love you know we can take a community that has seen better days and get brand new construction in there. Um these people are
being able to finally have a place of their own, not rent. Um and organizations can't do what they do without partners like the county. So um And all these places are being bu built by volunteers. So I just would love to see more of these neighborhoods transformed and houses going in, but we need to be good partners and let them be able to do what they have to do and that's helping them acquire
the property. So that's my I just wanted to pull that just to talk about it.
Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair
Commissioner Weightman? Thank you. Yeah, I just think this is an absurd policy. I think that the the the the policy needs to be for CA County Tayer has five thousand six hundred and fourteen dollars invested in cleaning it up. The appraised value is $24,162. And on C9, that property, the taxpayer has over $8,000 invested into the property, and it has an appraised value of over $33,539.
I just think these organizations, if we're going to sell them, we don't sell them for a dollar or ten dollars that they should pay the minimum. um uh investment that the taxpayer has and just pay you know the fifty six hundred or the eight thousand that's in there and I think that that should be the property and um you know that eight eight thousand or five thousand I mean that goes to help parks or whatever we're we're trying to figure out how to make our dollars go further and residential products a drain on the system. And so I just think
that we we can this policy should evolve and at least just get the taxpayer investment back. So
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Commissioner Mayo. Thank you. And and I like all the sentiments. However, I think there's a better way to do this, even if you do want to get the to the charities without having to having to have them spend money to get it. And Habitat Humanity does a great job. That zero percentage just really makes it great for a lot of folks. But it still takes money to make it all happen. I think if we took put a plan together, we've got C D B C D B G D R money coming in, community development block grant, disaster recovery money coming in. I think we need to set a program up immediately to find
out how we can set this up to take all these properties for the next five years where they can then turn them over to the people but get us reimbursed for a general fund that is obviously we're trying to cut taxes, right? And what we wanted to do every step of the way. That's a way to actually go look at doing that. And I think I've A group should come up with a plan to go do that. And I'm happy to even let start with these two properties, postpone this until we can come up with a plan. Could be two months away, could be a month away. The checklane could come up with something. Let's find a way to make this part
of that fund so our taxpayers benefit, but the charity still can get the property for the ten dollars. Without the impact on the budget.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Um you know I I don't think I don't want to hold these up, but I think that's a good idea. And I would I wonder if we can still Um find a way to recoup the the charges the county has into it while still allowing this to go through. So I'd like I'd like that to I'd like to get answers to that. I don't know Who that person would be to get those answers?
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Madam Chair. Yeah. If I could just to help you with that a little bit. So from what I've heard and if we don't have anyone if Chuck Lane's not here or someone from the group Um if you've already allocated the money it's been funded, you cannot get the money back. So if you approve it now, you're not gonna you're gonna take these two options off. And I don't think thirty days, sixty days delaying this vote is a bad thing when you could put another fifty grand in the conference for the taxpayer. All right, Paula's gonna
Paula Baracaldo
So Commissioners, we don't have that answer at this time, but we will have Chuck follow up with you after the meeting if that's all right to bring back uh that um policy uh analysis for you.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Is that something you can bring back today? Okay, so why don't we uh just hold on on this one until we have an answer? Um there's something else I want to you to check on. Yeah. Or this morning, we'll see. Um I you know we changed the tree fund um rules, I believe, to allow nonprofits to get Trees. So if that's possible then I'd like to uh get a shade tree donated to each one of these houses if this goes through from
our tree mitigation trust fund. Alright, um so we're gonna wait on So that would be C eight and C nine, is that correct? Yeah,
Ron Oakley
C nine looks like something different, hmm? No, same thing.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Same thing. Yeah. It's just a different different
Ron Oakley
group.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Different group. All right, so we're on to um thank you, we're on to C thirty four.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Okay. And Gene, I got some pictures they sent over to you? Um I'd like either Brantford or Jason to talk about the project a little bit. Jack, is
Kathryn StarkeyChair
this one that we bought?
