Public comment on clerk IT library materials and volleyball
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, Jan 24, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jan 24, 2023
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 22m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 60% of 72 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Here. Now is the time for public comment. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any current or future agenda item coming before a board or another before the board's purview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First. We will take public comment from those who are here in person. Then we will take public comment from those who are pre-registered for a WebEx link. Yeah. We request that 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. After two minutes, a single beep will indicate you have one minute left. When your time is up, two beeps will sound and you should close your comments. WebEx participants will be disconnect connected automatically when their time is up. Madam C Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?
I do, Mr. Chair. We have just a couple. Um we have uh James Mallow. Followed by Kathy Julian, followed by Cindy Skadar Scarda. So uh Mr. Mallow?
There are others. I just read the first three.
Big morning, everybody. How are we all doing this morning? Good. All right, good. I'm actually asking everybody. How is everybody doing? Sorry. I didn't want to point out any one person. Anyway. Just kidding. All right. Honorable Chairman and Board Members, staff and members of the public, I stand in front of you today without title, uh, without agenda. And with much respect for each and every one of you. Um I'm here to ask you directly to to stop some madness going on and negotiate. uh with the
Madam Clerk. Am I am I off now? Can you hear me? Okay. Um the issue at hand is becoming a point of frustration and embarrassment for all constitutionals involved, the employees uh of the clerk and comptrols office, which some people don't really think about, but y we have to mention them, and and many of your constituents. Uh I'm speaking of the court case that pits the Comptroller's Office, Clerk Comptroller's Office, uh against the Board of County Commissioners. The
clerk's ask is very basic. Pay for the pay for the IT needs of the office. which there is no question that the county is responsible for and must pro properly fund the office with consideration for the logistical and physical challenges a county the size uh and the grow and the population uh growth uh as Pasco possesses. The IT ask uh being close to $1 million and the proper funding being close to $7 million can be found within our $2 billion budget
without raising one cent of taxpayer money. uh as long as there's reasonable and proper prioritization.
The clerk's controller's office employees are the lowest paid of all constitutionals. Many of the challengers uh of the clerk's uh clerk comptroller's office is unique to Pasco and the M. Uh with with the way the Pasco's infrastructure has been built. uh our growth patterns and our pool of available workforce. Honorable Chairman M And commissioners. Uh my ask is simple. Lead the commission. Get together. And
lead.
No court case. Don't need that.
Am I done? Oh close. Uh the the consensus builder and uh be it be a consensus builder and demand that your attorneys and your staff Open up communication with the clerk comptroller's office and negotiate a solution in good faith.
you all cannot sit here another day together at this at this dais Without trying to resolve this issue. Resolving the issue in court will only set precedent that could be very bad for Pasco as a whole and possibly have very negative statewide impact. I also ask you to investigate how we got here, which is really important. So self reflection is is really needed here because you gotta also think about the other constitutionals that maybe there hasn't been so So
great uh of communication at times. Uh I believe the only way to that
By their is by there being no communication, miscommunication, or even worse, negligence. Please stop the madness and come to the table with each other. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm gonna address that comment. Um We were sued Um Nikki and I actually met yesterday. to talk about future ways to go forward. And we agreed we're gonna talk with each other. I recommend that you talk to all the Board of County Commissioners, not just deal with administrator. So right now she's suing us. If that lawsuit stops, that stops that starts a conversation.
This is a and this is a deck action that the clerk's office has filed against Against the county commission. The legal issue is what is her state responsibility and what is her local responsibility. There's a difference of opinion. And uh Yeah, that's that's a legal issue. That will impact you're right, it'll impact if we agree that Funding this courthouse is a local responsibility that affects sixty-seven counties.
But sir, y your your own chairman just stated that you know the conversation has to be had. Come on and should be had. And so it can't look, I know each one of you personally and I consider each one of you a friend. Um and Friends don't this doesn't happen with friend like I know it's a business. I know y at the end of the day you have to have y it's a business and y and it has to move forward. But I think the leadership, I think each one of you have such great leadership Right? And you were all elected. And so we were
elected to be a leader and to to solve problems, not to have these this waste taxpayer money in court. Like I'm against wasting taxpayer money. Um you know I think we all are. So I'm not sure.
