board reports senior exemption food truck tree fund
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
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, Sep 19, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 19, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 17m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 86% of 71 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
So it's five oh five. The budget hearing starts at five fifteen. Do we want to forego any more committee reports or do you want to add to I
can do mine? I've got just a little bit on my own.
Okay. Uh as I said before and Ralph interrupted me 'cause his item was so important, so But The fact of it is I went and spoke at the nine eleven memorial on uh Saturday, September ninth. with the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel. And they do a great job with that memorial every year. Um The two local heroes. They've changed it somewhat, made it local heroes Um Responders. Uh Sheriff's
Office Police Officers. And um firefighters and things of that nature that they're our local heroes and that's who they honor that time. This year we honored uh Trooper. Uh Stephen Turner. And Steven Turner actually lives in uh Hernando County, but he chased a couple of men into Pasco County and caught up with them about uh overpass road. And at that point he did a pitch maneuver with his car and stop
them, stop their car. and in the chase they of course they struck out running and he struck out running behind 'em. He received a gunshot wound to the Abdomen. um which he survived. He was there at at the memorial that day. Um He uh within months of healing and all, he's back on on the job. So these these people that are first responders, firefighters and all, they're always ready to go and ready to do the right thing for the citizens
of Pasco County. And then of course ever every one of us know that we lost uh firefighter Jason Tucker. And his struggle with cancer. Uh He also helped a lot with uh Helping us get our fire stations uh in better control of the uh elements from a fire and things like that where they clean up better and their uniforms are changed in certain areas. And just more protection for our firefighters and you gotta be really thankful for what he did in
that area. And um I mean he he was a good good firefighter of Pasco County. I think he was with us for at least nineteen years, if I'm not mistaken. And he did very well. He was a good husband. a father and grandfather and Um He was a good family man and of course he's part of that firefighter brotherhood that we all see when they have a award ceremony or whatever, you see the Brotherhood of Firefighters in Pasco and you gotta be m mighty
proud of those firefighters that doing their work here. So But but that that's all I had today. Commissioner Weightman.
County Attorney. Well, so I'm gonna bring up it be an adopting be an ordinance, but legislature has already passed it and it gives cities and counties an op an option. Um I'm gonna forego I'll forego the social aspects of my presentation. We'll bring that up later. Uh Uh what the state passed. to help with affordability for senior citizens. part of our cohort that's struggling with insurance and every ev all the other inflationary
factors in our in our world today. And it's important to note, and I've worked with a property appraiser and a tax collector, and the hit is is minimal, and I think this is the right thing to do. Provides up to fifty thousand dollars, an additional exemption for a person uh who's sixty-five and older, whose income doesn't exceed twenty thousand a year. And their home uh uh has a just value of less than two hundred and fifty thousand and they have to be a permanent resident uh and the owner
of that property for at least twenty five years. So that group of folks is very strong small, but that's the those are the folks that in my opinion are are are struggling and are in our world right now. And uh There's already rules in place from Tallahassee and Uh if we adopt this in Uh As an ordinance we just simple vote I guess and county attorney Uh more detail, but I think it's important that we we consider it.
helping a a part of our population that that needs it.
This what the commissioner is referring to is there was a constitutional amendment that allowed that provided for Um sixty five years and older That's right.
You don't qualify under under other
under other things on this. I qualified until you went to those other
parameters. But there is a general law that implements that constitutional amendment. Um y there are actually are you can adopt one or both of the exemptions which are in in the general law. Um But County Attorney if it If it's the desire of the board, the county attorney's office will begin drafting. such an ordinance if that's the will of the majority.
Is is there a number of people we're talking about? 'Cause then that that money that we're gonna miss
that's it's gonna cause there will be a financial impact. I don't the the commissioner has represented that the property appraiser and tax collector don't think it's going to be a significant hit but I don't I don't know
how about if we have them bring back information for us Yeah Adam I
don't
it sounds good.
Like to do that, it sounds good. But I'd like to know the effect of financially to the county it'd be so That would be an administrator's issue.
Yeah, and and actually I mean we we we we would tend to agree given the the longevity requirement of twenty five years of having to have been in the home, the income requirements being at I think right about now I think it's probably closer in the thirties, low thirties by now with you know, inflationary. But I you know
household income does not exceed twenty thousand dollars is what's in the general law.
