Oakley and Weightman reports on county business

55:32Have just a couple of things today. First item I'd like to cover is uh I would take this opportunity to it's been probably seven or eight months that uh our new administrator's been in office and working for us. And uh I'd like to thank him for the job he's doing, the leadership he's shown in Pasco County to continue our growth and keep us in the right direction without a bump in the road and

56:03uh I only appreciate everything that you've done to help staff and all lead us into that direction and I think you've done a great job and I just want to applaud you for that. So certainly appreciate all of you done while you've been under our administrator.

56:18I'll all credit to the team, sir, but thank you for the kind

56:21comments. Uh the next item I'd like to um Uh talk about is Um

56:34the respect we should give each of each of ourselves in our own districts. Other words if um when I came into office and ran I visited a lot in uh District Five and Mr. Mariano's district and then at the time it was Mike Wells in District 4 and different ones and I had a lot of respect for them and what they wanted in their districts and thought it was very important that we continue that. We got two new members now,

57:05so think it's important that we understand that and respect each of our districts because we spend, we live in our districts, we were voted to serve, and and we've made that oath to be in our districts and live in our districts. So those districts take special issues from each of us for our districts to do the right thing. So I want to be sure that we don't go in someone else, some other commissioner's district and cause

57:35any issues or anything that's not really in line with that district's opinion of how she wants Things or he wants things to go so that we don't we need to be there and we need to know what they're wanting in their districts because we all need to work together to be able to support each other when the right thing comes along to be in different districts. Because everything doesn't happen happen in a lot of things are happening in my district now, but y'all also have

58:05things happen in your district. District. So I always try to make sure I know what it is that you're working on in a sense, and the only time we can talk is during this time about any of these issues. So I just want to make sure we just have a mutual respect for each other. And then when it comes about somebody's district, otherwise, um just an example, Seth's coming on board, he's a originally a Dade City person and all. Um he's I think working

58:36along with and I'm aware of it with Boys and Girls Club, which is in my district and that's understandable, but we wanna make sure that he doesn't do something in my district That I'm not aware of that wouldn't fit what I really want for my district. And and so I respect him for what he wants in his district. I in this case, he's only been here, I think this is your, yeah, two months, and he's only been here one month. But I've heard him speak of the Boys and Girls Club and some other things in my district,

59:06but I like to know sometimes what he's doing in his district too. he lives and where he's he serves the county commission. So I think we all need to be uh give each other that mutual respect that that they working in their districts and you this is a time when you talk when you do things uh in your district and you visit different ribbon cuttings or groundbreakings all in your district. This is the time you let us know What's going on in your district and some of those issues. We

59:36all get those messages to be there, whatever, but when it's your district that that's happening in, you should speak out about it and and the good things that are coming about your district. So um

59:50Can I you know I I was trying to figure out a way to bring something like this up too and I and I won't uh and you know we're all elected countywide and um there are many issues that go countywide. Um for example I like to deal with workforce training and I'm working on expanding AMS fields throughout the county. it would go into some of your other districts. But I uh so sometimes we do do things

1:00:20that happen in other districts. Um and I think we need to give ourselves the I mean it that's okay. I mean we we all work for the county but I I will tell you where I do draw a line in is when a commissioner When someone tries to do something in my district or really anywhere that's against our ordinances. And so I I've had this problem in the past where someone

1:00:50knows somebody and they don't want to do the landscape ordinance. They don't want to follow the sign ordinance. You know, I'm not okay with that. I'm not okay with that anywhere in the county. Uh but uh but I especially am not okay with that in my district, especially the parts where I'm trying so hard to bring it back up because so much of it has fallen, is falling down. So please don't come into my district and try, because you know somebody or whatever to do something that's against what our ordinance

1:01:21is say.

