General public comment on community issues
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, Jan 28, 2025
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The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jan 28, 2025
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. 71% of 137 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Here. Okay. Um we have no resolutions today. But now is the uh 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 comment from those who have pre-registered for 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. WebX participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. Mr.
Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?
Yes, we do. Uh Commissioner
Pastor Troy Pederson.
Is
he online?
Oh
there
he
is? Okay. Good morning.
Good morning, Commissioners, Chair, Staff.
Pastor Troy Peterson. Uh [address removed].
I'm really excited the way
I believe America's gonna go. Under President Trump. Now just think about this for a minute. The president at his inauguration has rabbis, pastors, leaders, given him counsel. Just like we've been able to go to Tallahassee and give of counsel to our great governor and And I'll never forget praying for your husband in his office. Uh his freshman
year.
It touched me and I know it touched him.
And so we had that opportunity. To bring God's counsel and God's wisdom. To the board. See, throughout the ages, throughout scriptures The governor and the high priest work together. Now I'm no high priest But according to God's word I am. I'm a priest. And we have that opportunity to
pray. In fact I just come from a prayer meeting. Uh every Tuesday at the OASIS coffee spot, several pastors and leaders get together and and pray for our governing authorities. And so first off I'd I'd love to just invite The opportunity that if you have any prayer requests Uh email me. And and we'll pray. If you want to kept private, we'll keep it private and just pre
between us. And this morning as I was praying, what am I going to share with the county commissioners this morning? And I kept being reminded of the same scripture that we were hearing during the pandemic. Okay. That was a tough time. But what we were hearing is be still and know that he is our God. And he will be exalted among the nations, and
he will be exalted among nations. in the earth. So I know that if we exalt the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, in our county meetings, he's going to give us wisdom and he's going to give us favor, because then I believe wholeheartedly that Pasco County will be a premier county. In Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.
And I'll have something coming your way.
Who's uh who did you call? Keith Wiley. For public comment? Oh. Yes.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh.
Good morning Commissioner's Keith Wiley, Parks Recreation Natural Resources Director. I'm here to introduce the Hub and Reagan Weiss.
Oh, great. That was phenomenal. You were the best. Should give him more speaking time. Hello, B O C C good morning. Good morning. Hope everyone is off to a phenomenal start. My name is Reagan Weiss, the founder of Hub Life Charities. And ideas are great, but without the right people behind you, ideas do not happen. Come on guys, get closer. Let's love it. Let's love one another. So Hubbaween has been uh nothing but phenomenal. He's
a big blocker. I can't
see anyone behind him. I apologize. Um Hubbaween has been nothing but phenomenal. It's been five years now, guys, if you can believe it or not. Five years of uh Hubbaween. Um it's done nothing but great things for this community, and I will tell you. All these people around me are what made it happen. Our main sponsors, we got to give Burkett Ace, Nature Coast, Roofing Solutions, as well as RJ Kilty. Those are our top three sponsors every year. But there's one person in particular that we have to thank, and that is Mr. Mark. Mr. Mark, come on up here, please, sir. Guys, he's right here.
Come on up
here.
For five years, for five years, this man has been nothing but a saint. All those barricades, all the things that we have to move, all the trafficking, it's all him. All that traff not traffic. Oh my goodness, I said trafficking. Bad. Let's cut that out. Let's cut that out. But um all the traffic stuff that he has to deal with. Um it's all him and I'm really we're really, really grateful for you. So we want to say thank you so much because without Mark, this doesn't happen as well. We're really grateful. Let's give him a round of applause, everybody.
I promise you could accept it, I promise. I promise. Nothing crazy. But I want to say this, everybody. Without these individuals behind me, this doesn't happen. Guys, Hubboe Me has been fantastic. And I know I only have a minute here, but I will tell you this. It's gonna change. Hubboeween is changing. We are no longer gonna be doing a drive-thru event, but we're changing it up for the better. We're gonna be doing it over multiple weekends, more of a family festival type deal. And we're doing that, guys, to ease the traffic for you. So you guys don't have to hear the complaints. Go ahead, Catherine. I see you speaking.
I don't hear any complaints. Right. I might read them if I choose to go see there. But you know we're widening that road and so that'll take care of that problem.
That would be fantastic. When that comes to fruition, then we'll uh then we'll have that discussion again, maybe to make it a good thing.
Yes, that's that's good to know. But in the meantime, we're gonna alleviate that traffic because you might not hear the complaints, but we hear the complaints. And uh we don't want to hear those anymore. And obviously we want to make this a family-friendly community event. We wanted to make it comfortable for everyone where there's no um you know tr impeding traffic. So it's gonna change this year, but I promise it's still gonna be awesome. It's still gonna be very, very much fun. Our Madam President, um, it cannot be here. She has the flu, unfortunately, uh Marcia Coursera. But um we have Amanda Hart here, Jen Verge, and so many others. Amanda, why don't you come up here really quick and just you have 29 seconds to
say some great things about Hubwee and what we're gonna do. Come on. Woo. Really? Yep, just last minute.
