An Ordinance Amending The Parks, Recreation, And Natural Resources Municipal Service Taxing Unit; Providing For Boundaries; Providing For Levy Of An Ad-Valorem Tax; Providing For The Amended Municipal Services To Be Funded; Providing For Severability; Providing For Inclusion In The County Code Of Ordinances; Providing For Limitations On Actions; And Providing An Effective Date.

1:22:50item P forty was published in the Tampe Times on April twenty third, twenty twenty five.

1:23:03Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board. Keith Wiley, Director of Parks Recreation, Natural Resources Department.

1:23:12Back in March uh 11th uh this year, the BCC gave the Parks Department direction to bring back the existing MST ordinance uh amended to be an all-inclusive ordinance. That's what you have today in front of you. I do have a quick uh recap history lesson and then just an overview of what the actual amended ordinance covers. So the modification basically covers again, it's the intent was to be all inclusive. So it's all operations, all programs, all functions, all routine, all capital maintenance, non-capital, improvements equipment, and

1:23:42salaries. So that was the assignment back in March. That's what this ordinance would be able to do if approved today. And just a quick uh history lesson. Current Parks Department budget is $22 million. Back in FY22, we had a million dollars dedicated for what we call non-capital improvement projects. That's everything underneath $50,000. Our existing need that I did not include in this presentation, which I did include some pictures because I think that's impactful. But the just the existing facilities in the ground today, the

1:24:12need for capital maintenance is approximately $8 million. future stuff which I'll talk about later which is those are new capital projects coming online that um anticipated O and M need is around five million dollars and just to clarify starting in FY26 why I think this is so important. I think this is my third presentation by the way so I could probably just do this with my eyes closed. But um as a reminder to that I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't clearly articulate that starting in FY26 There is no reoccurring or defined capital maintenance

1:24:43funding for the Parks Department. The go bond, the general obligation money, is pretty much either spent or already encumbered. And that's why we've been so diligent in pursuing this a solution to this issue. So This is just an overview real quick of everything that we currently have in the inventory. Most of you know this, so I won't bore you with it. The most important piece is back in 2016, the parks master plan did not contemplate the capital maintenance or the OM needs. It was both mostly focused on deferred maintenance and the

1:25:13new capital growth needs, which we addressed through the park uh impact fee increase several years ago. So what are some things that can um that can be actually funded through capital maintenance? So these are all your parks and maintenance, uh renovations, buildings, fields, boat ramps, playgrounds. Uh I made actually a short list while I was waiting, just to kind of not Give a little more detail on this. So we have an aging lighting inventory at all of our parks, 30 plus years. Anticipated approximate cost to replace that to LED. Total infrastructure is 16

1:25:43to 20 million dollars. Now that's the entire inventory, that's over time. We have three major facilities on the east side of Pasco County, San Pasco, San Antonio, Burks, that are in major, major need of dugout, backstop, fencing, field renovations. These facilities, you know, take a long, you know, they take a beating and they need the money to actually be recouped. We have 136 plus athletic fields that require resodding. Grass does, athletic turf does need to be replaced. Artificial, obviously, it has a life expectancy

1:26:13of about probably eight to nine years. With our use, probably less than that. So a resodding effort. needs to actually be budgeted for, which is anywhere between $100 and $120,000 per field. We have two artificial turf fields that are pretty much ending their life. That's at Wesley Chapel District Park. That's about anywhere between a million and a half to two million dollars to replace those. In addition to all that fun stuff, we have increases just like everyone else in the organization, increases to utilities, goods, and services that have slowly

1:26:44over the years has been eating into our operations. You know, if we can't pay the utility bill, then we turn around and take it from some other program, which is reducing level of service. This is more pretty much a recap just for anyone that hasn't seen this presentation before. And then something I'll get to in a minute after these pictures is we have about a hundred and ten million dollars of new park projects that are coming online that um that will, you know, this maintenance piece will also need to be addressed. So that's that's pretty important. Uh these are just some

1:27:14pictures, some of the field conditions again. I saw

1:27:17Mitchell, I drove by Mitchell, I saw all the dirt.

1:27:21So that yeah, that backstop's about to about to come down. Um what's happening with a lot of our outdoor courts is after a while settling, slabs kind of break, you gotta go in and do the entire redo, which is you you would think would be not you know not too expensive, but it's like a half a million dollars.

1:27:36So if that if that backstop goes down, you're not playing softball. Well we're not I mean you you can't play it there.