1:01:22So I agree. Okay. Um to continue a little bit. Uh And that fact that we've got to do that. I care about trails and I like trails in my district. But I actually give that um Kudos and stars out for Commissioner Starkey because she works very hard at trails. And so with Kansas my district, I have no problem with her working with trails. I don't have to worry about trails too much, so she's gonna she's gonna follow and make sure it's gonna be a trail. So

1:01:53and it goes all over the county. But I'm in support of her doing that. I I like trails. I think uh people are to be using trails more for their bike riding, things like that. Rather than a highway. We got a lot of busy traffic uh coming about and uh in and around, especially in the eastern part where a lot of bicycle like riding the hills and curves around here. But it's very dangerous. And so when you go to trails, I really would like to see more ride trails because it's safer. Um

1:02:24and with that I got one more item. Can I just touch on the two

1:02:27though? Just was staying the subject for a second longer? Do you want to I wanna I'm gonna stay on the subject just for a second though as well? Okay. And you know, I I think it you know, Commissioner Starkey you make a great point. We are elected countywide. We need to know what's going on. Sometimes citizens come out and they reach out and ask for advice, whatever. Um sometimes it could be as simple as a pothole or something like that. And I always try to defer those things to the district commissioner. We've got a great team, each one of us have a great team that are working hard and I think very effective for our people. So I don't want to get stuck in

1:02:57minutiae sometimes you'll get a bigger issue. When we did redistricting uh back a little while ago, one of the things of the districts I wanted to hang on to was that district down in SummerTree. which, you know, we spent I've spent a lot of time. I've gone to Tallahassee, fought for water, fought for the rates, had a lot of great success. I wanted to make sure if they needed help, I was still gonna be their district commissioner. But Commissioner Oakley, you made a statement that I thought was fantastic. You said look So we're all working on things for the county the best we can for everywhere across

1:03:27the board. And if we're involved in a situation, even it's another commissioner's district, I don't think any of us have a problem if it's something that we've got some expertise, some health, experience to kind of make that step forward. I'm very careful, I think, to kind of avoid another commissioner's district. I I really try to push it away when I can. Sometimes there's a little more dialogue going on, such as some items coming up maybe a lot later on today, that I think are important to get input on to what I think. Because they do when people come to us They come to see all of us too. So we still gotta be versed. Um

1:03:58I I think you're right, the district commissioner should be able to, you know Have that impetus, that extra imp uh emphasis over what they want to do. But every one of our decisions needs to be what's best for overall of the county. That's correct. But the your leadership that you got on and and I'm gonna tell you when you came here and we were working with the flooding that was coming in all over the place, you're being boots on the ground over in uh Griffin Park, because you were there, over there and I'm over here at Beacon Woods. And my water level is going down,

1:04:28Griffin Park's going up, we were able to find out there was a problem in the middle. So I think it's all of us working together, the way this is all designed, to talk things through, to go through things, to make this all great. So and your leadership has been great with that. So thank you.

1:04:42Yeah, well thank you. Um I'll give you another example of uh working in another person's district. I had a project that with Swift Mud actually that uh dealt with uh Hidden Lake and that's Commissioner uh Wells District at the time and I so I went and asked him about if I could work on that. Not talk about the project but ask that if he mind I had a project that would possibly save flooding

1:05:12of homes, up to about sixty homes, if we could hold water back in that area and and so so it's kind of been they've really done a lot of research on it it and it hadn't come to be yet, but any time we can save flooding waters from going into someone's house, we've done a great job that day. So th that's the worst feeling you ever have is you have water entering your house that shouldn't be there. So But and I'll end with one one other thing. So Since I was

1:05:42elected we had four hundred and some million dollars worth of uh F DOT projects happening here in in East Pasco or Pasco County across the county. And actually today they have over $700 million and still in roads and all happening, a lot of it happening in East Pasco County. But one of the first roads was 56, 54, all the way across the county was one of the first

1:06:12times we've had a complete four-lane road go one side to the other of the county. But with that, I'd like to bring everybody's attention to our reroute of Highway 52. It's planned right now that that will open up for two lanes, one each way, one east, one west, to happen on uh February seventeenth. So hopefully that date'll show up and be the right date and you'll start having a new route. It'll change the way

1:06:42people think about some things because I'm I'm thinking that some of Sant Ann will tend to dry up on traffic backups and all because that road's gonna take 'em straight through to other areas and spread that traffic out. So it'd be better for our public and for our citizens. But Uh with that that's all I have today and uh I appreciate all of y'all uh working together. All right, thank you. Commissioner Weightman.

