Public comment hockey flooding code enforcement
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 agenda for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 20, 2022
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Sep 20, 2022
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 28m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 77% of 116 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
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 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 will take public comment from those who have pre-registered on a WebEx link and are currently on queue. We request that when you address the board, comments are not directed personally against a commissioner or team member.
but rather directed at the issues. This provides mutual respect between board members and the public. After stating your name and address for the clerk, a three-minute timer will be activated. After two minutes, a single beep will indicate you have one minute left. When your time is up, two beeps will sound and you should close your comments. WebEx participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?
We do. Um we have um six people signed up in person. We have Russ Henderson and followed by Wanda Chastnaw, followed by Mitch Cobernick. So Mr. Henderson?
Our screens continue
to go on and off.
Oh
yeah.
I'll I'll unplug this in just a minute.
Uh good morning, honorable commissioners. Uh my name is Russ Henderson. I'm here on behalf of Nest Hockey Academy, which is a uh Christian hockey school in Wesley Chapel.
Sir, I just need your address for the record.
Oh sorry about that. Uh [address removed].
Thank you.
Sorry about that. Um
We're located right in the middle of what will be the center of Future Connected City, the commercial district. We're very excited to be a part of it. I came here this morning for two reasons. First is to invite all of you to come out and visit our project, see what we're trying to do, see the type of school we have. Um and what we're trying to build. Uh Pledges and Prayers are every morning at 745, so it'd be great to have you there for that. Um Second, I'm here to offer clarity on our project. We have purposely kept uh the project a secret so it's understandable
why there may be some misinformation among staff as well as the public on where we're going versus where we began. So I just want to give a a brief history of that. November of twenty nineteen, we were going to build a private ice barn just for my family. Once we were made aware of Connected City and where we would be inside the landscape of Connected City, we decided we're going to build something a little bit bigger for not just our kids, but for our community. Um We've since completed construction on our facility and received our CO late August. We submitted a MPUD rezoning, which
we knew we had to do in March, and just because of staffing shortages nationwide in every industry, it's just taken a little bit longer than expected. Um Everyone we dealt with at the county has been fantastic. I can't uh I don't have any begrudges against anyone. Everyone's been great. Uh Mike Carbala has been fantastic. Uh Sally Sherman is probably the sweetest person I've ever spoken to. So it's been very humbling to talk to a lot of these great people. Um so thank you so much for that. Um I'm here to ask for help to
try to get through our MPD. The way it stands right now, under our special exception. We're allowed 20 people in our building. Our building per life safety is built for 892 people, but we understand we have a substandard road up front. And we are only allowed to do 20 people at a time inside of our building because of that special exception. So I'm asking for any help you guys can give us. To the best of my understanding, we are limited to that 20 because of the substandard road. We have paid our proportionary shares, but we're willing to give
more. We have 150 feet of rideaway for Boyette Vision Road runs right through the back of our property. I'm happy to dedicate the that to Pasco County if they can help us get our numbers up and get our students in immediately. We have a waiting list of people trying to get into the school, but we can still only serve so many. Um But we've already attracted, you know, hockey creates like Steven Stamkost, Victor Hedman, Zach Bagoshin. The Tampa Bay Lightning Group wants to support us because we're we've got a huge initiative to change girls hockey that may be the staple for this for
girls hockey in the South forever. But right now we need your help. We need to get through the through the special exception. MPUD process, we understand the whole process of what we need to do. We're just asking for any help that any of our commissioners can give us to help push us through that process so that we can kind of alleviate the capacity limit to move forward. So
thank you very much. I think I have an appointment set to come out and visit you.
Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I look forward to seeing all of you folks whenever you have time. We know you're very busy, but thank you for hearing me this morning and I'll talk to you guys soon. All right.
Thank
you.
Um next.
Please. Wanda Chastna?
