Public comment on agenda and county business
What the county recorded
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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 19, 2026
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 19, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 32m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 83% of 102 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's the time for public comment. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any current or future agenda item coming before the board and any on any 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'll take public comment for those who are pre-registered online, link and currently on queue. We request that you address the board. Comments are not directed personally at a commissioner or a team member, but rather directed at the issues. This provides mutual respect between board members and
the public. After stating a name address for the clerk, a three-minute timer will be activated and a green light will be shown to 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 their time is up. And I know we have a few people signed up and I saw a p few people signed up for a uh a public hearing. I'm just gonna heard the it's gonna be continued in the afternoon. If you want to make comments to it, that's fine. You are you
have the right to do so, but I just don't want you to get too into it as it's gonna be continued.
Uh too deep to it up if you could. Right.
We have uh Sherald Orchard.
Good morning commissioners. I have a few notes here that I'd like to go over. It's brief, but it's important. I live in [address removed].
We have a lot of issues in Green Key have for twenty years. We have noises all hours of the night, prowling, crimes, theft, hoarding, weapon, gunfire, machetes, construction to raise to build, places to cover in the woods, couches, potty chairs, buckets, food waste, debris. creating vehements, creating a health concern, loitering, profanity, health, safety, welfare of the community. Creating diseases, as in hepatitis 20, that already has
cost the county $250,000. Property owners, taxpayers, are paying the price with their freedom, their health, their safety, and their welfare. This is like living in jail. Please pleads for help in Green Key falling on deaf ears. Numerous emails, meetings continue to fail our community. We call for a sweep for a cleanup. flashing signs warning the violators to clean up. That's like saying hide the drugs. Since
the county has taken over the jails to save money, crime and fear for the residents to live in mental anguish, posting trespassing doesn't deter anyone, creating the issues. They tied their hands of law enforcement, medical EMTs, so cutting funding placed these offenders under arrest is like saying to Green Key, you're on your own. The west side nineteen. is an embarrassment to those that took an oath to serve the public to correct these issues in a timely manner. you've had the authority to do so. Florida statutes
are not and have not been carried out, or the Fl Sunshine Laws, call for term limits It's understandable. We need change and we've need it for twenty years and nothing changes. It just gets worse. You can't even you can't even turn in a driveway. The city, I talked to them, that motel is supposed to come down. What started the mess in there is when they turned around and gave The churches come in and feed 'em, they throw
their stuff on the ground. It's hurting our wildlife, it's hurting our waterways. It's unhealthy. It's disease. That needs to be controlled. The people are pleading. They're working so hard to restore their homes. But you got landlords in there, the L L Cs and different ones, that live in Newport Ritchie, They just collect the rent. And they don't care hoarding hoarding is killing the area. Now they're dragging old, Old R V's in there. No license plates. No titles.
Cars without license plates. they brought in a big car hauler, parked it along Olsner, with a big box truck, left it for thirty days, called the police several times. They came out. Finally they made a move it. Guy lived two streets over. What'd he do? He parked it in the street. Then next thing it is, they told him he couldn't have it there. He parked it on the lawn. This is what we're living like in there. It's terrible. It's a ghetto. It needs to be cleaned up. Thank you.
Ron Oakley?
Good morning. Question Commissioner.
I'm sorry, Ron Oakley, [address removed]. Thank you. Are you proud to serve as commissioners in this county? I assume that the answer is yes. Okay. If so, I'm not sure. Why do we have so many areas in Pasco that are allowed to become blighted, run down, hazardous to the public? Many neighborhoods have become unsafe, unsightly, nuisances and health hazards. Pasco County and the state of Florida already have codes and
statutes in place to address many of these problems. Included in these Florida statutes are 163.335 and eight twenty three point zero one and the Pasco Land Development Code. As elected officials and overseers of the county, it is your duty and responsibility to ensure that these issues are addressed and fairly enforced. Uh coding compliance officers Need stronger backing. and a greater authority to enforce These codes. They
should not be misled or persuaded into taking a softer approach to many of the violators, okay? Enforcement must be consistent to everyone. The property on one street is being Cited. And the same issue of violation on the next tree is not. It's not being enforced fairly. Code Offers code officers much ac must actively Uh pursue the these violations and not just drive past them. So
just Ignoring him. Ma many residents are afraid to report issues in fear of retaliation. which makes proactive enforcement even more important. Additional training may also be needed for code officers who So they fully understand the codes and the tools. and the statutes available to them.
even realize that there's statutes out there that they can use.
