status for women report
What the county recorded
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It is a stretch of the recording that this archive identified as a separate matter — a call to order, a recess, or something taken up that the agenda does not list. There is no official title, no staff recommendation and no disposition, because the county never recorded one. Everything below is inferred.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Jun 2, 2026
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jun 2, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 16m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 63% of 84 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
speaker series and um we did a beautiful video project with about 20 women throughout the community who did um interviews on who's inspired them throughout their careers and their lives and um That will be broken up and we're gonna have uh separate videos that we'll be able to promote throughout the year on our social media accounts, so that's really nice. Um if you guys scan the QR code at the end, you'll see all of these things kind of sublinked out if you wanted to see them further. And then a comprehensive resource guide. So we worked
with the county back um in October of 2025. And we were able to, I can't show you on the screen, but we have a pretty Uh community resource page that we put together.
Okay. Some of these are lining up. This is our chamber presentation.
Okay.
Okay, so this is live on the county website with some the the data we collected in some of our previous surveys. These were needs that we had um identified that women in the community had asked for. So we put together this resource page for them.
Okay. Family leave report. This one was one that Commissioner Mariano um kind of wanted us to look into last year. So I am excited to say that we finished it in the beginning of April and it was published as a noted item. I did email it to all of you, but I'm happy to send it again. It's also printed in your packet for you. So I'm just gonna do a couple highlights from that. Um Child care for an infant costs $13,000 annually, so that's nearly $1,100 a month in Florida, and toddlers cost about $9,548 annually.
$3.3 billion is lost annually due to parents missing work for an average of 19 days per year. $9.8 billion in lost income from workforce exit. $4.9 billion in employee turnover costs. Childcare workers earn about $16.64 an hour versus the average state wage of $30.29.
Okay. Um so as you go through this report, there's just a great summary of how different um states have accomplished or improved their family leave programs. I linked um everything to the actual legislation for you. Some are funded through Social Security style insurances or payroll taxes and things like that. So um if you guys have time to look through that, everything's linked and it's nice. Um quick summaries. Or I did quick summaries, but you can link and look further. And then we hosted our
fourth annual survey. Um and we have some of those results in there. I am going to put together a full report and we'll do that as a noted item, so we don't really need to go through each of these. For the sake of time for you guys, but um we'll make sure Tony gets that on the upcoming agenda uh for us so that that's public for everybody. And looking ahead, in August we're gonna host um our 2027 Work Plan Workshop. So we will all be reviewing the results together as the CSW and
do our own community needs assessment according to those results, come up with an action plan of how we can help this year. We will be continuing to have a monthly guest speaker attend our meetings and provide us information on different resources or needs of the county as those are identified. and we will be continuing to make sure we uh engage in the community and keep up our visibility and continue to ensure that we are serving all of the different women who make up Pasco County. And that's our Facebook and that's our QR code. So like
I said, the family leave um report is included in that link and the video project is included in that link as well. Anyone have any questions for us? Mr. Starker.
Uh great job. I did want everyone to notice Seth Seth and his wife were were sponsors. They were. One of the sponsors of that one. So thank you so much, Seth. Thank you, Seth. I have a question and great job, ladies.
Do Is and maybe this is to Tony. Do is there a way that we can videotape that and art and put it on a our website? So that that great information gets shared with more people if they want to go there and ask you.
From like our monthly meetings?
Yes.
There was something
don't videotape the whole meeting, but videotape the speakers that's g that are giving such great information that just goes to the council but not to the general public.
Well the public's invited to attend.
Yeah, but it's
it's Jenny loves public comments. She wants some. Well why not
why not put it put it somewhere where more people
ask about it before? We'll look into it again. I don't remember why exactly. I guess
there's a couple you could also do face have a Facebook page and do Facebook Live and then does it stay there forever? I don't really I'm not I don't do social media so
Thirty days, I'll say.
