Mariano tri-county workshop and code enforcement

2:31:54Very good. I love that that group. They're they do wonderful stuff. Yeah. Commissioner Mariano.

2:31:58All right. Um and again I was actually those might show a picture of Tunnel the Towers. I was to the dedication. It was amazing. The the turnout just was incredible. The whole street was like twelve houses down full. Uh the presentations were great. Um great people just uh very appreciative to what's going on. Well that that development in just outside of Linda Lakes is just such a great thing to testimony for our veterans and Tunnel to Towers is just a first class organization that did it well. So I want to

2:32:28just talk briefly oh there's a alright we'll go to the pictures. Uh that's the tri county workshop we had, if you would go back. Uh so the tri county workshop, I tell you I think that people should know that f uh all the county commissions from Hillsborough, Pasco and Penellas all get together quarterly or let's say biannually or quarterly now? Almost quarterly? Yeah,

2:32:48at

2:32:48least

2:32:49I would say probably two or three times a

2:32:50year for sure. And I'd say the meetings we have, the conversations, I think everyone will agree, that it's great dialogue, it's great input. You kinda get it where you're not getting like two people that sit on a commission with you, you're getting all five commissions, you get a much broader perspective.

2:33:03Yeah

2:33:03and I think that helps get get bet better discussions to find out where we need to go, especially as we talk about MPOs and merging and and how to best serve the region with all the great things we do. So I I'm glad I'm I want to thank you, Mike, for work with other two administrators who are great as well to to bring us all together so we can have those conversations. It definitely definitely helps the region.

2:33:23Yeah, I I think we all we all agreed, the administrators agreed that uh this this particular workshop was a round table was was very, very good. We were able to start getting into some media issues. And discuss things of regional importance.

2:33:35US 41 and 54.

2:33:37Yeah, I gotta have to tip my hat to you there, Commissioner Starkey.

2:33:42But we just said we had real-time discussion on legislative issues, and so I thought that um it it really it really hit the mark. And I was glad it was here in Casco County. Yes.

2:33:51I think it I think it worked out great. I don't know what's going on with the sound system there, but other than that, I think they love their Florida sports coast and they got a little bump with the Starkey seltzer. We should thank Adam for all I mean we gave him a nice little bag of stuff. Commissioner Oakley went home with a whole six packet.

2:34:10Seven. Actually got seven. But I'm but I'm down to

2:34:14five

2:34:15now.

2:34:19I I I was happy to just get my stocky seltzer love it. I was good with that.

2:34:23I

2:34:24did

2:34:24go home with two of those I traded I traded by the air kites.

2:34:31And steps to recovery did their uh groundbreaking. Okay. So as you know I went to D C trying to get them an extension. We talked about doing C D G R money for them. The complexities, I'll tell you after talking with them yesterday, talking to the engineers, talking to the contract who started, that's only started three weeks ago. This whole lot is cleared. And

2:34:50no, that's okay.

2:34:51I

2:34:51know,

2:34:51but it's got drainage, we've got to put more in. So the drainage is all set up. Right now, as much as I wanted to add the third floor, they would have to like start and with the construction already done, it's too late for that. But there's land right back to where that picture is. to the back side that they're actually working with the people there. We might be able to help them if they can go get the land, maybe work on getting the land and building something right next to it, so they can still Help them with the services right there and take care of more veterans. They're gonna take care of thirty-two now, but I I'm sure we can at least double that number

2:35:21coming up. So it's a little bit different plan from what I talked about, but uh I still think helping is great. Um Marilyn is right in the middle there with the Bay shirt. She's the one who started this whole thing years ago as she was retiring. Uh she's up to seven homes and now with this new complex all very excited. They got volunteers from like Timbergreens they do a great job for and uh everybody in the community's really really behind it excited about what's gonna happen out there. And you see Marcy grabbed the shovel there. Kathy Kathy's right there too and uh Paula was probably taking the picture at one point. But

2:35:52uh it was a great groundbreaking, very very very encouraging that's no we're gonna help our veterans with this project. And that opioid money we put in, put 'em over the top to make the project happen. Otherwise,

2:36:01and we'll get some trees for from the tour the trust fund.

2:36:05Yes. It was a great a great thing for this commission to make that happen and it's gonna help that area quite a bit and all our veterans. Uh is that it for pictures? Okay. All right. So I want to just go back to we saw today Um at Epherson Elon Road administrative decisions.

2:36:25Yeah, Elon Musk. Okay, Elon, I'm sorry. It's okay. There's an echo there though.

