Public comment on current or future agenda item
What the county recorded
This item is not from the published agenda
It is a stretch of the recording that this archive identified as a separate matter — a call to order, a recess, or something taken up that the agenda does not list. There is no official title, no staff recommendation and no disposition, because the county never recorded one. Everything below is inferred.
The source document
The county’s agenda for Board of County Commissioners, May 17, 2022
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, May 17, 2022
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 21m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 80% of 69 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Partially. Okay. Uh now is the time for public comment. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any current or Our future agenda item coming before the board and on other business under the board's purview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First, we will take public comment from those who are here in person. Then we will take public comment from those who have pre-registered for a WebEx link and are currently on queue. We request that when you
address the board, comments are not directed personally against a commissioner or team member, but rather directed at the issues. This provides mutual respect between board members and the public.
After stating your name and address for the clerk, a three minute timer will be activated and after two minutes a single beep will indicate you have one minute left. When your time is up, two beeps will sound and you should close your comments. Webex participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. Madam Clerk. Do we have anyone signed up for public comment this morning?
Yes, uh Madam Chair. We do have some signed up and uh one person signed up via WebEx but is not online as of yet. So I'll go ahead and call the first person signed up is Wendy Ralston Burris.
Hello. Um once you reach the podium if you could state your name and address for the record and then you can begin your comments.
All right. Um I am homeless. My address is Pasco County, and my name is Wendy Ralston Burroughs.
Thank you.
I'm a w I am Wendy Burris and I'm a resident of Pasco County. I'm a voter and I'm homeless and disabled citizen of this country. I attend Pasco Hernando State College full time. How is it possible Pasco County has a housing crisis? Answers could be the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Homeless need to disappear or be jailed. And then we always have rental gouging in Pasco County. God has blessed me with Saint Vincent de Paul, who has housed me in a hotel while my housing is trying to be established.
But hotel housing is not the answer. Pasco County is one of the largest counties in Florida. Surely this county must own property to help accommodate humans with disabilities and handicaps. I get SSDI. My monthly check is $920. I can't afford housing in Pasco County. Why is there only one coalition for the homeless in Pasco? And the coalition is located in Zephyrhills. The public bus doesn't even run there. But that's another meeting. Section eight and Hud Housing are
not even able to be found and rented in Pasco County. A slice of paradise, except if you are homeless. This board of County Commissioners has decided that he or she is above the Supreme Court and God's law. The Supreme Court has ruled panhandling to be legal. This board of county commissioners even run the jail. Sheriff Knocko needed more funding from Basco County, but denied. The county commissioners even threatened the citizens with jail or fines for aiding and helping the poor humans of Pasco County. If a resident helps a human in need, it's punishment and
it's undemocratic. On Friday night, a seventy five year old was put out on the streets by her choice. Her choice by Saint Vince the Hall was a nursing home or nothing. She chose nothing. Pasco County, a slice of paradise if you are wealthy. But if you are poor, there's not even a homeless or emergency shelter. Baker acts and jails are utilized instead. The poor or homeless class of humans in Pasco County have thirty human and civil rights. The right to shelter, the right to privacy, and the right just to be free are only a few
examples. Pasco County Commissioners are not providing for certain types of humans that reside in the county and in each city in the county. Every city such as Holiday need accommodations for the poor citizen. The old firehouse twelve on Mile Stretch is empty. The buildings not being utilized. A great place for underprivileged to shower, to wash clothes, and to use the bathroom and to shave.
I don't understand it all because my voters card is registered to downtown Port Ritchie. Uh it's a building and I have a mayor for a building and I have a chief of police for a building. I can't find a downtown or a reason for a mayor or a reason for a chief of police. If this current group of commissioners abolished Port Ritchie, the county could accommodate the lower-class citizens and voters, the humans, with the county-owned property in Port Ritchie being utilized to accommodate the lower-class humans and citizens. This would ease
many poor citizens and help to attain some of the thirty human needs. The voters right to shelter, the voters right to be free. Thank I missed this group to have put themselves in a homeless person's shoes.