Okay, that wouldn't work. So we need a way to film the speaker and then
Maybe we can do like quick question answers with them. Maybe they'd be comfortable to do like a s maybe if they talk to the group, maybe we can take like their top three highlights and get them to record that for us.
Well y'all think about it, but let's find a way that we can broadcast that out to a greater audience. Yeah, we'll definitely look into that.
I just want to give you guys a shout out. The luncheon was amazing. Of the speakers were great. Um, I loved the fireside chat where you had the you know the perspective.
I didn't our our our lovely clerk. Yeah, our host she's not here today. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, I forgot to shout her out, but she's never allowed to leave us. And the young ladies perspective, and of course
the clerk.
I told her she's not allowed to she's amazing. She
better
sign up for the next
few years. I just thought the quality of the content at the lunch end was was great and very um beneficial. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman Mariano. I'm starting. And can I say that my two friends that I talked about there back together.
Oh my god.
Yeah, that's so
exciting. Yeah, so that was good. Did
you read was that chapter four? Is that what she told you to I I took
that book um on our girls trip and I will left that um the marker in there. So who knows if my friend picked it up or not. I s I left it in the kitchen counter for her to mention it to her, but they It made up, yeah.
Mr. Witman? Yeah.
That was beautifully done. Um colorful as always. Happy. Felt good. I was gonna ask Mr. Starkey if the book mended fences.
So that speaker and that speaker's local. Uh Andy Taylor actually went to school with her, I think served on student government. So you know it's great to see uh another local young person up and coming and kicking butt and doing great great things in the world. The only critique I were having Andy Taylor and I were joking was after lunch, which was a very light salad, and Andy and I went out for pizza.
Afterwards. But no, lovely lovely done. The information, the data points, especially when looking through um the statistics on there, you know, Pasco's grown younger, right? We've grown younger by an average of twenty years and we're One of the number one destination for in migrating families virtually overnight since COVID over the last seven years. And so it's really important that we capture those data points and we can incorporate it into at least our policies here uh into our uh county and maybe the school district and other other governments at least as
a start. So, you know, if we understand the needs of folks and how to attract uh high quality workforce. You guys will. gals are on the front lines and helping us understand capture real-time data. So thanks for all your efforts and and all you do for us here in the county, not just with the commission on this desk. It's everything that you all do in our Mini Hands makes light work. You know, we're a big county now with a lot going on, so can't thank you all enough for your dedication and love for Pasco County.
Thank you. I did forget to mention oh I'm sorry. Um for the luncheon, yes we are working on other venues. I've been talking to a few already, but we're looking to up it by at least seventy-five to a hundred attendees. at a reasonable cost still to guests. Hopefully we can continue to get that private support in to help offset those costs and make sure that we can do an affordable luncheon for everybody. So we do have a couple options, so that's good.
And I have a whole box of pink tape cloths. Um that I have um Um I accidentally over ordered.
So um I We love decor. We'll take Yeah, I will get them to you guys. Actually think maybe Sorry Brooklyn.
I can't remember exactly when the status for women started. Twenty sixteen?
Oh, I see twenty.
I joined in twenty seventeen. I think it was twenty sixteen.
twenty sixteen. Well, that's the first year I was uh elected commissioner, yeah. But the first meeting we ever had, we had it over in the citrus room. There was about twenty plus or minus ladies there, and that was the start. Today, how many did you have in this last last program that you had?
Probably.
Oh I'm sorry. Okay. I know what you're talking. No. Yeah, okay. That was when um Jean hosted that eventually. Yeah, Jean.
Yes, we had we've
got
to hosted that and that was the beginning, so not gone a long way since then. So
Battle of the Sun. It was at North Sun Coast, but uh North P north north point. Um Uh on the on the event at uh Starkey Market, let's make sure we invite all the ladies who've ever served on the council. I know Suzanne Legg was there and uh you know a bunch of people that we have at the I just want everyone who's been involved to you know get back engaged. Okay, yeah. Well
just to finish, thank you for all that you do and account.
