Board member items

1:05:38motion. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, that was smooth. Congratulations again. All right, um we are on to board member items.

1:05:54Commissioner Oakley.

1:05:57Well I had something, no, I don't remember what it was.

1:06:01Can't

1:06:01turn back in. Mr.

1:06:03Oakley, do you have any

1:06:04board member? Oh, watch that. Hmm.

1:06:09I don't have any any well I do have one thing very particular to bring up. Um Uh our last board meeting, which I didn't hear of until after the board meeting that night, that uh we had lost uh Sylvia Young past Commissioner. For District One. Spent twenty years nineteen eighty two. Two thousand um as a county commissioner and spent She actually loved the citizens of Pasco County. She loved Dade City. She loved Pasco County. She loved Darby. She

1:06:40loves her f love of her family. So we we went through a process trying to uh get the flags lowered and we can't just do that on our own. It has to go through the governor's office. And prior to that happening last Thursday at her memorial we Lower those flags at half masks. And um Commissioner Starkey got a letter from the governor and also a letter went out also to the Mayor of Dade City that the flags could be lowered for that particular day in that memorial.

1:07:10So We're very appreciative of all the

1:07:16Um we owe a lot to her previous to all of us. uh the work she did for Pasco County. I gotta be really thankful for for her and her family. So That's that's it. That's all I have today. Thank you. Commissioner Weightman.

1:07:31Thank you, Madam Chair. So since I was not here last meeting. Add a little more than normal. Um first thing I would like to say is thank you for passing C three this morning. That's the resolution. My sponsor for recognized former Speaker Will Weatherford. Obviously we know he did an incredible job for Pasco County. I wanted to make sure he was recognized by this board. Um anything from uh the IPAC to Pascoernando State College to the extension of 56 all the way to 301. He did so much for this community in this in the state of Florida. We wanted to recognize Unfortunately, as we know, you

1:08:01know, former Speaker Weatherford, in his new role, he travels quite often. So um it's it's hard to be able to him to lock himself down, which is understandable, right? He does uh travel on a regular basis. So thank you for that. I will make sure he gets that on on the Commission's behalf.

1:08:20I um had the uh Opportunity on May 24th to be the keynote speaker of the Pepin Academy's graduation ceremony. Um thirty-eight graduates with parents of family and faculty and staff that were in attendance. And it was definitely a wonderful, very emotional evening at the same time. And as many of you have have had the opportunity on the numerous occasions from colleges to to high schools to be able to speak at um graduation ceremonies or give the keynote address. And I will say this is definitely the most uh emotional

1:08:51one I ever spoke at by far. So um you know congratulations to everybody and all those graduates and to their families because it's their families as well that work very hard to help their students get through graduation. We talked about fire a little bit this morning. Um, but I'm sure everybody saw, hopefully that you saw that there was a actually a really nice feature in the fire apparatus magazine on Pasco County's Fire Rescue Mobile Decon unit and mobile rehab unit. So

1:09:21it was a great article. If you haven't seen it, check it out. Um, you know, we had the ability to have you know up to six firefighters on EKGs at once, so it was really cutting. edge things that uh this county's investing in. So again, congratulations to Chief Cass and for and his team for being highlighted. Next thing I want to talk about is um Skip. We have a towing resolution for the for the tow companies, as you're as you're aware. Um We know

1:09:51the with the price of gas and inflation is ridiculous and unfortunately it's only gonna continue to increase. Um so my my understanding is and I had the conversation with um Mr. Mr. Steinsteiner, our county attorney as well, there's nothing under the current resolution that allows us to charge for uh fuel, additional fuel for those fuel companies. Um it's really hurting those companies, as I think you heard me talk in the past. Even my long guy is having to increase his rates just to cover the fuel. Unfortunate, but it's it's it's a fact of

1:10:21the matter until our federal government steps up and does she does something about it. Um So what I'd like to do is um make a motion to um to um ask the the county attorney's office, which I s like I mentioned I had a uh a discussion earlier with them about to bring back a resolution to the at the next meeting. Um to um a proposal for um to increase their surcharge based on the cost of fuel um from the US um and on the highway diesel price.