1:07:07Excellent. Well I guess I'll start off with a list of happy birthdays. Andy Taylor, happy birthday. Joanna, happy birthday. Sherry downstairs, happy birthday. I think Marie had a birthday recently. No,

1:07:22coming up.

1:07:23It's coming up. Well happy early birthday. So happy birthday to all those folks in the building. Um do you have a picture, Andy? Yeah, but they have it as well. So we had Pretty awesome weekend. So over the weekend or fr uh we had uh Bay Care Hospital Wesley Chapel kick off its almost full opening. It's a great group there. And uh the board members are it's a great board with members from around the the

1:07:53region in the Tampa Bay area and uh it's a it's a it's a really nice hospital when when you first walk in uh you don't get to Sense that it's a healthcare facility. It's very comfortable and uh welcoming, and you know that that group's there to make life better. Uh

1:08:13I see Commissioner Susan Latval in that picture.

1:08:16There's a there's a good group at the at the soft opening. Uh so pretty neat that Baycare. Baycare's uh made a some 240 plus million. Million dollar investment. Uh in our community, and so congratulations to them. And also it was delayed, but Advent Health Westley Chapel celebrated 10 years. uh in business uh in Pasco. So two strong healthcare facilities uh working on uh their milestones.

1:08:45Could I add something to your statement about Baycare? Of course they're across the street from Mad Bend Health. We certainly appreciate both hospitals being in Pasco County. But you know the recipient of them being there and them, I guess, challenge each other for for the best care that we can have. The recipients of the citizens of Pasco County. County to receive better care because of that competition. And it's it's a good thing for

1:09:15our county to have two hospitals, both of them working for the same thing, basically to uh give us better health here in Pasco County and help work with our citizens. So I thank them for opening that facility. That's all.

1:09:31Coming a long way. It uh Pasco has seemingly become a medical hugby with Moffitt coming in and these new hospitals. So it's it's it's really nice to see these significant businesses coming in to help create a good quality life for us. Next up, the follow-up on conversation last week with the Wesley Chapel District Park and Soccer Field. and everything associated with that. No

1:10:02Parks is working with uh West Chapel Athletic Association and the other entity that's looking to to take advantage of those of those those fields. I think they're coming to an agreeable solution in the current Uh kind of delegation of authority is to have the parks director sign the agreement, but I'd like to to make a motion to move that over to the

1:10:32county administrator's office and let the county administrator broker that deal in his office directly. I think it's it's just better that we we we start looking at this. situation from a more of a procurement perspective because it's a it's a significant county asset and we need to make sure that we're managing that county asset for the best interests of our community. When you have big

1:11:02money coming in wanting to use your fields, I think we need to look at m most qualified and have some sort of formal procurement process to manage that situation. It's a good problem to have because that means hey, we have a lot of need for our fields and I think it's just part of growing pains. And so um I'd like to entertain or ask the board to support having the administrator's office kind of take the helmet.

1:11:32Okay. Have a motion and a second and I'll just l any more discussion on the subject? Go ahead, sir. Any more discussion? No, no, I I'd just say with uh Keith. Go ahead. Commissioner Starkey.