Jack MarianoVice Chair
This is well this is um yeah, US Water we we um aqua aqua utility did buy it. Okay. This is part of the some of the work that we wanted to go do out there. Arburdale and Gnome for years always flooded out, flooded out. It's where iron bark, palm terrace, oh yeah, that whole area well everything comes down at the bottom of the bowl that's here. This is an old two reclaimed water ponds that were here that went up to a spray field. Last year Jason and the team were absolutely phenomenal. You know, Bradford was great putting everybody together. But
uh in one afternoon we talked to DEP and Swift Mud about trying to work on clearing this out before the storms are going to hit. And Jason the next day had twenty nine trucks ready to go, dump ho bu backhoes ready to go, the whole team ready to go. And when uh Swift Mud gave us the approval and D E P backed off the spray field, they cleared off the other side of this property to dig a a big retention area that actually kept even got close to flooding some homes, really protected all the homes in there. And later this year they went out and you can't this is a before picture, but
they've now taken out all the muck and sludge that was that's in this agenda item to go clear all that out. Nice. And what that did is now it creates an opportunity. This this how the that's how it looks right there. This is the homes around that whole area, how much the flood w water floods up. See the sandbags up there? That people that l have lived in that home for like fifteen years have always had sandbags right there because it always comes up that close to the easy.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
You
know
those get molded
Jack MarianoVice Chair
within a foot. So now because we put that in the whole flooded area right there it now stays down low and doesn't flood out. What I wanna see and I wanna th thank the team for bringing this forward, and I I know you had to push to get it done, you didn't know what it was gonna be, you just made it happen before the flood season, storm season come in, so uh it didn't It it worked this year as well. There was like no issues out there other than one storm had a little bit in the little corner piece, but nothing that would slow down everybody. So what you did here is phenomenal. What
I'd like you to do is to use Again, go work and we've talked about it before, but the C D B G DR money, now that we've got this finalized, this is a great time to go work with parks. It's a low-income area. You know serve each each this one here in Pineapple Lane. Each property will serve like 7,500 homes of low-income folks that maybe like cascade. By the way, you didn't go to FAC, they had their event up there at Gainesville. They had a park up there too. They made a great walking trailer on the board.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Oh, don't you remember how we had them present at the board
Jack MarianoVice Chair
meeting? And it was phenomenal what they did.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
That's what we're doing at Maggie Valley, I hope.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
They would do like just weekly things out there. So another great opportunity, but we've got to work, have you guys go work with parks and put something together. But as we
Kathryn StarkeyChair
but Jack, that has to go through the C D B G DR. ranking process. We can't just direct C D B D. No, no, but
Jack MarianoVice Chair
they can come up with a plan and bring it forward and then we go look at it.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
So you don't like what's going on at I don't I didn't look at this C thirty four. I don't want
Ron Oakley
to hear what's going on there.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Yeah let's let's hear what's going on and then we'll we might understand better what's
Jason Mickle
Good morning. Uh Chairman Mariano of the Board. I'm Jason Mickle, public works director. Um C thirty four is is um Not a public works item, but I could certainly talk to everything that you just spoke on Commissioner. First of all, thanks for you know you being involved in that process from the beginning because it it was the catalyst to get all that work done. So you know thank you for the leadership there. Um it did provide a lot of stormwater relief, flood relief to that community. Um multiple large ponds are now out there. There's
also some improvements to some of some of the conveyance that takes the water away from the site as well. So it doesn't just sit there, it actually moves along. Streets are less flooded, homes are less flooded. So it was a good project that we were able to do in-house. I can certainly coordinate with Keith. at in parks, talk with him and his team um to see what we could possibly do out there long term and then talk with Chuck and the team and see how we can you know pursue something in the C D B G D R money.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
And and and just a tuck, you you're a little bit Um Not take as much credit as you should going through, but Jason, when you put everybody out there, if you look at the palm tree in the left side of that picture, see all the water going up there? That's a whole street block. It'd be actually touch into the next block and we're on both Horizontal vertical there. All that water that used to flood out doesn't happen anymore. Everything was in front of this home right here that would go all the way up to like six inches within ho within the house. All now because of what you guys did out there, that great work you did, it keeps from flooding. So I want to
just thank you again for the great work you're doing. But what what
Kathryn StarkeyChair
is the item? I'm trying to see. It's just
Jack MarianoVice Chair
ex extra money for what they found when they had to go t dig out the sludge and off.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Four million dollars. dollars
Jack MarianoVice Chair
is the total.
