Public comment on agenda items and county business
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 minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jun 16, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 23m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 90% of 80 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Here. Now is the time for public comment. Citizens are given the opportunity to comment on any current or future agenda item coming before the board and on other businesses under the board's purview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First we'll take public comment for those who are here in person, then we'll take public comment for those who are pre-registered for an online link and currently on queue. When you request when you request when you address the board Comments are not directed personally at the commissioner or team member, but rather directed at the issues. This provides mutual respect between
the board members and the public. After stating your name and address for the clerk, a three-minute timer will be activated, and a green light will be shown at the podium. After two minutes, a yellow light will indicate you have one minute left. When your time is up, a red light will be displayed, three beeps will sound, and you should close your comments. Online participants will be disconnected automatically when the time is up. Madam Clerk, do you have anyone signed up for public comment?
I do, Mr. Chairman so they know. Um we have Lola Meyer, if you could step up to the podium, followed by Leonard Lloyd, followed by John Labriola.
Yeah.
Hell getting old.
And you can pull that mic down if it helps you.
Oh, I got a pretty loud voice. I'm a sixties hippie. I Okay, so how how does this work?
Yeah,
three minutes. My name is Lola Meyer. I live at [address removed]. Okay, it's my first meeting, so please be patient. Now what?
Now you can go ahead and speak. Okay, and then you have three minutes.
Okay. My first problem is I am really getting disgusted at seeing the amount of of wooded areas being cut down in dead animals. It's like nobody is paying attention to what is happening, these animals, and everybody is making lots of money putting up stores and houses and everything. We gotta get to a point where we've gotta slow down and Start thinking of our future and our future children. My another one which has been already brought up, so I'll wait to hear from somebody after that. The last thing I want to know is what
is your purpose? I don't want to know what your job descriptions are. I already know I've worked for the government. I want to know what your purpose is. If somebody gets back to me, I'd really be glad to hear that. The only other thing I said is I really like to see the meetings at a different time, being a crossing guard at one point and that I couldn't work for the state. I couldn't come to your meetings. Virtual is icky. So My complaints, you've heard. Thank you.
Thank you. So we have Leonard Lloyd followed by John Leb uh Labriola, followed by Mayor John Eric Hoover.
Leonard Lord lived at [address removed] for 49 years and it's a honor just to come speak. I know you're busy, but to take time to listen to us, I appreciate it. I do just want to thank you for what you do and just say as a pastor in the leader community, I find out that it's easy for us to focus on budgets and cost and how to do that. And I've found out when I studied the scripture probably as you do. Solomon says that money answereth all things, but Jesus comes
along and says, you can't serve two masters. You love the one or hate the other, you cling to one and let go of the other. You can't serve God money. So I want to thank you all today for the resolution to look at faith and family. And I know as we Don't look at our wallet, but look at what God wants to do. He will finance his work. And so I found out as the Book of Haggai says, when the government, the church come together, and a remnant of people move
in the fear of God, do what God tells them to do, God says he will shake the nations. The gold and silver is his and he'll finance it so we can do our thing and have to pay the way. and raise taxes or we can obey God and He'll provide because there's inheritance for the saints. Thank you all for serving us. And I wanna say I read in the good book, my responsibility is to pray for you and serve you and bless you. So any way I can help Pastor Leonard Lord, give me a call. God bless you. Thank you for service.
John Labriola, followed by Mayor John Eric Hoover, followed by Vice Mayor Chris Mayer.
