Committee reports TIF and road projects

1:17:51Okay, we'll go to uh committee reports. Commissioner Oakley.

1:17:55Oh, we got I got several this week. Since I added an assistant, uh they s uh the the ladies have figured out that I need to be working six days a week instead of just Four. Four I think. I thought this was a part-time job, but It's uh proven so first thing on the list is we all attended the uh the service for uh Jason Tucker and following officers. uh from the firefighters. And I'll tell you

1:18:25what, the the presence of all the firefighters in their brotherhood. at this service really really shows a lot of support for the families and all involved in in our firefighters fire rescue. So gotta be very thankful for that. Uh the next item on Saturday, April twenty ninth, attended the Tunnel to towers. Uh let us do good village home. uh dedication ceremony for Sergeant Sua and I'm not gonna pronounce

1:18:55his

1:18:56last name.

1:18:57Because I'm from East Pasco County and I can't pronounce that name. But um if it was Smith or something I'd be good. But Um Great individual. Great individuals here. The gentleman with the blue shirt in that last picture, this one on the left. He was in charge of the building of that home. Um very nice. I'm very very well built for uh use of wheelchairs and those uses. Have you ever seen a um

1:19:28I think go to the next picture if you'll see, well here we go. See the cooktop on the right. If you'll notice this down from the counter on the on the left hand side and the right hand side. That moves up and down. Wow. So the person in the wheelchair can cook himself. And this gentleman has white that we can cook for him too, but and they raise it up to normal level. But that plus is um And this is a shower on the left. There's

1:19:58also a bench that'll be added to that shower that he'll be able to come out of his wheelchair onto the bench and then be able to shower. So uh the floor levels are uh it's dropped down a little bit, but it it slopes down so it's easy movement into the shower and out. So and next pictures, if you have any more. Okay, here we go. We are with uh The Pasco Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Service was held at the Historic Courthouse

1:20:28last May 5th. And there's a picture of it there. Very well attended ceremony and the Sheriff's Office did a very good job in and they do every year in this fallen officer memorial. Uh the fact of it is the memorial out on the Corner of uh Sabbath and Meridian there will be finished for next year's memorial. So we'll uh have that ready to go at that time. So it'll be ready before

1:20:58that, but they'll be able to use that particular area. So and then they had ribbon cutting of Zephyrhills uh Veterans Clinic on Sun Saturday, uh May 6th. And uh there's pictures of that. It's um they had um Uh within last month I think they cut the ribbon on the uh Veteran Clinic over on the west side and now we did this one on this side in Zephyrhills. Uh very well

1:21:29attended, probably a couple hundred people there and uh very nice ceremony they had there. Um we gotta give thanks for all that we're doing in our hospital. And in our hospitals They uh came up with uh You had Advent Health out at Bruce Bay Downs and then you see Baycare came up across the street and I sit on the Advent Health Foundation Board. They're concerned about the other hospital right across the street. That's the best of all worlds for us. Because

1:21:59I'm gonna tell you, both those hospitals being across the street and the work they're gonna do to be the very best in this county. The recipient of all that work and all that striving to be the best hospital, best care that we can get. is our citizens of Pasco County. So you can't be more thankful for all the hospitals we've got and now we've got uh two new VA clinics that will actually uh serve. We're right now I think uh a little over forty nine thousand

1:22:30uh veterans in Pasco County. And it's continuing to grow because as more people move in and more veterans are coming to Pasco County. So certainly appreciate all that they do. So with that, uh that'll be all. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Weightman,

1:22:48thank you.

