Commissioner reports and regional meetings

2:38:27Okay, um we are to Commissioner Yeager Oakley. Okay.

2:38:32Uh had a couple of meetings this month. Uh first picture up would be the we've had a tour of the new jail. Ms. Yeager and her group came along with myself and Alex and Others others that would lead us through and make sure we Didn't get locked in or locked out, so But um quite amazing tour. Um I wouldn't wanna live there very long, so at all. But uh but it's

2:39:02uh well done jail I think from I haven't toured a lot of jails so Um even in my younger days I didn't tour any. So thank goodness. But uh it's very well done and I think um the county and and the citizens of Pasco County of course brought this about and their vote when we did these referendums back, I don't know, it's four or five years ago now I guess, or could be longer. Twenty eighteen. But

2:39:33the citizens approved this and uh We didn't get the biggest bang for a buck because inflation started about the time we re voting on the amount of money we were gonna set the bond for and it only allowed us a little over six hundred 600 bids rather than a thousand, which we were aiming for when we first started project. So but After that then we had last Friday we had the try Track County meeting and so y'all left me all alone.

2:40:03I was on the phone. Yeah. But I'm so glad that

2:40:06these got so I had to tell 'em about my district. which is half the county. And let them know that since y'all trusted me so well that I was able to take care of y'all as half of the county it also on that day. And uh They trust me, administrators trust me. Just enough he made sure that uh Our county attorney, Jeff Steinstoner, was sitting right next to

2:40:31me.

2:40:32So I wouldn't make any bad moves. But uh but it was a good meeting. Um I did talk uh Mike with uh Mr. Edgers from Pine House County a little bit. He would like to see and I think I would too a little more uh meeting the material that we're going to go over and talk to you about. to be more meaningful for the counties and and start You know, getting into Working things uh sub you

2:41:02know, in a Fry County. issue like that. So I thought that was good. Um Uh I think we had the same thing 'cause some not that it was humdrum, but it was just Kind of a normal thing so Quiet and Not much talk to, but There's a lot of projects that happen, whether they happen in our county or or ours in another county, anything that helps transportation going through these the three counties, Pineadell,

2:41:33Salesborough and Pasco, anything that can happen will help all of us. 'Cause we all travel these three counties quite a bit. So Anything of transportation I know you all have to agree too that anything like three oh one getting we don't have I made that as an example the other day is Only a small portion of widening four lanes of three oh one going into Hillsburg County. Uh is not a as much help to us but Yeah the total help would be great because

2:42:03it goes all the way in Hellsborough. Most of the money would be spent in Hellsborough County on that on that project. But that's okay. It helps us all. So that's the type of project we need to work together on. Yeah. And that's all I have.

2:42:17Did um any of the projects come up from and I see City of Tampa was not invited. Um I I really think we should You know, especially when we're in Hillsborough County, invite maybe the mayor and the president of their council.

2:42:32Well there was some discussion regarding that. So I'll be having that conversation with the other two.

2:42:37So did any of the the you know the federal grant that the region got for transportation stuff did was any of that discussed? No. I didn't hear it when I was listening. No. See we could have discussed stuff like that.

2:42:48Well that's what I mean. I mean we didn't discuss some things like that but Um It just so happened to the last three uh chairmen of Tampa Bay Water spoke at the last of it, we got into how we would work together and help each other. So

2:43:04And was the uh um I was on the n FAC executive council call for the first part of your meeting because otherwise I I was in on a phone there by Commissioner Eggers. Um did you meet the new CEO of the airport?

2:43:18Yes. Okay.

2:43:20I have not met that person. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you you know it would be great to hear the you know what's happening at the airport. What's happening at the port. What's happening at some of our big assets? I mean regional

2:43:32yeah.

2:43:32Regional issues. How's the dredging of Anclope River going? That would be of interest to all of us with Um and to quit messing up our scallops. So when's that gonna be over right, Jack? Okay, so I mean we need to listen to what big projects are happening in other counties and what big projects we have going on.

2:43:51Yeah.

2:43:51Yeah.

2:43:52And then just a uh a little update on on Tampei water we discussed. Um the possibility of uh drought coming on because we haven't had any rainfall lately. Uh when we did get it back of course in the storms and I'll help fill the reservoirs and all that. And then this in the spring the rain we got did help us fill the reservoir and we were already approved for our 90% of taking the the higher flows and uh above

2:44:22minimum. We were able to take that nine percent and that helped fill it up. During that time.

2:44:27Yeah.