Kathy, do we have anyone here that um can cause there were some things there that We're not correct, so we want to help you. So if you can go out back, we can get some of that straightened out. Okay. Next.
Uh next individual signed up, Dr. Octavio Blanco.
Hello? Doctor Tavia Blanco, [address removed]. I'm trying to get through a lot of things in a few minutes. Um I'm gonna start out by saying the prayer that we started this with gave me an idea of really what I really am because I'm a veterinarian, I've had to take on hats as a lawyer. uh negotiator over the years, many many different occasions. Um but really what what I really am is a is a steward. We asked about being faithful stewards. That's why I've tried to be with
our place since we came in nineteen fifty eight. I've tried to take care of the place. Um uh back then between forty one and gun on fifty-four, It was all farmers, dairy, uh we knew everybody, that's how it was. Um not that way no more, the last one left. Um I'm essentially like a unicorn because uh People keep throwing money at him and they'll say, Why won't you take it? And I say, Well, I'm taking care of my place, I'm trying to do what's best. Well, take the money. Oh, I haven't haven't done it. Yeah. So anyway, what's been uh happening and I know uh I saw
I read the story about the fellow from the Metropolitan commission that came out and spoke to you a couple of weeks the last meeting. Uh about what we have to do here to deal with people leaving the county to work every day and and the employment centers and everything. And so it reminded me that actually I invented employment centers probably 20 years ago, uh talking to John Gallagher and Steve Simon for quite some time, saying, Look, we have to do something to to bring you know jobs here. We can't keep people leaving the area and that sort of thing. And so it took a while. Um we finally got it done, and then
I I proceeded to uh work with a neighbor at the time, Doug Wyland, to get a DRI done on the whole property and we got this huge project done, had seven hundred thousand square feet office towers, my place, and all this sort of thing. Then this economic crash and everything went away. So I've continued working on it. Um and what I've really been trying to do is sure increase the economic situation of Pasco, but also protect the natural resources. My place is is half pretty much developable
and half woods and swamps, and I'm trying to do both. So um Back when the County Commission hired Urban Land Institute
Keep going.
to uh do this study about where to put these places and all, they looked at mine as being the number one site because it's location, proximity of the airport. So I I could tell I needed some some help. So probably a year and a half, two years ago, I started working with my old uh classmate from high school, Dewey Mitchell, and trying to meet with state officials, try to get, you know, big companies to come here, things like that. Hasn't worked out. So here's where we are right now. The offers keep pouring in. There's a reason some there's so much uh multifamily, because they pay crazy amounts of money. all the time. And so
I would still prefer to have my place be A hundred percent jobs, zero Multifamily. Even if from what I understand about the requirements today, there's a 20% requirement for multifamily even on the best employment center sites. So if I have people uh You know, come in, I want to be sure that's available. If I'm wrong, tell me. But uh that's still my my my primary goal, and I still want to do that, but the money keeps being pushed happy, pushed heavy, and I don't know what to do eventually. So there we go.
Um David, do you want to meet him out back? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Great seeing you.
And
you
don't need to put multifamily on the employment side. He'll he'll explain that to you.
Okay.
Uh next. Next is Pastor Troy Peterson.
