Public comment on Ross Lane, EV policy, Gulf Harbors MSBU
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.
What was said
Machine transcription of 18m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 63% of 59 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 an opportunity to comment on any current or future agenda item coming before the board and on 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 for a WebEx link and are currently on Q. Thank you. We request that when you address the board, comments are denot are not directed
personally against the 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 minim one minute left. When your time is up, two beeps will sound and you should close your comments. WebEx participants will be disconnected disconnected automatically when their time is up. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?
Yes, Madam Chair. We have four individuals signed up. I will call your name in order. First one is Costas Testactis. Okay. Uh Pastor Troy Peterson, Pastor Danny Fields, and then Nick Zumas. Thank you. You may proceed.
Good morning. My name is Kosk Destakis. I live up the street at [address removed]. Um I was here about uh ten months ago and I was here again, you know, a couple of times throughout uh uh the summer. We still have an issue up there in regards to to the light that was promised to us of Ross Lane and Little Road. Um you had said now it was different, you know, individuals up here, but you have promised us a light in order for Lows
to you know, go there. You have promised us all kinds of sidewalks that they never, you know, to you know happen. Right now, you have closed access. Of Ross Lane, we had numerous accidents. We're still having a lot of issues. For an engineer, you know, telling us that a forty-five degree, you know, turn. is more dangerous than in a hundred And eighty it has become crazy. So please I would like you to make finally Talk
amongst uh yourselves and make Something happened there. We don't want anybody dying. We don't want anybody getting killed up there. It's a very dangerous kind of a situation and before you give a lot of projects out To be developed there. You have to do an evaluation of Ross Lane. There's no any other way of going out. But we definitely need a light. I'll appreciate and I ask for you know uh for your help in voting on the matter. Thank
you.
Uh next.
Thank you.
You may proceed.
I have some flyers I'd like to receive.
All in favor?
Aye. Aye.
We all say that.
Good morning. Troy Peterson, [address removed]. That's light of the world. Tabernacle. Uh I'm one of the pastors for Somebody Cares, uh Tampa Hernando. Uh thank you for your time. Um I've handed uh uh Easter in the park uh where we've teamed up with the city of Port Ritchie uh to do Easter egg hunt every year. And uh Pastor Danny is going to share a little bit
more about that. Um but I just kind of wanted to share from my heart this morning Um We've been coming here for a little while and uh I just b believe wholeheartedly that The commissioners here really want to see Pasco County great. I I see that I see that in your actions and in your work. And I even hear uh commissioners say that. They want to see Pasco County really great. I I know wholeheartedly The
way to make Pasco County great. is to honor Jesus Christ in our invocation. And uh that's so that's what God has called me here. To do. And that's why I've been coming. And there are pastors even right now praying for us. We went there first, they sent us out. They're praying. And we're we're in a season now with the forty days of prayer. And I handed you guys the prayer guides. Um You know, last time. And
so You know, If my people are called by my name, that's us Christians, would humble ourselves and pray And if we would turn from our own evil and wicked ways, then God will heal our land. And we know our land leads l needs a lot of healing. Um We have five events uh within the p uh city of Port Ritchie where the city has actually asked us. To put on events in the park. There's five each year. And so we turn in
a permit at the beginning of the year for all them events. Even the Christmas toy giveaway in the park, in Waterfront Park. You know, the fire department gives us all the toys and we distribute it out to the kids and we share Jesus, the true meaning. of of Christmas. So I would encourage you guys, I don't know how I need to do it, uh make a motion or whatever to have the somebody cares pastors come in and lead the invocation because we're doing it in
the city of Port Ritchie. Okay. We're doing it there. And because of that reason, God is blessing the city. You know, the word says that if you deny me being Jesus Christ before men, I will deny you before the Father. That's a harsh word coming straight out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. And we know the word says the only way to the Father is through the Son. So if we want God to bless Pasco County, we need to be a Acknowledging him in the invocation. Thank you for your
time.
Pastor Danny Fields.