Yeah, and means a lot to thank you for the support for them. Yeah, I wanna
I wanna say this year has been exciting. Uh seeing this report is great, just seeing a couple of highlights on there, uh looking into how we can better serve our own people that work for us in the county for the ladies and the gentlemen. Um now I'm going to a situation where my daughter Amber's now had a baby. She's actually just moved back in right down the street from Sharkey Market. Uh so she's now She's gonna be dealing with daycare. She's got the grandparents on both sides that are gonna help out, which is a unique opportunity that a lot of families don't get.
I know a lot of families don't have it because we didn't have it. So one of the things, Mike, that uh I appreciate that uh can be done is like during the first 30 days. the the man gets the time off. As well as the the lady actually goes even further, which is good. But I think if we can w work at and we'll take maybe even more input, but I think if They want to go see, let's say doing prenatal stuff. that we we allow the husbands to go make those appointments too. Let
them try to offset depending on the positions that they're in of flexibility that it can be done. But I think allowing that Helps the family, helps. the whole process go and and even after the baby's born sometimes to go to the doctors for the first set of appointments so they can keep everybody engaged. Um I'll say daycare is gonna be coming up with I think our uh my grandson is gonna probably go to a daycare in the morning from like nine to twelve and maybe sometimes like that we can try to work on things to help our employees get the baby
to there and And that little bit of flexibility as long as it's still gonna be productive, I think is is a is a good way to try to make this all work because it is so important. Raising families and and as you say, Mr. Wademan, our population has grown a lot younger now. So I think right now what you guys are doing is critical. I appreciate the effort, the details, and I can't wait to read the whole report to get it.
Yeah, the um your county policies are pretty good um for your employees and everything. Like you guys do offer family leave um where you guys can donate sick hours to people who need it and things like that. So you guys did have one of the best ones when we were researching. So that is nice. But definitely the flexibility to go see the ultrasounds and hope you know, hopefully they're not that frequent for most normal pregnancies. So that would be
and and and they say, you know What on the the note on the other side, the early pregnancy center, what what do they say the most effective thing is? to get someone not to have an abortion is seeing that ultrasound. So just keeping the family closer together and seeing it and building that enthusiasm is is what life's all about.
And employees when you do those kinds of things for employees, they always respect their employers and they want to work harder because they understand that they're given that flexibility so that does help the workforce in the end as well. So
I'm not sure if uh we've talked about this to all the commissioners because it's something we've been working on just a small group and I I haven't even had a meeting on it in a while. But um the head of our HR, Barbara Hensman, um and and me and the school district and others. have been working on finding a site for county-run daycare that would be for our employees and our first responders.
We we thought we had a site with one of the elementary schools uh uh Mini P. Lock but but that opportunity went away. But I think it's a great idea uh and it's another opportunity for our employees to know that um they have a you know very low cost place that they can send their kids. And one of the things I like about what we're talking about is that we would also have a a spot for twenty-four hour because some of our sp first responders are working the night shift. And and so it's r uh how do you find a place where you can safely um
have daycare overnight. So we we we thought this was a great idea and I don't know where we are with it with Barbara.
The biggest the biggest challenge is finding a spot right now and that's been what the team has been focused on. So as soon as we have something that's uh affordable and in the right spot, uh we're we'll be ready to bring something back.
Uh also you have to as as
last month I was down
to the uh ministries their main care program, which is I thought was phenomenal. And I think that's something
I thought I was gonna
My hostess. That was that was just awesome to see. And I think as we talked, let's go try to look at at trying to do that across across the county to where we can get help with that.
Yeah their facility's beautiful. Pasco visited last year and we did some volunteer work um for our board retreat last year at Metropolitan Ministries when they first opened it and uh Those are really pretty. Rooms that they put together for the kids and everything.
Anything else? Do you guys wanna take a photo with us? It goes on our Facebook for other year.
Mr. Starkey, I guess. Okay.
She tripped off the chair.
laughing.
Exactly then I don't think so, but
Okay.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yep, yep. I need to get on that.