Citizens Academy fall 2023 graduation

1:17:34We're gonna move to R 33. We have a graduation for our citizens academy. Mr. Carbella?

1:17:41Eighty three.

1:17:43S I'm sorry, R eighty three. What did I say? I think that's right.

1:17:47Sorry. Thank you. Uh good morning Commissioners. Uh Derek Berger, County Administrator. Today we celebrate the fall 2023 graduating class of Pasco Citizens Academy. Pasco Citizens County is an eleven-week educational program designed to give citizens a backstage pass to their county government by providing an in-depth look at the unique challenges facing county government, programs and services, budgetary limitations, and the day-to-day operations from elected officials to county team members. I will present the certificates of completion to those able to join us today. Following the presentation,

1:18:17we ask that you join us for a class photo. Class, when I call your name, please come up for your certificate and stay standing behind me. Um Barbara Martin.

1:18:27I if I could I like I think all we should all go down there and shake everybody's hand as they come through and congratulate them. Yeah. All right, just do that? Nice and quick.

1:18:39We're going down? Huh? Oh, we're going back down again?

1:18:50Uh so Barbara Martin.

1:18:52I can wait till the water.

1:18:56Brian Paris.

1:19:01Gregory Messer?

1:19:06Jennifer Kerouac?

1:19:11Karen Romani.

1:19:15Monica Ramirez?

1:19:18Stefania Dewey.

1:19:22J P. Murphy.

1:19:26Ashley Cooper?

1:19:31Joseph Abrew.

1:19:36Anthony Russo?

1:19:40Antonia Pergantis.

1:19:45Kieran Fisher?

1:19:49Caitlin McMahon.

1:19:54Lindsay Abbott.

1:19:57And David Allen.

1:20:06So congratulations.

1:20:13So, congratulations to the fall twenty twenty-three class. Uh, we hope you enjoyed our program. Thank you for your interest in learning about what we do every day to make a difference in the lives that matter. We're currently accepting applications for the fall 2024 class. More information can be found on the website at mypasco.net. Thank you.

1:20:39Okay.

1:21:02There's two.

1:21:05One one of them's running against.

1:21:08Okay, everybody right here, please. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, quasi- Okay, oh god.

1:21:21Uh

1:21:24Yeah.

1:21:27Is

1:21:27that

1:21:30Yeah, yeah.

1:21:33Oh.

1:21:34And I one of the students would like to speak?

1:21:37Yeah, we'd like to hear we'd like to hear it how you liked it. So if anyone wants the mic.

1:21:42Yeah, I I actually recommend everybody citizen wise you should take the class. It's really cool. You get to learn about every aspect of the government in our county and you get to ask people questions, tough questions and they answer 'em. So uh, you know, take full advantage of learning about our county. It's really awesome. Thank you.

1:22:02Well thank you, Barry.

1:22:05Right. Anyone else? Okay.

1:22:12Hi, I'm Stefania Dewey, County Administrator. I work for the county and I want to say that I've had the best time with Citizens Academy. I've learned so much about all of our departments. Everybody took time out of their schedules to give great presentations, really fun experience for everybody. Uh we all started off as strangers and Now we're all buddies and it's really nice from the perspective of an employee. So I encourage any employee that hasn't had a chance to go

1:22:42through the program to attend. It's great. I promise you our supervisor will be flexible and you get to leave an hour early every Wednesday.

1:22:51Very good.

1:22:56Hi, I'm Karen. Um I just moved to Florida and Pasco County specifically a year and a half ago and I'm really involved in my community working on a board and an HOA and I have just been fascinated at how many absolute amazing resources that the county has to offer. I'd always wanted to do this, there's one in Indiana similar to this, but it was always during a workday. Now I'm a little more flexible. and the amount of resources that the county has and how hard they work and Getting to know how all all

1:23:27you do your jobs has just been amazing and eye-opening when I'm watching the local news and talking with people in my community. Um, I can speak to things like now I know about the Live Local Act and how it's impacting PASCO so I can bring a balanced um part of a conversation to people who are just going, ah, county this, ah So it's been really informative when you know more you can make better informed decisions and and that's what I have gotten out of this the most.

1:23:57Very good,

1:23:58thank you.

1:24:04Hey, y'all know me, Pastor Jen here. So it has been an excellent experience. I agree as someone who was trying to maneuver their way through advocating for their community.

1:24:19It's the photo.

1:24:20Um, you know, having the understanding of the way things work, the flow of of Pasco County, getting a better understanding will significantly help anyone who is wanting to get their three minutes. Thank you. Okay. What

1:24:40kind of

1:24:40carry

1:24:41do we do those both? What again?

1:24:44And I I want to say uh this I had taken leadership Pasco back in two thousand three, best it'll ever be. Uh but Commissioner Starkey, this was a great idea bringing this forward, uh and it's been a great success to let our citizens actually see what goes behind the scenes and get to the details to it. So we hope you'll share that information with everybody you know. And if you have ever any questions, obviously you got uh five very engaged commissioners who would love to entertain and try to help you with uh Whatever you see out there to help us become better commissioners too. So thank you all, appreciate it.

1:25:19Hey folks, before you

1:25:20go

1:25:21I know for one one thing, y'all have had to find out how long it takes after we vote on something to happen. How long it takes to get it to happen. Yeah. Just like a road. If you'll watch roads when they say we're gonna vote and we vote this road's gonna be paved, five years later you see it finished. Five years later. Those things need to move quicker and we would love to have 'em move quicker but there's a lot to do with the road. If you watch a road, you'll you'll first see it on a new road uh rebuild of

1:25:51a road. You'll see when they're widening from two lanes to four lanes. You'll see that they're moving telephone lines or moving electric lines and you see all this happening, it's opening up and then you see new light poles and all going to the outside. It takes a long time to coordinate and do that and all the staff is a part of doing that. So I appreciate y'all going through that and hopefully y'all were able to see those things and Rome wasn't built in a day, but you know,

1:26:21we'd like to build it quicker if we could. So thank you. But thank y'all for your service. Joanna?

1:26:29Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to publicly thank Derek. He's done a great job leading the class through.

1:26:41He's a great guide into that and thank you for the team for being flexible. We try to tweak the program each time we do it to make it the experience a little better. So thank you for the team for being flexible. We purposefully moved the budget game as the last session because we wanted the the cohort to cut you know see all the cool things that the county does and the services we provide and then have to make those tough decisions at the very end like you all do. And uh and hearing that conversation and how they come to the conclusion is uh is quite interesting. So thank you class. Please spread

1:27:11the word you guys are our new ambassadors. We want you to keep in touch with us. Uh let you know your friends and family know if you work or live in Pasco County you can take this program. for free. Thank you.

1:27:21And and Jack, I I also I want to thank you all for taking time out of your personal lives. That there really is no place that you learn about local government. So that's why we think this is so important for our citizens to come and go through the class because they just don't teach that in school. And um so I'm just very grateful we all are that you took the time.

1:27:42Mr. Starkey might have just opened something up. Maybe we need to actually look at that for our school system.

1:27:47Well, they're gonna

1:27:48tell

1:27:48you they don't have enough time to do what they're doing.

1:27:50Uh but we can make it a volunteer thing for after school to that might be a good thing. We may look in that. Never give up. Good idea. Okay. Well thank you all very much. We greatly appreciate it.