I mean we we we we had a conversation yesterday. We'll see where she takes it from here. We're happy to work with her. We thank a lot of her. Like to get it resolved, but again we gotta stand with our county attorney as well to what uh lead together, please.
Uh yeah, I think well we are in litigation, so I think our discussions are limited to client attorney.
Maybe
if if the board wishes to have a Litigation assessment meeting on this case, I would be happy to bring that to you at your next meeting.
That's what I'm asking for. That's the only thing that I'm asking for is you all get together and lead as one. Thank you very much. Have a good day, everybody.
Thank you, Mr. Mallow, for your comments. Next up, um Miss Julian.
I always get the best people to follow when I come to speak. Um so I'm talking about something which um was exposed last week at the school board meeting. Um a couple of my friends found that um in the My Pasco link, they accessed it through uh kindergartners and a third graders. Um We just need your
n full name
and address. Okay, my name is Kathy Julian and I live in [address removed]. Thank you. Um
So um they found on the My Pasco link asks accessing it through uh sign-in from a kindergartner and a third grader, which are young students, um, that they were able to access porn on the school website. Now my understanding is by Friday those links were broken and the information was taken down, but I don't know that that's enough because um It was exposed these kids were exposed to it. That should have never happened. Um, but the the reason why I'm here talking to you about it is not because of that issue, but because
a lot of these porn issues were um located in books that are found in the Pasco County Library. And I'm concerned why we would be spending taxpayer money, we should be giving it to the clerk's office, not buying books with questionable. Pictures in them. I don't agree with ex under uh discussing different orientations and things with young children, but there can be a case made for that. There is no way to make a case for the pictures in these books. And if
you walk into a public library, we all know, we all have kids, we all know that you walk into a public library, you can go anywhere in the library and look. Even when we had blockbusters and they used to rent movies like this, there were movies. All you could see was the cover. And you had to go into a special room and you had to be of a certain age. At our public libraries, that's not the case. And um it's really disturbing to me just as a mom and as a community member. But I I mean I think our board, our school board is in
trouble because um there was new law. passed last year saying that explicitly you could not do this with kindergarten through third graders. And like I said, links from those age groups were used to access this information. And it has been removed, but that's not enough. Somebody needs to be held accountable. Um just removing it doesn't make what happened go away. It happened. And that's the issue. I mean if I go out and do something wrong and then I say, Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't really mean to do something wrong, that doesn't
mean I didn't do wrong what I s did. So anyway, that's really all I have to say and um thank you for your time.
Kathy. Kathy, before you go. Um Kathy Pierce in the back That's under her Department of Assistant County Administrator. Please talk with her because we I I will say I think I can say for the board we don't want to have any any point on our libraries either.
Thank you.
I appreciate that.
Right. Next up is Cindy Scarda, followed by Pastor Troy Peterson, followed by Douglas uh Chintzer, and then Brian Petas.
Hello, thank you for allowing me the time to speak. I want to follow up uh with Kathy. I am uh Oh. member of uh Pasco County and I'm appalled that these materials are uh in our public school libraries and that kids as young as six, seven, and eight year olds can access this type of material. I know there are new laws being passed. We have the parental bill of rights. We also have a new law I believe right now about the library. But doesn't mean they're always adhered to. You
know, you've got some teachers that don't agree with laws like that and go and do whatever they care to do in their classrooms. So Uh I know this bill, I hope that the new bill being passed will have some teeth in it because the Florida statute eight four seven uh point zero one two that is considered a third degree felony and is punishable up to five years in prison or five thousand dollar fine. for literally showing porn to children. So Um it it should be alarming to everybody
and if you really took a look at some of that material you would be appalled. I don't know if any of you have small children, but you would never allow that to be Shown to your children. And that it is accessible in our schools and in our public libraries should be appalling to everybody. because it it's it it's really uh Criminal. I mean it's unbelievable. So um I hope that maybe you take a look at some videos that we're going to be sending you. Uh
or you take a look at some of the materials. I mean if you look at some of the books, Genderqueer, a memoir, or All Boys Aren't Blue, take a look at that. A lot of us in this room won't even dare read that to you because it's so offensive. So I hope you really take a look at it and understand what it is that we're talking about. and why parents are so concerned. We are supposed to be leading the country in parental rights. You know, we have a great governor who
has passed some legislation is doing good things, but it's up to you to make sure that it's Held up. And that it's followed and that it's adhered to. So I will be following up to see what's uh taken out of the library. Not just new items. being brought to the library by outside people or grants or whatever. or being bought, but the materials that are already there are taken out of the library. So thank you for your time. Appreciate it.