1:11:44Yeah, it's uh it's uh I guess you could say it's a good problem to have. Um but um I just want to make sure that everyone understands the history of what has happened here um as we go forward because there was a very vibrant soccer program at Wesley Chapel Athletic Association and other sports as well. We're only talking the main issue right here is soccer, but I can tell you my own assistant has to

1:12:15go play flag football in Penellas County because they can no longer use the fields in Mentor Field for flag football because it's all contracted for soccer. And that's not okay. So um but there were there was a very vibrant and I have a Division I soccer player in the family played soccer at the Air Force Academy, married to a national soccer player. So my husband and I have coached for 25 years, many, many different kinds of teams, so I I got some pedigree and licensed soccer

1:12:45coach in this arena. But I recall, Jack, you were here at Wesley Chapel Chapwell Athletic Association, which was great that they stepped up and took over handling all different kinds of sports on the west on the east side. They left. Four they took four hundred soccer kids and left Wesley Chapel Athletic Association and went to Rad Sports and started playing on fields that were not soccer fields. Those were events events space, so

1:13:16Some of this pain has been brought on You know.

1:13:22But the fact of the matter is, at the end of the day, I think we brought the pain on because we didn't have adequate funding for parks. And so this is just gonna get worse until we do something quick. So

1:13:34with that I'm gonna support you most. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Wesley Chapel Athletic Association, they've been seventeen, eighteen years, something they do a that group does a fantastic job. And they're not just running soccer, they have six other lines of sports business essentially that they run. And you know, you're not gonna be a hundred percent all the time. And I think, you know, they they do a good job for that the park system there. They put a lot of time and effort, a lot of investment from the community. And so, you know, as the the game of soccer has increased

1:14:04in Pasco, I think it's just one bite of a a at a time and us revamping our policy on how field time is managed. You know, and we have egg on our face too. We're we're behind Now I'm building our fields at Wire Grass Ranch Sports Campus. I've expressed my concern with staff on counting, on the county being behind on that. So I mean it's you know it's it's a it's a it's a growth problem. So I appreciate everybody supporting to take a look. That way we ensure

1:14:35our kids our kids um

1:14:37all it takes is a lot more money.

1:14:39Yeah.

1:14:40Yeah.

1:14:42So I I'll I'm gonna support the motion, but I just wanna say that I th I'm pretty sure that Keith Wiley is working very close with Mike Carbella as he makes makes these decisions anyway. So whether we made this motion or not, I think Mike is gonna be on top of what's gonna happen anyway. Um and I think it's important that we um let let these things work and frankly it's it's probably not a bad idea to have a Maybe another a workshop or a presentation sometime of the future of the parks as sort of what we're doing next anyway. Um but again with what we have going

1:15:12on. It's been busy when growth sometimes it feels lag, but I think it's gonna be important. I think he's got a pretty good plan to work it forward to to go from there. Yeah. Uh I'll call the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Okay.

1:15:24Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner. Then the last uh my The last item Um It's a tentative one. Uh Not sure I've I'm everybody probably saw recently about the Sheriff Hernando and Pasco in trafficking case with a 16-year-old out of um uh based out of the Pasco County Gentleman's Club. And it's a we have a

1:15:54true case now where we've seen a child be brought into that environment. in the worst possible scenarios occur. And so we started looking into what of our what are our rules for these X-rated um

1:16:11businesses in our in our county. And so I'd like to, with your support Have a county attorney look into Some sort of reporting requirement. If you if this is the type of business that we're going to have here, I think it's I think it's important that we we know kind of how that business is operating in the garbage business or any other business you have to report a significant amount of information about your employees report information to the county, the people that you're serving.

1:16:42Uh in Jacksonville, for example, I think you have to be 21. I read an article. for the politics should be 21 to get into these facilities. So I'd like to come up with a more stringent process. on managing these facilities and also have to include uh the uh the stores that sell the products that go into it. I think they're both kind of related is into a gateway and so looking for support and having

1:17:12our county attorney to really put some teeth into our ordinance to to uh reel these uh establishments in that way we don't have another incident or try to avoid another incident as serious as this one.

1:17:28Mr Chairman Mr

1:17:30County

1:17:31be be happy to look at what others are doing. I will but I will say this will take a pretty significant revamping of the way you regulate sex sexually oriented businesses in Pasco because right now there is no permitting requirement. What it what is required i is a zon it's a zoning The ordinance is a zoning ordinance. Um so

1:18:02We can go in that direction, but you're not you don't have the infrastructure in place to go in that direction now. So that's that that's just the heads up, not that I don't want to do it or I'm not doing it, but but you you're gonna have to, it's gonna be staff, it's gonna be um you know it's going to be a departure from the way we had regulated.

