R47 Pasco Citizens Academy graduating class

1:35:29Motion passed. Five zero. Thanks, sir. Okay, now we'll move to uh R thirty seven.

1:35:38Forty seven.

1:35:39Forty seven, excuse me. Let me go

1:35:40by and take a look at that again.

1:35:44I got one reading, forty eight.

1:35:54I heard they saved the best for last.

1:35:57Well I heard that, but I don't know when that's gonna happen.

1:36:02Don't worry, I'll get you back for that. Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Stefania Dewey, executive assistant to county administration. Today, we celebrate the spring 2024 graduating class of Pasco Citizens Academy. Over the past 11 weeks, I've had the pleasure of witnessing a group of dedicated individuals who not have only shown great interest in our local government, but have also demonstrated exceptional intelligence and curiosity. The

1:36:32participants had direct access to Pasco's elected officials, constitutional officers, and county team members. They learned about programs and services, budgetary limitations, day-to-day operations, and toured various facilities throughout the county. Last week we gathered at the historic Pasco County Courthouse and spent quality time with Chairman Oakley. I recall him saying, there's no better place to live than Pasco County. I

1:37:03share that sentiment and just want to add that I am very proud to call Pasco County my home and workplace. With the board's permission and before we present certificates, I'd like to ask some of the participants to come up here and share about their experience.

1:37:20Okay. That'd be good.

1:37:22And you can all come up at once if you'd like.

1:37:25Come on. Whoever

1:37:27wants

1:37:27to

1:37:27speak

1:37:28can come up at once. Don't be shy. I don't think they're shy 'cause I uh remember all of them playing good parts in the courthouse, so

1:37:43Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Michelle Davis. I just want to thank you as commissioners because if it wasn't for your establishment of this program. Myself as a resident and obviously everybody else, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn and have so much of the background so much of the background of what you and staff do for the county. And it has far exceeded

1:38:14any of my expectations. Thank you so much.

1:38:17Thank

1:38:18you.

1:38:22Good morning. I just want to say that um the opportunity that we had to visit facilities, maintenance, uh the Sheriff's Department, the uh solid waste. Um I I can't say enough about the Citizens Academy and the problem I think is that it's not promoted enough.

1:38:43Uh this wonderful program. By the way, Stefani did a wonderful job in communicating with us. We have all the all the uh

1:38:52Yeah, all power points and uh just the direct contact and the um the communication with the directors and the assistant directors, animal services, volunte you know, uh elderly services, I can go on and on. But if you're gonna take some time to learn about the county and not these let me just finish by saying this. The questions that I have that that people have when I talk to them about Pasco County and its growth is why? Why? Blank. If you want to know the answer to those questions, come and join us academy. You'll learn a lot. So thank you very much.

1:39:21Thank you.

1:39:29So a l a lot of I'm familiar with a lot of you as a real estate agent, it is very difficult in Pasco County in this day and age. But I wanna say taking on this uh Citizens Academy was an eye-opener for me. I thought I knew a lot about the government and how it worked. I knew nothing. Um and I'll also I'll repeat that over and over again. This is the best program out there. I just wish more people knew about it. Thank you guys, Commissioner

1:39:59Oakley, uh Commissioner Oakley. We had a budget of a hundred dollars. Let me tell you, that was a tough chore. Adding new last week. Did you

1:40:10cut um programs or raise taxes?

1:40:13So I just said to the other um people in the class that we are glad we gave a dollar to our ambulance driver. on the recommendation of somebody. That was the hard task when we had to fill your shoes in your seat. So thank you for all you do. Thank you for everybody that spoke at the class on behalf of the gov government. And it was it was eye opening. So thank you.

1:40:37We wish more people would see it. So if they join this program they would. And you understand why. When you hear all the questions and emails, but y'all were able to understand that after you've got to be able to do that.

1:40:52Come on.