More. My name's Wanda Chasnoff. I live at [address removed]. I live right off Green Key. I'm here about the flooding again. The T V cameras was out uh a week ago, filming us again and everything. I'd like you to know that I met with this gentleman here. I've been working with big Out of the roadin' bridges, I want you know, since I was here last time I ain't had one phone call from not one person about none of it. This last time it flooded, all the traffic. Don't do nothing but push
the water back up my street and flood my street up to my steps. At the entrance of my street there ain't nothing but potholes now because the water will never go away because it floods and I'll Vic told me he got the okay from the city saying they did not have the equipment to do the work that needed to be done. I have chased fig down through my neighborhood is how I find out the information. I have not been called not one time. And I don't deserve this. My taxes is current,
my taxes is paved. I'm just like any other taxpayer. I don't deserve to have to wade in the water up to my knees to get out of my house or anybody else. The man next door to me is a one-legged man in a wheelchair. He cannot do nothing but use his electric space. To get out of his out of my street, okay? The man in the trader park behind me is in a confined wheelchair, he's catheterized in everything. You can't even get in there. When it pludged. And
I thought all the Green People Green Key people would have been here this morning. They were supposed to be here. I'm told I'm not part of that grant. I want to be showed. If I'm not part of the grant that the Green Key got, I want to be showed. I've been told I'm not included in it. Why? I got blood in the whole damn way, Grinky. Ride down it when it's flooded, when you can't even get out. Please, I want some help. I don't deserve this. I can't even clean my car.
My car's a mud pit. Thank you.
Mitch Cobernick. And uh we do we did get we are we do have a water project heading that
way. It's a big water project. We had over two million dollars from the state. So we are working on it at Dell's cut-time. It is a very low-level lying area that we're dealing with.
It's hard to k hard to keep the Gulf of Mexico back when you're that low. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Cobernic.
Um Okay, my name is Mitch Cobernick. I live at [address removed]. Um I also serve on the board of the Gulf Harbor Civic Association. And one of my duties in that role is to maintain the standards and the appearance of the neighborhood. And that's why I'm here today. Uh the vast majority of the homeowners are very conscientious. They take great pride in their in their homes and the appearance of their homes. Uh but there's one particular property owner that I do need your help with and you're in a unique position to help
me. Uh because that property owner is the county. Before the county purchased the Gulf Harbor's golf course, we were able to uh enforce the county ordinances for uncut grass against the previous owner. Uh if they wouldn't cut the grass we could we could um Beseech the county to do it and they would. They would cut the grass, they would charge the owner back. Uh but now that the county owns the property, we no longer have that remedy to enforce the ordinance because the county is exempt. from the from the grass
cutting ordinance. So we Basically just have to rely on the county to do what's right. Uh right now the grass in the parking lot is over two feet high. It's been that way for a long time. Um I've been told that that there's no plan to maintain that land until funds from the MSBU that was passed this year are available. Um problem is those taxes are only gonna first appear on the 2023 tax bill for Gulf Harbors. And that's not gonna be collected until probably early twenty twenty four.
twenty twenty four. Um I can't even imagine allowing the property to continue to deteriorate until it starts being maintained in 2024. Uh the county now owns the property. It will always own the property. And even after the MSBU kicks in and Gulf Harbor's residents start to pay. For the um for the maintenance of the exterior half of the of that golf course land, the county's still going to own it. It's always going to be the owner of the property. Uh the county owns other lands
and other parks. Um The county maintains those parks at county expense. It has a budget for it. Uh the voters just approved recently a bond issued to Parks and Recs for specifically park maintenance. So why is the accounty allowing the Gulf Harbor's land to be neglected? And not maintained, at least in the same manner that it maintains all its other lands and parks, MSBU or no MSBU. Thank you.
Thanks. And I've I've texted Keith just and I'll get with him to see what the plan is because is he here? Yeah, because you know, we have a little pickle because the M SBU we mi we m there was an error in the uh notification, so we missed a year. to get that started so we have a year of no funding. Um because the Gulf Harbor's community is responsible to pay for the mowing. of the Gulf Harbor's Park. But we'll f we'll I'll look into that for you. Thank you. Thanks.
Uh the next three are Pastor Troy Peterson, Leonard Lord, and Navi Merrick. So Pastor Troy?