1:10:51It's posted weekly by the United States Energy Information Administration. So it would scale it would scale with a price of fuel. So that way they're not losing money and we don't have citizens that are sitting on the side of the road not be able to get picked up. because nobody wants to pick 'em up, because nobody wants to do business in the area. So um Um surcharge, it would only be in a certain circumstances and would not apply when um f that extra fuel is not needed. So I don't know if we want discussion or I could just continue with the motion or

1:11:21Mr. Steiner Steiner wants to jump in at all. I think I have this correct. Um

1:11:26Well uh it your

1:11:29The ordinance and this resolution only apply to non consensual towing. Right. So it wouldn't

1:11:39They st it's still free market as far as people Getting toes if they're stranded on the side of the road. Um but yeah, the it it affects the the sheriff's rotation. It uh basically it's it it's accident cases, that sort of thing where the the vehicles are immobilized.

1:12:00Typically the insurance companies do p as we know, if you have insurance, a triple A or something like that, does pick up the cost of that tow at least up to a certain amount. But it would scale with a price of fuel. Um and if diesel drops below three. dollars, whatever the the sh the church would actually go away entirely. So if it drops back down to prices it was you know a year ago The surcharge would go away. So they may have a problem with uh spring that back next meeting?

1:12:22No. Okay. And that would affect the mileage rate, correct? It

1:12:27correct. Yes. So that is correct.

1:12:28The rest of the rates would stay the same, but it would there be a fuel adjustment on the on the mileage

1:12:33correct that we've

1:12:33got.

1:12:34Okay. And I will send you additional information I have as well. All right, so there's my motion.

1:12:43All in favor?

1:12:44Aye. Aye. And the last thing I have, and this is really just the discussion. Um I did talk briefly with Mr. Steinsteiner on this, so he's still his him and his office are still doing some research on this, but I just want to get a feel from the uh my fellow commissioners. Um we're talking about fuel prices. Um If you go to the pump any time, uh you you realize I think I paid five seventeen for regular yesterday.

1:13:14I think it was five seventeen. And I'd never put regular in my truck.

1:13:18Yeah, really.

1:13:21I do now.

1:13:24So as we know the um state during last session they actually did a um gas tax holiday. They're they're looking in October and Let me explain why they did October because I think there's some there's misconceptions of why they did October. Um obviously tourism's um big during the summer months. Um and a lot of our winter visitors start coming, you know, um late October, early November. So the thought was in the legislators mind and the governor's mind was okay, this is the October is a perfect time because it's gonna benefit the citizens of our state

1:13:55of Florida more so than anybody else. Yeah. So I wanted to get a feeling for um my fellow board members um if you would be interested in entertaining um a a sales tax holiday in Pasco County in the month of September. And I I use September because again, we're state's already doing October. If we did September, it'd be some extra relief in a little sooner than October, but it's still the same situation whereas m you know kids are back in school, people aren't traveling as much, our

1:14:25winter visitors aren't here. So it's gonna mostly benefit the citizens of Pascoa County. We do know if we do this that some people will come over the border from Hillsboro or from Pinellas to, you know, save a few bucks. Um But I wanted to get a feel again um if there's any interest, um what your thoughts are. Now there's one caveat that we don't know the answer to yet, so we can't make a decision today on this. We'd have to come back, is that um Mr. Steinsteiner has to look and see if there's if the our um gas tax is tied to any bonds,

1:14:55because if it is tied to any bonds, that we wouldn't be able to do it.

1:15:00So we're pretty sure that the the second five cents has been bonded. I have not been able to verify what the first five cents is. And you're gonna need an ordinance amendment to do this as well.

1:15:13Okay, so we have it's twelve currently

1:15:17Five and five and then the one and one is um

1:15:22I forgot what the one th there's one that's part of the twelve and another one that's part of the twelve. Um anyways, it doesn't matter. So obviously you couldn't so we couldn't do it for the second. Because that's bonded. We'd have to research and see if the five.

1:15:36So does that um impact any work that we were doing.

1:15:41It would definitely do impact in the future. It would it would it would just like the states, you know, it's gonna it will have an impact on, you know, on in the future. So that's what you have to weigh. Okay. Do we think we want to give relief now to some of our citizens as much as we can? Obviously it's not gonna you know do much for somebody if if they don't commute back and forth to work much, if they're only going a couple miles, but for the people that Yeah. Use five, ten gallons a a day and that you know, it could save 'em thirty, forty bucks a week or something like that, then they'll have a it'll have a bigger impact.