Okay, my name is Pastor Danny Fields. My address is uh [address removed]. The zip area is [address removed]. And uh Troy already talked about that. But you guys has got stuff on an agenda that I would like to pray into, so I'm gonna do that. And I thank you for your service, number one, and I appreciate you. Uh We are somebody who cares. Uh Pasco County, we know you care like what uh Troy
was talking about. So I'm just gonna open it up in prayer. So The great creator. God Almighty, we just thank you in the precious name of Jesus that we could come and ask for your wisdom. And we do say in God we trust, one nation under God. And we say that in the precious name of Jesus. So we just thank you for this panel of leaders that you got here that they've already had to make decisions and And they made
good decisions for the community, for for the state of Florida, for this county, for the residents. And Lord and all the stuff that they've already done and dealing with uh the homeless. Lord, I I've seen improvement there and I thank you for that uh wisdom that you've given them. I thank you for them working together as a team and working with us and us working with them. So we thank you for that. And I just say that in the precious name of Jesus and for all though the
board members here and and everybody here. So I just thank you for that, Father, in Jesus' name. And so that forty days of prayer that we're doing for the city, it's talking about and you guys are gonna be doing a R fifty five for the community development dealing with uh homeless and and stuff like that. We we we get to deal with that a lot as well and to help in them areas. And so in our prayer book here. it
is talking about seeking God in behalf of the orphans. And we know we got a lot of people that are on drugs that need resources and stuff that some of the stuff we went through it has been there to deal with that. But sometimes like I we know a woman we just helped that uh was homeless. She works. She's a nurse and she has a daughter. And then we got to help place her. Ет рефуж топ хер то геть бак о фіт.
because she was an abusive relationship and and through that, through somebody cares and through getting people off the streets, we had a resource to help. And I thank you and that you recognize that with us as somebody cares as we recognize your job. And so uh It says here in Psalms 110 17, you have heard the desires of the humble. and you will strengthen their hearts. Well, that's our hearts. We're humble
ourselves. But we're leaders and we're bold to do the things that we're called to do. So I just want to thank you and for all the uh decisions you guys have to make today, I thank you for that, and that you'll continue to do the good work in Jesus' name. Thank you.
And the last um individual signed up, Nick Zumas.
Good morning, Commissioners. PO Box 601, Odessa, Florida. Nick Jumas here today representing St. Petersburg College to talk about electric vehicle policy. First of all, I want to say that I am PASCO proud. I want to thank the entire commission and the county staff for exhibiting the highest of ethical judgments for our county business. So I'm here to talk about electric vehicles. Did you know that in 1836 the first EV was made? It was a single-person electric carriage. In 1910,
steam engine cars, gasoline cars, and electric vehicles were all on the road at the same time, and EVs had 38% of the market share in 1910. Today EVs have two percent or less of market share, but that number is growing. Florida is the second biggest state in the entire country for the EV market. But the majority of Florida's governments do not have any official EV policy. I sent a survey on EV policy to 65 counties and cities around the
state. I received 19 responses. Pasco did not respond. Of the 19 respondents, only three said that they have any official EV policy on the books. I must recommend that Pasco County move to draft and implement electric vehicle policy. Regulation is necessary for change or for charging station zoning and use, parking, signage, accessibility, and future development. A permitting process for electric vehicle chargers needs to be streamlined
and efficient. The comprehensive plan needs to be updated to include EVs. Battery cars can catch fire, by the way, and they can explode. They're very hard to put out. Uh fire rescue and EMS needs to update their training and response guides to account for the hazards of EVs. Uh during hurricane evacuations, crisis scenarios, EV drivers will need government support to be able to charge their cars if the power is out. Um Battery
recycling for EVs, that's a developing field and it's an important field. There's many perspectives to think about when it comes to EVs, especially battery recycling, and the county can make recycling a part of its waste management plan. Gas cars are not going extinct, they're not going anywhere, but electric vehicles are here and we need to regulate. We need some policy on this issue. So I thank you for your time, Commissioners.
