Public comment on future agenda items
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, Feb 20, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Feb 20, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 24m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 79% of 146 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Here. Uh Now is the time for public comment. Uh citizens are given the opportunity to comment on any item coming. to a future agenda. And Coming before the Board of County Commissioners other than the Uh business under the board's preview. Uh today's public comment would be handled as follows. We will take public comment from those in person. Then we will take public comment for anyone on WebEx.
And then Um
Uh those of course they have to be the WebEx has to be on Q. We request that when you address the board Uh comments are made. uh directed personally or not directed personally against any board uh commissioner or Team member? but rather to the issues. This provides mutual Respect between board members and the public. Uh after stating your name and address for the clerk. Uh three minutes will be allowed
for you We activated time. After two minutes.
Will indicate you have one minute left when you Uh your time is up. Two beeps will sound and you should close your comments. Webex uh participants will be Disconnected automatically when their time is up. Madam Clerk, do we have people signed up to speak this morning? Public comment?
Mr. Chair, yes, I have three people who signed up. I have Trevor Mackey followed by Gail Schwedberg. Followed by Cheryl Orchard. Mr. Mackie could Come to the podium.
Okay.
This is where I show up.
Okay.
Right Right to the podium. Uh please state your name and address. Okay. Please state your name and address for the record and then you can proceed.
Okay. My name is Trevor Mackey. I live on [address removed]. I'm the vice president of the Sunshine Park Homeowners Association and Good morning Chairman Oakley and to the other commission members here. Thank you for having me. Have a couple I'm new to Florida so I'm trying to learn how you're government works down here in It's confusing at times.
We have a class for you.
Mm-hmm.
So Our homeowners association presently has a Issue I I should say The ho our homeowners association is in Representative Sark, please.
Commissioner.
area. Commissioner Oakley.
Okay.
So we presently have a code compliance issue before the courts, and I must say code compliance. has done their job efficiently and properly. So I agree with there even though it's against us. It's a tit for cat. Item. Um my observation of your code compliance here is that it is more Um It's
not proactive. It's responsive and I wish that they had excuse me, wish they had Enforcement people. And they had somebody who was observing We see them go by, drive right by an observation that is totally in Non compliance But they do nothing. You have to Fill out a form and I think one of the Problems
with the form is It's not anonymous.
Yep.
I I wish that it was could be kept anonymous. Uh I
Would be nicer to have it that way. This board would like
it to be anonymous as well. But those are the same things.
Um Mr. Chairman, why don't you um we'll get your information uh from my assistant Katie who will come out and meet you outside and I'll um enlist your help to have a more proactive code enforcement because I would like that very much. and to help uh speak to our legislators who've made the law that we cannot be anonymous. It's not a good thing. Um I don't know if We're we're trying this year to get that changed up in Tallahassee, but I think we have we may have to wait one more election
up there. There's there is a There's a powerful person who changed it and when he's out we may be able to get that back.
So you got uh your assistant coming out and meeting.
Okay.
If you go in that door right outside.
Oh, there's my code enforcement head
over there.
Yeah. All right. Thank you, sir.
And the other I've had difficult oh go go ahead.
Well Justin, if there are a lot of violations in your neighborhood, the code enforcement could enact a sweep. Um that's something that you could talk about and they'll just go through the whole neighborhood, which we've done in your your area before. I've walked it before, um, and catch all the violations. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Um and one other thing I I've had Can you turn his time back
on?
Is it
a little bit more? Can you turn his time back? Thank you.
difficulty finding out who I should call is for whatever health issue, code issue, has been difficult. Is there a handout? that lists this is who you should call for health issues or animal issues. Is there That type of
We have an app called My Pasco where you may be able to find all of that.
Okay.
Or a website, right?
Right. Yeah. Okay. So key way should be it should
Okay.
Yeah. You'll find all that information online. Okay. And and one of
the issues.
One issue that we're going to do. President has informed me of that at one time there was a rental registry being created. Is there such a thing now or has it ever come to fruition?
So we created one, uh it lies with our sheriff and we're supposed to be getting it back and doing something with it. That's that's an administrator question. So we'll f we'll find out where that is. I'll put that on my own.