1:22:53First just Todd and Paula know that Commissioner Bradford and if he's listening he and his family are in my family's prayers and in our team's prayers and just holler if y'all need anything. My team's here to support your team and I think same with this board, so uh hang tough. Um Obviously last week was a bit of a emotional week and um attended

1:23:25firefighter Jason Tucker's funeral service and it was good to see the support there for his for his wife and his son and and his and his fellow firefighters and uh just wanna saw the Rotary Club of Wesley Chapel out there handing out water and special thanks to Chris Casella and Jenny Yingling for make sure folks have something cool to drink is as people were coming coming in and out. We also had the National Day of Prayer here at the Historic Courthouse and

1:23:56we did it bright and early in the morning. We tend to try to do things a little earlier here on the east side of the county. And I want to thank Monty Monteith and all the pastors and the churches that were involved and it was an honor to read the proclamation and uh share a little story and and pray with everyone uh in the morning.

1:24:18We also had on Saturday, uh same as the VA clinic, and Commissioner Oakley brought this up too, we had a uh Homes for Our Troops, uh a kickoff party for uh Master Sergeant Chris uh Blavelt and uh his wife Bernadette, they have five kids. And Homes for Our Troops, they're a unique organization. They Jose, 90% of every dollar raised goes straight to the homes. They don't do any advertising. They they're not a

1:24:48big public organization, but the different a key a key issue here. Is the recipient of the home, and Chris is right there in the middle in the blue shirt, and the gentleman next to him is also a home recipient. is the the recipient gets to choose where they want to live. And Chris and his family chose uh Wesley Chapel off all Pasco Road for many reasons. Uh his wife wants to start her business here. She's got a business existing.

1:25:19And they also looked at the health care component in Pasco County. They recognize the VA, the VA clinics in the east and west side of the county. They recognize Advent Health and Wesley Chapel and in Zephyrhills and Daisy. and they recognize Bay Care that's coming in and read article about you know Orlando Health. And due to the the nature of of Chris's issues here, they they chose to come here and and and build a new life and a home and they chose Pasco County, which is really exciting

1:25:49because they see they see a future. They see a quality life in our county. And so that was really, really great to see. And an interesting point what Commissioner Oakley brought up in the showers in these homes for our veterans here is the shower and a big emphasis was made on the showers, the ability for the person that has the issue to shower comfortably. And that's what kind of was the theme of the story is to have a a space to to clean

1:26:20yourself and and and get proper in a in a safe in a safe way. Um so these homes that are built are are very uniquely done and um done with the utmost quality and care. So excited to welcome The Bluffelts to Pasco County here soon. I'll keep everybody posted when we have the official home dedication and uh hope everybody everybody will join us. We also tour did a tour with uh Mike Fassano, our tax collector, and our Chief Deputy Tim Toitt. Tell you what, you

1:26:50talk about morale in his office and the energy that he keeps flowing throughout the day in his office is second to none. And the energy that he brings to the customer, even though folks are coming in there and Paying Uncle Sam. They're not unhappy seemingly to come in and and and pay their taxes. So it's a great job uh that they're doing over there and and meeting his team and very grateful that they spent some time some time with us. Uh also on consent we had uh

1:27:20resolution for a child care provider uh Appreciation day we didn't read it into record but as for Steve Noble and the early learning coalition and uh appreciate all they do for our community and uh Pasco have a seat on the board next year but I appreciate the board support and providing a resolution for them and that's all I have Mr. Chairman

1:27:39Mariano thank you Commissioner Starkey

1:27:42Yeah, um I have a couple things I want to go over with you guys. Um one um is about the TIFF and and Seth may not even know what that is yet, but um I wanted to put up I recently found this out I found this out last week. I've been wondering what the heck happened, what happened. So um I pre warned the county administrator that w I wanted to have this discussion here today. But if you could put up the map that looks like this that was sent emailed to you. Um and then there's then

1:28:12there's a a bigger one. Um And I I only know what happened in my area, um, and a little bit of I guess it's Commissioner Weightman's. Uh there may be others in your districts. Um but I can tell you that in my district I've been w wondering and wondering when we were gonna widen Trinity Boulevard and this is the CIP from

1:28:37Does it have the date on here? I think it's twenty one. And you see that Trinity Boulevard was set to be designed in 2022-23 and constructed in Well that's the light, wouldn't it? Let's see here. Designed in 2021. and constructed in twenty two-twenty-three widening. Uh no, that's not right either. Here's the red one. If you could put the arrow on that red, uh it says 30

1:29:08Boulevard Widening, Little Road to State Road 54, Design FY 2223, construction 2425. And I think if you would look on the CIP now, I don't even think it's there. Um same with a little rope. And you've uh little road here. Let's see if the dates on here. Widening. Here. You can see here it says widening and green on the left. It was supposed to be done in 2223.