2:36:33So I I think it's important we and I know we talked about doing this a few months back. Corella drive was an example where A decision was made and it was changed by staff. Uh we got a lot of uh grief right now in Beacon Woods East where they got a development coming in where they're supposed to go on a road, staff changed it and now we're dealing repercussion after repercussion that keeps on coming. Matter of fact, David maybe you get the language for me, but they've maybe taken this one road they're supposed to go in straight in for development, short little run that they decided to go on. And now the the

2:37:04developer.

2:37:05Okay.

2:37:05So now they're going on two side roads in a neighborhood with their dump trucks waiting to go in.

2:37:11How we fixed that?

2:37:12Well, this is a new one. I mean said the same d same developer just on the other side of the road now. Instead of being the long way through Korokli Plug was like a two mile jaunt from from uh Little Road or F five A Road, Hudson F. Coming in. Now they're going to short road off of Hudson Eve. They're supposed to go right in and they're going into the neighborhoods now.

2:37:31No.

2:37:32So we gotta go get get some no truck signs out there so they can't go there. But it's it's brutal what's going on.

2:37:36Do we need to start identifying

2:37:38like the construction roads? These ways that we generally shut them down or something?

2:37:43Back in like uh I think it was oh six or oh one, whatever it might have been, we put conditions in the different construction roads Mm-hmm. Administratively it was changed and these people are suffering for it. So I want to make sure that we're going through this and we get this thing done fast. Because I don't want to see any more changes done. Because when you have public hearing that you get the all that public input, things are done. When you get You know, planners etcetera in a room, they don't know all that went on. They don't get to hear it from the people and what was agreed to at that time, those changes that were put in are important and need

2:38:13to stay there unless you really republic have another set of public hearing. And I I d I wanna get it back into where the public have more control, we've got more control, so we don't have to deal with these issues that we can put our hands up and say there's nothing I can do. So I wanna make sure we get that back as quick as we can. And David, is there something we can do about that? I want to talk about that now. So the two side roads that they go on

2:38:35What development is this?

2:38:36This is at Beaconwood's yeast at Aquaclara. So right now they're on the May Road's supposed to be Aquaclara. They're using the two side roads for the dump trucks. How what kind of a no truck sign or whatever I could put up there where they can't go on those roads?

2:38:47Yeah, um so Dude, Alan. Assistant County Administrator Development Services again. The the the the the project is just a little bit north off of um Hudson Avenue. Um the the actual development is Beacon Park and there's a small little section of Agua Clara that connects Hudson Avenue to the proposed project site. That's the main road that that the developer's been using to access the site in and out. The

2:39:19the construction traffic there really started picking up when they they switched from an alternate location that they were using further to the north that was actually a little bit more dangerous because that they had to go through a lot a lot more of a residential area to get to the site. Right now, what what the challenge is is some of the things that the developer is doing is using the side streets to turn trucks around and those types of things as opposed to bringing them on site. And so what I'd like to do is at least initially reach out to the developer to see what we could do

2:39:49to just limit access to just in and out of the site without having to disrupt. um the community. Part of the other challenge too also for the board's benefit is that um some of the other challenges we've been having particularly with the developers, they've been queuing up their trucks and just parking waiting to get on the site. And as a result of that they've been blocking folks from being able to get in and out. And we've been coordinating with the Pasco Sheriff's Office to ticket those um uh drivers whenever that that that situation

2:40:19occurs. Typically in the early morning, um usually by mid morning that situation kind of clears out. But that's what I would propose to do before we look at just kind of closing off the road. from the construction traffic because I think we would have to make uh provide some additional language to allow for other types of construction to be able to go in and out because so for example if someone were to have a row a roof done within the neighborhood they would have to have the trucks be able to go in to make deliveries of roof

2:40:49materials and those types of things. So that's what I propose that we do is re reach out to the developer to see what we could do to get an update. their schedule and and really limit their their Who is

2:41:00the developer?

2:41:01Um it's southern um investment properties I believe they're out of Jacksonville. Okay.

