Commissioner reports and miscellaneous business

1:38:02that later on. Okay. All right, we'll go to committee reports. Miscellaneous business? Commissioner Oakley.

1:38:10Um On June 23rd, I attended the Tampa Bay Transportation Management Area Leadership Group and the Sun Coast Transportation Planning Alliance Board Meeting. Like I said, I was going to tell them I didn't like the mix-up of too many people in Hillsborough and a lot less in Pasco and a lot less in Pine Ellis because we're out of balance. But in doing that and the Secretary Gwynne answered that question for

1:38:40me. I wasn't looking I was looking at a small picture of of supporting Pasco County. I wasn't looking at the big picture which supports the region. So the region has this group that's as uh MPO board for the whole region. The fact that's for a federal monies that can come to our region that handles those

1:39:10bigger and a lot bigger projects than we actually have in our our county. the money still flow to us from where we normally get our money but we're able to actually we'll be instead of being number forty five as a county or or 37 as a county, we'll be number 17 in the nation uh for government looks at in order to get some of that federal money. So the idea of it is not based on on numbers. We

1:39:40shouldn't be worrying about numbers so much because it's based on population of the different counties. And that's how the membership gets wrapped up. We still have to come to agreement on on the number. But it's a lot bigger picture than what I was thinking at first and realize that that's very important for us to be a part of that group. And so we can get some of those monies also in our area. So that's that's what came of it. That's basically all I had uh

1:40:09Okay. Dean, that's uh oh you have any comments to that?

1:40:12Well um I'm

1:40:13very

1:40:13grateful I'm very grateful that you came. Um and uh Andy came and hopefully he gave you uh some uh report. We have some new people there. Um And we actually had the chair of the T P O there who's a mayor of uh Temple Terrace.

1:40:29Yeah.

1:40:30And I think he came in with the same view that you maybe had come in. uh you know, kind of maybe accura echoing a commissioner from Hillsborough County, maybe. Um But afterwards he told me that he really had his eyes opened and I think Secretary Gwen Put it so eloquently. at what a disadvantage this region is by not working together. And when he compared the strength of the region to compete for federal dollars, because that's all we're talking about here. versus

1:41:01trying to compete for federal dollars as a county. It was impressive and we need to get the that whole statement back up here word for word because I think that just nailed it nailed it and what we are doing to ourselves by not working together. And this is not about our local roads and our local issues. That is we get that money and that money will still come to us in the same formula. This is about working together. On big projects. for

1:41:31West Central Florida. And we're not doing it and it's such a disservice. And so um I was very um happy with some of the comments I heard around that room. Um They wanted us to do some surveys. I didn't think it really was appropriate when the Pedallas County commissioners weren't there. Um uh because they had a a budget hearing with their sheriff that day. Uh so we'll do we'll we'll do it again. I would've you

1:42:01know, Jack and I have been saying y'all need to be coming to these meetings. So um e you know, we need more people coming and learning what this is about and understanding the importance. I think that uh some people in Hillsboro have been hearing a story from a few commissioners that may that don't really reflect what the importance of this regional MPO means to the community and they had their eyes opened at

1:42:32that meeting. Yeah. And so I was grateful for that. So um I was elected chair of that meeting. And uh We'll be working we're we're gonna get this done. We're gonna get our regional M PO in place and I agree Um, you know, there's still discussion about how our representation falls out. There are some federally mandated um rules that we have to follow. But there's also opportunity so Hillsboro has more population. It doesn't have to be all their

1:43:02commissioners. It can be other people in Hillsborough like Jel Lopano. and Paul Anderson from the Port and other you know, the regional uh wha whatever else this group thinks, but doesn't have to be all the naysayers of regionalism theirs.

1:43:19Right.

1:43:20Okay.

1:43:21Well I'm glad I'm glad you went there. I'm glad you uh talked and I think A good point. We still need to fight for the best representation we can get. That is a big thing. But when you when you look at places like North Carolina that got a whole bunch of money. For years now, the rail system they put in place runs right through. Um California, same thing. Look at Orlando, Miami, because they came united. That one region, that one voice makes a big difference. We had a we had a chance to get a lot of money, maybe it was a right caller, right not, that that we didn't go through with

1:43:51it a few years back, but at least we had one voice at that time. And I think it's important that we make that step forward to to go to get that money. Um so, um again, glad glad you went. I still wanna like make sure we do the best we can as far as representation goes, but if it al allocates a whole nother part of money that we weren't getting. Right. Definitely something to pursue. Yeah. Commissioner Weightman.

1:44:14Thank you. Hope everybody had a great 4th of July. Had a couple of new famous folks from Fort Ritchie on TV. And uh they'll be here to visit us hopefully in September. So more to come on that. Um reading through the agenda, something pretty exciting and Adam's here. But down on uh item one twenty seven, uh read that we've confirmed Tim Tebow could be our next speaker for the sports banquet.

1:44:45And uh so all I gotta say is we need a venue and let's start selling tickets now. That's that's that's pretty cool. I don't know if you have any more comments to say of that, no pressure if you're not ready, but uh some good news. The document today.

