Commissioner Starkey report
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The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Aug 22, 2023
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Aug 22, 2023
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What was said
Machine transcription of 20m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 96% of 103 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
and uh you know, hopefully she sticks with it, but she did she did a good job under under the circumstances Uh so H her welcome too. Pasco County Public Meeting.
At all? Okay. Commissioner Starkey.
Um I'll start with um one that I was gonna give to Mr. Snyysne, and I don't know if you want to tackle this or not, but I've I've I have some constituents who When they um Have called in for code enforcement violations. Um that our staff s so let's say you turned in your neighbor for um overgrown or whatever. Um they they when code comes out, they ask who made
the complaint. And they say, Well, your neighbor did and I get that we can't do anonymous complaint. I mean you can't but She was wondering if can't you say you need to call the county and make a public service request to ask for that information? Should we just be giving it so freely? Because I could tell you one of my constituents went in the hospital with fifteen And and Yeah he had a lot had to have a lot of surgery on his face 'cause his neighbor beat him up.
Um And so I mean typically on a public records request if we have the information we disclose a
Just right there? Do you skip it d there's no hoops, not no little bit of
I I I'm not sure what I could see if the citizen were standing right there how you'd want to diffuse the situation, but if it's just our code officer, I mean it's
I think they should have to go fill out a form to ask who made the complaint. I'll
do whatever
goes to
the right-of-way.
So I'd I'd just like to know what what leeway we have in the law.
So if they're asking the code officer,
Yeah.
You can't make somebody you can't have a precondition to a public records request if they go fill out a form. So somebody can just verbally Make a public record request and if we have that information we need to provide it.
Okay. Well I'm hoping that Thursday we can have this discussion to go back again to anonymous code
complaints. That's a
legislative fix. And that's Thursday we have that discussion. Um Okay, where's my notes here? Uh so on my ongoing landscaping commercial, I want you to notice that the steak and shake Who took out all their trees? Is has redone their parking lot. And I don't know at Mitchell Plaza and then you have Chick-fil-A. Um You can see the bottom and then you can see over here they're they're putting theirs back in again. So thank you
very much. to uh the businesses in the Trinity area. Um yesterday we had a press conference and Ashley asked me to speak at it and somewhere I have the facts. Oh shoot. Um the the numbers Of um The n the numbers that were are that are coming out. are crazy on opioid and fentan fentanyl overdoses and The the general
chose to do this press conference in Pasco County because apparently we're ground Zero again in the state. So the national opioid crisis, um, with fentanyl being one of the most uh potent opioids uh had last year in the United States more more than a hundred and ten thousand overdose deaths and most of those deaths were due to fentanyl. In Florida we use twenty three lose twenty three people a day. And fifteen out of those twenty-three
are from fentanyl. Penella San Pasco has the most fentanyl deaths statewide. Last year w there were three hundred and seventy-four overdose deaths in the first six months. It's fentanyl is now found in every illicit drug. And um ask the general is asking that um that the country consider fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which will lead to a lot more resources.
Um they're saying that the that fentanyl is being stockpiled here in the United States. and literally think of our water supply. you can load, you know, a balloon or something up with some fentanyl. Sh send it over our drone. Just drop it in. Um you can walk through the grocery store, spread it on vegetables, whatever. I mean, I think that's a good thing Y they can it can be so easily dispersed in in mass and we'll have mass casualty
events and they're very, very concerned about this. So it was very interesting um press conference. Okay, send some pictures. I don't know what's I don't know what order they're coming in. Hopefully the order I set up.
Wondering.
And then and then we're gonna go over what I sent y gave you guys because I've been working on this for a while.
Yeah.
Was it a video? Oh, this is the way they do the the on str the the bike trail in Traverse, Michigan, which is why I was uh wasn't at those meetings. I was riding my bike in Michigan. So I And on one side they have one direction. And on the other side they have the other direction. They did a road diet. They narrowed the road. Made it more pedestrian friendly. And added these bike lanes. Which I thought was a brilliant way to do it. Okay. Um
This is the way they did the bike trail around the lake. And I I tried to get D R. Horton to do this in this project that they're doing. So so the bike trail is between the town homes And the lake. So everybody gets to use it. But those people still get lake views and they have privacy from their shrubs. But You know, to to save that waterfront. Just like Bay Shore Boulevard in Tampa, I mean e then every everyone gets to enjoy uh
this this lakeside opportunity and that trail was really, really popular. I'm gonna there's another picture of the this trail. That's f that's fine on that one.
I This is how they went across their lake. Look at that beautiful trail. And those bump outs on the side are for people to fish. So a lot of recreational opportunities for their their citizens.