2:41:08Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

2:41:10Yeah. We

2:41:11gotta watch that. All right. So and and actually Dave, while you're right there. So I got this email from Dee Sanderson about doing a code sweep in Gulf Side Estates. I look at the area. This is an area that it happens to be right off nineteen. It's on the uh west side and is your first like on line nineteen it's pretty high. It goes to an area a lot deeper right now. Um I'm under the stand we're not doing we weren't doing sweeps and I see we're doing sweeps. I wanna say this as far as in my district, if we're gonna do a sweep, I

2:41:41wanna know about it ahead of time. We've done them before over in certain areas where we're trying to work on different things, so whatever, but I don't know how you guys feel, but I think if I'm gonna do a s a sweep in my district, I wanna know. I can't get what I want to get done. And as Commissioner Starkey just mentioned earlier, you know, I gotta work on the the your how the look of nineteen. I got panhandlers out there, I've got ordinances in place that work very well in Lee County. I don't want these the thing of like worried about a lawsuit coming up. If I've got a safety ordinance that works, I

2:42:11want to implement it. I want to keep it implemented. I don't want people out there just pan-handling. I want people to know that they can't just give money to those people either. It is a blight. The biggest blight is going on up there. I want to go work on the areas that we know, and there's plenty of them in my district. Up and down the area, we've got homeless camps. We brought on a deputy from the Sheriff's Office, a corporal, to come in and work with our team to go do that. That's what I want my focus to be in my district. I don't want this sweep on some neighborhood that's poor, I'll take recovering

2:42:42from a flood, whatever. She can take my sweeps. I don't care.

2:42:49And frankly, with the code budget that we've got, I want my people to focus on what I think needs to be done as my commissioner, because I'm gonna tell ya The blight that she just mentioned and the up and down is something I gotta deal with and I hear about all the time. That's my problem. It's not whether you're gonna take this neighborhood that nobody else is gonna see, and they're like I said, they were probably hit with the storm pretty heavy, so they've got some RVs out there, guess what? That's what's gonna happen.

2:43:13No, I no d you've touched on several several uh issues there, Commissioner Mariano. So first and foremost, yes, I uh uh wholeheartedly agree and I'll talk to our um code code department head to make sure that all of the commissioners are notified whenever we do a sweep in in within the district, because I think it's appropriate that you have that advanced notice regarding that. Um in regards to um the focus Within the districts, I believe Denis Sanderson has been meeting with each of you to get a sense of what that looks like. And that's part

2:43:43of that is to get your feedback to understand what you're looking for within your district so that we can focus on those specific items as well as kind of the broader county perspective in terms of what should the code department be focusing on on a broader perspective and you know some of the feedback that we've already heard is just really kind of focusing on the the main corridors and the main areas where we have a lot of visibility with the public. So north-south corridors of 41-19

2:44:14east-west corridors of 54-52 to really have those as the kind of the focal points of the code enforcement because that's kind of our gateway into our county and those are the areas that we want to focus on as well.

2:44:26So the way I understood this discussion was supposed to go, what's important to you, what do you want to see in your district? So my answer was I want to deal with the homeless, the homeless and panhaming. And then after that more homeless and panhaming. That's my focus. Okay. That's what I want to t take a look at. That's what we've got to go deal with, at least for my area. And I'm I'm not and I think every commissioner should be able to say, here's what I want to see happen. And if that means they're going to change their district, so be it. The way you have it all lined up.

2:44:50Yeah.

2:44:51But I'm going to tell you, I see panhandlers everywhere now. They're more prevalent now because they know they're not being picked up. They know they're not being being pressured. And they're in the middle of right-of-way in safety. We can't pick them up. Dangerous issues. We can't pick up the right-of-way. But you can get them out of the right-of-way. And again, if they're in the right-of-way, but we don't have a panhandling ordinance. You

2:45:07have a safety right-of-nance. But that's you but I think that's being challenged.

2:45:11You have to listen to him. For one county to be challenged, you

2:45:14get

2:45:14sixty seven. Lee County's not challenging. copy. I don't want to worry about the fear of being challenged. I want to go deal with what we have, enforce the laws we put in place for the reasons we put in place.

2:45:25And that's a board decision. But the version of the ordinance that was challenged in Saint John's, I believe, is the Lee County Ordinance. They copied it too. So you have that same exposure Of litigation. We can defend that litigation. But You got y you know, we may we may have resources tied up in in doing

2:45:56that defense. it's a business decision for the for the board about whether or not they want to continue continue on that path. Um But if but if we keep calling it a panhandling ordinance, we will more likely lose that litigation.

2:46:14I have trouble with the panhandling, but I want to enforce it through the s the right of s right of uh the safety right-of-way ordinance. So I may use that term for what the problem is, but it's the it's the ordinance of the safety that I'm looking at.

