Invocation pledge and commissioners swearing-in
What the county recorded
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What was said
Machine transcription of 21m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 85% of 164 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Morning, everybody. Welcome to the hybrid Board of County Commissioners for November seventeenth, twenty twenty. I'd like to remind everybody to please silence your electronic devices and your microphones are on mute unless you're speaking. Um We could please rise for the invocation and pledge.
O Merciful Creator, your hand is open wide to satisfy the needs of every living creature. Make us thankful for your loving providence and grant that we, remembering the account that we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your good gifts. Amen.
To the republic, which is
staying.
Liberty and Justice.
Okay, well good morning once again, everybody. Um good to see you all you all. Um, if I could ask you to please meet the microphones in Newport Ritchie at this time, I'd appreciate that. Um This morning, obviously, we have um we're going to welcome a new commissioner to the Board of County Commissioners and also um the swearing in for three other commissioners that were re-elected. So congratulations to you all. Um Commissioner Mariano is in New Port Richey in
New Port Richey so at this time if I could ask um Commissioner Commissioner Oakley, if you could um step down. And Commissioner Oakley is gonna be sworn in by his nephew, um Matt Maggard, which is an attorney here in um in uh Pasco County. So welcome, Mr. Maggard.
Thank you, Commissioner.
More, I appreciate that.
Will you please raise your right hand? And repeat after me. I do solemnly swear.
I do solemnly swear.
That I will support, protect, and defend the Constitution.
That I will support, protect, and defend the Constitution.
In government of the United States. In
government of the United States.
And of the state of Florida.
And of the State of Florida.
That I am duly qualified.
That I am duly qualified.
To hold office.
To hold office.
under the constitution of the state.
Under the constitution of the state.
And that I will will well and faithfully
Will well and faithfully.
Perform the duties of County Commissioner O Pasco County.
County Commissioner Oakley.
Of which I'm now about to enter.
So help me God.
So help me God.
Congratulations.
Thank you. Thank you.
Now, if I could ask um soon-to-be Commissioner Fitzpatrick, if you could step down and Commissioner Starkey, if you could step down, and uh we are honored to have the honorable Judge Crane here with us this morning that will be swearing in um Ms. Fitzpatrick and Commissioner Starkey.
And this is
a shock, please said you can certainly use that if you felt comfortable. Please raise your right hand. But you solemnly swear war firm.
I do solemnly swear or affirm
that I will support, protect, and defend.
That I will support, protect, and defend.
The Constitution and Government of the United States.
The Constitution and Government of the United States.
And of the State of Florida.
And of the State of Florida.
That I am duly qualified to hold office. That I am
duly qualified to hold
office. Under the Constitution of the State. Under the Constitution of the State. And then I will well. And that I will well and faithfully perform the duties.
And faithfully perform the duties
of County Commissioner Oakley
of County Commissioner Oakley.
On which I am now about to enter.
On which I am now about to enter. So
help me God.
So help me God.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
Right. Please raise your right hand. I do solemnly or swear or affirm
I do solemnly swear or affirm
that I will support protect and defend the Constitution and Government of the United States.
The government of the United States.
And the state of Florida.
And the state of Florida.
That I am duly qualified to hold office.
That I am duly qualified to hold office.
Under the Constitution of the State.
Under the Constitution of the State.
And that I will well and faithfully.
That I am well and faithfully.
Perform the duties of County Commissioner O Pasco County.
Will perform the duties of
County Commissioner
in Pasco County.
On which I am now about to enter.
Which I am now about to enter. So
help me God.
So help me God.
Good luck. Congratulations. Thank you.
Well, once again, congratulations to all commissioners that uh were re-elected and congratulations to now Commissioner Fitzpatrick. Um what I'd like to do before we um call Well Chairman Yes. If I may, I need to
get the two commissioners that were just sworn in to fill out their paperwork. So if we can take five minutes, okay,
we're gonna take five minutes to do that and um Rip your
paper up.
She's oh and uh
Yeah, the judge has to sign your
speak over there. Over there whatever
Rizan is and we'll But they were feelings, so that's why.
Yeah. Okay, we're going to make sure everybody's official. Before we continue on. You already filled out that paperwork? You already you already filled that out, I guess?
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
A more time too.
So I'm gonna I'm gonna have you call Ron. Then I'm gonna before we pass the album, I'm gonna just go down the line and let them say each say something since they're new and reswarning. But right, thanks.