2:44:27And uh now the course is a lawsuit out against um from Pope County against Tampa Water for Oh. They w don't want us to take ninety percent out. But we're all downstream so it it doesn't It's hard to figure out what they would be taking because They're the very minimum right preserve the headwater. I thought we were. No, no, no, no. We're we're at the end. We're not not the headwater. It comes from Pope County. Mm. Yeah.

2:44:59So um But we had our permit for nine percent and that's helped us quite a bit. So it'll help us in the future. So But um Other than that, we d we did uh say, Well, we're gonna come out with a caution or for uh sprinkling water yards, things of that nature. But we want to handle that with kid gloves 'cause most of the time when you come out and said, Oh, we need not to water or cut it from two times a week to one time. People think

2:45:30we're out of water totally and and there's No issue like that whatsoever. So we want to make sure that We don't confuse people being out of water and and being conservative of the water we have. So

2:45:43I always have it on once a week and unfortunately my husband turned it off for what was to be the rainy season and now I've lost my grass yet again in the front of my house.

2:45:53I lost my grass too. I'm so sad. My grosses all of it.

2:45:56Yeah. This might be the fifth time I've redone it. I I want to do fake grass with my neighborhood would let me, but I don't think that works. I did it on my boathouse and I absolutely love it. Just paint your yard, right? All right, uh Commissioner Weightman.

2:46:08Yes, thank you, uh JJ and your team for hosting, Commissioner Oriano and I. Uh I was one of those guys that Mose it into a freezer or refrigerator and it it it locked. Oh no. And it got cold pretty pretty quickly. Wow. And uh sometimes those key cards didn't didn't work uh on our on our on our tour. So um don't be too curious in a in a jail, but uh thank you

2:46:38all for for hosting us and uh So for committee reports, we had uh David Allen filled in for Mike. Um EDC kicked off and uh Um they have a new structure this year for their budget. Um don't know if you wanna talk about it or anybody, but So they they have enough enough money there operate twelve months, but within uh then we'll have to renegotiate uh next budget cycle on uh E D C's budget. Uh and it's switching over to you know KPI indicators and

2:47:10More of a what was it, Mike, almost annual Yeah more of a performance based performance based uh model for for funding. I mean the vast majority percentage of their funding comes from the public side. So um until that changes I I think that You mean from us? Yep. Yeah. From the public from the public uh pocketbook. Um so going change some structures a bit, I think for the better. Both Mike, you want to touch on on kind of where we

2:47:40where we landed. Bill Bill was complimentary over over it, uh and the board other board members had some pretty good questions, uh mainly about the the lending program and that sort of thing, but Everybody seemed to be. Good

2:47:53with it. Yeah, high level. And I I've had this conversation with you individually in your briefings is that um, you know, uh actually on this consent agenda you you approved a quarterly flat budget with with a modest increase for salaries at three and a half percent. Just kind of similar to what the board did for us. And in the meantime, our team is negotiating with the EDC on key performance indicators and what types of things we think that they should be doing in order to advance, right? So we're turning

2:48:23the page to the next chapter of what Economic Development Council will be doing for us here in Pasco County, going beyond an MOU to more of a contract similar to how we handle all of our vendors. And so Mr. Cronin has embraced that, the team's embraced it. And uh we hope to have something by the end of this year back to the board to level set and reset um how we're doing economic development in the county. We're excited.

2:48:46So is there anything thoughts as we move forward? I you know. Please share your with Bill or Mike and Um there's other measurables that that you all think we need to be looking at as far as jobs or industry Um now's the time to do that for to prepare for the next year. So It's a pretty good meaning overall, whatn't you say, David Allen? Yeah. All right.

2:49:07Where are you meeting these days?

2:49:09Uh well it's varies. Uh so sometimes over by the um

2:49:16A lot of them are

2:49:17at North Point

2:49:17in that area.

2:49:23Uh it's pretty much where we're meeting most of the time. The help.

2:49:29Are you done? Mike gets there in about two minutes.

2:49:31Beautiful. It's the only meeting I can leave my house two minutes before it starts.

2:49:38Hold on.