Hello, Commissioner's Amanda Hart. Um, I was proud to be one of the sponsors this year. I've spoken to many of you. I know many of you have supported this event. We've called you last minute and said, Hey, we need this, and you all have made it happen, and we're very, very grateful for your support. Thank you.
Thank you so much. That being said, thirty thousand dollar check for the BOCC. There you go. Our photo. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much.
Um
Okay, let's make I'll t accept a motion.
Move approval. Second.
All in favor? Aye. Aye. M motion is to uh accept that money.
Um Does that go straight to the parks department? Okay, good. All right, I'm gonna come down. Y'all stand behind here because there's a
lot of instruments.
He was coming to make his uh grabs on that.
Guys
right up in front here.
I'll give you the real check. And then you can give that to someone.
Yeah.
We don't touch our phone. I won't do you like that guy.
All right. I have two phones, so everyone look at me first. Ready and one, two, three. Good. One more phone. I heard
changes were coming. I was nervous you were leaving there, but it's not there's two phones.
And look at me one. I have that thing right there. Perfect.
I'm off
with
my girlfriend.
Thank you guys. Thank you all, Carrie.
Hi Lisa, nice to meet you. Hi! How
are you? How are you?
Okay. Who else do we have? Well that was a great start to our morning. Yeah. Woo!
The next person I have signed up uh is Jen Burge, but I believe that was probably covered with the other got it, okay. Uh Bruce Bunsted.
Hey Dough, my name is Bruce Bumstead. I live at [address removed]. And I'm here about selective enforcement. and the mining operations and trucking companies on Bolton Avenue that are operating all in a class one site development. They've eliminated all the trees off the property. They've done b dug dug and mined and filled and Done everything against all the rules and all the codes. Yet. They're back in operation again now because the property changed hands and now somebody, nobody
seems to want to be able to do anything about it, so here I am. Uh they don't have to be required to have silt fences on their properties 'cause they don't have permits while they're digging up the dirt illegally and Sifting the dirt and ps burying the spoils illegally and the whole nine yards that's going on on the property. And just all the activity that I've been trying to get act, you know, and you guys have made me put my name to all the complaints. So therefore I'm here to follow up on the complaints because you've made the effort of making me put my names to the complaints after I've had probably 200
anonymous complaints against my properties. and the whole wrath of the department of everybody on top of me. And uh we need selective enforcement to stop and we need to have some of these people do their jobs instead of look the other way on the property because The newest complaints on it, the woman that was out there, she doesn't even know it's been in class one site development since 2013. Now that's eleven years that that's been in class one site development, while over a hundred million dollars has been made off that property in the illegal dirt movement. There's been no
Pasco Mobility fees paid on that dirt hitting the highway. There's been no recollection of How much property, how much dirt has been hauled in and hauled out, how much has been buried in the ground because they're using it as a transfer stations which They're not being required to do all the things that a transfer station's required to have to do. So the oversight of where all the spoils have gone and where all the b stuff that's been buried and all that, no everybody's looked the other way. So maybe now that it's, you know, can go on public and everything and nobody can look the other way, maybe certain points, because I've been to the head of all the way up
to the highest of the highest in this county to be able to do this, even with Patrick Garriton who's no longer here no more. Which, you know, then Jessica Rodriguez, the county attorney, she knows that it's in a class one site development. Everybody knows it's in a class one site development. So You know, they the properties they they know which ones it is. Everybody knows exactly what's going on. You know, if you need to be more specific. I can give you partial ID numbers and I can mail them again to my commissioners. But um been trying to address this for a long time.
Okay, Commissioner Mariano? I was gonna say David Allen is the new assistant county administrator for development services. I'd like you to meet with him right now, and then he can go over it with you. No.
Yeah, then uh
please gone on the
please report back to me.
Uh please
send let me know what's going on when you're done investigating. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Neighbor to meet you in the back there.
Valerie La France.
Mm. That's
the
Oh, that's right. Well Well still, still, but you make it. I agree.