Good morning commissioners. Uh Troy Peterson, Somebody Cares, Pasco Hernando, [address removed]. First off, I want to thank the Board of Commissioners for recognizing May 5th for the National Day of Prayer. It's been a real blessing. I've been here six years and I believe for the last 20 plus years, somebody cares, Pasco has
been heading up National Day of Prayer right out here. uh praying praying for our governmental leaders, uh praying for our cities, praying for Pasco County. Now I've been coming here for about a year. And the Lord spoke to me. And What I recognize is you commissioners really want to see Pasco great. Many in this great nation Ministers of the gospel recognize Pasco County
as a hub for revival. Now think about that. As a hub
Because the Word of God says, in them last days I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And so we're getting ready to move into a great awakening. We see the world. It's going like chaos. All around us. And I believe wholeheartedly if you commissioners would allow the Somebody Cares pastors to come in and lead in the invocation. And pray in Jesus' name, God
will bless Pasco County. I want to just share a brief scripture in Acts chapter 4. Now, mind you, this is after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter is preaching to the multitudes. He's preaching to some of the very ones that crucified Jesus. And they're telling him, no, you can't pray anymore. In Jesus' name. No, you can't lay the hands on the sick. You can't preach Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead. And this is his response.
He says, and there is salvation. And no one else. There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So I'm here to tell ya That if we would recognize Jesus Christ in the invocation and the prayer like we are in some of the other cities,
God will honor that. Thank you for your time.
Thanks. Thank you. Um next uh person signed up is uh Patricia Shade.
Good morning. Good morning.
Uh my name is Patricia Shade. I'm a homeowner in District Five, and I reside at [address removed] and I'm a local realtor under the brokerage of Cobble Banker FI Grandson. Uh I first want to thank each of you. You hold a position where uh you are often expected to put sleep. and personal time on the back burner. So I just want to commend you for that. Uh I also want to extend my appreciation for all you've done and all you will continue to do. But I think we can all agree
that there's always gonna be more we can get done. So just recently I had the opportunity to visit a few homeless uh camps in my district with Commissioner Mariano. The sites were much larger than I ever envisioned, and the conditions much worse than I could have imagined. So I just wanna, you know, thank you for allowing me that opportunity to see that first hand. This concern for the homeless and the areas that they take claim to is just one action item that
um of many that the committee uh West Market Action Committee has discussed. It takes dedication, hard work, time, collaboration, individuals to set um to step up if we can find positive solutions with successful outcomes. I come before you as a committee member of West Market. I'll call it WMAC for the sake of time. Um our committee members come from all walks of life, contributing a history of community involvement, relationships, and resources, ready with
your support of course, to become the collective voice for the residents of Pasco County. Our committee members already engage with the residents of our county on an intimate level in their day-to-day professional and personal personal lives. If W Mac could become the point of contact for immediate direct connections to resources the county already has in place, while collaborating with the county staff and other local organizations to bring positive solutions rather than complaints. Just imagine what we could accomplish together. I know that the Commission, the elected
officials, county staff, local business owners, endless volunteers, and the residents all want the same thing, a safe, vibrant place to live. to provide a place where generations to come want to stay. So let's stand for a county that doesn't just say they care about the residents. Instead let's be the county that truly supports them. So please support W. Mack, the collective voice for the residents of Pasco County. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for
volunteering.
Uh next person signed up is Patty Templeton.
Good morning everyone. My name is Patty Templeton. My address is [address removed]. Thank you for this opportunity to speak before you. I am a 36-year resident of Newport Ritchie, and I'm also the executive director of a nonprofit organization called One Community Now that's been operating in Pasco County for the past 13 years. We're focused on working together changing lives. And some of our programs you may be familiar with, we do the PAC-ASAC program where we're feeding over 1,300 children every weekend in 37.