1:29:40Gone from our CIP. And the other one I understand is gone is Call Your Parkway Widening. So I don't remember ever voting on that. And so so I asked well what what what's the history on this? Because I I've been at people are always asking me in Trinity what you know, when are we winding? Turning Boulevard, it's a two lane road. It's very that's the way out of Pasco County in the for a lot of the county. If you go down Trinity to East Lake, you're sitting at that light for maybe six cycles.

1:30:11So apparently We um did something with the TIFF a number of years ago and so I'll go ahead and have you explain to the board what was explained to me and and how I think we're gonna change things going forward on how we decide how we're gonna fund local roads.

1:30:28Yeah, I think I'll I'll I'll talk at a high level on this. With with regards to the TIFF, there was a change that was made maybe a year or two ago under the previous administrator to essentially free up more money, right? When you when you put it TIFF over a certain set of properties, I think it was at 33%. That is money that is going to this this TIF, which is set aside for transportation issues. So it funds public works, it funds a portion of the transportation program, and it also

1:30:58funds public transportation, i.e. our buses. And so what was happening was that TIFF was growing at a faster. Clip, there was a recognition that that was taking away general revenue because it it all competes. So what was done was is it was adjusted the TIFF, the intention of the TIFF portion of transportation capital program was to subsidize the mobility fee, right? So if you provide a mobility fee discount, there's you know whatever mobilities fees are supposed to be ten thousand dollars and

1:31:28mobility fees are assessed $8,000 for a project, the TIFF would subsidize that that additional $2,000. So we we we went back and we based it on a 2018 study to kind of right size the TIFF to to be in line with that. Now that was a 2018 study we've seen where prices and things have gone. So I I I predicate that to say that the reason that the adjustment was made was was to free up additional general revenue and not tie it up necessarily unnecessarily in in other programs. So I think that was a good thing. Where I think that the we

1:31:59have probably need to do a better job of is explaining to the board you know how prioritization of projects work through the MPO, how that feeds into the long-range transportation plan, because the LRTP, which is what you're showing up there, is a 15-year plan of what we presume our transportation needs are going to be

1:32:19Mm. Then that funnels into the CIP, which is actually what gets gets funded. And that is a complicated formula because there are probably about 15 or 20 different funding sources that our team has to use to literally cobble together funding for certain projects. Some of those are mobility fees, some of them are TIFF, others are Penny for Pasco and and and so on and they're broken down and restricted by districts. So there's there's a lot of there's a lot of rules in play. Um

1:32:50and so sometimes when projects there's other priorities that that come forward that that need to get handled. We had some opportunities with Sun Lake Boulevard and and others other projects throughout the county. And I think the bottom line up front with this commissioner is that we need to be a little more transparent. And how this goes forward and share with the board on that. And so I'm committed to working with uh with our team to ensure that that happens.

1:33:17And I I think when we made the change we thought we had enough money to do the projects. Yeah. That were in place without changing. That's how it was laid to us, right?

1:33:26That's how it was laid to us. The Delta would cover the rising value of the thirty percent would cover these road projects. Well it didn't. And now where are we?

1:33:35And I I'll tell you, Commissioner Starkey, I've got a project that we're I've got a sidewalk trail at 5A. We did the woodbine section, probably finished it five years ago. The section was then supposed to be taken all the way from there, past the library, past the hospital. Crushing nineteen. And that project got delayed it looks like at least a year. And right now the sidewalk that's out there has got barricades all over it. 'Cause they're not done. 'Cause g 'cause we wore away. So it's it's something that needs to be looked at. I'm okay to to bring it back up and let's go bring it

1:34:05forward. What does it take, Mike, to bring this thing back to us to take a look at? Obviously it won't happen this year, but You know, for next year.

