Public comment on county business
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, May 5, 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 5, 2026
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 24m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 82% of 90 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Here. Commissioner Starkey is excused. 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 any other business under the board's purview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First, we'll take public comment from those who are here in person. Then we'll take public comment for those who are pre-registered for an online link and are currently on queue. We request when you address the board comments are not directed personally at a commissioner or team member, but rather directed at the issues. This provides
mutual respect between the board members and the public. After stating your name and address for the clerk, a three-minute timer will be activated and a green light will be shown on the podium. After two minutes is up, a yellow light will indicate you have one minute left. When your time is up, a red light will be displayed be displayed. Three beeps will sound and you should close your comments.
Online participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?
Mr. Chairman we have six individuals signed up for public comment. I will go ahead and read the first three. We have Pasco fire uh captain Garfolo and Battalion Chief Rootson Rootson and then we have um Christy Zimmer followed by Tom Smyrna.
Good morning for the record, David Garofalo, [address removed].
Rayon and Rutson, [address removed]
Good morning, honourable chair and commissioners, and Mr. Carbala and your entire staff. We're here today for a little bragging. Pasco County firefighters uh took part in the annual Sta Fight for Air stairclimb on april eleventh. And we came home again with a trophy three years in a row. Oh wow. We raised the most money. That's what that trophy represents. And there were 10 firefighter teams that made the top ten in the area, and seven of the teams combined, we raised more than them. So
that's pretty awesome. And we couldn't do it without the support from you guys, from our staff, uh led by Chief Gwyn. And it's just it's an amazing to be a part of. And I wanted to thank you. We also wanted to tell you that this trophy's gonna be in Pasco County and we go from station to station with it for people that actually took part in it. And about two weeks before the stairclimb took part, I was approached, or I'm sorry, contacted by Joanna Cheshire, and she wanted to take part in it. And she said she didn't know if she was gonna have time to get
there because she was doing a 5K in the morning across the bay. So I said, Well I don't think you'll be able to do both because it's a stair climb, forty-two flights. Well she said, What time is it? And I said around eleven. She said I could probably be there. So I'm gonna let Battalion Chief Rutson explain the next part.
So I had never met her before or had any experience with her, so I didn't even know what she looked like. When he started uh talking with Ms. Cheshire, I was like, Who's that? And she had like glitter on her cheeks or something and then he told me who it was and I was like, Oh hey, nice to meet you. She also pulls out a bag of bunker geese. And I'm like, oh, you you're you're gonna climb in gear? And she's like, Yeah, they you know, Chief Martinez suggested. And so all of a sudden now this person who hasn't trained, we train for this, we wear our gear, we train for this a a lot. And I was like, Wow, that's that's pretty neat. And
then as we're getting ready to go, she's getting the gear on and she sees us all with air packs and she's like, You guys have an extra pack, and I'm like, No, seriously, this thing's like 32 pounds, like Trust me, you you you don't want to do all this. Just just wear that and she's like, but do you have an extra pack? And I'm like, huh, yeah. So we get her an extra pack, she puts it on like a trooper, and she goes up and climbs like she's been doing it after running a 5k. It was super impressive, but But just just her being there and just supporting us in that way, but also participating, it was it was absolutely amazing. And I'm pretty sure she beat
him, but that's
She would have beat me, but she was actually pushing me up. So I around the twentieth floor she found me kind of bent over and she's like, Keep going. But uh no leading by example is what us leaders do. Obviously it starts at the top and having someone that leads by example and represent you guys is awesome. So So thank you. Thank you. I
feel like Joanna should stand.
Christy Zimmer and she's asked for 30 extra seconds, so I granted it.
Okay. I'm here doing nice today. You're gonna like me today. Christy Zimmer, [address removed]. I am here to present Mr. Seth Weightman with a very special gift.
Do we move to receive or so?