2:49:39Commissioner Yeager. All right. I'll be super quick. So this was Mateo. He was a student in Lando Lakes and he shadowed me for the day. So it was kind of cool. He loved talking to Joanna all about government. He was in the meetings. He asked lots of great questions. And um he went to the M PO. He had a meeting at L um the school board, which he took part in, so it was a great experience for him. He will be doing something in government one day. So

2:50:09okay, that's more of that's more of Mateo. Jonah's someone you can mentor. This was the United Way and just celebrating everything that they do in our community and also their partnership with Pasco County. They're providing infrastructures for the trailers that hopefully we will be giving them. Okay, and I won't go into detail 'cause everyone talked about the jail but I did bring my son Josh with me. So um I made my one phone call, Brad did

2:50:40not answer. Oh

2:50:42That's funny. All right. Go ahead, next slide. Okay. So this was uh before the board meeting in Dade City and this was um one stop shop. So basically uh they have everything that somebody can come in, whether they've been a um a battered woman, they're homeless, a veteran, a a teen, they have everything there. So I know they were lacking in resources over there. So I asked her if she would come and do a pickup on the west side. And

2:51:13I think she thought I was joking. I said, You're gonna need a truck or a trailer or rent a U Haul. So she calls me and she's like, I'm almost there. My truck broke down. I was like, Oh, well then don't come, just come another day. She's like, No, I'm almost here and then when she saw everything we had for her, she goes, I thought you were kidding. She said so. She goes, I have to come back next Wednesday, so tomorrow. And she's renting a U-Haul. But they had this grandmother who literally had nothing in her house, and we're providing a kitchen table,

2:51:44stuff for her kitchen, a full living room set, a headboard, uh things for her bathroom. I mean, basically a whole house set up. giving this lady on Wednesday and and we gave her clothes and she was just so thankful. They even have an outdoor garden and I had a massive box of seeds so and little watering cans. So the kids when they come to their event they'll have little watering cans and seeds. But I told this lady I was like you can come every couple weeks for a pickup. So she was she

2:52:14was very thankful. So Um Okay. All right, are we where are we? Okay, and this was uh just uh the clerk's um empowerment room. And if you haven't uh been, Commissioner Starkey and I went, it was very beautiful, very moving. Um out of our storage unit, I have some um kids' items that we're gonna be donating to uh the empowerment room. So I'm super excited about that. Okay, next slide. So this was my my veteran Bob. I

2:52:44don't know if you remind uh remembered him from the storm. He was the one where an hour later he he would have died. Well he ended up having a stroke. And anyway, so I went to the hospital. He didn't remember any of his information, so thank goodness he um was able to Um he's able to talk a little bit, but I told him, I said, You're so hairy, you haven't had a haircut in a year, and he would not let me give him a haircut. So I joked, I said, Since you can't really talk a whole lot, and you're in the hospital, you're gonna get a haircut. So

2:53:14Ms. Pam came over and trimmed his beard and gave him a haircut, and he was so happy to go. He looks so much better. So much better. So we also cleaned his trailer out at Pasco Hotel. So very thankful for Chap Catholic charities for hosting Bob for so long. They were amazing. One of the employees I want to bring back to recognize him because he just went above and beyond. So next slide. And then I promise I'm done. Oh we the one of the cat. Up yep. Okay. So I

2:53:46My hurricane peop I'm showing you this cute picture just because there's a story behind it. So you guys know all my little my my people from the hurricane that I follow. Well, this young lady I um She truly has nobody. She doesn't have neighbors. She she she has nobody. So um I was trying to help her get a job a couple weeks ago and she had a setback and she was in the hospital. To make a long story short, Thursday night I got a text message that basically she wanted to commit suicide. So she reached out to me. And um

2:54:16I reached out to the Bay Care team and basically I said to her, hey, if I have somebody at your door to to come help you, will you go? And she said, I won't leave my cats. So I said, I will take care of your cat. How can I get in? So she told me she would leave a sliding glass door open. And anyway, those are the pictures of of the cats that we took care of. But The the bigger the bigger thing for this is the the takeaway is that whether it's mental health

2:54:47Or a storm. People are concerned about their animals. And here this lady wouldn't have gone unless someone would have taken care of her animals. So You know, and I and It was I was I was honored to do it, right? She got the help she needed. I'm working with Kathy and her team right now. We went in there and I don't know if you guys remember, but I had a deathly allergic reaction to mold. Well she had mold in there. So like my throat started closing. I

2:55:17had to get out of there. But we're gonna relocate um this young lady to Pasco Hope where She will get wraparound services, case management, and get out of the mold. So it's a it's and Baycare is at her house now doing um uh a counseling appointment. So just you know keeping in touch, checking on your friends and neighbors, just really important. That's the takeaway for that. So and that's all I have. Excellent. So

2:55:44All right. Gene, you get a couple pictures. Start with the uh video one first. I'm gonna start on the higher note.