Seven different schools. Bless you. We also hold Operation Stand Down, where we help homeless and at-risk veterans to transition into a stable lifestyle by connecting them to the resources that we have throughout our community. Our office is located in downtown Newport Ritchie, where every day we are meeting with families that are struggling with homelessness and at risk of being homeless because of the lack of affordable housing in our community. Our success in helping people has been in collaborating with others. And once we identify the need that the
person is facing, we make sure to work with the government agencies, local churches, other nonprofits, local businesses, and private individuals to assist the person with their long-term solutions. And that's why I'm here today. I believe in working together to change lives. I believe that the same principle applies to our community. I want to thank you for the encouraging the formation of the West Market Action Committee Committee, as I too am a member of that. And I believe that there we can work together to identify some of the different strengths
and weaknesses within our community on the West Market. Um So we understand our community is a big community and that there's a lot of focus on growth and new development throughout our county. But that's why the West Market Action Committee community West Market Action Committee is so important that we have a diverse group of people who represent our county on the West Market there and come from all walks of life, and that they're willing to come together, they're volunteering. time to look at these issues
and to talk with the different citizens in the community to discover what are our strengths, what's our weaknesses, what are the opportunities and what are the threats, then come up with solutions that address many of the needs that are growing in our community and we can present these back to you through well-thought-out solutions. My former pastor, Greg Johnson, always shared a Maasai proverb with us that basically said, All knowledge is not in one head. That is the principle that I want to follow with the West Market Action Committee, and that we take the time to gather the knowledge of all the different members of
the community. I hope you will continue to encourage and support the formation of this group and allow us to come back and present ideas and solutions for the West Market. Thank you. Thanks, Patty.
All right, last person signed up is Stephen Ackle. For Akel.
Is there anyone who wishes to speak that has not signed up? And if so, please line up in the middle.
Yeah.
No one else here wishes to address. Okay.
Good morning.
Good morning. Excuse me. Uh my name is I apologize. My name is Steve Akel. I'm a representative with the International Associative Association of Firefighters, Local 4420. My address is Protected.
Any kids? No, go ahead.
All righty. Good morning. My name is Steve, and I like to go to fires and car accidents and calls for service. I never want to see any harm come to anyone. However, when smoke fills your hallway, glass litters the road, or you or your child have that unexpected emergency at two AM, myself and six hundred of my brothers and sisters race to be the ones to save you in your emergency. And we train day and night to do so, because that is what we are paid to do, and we take pride in that.
Mm-hmm.
Our biggest concern at this moment is our citizens, the people that we serve And today we are here not for us, but in support of them. The question of will the fire truck or ambulance be available? And if so, will they, despite their best effort, be close enough to get to you in time? Is not a question we want anyone to have to ask. We know stations are long overdue. I've heard it discussed more times than I'd like. How many new stations do we have? The answer given in this room has been two new stations. The
forecasted answer is one new and one rebuild. However, the real answer, as of today, is zero. And now the two new stations that should have been completed years ago are delayed yet again due to crews walking off the job. while the neighborhoods continue to fly up around us. Ambulances and stations need to be prioritized. Approving stuff that is discussed prior to these meetings, like cyano kits, is greatly appreciated.
Mm-hmm. Excuse me. Uh however, approving boots for new firefighters at BOCC meetings is not premier. Those are minimum mandatory things to do the job. It is this lack of support that has been a contributing factor to losing 50 firefighters averaging five and a half years of service to other departments. Experienced firefighters are leaving from overutilization, undercompensation, and the feeling of no help in sight from the Commission. We are losing experienced rescuers while trying to replace them with new ones and losing those
people also. Another issue with underfunding is that we are hiring five times more new hires to try and replace the ones that we're losing and trying to train a larger department to keep up with growth, all while the training budget hasn't been increased in years, and the current training building is in shambles and nearly condemned. It is long overdue that we start making real change to actually be Premier, rather than just a slogan, and quickly before we lose the opportunity and people to do so. We all know the numbers are out there. By not fixing these issues,
you are failing our people and not fulfilling your purpose. However, we are willing to work with you to fix the performance. We are striving to give our citizens Premier, but we need your support. We can't have a champagne premier taste on a beer budget. Please prioritize our citizens by prioritizing and adequately funding your firefighters so that we can do so that we can do what we are trained to do. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Uh okay, so no one else lined up to speak here. Do we have anyone online?
We had someone sign up uh to register it online, but they are not connected. Okay, then
um we will close public comment and I will move on to the consent agenda.