This is oh oh and this is what you can ride on those trails. Or somewhere. Uh th okay, those are some kind of bikes and you put your drinks in the cooler in the middle? And you you you I think there's Six or nine seats around that thing? You ever been to Nashville and you see people cycling in those little trolleys down the street. Especially bachelorette parties?
Mm.
Okay. Yeah, this is this is a cycle party. Uh this is how they do their trees, uh to keep the roots from tearing up everything. They put these along the s along the street there. So I thought that was n that was a good idea. Do I have more pictures there?
Okay, I wanted to show you this is the Home Light um project that did everyone get to meet with them before we approved it today? When y'all weren't bringing up any objections, especially Seth, I I didn't wanna complicate things and pull it off. But that was a C two. project that came in from multifamily. And as and it came in a long time ago, but we kept working and working. Is Terry still here? Yeah, I mean I don't know how many times planning met with
this poor guy. Um but We said if you're gonna convert C two, there has to be you know, retail commercial underneath. So Terry, if you could just explain this. A little bit.
I was on the the phone with Liam at like seven thirty last night going over the project.
You should see what it came in with first time and it was beautiful but it wasn't gonna work for us.
It didn't go unnoticed.
Yeah.
Thank you, Liam.
So to just walk through the site plan or the conceptual plan very quickly here. Basically on the north end of the property is Rangeland Boulevard and on the south end is State Road fifty four. So it's very very close together where the two roads are sort of diverging from one another. and up the center of the property is a connecting road That will link the two. Um All of the buildings are oriented toward this internal roadway and what you're seeing on the uh depicted on the plan is the vertically integrated
mixed use buildings both on the on the east side and on the west side of this road. The first floors are commercial as the commissioner noted. Above that is the residential, multifamily aspect of it, and behind each of the buildings are parking decks in order to accommodate the parking needs for the development and possibly for any parking needs. for other uh developments that might happen to the n on the north side of Rangeland Avenue.
Which is that spray field where you know the baseball was licking and one you know we'll have something over there.
Importantly there's two out parcels um that are stationed along the fifty four front edge. Uh on on these two parcels we had a particular condition built into the uh conditional use. where the buildings would have to be oriented toward the internal roadway and the parking to the side and rear of the buildings such that the people that would visit these two sites, potential restaurant users, might be able to walk and stroll between the shops and arcades that are arcade being. Thing.
underneath the building, if you will. uh of the frontages of these buildings here and visit some of the retail opportunities that might be in on the site. And that way all of the pedestrian activity is framed by the buildings. Uh and you can quickly and easily move between uh the various sites.
And one of the things we were assistant is this road had to go 'cause originally he didn't go through. It had to start you know it had to connect R fifty four to Rangeland.
Right.
'Cause originally had a a apartment complex and a big U. And I no no, it has to it there has to be a connection between the two roads, so Okay. Thank you. All right, so what I handed out here. Is um And you may have gotten the email, I can send it back out to you again, but and and I I thought this was done every year. I kept asking Ralph, e email me the final appropriation list, and he kept sending it to me. And it kept coming without
the red line. And I said, no, not that one. I want the one that where only just the things that got approved are in there. And It turns out no one makes that list and so I got fact to do that and they said they're gonna do it every year. They went through every county. And Highlighted and you know. Highlighting red the vetoes. And everything else you see here are the ones that came through. And the ones that I I I printed out here in front did you get a li uh so I had my staff
just pull Oh where's where'd Oakley go? Did he leave us? So I I had our staff. My staff poll um
Commissioner.
Yeah.
I was wondering since Commissioner Oakley's not here, would this be a better discussion on Thursday to have?
Did he did he leave or did he go to the restroom?
Right, there's a coffee cup.
Huh?
But it might be a good discussion we could do there on Thursday. Because it's
Let me go into it a little here. And then we can go into it more on Thursday. But what I want you to notice here, really this is more for us than them. 'Cause this is just show I'm just trying to get educate us. And actually Ralph educated me on something and looking at these. So if you see the ones that are highlighted in pink. You'll notice there's no Senate What's the SF?
It wasn't a member project.
After those appropriations. That means, and Chris uh Chris Sprouse and I he was so kind, he spoke to me for like an hour. I have to do it again, so it'll sink in. that there is a lot of money in Tallahassee Where it's Their funds. They're
the grants. The grants that are funded. So so basically every year the House puts out, after the budget's been put out, a county breakdown of every project uh going to the county. What what happens is they not only include member projects, they include the transportation work plan, they include uh every grant. uh from different departments, whether it be library funds, uh historical grants, whatnot. So it it it it looks like
a lot for that county, but you gotta understand that they these majority of those are grants that they have applied for.