1:27:43Correct. So Again, not to Oh

1:27:46my

1:27:46goodness. Yeah, not to beat it up. But um this is I think what I I feel like I have the message I want to get across and again the purpose for today is to just you know review the amended ordinance. But these are the projects that we know are basically coming online. We have about a hundred and two to depending on what happens with connected cities, I don't you know just put that as a question mark. You have a hundred and two plus million dollars. Worth of projects, OM need of five to eight million dollars. So the need's real. I know that I'm not the only department. Parks is not the only department

1:28:17suffering this, but I know that we hear from the citizens a lot. I know you hear from the citizens a lot on our level of service, and we take it and my on my team very seriously. So we're just we're trying to kind of figure this out. At this point, I'd like to bring up the Director Owen B to talk about. About the finances, she is much smarter than me when it comes to that, so

1:28:38Alright, hi Amy Farrell, Budget Director of Pasco County's Office of Management and Budget. So the scenarios that we're gonna present to you today are gonna look awfully familiar to what we presented in March because they are in fact the same. Um but we just wanted to give a refresh a reminder. It is too soon in the budget process for us to have any updated refined numbers, just a reminder we get. Preliminary taxable assessed value from the property appraiser June 1st, so we're not quite there yet. So we wanted to just keep running with

1:29:08the same taxable assessed value scenarios that we have already shown you so there'd be a little less confusion than trying to predict what we think might happen in a month. So we have three different scenarios for you. One is if we just fund capital maintenance. The second one is just current parks operating budget. And then the third one is if it were a combination of those two. And then the middle column shows you what the program revenue would be. And then that final column shows you five-year aggregate growth. based

1:29:39off of how just that fund would grow assuming we didn't change the millage rate that we adopted and then just some growth projections on taxable assessed value. And so it's important to remember that currently the only thing that's being funded for parks is that middle row. scenario for operations, that capital maintenance piece would be an increase in that level of funding. So if we were to keep a net neutral methodology for our taxpayers moving forward, we

1:30:09would have to find if the board desired to commit eight million dollars, we would have to find somewhere else to offset that money.

1:30:19Maybe if I could. So on the slide it says cities contribute to the MSTU. Could you explain that?

1:30:25So if the cities were to say, yes, we want to be taxed as part of this MSTU, this is um how that the numbers would shake out, assuming current year taxable assessed value. The next slide shows you if the cities did not raise their hand and say yes we want to be taxed as well, what would that look like to generate the same amount of revenue? What would that look like? The last time we met Um Commissioner Mariano, you did ask us to come back with

1:30:55a fee schedule until we've got so there's two m main things that Made it kind of challenging for us to be able to bring that back now in May. The first thing is we don't really know what those taxable assessed values are going to shake out to be next month. And then the second main contributing factor is what level of funding does the board want to put towards this MSTU? Meaning what is that millage rate? Because those two numbers would tell us how much the cities would have contributed, and then how much would we try to make up and absorb? orb through some kind of fee schedule

1:31:26and assessment.

1:31:29So in short it would have been a shot in the dark and probably not helpful.

1:31:34Yeah. D do any of the cities have soccer fields, baseball complexes, softball complexes? Yeah,

1:31:43Commissioner Oakley last time. So it's hit or miss. This the scale, the number that they have is is not sufficient to address the need countywide, yes.

1:31:54I mean

1:31:54Land O' Lakes I don't think New Port Richey has a recreational

1:31:58complex. So like Dade City has, you know, several fields, uh City of Zephyrhills has several and I mean several, you know, a handful.

1:32:07Yeah. Not not not like a regional park. Absolutely. They don't fund their own recreational

1:32:13not to the not to that scale,

1:32:14correct.

1:32:15Commissioner Weightman?

1:32:16Yeah, one of the things I was concerned about with the cities and and the contributions of what happens if that we're gonna do all the contribution for ninety-one percent of the population covering all the fields. I don't think it's right. I think they should contribute. But one comforting thing I got from let's say the Port Ritchie and uh New Port Richey, their C RAs if we reduce the millage down and we're using uh this MSTU instead They're not getting revenue they would have got. That they're gonna go dump into the C R A and it comes into this. So that

1:32:46was a I was trying to think of that Mike as we were talking the other day. I couldn't remember what that argument was, it just came to me a little while ago. But that's the ar that's the one piece where I got even if the cities don't contribute in Um It's gonna still help us in a way where not as much is gonna go to the C R A.

1:33:04Okay.

1:33:07Okay, so w what do you need from us today?