We're not supposed to talk back and forth. So
your time's up, sir.
I appreciate the time
here. The gentleman in the back will help you there.
Okay.
Okay.
He's not gonna escort me out, is he? Mm.
Gail Schwedberg is next.
Thank you. Please state your name and address for the record and then you may begin.
Yes, my name's Gail Swedberg, [address removed], that's in the Green Key area. Um ever since the storm in August, I've been flooded twice, one for the storm, one for Drainage, stormwater, tide water, rain water. Some of my neighbors have been flooded three times since the storm came through in August. Um Not too long ago, I'd say a year and a half, two years ago, we
were promised or it was spoke about having some type of maintenance in the area. Um funding for drainage did not come through and so nothing really has been done. So one of my questions or concerns is When is that maintenance going to begin and what is going to be done? On January the ninth I had called into public works New Port Richey and reported all of this. At that time I got a work order number. And
I was told by Tanya that she was gonna market high level which I guess means it's a priority. I've called back every week since to find the status and it was assessed, but nothing has begun yet. It was finally registered. Well, let me go back. It I called it in on the ninth, it was registered on January eleventh. So here we are February twenty first and nobody has been out to assess. You're aware, remember, the drains
that were put in and everything. Residents have gone with their own rakes and everything trying to clear something out because you can't tell if that flap is open or shut. Okay. So when it rains or when we have high tide We have had a lot more water than normal. There are some drainage pipes on Del Prado, I was told. by a resident who was not here today, were cut. I don't know when they were cut. A lot of people are aware of it, some not aware of it. So
I live at [address removed]. So anything that comes down Del Prado comes in my yard and my dispers. There's only five houses on Lar on Largo Terrace and the neighbors' houses. So again since the storm I was flooded twice, and that was in the middle of reconstruction of my home. and some neighbors three times. So not only one flood claim, some of them have two flood claims. Now my mortgage, because of my
insurance, In April is going up four hundred fifty seven dollars a month. My mortgage went from six hundred ninety-seven dollars to eleven hundred fifty-five dollars. I have to move. I'm a good resident. I'm a good person to have in the community. As long as as along with all my neighbors. You know, we want something done. There's been people that have been working on this for years. So I appreciate your time. Okay. And please consider everything I
said about maintenance.
There's a gentleman at the back of the room with a help you.
Matter of fact I'm sure maybe meet with you and Cheryl as soon as this as soon as maybe they get they're gonna speaking. But we did get funding in place uh next door, but which I know we're trying to work with the city as far as to clean out their drainage because it connects to our drainage. So Brantford if you could Uh after Mrs. Orchard. Jason's back there.
There's a gentleman in the back.
And also just one quick last comment. What happened to the two million dollars that was supposed to be going for the Green Key data? That's what I said we
said we did get funding right beside where you're at. So we're trying to incorporate something together. We're trying to work with DOT for up the street a little bit as well.
Just been a long time. Should have had maintenance prior to all this.
And I agree with
that.
Okay. So we got Jason right in the back. Yes or no.
Thank
you.
Okay. All right. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh the next person signed up is Cheryl Orchard, followed by Cindy Scarda, followed by Kathy Julian.
Good morning
commissioners and thank you for letting us get up and speak this morning. I'm going to turn you some books. Name
and address, please.
[address removed].
Okay.
I have some booklets because there's no way
Move to receive and file.
Second. Got a motion, second. All those in favor, roll call, vote.
District two, Commissioner Weightman. Aye. District three, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District four, Commissioner Bradford.
Com uh District Four, Commissioner Bradford.
I think we're having trouble with
it. Okay. District five, Commissioner Mariano. Aye. District one, Chairman Oakley.
Aye. Motion passed. Okay.
I made these booklets up because there's no way I could cover what's been going on since nineteen ninety four. The problems in there. The lack of Follow up. We've gone to meetings. We finally got Two million dollars from the legislature money, which is not grant money, it's legislature for drainage. We were told that in twenty twenty three it would start but would not be finished till twenty twenty four. Are you speaking of
Green Key? Green Key. Okay. Now, on the south side of Green Key The city is going to put sixty six townhouses.