Pasco County will never escape the reputation of be calling have having been called Trashcoat County by people outside the county. We have to do things to change this. As a private citizen of Basco County, why do I consinu continuously have to raise these concerns? What are the elected officials?
employees being paid for, if not to protect and improve the community. Thank you.
Ron, if you would, Cheryl too. Um Kathy Pierce and David Allen, would you talk with them about their issues that are out there? Thank you.
We get it. So the next person who signed up, I'm unable to properly read your um signature or your I think it's like Rowend Levi. It says um cone I'm sorry? Ronald Ronald, thank you, Levi. Um for cone violation. Thank you.
Ronald Levy, [address removed]. Uh I will let to bring to your attention. What I think is I'm president of the HOA. an injustice that is being put on HOAs. Um for 15 years I've been president. Um We were always told that The wetlands should not be touched. Bye swift mud. About a year ago. uh
evidently unbeknownst to me. Uh Pasco County passed an ordinance that we would be responsible. For the invasive species that are in the wetlands. That is a m big undertaking. We're talking about a lot of money. that the county wants the HOAs to be responsible for. I have talked to an adver environmental scientist, Kim Diamond at Swiftbod. She told us. They they do not have any regulations
For us. for to be responsible to take care of that problem. That it is just the county that has passed that problem on to us. I think that's a Big undertaking HOAs cannot have the money or resources to go into to all these woods and take care of this problem. I'm not saying it's not a problem. All I'm saying is it it never has been a problem. and
I know everybody is concerned about the environment. One of the things they say is a Queen's Palm. is uh an invasive specie. Home Depot, Lowe's, they all sell 'em. Why aren't we stopping them from selling these things?
I think that's a good thing.
Uh we we've got a violation. It's gotta be answered by the end of the month. I'd like some sort of recourse from the board. To let us know. What we should do. who we should find, the code enforcement officer that we have talked to. has said this is the first violation that he's personally written. He doesn't know of any others that have been written. So we're the test case. Now, HOAs cannot financially do this. We're
talking about bringing big equipment into woods. Companies are just gonna get rich and the HOAs are gonna go broke. I just asked for somebody to get back to us. To tell us what to do. Thank you very much.
And Ron, if you would, uh Brantford's right there. Talk with Brantford, talk with David Allen, and maybe we'll put a plan together how to get this work done. And uh Mr.
Chairman Mariano I talked to Keith Wiley about this this morning and he is here um because it's really his department kind of oversees that. Is Keith here? Oh, okay. Keith said he was gonna be here too, but I I talked to Keith, so he's
on advice.
Okay.
Awesome. Thank you.
Thank you.
Skip Tiger.
Good morning, Commissioners. Excuse me. My name is Ski Geiger, and I live at [address removed]. I've been a resident of Pasco County and the Gulf Harbor's Floor Mart Development for 34 years. During that period, I volunteered my time working for both the county and the Gulf Harbor's community. For the last 11 years, I've been foc I focused my energies with a group of community representatives to find a way to obtain the defunct golf
course for the community's private use without the inherent liability to the community owners. With your help and the county staff, we have successfully completed the first goal. It's time to take the next step of financing the planning and improvement to the property to make it a true jewel for the community. Obviously, our community was first envisioned in the 1950s, permitted and dredged in the 60s, with
building begun in the 70s and 80s. Designs for Florida communities during those periods. had little green space in the designs. Two miles straight, narrow roads from Highway 19 all the way to the Gulf of America. No sidewalks for adults, children, and pets to walk or ride on. This park will give us the green space and the value of the community as well as ensure the safety of our residents. By
taxing only the affected residents, Incorporating funds provided by the Gulf Harbor's Neighborhood Park Organization, which is a state of Florida nonprofit, and utilizing approved county resources, we've been able to clear up the property, fence certain areas, manage a mowing program, remove the invasive species. repave a badly damaged parking lot, restore electric power to the property, and install a stormwater
system to manage the rainwater. And on top of that, we've started installing park benches and picnic tables. Today we are asking you, commissioners, to take the next step by unanimously consenting to a loan to the homeowners so that we can proceed with the design, planning, and building of the amenities that the community has requested. This loan will not increase the burden borne by the homeowners. but will expedite completion
of the need needed resources. and we'd like you to approve it today. Thank you.