1:45:02Yeah, Chi. No sir. Thank you, Commissioner Oakley Thomas, the tourism director. Um no he wasn't cheap, but well worth the price. Um great uh inspirational motivation leadership on our uh speaker on on leadership. Uh don't have a location locked down. Tickets will start going on sale either in December or the first of the year. We're we're planning on uh selling out any venue that we uh that we take on.

1:45:26Go big.

1:45:26Yes, go big, go on. Mm.

1:45:29Cool. Next we have a little update on our One of my favorite subject matters live local. So since our last our last board meeting that same day we had another email come in for two more projects. Uh the applicant that would be a total of five. Mr. Goldstein is probably here somewhere. He's been doing a good job at the Planning Commission level. So th the the applicant from what we understand didn't disclose the location uh based in the email but kind of the total seemingly because it was so vague, probably looking at either commercial

1:45:59or industrial uh properties and there was an interesting dialogue back and forth at the Planning Commission, which I thought was in really interesting at Curly Road in 54, uh that dealt with with Lib Look when a citizen actually came up and brought the conversation to the forefront of the Planning Commission and uh appreciate Mr. Goldstein's diligence on working with the Planning Commission and asking the pertinent

1:46:29questions and reiterating the fact of, hey, here's what the Commission is going to ask on these items. So appreciate everybody's diligence uh on this subject matter to to save our job creating sites. Next I have a I'd like to have a policy discussion so our board meetings start at ten a And I'd like to see us start an hour earlier, 9 a.m. and get more done in the

1:46:59mornings. And so we put together a slide to show the start times of most of all the other commissions in our area, such as being the outlier in Pasco. So for the 24 calendar, I'd like to make a motion to check temperature. be interested in starting our board meetings at nine AM instead of ten AM.

1:47:24Well I'll be very late.

1:47:28What if we got a nightmare?

1:47:31Well what's the purpose of that? Because a lot of the items we have we're like today we have quite a few things to do. That's true.

1:47:38We'd just

1:47:38be

1:47:38sitting there.

1:47:39We're done. Yeah. I think we can get staff to rework the calendar and get more out of our more out of our day in our morning. Can't rework it much. All the public hearing's gotta happen at one thirty. Well, that rule could

1:47:53be changed too. We can take instead of having

1:47:55an hour defer to

1:47:57We could have an hour and a half to lunch to an hour lunch, potentially, but that's not you know, I figure it'd be it'd be a twofold discussion. I figured I'd bring it up for discussion.

1:48:08Yeah. I think if you look at the other the other jurisdictions that start at nine, they do their public hearing as soon as they get to them. So their advert their public hearing are advertised for nine AM or as soon thereafter as they can be first called and then and so whenever they get to them on the if if they they do their consent agenda and then they do their public hearing at Familiar with Manatee, that's the way they operate. They do all their land use on

1:48:39a separate Thursday. once a month. Um, but yeah, the problem you're gonna have is if you move if you move your time frame up and you don't move your one thirty public hearing, I think you you sort of defeat the purpose of starting earlier. But th but there's nothing in the statute you'd have to amend your rules, but there's nothing in the statute that would prevent you from doing morning public hearing.

1:49:05Yeah. So it's a pleasure of the board. I prefer to start earlier, have a shorter lunch, but

1:49:12Yeah, I'm gonna resent. Nope.

1:49:14I like it right. That car drives fast though, Commissioner Starkey.

1:49:17It does drive fast. Don't tell anybody. Um But you know, I I frequently have lunch meetings, like I have one today. So I try and take care of some business over here when I when I'm here for lunch, so I can barely fit that in in one hour. So I don't know. I I'm okay with it.

1:49:37Yeah if we're gonna if we're gonna have like a morning meeting, I mean ten o'clock ninety five percent of the time we're done with all our stuff before noon anyway. Um staff usually bounces it out. If we have any workshop stuff, we can do maybe Do a workshop at nine if we want to get to that point. That may that may be something we can like open up a little bit. Like Will it be code enforcement or something else if you want to do a workshop, maybe for those times we kinda like set that up, that may be something. But uh to for ninety five percent of the time I think the ten o'clock is fine.

1:50:07Um As far as the one thirty, I think Commissioner Starkey's okay too. If if you go one thirty, you get a chance to go have lunch and usually gonna do a business lunch uh or or getting ready for the afternoon anyway. So I I don't mind the one thirty time either. Um and then this way here everybody that's coming in knows exactly when to be there and they can work. So if we're gonna keep the framework the same then I'm comfortable with it too.

1:50:31Because a lot of our discussion points if we had a starting an earlier start time, we could knock In my opinion, I'll have more of that hour and more out of our bed alternate. And so that one hour's a a swing thing, so that's why I wanted to bring it up.