1:40:53Uh good morning everyone. So I'll start by saying Stefania, you did an amazing job. She put up with us for eleven eleven weeks. Uh and you guys were uh very open to just hearing our comments, you know, our concerns, answering questions and staying later than you probably should have, you know, in a number of sessions. But I moved here from Hillsborough County. In September of last year. Very good. And I remember telling a co-worker, I happened upon this program, so I

1:41:23uh my fellow participants and I are on the same page where I think this needs to be, not that you can make it mandatory for people who move here to do it, but almost promoting it a little bit more. I happened upon it by chance. And it's been phenomenal. I one of the things I intended to accomplish being a new resident of Pasco County was finding ways to one, learn about the community and find ways to participate in the community a little bit more. And

1:41:53this program has opened my eyes to the various different services. And areas that I can probably do so. So I thank you guys for doing that, for your openness and for um allowing us the opportunity to be here as residents. Um so thank you for that and for this program. And I'm sure we all look forward to finding ways that we can be uh supportive in this mission for making Pasco County uh great. We should have, if we don't have. I love you Pasco County shirts because I know I want one.

1:42:25Thank you.

1:42:28Here's the uh I think she's an actor in her past history, but she did a very good job. You Me? Yes.

1:42:37Uh no, I'm I'm not an actor, but

1:42:41You did pretty good as a

1:42:42I've had some professional training. I I would echo everything that my classmates um have said and it's been great to get to know them as well. I moved here four years ago and I knew it was a good decision for my family to move here to Pasco County, but I didn't fully understand why it was such a good decision until I took this class. And I also didn't feel totally settled and at home in my

1:43:12new community until I took this

1:43:14class.

1:43:15It helped me really round out um setting my roots, I guess I would say again. So um I've always thought that you don't know what you don't know so you better be inquisitive and willing to learn and I learned so much um about the county. It's been wonderful. And um I know I can be an ongoing learner because um I'm using the website. I signed up to get

1:43:45notices about things that are posted to the website. Um I've been watching podcasts um to to learn about different things that are going on in the county and I've started watching the TV channel uh in the morning when I have my coffee. So um thank you very much for all you're doing to try and make it possible for us to access information, learn and feel at home.

1:44:07Wonderful. Good. Come on, don't be

1:44:14everyone. Um I think the um the transparency of the Citizens Academy is refreshing 'cause I feel like a lot of us don't have access to the information that we learned here and it's important for us to know all that about our community and these two Inspiring women are the ones who got me here because you guys went to the Pasco Chamber of Commerce women's meeting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I actually sat right next to you and you guys posted presentations. It was awesome. And again, it's not advertised enough. So if you guys hadn't come

1:44:44there, I might not be here today. But thank you for that, and thank you all for having us. Yes and you guys too. Everyone.

1:44:53This is actually my second time in a row back to back taking it. So um for anybody uh it's not just for newcomers. I'm born and raised here second generation. And uh I recommend anybody that is in this county to take it because it really is You get to learn a lot, you you get the apartment heads, you get to ask a lot of questions that you seek answers to. And you might not get every answer answered, but you know, it it really is a blessing and you get to meet great people. You know, I had Derek last time. He was all right since he's in here,

1:45:23but we got the better one that

1:45:27Oh you like the roast and then uh Eric obvio obviously um he he's got great leadership. He's the man and uh appreciate him and there's just a lot you you meet a lot of the everyday people who have are very passionate about what they do. And uh, you know, those are the people that like you guys said, the the mechanics. It's it's the everyday people that show up every day to do the job. That's who we need to like always be grateful for and thankful for because if it isn't

1:45:57for them, this whole thing shuts down. It you guys uh honestly are useless, no offense. It's the people No, I'm not being I didn't mean it in like a disrespectful way. You're probably right. Just No, they they're the ones that really are the machine behind everything and and I definitely recommend you should take it since you said you didn't know about the departments 'cause I I

1:46:17started it actually and I've been to many of 'em, but I've never visited Fleet. Did you guys visit Fleet on one of your days?

1:46:24I recommend it. Yeah. And um it it's pretty awesome and and Stephanie's great. And I'm gonna get out of here now 'cause I took up a lot of time.