Because I'll be here. Yeah, yeah.
Motion to
uh move. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
Good morning, commissioners. Staff. Pastor Troy Peterson. [address removed].
What uh the secretary is handing out is uh once again our yearly carefest with uh somebody cares, Pasco Hernando. Working with somebody cares. Tampa Bay and Somebody Cares International. Where we work with government leaders, uh like in the in the past we've had uh Congressman Gus Bilarakas help us with projects. Last year I want to thank uh Commissioner Christina Fitzpatrick. for coming and Marcy from community
development. Uh they took that their team took on a couple of projects. And really Um We believe that that's Scott's heart. Um that's why we're here in this community is to serve, to work with our governing authorities, to obey our governing authorities. And this morning I was praying and uh was in a prayer meeting, as you guys may know. Um every Tuesday morning for I don't know how many years Pastor Lord could
probably speak on that. I've been here six years. There's a group of pastors that get together at the OASIS Coffee Spot. uh Tuesday mornings and we pray for each and every one of our governing authorities. Um the primary mission is uh praying for Pasco County. seeking God, uh Pastor Lord who's here this morning He drew a d a diagram on the whiteboard one time and it just really impacted me. He
drew a pyramid and And he said,
reaching up to heaven to ask God on how we're to come together with our governing authorities to serve our community. So what we're doing is we're seeking God to hear from God and then to tell you all what God is saying. Now I've been coming for over a year. and God gave me an assignment That assignment I know it's gonna have victory because he wouldn't send me someplace and there not be victory. The assignment
was to come in here because you commissioners and staff and pastors, we believe that Pasco County can be a premier Premier County. It's a great county. It's a great county to live. Many believe that Pasco County is a hub for revival. And so the reason why God has sent me here is that if we would acknowledge Jesus Christ, the only way to the Father is through the Son, if we would acknowledge Jesus Christ in our commissioner meetings, you can guarantee
that God is going to bless Pasco County. Thank you for your time.
Uh Leonard Lord?
Leonard Lord, I live at [address removed] for forty five years, been here for Seventy three years, it's an honor to really come to a place where we can share our hearts for three minutes. You know, we we all smile and go about our business like everything's okay, but it's not. We know these last few years that We have really fallen now. and the immorality and now bad inflation. And I was really thinking of what Deuteronomy said, uh This morning, Deuteronomy eleven, talking
about the Ten Commandments, says, You know, if we would teach our children these when we rose up in the morning, when we walked along in the day, and when we lay down at night, Our days would be as heaven. Upon earth. And we're in perilous times. The Scripture makes it clear that everything that can be shaken will be shaken. But we receiving a kingdom that can't be moved. What is it? The kingdom of God is when you live in the power of the Holy Spirit that only Jesus gives. that you're able to make the right decisions with wisdom
from God. You're able to do it in peace and joy. It says that kind of living. is accepted of God and approved of man. So there is beginning to be a clash in our land between the governor of God that wants to stand for his word. and the Judeo Christian values and those that are wanting to move us in the progressive. We saw it happen in the schools, we've been fighting for years. So myself As a citizen I want to give all I can to
restore. The family. Husbands loving their wives, wives loving their husband, children seeing what a family's really about. And so I want to thank you for what you do. I can't imagine. That's why we pray for you. There's a lot on your shoulder. But it's when God's government and the government God called to rule. Come together, he commands a blessing. Says everything's going to be shaken, but we receive in God's presence that can't be shaken the foundation, nor the foundation can any man lay than Jesus Christ. It
says the gold is his, the silver is his, and he said he'll build in. So I do what I do simply because God makes a way. Thank y'all and God bless you. It's a joy to live in Pasco. We enjoy serving you. May the Lord richly bless you and fill you with His wisdom in Jesus' name.
Thank you.
Uh Novi Mar uh Merrick.