1:34:12Let me get back to you on that. I I really want to sit down and and have some discussions. There's there's like I said, there's a bunch of different moving parts as as part of this. Ultimately

1:34:21it would take an ordinance amendment if they want to go back to a higher percentage than is

1:34:28Well Correct.

1:34:30Mr. Stark.

1:34:31Um I I agree with that, but I I want to say I don't want I would prefer that these decisions not be made administratively, but that we know what's going on. Um And s and I know we talked about that, that's kind of what he's saying. But I you know, I so now I have no idea what the plan is for any of these roads for uh with relief. And there's some there's some big projects that I can't talk about that are trying to come to to the Trinity West Pasco area

1:35:01that on the on the tourism side of things. And You know, we we're a little hamstrung because Yeah, there's gonna be traffic studies and I can't even tell 'em when the road's gonna be widened. And I think Commissioner Weightman had sand up.

1:35:15Commissioner Weightman.

1:35:16Yeah, thank you. Chairman to it. I appreciate a board item on this subject matter 'cause there's there's one road in particular that I

1:35:28trying to understand what the future of it is and it ties into fifty two it's Aaron Cuddle and with projects that are coming in on the fifty two north side of fifty two Aaron Cuddle is just gonna become busier and busier and it's down whatever's there's something going on Aaron Cuddle. It it was one lane last week and fifty two was one lane and it it literally choked east west traffic getting across town and um seeing some of the the the projects on the horizon this this I

1:36:00want to understand that particular area of of our world in traffic flow or or improvements to roads that were not necessarily that are becoming more and more main main thoroughfares. So uh thank you, Commissioner Starkey, for bringing this up and thank you, Chairman I agree with the chair for

1:36:18Mr. Chairman Mariano. Can I have a one second? County Attorney.

1:36:23Uh ultimately you approve all of these projects or the deletion of these projects when you approve your capital improvements? budget each year. Now. Do you ha did you ha do you have enough detail to know what was happening? No. But that's ultimately that's the decision point is when the capital improvements program comes to you during your budget process.

1:36:51Yeah.

1:36:52There should there should be disclosure of what's coming what's at being added to the list and what's coming off of the list.

1:36:58And and some something can Mr. Chairman Mariano. Um and I hope Gary's back home listening as well and for Seth. Um

1:37:09When we give mobility fee credits We take away from our ability to build some of this road network. And the last time we had a mobility fee study I see David sitting out there. I was saying We're giving away five was it four or five thousand dollars per hotel room. On mobility fee credits. And um I think that's a lot. And I I think we may need to revisit

1:37:40These credits were handed out because I think that the economy is here And people are building here. And um I don't think we need to be s giving away the store. And I said that last time, I'm gonna say it again. Because what we're doing is is not taking care of our local transportation when we give away so many mobility fee credits and we need to look it's time to revisit that again in my opinion.

1:38:07Commissioner Oakley.

1:38:12I became aware of some some of the roads that I wasn't aware of before and it fits right in here where you're talking about. Uh when we do the extension of uh Ridge Road on to 41 and then across 41 into Conerton. We actually cure that to a new ending point. That will be the new route of Air and cutoff that comes that that's short of air and cutoff right now, I believe. It could be if Past it, but I think it's just short of where Aaron cutoff

1:38:42says today that there's gonna be a new route in there. But I didn't realize that before, but I I did after I heard some conversations. I think it was yesterday and all. But but those are things we don't see sometimes or don't remember and these are things we've approved or or federal commissioners prior to us had approved that coming forward. So Um it's good to know that those kind of things and I think we need to also um pay attention