1:16:12Um, especially people that again, like I mentioned, you know, travel for for work. Um, you know, if if you're somebody that travels from Wesley Chapel to Newport Ritchie for County Commission meetings, um I'm just teasing, but you know, that's that's a long way, right? So if you did that on a consistent basis, I'm using that as an example, that's that's high mileage on the vehicle. So that those people would benefit. Um any you know again, thought is any type of relief you might be able to give the citizens. Unfortunately, our federal government doesn't seem to be working very hard to give us any relief.

1:16:40So there is there is a program at T Barter called the commuter van van pool. The members are how many who served on to T Barta here? You you did for a little while? T B Barta?

1:16:50Well I

1:16:50was

1:16:50on T Barta. Yeah. I w I pointed you two out when I became chair because I wanted office.

1:16:54So uh my brother in law used to be on the Bay Area commuter services board before it came in under T BARTA. Um it's an incredible program. It's called the Van Pool, uh Commuter Van Pool. And um It's uh the users um are put together in a group that are kind of geographically aligned Um they're they can get a car at a very, very low rate. I think it's through Enterprise Florida and

1:17:25um and they sh they share The uh van experience, the share driving, they can take the car home. Actually it doesn't have to be a it's a van. A car They take the car home. Um it really, really cuts down on um their expenses and I definitely want to uh have someone come brief the board on that and we can really, really promote that and for sure if there's enough people coming from Wesley Chapel over here Um we could take advantage of that and um get uh some

1:17:55van pools going. But we want to make sure everyone in the county knows that that's available. It's a great program.

1:17:59Well on and continue on just you know, and f as we know there's still a lot of people that, you know, commute to from Pasco County to Hillsburg County and Penells County for work every day. Um You know, it's it's it's a hardship now. I mean we know it. I mean it's it's it's unfortunate but it's true. I mean it's it's it's hard on people. I mean we have people in this room right here that um travel from each side of the county or some people to travel from, you know, Hernando County or Penellas County to come even work here in Pasco County 'cause

1:18:24live

1:18:25where so where you work in um I

1:18:27I

1:18:27so it's I believe in that it's uh yeah, it's a um

1:18:30Live where you work.

1:18:31It's it's a burden right now for us. For a lot of citizens.

1:18:34Madam Chair.

1:18:36Yeah. Um uh Commissioner Mariano, sorry.

1:18:40You know, I I I heard the federal government trying to look at doing that as well. And I'd say my first response. Can I say hi Kevin? Why don't you just approve the Keystone Pipeline? Why don't you let 'em do more drilling? Why don't we do let more exploration happen? Why don't we encourage more refineries to be built?

1:18:58To go hurt, we we can't get our projects we w want to get done anyway. Like we can't get kind of like everyone funded right now b between not enough money coming in. So for them to go short themselves on projects that need to get done as infrastructure folks is is nonsensical. You want to fix the f fix the problem? Fix the supply. Yeah. That's what you gotta do. So all this other stuff about we're gonna save you money doing this. Going to r go to go to Saudi Yarb Saudi Arabia and try to go talk to them about yeah, go go produce more. I mean this it's ri it's ridiculous. As far as I I appreciate what you're

1:19:28trying to do, but I will tell you I don't want to deal with next summer. people driving down Little Road if that that road breaks away again like it did on the northern part to have that break road break away again. The other road project we're trying to get done, I'm trying to get a a vision road done and on a side road to an industrial park that'll bring jobs to the county, uh a bridge that was built too low that I got two hundred fifty homes and can't get boats out to the Gulf of Mexico. That doesn't make any sense. So I would not wanna and knowing that we have a shortage of funding to get all the road projects we w wanna get done. I I I couldn't get behind that just because

1:19:59it would set us back.

1:19:59No, and and I and I m Madam Chairman I could appreciate that. You know, again it was just a discussion I wanted to have again to see if we could provide any relief. And again, you know, yeah, you have to weigh your options. You know, what's what's the greater need and and what's gonna be g give the biggest impact. And like you did mention, yes, there's there's there's things that unfortunately that we as a county and county commission and and and team members There's there's we ha can't control them. Like, you know, obviously we have no control on again, like you mentioned, um where we're trying to pull um oil from, where we're

1:20:30trying to pull natural gas from, where we're trying to pull all these natural resources from, unfortunately, certain people decide they don't want to. Um But we're all impacted. So but I and no and I appreciate it. Again, that's why I just wanted to earlier on have a discussion versus just making a motion to see if there was an appetite for it. If we were to somebody were to talk through it a little bit. Appreciate it.