Good morning, board. My name is John Labriola. I represent the Christian Family Coalition. We are a statewide organization dedicated to defending religious liberties and also advancing family values in Tallahassee and throughout the state. We were up in Tallahassee this year advocating for different leg uh a bunch of different legislation. Um but we're here today because uh June June should be dedicated to faith and family. We've seen June dedicated to some interesting. antifamily agendas. Um and we think that it's very important that you take a step to acknowledge the the importance
of fatherhood, families, and faith. So uh we thank you for doing that. And one of the things that um we saw in Tallahassee this year is that there was a bill to um To uh dedicate uh October 14th as the Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance. As you know, or as may maybe you don't know, that bill was passed in the House overwhelmingly. However, when it came to the Senate, um it passed all the Senate committees, but it was blocked, uh actually not uh not scheduled for a vote, unfortunately. So the state did not
Dedicate a day to Charlie Kirk, and Charlie Kirk was a champion of faith, family, and freedom. Um he actually gave his life on that cause. And so I we we as an organization felt that it's very important that we continue to acknowledge the importance of important contributions of Charlie Kirk and the fact that he died for his faith. And so even though the the legislature Did not approve that bill. We are going to individual county commissions. And just yesterday I was in Gilchrist
County and they passed a resolution to declare that October 14th will be Charlie Kirk Remembrance Day in the uh in this county of Gilchrist. Um and I'll be back there uh in October for a formal presentation. But I wanted to let you know that because we will be back here. And uh asking you if you could also do the same. What uh Gilchrist County has done is that they're not only declaring a day of remembrance, but they're also because they run the library system, there they will be uh doing
a week-long book display of Charlie Kirk's books because he wrote seven books. And we think that's important because that's the way that he got his ideas across through books. Uh also, Sumter County has. Done the same and so we're starting to ask individual counties to do that. So I wanted to thank you again for declaring June the Faith and Family Month, and we'll be back here uh to ask you also to declare Charlie uh Charlie Kirk Day of Remembrance, as well as um allow for a book display in your libraries um for his
seven books during that the week of his birthday. Thank you again.
We have Mayor John Eric Hoover, followed by Vice Mayor Chris Mayer, followed by Pastor Troy Peterson.
Good morning, Mayor John O. Hoover, [address removed]. Mr Chairman, Commissioner Oakley thank each of you for all you do and thank for you uh thank you for rec considering and hopefully recognizing june twenty twenty six as Faith and Family Month in Pasco County. Faith and Family are the foundation of strong communities. They provide the value, support, and sense of purpose that help neighbors come together, overcome challenges, and build a better future for the next generation. I especially appreciate the board's leadership in highlighting the important role that faith-based organizations, family, families, community, volunteers play throughout
our county. In the city of Port Ritchie, we are proud to proclaim June as Faith and Family Month at our May 26th City Council meeting. and I'm honored to stand with you today in support of this recognition. Thank you for your commitment to the values that strengthen our communities and make Pasco County such a great place to live, work, and raise a family. God bless you all and God bless Pasco County. Thank you.
Chairman and Commissioner, welcome. Uh and good morning. I uh As the Vice Mayor in Port Ritchie, uh, I'm also thankful for your support that you have for our little city right here. We are getting some strength. We're actually getting traction there, and we're accomplishing many great things. It's not without your help that we do that. So thank you very much for that. Thank you for supporting Faith and Family Month. As a 40-year businessman, I learned early on in my career that without God in my life, I was not going to get a lot of traction. So early on in my career I accepted Christ. Christ, I came to Christ and it changed a lot of
the things in the way I looked at business. I do believe that businesses and God have a place to come together as government and God have a place to come together. And by you guys supporting Faith and Family Month, you're showing the public and and the community that you're supporting us and backing that. So thank you very much. And that's all I've got today.
Thank you. Pastor Troy Peterson, followed by Alan Rose, followed by Cindy S uh Scarda.
Troy Peterson, eighty one fourteen Leo Kidd Road. That's Light of the World Tabernacle where I where I serve. Um I wanna thank you. The the first thing I wanted to thank you guys for was the National Day of Prayer. Um I I was blessed with the opportunity to to go over to the east. Excuse me.
I was blessed with the opportunity to go over to the east side uh with uh Commissioner Weightman and Commissioner Oakley and that was a real blessing to see uh the Body of Christ and government working together to uh pray. And then again on the West Pasco side, um it was just such a blessing. Um another thing that uh I'm really thankful for is uh with this Faith and Family Month, we've been doing uh fam fests in the park. We did one in Port Ritchie Waterfront
Park and we had several And Abigail got baptized, yes. And uh we had several churches come together uh to work with our mayor or our city council r really just to have a family friendly event. Uh And we're also in Oakala. Um and then we also have uh the na uh backpack giveaway coming up. Um and uh so it's these type of things that we're able to um to do with the uh county and city
government to bring the church together to really be a blessing in our community. I'm just so thankful for your guys' leadership. Uh call me anytime if you need any prayer or if uh we can serve you in any way. Thank you. God bless.