Morning, Novi. Good morning.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Snovi Merrick, [address removed]. And I'm with the Florida Premier Youth Soccer Association, formerly known as Vespasco Youth Soccer Association. I'm here to support the increase of the impact fee. So we can keep supporting our youth and keep supporting and improving and building new parks for our youth to play on. So
I started with Florida Premier, then known as Ves Pasco Youth Soccer Association, 22 years ago. I've been in charge of Florida Premier the last 15 years. And we have uh started with a very small neighborhood club out of Mitchell Fields. And right now we've built one of the biggest and most successful youth soccer association in the country. We have over 5,000 kids playing soccer in Pasco. And are playing at the highest
level in the highest leagues in the country. This past weekend we hosted 500 families from across from Alabama and Atlanta. They were in our county, staying in our hotels, going to our restaurants, and we didn't have fields to host the match. So, my goal is with the Parks and Rec's helps and you guys' help. Whatever we can do for our youth, right? Our youth is the future of our
county. So, whatever we need to do, we need to invest in our youth. And that starts with parks and rec. Our youth, every right-any sport. I'm not just talking about soccer, I'm talking about football, basically. baseball, la cross, anything, they should have fields to play on. There should not be arguments between organizations, who has fields, who doesn't have fields. We want the kids off the streets, on the sports facilities, playing sports. So whatever you guys can do to
help us out, it will be greatly appreciated. I know our families, our staff, Parks and Rec, Keith, Brian, we've worked very, very hard. To get sports in Pasco County to be the highest it can be. I think this is a great opportunity to take us to the next level. I've lived here in Pasco County for 22 years. I have my own children. I'm hoping for my children, right, to want to stay in Pasco, raise their own families, and if
we can start with. improving the county parks, I think it's gonna go a long way. So thank you very much and thank you. Thanks for coming, Novi.
So Madam Chair, that's all I have who signed up. I don't know if there's anyone else. And to let you know about WebEx, we had two individuals pre- sign up previously, but they're not on in the queue. Okay, is
there anyone else here who wishes to address, come on up, uh name and address. Is anyone else besides this gentleman?
Well.
Okay, why don't you line up behind him?
Good morning. My name's Wayland Rains. I live at [address removed]. The thing I'd like to discuss is what appears to be a selective enforcement of code enforcement. A couple of years back I started getting Inundated with visits from code enforcement. for various different things of a shed being too large or whatnot. I was told it was called in by anonymous people and that they couldn't reveal who the callers were. I addressed with the gentleman
at the time. the vast number of places within Pasco County that are horrendous and need some serious attention. He told me that there's no way that they could proactively Go out and initiate contact with any of these people. Without a collar. Now here recently This last week, code enforcement came into our neighborhood. And we've got several people who own businesses that have their plumbing vehicles or whatnot parked
in their ve in their yards or in their driveways. They all got cited this week. for illegally having commercial vehicles parked in a residential neighborhood. There are several other violations like boats and driveways sticking out past the house. I mean, there are numerous violations technically within the neighborhood. None of them got written. The only people who have been addressed and written citations are the commercial vehicles, the the business owners. In Pasco County. So it's a little bit more than a little bit. It looks
a little odd. That A commissioner's name is put on as the complainant. And we were told now that they can proactively engage people But they put it in. a commissioner's name on as the complainant. And that they've changed the law. So I don't know if that's true that the law has been Just recently? Yes, this past week. Your name is the ones being put on all the citations.
Oh that's thank you, Code Enforcement. Yes.
But My one question is has the the ruling changed to where they can proactively Make contact and issue citations.
That No, wait, wait, wait. Um when you're done making your comment, I will have someone go out and talk with you about what the laws uh the laws did change and We don't do conversation here.
Okay.
So I'll have someone i inform you and then I'll look into why they're putting my name on all the on the
sweeps, I guess. And that's the concern that that I have. It it looks really bad upon the county commission and on the county in general if if a representative of this county is going out and using names of you as being the w reasons why they're going forth and targeting specifically business owners versus all the properties that desperately need attention from code enforcement, it just looks really bad and sets a bad quote. Madam
Chairman Mariano assist for a second here if you don't mind. I'm thinking about
it too.