1:18:27Mr. Mr. Chairman Mari I think that effort is well worth it. So I

1:18:35Fully supportive of doing what we need to do and revamping the process. I think that juice is well worth the squeeze. I think if there's litigation, it's worth the time and money and effort to go into it. Pasco County is a vibrant place and we have a lot of great things happening here. And as we move towards a healthy Pasco, in a vibrant community. I think this is something that this this board instructs our county

1:19:06attorney's office to to really look into and and come up with a better policy on this these businesses.

1:19:14If I could uh if you don't mind uh Alex I see you're in the back from the Sheriff's Office would you mind coming up? I want to ask you about what what happened to the place at the gentleman's club that had the sixteen year old. What was done to them to punish them if there was anything or is there something you can make recommend we we do in the future to set up

1:19:32a doll.

1:19:34Mm-hmm.

1:19:38Alex Al, Intergovernmental Affairs Officer for the Pasco Sheriff's Office. Uh so uh to your question, Mr. Chairman, uh there's a limit to what I can say as far as 'cause it's an ongoing case. Um but can I ask, can you restate your question again?

1:19:52So I I just found out it the j it's the at the gentleman's club Where is that? On US nineteen?

1:19:58Uh we'll

1:19:59I'm not going to

1:20:00say which is the right-of-way.

1:20:03Oh, I thought it was called.

1:20:04Because of the having the sixteen year old person working in that building, was anything done to the owners of that building?

1:20:11Yeah, so that's actually that particular part of it is part of an ongoing investigation right now. So that's part of that's the part that I can't talk about. So let's

1:20:19not be specific then. What can be done to a place that would have a sixteen year old working there? What what what type of things

1:20:26Certainly. So uh Mr. Chairman, that would be part of the investigation. They'd look into what was known. If it was known that the person had had lied about their age, if it was known that they had an ID, didn't have an ID, and even at that point the statute's clear, it doesn't even necessarily need to you don't need to know the person's age. It just that if they are a minor and they're engaging in those acts, then there's a then there's a crime being committed. So that's that would be part of the investigation where our deputies will be looking into and detectives will

1:20:56be looking into what was known, what wasn't known, and and kind of going forth from that.

1:21:01Mr. Chairman Mariano.

1:21:03Bishop Bradford.

1:21:06I'm sure the sheriff's office uh and I know I'm absolutely aware of the sensitive nature of your investigation, but uh is Rico being considered in any of these situations? Seizing the asset, seizing the land, seizing the building?

1:21:23That's a that's a great question uh question, Commissioner. Um I don't have the latest on that if that is being considered, but I certainly can share that with our folks to to ask them to look into that. The only thing I'd say uh as far as looking at additional charges and things of that nature, that would also lie with um state attorney's office as well. So we investigate it and then for bringing of charges that would that lies with the state attorney's office. But I would be happy to share that on as well.

1:21:49So I worked on this this ordinance when I was on the Cork Citizens Ordinance Review Committee back in the day. And I remember when we tried to uh ban total nudity we couldn't because of all our n nudist uh places. But we did find a way to I think stop a proliferation by zoning them to in industrial areas only and we I don't think we've had new one open up since we did that on event. So but and and there have been some that have been closed because

1:22:19of action that Sheriff was able to take. But you you did say something that um set off a little along with me and I'd like to research this when you say um if they didn't know she was sixteen. I don't care. I don't care. If we f go in and we find someone's underage, whether they knew it or not, if she gave the fake ID. I'd like to ban slam the book at him. And so i that's something that we have to um work on

1:22:50the legislator to fix. Because they'll always say we didn't know. I mean that I mean, how easy is it to say She showed us a fake ID. I just think it needs to be more strengthened there.