It's like how monstrous and
Somebody's gonna do it, right?
A little. Then it's about the
Commissioner Oakley. Just see the recording yourself on.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah.
Well, I need to have to have it.
While we're waiting, um commissioners, there um there will be a there's an email in your inbox. With an addition to the concept Pulshi. It'd be just so you can look at it, it's R eighty.
When did that come in?
Welcome. Thank you.
Mike, when when did that come in?
Um the email should have just come through. Oh it was at 950 from Ms. French.
Oh, okay. On the consent pool sheet.
So yeah, there's so you have a consent poll sheet in front of you, but there's also an addition. to that and it was emailed. R eighty.
Commissioner, that's your new Port your that's your Port Ritchie discussion that you wanted to move to the eighth of December RA.
I I have the consent pool sheet. Oh okay, the regul
I'm sorry, the consent pool sheet and then the regular agenda you said it are okay. Gotcha. All right, I'm just
For those at home, just a couple other housekeeping items to make sure everybody's official, and we'll begin shortly.
Yeah, we can. Mr. Stein, again? Okay. So again, welcome everybody. Again, congratulations to each and every one of you. Um what I like to do is just take a minute before we um I pass the gavel, we do the reorganization today of the of the uh board. Um just going to the line and uh starting with Commissioner Oakley, if you have anything to say to your constituents out there and again welcome back.
Yeah, I um Of course, I had a hard fight on my first four years to get elected to be in this position and very proud to serve the citizens of Pasco. But I'll be honest with you, I'm just as proud right now of serving them as having already been serving for four years. To be chosen for this district seat again for four more years. So it says a lot about what's going
on in the county and that we're doing a lot of good things here with the board. And we don't do it by ourselves, we do it as a group. And you know as well as I do that this board is. I've always said this board comes together. We come from different walks of life. We meet here, we discuss the items here and then More than not, we eventually vote together. And I think that's carried a lot of weight in our county and I think our citizens realize that we're working together and I
think they're very appreciative of us doing that and and working things out. So So I know it's uh we can't please everybody, but uh a large part I think we're doing a lot of great things for our county and and our citizens. A lot of those things are citizens asking for those uh things to services and things that they need that they haven't gotten in the past. But uh with the growth and the expansion we've had um It's very, very much needed by our citizens and I think
we're meeting their needs. And I think it's very important we continue that.
So thank you. Well thank you. Congratulations. Welcome back, Commissioner Starkey.
Um yes, I'd also like to thank um the citizens of Pasco County for reelecting me to my third term. Um I'm very excited about the work that we're doing as well on the County Commission. And I think these next four years are just gonna be um outstanding years for Pasco County. We have so much going for us. And now now that our development, our good development's on a roll, I think in the next four years we'll see some really good redevelopment
starting to happen. And I think that'll be so good for some of the older parts of the county. So uh that's probably gonna be a lot of my focus in the next four years is lifting up the the older parts of the county. So I'm excited to get to work on that.
Well thank you, Commissioner Starkey. Welcome back. Commissioner Fitzpatrick, welcome.
Good morning.
Um, I would like to say thank you and I'm honored to have the opportunity today to serve Pasco County as County Commissioner District Four and I am looking forward to working with everyone in Pasco County and with my board. Thank you.
Thank you and welcome, welcome. Commissioner Mariano.
Right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um I wanna say it has been a tremendous honor to serve the citizen of Pasco for four terms. I'm very excited about this fifth term. I think the way this board operates together, works together, discusses things through. Uh I can't tell you how proud I am that we're getting things done like never before. And these next four years I think it'll be better. And I do want to thank the Susan Pasco County for uh taking a look at, you know. Our our all our commissioners here and making a great choice. Uh greatly appreciate the and appreciate the
honor to serve.
Thank you, Commissioner Mariano. And before I pass the gavel, I just wanna um obviously congratulate everybody and um it's been an exciting year. It's been a year that um obviously none of us expected. Um, but it's been an honor to serve as your chairman once again. Um Again, given the circumstances with the pandemic, um, I think we've uh we've had to overcome quite a few things, quite a few challenges, but uh as always, you know, we prosper here in Pasco County and
we will continue to do so. Um But you know, we have an awesome staff and and I want to obviously, you know, as chair as you know, um those of you that served as chair, um, you you depend on the county attorney's office. Um I have Mr. Steinschneider on speed dial. But uh you're you and your team are very much appreciated and and obviously thank you for your guidance throughout the year. Amazing team and thank you to Dave Biles and his his entire team. I mean we're Again, we'll
continue to do great things in the county. And uh again, I want to thank each and every one of you for putting your trust, not in me, but in this entire board. And we're gonna have like Commissioner Starkey said, um, another great uh four year. maybe two years from some of us when we'll and we'll see how things go in the future, right? So With that, I'm what I'm gonna do now is we every year we do what we call for this a home reorganization. And with that, what I do is I pass the gavel as chair. To the clerk.