Next up we have Mitch Cobernick.
Thank you. Good morning. Mitch Kobernick, [address removed]. I'm also the current public relations director of the Gulf Harbor Civic Association. Um I'm here to talk about the RV and uh and boat ordinance that's pending. First I would like to say that the um in the uh Memorandum or the the um preamble to the to the memorandum for the ordinance, it states that meetings were already held on April second and June second to discuss this. And as we sit here today, I think probably
the June second meeting was very sparsely attended since it occurred next month. Uh but now into into the issues that I want to bring up. The uh the main thrust of this uh proposed ordinance is to allow parking of boats on driveways. uh unlimited parking of boats on driveways. The ordinance also deals with parking recreational vehicles on driveways, but they're limited. They have certain conditions and and restrictions on them. Um but the boat parking is unlimited and
I dare say there are a lot of boats that are probably bigger than some RVs. So having unlimited boat parking on driveways is going to have a very detrimental effect, especially in our community and other boating communities where It could end up looking like a boat storage lot after some time when people just start parking their boats on their drivers instead of taking them to to private lots. And that's going to happen if you allow boat parking. Uh the other issue that I have is uh in the verbiage of the ordinance itself.
Now I was only able to obtain this this ordinance recently because uh I needed to see the final draft to see what the verbiage was, and that verbiage was only available just before this meeting. Now in the verbiage uh they they talk about recreational vehicles. The current ordinance Defines recreational vehicles in the Land Development Code as also including trailers of all sorts. Um this new ordinance eliminates that recreational
vehicle definition, takes that term out and puts a new term in called recreational land vehicles. That term is now defined differently from the original uh the original ordinance and that term does not reference trailers anymore. So what what this means is that there is no longer any pr if this ordinance passes, there is no longer a prohibition against parking trailers on your property. So if you have a utility trailer, a landscaping trailer, a box trailer If this ordinance is
passed, you will be allowed to park that trailer on your front lawn indefinitely. There's no restriction on it, as there was in the previous ordinance by way of the definition of recreational vehicles. That may have been an unintended consequence of the verbiage. I cannot believe that that was intentional to allow people to park trailers indefinitely on their front lawns. That's the effect of this ordinance. I hope it was a mistake and I hope you go back and either scrap this ordinance together or reword it so that it
softens some of those uh detrimental issues to the neighborhoods. There's only one way to describe a neighborhood that allows all of this. Trashy. Don't make Pasco County trashy.
Uh thank you. Um Alan Rose is ne is next.
Good morning commissioners. Alan Rose, [address removed]. I have some papers for the public record, please.
Mode received five. Second.
All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.
And yes, this is P 33 and 38, and I know that's being continued, but I wanted to make sure that the commissioners have information and insights that we have as community. We've been bringing this forward for two years. We've won initially when we went off in front of the uh Uh Planning Commission had a five zero vote, but somewhere along the line it was overwritten and that's just a recommendation. Well I wanted to bring forward some insights from the community so that you can see this when it comes before you. Yeah.
You will see this is a flooding in this in this property, and it's gonna that be very detrimental to Golden Acres. And there's the other there's other issues that are not a little bit more than a little bit. In this It goes from the traffic. the immense traffic that this is gonna bring into our community that w we're already a Little road bypass is gonna definitely negatively impact the community. I've also included the flooding, which you'll see the pictures of.