1:39:12to um what's happening th to these roads in the future that that we have and revisiting the uh mobility fee schedule and all I think is a good time 'cause Uh if we're not careful we've been told in uh M P O that if you take away monies from some area to speed up a a road in another area, you might be taking away from a road you won't fix down down the road and you won't have enough credits or enough

1:39:43money to take care of that new road on further. So it's kind of confusing but yet We've we've been told that in the MPO several times, be careful how you prioritize because if you start pushing roads ahead of what's really ready to be paid for, just like um Uh stay road fifty two. I think within twenty four it's gonna start because it's it's now paid

1:40:13for. For the for laning of that To Bell if I'm not mistaken. And that is com gonna be coming forward and we've gotta make sure we don't prioritize something ahead of that because the money's for TIF two are sitting there waiting. It's it's been funded through F D O T.

1:40:30And there's different pots of money. Yeah. Um but Certainly I think we should spend more time talking about it. Commissioner Weightman has his

1:40:38hand

1:40:38up.

1:40:38Yeah, Commissioner Weightman.

1:40:39Thank you, Chair. Uh yeah. I agree with Commissioner Starkey's point about the fee schedule. It's time that the the giveaways shrink up a bit. Tasco's Tasco's on the map. People are coming here. People are using very smart technology to say Hey. We're going to focus here. We want to do business here from all over the United States and other places. So I don't I think it's time that we we tighten up a bit

1:41:09that and uh really understand these incentive packages that we we give we we provide and um you know we're competitive now so thank you Commissioner Starkey again

1:41:24Well if I could I want you to keep in mind with with the benefit of hotels when they come in They bring people that are gonna spend money in the community, it's a big plus. They don't put any demand on schools, they don't put any demand on a lot of services that you normally would get. And they're gonna bring money to the area. She could

1:41:41cut that mobility fee in half.

1:41:42But let me if I could let me let me continue. When I look at like the west side, you can look at some hotels that we have there that were there and guess what they are now? They're like homeless shelters. They're like they're converted. They're not doing anything for the economy. And for you for for me to say if I get anyone to want to bring a hotel in that area, like we had a bunch of them that come in a few years back. I want to bring all the hotel tell youers I can in there because they're gonna help the economy every step of the way. Um you know we uh we did away with the

1:42:12apartment thing a while ago, we changed as far as residential goes, but I want you to be very careful when you look at where you wanna cut back. As far as the um You know, putting in certain roads, I mean Hicks Road to Denton would connect the park, would connect the health center, uh connect the area a lot better. Roads never gonna get built unless we designate money. This board, I think, made a good move, even though the project fell through, to go take the mobility fees to get that road done. We're gonna have a hearing on a project on Meadow Oak so we heard last time. I've got a road

1:42:42I can't get connected and I can't seem to make it happen. I mean we need those cross sections, like you said, with the old Tampa, you need those alternative routes. Well, as much as connecting up uh development's going back and back, you need to get those little roads that need to get infilled. And if they're not on a high priority list, they get left behind. And I think that's what happened to the left s the west side. A lot of those improvements that should have been done never get done. And you've heard me talk about between Ranch Road, many years it took to get that finally done, which we are in process or it's funded now it's going forward. Zimmerman,

1:43:13another one as well. All those are the things that would connect and make it better. If you don't allow some things to happen. Now one of the things I didn't mind doing, if the board so willed, by cutting down the TIFF, we had flexibility to pull from the general fund. That was one of the benefits. If we pulled it out, we can go say. We want to get a road funded. Let's go stroke stroke a check. We can fund it because we've got more general fund money. So that is available to us.