And we will do roll call. Right now.
Okay. Sounds good. Right. Uh District One, Commissioner Oakley.
Here.
District two, Commissioner Moore.
Here.
District three, Commissioner Starkey.
Here.
District four, Commissioner Fitzpatrick. Here. District five, Commissioner Mariano.
Okay. So with that I'm going to do that. Pass the gavel and you have your script ready to roll.
So at this time I will open nominations for the chair of the board.
Yeah, go ahead.
I'm
just thinking since we're not all together. Um that maybe we Just wait and do this at our next meeting? Is there um I talked to the county attorney and I think there's no rule that says we have to do this today?
No, that's not what I said, Commissioner. What what I said was you could suspend your rules require you to do it today, but you could suspend by a four a supermajority vote you can suspend the rules and put put the election of officers off for one meeting if you wish and then the the current officer well the current chair would stay chair. Your vice chair is no longer on the
board. But if that's if you feel more comfortable with that, I want to make sure we're all on the same page. If you're more comfortable with that and we have everybody in the same room, I don't have an issue with that.
We've never done it split, so I just thought
it
might be more
than well, you know, Commissioner Mariano. I'm good with that. He's okay with that? Commissioner Oakley. Okay, well I guess we'll
vote.
I'm gonna have to call I'm gonna have to call a vote then. So
to suspend the rules. So the motion would be to suspend the rules to uh to allow the the election of officers to occur at your next regularly schedule.
So that's the motion. Okay. I have a motion. I have a second. All in favor. Aye, all opposed, same sign motion passes. Okay.
Does that have to be rolling?
Well I need to get more prepared now. Just kidding. Does
that have to be roll call? It should be
a call. I don't I don't think that does have to be a roll call. You're right.
Madam Clerk.
District District One, Commissioner Oakley. District two, Commissioner Moore.
Aye.
District three, Commissioner Starkey.
Aye.
District four, Commissioner Fitzpatrick. Aye. District five, Commissioner Mariano.
Aye. Motion passes five zero. Thank you. Madam Clerk, I guess I can sign that big box of papers for you now, right? We were holding off on that. Okay. Okay. Let me uh get resettled here if you don't mind for one second.
Mr
Chairman, while you're getting settled, do you want me to read the county attorney's money? I would love
for you to do that. Thank you, sir.
On March twelfth, twenty twenty, the Board of County Commissioners declared a local state of emergency after the governor issued Executive Order 2051 declaring a public health emergency, and 2052. A state of emergency due to ковід найти. The board has chosen to hold its board meetings with a quorum physically present utilizing communications meet media technology. for the public and team members to participate since June of this year. A
detailed advertisement was run by in the Tampa Bay Times, indicating the board's intent to conduct a hybrid virtual meeting. On September 25th, 2020, the governor issued Executive Order 2244, moving the state into phase three of the governor's safe, smart, step-by-step order. Large gatherings of over 50 people are still not recommended to congregate in any public place that does not readily allow for appropriate social distancing. The state's Surgeon
General's public health advisory is still in place with regard to maintaining social distancing and avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people. The public is afforded an opportunity to make public comments either in writing or by the use of communication technology that has been provided. The board adopted resolution 2182 on June 30th, 2020, establishing the procedural rules for hybrid virtual meetings, such as the one being held today. As with any meeting you take action, you
are required to take public comment on any propositions pursuant to section 286.0114 Florida statutes. I'm
available for any questions. Thank you, Mr. Stock. Um in a reminder before I move on to public comment, we have an um addendums. There are two items addendums on the consent and one on regular um two or time certain items this afternoon. Um So let's go ahead and move on with for public comment. Um, now is the time for public comment. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any item coming before the board during this public comment section. The board also takes public comment on items to be placed on their future board agenda and other business under their purview due to COVID-19 operations and the safeguard, the well-being, and safety of our citizens and staff.