Jason Mickle
I think all you're I think all you're seeing there on there is is just utilities contract with US water to do uh miscellaneous um items for system improvements. Um I think that's the old aqua utility system. Um I think they're just looking to extend the time for that contract with US with US Water.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Well they're asking for four hundred and eighteen thousand dollars. The
Ron Oakley
picture we got up now, is that how it looks uh
Unidentified speakerVoice A
today? Yes. So Joseph Amoir, um, utilities director. So this item is for yes, it's for the Pasco Aqua System that we purchased for FGUA. And there were some few more conversions we needed to do work in taking over their systems. Sludge at the Jasmine Lake wastewater treatment plant that we needed to remove, bypass around the palm terrace pond that the commissioner was talking about. So that is the whole purpose, to try to finalize, go through the punch
items for acquiring the entire system and making improvement to the Pasco aquatic. system. uh as we've taken over. So that is the main purpose. But I know, you know, the um the Commission Moreno will be interested in the how we converted those PEC ponds, percolation ponds, into stormwater holding ponds. And I think it was a great work that was done to help those that live around that neighborhood. But the whole purpose of the item is for improvement of the Pasco aqua system as we've taken over about this system.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
I I do I do want to touch on something that Commissioner Mariano said though and we I don't think two of the commissioners were here when we had the engineer and designer of Cascades, which is in Tallahassee. Um and it's a stormwater project. Come and present to us. Well, I think you presented virtually 'cause I think my Anyway, um Just like Maggie Valley. I see whenever we have a property like this. It needs to be done in conjunction with parks. And and that property needs to be an asset for
the community. Um a walking trail around it, shade trees, park benches, whatever. Um we need to use these opportunities to improve the lives of those people in the communities around it. In my opinion.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Yeah. So with that Madam Clerk to everyone's attention. I'm very happy with the project. What you guys are doing is phenomenal. So move approval of C thirty four.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Well I I I have one more question. Uh on this is this fence there while you're doing construction. Because if you grade the sides right A certain way you don't have to have a fence. And then, you know, it's treated differently. So wanna make sure we're taking all those things into account when we design these.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Madam Chairman I will get pictures for you this afternoon. Um I was trying to find them on my phone but I couldn't. But this is like a before picture. I will get you the after picture, show you what it's like now.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Uh 'cause that's a little rough right there.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
It is.
5m2/2
Paula Baracaldo
Okay. All right, Commissioners. Uh Paul Baracal on behalf of Kathy Pearson and our team. So we spoke with Chuck Lane. At this time, the program is in development. Uh the proposal made by Commissioner Mariano is certainly something that we can consider as part of that program. But that won't go live until uh the very beginning of the year. There's still a few questions that we need to answer in terms of the program itself and what that's gonna look like. So we would like to uh come back to you and brief you on that. Uh Once we have final answers. Maybe January? Yes, sir. Okay.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Move to continue C eight and C nine January second.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Under discussion. Commissioner Yeager. Um and County Attorney. Um if we Can we condition these properties to possibly um
Having money from the C D B G D R if that's approved, transferred.
