public comment rules and citizen comments
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, Oct 26, 2021
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Oct 26, 2021
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 23m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 68% of 82 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Okay. Uh now is the time for public comment. Citizens are given the opportunity to comment on any item coming before the board and items to be placed on future board agenda or other business under their preview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First We will take public comment from those That are here in person. Then we will take public comment from those Who have pre registered on WebEx Link and are currently on
queue. Uh this format does not waive the request for when you uh address the board. Comments are not directed toward any Commissioner Oakley. but are directed toward the issues. This provides mutual respect between the board and members and the public. For WebEx and In person participants after you Uh state your name and address for the clerk.
The timer will start. And after two minutes a bait was sound. Letting you know that you have one minute remaining. After your time is up, two beeps will sound Indicating that your three minutes are up. Yeah we It is time for you to End your comments. WebEx participants will The Disconnected automatically when their time is up. The following people have signed up to speak in person. Yeah.
Mr. Chair, I have six individuals that are assigned up in person, and I will call the first three so that you know I'll be the order. Drew is it Bocchetti, Pastor Troy Peterson, and Pastor Danny Fields.
Good morning. Thank you. I'm here again in place of you. I'm asking again to please address I'm sorry. Andrew Boketti, [address removed]. I'm asking again to please address the septic problem. The Florida Department of health has come out again. Blaming the landlord, which may very well affect rent for not only myself, But this may affect others in the future. We the people are already dealing with enough stress as it is. I recommend try helping the people. It
was also mentioned that the street drainage county problem It's already not working correctly. It had already been redone once.
but the street had been repaved recently. So money not spent, QA was not done. Um, I guess that tax spending tax dollars is foolishly wise. I still have not received any kind of communication of any kind of septic policy to be put in place. At all. Um And you're welcome for a serving my country and God bless the USA. I use my time. Thank you.
Good morning, Pastor Troy Peterson. Uh I pastor at 8114 Leo Kidd in Port Ritchie. Uh once again um I'm here addressing uh Uh praying in Jesus' name for the invocation. Um I've been praying about this for quite some time. Uh two weeks ago in Dade City, I felt the Lord was telling me just to be still and to pray. Um but today I have a couple other pastors with me. And I just want to share a a couple of scriptures. Um
first one in John sixteen, Jesus Christ declared, Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask in my father Father in my name, the name of Jesus Christ, he will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. That is a bold statement from Jesus Christ. And what I'm seeing from right now this point forward I don't see any prayer or invocation with Jesus' name in it. That's why I'm here. And so what I'm asking is that the
board would approve Me and a group of pastors that I would choose. If I could not make it, I would appoint somebody to come in that I know is gonna pray according to the Word of God. And then Jesus says, Ask and you will receive, that your joy joy may be full. In first Timothy chapter two, We see the Apostle Paul writing to his student Timothy. He says, Therefore I exhort, I exhort first of all that supplications, what's a supplication? A
supplication is a specific heartfelt petitioner needs. We have a lot of them here in Pasco County. Amen. Prayers and intercessions. Giving thanks be made for all men. For kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Jesus is the way, truth, and life. The
only way to the Father is through the Son, Jesus Christ. And so that's that truth that I'm here to share with you today. But in verse It says, For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all. And then in Matthew 6, and when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen heathen do, for they think that they be heard by their many words. When you look at them, vain repetitions
is exactly what your
At the beginning of the Commissioner's meeting is doing thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman Mariano Can I address the speaker? You may. Um so in September of two thousand and three, the former county attorney was asked the question about invocations. That's what led to what the clerk reads every Very morning. The federal law with regard to praying in County Commission meetings. Has not changed and in fact one of your fellow counties um on the
east coast um has taken the case up in twenty nineteen. The eleventh circuit affirmed all the case law. That basically says you can't have Secular Prayer. Does they The Brevard County Commission was doing very s something very similar to what the pastor suggests. Where they had had
Pastors, preachers, rabbis on call to come in and pray before the county commission. Um it was found to violate federal law.
Our
right
is I got a wall.
So my my advice to the board would be to continue the practice that that we've adopted.
Okay. That's why we're in a crap situation. We can't tell from the audience. Thank you, sir. Yeah, sir.
So am I ready? Okay. My name is Danny Fields. I I live here in Pasco County. My address is [address removed]. Zip air is [address removed]. I'm here about the same thing Pastor Troy is, because I'm pastor and I'm also with somebody cares Pasco County. Now Troy he read a bunch of scriptures here. So I'm gonna focus on what was said when we opened up here. We talked about the creator.
