Spring 2023 Citizens Academy graduation

1:45:21Would be the graduation of our spring twenty twenty three citizens Citizens Academy. They got a near full today. Sure. I know it's supposed to be eleven o'clock time certain, but as you see we got uh some big things are going on, but this is very important, so please.

1:45:35Good morning, Commissioners. Stefania Dewey, Executive Assistant to Mike Carbala County Administrator. Today we celebrate the spring 2023 graduating class of Pasco Citizens Academy. Pasco Citizens Academy is an 11-week educational program designed to give citizens a backstage pass to their county government by providing an in-depth look at the unique challenges facing. County government, programs and services, budgetary limitations, and the day-to-day operations

1:46:05from elected officials and county team members. On behalf of our program manager, Derek Berger, who just welcomed his third child, I will present certificates of completion to those able to join us today. Following the presentation, we ask that you join us for a group photo. Yeah. Participants, when I call your name, please come up for your certificate and stay standing behind the podium.

1:46:32Aaron Churchman?

1:46:41Clinton win?

1:46:50Don King

1:46:58Diane Chefs.

1:47:06Heidi Doe.

1:47:17Jenny Rosignal.

1:47:24John Post.

1:47:30Kowan Afer?

1:47:39Kyle Mulder.

1:47:47Nadine Ferguson.

1:47:55Omar Towel?

1:48:02Scott Winston.

1:48:06It's pretty good. Almost everybody.

1:48:09Congratulations to the spring 2023 class. We hope you enjoyed our program. Thank you for your interest in learning about what we do every day to make a difference in the lives of those we serve. We're currently accepting applications for the next PASCO Citizens Academy, which starts fall twenty twenty three. More information can be found on our website, mypasco.net. Thank you.

1:48:38I'd like to defer to Commissioner Starkey, who had this great idea to bring this forward.

1:48:43Yeah. And now we do two a year. So it's great. I hope y'all enjoyed it and learned a lot. about what your local government does. And we love to hear comments from the class, so Do you wanna address us and tell us how you found it and may maybe some things that you learned that you didn't know? about your local government, come let us hear from you.

1:49:08So My name is Aaron Churchman, uh and I like to do things for my community. Um so me and my wife we'd hold uh get togethers and feed the homeless and then hold events and stuff like that. So I decided that I wanted to get more involved and figure out how to impact it more. With a good influence uh platform that I currently have, uh I just started searching online. And I came across uh Pasco County the w the website. And

1:49:38I actually stumbled across it because Um it's It's kind of difficult to navigate through it, but it was just right there in my face. So I went through the process and applied for it, didn't know what I was gonna expect. And uh it was just a total Mind blow. Yeah, mind blow, exactly. And um I'm very glad that I was able to uh join this class and learn a lot in depth about the community. And um

1:50:07It's given me a lot of ideas and hopefully uh door openers. uh that I can communicate and connect with You guys And uh I mean, I think that's a good thing It was a great choice on my behalf, I believe. Congratulations. Thank you.

1:50:25Anyone else?

1:50:29Good morning. Clinton Wynn. Um b grown up here my whole life. I did not actually understand how large our county has gotten. I mean we only had our what few elementary schools, few high schools. and then I went away to the University of Florida and uh got my education and then came home And

1:50:48and, you know, a fellow classmate childhood friend Mike Wells You know, instead of me complaining or bringing issues to him, he's like, get involved. So then he got me to be on the C A C And um now I'm also doing the West Market. And I just want to actually be an active participant in the community. Um I'm passionate about our family. property that's my daughter's fifth generation. I'm trying to preserve some kind of legacy there for her. It's important. Um my grandparents bought in 53. So I just really enjoyed meeting all these

1:51:19really excellent people in our class, but also learning about each stage of our government and seeing facilities I never even knew existed. which are top notch. I really will say. I mean you guys have done a great job. Um still complaining about the roads. You're always gonna hear me saying that. So but I'm but I'm always gonna continue to be an active voice, but I wanna be constructive. So thank you for the opportunity. Appreciate it.