And then and then again, code enforcement will explain to you the the raw laws and the recent ordinance changes and things like that. But if citizens call into a county commission office with a code of complaint, the county commission's office is obligated to forward that to code enforcement. So if it goes through a county commission office, that's probably why somebody you may have seen somebody's name on where it came from. So that happens from time to time. It happens I would assume to everybody. They they come through my office, we get fall phone calls. Say
hey this I'm not you're you're not in my area, so I wouldn't know what you got going on. But you know, so and so this is what code complaint, we want to call it in, it has to we have to turn it in. That's why a commissioner's name is probably on there. That's my assertion.
It might have been old for anonymous. Yeah. Yeah,
it might have been old. Um so
I don't know. That's that's my question.
I've been let the count it okay if we've gotten into the
guys, it's in the past from personal experience. The citations that come from anonymous people that comes through you and then to code enforcement, it comes in showing anonymous as Yeah.
Let's so cutting to the chase, the legislature changed the law with regard to all local governments within the state. that an that we could not take anonym anonymous complaints anymore. There has there has never been a law that says that code enforcement couldn't proactively do sweeps within neighborhoods. What you were probably told was code enforcement doesn't have the resources to do to proactively do enforcement all over the county. And
so they were up until recently they were operating on a complaint based system of enforcement. Um But
They can do sweeps. They can they can if there are a lot of if there are a lot of violations within a neighborhood, there is nothing in the law that says that they can't. go through a neighborhood and determine violations that they can observe. And and
I appreciate that. And I retired from law enforcement, so I understand the the way the system goes. And I promise I didn't mishear or misunderstand what the gentleman said the three times that he came out to me saying he was not allowed because I asked him, Why don't you go address this, this, and this. to.
Yeah. So
not that he didn't have the resources to, that he was not allowed to.
Is there anyone from code here? Okay. Sally will meet.
That's not only I'll give it
a
big concern is just the selective enforcement. Not necessarily the proactive or non-proactive, just the selective. If you're gonna come to a neighborhood and only target the people who have businesses, it looks really bad.
And Madam Chair, I I believe it was about a year ago that we did create and initiate the proactive code enforcement team, the PACE team.
Well, we've been doing that for a while, but um I didn't know they were putting the commissioners' names on it when they go do a sweep in a neighborhood. So that's that's a new one for me. Plus I don't understand selective But you know I'm I'm gonna look into the
multiple reports in a specific area they will do under
public
A pace. They'll do a sweep, but also when they go out, they go and they'll stand and if there is a complaint, they address that house, but they also do a three sixty surveillance.
Okay, thank you. Thank you. Name and address for the record, please.
Uh yeah, Justin Durham, [address removed] Um I'm pretty much here, you know, just trying to figure out why like a like he said, it's a Just a pinpoint on, you know, commercial vehicles. Uh we're not in a deed restricted, we're not in an HOA, and that's for a reason. Um, it's hard enough times right now with inflation and everything else going on. So now for my work vehicle, I've got to go find somewhere and store it. You know what I mean? It's
it's only two vehicles, that's it. And I keep my area clean. There's Like the gentleman before me said there's a lot of other violations going on, but nothing's being said about that. I keep my area clean, everything, there's no impeding sidewalks, no anything. So why is it that you know A ladder on top of a truck is A terrible thing. And that's what I got out of I uh my violations. And I'm getting five hundred dollars apiece for each
vehicle if it's in my driveway. I think that's a little ridiculous. And there's a lot of hard working people the in the in the neighborhood that are getting hit with these and it's not fair.
Right, thank you very much. And you might want to join Donna Sally in the back. Okay. Is there anyone else here who wants to speak? Okay, then we will uh close public comment and we will take up The resolution.
So Madam Clerk, did you say that the the ones on WebX had not Head dropped off.
Well um neither one of the two that had signed
previously end up were logged in.
Okay.
Okay resolution one is a time certain so we will move on to resolution two.
Time certain.
Is that also time certain? That is time certain at uh eleven fifteen. Okay. We have resolution three. All right. And I don't okay. Resolution three.