Right. But that's from twenty twelve. I think there's been adjustments to it. It does it doesn't matter. It's still it's it's a low
bring it back. It sounds low.
I mean I mean I'm I'm fine doing it in parallel actually if you want to get the ordinance going and then as part of the presentation we can tell you what the fiscal impacts are. I agree. I think it'll be I I I think it'll be low. Yeah.
So this is something we can find out that financial impact tonight?
I mean it's something you can certainly address with the people this evening if you like, but it can't be this has to be it won't come into effect this year. It'll have to be the next tax year. Okay.
Do we have time? Um to get it on the twenty four.
Tan skills.
I I'll say this, I'm glad you're bringing it up. I think we've had this discussion before, but I'm glad I see four members here that are supportive to it. I think in light of High insurance costs, high inflation, if there's ever a time this needs to be implemented it'd be right now. So I th I think we need to go do this too. So I'm happy to happy to see you bring it forward. I'm glad you're bringing it forward now.
Thank you, Chairman Board members, for your support. So
So we can put it together for introduction and the administrator can bring back the budget information at budget. And then you can make a decision about whether or not to advertise. Yeah.
All right.
It's a good it's a good one. Commissioner Starkey.
Um first um I'm sorry I missed the fact uh meeting um was in the hospital. That's the longest I've ever been in the hospital in my life, actually. Um but Commissioner I Commissioner Oakley, I think you went.
I do
know yes. And so it probably due to time I'm not gonna be able to hear all that went on, but I Would love um some kind of recap of of of uh what what happened. Um I did did attend the groundbreaking for Day Spring Academy of the Angeline campus. i uh that land was donated and um they are Expecting they're they broken they've got the pad there you can see it that's looking towards Land Lakes Boulevard. They expect that to be open neck for school next year, so it's gonna be interesting to
watch. I guess with the kind of weather we're having they they may get that done with no rain delays. Um but good for them. Um Um two two ordinances that I'd like for us to be thinking about Um What is the food truck ordinance? I think when we did it we had um the best best of intentions. But um I'm not I'm not sure that it's working well for our citizens and our small business community. And so uh I'd
like I've I've talked with the staff that wrote it and we have some ideas and they're they want to go maybe do some investigation and maybe make some small tweaks to our food truck ordinance that um makes it Um easier for businesses to be in that business but competes fairly with existing restaurants and it's just all about having a level playing field But I think everyone loves food trucks. There are a lot of illegal food trucks around the county that, you know, we're not doing
enforcement on Um anonymous calls are starting to come in on some and causing some problems and so it's not a level playing field. And um I think I think if they come back and visit with you guys each with some ideas and bring it back, we can we can improve our food truck ordinance and encourage the incubation of small businesses. So Without hurting existing businesses. Also um Right now our our um I meant to talk to David Engel about this, but I never had an opportunity
because they administer a large part of the um Tree uh tree mitigation trust fund. And right now we cannot use it for housing. Um you know goes uh our trees are we can plant trees on public land. And um Yeah, uh land that the county owns. So I want to suggest that we uh look at being able to put help the affordable housing community when
they build a house to grant them money for a tree. And we're never gonna s you know, we have a lot of money and we need to get get it out there back into the community. And And this could help them as well as they as they build their um build out their projects. So Uh this would require a tweak in the landscape ordinance. So I mean the tree mitigation trust fund. Rules or whatever.
I appreciate you bringing this one up. This is one here in my district, Leisure Beach. Um the people actually maintain our median. They go through, they just put new plantings in. And even though we own the property, we've had a hassle g getting it through. I think we've got it resolved anyway. But just to bring it through to be clarity, to make it easy for everyone instead of and go through a battle to to tweak it, I think it's a good time to bring it. So if staff can bring that back in the other commissioner Starkey asked, I think it'd be great.
Yeah, I mean there are a lot of places that that we could um benefit from more trees in the community and we have the money so we need to put it to work.
Okay. Anything else?
Uh that's it.
Okay. County Administrator.