Ms. Scarta? Ms. Scarta. Ma'am, could you uh did you state your address for the record in the beginning? Okay. Is that enough? No.
We uh street address please. [address removed].
What street we like.
All right. Uh Pastor Tri Peterson.
Good morning, Commissioners, Chair, Staff, Troy Peterson, 8114 Leo Kidd Road, Port Ritchie, Florida. That's uh Light of the World Tabernacle. Um I wasn't planning on speaking on this, but on the way over here, uh I just come from a prayer meeting where pastors get together uh every Tuesday morning at Lot of the War or uh over at the Oasis Coffee Spot, and we pray specifically for our commissioners, for our school board
members, for our mayors, for our government leaders. And uh in that prayer meeting Uh one of the elders at uh Calvary Chapel Uh we were praying and he said, Troy. This is what you need to tell them. And I'm like Okay, this comes after prayer. Somebody cares Pasco. is here to hold up your arms, just like Aaron did with Moses. See, but then Pastor Leonard went one step
further. Why was Aaron Holden up? Moses' arms. Moses had to staff, and that staff became heavy, right? What is the staff? The staff is the staff of righteousness. So we're here not only to pray for you, to hold up your arms, but to show you that when we stand up for righteousness, God will bless Pasco County. Number one, homework. I'm going to give you guys a homework
assignment. Okay, you ready? Write this down. Welcome. Commissioner Bradford. Nice to meet you. Congratulations on your win. Mr. Whiteman, congratulations. I need to give you guys a homework assignment. W W.org. dot
That's Protect Our Children project. Okay, and so in Pasco County schools when they decided to allow a girl which was a girl go into the boys' shower room and the coach was threatened to be fired Uh Protect Our Children Project was founded. We are now in twenty-four counties in the state of Florida. And we have Sheriff Grady Judd's backing on the Stop Cell Phone Porn project.
So check out that website because we will be addressing these books that are in our public libraries because that you guys have control over that. And we know, as Commissioner said, you guys don't want them books in there. So that's number two. Number two. I want you to look at the Book of Hagi. Chapter one and chapter two. Because what you see, I could read it, but I only have three minutes. What you see is the priest, Joshua, teaming up with the
government, Zerubbabel. And the Spirit of God comes upon the governor, Zerubbabel, and says, What house will you build me? See, there's a misunderstanding that the church is a building. The church isn't a building, the church is the people. See, and there are some of us that are temples of the living God. We have the Holy Ghost in us. And th them people want to help you lead our county. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Um Mr. Doug Chencer. Douglas Chinser, sorry.
Mm-hmm. How you doing? My name is Douglas Chinchar. I live at [address removed]. Uh my name is Douglas Chinchar again and uh I am the CFO of SNS Events. It's an organization that runs volleyball events around the country but based in Orlando, Florida. I of course handle the uh branch here in uh Pasco County and we call ourselves the no-name volleyball. Um I've been living here in Pasco County for 19 years. I've coached volleyball in Pasco County for 13 years.