1:33:10Alright, well so um next steps in our timeline. So At our upcoming budget workshop, that's when we'll start to talk about millage rate um and get some kind of idea of where you all sit where that's concerned, we will have preliminary taxable assessed values and then we can roll um We can roll this MSTU through the regular trim process, but today it's approval of the updated ordinance that Keith has presented.

1:33:42Okay. Um do we need to take public coming?

1:33:46We do.

1:33:47Does anyone have any more questions for Key?

1:33:51Okay, we're gonna take public comment on this this one Anyone wish to speak?

1:33:58Uh Madam Chair, we do not have I Here we go. I don't have anyone signed up, but if someone here can go around ahead.

1:34:03Michael. The parks guy. Yeah, the parks guy. This is not why I was here. I promise I had no idea this was coming up. Michael Pultorek, [address removed] in the great state of Florida. Um I just want to say um I have coached at Wesley Chapel District Park for many years now. Flag football, baseball, softball. Um My children now play travel and the reason is to Wesley Chapel District Park cannot

1:34:35fulfill near its capacity of what it draws. The Wesley Chapel Athletic Association has an amazing, amazing group of volunteers and such great talent. And they want to pour into those boys and girls. And I will tell you there is no reason why Wesley Chapel District Park in Pasco County doesn't have a national Little League World Series champion at this point. We have so much talent here. Let me tell you how much talent we have in the Westley Chapel area. Right now, just from that park.

1:35:06We have nine baseball-only travel teams that have left merely in 9U, 10U, and 11U because there's not enough park space to be able to really push these players to the next level. You have that much talent. You have so much talent here. A good portion of the players come from Hillsborough County because they want to come here and play for these coaches in this program. They come from Lutz. They come from Land O' Lakes. You've got great coaches and a tremendous amount of talent. I

1:35:36love it when we go to the softball tournaments, the travel tournaments at Starkey Ranch. That complex is fantastic. I mean absolutely fantastic. If you had something like that here in the Wesley Chapel area, you would actually have national championship athletic programs here because you have such a pool of coaches, talent, and player. As Commissioner Weightman said in the workshop. Your average age in this county is getting

1:36:06younger and younger. And younger and younger, and they all have kids. And they come here because of a beautiful Pasco County, a healthier environment, things like our sports, our parks, our rec, getting the kids off of technology and out there actually doing this. And Wesley Chapel We have one full size softball field. We have one full size baseball field, three medium size baseball fields. There's so many players and so much talent. There's no choice but they spin off

1:36:36and go out to Burks Park and create more and more travel teams. We cannot pour enough money in this county into the Parks and Rec program. Especially in Central County. It is probably the biggest Wesley Chapel issue at hand right now is having a place for our use.

1:36:55Pay attention to this process as we go through our budget and still have this time. We need we need your voices. Yes, ma'am. Can I just

1:37:04take you back on um so River Ridge plays Wesley Chapel Wednesday or Thursday Wednesday and Thursday night, best two out of three. And either River Ridge or Wesley Chapel will be going to States for baseball. So that's super exciting.

1:37:16Yeah, absolutely. We you have three of the best baseball programs. in west central Florida, right here. Well we have the same with

1:37:24soccer as well. Well

1:37:25he didn't And

1:37:26not enough.

1:37:26Not enough

1:37:26field.

1:37:27Absolutely.

1:37:28Yeah.

1:37:28But and this is a shout out honestly for for all of the coaching and the staff in the area. Wesley Chapel High, Wiregrass Ranch, And Cypress Creek. You have amazing baseball and softball there. You should be very, very proud of it. It all comes out of the Western Chapel D.

1:37:47Absolutely.

1:37:47I voted for the M STU but we didn't we didn't get it. We got well we we have an MSTU but it's zero funded. Right? We have zero funds for making Let's fix that. Yeah. Four one.

1:37:58Madam Chairman I have no one signed up for WebEx on this item and I did not have anyone signed up.

1:38:03Okay. Come on up. Okay. Because that is your your right.

1:38:08Yeah, see Hiswood 34110, a nice place. Um sorry to bother you so much, but you're talking my talk today. Um, I wanna say that Mike is absolutely right that we need that, but I don't want you to forget the ELAP program. We also need to make sure that that stays healthy too. We have bicyclists and those type of low-key things and hiking that also needs to be supported. So I'm all

1:38:39over this also. Please give

1:38:41it a thumbs up. Right, um Mike, um there's no one else. Mike you want to say something?

1:38:46Yeah, actually if you could put it.