Well, that creator, and then we go into the Pledge Allegiance, which in God we trust. Well that that God is Jesus Christ. And so I'm here to just thank you. I know these are a lot of decisions. I would like to see the faith-based church and government work together in this community. And I know that is your heart. To establish all the programs and things that we need to do together in unity. We might not agree on everything, but we
could come together and figure out. by the word of God and by the counsel of God how to do this. So I will quote a scripture and it says in John fourteen, six, and Troy closed it out with this, saying, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Now let me establish government from God's point, like you hear some of the people back here saying. It says in the book of Acts, starting in forty six there, but if you back up it talked about
Moses was given a law. And and and our laws was founded as a Christian nation on the government of God. As a Christian nation. Okay? Then it talked about Joshua there, how Joshua then was to go and govern the nations that was doing things that wasn't by God's government and laws. And so the main scripture there for me is says that what house will you build for me, saith the Lord? And that
house is an individual, that's a as a home, as a husband and wife, that is children, and that is our government. So I'm not here to beat up on you. I love you. I respect you. I don't agree with all your policies all the time, but I'm here to work with you, and I'd like to see the name of Jesus be lifted up like it was founded on. And thank you for your service.
Thank you for your coming, Mess.
The next three that are signed up um is um I'm probably not gonna s pronounce this correctly, um Dale Biaghiola. Sorry. Probably did not do a good job on that. Thank you. Um and then Natalie Cronin, followed by Gail Schwedberg. So
Like yeah. These papers. I don't know But I would like you to follow along. Do you so that you can see what I'm talking about? Move to receive and file. Got a
motion receive and file. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.
You can hand them to the clerk over here, ma'am. Right over here. Thank you, ma'am.
And could you state your name and address for the record first and then just
pull that down? Pull the mic down. There you go. And I live at [address removed] and I'm here very nervously because I saw on my computer yesterday something about a New Port Richey killed. Crossing little road. I have a f A quadriprolegic daughter. She happens to live. On [address removed]. She's on the other side of Bar um with Barrington, away from Wind Dixie. When she
comes out her driveway and uh out of the road with her wheelchair She has to go across Little Road. Uh no sorry, Embassy Boulevard to get down to Little Road. or anything along the way. And she has to cross. In front of Barrington, she has to go a f in front of the Pac Ritchie Boulevard, whatever. Both going in and going out. The bus stop is there as well. And also there's a um entrance exit over there by Wind
Dixie and another one by the bank. She cannot go along Um the embassy boulevard on her side of the road. Because There is a huge tree. Right on the s sidewalk and it's Kinda lifted and like this and if she tries to get over it she's gonna land in the street. So I have pursued because she was hit by a car already. um on that same area.
I have pursued the traffic people. to help me fix some of those sidewalks and I was told that from Little Road to M uh Moorhead is only the sidewalks that the county is responsible for. Everybody that land owns land along the way is responsible to fix the sidewalk. There's no way they're gonna do it for one person. So she's got to go out. As a matter of fact, she doesn't have to go out. She's only goes out when she's with somebody.
because she scared to death of being hit again. The guy had a Blown out tire, she was thrown From her chair. And I whatever. So anyway I'm hid Excuse me, I'm here to ask you. that you help me get the sidewalks fixed so she can at least get from her home to be independent which we worked for for so many years. I thank you very much. All right. Thank you for your comments. Yes, ma'am.
Are you gonna go? Someone gonna talk to her? Well, Where is the site where was this location of the
right between I think Christina and my district?
Yeah, so you guys gonna look into it?
Pauline, would you reach over?
Okay. Mike's getting her information now. Thanks. Name and address for the clerk.
Hello, yes, my name is Natalie Cronin. I live in [address removed]. So hello everybody. Um I'm here today about well there was an incident that came to my attention. It's called this company, it's called Paul Corporation, and they have decided that they want to mandate this vaccine. Well, I know that I am writing the governor, I know that I am writing our representatives, I know that they're calling a special session on just that issue. However,
I also know that people that are um in this company they are also doing these things. But uh they i if company if people that are working a company that is doing this Some of them will be coming to you and contacting you about these issues. What I would ask is that on top of us also writing the governor, writing our representatives, calling them, et cetera, I would also ask that you all, as elected officials, also do that. It might have some extra weight. And if you came out, you
know, being seen to fight for our jobs, we're more inclined to fight for yours. Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you for your comments. Because the issue runs it, so I wanted to get that information.
Good morning. My name's Gail Swedberg, [address removed]. I'm not going to bring up any of the issues with Green Key per se because we've all been over that several times here. A couple things that I do want to mention are at this point now, about eight months ago and as recently as a week ago, we have had water break water breaks in the pipe. Public Works has come out and repaired them, put new valves in not
valves, put new covers on them. Um the one I'm speaking of on Largo Terrace and the other one just within the week. um over on edge water. So what's happening now are the pipes are and we know this, the pipes are all starting to deteriorate and we're gonna start and get more and more of those breakage. Um Another thing I wanted to mention, and I I usually talk when I I am based on facts, so it's something that I see or
I learn about. Okay. Um so this is coming from a second party, a reliable party, but there was mention of the reclaimed water. From the water plant on Sea Forest and Main Street, dumping reclaimed water into the I guess it would be the bayou. I heard this about a week ago as we were passing out flyers about the upcoming November 2nd meeting. Um it was from somebody very reliable, but again, it
it wasn't told to me. So I think that's something of concern. You know, if you're dumping all that reclaimed water, first of all, why would you be doing that? Is is that something that they do? And if not It should be looked into. So those are the only two topics I wanted to bring up. I know that public works has been out and you know, taking pictures and checking the areas and everything. So we're hopeful that we're gonna be getting on the same page as far as drainage repairs and everything that we
need done in the Green Key area. Okay, thank you.