2:55:50Sorry, I just you know. I presume the cats,

2:55:54but Uh we'll sorry, we'll go with that. So we had a great convention down in Tampa. Um it's the Indian community had a group together, people from around the country, around the world, all talking about different things. Uh I was actually one of the opening remarks speaker and uh Very impressive everything that was going on there. They were trying to build business, trying to bring business, uh keep going the next couple of pages. There's an n no more stuff on there. Next page. And then this is a family from Oklahoma trying to locate

2:56:24to Tampa area and I'm trying to make 'em consider Pasco County, but uh really good AI stuff they're doing was was was incredible. Go ahead, next picture.

2:56:35Wait, did you say AI or Indian?

2:56:37AI, but they're Indian. It's an Indian group that put it on. Okay. It's all all business people trying to bring people in from around around the around the world. No Is there

2:56:47a video?

2:56:48Wesley

2:56:49Doesn't appear to have been attached.

2:56:51I said someone though. Didn't attach right. I

2:56:55won't tell you about Album.

2:56:56Um so a c couple of things. You know the the jail was very impressive. Uh great to see it's coming forward. And thinking about, you know, I know we there's different things that they but how c how can we make things better, how can we m improve. And one of the things I was thinking about after watching all the news about ICE agents, et cetera, and the improvements we're gonna make in the jail to make it fully accessible to use the whole thing. So I talked to Stacy Jenkins this morning. Uh I had her send some information over and pull the email

2:57:26up so I can read it to you directly. So Haskell County Administrator. Has twenty seven illegal aliens detained. One has had their case resolved and will be transported to a federal facility over the next twenty-four hours. There are twenty-five ICE holds, two Border Patrol holds. And I asked her for more questions but which we could get from me for this morning. Uh I have staff researching whether we have any prior criminal convictions. If the convictions were a misdemeanor or felony and the current days in custody on state charges, I'll fold with the information as soon as compiled.

2:57:56So I expect to have it ready for the next meeting. But um I think that if we have illegals that are here that have committed crimes. And we should try to hand them over to ICE now if they're gonna do some deportation. Why do our taxpayers want to fund these people in there? Especially we're paying one point eight million dollars to Hernando to house people out of county. I think if we can find a way to get these illegals out, if they're gonna be deported, let's move as quick. Uh I did talk to Chase Daniels about it. He goes, anytime we

2:58:26can get a Um oh uh a convicted person out of here, back to their country, if that's where they're gonna go anyway, the sooner they go the better. Get 'em out of our community. So if the board doesn't mind I'll have a presentation or or some inf more information for the next meeting uh about what we can possibly do to coordinate these things to happen now rather than us paying the bill. Um on the red light camera gentleman. I he this gentleman called me up and was talking to me. He's talking about different things. He's one of those guys that's a really good guy affected

2:58:57by the hurricanes. So I got to talk to him a few different times. He told me about the red light cameras. And he told me some things that he's printed out here, and I just want to review them with you that bother me. Because I never liked these cameras. I fought them when I was on the MPOAC. Uh they delayed for seven. seven years but finally they made their way back. I think it was about five years ago we had a conversation with the city and they talked about well because we're in contract we can't end our contract And we gotta keep the red light cameras. We're gonna look at getting rid of them. Uh that never happened. Uh so now as

2:59:27i if and this is is confirmed by James Myers that as far as they are out of compliance.

2:59:33What is that yeah, what did he mean by that?

2:59:35The picture the the the signage, et cetera, is not where it's supposed to be. They've been told it's supposed to be on there, they haven't fixed it yet. So they're in they're in violation. They cannot legally uh from what's told, actually issue any tickets. And they're still issuing tickets because I don't think anything's stopped. I'll say that. I I I'm assuming they haven't done anything to to stop everything down. So our citizens are getting taxed uh or or fined. for cameras that are actually not operating to the acquired standards as they continue to operate. And I think we we should take a

3:00:05stance because it's not just the city people are getting these tickets, it's people in the county and mine in and around. So I think we should be doing something uh from from the county to say we don't want you issuing any more tickets until you've got this squared away.

3:00:17Why don't we bring this up at the M PO to um

3:00:20I can but I don't I don't even wait another day because you know, all these people are getting tickets right now. Once it p someone pays a ticket right away, it's a it Lessens the chance of getting it back. Either way, they don't have a valid permit right now to do these tickets. I think we some Shot How we should send them a letter to stop un until they get their resolved

3:00:39permit issue or whatever. Another thing, if let's say I'm driving your car and I go through the light, you get the ticket.