We are the first volleyball group slash club to help the Wesley Chapel Sports Complex, which is run by Rad Sports, who manages the facility, that set up and run volleyball events starting in late 2020. Our first event was the MLK Volleyball Classic, a three-day event in January of 2021. We were also very instrumental in putting on safe volleyball tournaments during the COVID crisis. And at that time nobody was running volleyball tournaments. We were able to get things going to create income and interest in this facility. I'm a very successful businessman that has owned a multi-million dollar company for the past eighteen
years. I know that the simple and foremost goal is not only to provide a fantastic product, but to create income. And by this is securing room nights for Pasco County. Uh and that also creates restaurants, entertainment, and everything around our area. Um that is the ultimate goal. In this volleyball world, it's important to have a great reputation of running events so teams, directors, and sponsors will follow you. The old saying goes, if you build it, they will come. Pasco County built a great sports complex. We build the people that come to these events.
Uh using the request of public records, we were able to pull all the room nights recorded since the opening of the Wesley Chapel Sports Complex. In our first year, 2021, we secured over 1,000 room nights with five events. COVID made it tough, but we pulled it through. In 2022, we secured 1,203 room nights with only two events. So with even less events, we increased our numbers. We were not given all the dates that we requested. A volle group by the name of Hype Nation from out of state came on in, took a date, which was two twelve and two thirteen. That we held
the year before. Hype Nation only secured 35 roommates. We had 114 the year before. We got the event back this year. Hasn't happened yet because it's in February, but we've already secured 384 room nights for the upcoming February event. Okay. In night in 2023, we already secured seven hundred and eighty-six room nights. Okay. The M L K tournament that we want has been pulled away from us for next year. We have increased our nights every year. We were looking at over 1,000
roommates for the MLK tournament. Our problem is this. For whatever reason, this term has been taken away from us for 2024. We've been given no reason, no explanations. We know that the bottom line is to create income for our county. Room nights, room nights, room nights. We have invested a lot of time and a and a a lot of effort to make this tournament happen. We have a following. The turk the teams that are from out of state or out of this area will not attend this event if we do not run this event. We'd just like to know why we're not able to get this event for 2024 after three
years of great success. I thank you for your time. I do have uh Uh information here if you'd like to keep it. Uh it's just the the exact numbers pulled from the public records, which I'm sure you already have. Thank you so much.
Did you want to say something?
Yes, sir. Andy Taylor. Yeah.
It's Kathy, right? She's out outside. Thanks much. How do I bookmark this?
Mr. Paris.
Brian Paris r addresses on record. I'm actually here to speak about my community. Um we were are we used to be zoned for agriculture and then we were changed to community farm and garden without us knowing. But a lot of us have actually built community farms and gardens in our community. And um I actually we feed people in our community, senior citizens who are struggling to just get by to whether pay bills or eat. uh kids in in my area who really don't have a lot of parental guidance who
we use to feed uh we even feed first responders but yet um we have one jerk off in our neighborhood who likes to file false code re enforcement reports And yet nothing happens to him. And now here I gotta go to court on Thursday to d to defend my community farm because they're trying to take my farm away from me. And it and it's ridiculous. Our rights are by God, not by the government. No one's here should be able to tell us to and push government tyranny on us. I even told this guy he's filed reports
before and we've had code enforcement come out and clear me.
I won't have any roosters. I can un I can compromise. That's understandable. Whatever. but to come out and try to take animals away that we use to feed people with is ridiculous. You know, just because we knew it was coming down the road where we knew eggs were gonna be high, food was gonna be scarce, and so to take away people's food when it comes to paying bills or whatever, it's really a disgrace what's going on. That codin code enforcement can just um believe some guy that files false reports. I have letters
from people in my neighborhood that will tell you that this guy's a liar. He's actually groped a lot of women, showed his y you to a lot of the ladies in the neighborhood. And um the action needs when we win our case, we need to be able to stop people who are filing false reports because they can't just keep happening. And um that's all I wanna say about that. Thank you guys for your time.
Thank you. Mr. Chair, that's all I have signed up. I don't know if anyone's in person and we have no one on WebEx. Okay.