1:50:46Well I I mean I like the idea if you've got something going on. So if we're gonna talk about a workshop, maybe we need a workshop of forty and fifty lots, whatever. I think it's a little bit more. Let's set it where okay, we're gonna have that workshop instead of taking up a whole day, which we sometimes used to do with staff, now we just say okay, I'm gonna d dedicate an hour to it, and that may get us more frequent to go do it, which is okay. But just to open up to our regular course of business, I think would is an unnecessary change. But again for workshops, you want to start 'em at nine, if we have them on good with that.

1:51:15Okay. Yeah. And most of our board meetings uh differ. Environment. meetings. We have an hour meeting prior to the board meeting. So I had one this morning, so You may want to start at nine but I couldn't have that meeting that was important to be at before the board meeting. So

1:51:31and I generally am getting getting stuff done before we get here at ten as well, so Like for a workshop? Um I'm good with a nine o'clock start whenever we have one to come. Oh I

1:51:40am with that, yeah.

1:51:41Okay.

1:51:41Good. All right.

1:51:43Anything else, sir?

1:51:44Thank you. No, that was

1:51:47That was it. Exciting for excited for September though. We'll see some some more famous, locally famous folks come September. So and Adam, thank you.

1:51:56Very good. Commissioner Starkey.

1:51:58Well I'm not gonna get it all in. So um

1:52:03Oh my gosh.

1:52:03Yeah, I got I have one. Um but um I will oh well I will I'll talk about this and I'll finish the rest later. So uh I just wanted you to see pictures of the Beacon Square Park that um that the Parks Department got put in with the grant. So um we're this community is very grateful. to have this park. It was just kind of a unkempt grass field. So look what the

1:52:33community got. So I hope we can go around and you know keep keep putting these in. I personally think that on our libraries we could have these as well. So I mean It's not that expensive and it it's wonderful for the for the young bearing. So but I'm not gonna go into anything else now, I think. Um Jack, I was well I was since we have our our tourism guy here, I was trying to find Gina, is it are you with a G or a J? Gee. G. Oh G G

1:53:04J, right? Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna send you a picture.

1:53:07Okay.

1:53:08Um, it's from Saddlebrook. Uh so we have this weekend a um or last weekend, the kickoff of a hockey tournament that's occurring at Santa Rice. Forty teams from uh around the country, a lot from Canada. My grandsons are guest playing on the Kin two Canadian hockey teams. So um that's why I was there. I didn't know

1:53:38we were gonna um have a mic opportunity. So um I wasn't my maintenance, but I did have a cut marathon. Um so uh I I I just think of forty teams with twenty one kids on a team And they each have at least two parents. But I'm telling you, I've met a lot of grandparents too at the pool bar. And so I I can't even figure out the numbers of what that is. But it's it's humongous and they can't

1:54:08find Places to practice. My my grandson is supposed to go today to Lakeland to get some ice time so he can play with a team that he's never met. You know, so um

1:54:21I I just sent Gene, I just sent you the picture that we had from Saddlebrook when Commissioner Starkey were there.

1:54:41But so so you have the families. Yeah, so I you know, I asked the co I asked the organizer, what was his name? George or

1:54:49George. Sergio. Sergio.

1:54:53So I asked him, you know, if he would like pull the kids together because We had no way of finding out where the teammates were that my kids were grandkids were gonna be playing playing on. He said, Oh, good idea And he had a bunch of the um uh kids who were on the different teams that were in the pool at the time come to the front and raise their hands of who was not from the United States. And the majority of them raised their hands not from the United States. And uh But Like one of the families I met One

1:55:24son is on my grandson's team. They had two older brothers with them. and family friends. So I just the impact of sports travel. is just humongous. And that started Sunday and they go the whole week. The whole week they're involved in with hockey and then they're gonna go play other places, so Man, we just gotta keep building more of these.

1:55:54Yeah.

1:55:54It was was hot.

1:55:55So we played golf earlier in the day with them and uh the leading scorer for the Vancouver Canucks was there is the host uh Connor. And he was like pumping all the kids up uh earlier in the day and uh they'll be there for he'll be there for the for the weekend too I believe. But uh to bring all those kids there and all the parents etc They filled up the resort. All the way through. So Uh just a great event. Gordy Zimmerman, I gave him my some uh a good plug because what he did with center ice, Adventist

1:56:26Ice Ice, was a phenomenal thing. I think it led the way for us to see sports tourism so important. Got my pit on today, Adam, see that? Uh But what what that does, sports tourism is phenomenal. And the amenity to have that pool area set up for those kids, they were just like everywhere, jumping around, having a fun having a fun time, parents having a good time. But again, sports tourism brings business. And again, all those resort hotels, if they're not there, I don't know what's going on that day.

1:56:56This I mean this obviously is a very small representation of the total amount of kids that are here on if each team has twenty one kids. Um times forty, you know. Uh but this was just the kick off and they have other events that they're doing around um c community. Last night my grandson's team had a a dinner at um one of the restaurants there. wasn't able to make it over there. But um but they're, you know, doing team events at different restaurants. And we went from here to Popstroke. and

1:57:27played uh my first round at Pop Stroke and that was great fun too. So um Good stuff. We need some more on our side.

1:57:36Very good.

1:57:37All