Do we have anyone else signed up here? No one else has signed up.
Somebody's got an information.
Okay, come on up, Mitch.
Um my name is Mitchell Cobernick, [address removed]. Um I want to speak today um d on behalf of Diane Kobernick who is out of town, so she just asked me to say uh give her uh opinion about a couple of things. Uh last uh last month the uh the board passed an MSBU for the Gulf Harbors Golf Course, uh which uh It's been a long time coming. Um The um Diane spoke last w last month at that meeting and
said that uh she was willing to drop her lawsuit and w accepted the terms of the new MSBU, uh provided one condition, and that condition being that um That the uh the MSBU be phrased or the settlement be phrased in such a way that the MSBU would be honored in the future. Uh just to refresh your memories real quick, this MSBU uh was designed so that the Gulf Harbor's residents would pay for half the purchase of the golf course and
would pay for all the future maintenance on that half. And in return, uh there were certain promises made by the county and the MSBU that would give the Gulf Harbor's residents the rights for use of that portion of the uh of the golf course. That that's that's fine. Um As I said, the new MSBU, which was a big improvement over the one passed in twenty sixteen. Um contained a lot of a lot of good things that Diane was now willing to sign off on, was willing to accept, and was
willing to dismiss her lawsuit. Again, providing that um the the county honor its its uh its word and honor the terms of the MSBU. But that only makes sense. If we're paying for it and paying for it going forward in the future, it would only make sense that we would expect the county to live up to its end of the bargain and honor the terms of the MSBU. Uh that's just you know, standard business logic, if you pay for something you expect to get the benefit of the bargain. Um unfortunately,
uh Diane wanted me to convey to you that the uh the current settlement talks that are that are in process now to dismiss the old MSBU. uh contains language that not only Um Does does the county not promise to live up to the terms of the MSBU in the future? But there's actually the county attorney put language in there specifically that says that the board uh in the future does not have to honor the terms of the MSBU. It allows
the MSBU to be changed. So basically that's saying that we're paying for it, we're paying for it in the future. But in the future, the county is not obligated to live up to the terms of the MSBU and live up to the terms of its side of the bargain. That I don't know about you, but that just doesn't seem to make that's just not the way to do business. If we pay for something, we should have the benefit of the bargain going forward. But the current settlement agreement that the county attorney proposed negates that and says that that in fact
we do not have the benefit of the bargain that in the future that MSBU could be changed and we will not end up getting what we're doing.
Thank
you
Mitch I'm going to have the County Attorney respond, Board of Members.
Thank you very much.
Uh members of the board, uh as you are aware, there is a constitutional prohibition for you binding future boards, and that's what the dispute is about we have said to to Mr. Cobri Ms. Cobernick's lawyer that
enter into a contract that binds future boards. It is an ordinance. It would require whatever board um was in place at the time. Two Bring it up at a public hearing for any changes to be made to that, just like any of your other ordinances. So it's sort of much ado about nothing. Um it's a I mean it's it's a prohib prohibition
that you can't enter into that they're demanding. and it's something that really Doesn't give them any more protection than they've got currently.
Madam Chairman
Mariano. Yeah.
And we and we have a citizens committee made up the residents of the community. Right. That are gonna be overseeing this every step of the way.
Right. And you know, um I have not commented a whole lot on the lawsuit or I don't think I have publicly or anything, but Um I'm just gonna say that There I b I believe I've not talked to their attorney, but I believe their attorney knows that we can't do this. So why he's why this is keeps going round and round? Maybe the attorney isn't speaking maybe speaking lawyer speak. And they're not getting it, but we cannot do that. Legally we cannot do what they're asking. So if they want to sue again.
That's okay? Um That's their right to sue. all they want, but we'll go ahead with our citizens advisory committee. We're gonna go ahead with the cleanup. Actually they're doing a cleanup of that park today. And um I'm not sure if you're not What can I say? Anybody can sue anybody, so Okay, do we have anybody online?
Um two people have signed up but they are not online.