Yes, actually on on that I I Given some of the more complications of of spending some of the money, I do need board Uh I would like to get a uh the board to consider uh waiving a a a cost for for the actually the the Leisure Beach community. So the Leisure Beach HOA did replace dead and diseased trees in a county-owned easement as part of the Great American cleanup. They got their permits uh and fees were previously waived by the BOC. See, um the work was conducted by the HOA and the homeowners in lieu of county maintenance as
part of a nationwide day of communication. Community service to beautify the communities. The work that they did was clearly intended by the ordinance language regarding the use of tree mitigation funds. Just in terms of programs, it kind of falls, as you mentioned, Commissioner Starkey. There's there's part that OEG maintains and there's parts that PDD actually maintains. maintains. So I I would like for you to um uh make a motion to waive the cost of the three thousand dollars in in fees to be paid for out of the tree mitigation fund um for the Leisure Beach
uh Civic Association.
Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you.
Thank you. And the last thing I have, and it's just a point of point of order. You'll recall that 120 days ago thereabouts we had the discussion of the Starkey Ranch cell tower. We said we were gonna bring something back in 120 days. We did not want the board or the public to necessarily think that item is dead. Uh we did receive another bid and we're working through those maturations. It's just not ready currently, but within the next sixty days, we're We'll bring something back to the board or soon as practical. Uh I just want the public and the board to understand that it's not
dead. We are bringing it back and it will be a regular item at a future board meeting.
Okay. All right. County Attorney?
I don't have anything, thank you.
I do have one thing. Um so October is domestic violence awareness month, and my office serves individuals who come in seeking an injunction against um against violence. And we also serve customers coming in um onto other sensitive items such as substance abuse. mental health and exploitation of vulnerable adults. I've always felt concerned for customers coming in and having to talk about those kind of items. in
our lobbies, you know, where others can hear. And in situations with domestic violence, the individual coming into our office, the survivor, is looking over their shoulder to see if someone's following them in, right? So I wanted to have a safe place in the office for them to come. So in Dade City we had a grand opening of the empowerment room and I want to thank this board because you all supported that room being being um being built. And it will allow an
individual to come into a secured room where we will have a domestic violence advocate there with Sunrise of Pasco. We have a a little kids zone, so a lot of times the survivors coming in with little ones, so they'll have a little safe place while their parent can talk um about some serious business and fill out the tremendous paperwork that. Mm-hmm. To get to a better day. We also have my team will be in there. We will be helping those with mental health,
substance abuse, and exploitation of vulnerable adults. We have a lot of security wrapped around that room, so those that are in the room don't have to worry. And I just want to say it was it's it's something that came to fruition, and I'm so excited and happy about it. And I want to give a shout-out and a big thank you to three of your team members. Who really did a fantastic job on that room and if you are in the Robert Sumner Judicial Center, I'd love for you to come in and I'd be happy to show you the room. I'm very proud of it and the work that your team has done. Um I wanna
thank um George Shetland. uh T uh TJ Syke and also Bob M. Burgie. You have some amazing professionals on your team. They are knowledgeable. They are really experts in that in this field and they did so much work coordinating with all the contractors and I just want to say thank you. It was a very big success.
Excellent. Okay. Thank you. Very good. I'll just show one item. Uh I'll talk about FAC next meeting, but just
Um Crane's Ride is a pro program that they've been doing up at Altamont Springs. They just signed up for a C uh three-year pilot. I'll get you the details later on it, but it's designed to get people from point A to point B as a free service to go uh to help shuttle people around. So I'll get that to you later on.
Can you show the picture? I put so I was behind this one. This is what uh St. Pete Beach and I don't know which municipalities have this? Um but It's called freebies. on the beach and um you just download that app in Pinolas County and they'll come pick ya pick you up at your house and take you to the beach or wherever you want to go. So it These are this is a great program. So much cheaper than some of those big buses for that last mile. I I I I love that we can get into this and I'm sure
there's grants available.
All right, so Mike, maybe you can get us uh a presentation between at the MPO for this project as well as the Cranes Crane's Rides project and kind of bring bring those ideas out to us. Okay. So Mike, we're gonna start our meeting. Do you want to take a quick minute quick break to get the paperwork set up or are we ready to go?
I mean I it would probably I mean I don't know.
Five minute break?
Eric, I think five minutes would be good.
So five twenty seven we'll start the uh five fifteen meeting.