These designers will have Storm retention ponds. Their design is for pollution. and storm surge. It is not designed to control the flooding and the rifarian flow. And this is what you're seeing here and it will definitely be a negative impact on the community. Um So also included here the thirty homes s homesteads that are abutting this property. They're all valued at four hundred thousand to over a million dollars. And would you want something like what they're bringing forward in your backyard if you
have a house worth a million dollars? I don't think so. And then this is the petition we've fought we've fought since the beginning and have continued to get. Representatives in the community all signing up and you'll see pages and pages and pages of signatures and I have more that I have not included on this. We as a community strongly object to this and we wanted you to make sure I wanted to make sure that you had the full picture when this comes before you. This is definitely a negative impact on the community and we do not have anything. Um from
From where uh We are in Golden Acres North. Two fifty two. There's no high density commercial and this guy gets around it by calling it an MSB or whatever it is he's calling it. The commercial input in there? Yeah. you're gonna have 32,000 square foot of commercial. That's gonna be a high impact in our neighborhood and no one around this community, around this, everyone's over an acre and everyone, we have space. what he wants to put in between all in
behind all thirty of our neighbors. It's just not appropriate for the neighborhood. So thank you very much.
Thank you. Next up I have Robert Gerald or Jarl. Sorry. Mm-hmm.
Hi, Robert Jarrell, [address removed]. Same thing guys, golden acres. I'm the guy that's my property is right next to it. You guys look at this picture that he gave you. That's part of my property on the other side. This is where my donkey's pasture is. This is from July to this year. Guys, they went to December. I have video I can show you in late October where the water actually came all the way to the property line where they want to build this. It's not even built
yet. Now
This is my neighbor's kids in boats on this. This is not there. It's considered a dry lake bed by Swift Mud. It's a delineation line. We cannot build on it. We can't do anything. My property is not that much higher than this. If they build their, I don't I have talked to engineers, I've talked to Swift Mutt, I've talked to everybody. My property's gonna my house is gonna flood. guys, besides my donkey's barn, uh everything else, the horses, e everything. I just implore you, please look at this seriously. and
try and take it from the people that live on this property line, guys. The guy that owns the property is so disingenuous. For over two years I have been trying to contact him. He sat in here on the record, I've said at this podium that Dave he will not put a fence up around this property and they've turned it into a motorsports park. So, just to give you guys an example, two years ago, my we were Girl Scouts, we had a Girl Scout Friendsgiving dinner outside, two hours.
I can sh I can play the video for you guys. It's insane. He's so disingenuous. The other thing is that that property has an FWC permit on it for uh protect a ghost. for tortoises. They're either dead or We've seen dead turtles everywhere, they run 'em over. Or they've migrated now, I have one buried underneath my house that's underneath my foundation of my house. They're moving out of there to me. This is can't I a lot of you, a couple of you were here for 2013, 14 when I was st I stood in front of you guys
promoting a uh commercial horse barn that wanted to go there. It never happened. Why can't we get either put houses there that belong there from the neighborhood, or a a h horse park or a equestrian park, or something that would that belongs there, not something high density where I'm gonna have a hundred cars Seventy five yards from my house. I mean I have six acres. I still because my property, my houses are built on the back of it, it's not that it's gonna be close. I implore you guys, please. I've lived
here I've lived in Pasco County since 73, 74. I've gone to elementary school, high school, college here, everything. I've been in this house since 2007. I paid $675,000 for this house in 2007. In fact, the gentleman right there helped me move in. That's just arbitrarily he's here. Correct? I mean, I really just please I'm begging you guys take a serious look at this. Let's turn it into something that works there. Thank
you guys. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Oh can I put these on the record or maybe she didn't file second? Thank you. Thanks, I'm sorry.
Thank you. Um next up is Deb Johnson.
