Resolution 26-88 National Human Trafficking Prevention Month

24:22Uh it seeing no one closed public comment. Uh next order of business is the resolutions. Mr. Clerk, would you read their first resolution? With recipient please approach.

24:34Resolution number 26, uh eighty-eight, a resolution by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, declaring the month of January as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month, and January 11, 2026 is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in Pasco County. Whereas human trafficking is a crime against a person whereby through exploitation an individual is compelled to work or engage in a commercial

25:05sex act through force, fraud, or coercion, thereby being stripped of their rights and humanity. This crime is perpetuated against men, women, and children of all races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Traffickers typically use multiple means to control their victims, including beatings, rape, isolation, forced drug alcohol dependency, withholding of documentation, and psychological and emotional

25:35abuse. And whereas the International Labor Organization conservatively estimates that over 49.6 million victims of human trafficking worldwide, and that this crime is second only to the illegal drug trade in the terms of speed of its growth and the profits it generates, as human beings can be sold repeatedly. And whereas human trafficking has been reported in all 50 states, Florida

26:06consistently ranks third in the nation in both the number of calls made to the National Human Trafficking Hotline and the number of cases identified. In Florida in 2024, there were 832 identified cases of trafficking involving 1,874 victims with 167 being children. And whereas human trafficking is occurring in Pasco County. Through the Pasco County

26:36Commission on Human Trafficking, our community has united to combat this horrific crime and restore dignity to survivors by bringing together the sectors deemed critical to effectively combat human trafficking, such as law enforcement, schools, welfare. nonprofits, businesses, health-based excuse me, organizations, survivors, and more. And whereas, despite these dedicated local efforts, more awareness, education,

27:06and advocacy are needed to eradicate human trafficking. Every resident of Pasco County is called upon to declare the exploitation of people for profit has no place in our world, and that we will work together to restore freedom, dignity, and justice to all. And whereas January is annually declared as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month and January 11th as National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. Now, therefore,

27:37be it resolved by the Board of County Commissioners of Pasco County, Florida, the said Board hereby declares, january twenty twenty six, as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month in Pasco County, Florida, and that all citizens are encouraged to participate in education, awareness, advocacy, and prevention efforts. To combat human trafficking. Down resolved in regular session with the quorum president voting the sixth day of January twenty twenty

28:07six.

28:09Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Commissioner Weightman.

28:14I I hope not. Oh, good morning everybody. Thank you for joining us on our first meeting of the year. And um as always it's it's an honor to have to have the the the team here to talk about what was accomplished last year and such a collaborative effort with the Human Trafficking Group and working across All different spectrums of the county and different non-for-profit organizations. We have some events coming up this year, which I'll let you talk about, and I hope everybody will participate in. So again, thank you for

28:44your continuous work. You are truly a leader in this space. And when folks call our office, we say, Hey, Colleana Dean, here's our contact information. Introduce yourself. She's really, in my opinion, the subject matter expert and the leader in combating these horrific, horrific crimes that take place in our county and and beyond. So honored to have you here this morning. Happy January, happy 2026.

29:11Thank you so much, Commissioner Weightman. Thank you all very much for your ongoing support. We're entering our 12th year as a Commission on Human Trafficking, and I would be remiss if I did not thank you all for your ongoing support and the leadership that you have shown. And Commissioner Weightman, thank you for your service this last year. I'm joined today by members of the Commission and members of county staff. I would just like to take a moment to thank specifically. Ryan Hoban and Tracy with the County for all of their assistance. Tracy Toner, I'm sorry, I just blanked on your last name. She has

29:41my right hand. We could not do the work that we do without their assistance and support. I did just want to mention a few of the accomplishments that we have achieved this last year in 2025. And with the support of county administrators and county leadership, we were successfully able to train all. County employees on human trafficking, which I think has been a goal of ours for quite some time, and we were finally able to achieve that. And it is now a mandated training for all county new hires. So that's going to be moving forward into perpetuity. So we're very excited about that. We

30:12were also able to present this year at an international conference in Orlando, Shared Hope International, which is a internationally known conference, brings people from all over the world. Selected the commission to present this year. Several of the members standing before you went and we spoke. Very well attended session. And one of the results of that is we've had organizations from around the country reach out to us asking us how to set up county commissions. So I just literally had a phone call about a week or two ago with someone out in Texas who was interested in setting up a county

30:42commission. So our reach is growing, and I'm very excited that we've had those opportunities. To assist other counties across the U.S. in setting up commissions. We provided materials for all of our firehouses this year. So they have posters, they have indicator cards, they have safe way out cards. We put new posters about sexting and sex tortion in all of our middle and high schools. Megan Harding, I would be remiss if I didn't commend her for her efforts to make that happen. We trained all of the school bus drivers and all of the county school support

31:12staff this year, and that was a huge win for us. We've also partnered, I'm sure you guys heard about in the news, the missing and endangered child operation. The rescue operations that took place over the last six months. Several members of the commission assisted with those. Laura Henderson with Bridging Freedom, the Pasco Sheriff's Office, and myself with Baycare assisted with those operations. The most recent one, Home for the Holidays, 57 children from the Tampa Bay area were recovered and five arrests were made.