2:46:28So if I may add, Commissioner Mariano, forward. You have been heard. That's why David and Denise wanted to sit with you individually, discuss what what are the top issues that you see in your district because our county is diverse. We have more codes and issues than we do necessarily code enforcement officers or resources to enforce everything. And I've I've had con various conversations with various board members on on this topic. We've also looked at things that are of general county concern, right? Look

2:46:58at it like it's it's a room in a house, right? There's there's common areas maybe where we we want to see things straightened up and then there's areas in in the rooms of the house that need to be cleaned up. It's kind of the kind of the analogy that we can use on that. And so we're we're looking at that data, we're trying to allocate our resources appropriately. You've you've been heard on that. You know we're also taking some steps. I've had some conversations with Commissioner Weightman and others on on how do we look at homelessness, right? That is part of our strategic plan. And I think we're having some ideas that we're we're

2:47:28vetting here over the next over the next couple of months. that hopefully may address panhandlers, may address the homeless issues that you're seeing so prevalent in your district and that are cropping up in other districts as well. So uh I I I just want to assure you that you have been heard um and that we will be bringing things back to you and hopefully we'll we'll find that um They they suit the needs of our citizens and you and your districts and your constituents.

2:47:54And one thing about as far as the appearance of 19 as well, Commissioner Starkey, one of

2:47:57the

2:47:58things I like that staff's doing right now is they're working on the tree mitigation ordinance where we can actually allow these people, and and I want to make sure we set this thing up, that we set it up where it's not just a reimbursable thing or they can like put a bill and get paid right away. But I want to make sure that we can help those businesses.

2:48:19But we're doing

2:48:20that now. If you drive it, I

2:48:21know I know that's what I'm saying.

2:48:26And we've got the money to make it apply and that can help that corridor as well as other corridors too.

2:48:30I say redevelopment too, making those built those uh storefronts look nicer.

2:48:34Yeah. Yeah.

2:48:35I the one thing I want to touch on code is that um I did a ride along with Denise, it was like an hour and a half and we came up with a a a plan. So it was very it was very helpful and And she was amazing to work with and I'm really excited to um see the outcome of that. So a lot of moving parts to it. It's gonna be a huge job, but um We're gonna do it.

2:49:01I I am curious if you don't mind me jumping in on your on your issue there. Um, is how um that neighborhood was selected. Um we you know, I drive my district all the time and when I see something a neighborhood going down Um it you know, it gets noticed in my office, but we also get a lot of calls. And and so it's just more efficient for them since they're reactive, not proactive. that

2:49:32if there's an area that has a lot of issues um they can go in and do the sweep and then they don't have to just look at the house to the left and look to the right, but they can Um uh take care of a larger area. So I find them very cost effective. And, you know, they go in with warnings. They don't go in with citations. Um, so um it it really uh helps some of the neighborhoods. If you don't We have found, you know, because I have holiday. Um

2:50:03If you Don't go in periodically and remind folks of what the rules are. things can go downhill really quickly. And so I am very grateful that you do the sweeps and um and so I I just I know my my constituents they think we're not doing enough. Who's that? Well I hear it all the time. We don't care about holiday. You're not in here enough. Um so and I'll talk a bit a little bit about that in my commissioner items.

2:50:33But you're but again, so you listen to your constituents, you listen to yours, you guys listen to yours. I'm listening to mine, I'm telling you what I'm hearing. And it's been going on for a long time. There's ways to improve it. That's what we've done, we've done. But again, if we're to focus I mean I mean we've improved a lot of neighborhoods, but I want to focus on what the biggest problems are first. I'll worry about other things later. But I think the local commission

2:50:54to fix, sadly. I don't know

2:50:56the theory of stuff. There's gonna be a lot of you know a lot of opportunities coming up with C BGDR money to try to help these people. Steps recovery is helping people, so opioid money is helping people, but at the same time, let the commissioner of the district decide where they're gonna put the resources.

2:51:09Agreed.

2:51:09It takes a lot of energy to go do those sweeps. I still got three hundred other ones.

2:51:16Well they get it done in a day or two. They get a lot done in a day or two. Go and But it's not a good one.

2:51:25I think I as as Mr. Kabala said, we'll we'll continue to work with you and again, homelessness is is strategic plan priority and and we'll continue to

2:51:34And Denise had a lot of great ideas about that too. I'm s so super impressed with her so far.

2:51:40Thank you. Thank you very much. You're doing a phenomenal job. Okay. Absolutely phenomenal. Thank you.

2:51:44And actually Denise brought a great item, an idea to how to deal with something with BCS. So I thought her idea was very good. It

2:51:51has

2:51:52to do with who's in charge of what. Okay. Um So y are you done? I'm done yet. Okay, cut Mr. Crohn.