1:20:49And Madam Chairman Mariano. Yes. Is there a way And I am con curious how they're gonna work the holida gas holiday in October. Is there a way to m guarantee or to make sure that the gas stations don't leave their rates at their current price and us and the citizens are guaranteed to get the tax break because I know we do have the twelve cent

1:21:19tax and I do one of my commissioner courses It sh has a map that directly reflects just because you charge more at a higher gas tax, it doesn't mean you're gonna have a higher price in fuel. So there was no correlation between the tax and the price. But I just want to make sure if we do a holiday that we can guarantee that our citizens benefit and not the gas stations.

1:21:45So you would look at it like um the sales tax holiday on clothes and things. Obviously it's it is up to the retailers, right, to follow that. If they don't, they c you know, somebody would have to reach out to You know, I don't know, the A G or to the um um Department of Professional Regulation or something like that to quote turn them in. We're all supposed to follow it, right? But you would have to yes, would you have to police it? Possibly.

1:22:09It's a little more difficult only because the retailers have a set price and price tags on their clothing and materials and items and we don't have a set, they fluctuate their prices compared to the

1:22:22Yeah, it would be virtually impossible to take an action against the The gas stations. Um as you were you I mean when You all were considering the second option. Um Five cent. increase. Um Actually, OMB had done some research at that time. That It really didn't matter Right, that's because of the l elasticity of fuel it

1:22:53really doesn't matter what you're charging in tax, they all all the surrounding communities seem to Settle at the same price, whether you have the five cents on or whether you have whether you don't. And so it's it it would be very difficult to

1:23:11to prove that a a gas station was not sure rebating that the gas tax if you did a software.

1:23:21Unless there's a price ceiling.

1:23:23No, right. No, it again, I I I'll go back to one more time and I'll and I'm done. But I do

1:23:26love the idea.

1:23:27No

1:23:27but

1:23:27thank you no and I appreciate it. Again listen, give us some thought. Again, I didn't want to make any motion when it come back if give us some thought, talk to team members, look at what other playo people are doing. Just trying to see if there's anything we can do to help the citizens in the in the situation we're in because again Does it seem like uh people at the very top are doing very much to help?

1:23:49Well I I certainly would wanna have an impact statement, you know what roads it might affect. Sure, exactly. Keeping some papers.

1:23:58Okay.

1:23:59Uh Commissioner Fitzpatrick.

1:24:01Thank you.

1:24:02Do we have the photos? I don't think they're in agreement.

1:24:11I think. Possibly.

1:24:15While we're waiting on that, how did everyone like the Boltz game last night? Go Boltz.

1:24:22My son was there.

1:24:23Six two. Uh uh. I'll be following. All right. Um, I would like to say congratulations to Keith Wiley and his team at Parks and Rec. They had a successful grand open and ribbon cutting at Starkey Ranch District Park softball complex. I am very excited to be a part of this, and as we are setting that premiere standard. For parks and rec. I'm excited to make sure all of our parks and rec have that Premier standard.

1:24:51While we're looking at those photos, I had handed out a packet. It does have a master agreement between Pasco County School School District and Pasco County BOCC. I feel it's very important that kids have access to playgrounds. And there's already an agreement for Anclo Elementary School, Longleaf Elementary School, I wanna say Schrader Elementary School and B PM S at

1:25:21Bayonet Point Middle School. where they can utilize the playground after school and on weekends. I am working with the school district as well to move forward to expand the locations that they have playgrounds after school on weekends and over the summer. I w gave everyone a list because I would really like you to look through the list or if you know of a school in your district that you would like to be added and included on this list.