1:43:37I was told that would come from parks and fire rescue uh fire stations. So either build parks or fire stations or some of these roads. And and that and that the reason Um that Delta didn't happen as the 30% increase was that the cost of building the roads increased. And that's kind of what ate up that money that they thought was gonna be there. But so let's have a workshop on this. I want to move on to my second uh uh discussion item. Um and that is is When we

1:44:08uh we have an agreement with the city of Newport Ritchie, and I'm not an expert on this, so someone may have to help me with this. When Say say uh when we finish out Leisure Lane. And the city of New Portchie annexes that They they take the road and they take responsibility for the care of the road that's in their cities. We do not maintain roads in the city of New Port Richey. We do not apparently have that same kind of agreement with Dade City. And um and

1:44:38I do wanna have more discussions with Dade City on annexation and You know, we put in special programs like V O P H or Whatever And um We Plan out vision roads and and parks and then if Dade City comes and annexes some of our property and they don't wanna participate in that Vision Road process. Where's our you know, what do we do? We're s We we we have a road network problem. But

1:45:09More importantly, m my understanding is when Dade City annexes Pasco County property. they don't take the roads. They just take the property and we still maintain the roads. And that we so we need to be putting an interlocal agreement in place. for that ASAP. And and any road that's in the date city, city limits, that's on them. If they want they want the property, they get the road. Um

1:45:42Then lastly, um I wanted to show you a new tool. And um if you could put up Google Maps Please.

1:45:52Uh This just kind of showed up last week. And so um I've been having lots of fun. I haven't really picked them. the best area, but for now I'm gonna just I mean uh one that's really, really dramatic 'cause I didn't have it planned up for you yet. But if you would go to um Little road just south of of old County Road 54 on the Google Maps. I'll show you something that is a little eye-opening and then sorry this one isn't as dramatic as

1:46:22it could be. Um I could show you others, but I'm just gonna pick this one today. It's a drop. Drop a pin on little And you have to be in the make well. Little Road? Okay. S it's south of Pit Boss.

1:46:49Where it says Sawgrass Creek apartments and then Okay, see and then where it says a little road, drop your pin right on that little road. Damp. Down. Down. Right there. Make sure you're on the highway. Okay, so scroll around. And y I want you to see the bank. Keep turning around.

1:47:15The bank. Yeah, the truest bank. Okay. Um Now that's interesting. Okay. Oh up there on your left hand corner where it says see more dates. This is currently what it looks like. I can tell you, unfortunately these don't go back as far 'cause this used to be a barnet bank covered with live oak trees. Just covered with live oak trees. If you go to okay, just click on that one. October nineteenth. You can see what it looked like then. And you can go back a little bit. To there and

1:47:45you see they You know, they had a hedge, most of it was missing. Um but you can start to see Uh What they used to look like And what they look like today.

1:47:59Mm.

1:48:00And I can tell you today there's nothing there. Well go you can go back to the um

1:48:06The original.

1:48:07The original. Now if you think that's premier and if that's the good direction we want to go in I'm gonna disagree with you.

1:48:14You can tell there's no irrigation there also 'cause the grass is brown.

1:48:18It's dead weed. And i I mean it's horrible. And You so this is a new tool that just popped up on Google Maps. So you so it's you'll see it in the upper left corner where it says see latest date and you can see a timeline. of what it looked like and what it looks like today. So I just wanted to share that with you. And that's it for me. That's it. Oh oh on my Bettonville trip I'm gonna tell you who went and we're gonna give you guys a report. Keith Wiley went. Um Adam from Parks and Recks, Adam. Tina

1:48:49for our um you know, our trails builder and Sam Bennick our our trails engineer PEDC sent Sarah and me, there were eight of us, and uh got their flag from B PAC, and it was his idea. And And I would tell you he told me a few years ago you need to go see what Bentonville's doing with trails. And and then over the year and a half four three other people told me You need to go see what they're doing. And so when when you start hearing

1:49:20that, you're like, Okay, let's let's go take we did a little research You know it's the home of Walmart. Not my favorite story. But um

1:49:32I will I will just tease you with this that I thought we were gonna be the first municipality going in and having a presentation from their economic development people, their chamber people, their tourism people. Um And we were the twenty fifth. This year. twenty fifth this year to see How they have transformed that area of Arkansas. And two. An amazing place to live, work and play. So I just wanna tell you that. Okay.