1:23:02Commissioner, if I could just jump in on that real quick. Uh I do want to make sure I I clarify what I said earlier. So um to your point on that and the sheriff did talk about it with the uh the A G when they had the press conference. In this case, you know, it doesn't matter if they say they didn't know.

1:23:17Yeah.

1:23:18Um the the statute is clear on it. Uh the mere fact that she's a minor. the statute doesn't delineate whether or not they knew or not.

1:23:26Okay, that she showed a fake ID or not.

1:23:30Yes, ma'am.

1:23:30So Alex, maybe we could set something up. Maybe at the next board meeting you can kind of do it. Well let's go talk this through a bit. Commissioner Weightman, thanks for bringing up. Uh I will tell you with just raising two girls, which as you talk about birthdays, my daughter Daughter Lauren had her birthday yesterday, uh and she just got engaged yesterday. So to have two girls going through and and both finding great h husbands or future husbands, I'm delighted to go through the process. And one of the things we had to drive by almost every day at some point was driving down this place called Pure Pleasure across from Beacon

1:24:01Woods and looking at that every day. And sadly when Amber was a representative on a sting operation we went around to check all these places out. Amber went into one of those places and and saw all the stuff and the drug paraphernalia and we did some thing, but they're still there. So as we talk about this with you as far as what can be done, and maybe we need to work together with the state legislator. This is a big issue. And I think with all the illegals coming over the border that are coming in, that are being trafficked, it's it's more and more and more. Um maybe there's something we can go to get

1:24:31rid of these places. And it may be even that we could even take a look at, and I and I've mentioned this a couple of times before to other folks, and they kind of like the idea, is maybe we We can even try to put some incentives to go have these places if they convert to a regular type of business or something else. We give them some type of tax incentive or some type of thing to make it financially worthwhile to shut down bed business, because once it shut down it can't come back again. And maybe something like that is something we can do as well as a commission to kind of find out how do we squash this off? Because I'd much rather

1:25:01deal with a problem of having too many kids that want to play soccer in fields and enough fields than having to worry about one kid getting stuck on a two week jaunt by some drug person to go take that girl away like that and just ruin her for two weeks of t her life that she may never get back and is gonna be scarred for life. So if we could work on that I'd that'd be great.

1:25:20Can I can I bring something to your attention? And I th I've mentioned the star code, but I know they're very, very busy. I have one in my district at Grandon 54. We we thought we were gonna be able to shut it because it got hit by a car uh and it damaged the building and it was closed for months. And if one of these is closed for six months, we can close it. Um but apparently uh even though it was closed and there were never any cars there, uh they were able to show tax receipts during that time and were able to re-open. open

1:25:50and I I see now it's now called the Red Room. And um one of the big things about that place is they've I've I was been told they have a room there that everyone calls the rape room, which is lovely. Um but where I want Code to get involved in is is they have broken into the property. Someone has taken down the fence into that property owned by Walmart Corporation next door. And so the parking lot has illegally expanded into the field behind it. So if we could keep

1:26:21uh them from parking 50 extra cars on a Saturday night, perhaps it won't be so lucrative.

1:26:28Okay.

1:26:28And um so I'd really like Co to look at that or or the Sheriff's Office or someone.

1:26:33And ticket

1:26:34those people. Toe them.

1:26:35And if you want to bring more of that on committee reports, let me just end theoretical And Commissioner Weightman are you good with yours? Yes, sir. Okay. All right. So we'll then we'll

1:26:41come back. Thank you, Commissioner. And uh I just wanted to say for the record also for Commissioner Weightman's uh what his motion is and what he's working on. Um we certainly would not oppose any of that. So but if you have any questions from the law enforcement side as we go forward, I'll be happy to help.

1:26:56We'll we'll look through the next meeting and come back with some ideas what we can do. Uh but we're gonna take a we're gonna take a

1:27:02Mr. Chairman Mariano.

1:27:04I know.

1:27:05Okay.