3:00:45Right.

3:00:46So there's no there's you can't even dispute works in my family, my husband gets all the table. You can't dispute the ticket because they don't show the person. They only show the license plate. So I'm super glad my Jeep is in case.

3:00:57So I think if if I if I if I could uh Jeff tell me how you feel about this, but I'd like you to be able to send something to them about the board does not want you to issue things until you have a valid permit back on these red light cameras. You don't have any authority to do that.

3:01:11Yeah.

3:01:11I don't I'm not looking for authority. I'm just saying as

3:01:14well.

3:01:14Well but if you're gonna have the county attorney send something that says you're out of compliance, that I have to have something that says I mean

3:01:24You can suggest it but you can't demand them.

3:01:25No, no I think you can't demand

3:01:26anything. But I'm just saying I don't think you're not going to be able to do

3:01:28why don't we try and bring it up with Matt at the MPO?

3:01:32It's a n another month away. And meanwhile you get thirty days more worth of tickets are going out there with signs that are not done properly, so much so that the D O T w has not validated them to get another permit. I mean they're not doing it the way they should be doing it. We should take a stand for our people, I think, to say you're not doing it right, stop until you actually get it right. If it's

3:01:51D O T that is that that has the authority over the program, I would suggest that maybe board members wanna call the secretary individually and say they're not happy with the program and let DOT Shut them down.

3:02:09I did talk I mean I d so I did talk to Justin. I I don't know what what he I mean, how does he enforce something that shouldn't be done? Maybe I need to go to the state agency. Oh the the state program.

3:02:24in the sense of I would think to enforce a law. Who would enforce it?

3:02:27They would have a right of way use permit or they're they're probably

3:02:30exist in

3:02:31in their right-of-way from the community.

3:02:32I

3:02:32mean

3:02:32that's what he he's that document. He's saying that they're not in compliance with their DOT permit. Okay. So how do we get them to stop? So that would be the that would be the secretary. I would I would think that's a that's at the district level, that wouldn't be at the Tallahassee level. Okay. All right.

3:02:49I

3:02:49shall make that

3:02:50approach

3:02:50next. Let

3:02:50me

3:02:51pick uh one of the members of the state delegation on a ride. Let them drive.

3:02:58Oh. We lived in city limits and all the tickets go to Brad, so he's lived it. Yes, yes, that's right. And

3:03:06he's not for them. At all. Yeah.

3:03:10Well, that's a good time good time to to bring it forward. Maybe maybe we'll we'll have a conversation at the MPO as well.

3:03:15Yeah.

3:03:15Um One other thing. Mike at my meeting yesterday as we briefed for the uh board meeting. And I talked about uh something Hudson Library is now being shut down, we're gonna do renovations. There's a huge parking lot that's there. Part of it's gonna get redone. the very front of part of the front of the parking lot is in pretty good is a pretty good spot for people to get to, easy access to it. Anybody affected by hurricanes would be easier to get there. They s where they pick one of the places to be for a um a service for FEMA to be there. What

3:03:46I would like to do, like we saw at FAC, where they had this module home come in, showed what they could do, showed how much would cost. The only difference from the cost basis that we saw is they don't know what the cost would be for elevating from one home to another home. Uh the other thing I saw at Scholar Fest, we had brought brought in a uh local company here, the sc container homes. Our staff's been out there to look at it, they like them too. I would like to have uh these two options out there for people at Hudson Library where they can actually have a modular home. Have the container home if there's something else

3:04:16that's applicable where people can look at like changing out those homes, raising them up, getting prices as we g do as we

3:04:23are modular uh acceptable for the HUD money? Because some things are and some things

3:04:28aren't. They are. Matter of fact, they're in our plan as well. So we we put it all in there. So I think if we just have some options for people Up and down the coast they can get there. It's nice and easy. It's not gonna affect any facilities. But I think it's something that if they can see what they could get, we can look a look and make some ideas, you know, and and let's say see if the people wanna do it, if there's a b big demand for it. Now they got two things to compare so they can compete on price too. help get this C D BGR money going and help people get back into homes that'll be without mold, safer,

3:04:58more reserved.

3:05:03I I understood it to be kind

3:05:05of an expo, if you will, of here's some stuff we would have to invite multiple vendors or something if we were to be able to do that.

3:05:21And that's all I got. Thank you.