1:38:52So I'm I'm on under my committee reports I was gonna talk about Gunnar Hoglan from Hudson.

1:39:06Yeah.

1:39:09Oh how fun. He's from Hudson?

1:39:10From

1:39:11Hudson.

1:39:13Yeah.

1:39:15Gunnar uh was on a triple uh double AU team that won the state championship. We gave him a resolution. The team then went on to win the national championship as well from right here. That that was just sentiment. My wife got that that last night. That was yesterday I think yesterday's game or something where there's a Pasco County resident playing uh professional baseball right now just got called up to play. That was his first game. First inning, nine pitches and they're gonna strike out already.

1:39:43Oh that's awesome.

1:39:44So that's so that's how important and you think about all the traveling teams. These guys traveled everywhere.

1:39:48Yeah.

1:39:48I mean they had they had some great stories just like we've seen before. Well

1:39:51you've been here a long time, two thousand eight.

1:39:54Yeah.

1:39:57Florida Young Guns. I remember that.

1:40:01But but literally Yeah, these these these kids here are phenomenal and that was like I th I just wanted to highlight the sports. But literally the parks department And I always had a routine with my kids and I th I'm sure you guys carry the same thing. If your kids stay busy say as we look at this coming through, I was at a um Meeting over in Tim Broke's other day, retirement community, real simple place, not a not a high income area, but nice nice homes and all small like two bedrooms, whatever. But I asked them about how they felt with

1:40:31the paving assessment. And they really didn't even know what was on there. I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you, we need to With the great work that Keith, Kathy, the whole team, Christina, they're all doing out there. People want that quality of life. Yeah. And and they don't want it Down the road when you can get it. Right? That's why they passed past those go bonds. This may be a time as we come up here to actually look at that as in the next month or so to let's make a big stand now. Twenty

1:41:00five minutes. Maybe feel

1:41:01an impact. And then if you've got a throttle back once they're built and now now just more maintenance, so be it. But It's a time where these people are are crying for it.

1:41:09Yeah.

1:41:09And if you want good, as we say, executive housing, people with high quality incomes that want to come in with the demographics. They're gonna wanna they're gonna wanna be in the right place with their kids. That's why I tell you who

1:41:19keep calling me.

1:41:20That's why this is so important.

1:41:21You know who keeps calling me and saying, Where's the baseball field, Starkey? Fred McGriff. He lives in Starkey Ranch. He calls me all the time, Where is the baseball field complex? Um 'cause he's very upset that they got softball in Starkey. And he has promised that he will throw out the first pitch when you inaugurate that that field, which is in It's in Bexley, so who's got Bexley? That's you. So but we can't build it if we don't have the money to take care of it. Why d why build it if we can't take care of

1:41:51it? And I was a coach for twenty five years, so is my husband. I have a Division One soccer player. Um, played soccer at the Air Force Academy. I I I get it. I was married to a professional baseball player. Okay, we're gonna take the vote. Is this a roll call vote?

1:42:07Can I add a roll

1:42:08call

1:42:08vote?

1:42:09Oh yeah, you get to go.

1:42:10Thank you, Matt. Thank you. So yeah, so as as Amy alluded, today you're voting on the ordinance. This will add the operations portions of the park budget to your MSTU. Currently, as you pointed out, the MSTU is for maintenance only and it is set at zero mills. In June, we will have the discussion, we will need to have the discussion more in depth. We'll have taxable assessed values. It'll be a lot easier to have a more realistic discussion on what you were going to set that millage at, and if you want a reduction in your general operating millage, what that needs to be. It's important we have

1:42:40that conversation because to be you have to unanimously approve. Based on the current interpretation of rules here, that you have to be unanimous in setting that millage. If you are not unanimous, it goes away. So it's very important both for our staff as they push forward in planning the budget. Um and and we we march towards September when we have public input that there is alignment on that. So we will be having that conversation more in depth in probably more detail than you care to have, but

1:43:10it it needs to happen. So I'm just letting you know that.

1:43:14All

1:43:14right, thank you.

1:43:16Okay. Um seeing no one, I'll take a motion. I got a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye.

1:43:25Oh roll call, I'm sorry, ordinance.

1:43:28District one, Commissioner Oakley. Aye. District two, Commissioner Weightman.

1:43:32Aye.

1:43:33District four, Commissioner Yeager. Aye. District five, Commissioner Mariano. Aye. That's on. District three, Chairman Starkey.

1:43:39Aye. P

1:43:40forty

1:43:40one.