All right. Thank you for your time.
My assistant calling let her get her information or I'll set up a meeting with you and I'll gotta give you a little more information on what's going on. Uh she's coming up right there. Okay. Okay.
Mr. Chairman Mariano.
Is there anyone else that uh would like to speak at public comment this morning that has not signed up?
I thought I saw a lady before. There you go. Name and address for the clerk.
Julia Bartunick, [address removed]. And I would just like to um speak to I'm continuing to keep the morning prayer as stands. Um, due to the fact that there are 6,000 people a month moving to Pasco County and our diversity is growing in All respects, including with many religions that already exist in this county that are going to continue to grow within the Christian communities, the
Jewish communities, the Buddhist communities, Muslim communities. There are many diverse branches and sects and denominations within those communities of faith and temples. So I think we need to keep it It simple and keep it as stands to avoid litigiousness. Thank you.
Name and address.
Brian Paris, [address removed]. I actually disagree with that. Just because people move here, we shouldn't bend our values to anybody else. If people want to come here, we should be able to speak the way we want and how we want. You're coming to our town, we're not gonna bend our knees to anybody. This is this town is you want to come here? It's just like our country. You you come to our values, our Judeo-Christian values, our constitutional republic, and our family American values.
We've already had our d a family house has been destroyed by allowing different ideologies to come in here. We cannot allow it. If we we should put Jesus Christ in it, you know, I I mean I'm not perfect by any means and I'm not here to judge.
Just uh good American values. If people want to come here, you know, come our way. It's just like the American language, English. You know, we W that's just the way it is. You go to other countries, you have to to go to their values, you know. I'm not gonna go to uh Mexico and live and say, hey, you guys gotta speak English now because of me. No. We're in America, we have English or Judeo Christian values.
However people want to pray, they can use it and and that's all. Thanks. All right, thank you for your comments.
Anyone else that have not signed up wish to speak at this time?
Anyone on WebEx?
We do have um one individual on WebEx. Two had registered but only one has um connected. We have Nancy Gray is in the queue.
Okay.
Ms. Gray, if you would like to state your name and address for the record and then you may proceed.
Yes, my name is Nancy Gray and I live at [address removed].
Come
before you again regarding deer leg. Have emailed your offices and spoken to you at previous meetings regarding this. Wells Fargo at Little and Ridge is permitted to drain their roof and driveway into the lake as their grandfathered in. The water washes down the hill, eroding it. and flushing dirt near stormwater into the lake. Lake overflows on dark properties on Adonis and Grave. The water came up over a hundred and forty feet into our yards in August, and it's still up. It's gonna
take six to nine months for it to go down on its own, just in time for the vicious cycle to start all over again. As I emailed you yesterday, tax records show the lake belongs to Pasco County. I've been told by an assistant that Pasco will never maintain the slake, Pasco requested and received an emergency permit from Swift Mud. to pump right lakes grains roost in August and pump for the month, keeping the water off of their properties. It never came out of the lakes. But Pasco
won't pump its own lake and remove the water off the residents' properties on Grave in Adonis. The Florida Administrative Code prohibits water runoff from being directed onto another's property. Why is this water on our property? Swift Mud contacted public works by email saying that I requested the lake and attached the 2019 emergency permit. Why won't the county talk to your lake? We've lost thousands of dollars of plants, trees,
and crops since August, and none of the residents have had use of their backyards, but we're paying property taxes on this land. Why are we being penalized? Who's running the stormwater and public works departments? Is it public infrastructure, our county administrator, or the county commissioners? It appears as though they're accountable to no one. Please hold these departments accountable and get this Questing a county pump down the lake and off of our properties,
clean out the lake, and come up with a permanent solution to the problem. Add the curbs at Wells Fargo, as Miss Fitzpatrick suggested, Come up with another idea. Swift Mutt has already determined that the county can get a permit to run the runoff into the drains at Ridge and Little and over the County Retention Pond. It'll prevent the runoff from being dumped into Deer Lake and Deer Lake flooding its residents. Please give us our properties back. We're looking forward
to a resolution. I thank you for your time and I invite any questions, I'd love to answer them, but no one will contact me.
Do you have any questions? We just don't
I guess that's the right-of-way. Is that all your comments? Or she's been cut off? Yes. She has not been cut off. Oh no, okay. All right, thank you.
Okay, that's the chair, that is
sir.