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today I'm here to present a gift to Seth Weightman. The gift is a cookbook that his uncle Tom Weightman put together in the early seventies. When he was the president of the Lutz Land Lakes Rotary Club. I had given him the original and had a copy made for him to keep and to give the original to his Uncle Tom. For whatever reason, my mom kept this book in her very important papers for all these years, and I had to go through a file box of her stuff recently. and found that book and felt like I needed to give it back
to the rightful creator. I recently had to go through all her belongings and found that. And there are some amazing recipes in this book from some very prominent men, including, but not limited to the following. Jack Harris with ninety seven net WFLA. Lowell Thomas, Guy Spicola, state senators at the time. President Jimmy Carter, Governor Ruben Askew, Bob Bondy, yes, he's related to Pam. He Jerry Bomer and Charles Bean, who were Hillsboro County Commissioner at the time. William Poe, who
was a mayor of Tampa, Richard Dick Stone and Lawton Childs, who were U.S. Senators, Lou Penella of the New York Yankees, Doug Dickey of the University of Florida head football coach, Ralph Turlington, who was a commissioner of education, many local businessmen, several deans and professors from USF, priests, pastors, and several Rotary president presidents from around the state, including our own Tom. Thomas Whiteman. In this book, it's absolutely adorable. It's called Menus That Men
Use. And he wrote a letter. Dear friends, all of the members of the Lutz Land O' Lakes Rotary Club hope that you will enjoy reading about and using the recipes that are in our cookbook. Recipes have been provided by Rotarians, public officials, sports personalities, and many other men who shared their favorites with us. We want to thank everyone who contributed to the menus menu. Our purpose in doing this cookbook as a club project was twofold. Many women's groups have published cookbooks, so we thought it would only be fair that the
men have equal rights. Secondly, our menus menus is a fundraising activity so that our Rotary Club can support worthwhile community activities. We hope you find a recipe that will be a special treat in your castle and thank you for supporting this project. The r members of that time Let me go back so I don't lose my place. The members at that time of the Rotary Club, you may recognize some of these old-time names: Russell Adams, Brian Code, Stephen Dombraskus,
Roy Capel, Bill Laney, Frank Lastra, Curtis Law, John Long, Dave Marshall, Jerry McCarthy, Charles Moore, Robert Palmer, Dane Peersfield, Jim Richardson, Charles Rushi, Paul Sidlow, Leonard Territero, Burns Warfield, John Warren. Tom Weightman, Garrett Westball, Todd Woods, and Jack Ant. It's absolutely adorable. It's all done on in a castle theme. We're going to be selling these books for $50 apiece. That sounds like a lot, but when
you get a recipe from one of these officials, it's important. But understand that the fundraiser is for our very own camp Odawild of Florida. Located right in the heart of Pasco County Atlanda Lakes. They provide the ultimate camping experience year-round for our autistic and special needs children and adults. 100% of the proceeds will go. directly to the camp. He has our sign-up sheet. I've already gotten several people signed up this morning already. And I will let him pass that around and get that back to us and we will have the books available
in about two weeks. So if you want to order a menu that menus and it go to Camp Ottawa, we would appreciate it.
All right, thank you. Thank you, ma'am. I'm gonna call the motion to receive and file. All in favor say aye. Aye. All right, now we have to give it up.
It's pre and and uh so m Tom's son, my cousin Ken Weightman, did the artwork in this. Okay. I'm sure that uh my late Aunt Mary Sue uh helped out quite a bit in the kitchen back back then. But um Ms. Zimmer, thank you. These are incredibly special and um We'll be excited to share them with Tom, who we just celebrated 90 years of Tom Weightman a few months ago. And um He had a shoulder
replacement done a year or so ago. Yeah. on the campaign trail back four years ago. I didn't realize how many weapons he doled out to so many folks over the years. I guess that was his job as assistant principal is doing disciplinary action. So I figure that's probably what led up to a shoulder replacement outside of that. He's doing pretty doggone good. So thank you for sharing this with us today.
And birthday love
mom.
Yes.
Oh.
Mr. Chairman just wanna make sure that um this will not go into the official record for this meeting. This is a is a gift, so I just wanted to make sure that that was a joke.
It was but I was still trying. I know. I'll still donate the fifty though. Ha ha.
So just
send me back the form when you get it filled in.
All right, we have um Tom Smyrna, followed by Karen Sears, followed by Pastor Troy Peterson, and then Jason Sheddin.
Good morning, everybody.
Good morning.
Move to receive and file. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye.
Name
and
address.
My name is Tom Smyers, [address removed]. The reason I'm here today is my neighbor is running a complete semi-restoration and repair shop next to my property, which is zone ER residential subdivision. I've listened to semis coming in and out of an illegal driveway. for the last two years. They were told not to use the
illegal driveway by Mr. Miller from Pasco County right-of-way. They they were s to get a permit and restore the property back to the original condition. Which they never done or pulled permits for. The building is a 40 by 80 metal building, 3200 square feet. The building does not have a paint booth in it. proper ventilation, and where is he disposing the material? which
is highly flammable. This should not be allowed. I have called code out. number of times t about the situation and nothing has been done. I'm tired of hearing compressors running, sanding, buffing, grinding air tools all day long.
Uh and and to say the least the paint when he paints the lacquer smell in my backyard is just horrendous. I cannot go out my yard at all. For example, on March 4th, a white semi came in with windows taped, logos off, and almost ready to be painted. They worked on it for five days straight. Then on the 9th of March, the truck came
out. Shiny painted orange. Which I have pictures of Huh? Yeah. Oh this is not a business. sometimes need to do what we need to do. The latest project appears to be a white a white v vehicle which possibly could be the counties, but I'm not sure. It's got a side light on
it by the front door.
I have a beautiful home and a piece of property that I want to be able to re to enjoy my retirement. If this is not enough information to open eyes, then I will be back at the next meeting with more documentation. Thank you.
Capture V.
Good morning. My name is Karen Sears. I live at [address removed]. My sister is Thomas Meyer's wife. So I have been to this property. I have visited several times. I was there on Easter of 2024.