I don't know how they're gonna bring the dirt in. They're not gonna bring it through Seaforest. This is a sample of what our roads is like. This is what we travel on every single day. They fixed the flat Behind sixty six forty seven and twenty one. It was sent from we had association in there in nineteen ninety four. asking for it to be fixed. That flap
stayed broken. For twenty six years. That bayou flooded our entire neighborhood. We're a higher. on Manor Beach and the reason we're higher is 'cause when the city come in to put sewers in. They could uh if you walk that street I invite everybody to come look. on the corners of Green Key and Largo Terrace. They've got lime rock. They got so much lime rock that they just brought the dirt up higher. My neighbor next door is elevated.
Her front yard's a swimming pool, has been since that's happened. When she asked the county to bring in dirt, they said, No, you're gonna run cause flooding on somebody else. Now when the electric company comes in. They brought some sod in which helps some. But all that water floods her driveway and has since they come in and put those sewers in in ninety th uh just after ninety three. We're under water. We're losing neighbors because they have to
keep Going on their insurance. We all know what happens there. After a couple floods, what they do to them, they condemn the houses. They have nothing left. Or they raise the insurance so much that they're on an income of under two thousand dollars and it ends up costing them almost twelve or thirteen hundred dollars without utilities and food to eat. How do these people survive? Then we have the LLCs come in there. They don't maintain the properties that are there. The Sheriff's Office, we never see a Sheriff's Office in there anymore. Especially
since the counties took over the jails. We get nobody. We're hanging out there with all the homeless people that are sleeping under our porches. Had a kid under my back porch. With a hatchet. I called the police. The police said, They're gone. We can't do anything. I said, don't you think you should call DCF and check and see if that child's endangerment at one thirty in the morning? This is what we live through every single day and this is a piece of the road. Mm-hmm. And now if they bring that sixty six townhouses
in there That's gonna bring more water because the sixty six what they put on the corner of Manor Beach They didn't finish the swale. So now instead of the water coming up halfway in the driveways from the beginning of Manor Beach all the way to Largo Terrace, that water goes up to their door thresholds if it don't go inside. Your time's at now. Thank you. Thank you. Have a nice day. I invite you to come to our
back there that can talk to her.
When they allot money, they want to see something done with it quick, so we need to get rolling on it.
Next up is Cindy Scarta.
Name and address for the record and then you may proceed with your comment.
My name is Cindy Scarta and I am at [address removed]. Um I as a c concerned citizen, um I'm very uh upset about that Live Local Act and how it's going to be impacting uh our county here. Uh Seth Weightman was Very uh good at speaking at our Wesley Chapel Republican Club meeting. I'm secretary of that club. But I also want to bring attention to the board some other bills
that are coming down from the Senate. One is Senate Bill 1628 and one is Senate Bill 1624. That continues to undermine our local autonomy and it also jeopardizes environmental integrity. If you look at Volusia County, they're battling these bills because they want to bring in these fuel tanks. Yeah. twenty million gallons of gas. Uh some of these tanks are forty foot tall. Uh they're gonna be built next to two
miles from residential areas. Um they're calling them fuel farms and resiliency facilities. But I think it it impacts all Floridians and it will come to impact us in Pasco County because it continues to erode. Our citizens um Property rights by undermining our county commissioners, our um master plans. I was up in Wisconsin in our small town. I was a town board
supervisor. I was very involved in zoning, very involved with helping write our own master plans. But these bills undermine density, height requirements, can change the total uh projected. Of neighborhoods. And I think it's a continual assault on our property rights as citizens and also our right to be locally represented by you. It really takes away your rights as county commissioners to do your jobs and to do the jobs
that everybody in this room have elected you to do, and that is to represent our interests, not to have Some state legislators legislating what happens in our very own communities as far as our property rights. So I think you as a board should be proactive, not reactive, and really looking at some of these other counties and what they are experiencing due to some of this proposed legislation. These fuel farms and that that company
is looking at five to seven other locations throughout the state. So um I'm appalled that We k we have no say in density. We have no say in these developments that impact our Rights our homes, our families, our children, our neighborhoods. Uh it's appalling to me. So that's I hope you're proactive on these bills. I do have an article that I would like to I only copied one, so I'd like
to leave it for Seth.