31:42So we were very privileged and honored to be a part of that. And we also We also assisted several members with the statewide human trafficking report, the first of its kind, that was being issued by the USF Trafficking in Persons Lab. So those are some of our big accomplishments. And upcoming in 2026, we're hosting, as Commissioner Weightman mentioned, two events to raise awareness. They're being led by our survivor representative, Laura Henderson, to bring awareness to the issue of human trafficking. We are also going to be working with the Pasco School

32:12District to mandate training for all 10,000 of their employees. It's a state law now, so the district has reached out to us, and we will be the entity that provides that training for all county employees, or excuse me, all school district employees this year. We are also supporting the first of its kind survivor leadership conference. Kristen Bracie, who is our Commission Secretary, is the executive director of the Safe Alliance. Of Tampa Bay and she is spearheading that effort and we are honored to both participate in the planning and to financially support that. It is, I believe, the first of its

32:42kind National Survivor Conference that's taking place in Florida and she's leading those efforts. And lastly, I um I'm very sad to announce that two of our founding members will be leaving us this year. Um, Ken Killian with the Sheriff's Office and Corporal Alan Milkett have both determined after eleven years of service that they'll be stepping down. And I just wanted to publicly thank them for 11 years of dedicated service. We would not have accomplished the things that we've accomplished without their participation and support. And it's personally

33:12a huge loss to for for the Commission and for myself personally. So thank you again for everything that you do to support our efforts here and frankly around the state and now around the nation. So thank you so much and Happy New Year.

33:27Yep. Uh I I tell you y'all done wonderful things 'cause when I first became a commissioner I was a part of this group and y'all made great strides. It it just took off like gangbusters and It seemed like community you were nationally known for all the good work that you were doing here in Pasco County and it spread out. a lot and it's still continuing 'cause like you're saying, you you've got people noticing and asking for information on how to do this. So y'all have done it a great way. You've had

33:57a great team and I certainly appreciate everything y'all have done, Bass.

34:01And I forgot to mention the US Marshals has we're working closely with them and their model is being replicated nationally, so we're involved in that as well. So I think that's phenomenal. The law enforcement partnerships, I forgot to mention them.

34:13Mr. Starkey.

34:15Well, I just can't say enough for all the work that you guys do. T tough, tough work. And I'm sad to hear Corporal Wil Wilkett's leaving, but um he's been a face for me for so long for for the work that you do. But um thank you so much and I'm glad that we're honoring and bringing awareness to this today. So again.

34:36Yeah. Commissioner Yeager.

34:38So serving with you guys knowing firsthand how amazing you guys are and you're so dedicated to human trafficking and I'm just proud of you guys as a board. You keep just pushing pushing through and you are just breaking through those barriers and getting information out to people and It it's just somebody sees that information, you can literally save a life. So I just want to thank you guys. It gives me goosebumps. Just thank you so much for everything you guys do.

35:10Thank you all for your your great work as well, your passion shows. Um keep going with great results and uh just a quick question. Have you noticed any drop down between maybe the immigration policies of the current president that have slowed down a a flow or do you actually see that at all?

35:27That's not something we've been involved in. So that would be the US F trafficking in Persons Lab, well that would be a question for them. I could definitely reach out and ask that of them. They're tracking data related to that. I don't have an answer for you with that, I'm very sorry.

35:45issues that were cr created from that. But I just didn't know if you started noticing the drop down or surge but again from your level, I don't know if you would, but just don't ask.

35:56Um a couple weeks ago my husband and I participated in a fundraiser with Sarah Mahoney. Do you guys know Sarah? Um down at um Concession. Uh they do an annual golf tournament for. uh to raise money that goes to the sheriff's offices. Um, do you know how our sheriff Do you know what we're doing in Pasco? It's not a lot of money. That's about ten or eleven thousand dollars but per county.

36:19And to w so what are you asking if we received any money, if the Pasco Sheriff's Office received any money? Yeah, I'm not sure

36:27the answer to that question. I shouldn't know if it's trickled down to you or if they use it or if you're not sure.

36:32Okay. What if the fundraiser in Well continue

36:36with that. One last one last thing before the pitcher. Wanna thank uh County Administrator and in the parks department for jumping on board with getting everybody universally trained starting last year when when we discussed it. And uh I know it can be a bit cumbersome to get thousand, several thousand folks uh to sit down and and take the test and you know, particularly our parks department and Keith and his team, Kathy and your team engaged. So those just wanna

37:06appreciate the efforts there and um and the buy in. So thank you.

37:11What's going on? Picture?