Okay, but but th that's not the point. I
know but
okay I want you to look at our sheet. This is our sheet. Okay? It's the front part of the front of this sheet because you got Palm Beach up there on the first two lines. Commissioner, you have these. And these are this is our this is what we got from the state, the whole county, not just the county. And then We stop right here. Okay. So I'm not even s sure okay, we might have filled one side of one page. Now here's Volusia. And
let's look at their, you know, three pages. If you go to Cultural and Museum Grants there All those different organizations applied for grants. And they may not be huge amounts, but they're probably big to those non profits. And Chris told me these these are not member member projects that get vetoed these
No they're not. And and the other thing as I I I told you Commissioner, um, because you don't want to do apples to oranges. These also even though they say the county name, these are municipalities that have applied.
Yeah, yeah. And well if you look in here it's not only cities, it's it's
I know, but th they'll list it as a county, but you know, like Pinellas County, they have twenty-four cities. Twenty-four cities could have applied for five grants and maybe
um and my point to this is Is we have to teach our citizens We have to educate them that they need to be applying for stuff. Because we're not doing enough. Our cities aren't uh asking and our our and our nonprofits aren't asking. And Commissioner Um Oakley, I know I think you're on the fair board, and I've noticed when I'm going through all of these. That everyone's, you know, putting asking for the fare money for
the fare and there's no Senate form after it, so there must be
A fair funds. There
is and
we've gotten money for a fair in the past.
But but do we ask every year or just occasionally or no we ask from time to time. But are you asking as a member?
As As a a member, bear association. I'm I'm not not a member. I'm asking as a fair association. And that's a city.
But what I mean is are we asking our legislator sign on to one or are we taking advantage of these grants?
Taking advantage of the grants?
Well, we certainly are lacking in the Cultural Museum grants and the Culture Builds Florida. Um I am really hoping that the friends of the libraries and whatever organizations we have We gotta get 'em asking for money. Because Um my gosh, look at Sarasota. It's just pages and pages.
And I think it's just a matter of education. It's kinda like when we have our our workshops with our municipalities You know, we just continue to tell 'em we hope you put a project in. I you know, when I see Debbie Mann or or um
Bob.
I'll encourage them to make sure they're putting projects in every year.
Now what are I noticed in a lot of these, Commissioner Mariano, there's uh let's say in this one, P Pensacola Beach Renourishment Project. And it's under Beach Project. And there's no Senate form after it. So there is a fund for money to help with beaches. Have we ever applied for that?
Have we ever applied for any money to put any sand on any of our beaches?
We can
from this fund.
I don't know the answer to that question, Commissioner. But what you're seeing now, especially starting with Thursday, is more of a concerted and deliberate effort from this county to be able to go after you know additional state resources to bring back home to our citizens. That is that is why we're going to do this. It is it is to essentially take advantage of this and to be organized and that that's the approach that uh that that I want to bring to this to this process after having gone through the legislative process with you all uh this this previous year and so Ralph's done a great job
we're gonna set up on Thursday. I've actually spoken to a lot of our uh municipal partners as well and invited them in that we're going to go together as a as a singular county as an entity so because all of our citizens you know deserve to to you know Have these things come back come back to them. So we're we're beginning that process. I I would say that we probably haven't been as organized as we should have been well in the past. And that's that's we're we're changing that.
Yeah. I just wanna make sure that we all know That these funds are.
We've gotten money from the fair through Wilton Simpson.
I know
but
there's a difference in getting it from the fund and getting it as an appropriation that someone sponsored
that's what I'm saying. Build a big pavilion right now.
Chris Chris Sprouse told me of the I think the cultural fund that he added l you know, millions of dollars to And I don't think we've ever I don't know. if we tr tapped into it. So I think we have a l I still I think we have a lot of learning to do. And I think We have to educate our community on h on that there's an ability to ask for money. There's a lot of money going here for substance
and mental ab mental health. I don't I don't know, did we ever do any of our people ask for that? So When I look to see who in our county besides us, not saying us Who in our county asked for money last year?
There's very few people asking for anything. There is nothing from New Port Richey. Kathy.
Kathy Pearson, Assistant County Administrator, Public Services. As far as the fairgrounds, we did receive money. That's how they renovated the fairgrounds about two years ago. Okay, but
do you know if it was a grant or was it an appropriation?
Oh an allocate is an allocation.
Okay, see that's what I'm saying. You can go back Someone can go back to the And ask for some grant money. And the health department It's not an appropriation. And
the health department just received I forgot how much, but they're they've got an enormous amount of money for the h um uh substance abuse and mental health. So they're working, that's how they're working with the fire and all that kind of good thing. So we could be more proactive when we will be, and I'll definitely commit to the library one.
When you look at how many asks went in. From our county compared to the other counties? Of the same population? We gotta get our people on the stick. So it's not just us, it's our people. So that's kind of my point when you're looking at these.