Thank you.
Good morning. Alan Rose, [address removed]. For the record.
Move the street, receive the file. Second. All in favor say aye. Mm.
This is just bringing forward things we've discussed in the past about flooding over in golden acres. that we haven't experienced before but we're experiencing and we're gonna experience a lot more with this new develop new rezoning and continued development around Rocky Sink Spillway. Uh I've highlighted everything in here so you can see when we brought it to you before last year. The south portion of the basin has a riparian flow moving through Rocky Sink Spillway, Tanglewood Spillway, and Hayden
Lake Spillway, all bringing our riparian flow to the Cotee River and then out to the Gulf of America. All these communities and I've listed all the communities in there. are now ex prone to flooding due to lack of waterways management. At Barrow Creek in the Cotee River. The Cody River, just a prime example. Yeah. We could go from Cruise Lake to the right. All the way down to uh. uh m miller's by and we could do it by canoe if
it was maintained properly. But it's not, you can walk on it. So anyway. There's re now repetitive flood flooding throughout a basin there hasn't been before. The wetlands in the southern section drain to the Cotee River, through the Rocky Sink Spillway, Tanglewood Spillway, and Hidden Lake Spillway, all come together in the southern section of Tanglewood Spillway, then going under the Cubulus and drain to the Cotee River. There has been zero maintenance on these three spillways and they barely flow.
And this last last month when I saw these uh rezoning and this new uh Approval for for uh construction right along there. Right now they're putting in a storage facility and hardening the ground right above Rocky SIG. and the spillway right there. And that water's gonna just even though it's gonna go through Uh retention ponds, they're already there. The retention ponds are there, but they're always dry. Why? Because they're higher than Rocky Sink, and they're higher than the than than our community. So the water's gonna flow backwards, just
like I witnessed it last year and I brought it to you. So now I'm asking that you Bring this forward. Have whoever is responsible for our waterways take care of this because these three spillways, if they don't get maintained, if we don't get some flow it was uh I tanglewood spillway. The top all the gates were open. At the top of the spillway was two feet higher than the bottom of the spillway. With all those gates open, that shouldn't have been. So something's not been maintained. And then when you go south of the
cubulus, you go down there and look at all the blockages throughout. It's it's just not flowing at all. And you're gonna we're gonna see some serious flooding. And our whole community is gonna really be ravaged by this. So I'm just asking that you take us take another look at this and whoever needs to pay attention to this, please, and if I can be of any help. You've got my number. Thank you.
Alan, before you leave, before you leave, Jason Mickel is on the back over there, and Brantford's there, just kind of review with them? Could thanks.
Thank you. We have uh Sydney uh Sydney Scarta.
Hello, my name is Cindy Scarta. I'm at [address removed]. I'm in favor of the moratorium on data centers. I believe it should be a permanent ban. There are three other counties in uh Florida right now that have Declared a permanent ban on data centers. Uh given our fragile water supply and our unique geological structure here in Florida, being a limestone base, makes
it very permeable, very uh uh easily um polluted because of its porous structure. So I think it's very um We should really think about that because we're unique compared to any other states in the country that have rock. So uh we're risking destroying our fragile ecosystem here. We're in the uh right now Florida is in a 50-year drought or the Tampa Bay area. Pasco County is currently under a phase
three modified extreme water shortage. It's unbelievable to me that I am asked to limit my washing of my cars. I'm limited to how much I can water my lawn. They're even asking me to be careful of how much water I use when I brush my teeth. And then we're considering data centers that use millions of gallons of water a day. Um so I I just think we have to understand that Florida is a very unique area and uh we're
risking our s freshwater water supply by um Having more data centers. Does Florida really need more data centers? I think there are like a hundred and twenty data centers already in Florida with four more being built. I don't think Pasco needs a data center. So I would ask you to not only do a twelve month moratorium, but a permanent moratorium. So thank you for letting me speak. Thank you for the time today. Thank you.
Please do not applaud. Please do not applaud. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, that item is on your public hearing agenda for this afternoon, not for this morning's public comment.