1:51:40Thank you. Thank you for serving on CAC as well.

1:51:46Good morning. I'm Kyle Mulder. I've been in and out of Pasco since about 2005 and landed here about 12 years ago. Uh was uh recently elected to my uh community development district uh board I serve on and uh a friend of mine referred me to this class and Uh initially the eleven week commitment uh seemed like it was gonna be uh a little overwhelming, but decided to go ahead and uh and get involved. I'm glad I did. Um I was hoping to maybe leverage some relationship building

1:52:16foundation for my work on the C D D board. But uh so much more than that. I I think I've I forged some of that, made some of those relationships, met some good people, um, but just realized that there's so much more to Pasco than I really had uh realized. You know, we have a I mean really a a world class uh

1:52:39Water park recreation area. It was uh made out of a rock quarry. Uh we have a state of the art recording studio in the Hudson Library. Um we have uh

1:52:53Um a I mean really a international ice skating rink in Wesley Chapel that uh you know for competitions and um

1:53:06spaces, open spaces, vibrant places and um I think um with Just seeing Moffat come in in this uh 775 acre development. I think we really uh kind of laid the foundation for the growth and You know, I think that that kind of eases some of the growing pains that come along with it. But uh I think Pasco is uh really moving towards being the premier county in Florida. So glad to be a part of it.

1:53:34Thanks for giving your time to the class in the county. Right. Anyone else?

1:53:40Okay. Mr. Carbella. Great job.

1:53:43Yeah Jared. Congratulations,

1:53:45Jared.

1:53:45Jared did a good job. All right.

1:53:49Waiting for uh my grandchild and his baby to be born. So it's kinda funny about where you going? Wha what's going on now? So

1:53:58Thank you, thank you. And I I guess I also want to as county administrator just want to say thank you to this class as well for Really being curious and inquisitive and asking the hard questions. You guys are certainly uh certainly engaged and and we like to we like to see that because that's really what it's about. It's about learning about your local government. So fantastic program and I did want to give a shout out to Derek, of course, as well as the entire team who who work very, very hard on their sessions. It's we asked them to stay late for for two, two and a half hours to really go through a lot of

1:54:29a lot of things. lot of great things that we do. And so again, just thank you to the team and thank you to you all for for taking the time to do this. Well done and congratulations.

1:54:36No, and I'd like to I'd like to say to all all you folks that did participate and graduate. The two times I came to see you and spoke with you, the dialogue back and forth, I thought was awesome, uh your engagement. I'm glad you got a lot out of it. Much as you mentioned like networking, et cetera, I'm just going to give you another thing to take a look at. Maybe take a look at Leadership Pasco for the future too. That's another great class. And that's a a bit more networking too that you'll find. You got to kind of tour of a few more sites, not just knowing the inner workings that you have now learned. You'll even

1:55:06see some more things out there that maybe you didn't know that that might be beneficial to you too, to being uh completely involved. Mm-hmm. So All right. So let's do a picture. I think we got so many. Do you think we can get down there?

1:55:19Just for the other commissioners. So my staff goes through this. So there's one of my aides right there, Jenny. Um so I highly recommend it for your AIDS. Um they they learn a lot, right? Okay, Jenny, up to the mic. Come on, publicly speak. Come publicly speak.

1:55:39So maybe Mike Mike, you and the Akas come on up forward and we'll stay back up here and do a picture? Perfect.

1:55:45Yeah.

1:55:48I guess we do. don't want to go to this.

1:55:53Guys are awesome.

1:55:59How are you?

1:56:00Good. Everybody in?

1:56:04Well, so we gotta get right here first.

1:56:06Should we sign a side

1:56:07class

1:56:07on those class? Okay, folks. The camera or the phone first, rather.

1:56:19Okay, one, two, three.

1:56:26Perfect. Thank you

1:56:26all.

1:56:32Thank you.