I have three
Semi-tractor trailer trucks all lined up against the fence. And we showed pictures here, and I have marked them one, two, three, And then there's another one that's a dark one that's a a duplicate. So there were three. There for a whole week moving back and forth, back and forth, there to get work done on them and their trailers. Okay? This is not what 530.16
is supposed to be about. It was supposed to allow a commercial vehicle to be on the property if it's enclosed within the building. It did not tell us what kind of vehicle that was, what category of vehicle, commercial vehicle that was. But is it a Class B thirty-three thousand pound semi that's supposed to be on a a state residential lot? Uh state
residential lots, as we all know, are for residents and small animals. It says within uh 509 code that it does not even allow you to have a rooster. Okay? Hens only because roosters make noise. No dog pounds because dogs make noise. But yet we can have this going on. Okay, so let me give you a little sample of what this is.
Well, well, well. Twenty-five till four. What's been going on all day? I can hear the wine and then my house.
That can grow certain.
This is at night. For those of you who can see, it's night time when this is being done.
Okay.
Can I just comment on that?
Yes, Commissioner.
Okay. Um I know as of yesterday they were cited by code. So Code did go out and see them and give them a citation. Yeah, yes. Um For the they were driving on their they made them get rid of the driveway.
Okay.
So um and also with your complaint and now it's at the county's attorney's office as well. So we are handling it. And if you would like to have somebody from Code talk to you, David Allen and Chase. Yes, I would like to
thank you. Yeah.
But there's an update at least for you.
Three minutes doesn't give me very long time.
Well I guess so would ch would Chase Daniels and David Allen there are gonna help out but Mr. Yeager, I know you've been working hard on it. It's been a it's been a difficult issue, but hopefully this will elevate it to the importance it needs to be.
Danger.
We have uh Pastor Troy Peterson followed by Jason Jason uh Sheddon.
Troy Peterson, [address removed]. Good morning, Chair, Staff, Commissioners, Mr. Cabela. I guess the first thing is some exciting news. Some of you may be aware that I was asked to launch Turning Point Faith Pasco. That's kind of exciting in light of what
happened with Charlie Kirk. We just thought let's let's jump on that bandwagon and really uh to unite the church uh and government in in Pasco County. Um with that um we last year um Mayor Rector of Clearwater um just newly elected. He came to to us and asked, well, what are we going
to do? I really don't want to fly the gay pride flag in June and I don't want gay pride month in my city. And so we presented to him, nothing against Gay Pride Month or anything like that, an alternative option, which is Faith and Family Month. And so we worked with five city mayors last year, including Mayor Rector, uh, doing
a resolution, a proclamation, um that faith uh June would be Faith and Family Month. This year we have 20 mayors, including a couple counties, that have done resolutions that June is Faith and Family Month. We're doing concerts in several different cities, family-friendly concerts, including June 6th. uh in water or waterfront
park um from 430 to 830. And uh so I just wanted to throw that out there. We'll have one more meeting that I can actually bring flyers. And it and uh it's gonna be really a blessed time with different worship teams coming in. Uh Commissioner Weightman, you talked about baptisms. Uh we are gonna have the the baptism tank um set up and just expect uh uh a good time of family and uh community uh there on June 6th in Waterfront
Park. Uh lastly, uh Some of you know that I've been on the board of the Continuum of Care with, you know, people used to come to me, oh, you know, about my homeless ministry. And I'm like, I don't have a homeless ministry. You know, homeless show up and what you what are you gonna do about it? But being on that board, I found that one of the the biggest problems that we have with homeless. Here in Pasco County is affordable housing. Um that's
why I I believe the last I had heard there are over 400 on the by name list. I believe I have an option for affordable housing that I'd like to talk with you all about. Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Jason. Sheddin?
You're done. My name's Jason Shaddon. I'm coming here today. Um and with a group of
Mr. Sheddon, I'm your address for the record.
Oh I'm sorry. That's okay. It's uh fifty-two and nineteen, it's eleven eight four zero US nineteen, harm reduction anonymous. Um we we help people, you know Any way we can. Um The main reason we come we are coming here today is we we fund this thing ourselves. We don't have anybody helping us. We have somebody helping us with our building, but we we pay for all the food, all the clothing gets donated sometimes. But you know our our impact is 'Cause we
want 'cause I've been there. I've been in their shoes. Yeah. So, um we give out clothing, Narcan, uh food, anything we can to help these people out. And it it's tough to do by yourself. Um, you know I was I I I died nineteen times. About two years ago. So this is I think my calling. Um today is my five-year day. It's over. Um Job. Yeah, congratulations.
I just think this is God's plan and uh So there's any way you guys can help us. The sheriffs came uh on Thursday, two sheriffs came by and said, you know, the overdose rate is down because of us. I've never heard any sheriff say anything like that before. Um So You know. It I kinda came here on the whim. I I didn't even know this thing started until eight o'clock this morning, you know? And uh The fact that I'm here
on the day that I'm five years sober I just think it adds a a lot to do with everything. But um I appreciate your time. That's all I got.
Thank
you.
Uh Mr. Chairman that is all that I have signed up on the sheet.
No one's online.