Yeah, so any if we're gonna talk about data centers that they think about 130, we'll have a public hearing on it. Uh and just to let everyone know, we have put a moratorium on them. Uh they're not going to be taking place. We're bringing forward to go to go on that.
Ordinances.
Mr. Chairman's all that I have signed up and there's no one on WebEx.
Okay. Anyone else from the audience like to come forward and speak? Please come please come forward.
Mr. Chairman Mariano. Hold on a second, just make sure you state your name and address for the record and then you can begin.
Thank you. David Miltenberger, [address removed]. Uh I was h hoping to speak related to data centers, but if you're doing it this afternoon at one thirty, I'm happy to come back then and not take your time right now. Appreciate it. Thank you. Is that best? That'd be best. Okay. Thank you.
I
think so.
Right. Seeing no one else we'll close in the back. Come forward please. Anyone else please get behind this gentleman?
How are you doing? Brian Wellington, Newport Ritchie. I just want to thank Commissioner Starkey that there are some things that we are doing in regards to waterways. And uh the support she's given behind us to supporting what's going on in Pasco with the data centers and also with the water deprivation program. There is something that she did have in mind that we will be implementing for you as well. Just wanted to thank you guys for what you're doing for us. That's all. Thank you. Thank you.
Is there anyone else? Please come forward. Anyone else please just line up one behind each other? Mm-hmm.
Good morning. My name is Nick Morendo. I live at [address removed]. And I just want to thank the Council f about what they're doing with Faith and Family today, that they're gonna swear a proclamation. I I think so. And I wanna thank you guys for what you are doing. Mr. Mariano, I thank you for th what you did at the library last year with the uh The transgender uh happy hour, story
hour. I want to thank you for that. And I I just come to thank you today in Jesus' name. And I thank you, and I believe God's wisdom is upon you, and he's gonna guide you and lead you to righteousness in this in this county and do the right things. Thank you.
Hi, my name is James Stahl, [address removed]. Um, I'm the founder of Ritchie FM, which is a brand new community radio station in Newport Ritchie. And I'm just trying to seek some coordination with the county so that we can uh work together for community communications and uh emergency operations and that's pretty much what I need to do. I'm reaching out for that.
Okay. Um Connor, maybe you can talk with them. Okay. Yeah, that'd be fine.
Thank you.
Good morning everybody. Thank you for being here. My name is Jan Johnson. I think I remember Mr. Mariano there. He knows where I am. Uh I'm at [address removed]. I'm directly across from Lakeside Development, which is not sure what the size is, but it's I remember cows when they were out there. Um just to the east of me, within two and a half miles, there's four massive developments going in right now. Even though Hudson
Avenue right now is a raceway, it's a beautiful road. I'm concerned with the four developments are there, there's two or three, they're inevitable with entrances on Hudson Avenue as well because you see the big vast lands for sale. The other concerning point is that my understanding is the piece of property next to a new development 400 feet from me, which just opened. uh is uh plans for a county maintenance center. Uh I'm not
sure how that light industrial fits in with all the residential development right next to it. Plus with the uh the roads, how crowded they are now, it's a little difficult to get out of my driveway. Thank God I'm retired now and I don't have to get out of my driveway at that time. But uh I just wanna know what the plans for the infrastructure for Hudson Avenue is and uh are we gonna guess continue to have one development after another on the north side of the road, which is my side, which is basically where
all the the land that I really thought were going to remain small parcels. Okay, so thank you very much for listening. Appreciate it.
Thank
you.
My name is Elizabeth Skelly. Um at [address removed]. I don't understand where is the separation of church and state? It is. Yes, there is.
Please address the board.
Well he shouldn't be talking to me. Anyway.
This has to stop. Separation from church and state, leave it out of the government, has no place. And if you don't like something on TV or out on the street, go home. That's it.
Whitney, England, [address removed]. I live right off Little Road. And I am already having rolling blackouts from Duke Energy. So with all that construction and the houses aren't even finished, what's gonna go on? And then you all are planning data centers that suck up the energy. I just want to know where is this all gonna come from and when Is this gonna stop?
Thank you.
Is there anyone else who would like to address the board under public comment?
We'll close public comment.