Good morning. I'm Valerie LaFrance, Community Chaplain for Pasco County and beyond its borders. [address removed]. I have a mandate. I'm here. I've reviewed the twelve pages of the agenda. I want to let you know that in the past there have been those who are doing good And they were told that they could not speak at all in the name of Jesus. They
were told that they ha and they were doing good, and they were told they couldn't do this in the name of Jesus. The reply was that whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, you be the judge. For and I'm speaking on behalf of myself now, but this is what they had said for we, but I'm saying for I cannot speak the things that I've seen and heard. I cannot hold back what I've seen and heard with my own eyes, even here in Pasco County. It is mandated that
I am to exhort, first of all, supplications and prayers and intercessions, giving thanks be made for all of you. For kings and all of you who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all goodness, godliness, and reverence, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour. I'm speaking to the audience also. All of you. So my prayer is for all of you first to have open hearts so you can hear the
gospel and the message so you can intimately know who your Savior is. I am asking also help that you receive counsel, not only just from your attorneys, but from one another as well as from your constituents. We do know a few things also. I ask that you're able to te to be uh understand, to trust in him and trust in him only, for he will make the path for you and make it straight and easy to understand. I ask for protection on each and every one of you, including
your family members. For there is evil out there. Sheriff Knockle says, if you're there, we will find you. There's evil out there. We see it in our own county. We kind of laughed about using the word trafficking, but we all understood what he was saying. We lift up also all of you to have discernment, to know what you are to do, what you're supposed to say. Especially just today, you have many items on your agenda. We ask also that you be
blessed and that your family members be blessed. It is very important that we see you blessed for when you're blessed, you're able to bless others. We ask that you have great discernment when people are trying to do things under the table and you know it's not right. Integrity is one of your models. We ask that you're able to have the courage to say no, that you have the discernment that there's something behind that window and you know not to go for it. He will honor you, he will protect you, and he will give you the right things to do and say. We are
placing you in his hands so we can trust you. It's very important. And also to have compassion on each and every one of us, whether it's the homeless or those of wealth. God looks at all the same way. And we want you to also. In Jesus' name I pray.
Thank you.
Thank you. I have Bibles
for anyone who wants one.
Wanda Kasnorf.
It's kind of warm in here, guys.
We're all we're all warm up here. Good morning. My name is Wanda Chasnoff.
[address removed]. I'm here to say some good things about mister Mariano.
He
I'm dealing with him on some blooding issues. I'm dealing with him on homeless camp that's near my home. Rinky. I have two residents. It's on oxygen one hundred percent. Yes, we've had some difference since that I've been on the phone constantly calling and everything, but the people are still coming back because The m the junk is not cleaned up, okay? I'm so afraid, so afraid I'm a fireman's wife. I'm so afraid that I'm gonna
go to bed one night and they're gonna have their fires and they're gonna blow the neighborhood up because of these two people on Occident. I need this homeless camp shut down, no matter what it takes. I know the owner's been out there. He said, oh, just clean up the front what you can see. That don't stop the debris, all the the pine straw and the branches and all that's dry. We're gonna have another California. If we continue to let them be there on that property that's not theirs. I
need your help and move Mr. Mariano to please, please shut this down. This man showed up on the property because they had fires on a Saturday, last not this Saturday, last Saturday, two weeks ago. He showed up out there in his shorts and his T shirt. to see what was going on and to talk to the policeman and everything about getting this shut down. I need y'all to work with him. Please, please, please. Let's not have our houses burned down. I can't sleep at night. I can't do anything. I'm asking for your
help, please. I'm known in Pasco County. Because I try to get things done. I try to be verbal. So I'm here verbal to you as a committee. Please help us get it shut down, please. Thank you. And Jack, thanks for all your help and I really praise you a lot. Thank you.
I am going to say Irene Wellen.
Is that correct, ma'am?
It's Welsh. Welsh, okay.
Hi, my name's Irene Welch. I live at [address removed]. I was away for three weeks during the holidays. When you showed up. I'm sorry I missed ya. Um I have seen some improvement on Green Key. I want to report that. Um, I live directly next door, two houses from this homeless camp. My child was Attacked. He's autistic. He was attacked by a homeless man. I called the
police. Things were handled. I'm happy with the responses that the community's given. I see improvement. I said Green Key can be a beautiful place. I see it already changing. There is still trafficking, there's prostitution, there is still drugs. We have tents. These tents need to come down. If they have the tents up up, they have a place to go. Is there a nope trespassing on this property?
Then why is this occurring? I'm sorry to interrupt you, but
there's thirty people living there. Thirty.
And and then now they're attacking the residents, they're lighting fires. I mean I I'm scared. I just been traumatized through the flooding. I've been flooded. I'm a flood victim new to this community. And I'm not sure if you're I maybe it's my anxiety, maybe it's my PDST, but They have no right to be there. And I have a right, I'm paying rent. you know, to live there. And I and you know, I wanna say I do see improvement. That's more important than the complaining. I don't want to complain.