Unidentified speakerVoice B
I don't believe that you can transfer it for from C D B G R and pay things off because you've already expended the funds so it would be supplanted. Exactly.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
So we can't do we can't do what
Unidentified speakerVoice B
so you've already you you have already expended the funds to clean these sites up, even if the even if the program qualifies for future I don't believe that these two properties could be would be eligible for C D.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Okay, so future properties Maybe, but not these two. Madam Clerk? Yeah.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Keep this in mind. We just looked at a thing for security here. We're going to spend who knows how much more money on that. You don't know how you're gonna take the money out of the general fund for that's the way you go. The money that we actually take from C D BGR if we wait till January can pay for that extra fund without affecting the budget.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
So so you guys understand that this property's been offered to the public and no one bought it. So it's just sitting there. Yeah. So so I think we get money into the general fund by putting a house on it and letting them pay property taxes than money that that that then lots that are just Sitting there with nobody. I agree with you. So so it's opposite it's what's happening is opposite of what you're saying.
Ron Oakley
This actually keeps the price down on the property that's going to a family that's worked actually put the hours in to earn the right to buy this home.
Lisa Yeager
They're
helping
build the home.
Ron Oakley
And they're helping you know with
Kathryn StarkeyChair
that's that's one part of it. But the other part of is we're getting a property on there and now right now there's no I mean it's vacant land that nobody wanted to buy. And so it's just sitting there. And that will have a house on it and they'll be paying property taxes.
Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair
They had the opportunity because it
Kathryn StarkeyChair
went for
Seth WeightmanSecond Vice Chair
office.
That's
Jack MarianoVice Chair
okay. The bottom line is to say very clearly, I'm going to say exactly what I'm going to say again. If we wait till January, just from what Paula has just said, where we think to have a plan together.
Paula Baracaldo
No, he said you can't.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
It's
Kathryn StarkeyChair
already it's supplanting every process. I basically
Unidentified speakerVoice B
said you
Kathryn StarkeyChair
can't for these two properties. I think we can try that for future properties. I think it's a great idea. But we can't do it for these
Unidentified speakerVoice B
You've already cleaned these properties up.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Yeah.
Unidentified speakerVoice B
You are replacing that money with C D B G R money. That's the planning.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
I can say that I want to sell the property for twenty five grand regardless of the cost in there. You have to get instant every thing. I'm not trying to reimburse, I'm trying to make money. For what the property should be sold for. We
Kathryn StarkeyChair
already tried to sell the property.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
If I could, that's if I could. I don't
Kathryn StarkeyChair
think that's the same.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Forget the supplanting. If the property's worth 25 grand and someone and I can we can justify that through an appraisal, you can get the money back for the property for what it's worth. Forget the fees that are involved just to the value of the property. And if you do that, after January, when the plant's done with C D B G, you can do a reimbursement by
Let's hear from the attorney on that plan. Well I If it's market value with the property, I just want that money. You're telling me I can't use C V D. That's a
Unidentified speakerVoice B
that's a bigger research question.
Jack MarianoVice Chair
Then let's take the time to generate and make the right decision for the people of this
Unidentified speakerVoice B
county.
Lisa Yeager
Okay. And I'm gonna make a motion to approve.
Unidentified speakerVoice B
You've got a motion
Lisa Yeager
or
Unidentified speakerVoice B
so you've got a Okay.
Lisa Yeager
What's our own?
Unidentified speakerVoice B
You've got to vote down the motion to continue.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Yeah, I'm going to vote it down. Welcome
to Tuntil
January. Okay, all in favor? Alright. Opposed? Nay. Commission Yeager? Did you vote? Okay. All right, so that motion dies. I'll take a new motion.
Lisa Yeager
All right. I make a motion to approve the sale of these two uh properties for C eight and C nine.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
Sag it. Okay, any more in favor? Aye. Opposed?
Unidentified speakerVoice B
No. Okay.
Kathryn StarkeyChair
All right, but I think that's a good idea going forward. So while we have this money Um so if we can find out if we can do that, that would be great.
Okay, um anything else, Eric?
Eric Breitenbach
No ma'am. Right for lunch.
Madam Clerk
Yes, I have an announcement to make. Oh I'm sorry.

FAC-26-0033

Official title

Every appearance1 of 1 are in a recording