Good morning. Uh Deb Johnson, [address removed]. First I want to thank each one of you for your public service. It is appreciated. Next, I have a want to ask you each a question. Would you pay a mortgage and not utilize the home? Would you make a car payment and not drive the car? No, that would be ludicrous. Well, that's what eighteen hundred and forty five homeowners in Gulf Harbors have been doing the past three years. Paying our hundred dollars
a year for our neighborhood park that we really can't use because it's not accessible or not developed yet. So I'm urging you to vote for the 10-year loan repayment plan that will develop our neighborhood park so that the residents of the $1,845 homes paying the $100 MSBU can use what they are paying for. There are no sidewalks in Gulf Harbors, which makes it very dangerous to walk and bike in our very busy neighborhood. A paved
trail through the neighborhood park would get residents off the streets and into the park to do their walking and biking exercise in a safe environment. When I moved here ten years ago, there were more retired residents than working residents, and only a handful of children. That has changed. Mao, more young families are buying and building homes in Gulf Harbors. These children use our streets for riding their scooters, bikes, and skateboards. We did have a car scooter accident
on my street a few years ago. Fortunately the young man survived. Now with our park parking lot already paved, children are using it and which which is great to get them off of our busy streets. But a paved path is really what is needed. It really would benefit all ages. Then there is the need for a dog park because our yards are so small um there's really no area for them to run. Voting yes on the extending the loan would help with that
too. Then we have no parking on our streets because they're narrow. It challenges to host gatherings at our homes. A simple shelter with bathrooms and picnic tables would provide a place for residents to host gatherings with a parking lot without compromising fire and rescue getting through on our streets. So again, I encourage you to vote yes on the loan to fund the development of our neighborhood park for the benefit and safety. of
the our residents of all ages. So in conclusion, I would appreciate not continuing to pay for something I can't utilize. Please vote yes to R32 extending the loan to develop our park and make it accessible to all of our residents, young and old, as well as our pets, so all have a safe environment to exercise and play in. And I also have two other residents speeches
that couldn't be here today because of travel and work. That I would like to submit if that's okay.
Move to receive and file. Second.
All in favor say aye.
Aye.
Thank you. Um the next person signed up is Arthur Hadeck. Hadike?
Oh that's that letter. That's the letter. Yeah, if you are. Okay.
I got a short.
Hello. I'm reading My name is Arthur Hannickey. And I reside at [address removed]. Sorry I could not be here personally to attend today's meeting.
Sorry. We need your name and address for the record though.
Roger Parker. [address removed].
I am Chairman of the Gulf Harbor's Neighborhood Park Advisory Board. And I personally been beginning working on Working to convert the old Gulf Harbor's golf course into a neighborhood park, In 2013 when I was president of the Gulf Harbor Civic Association. After many trials and tribulations and working closely with the County's Elam program, we have preserved the fifty acre parcel for the neighborhood park. And this park will eventually
be prized community asset. But to day our fifty acres are a diamond in the rough. and need large amounts of T L C and money to make it viable, To a com I'm sorry. Hmm. It a viable community park. Since we are a private community park. We do not draw Pasco County dollars for park improvements. We have an MSBU
providing for mortgage payments and basic maintenance funding. And we are set up. We have set up a five oh one three C not profit to assist in making prop park improvements and creating park events. But they do not have the ability to create a park master plan, 200,000, pave a m a mile and a half trail, two hundred and fifty thousand, or build bathrooms, pavilions and many Uh for many
more thousands. This is why
The park board is requesting the county commissioners to approve extending the county loan from five to ten years and increasing the loan amount to one million from its initial $600,000. After paying the existing loan balance, this would net approximately eight hundred thousand for immediate park improvements. It would also prevent raising the annual MSBU For property owners presently at 100,000.
Our park advisory board has unanimously approved this transaction as a advantageous for the community and is community vote the majority of the responders also thought it would be good for the Gulf Harbor's community. This will allow immediate park improvements without additional out of pocket expense to property owners. I'm eighty-one years old, have been working on this for 13 years, and I'd love to see the fruits of our labor Well
I can still enjoy it. Please approve this proposal. Thank you.
One correction. He said $100,000, but he meant $100.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Is that all for public comment? Mr. Chairman is all I
have signed up and there's no one on WebEx.
Okay. All right. So we're gonna move to resolutions if there are just aone here from the public like to come forward and speak to add anything else to the board? Please come forward. Anyone else please get behind this gentleman? Otherwise we'll close public comment after this gentleman.
Thank you. Yes, I'm Matt Abbott, uh [address removed]. I have the cattle company in the back side of uh Golden Acres. Um I'm here on the behalf of Robert Durrell. Uh when I was in third grade, I actually helped move into his property. I remember being in waist deep of water, trying to put the fence up for his donkeys and stuff like that. The covenants for Golden Acres is one house per acre. Lisa Yeager, Steph Whiteman, nice to see. See you guys. Thank you for what you're doing, but please don't allow this to go on in Golden
Acres. Thank you.