1:46:32Stefania, um thank you for for running our program. And um you know, I've always said when we started this that nowhere do you really learn what local government does. And if you if you had it in school, it might have been one day or two. Um but I don't recall really learning much about how local government functions. So we're really um proud of this academy. We used to do it one one time a year and now we're doing it too. But our uh and we will work on um spreading the word and I have a few ideas, but I would say that our our cla

1:47:02our gr our graduates who have participated in this are our best cheerleaders to help us recruit more people. So um because we think an educated populace helps the county, um helps us all move forward. So if you uh would talk about this to your friends and peers or your Facebook page or whatever, um we'd love to, you know, have waiting lists for for our class because we want as many people as possible to learn about what their local government does. So thank you all for

1:47:33taking the time to go through it. Mr. Chairman

1:47:35Mariano for your support. Yes, sir.

1:47:37I'd like to say, Commissioner Starkey, this was a brilliant idea of yours and uh staffed has done a great job executing every step of the way. Uh Derek did a great job starting us off and Stefania, great, great accolades. I don't know what this guy's talking about, but you do phenomenal. But uh we thank you all for doing it and I and I think we do need to go put something out there Just the testimony we just heard now should be the next podcast. So thank you all very much for taking the class, taking the interest in the counter because We all work hard at what we do and try to make sure we're making the right decisions

1:48:08and input from citizens like you helps us make great decisions over and over again. So thank you all.

1:48:13Yeah, just so you'll know, I don't pick on people unless I think they're the best. So I'm to the top. But a great group. I enjoyed being with you the other night. It was it was fun.

1:48:25Okay, I think they have a format for us to shake hands.

1:48:28Yes. Okay. Um I also just wanna add if Mike Carbala will pay me my hourly rate, I'll go join the guy at Firehouse Subs and flip a sign and we'll get the But I really just love this program.

1:48:44Um yes, so if you would please come down and we'll go ahead and start the passing out of the certificates.

1:48:58I want to be in the trip. I don't want to be in the first. I will get Alberta.

1:49:09Yeah. I don't know if they're coming.

1:49:13The guy that wishes and fire on the cover. Oh boy.

1:49:28Class, when I call your name, please come up for your certificate and then gather in front of the dais.

1:49:33How

1:49:35There's fourteen. We have one that couldn't join us today. Brian Paris.

1:49:45Connie Lugo.

1:49:49Yeah.

1:49:51Daisha Runnman.

1:49:54Yeah.

1:49:56Don Rochelle.

1:50:00Jacob Fantosi.

1:50:04Jamie Lynch.

1:50:06Thank you.

1:50:08K Annie Reed.

1:50:10Thank you for taking a class.

1:50:13Thank you so

1:50:13much. Gonzalez Reyes.

1:50:18Michael Cook.

1:50:28Patrick's store.

1:50:29Yeah,

1:50:30the hardest job.

1:50:32Susan Cano

1:50:36and Tiffany

1:50:39Yeah. Well it's like

1:50:45And if the class would come back up I'd like for everybody to be in a group photo.

1:50:51It's right.

1:50:57I'll take two of those.

1:51:03And welcome

1:51:04and congratulations on your friends.

1:51:06Thank you very much.

1:51:11What was it we did?

1:51:14Is the final?

1:51:19You're trying to make up to

1:51:19you

1:51:20now. Oh yeah.

1:51:21Okay,

1:51:21everybody, ready please? Thank

1:51:27That's good, thank you all. Thank you.

1:51:39Well, yeah.

1:51:58Okay, thank you.

1:52:03I see that's a lot of clouds.

1:52:11Uh I don't know.

1:52:20Too right-of-way.

1:52:27Can y'all do this in five seconds or less

1:52:30or

1:52:34R forty seven, is that right? Forty eight. How did I get any numbers all mixed up? All right, forty eighty

1:52:41seven was the

1:52:43graduation, yeah. Well I had them listed different. Okay, so this is the last one we have on From the direct or agenda? Okay.