1:25:51or Keith Wiley be aware so we can Add more schools. I would much rather see more kids out playing on playgrounds, walking to their schools, than sitting home on electronics all day. Um I know some of the schools I've already spoken to and I'm really excited about are Fox Hollow. I would like to see Cypress, Calusa, uh Wendellcren, and I really think it'd be important to include some of the middle schools or high schools, especially since they have a track for example, Wendell

1:26:21Crenn, they have a track and field, they have tennis courts. I know when I was out of state visiting family There was a hundred over a hundred people on the track and field utilizing that. You have your seniors, now they have a place to go and walk. You have kids where they can go play. So I think it's really important again if you could look at the list, if there's any di this list is only The elementary schools. But again if you have any suggestions or like a specific

1:26:51school to be added, please let us know so we can include it and then Once they have a list, I know Ray Gat is gonna look at that list, he's gonna bring it back to their board, we'll have a vote for our board on the schools. I did mention at one point if there's possibility to have a way where it doesn't have each school doesn't have to be brought back to the board every time. Can we delegate authority for them to add schools to that list?

1:27:20The master agreement requires that a the site specific agreements be adopted. So Um Once you I guess once you have a template agreement you could probably delegate to the administrator the ability to sign those Um but again it it's gonna Each one of these there's going to be a cost involved to the county.

1:27:45Thank you. Oh, and speaking of costs, my friend that serves on the school board in Ocala went to DC. There is a safe schools program and grants, so we can possibly get the funds for the additional fencing that we would have to separate the playgrounds from the schools, so maybe they could help with the funding in on that issue.

1:28:05Um Good. So hey, I support you on this. Keep working it.

1:28:10Thank you.

1:28:11So hopefully I would add the high schools because they have tennis courts, they have tracks that people could go run around and exercise on on the weekends and I remember getting chased off Mitchell High's track. Um So

1:28:24Yeah. Especially if they're inside of a community or a backdoor school. So I think that's really important. Next, I would like to just mention a reminder we have the Commissioner Baby Shower Oh, sorry. Yep, we have the Commissioner Baby Shower, which is tomorrow at two o'clock. So if anyone has any items Um any new or unopened items, diapers, diaper cream, baby lotion, formula bottles, pacifiers, wipes, clothing, any baby items, they can drop it off here. Or

1:28:54they can bring it tomorrow to Starkey Ranch at two o'clock. Starkey Ranch. Starkey Market. Sorry. At two o'clock. Yeah, I don't think so. Oh and yes, thank you. So all the donations. Where's

1:29:09this going? Who's

1:29:09this going? All of the donation last year it went last year it went to Sun Coast Voices and this year it's going to Sunrise Domestic Violence Shelter for Pasco County.

1:29:20We've um we've collected things other than what's on that list. We got a whole bunch of shower liners and all kinds of household items. Um that they also need. So I think that It's part of the list, but right? We can take a lot more. Wonderful.

1:29:36And The last is I was honored to speak at Athena Academy's eighth grade graduation and I would like to say congratulations to all of our graduates in Pasco County. Thank you.

1:29:49And that's it. Commissioner Mariano.

1:29:51Thank you, Madam Chairman M I had a um Uh my appointee from the Planning Commission had resigned. Yeah. So I yeah, I was very surprised. Um But I talked to a person who s uh served before on the Commissioner Cox years ago, did a great job. He's a local engineer. His name is Jonath Jonathan Moody. He's done the application for The advisory committee commission and I'd like to make a motion to appoint Jonathan Moody to my planning commission seat.

1:30:18Oh, the uh the engineer in Newport Yeah, excellent. Yeah.

1:30:22Take I'm sorry, who's he taking over for?

1:30:23Uh

1:30:24Roberto Saiyan.

1:30:25Roberto.

1:30:25Oh he's leaving. Yeah.

1:30:28Yeah. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Great. I've heard he's excellent. I've never met him, but I've heard he's excellent.

1:30:35uh been working with him a little bit with Barbara Wilhite and company on uh items coming up sixty two sixty three they're being continued till August but I I I recommend the board really study these ask staff questions quite a bit uh to to what it's gonna want the effects of what we're looking at doing uh could be monumental and I don't want to see us take a wrong step or go too far with a step that may uh really impact uh especially the West side. Yeah. Um I do have one other item, my madam, but I want to wait till the afternoon if I could. I want to give you uh a m email I got from

1:31:05Terry Pitos that'll kinda clarify exactly what I've got. I se can't seem to pull it up. So if we do in the afternoon we'll be fine. It's okay. That's all I have.