Okay.
Um but I as a board I would receive and
file. Second.
Not reactive. Well thank you.
Thank you for your comments and certainly appreciate what you've commented on today.
District 2, Commissioner Weightman.
Aye.
District 3, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District 4, Commissioner Bradford.
All
right.
District five, Commissioner Mariano.
Aye.
District one, Chairman Oakley.
Aye. Motion passed. Five zero.
Yeah.
Okay, the next person.
The last person I have signed up is Kathy Julian.
Good morning everyone. Um my name is Kathy Julie and I live at [address removed]. And I wanted to say one thing that I noticed driving in here. Great use of a building that was empty for a very long period of time and I see you moved the building into there. Great to see A building being repurposed rather than torn down or new structures being put up. That's great. I wish that um some of these people with all their Um Car washers would look around and go How am I gonna
make money with this car wash that I haven't even broken ground on yet? I know Seth is aware of it 'cause I heard Seth speak also on the Live Local and I just wanna say I think Seth is doing a great job. Um I've heard him speak a couple times. Anyway, the reason I'm here to speak this morning is um I have a resolution um that was prepared by um uh another organization in the state and they're trying to um present it to every Board of County Commissioners asking um for a resolution calling for the additional measures to secure the border and stop the invasion
of our country and the transnational narco-terrorist criminal organization activity and protect our communities from imminent danger. I hear from people every day how scared they are about what's going on. And you know you read on social media everybody talks about the homeless people. They're not homeless people like we used to call bums. These are scary homeless people. And um we need to do something about it. And this is um an a attempt to get all the counties to speak up and speak in unison so possibly something can be done. I do have five copies, one for each of the commissioners.
Move to receive and file. Second.
Motion second by roll call vote.
District two, Commissioner Weightman. Aye. District three, Commissioner Starkey. Aye. District four, Commissioner Bradford.
Aye.
District five, Commissioner Mariano. Aye. District one, Chairman Oakley. Aye. Motion passed 5-0. This is this was actually my Commissioner Starkey.
And the other thing I wanted to say was, you know, I always read on social media people say that Pasco County is the worst and all that stuff. And I I always attribute that and I always say you're people that have never traveled because you haven't been to other places. You're just very small-minded when you feel that way. But then in this in this um In this resolution, it says in here in twenty twenty three Pasco and Penellas County, which is District Six for the legal um reported the greatest number of de total deaths from fentanyl poisonings. I guess that's in the state. That's really scary 'cause we're small
town. It shouldn't be happening here. And I it's not your fault, but um I'd like you guys to put your voice behind this proclamation. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments. Is that the last person signed up?
Mr. Chair, that's the last person signed up. No call.
Anybody on WebEx?
No one's on WebEx.
No one on WebEx. Anyone in the audience wish to speak that did not sign up?
Come forward, state your name and address for the record.
Good morning commissioners. I'm John Michael Moran, the president of the Pasco County Professional Firefighters. It's always a pleasure to come before you when given the opportunity to recognize your ongoing efforts to support the brave men and women of Pasco County Fire Rescue. Today on your consent agenda as item C eighteen is the ratification of the new collective bargaining agreement between Pasco County and the Pasco County Professional Firefighters Supervisory Unit. And we are proud to report that the agreement achieved overwhelming support from our battalion chiefs
and shift commanders. I'd like to take a moment to thank the County Administrator, the Assistant County Administrator for Public Safety, J.J. Murphy, Director Hitzman, Chief Perez, and Assistant Chief Ryan Gwen for their commitment to getting this agreement finalized in just a few short months. their collaborative and compromising attitude toward this process is always greatly appreciated. The highlights of this agreement continue to build upon the idea of a more proper work-life balance. prioritizing the mental and physical health of our firefighters,
leading to long and healthy careers for our members. So thank you again for leading by example and for your support of the new agreement. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
Does anyone else in the audience wish to speak this time? If not, we'll close public comment. We'll move on. There's no resolutions today to be heard. Uh we'll move on to consent items.