When we had this going on somewhere else, we started fining the landowner for allowing a campground on his property without a permit. And I'm sorry, this landowner's gotta be held accountable. So
Thank you. Yeah and uh and that's really what I want to do. We have some
tools and we need to use them.
Yeah, thank you. And and Jack again thank you um from for me and my son and our safety. It's it's we appreciated that you came out.
Madam Chair, if I could.
David Allen who's out talking to someone else and I see Chase Daniels in the back and Chase thank you for getting uh some crews out there right away to deal with that homeless problem last Saturday too. I appreciate it. But if you guys would go talk in the back about putting a plan and talk about what's going on. Absolutely.
No, it's not okay. How many times have they come here to say they've got a homeless camp? And that and they feel threatened next to them. So thank you very much for bringing us in work with
public comments.
I'm running I am the chair and I'm running the meeting. Thank you.
All right. We're separate person.
Reverend William Bowles.
I brought a few examples. My name is Reverend William Bowles, [address removed]. And I'm sure everybody's aware of our state stone is agatized coral. Nope. Well we have no place in Pasco County to display this. We have examples that I brought in and The Maps Museum is great, but they have no room for anything. It's crowded. EMC
It they can't handle it. But I would like to see them in all the public schools, the libraries, Starkey Educational Center, But This is a great opportunity for us to display these because these came from Pasco County.
Um so we have um Sean in the back who's gonna meet with you and uh I'm wondering if you could leave those here and come back and get them later in the day so that we can look at them during the break.
But one thing that a lot of people don't know is A hundred years ago the Catholics built a church, a shrine, and a wall out of agatized coral in Saint Leo. Yeah, nobody's ever been there. But it's beautiful and I s our state stone and they're all found right here in Pasco County. So I want Pasco County to know what we have. All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you so much for bringing that in. You're welcome. I look forward to looking at it later. Thanks Sean.
Alan Rose.
Good morning, Alan Rose, [address removed]. Just wanted to bring again our waterways issues we have in Pasco County. Today it's and I've sent you all the information I have. Impaired waterways. We have eight impaired waterways in our county. Five of which are are within the master plan I've submitted to you before, which could be remedied. Other three need to be worked on inland, and we need to work at that. It's uh Bear Creek, Coti River,
and the uh The Third River. Anyway, we just need to address our waterways. We I have not seen It done, I know you're working on it. I know it's in the background. But if we don't take care of it. We're all going to pay for it. We already have. Had this master, I've been bringing the master plan to you since 17 or so. And had that been in place, you would have had about 80% less damage on these last hurricanes we had. It's essentially doing what
we have to the south. If you look at Clearwater Beach and St. Pete out on the peninsula, they got wiped. But on the other side of the waterways, Minimal damage. If we took it took this and made progress with this We could have an offshore barrier island, one one point two to one point five miles offshore that would protect most of our coastline. They will still be inlets for all the pr connecting waterways. And I've submitted it different ways. I just wanted to bring it to you as well. One piece like that. You've
got a lot of Waterways issues and they need to be addressed. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Madam Chair, that's all we have signed up in advance and we have no one sign up in advance for this portion of the meeting.
Is there anyone else here who wishes to address the board?
Okay.
Oh come on up quickly, sir.
Peter Doty, [address removed]. I am sick and tired of code enforcement not doing their job. I've complained to Jack's office. since April of last year about different violations. Nothing gets done. call code enforcement. They want all my information so they can give it to the person I'm complaining about. Not right. I'm seventy years
old, I'm disabled, I can't fight anymore. I need something has to be done. You get these people coming down here from the land of death and despair thinking they can do whatever they damn well feel like. You're overbuilding in the county. We can't handle it, we can't we don't have the water, we don't have the roadways, you just keep on building, building, building. And it brings down more people. Stop the building and people stop coming down. Let
code enforcement do their job. There's no reason why they can't get out there and drive through Pasco County. not talking about the farmland the acreage where people have three to ten acres of land, I'm talking about subdivisions. Bear Creek, Timber Oaks, Drive through, see the violations, they can go ahead and take care of it. And don't just give a warning Final. Most
people just pay the fine. They won't even take it to court. Our law enforcement They speed. I watched one dooming over 75 mile an hour up 52 to pull into a rice track to get coffee in a sandwich. It's on callport. They don't go ahead. And do their job. They don't pull people over for not using turn signals. They don't pull people over for weaving in and out of traffic. They're speeding up and down Little
Road. These people aren't doing their jobs. It needs to be taken care of. DOT. You have four or five people to a truck. Ridiculous. You have one person that drives, one person that supervises, one person that uses a shovel, and two people to direct traffic in a subdivision. That's a waste of money. You people don't care. about the state or about our count our county.
I don't believe any of you do. Otherwise something would have been done about it a long time ago. Thank you.