Twenty twenty citizen survey results and quality of life

59:56Yeah, is forty ready? 'Cause still we got a lot of time. ready. Yeah, right? Okay. Oh, yeah. Mr. Bellis.

1:00:07Good morning, Mark Bellis, Performance Management, and I'm here to share some more exciting news with you all. The results of our twenty twenty citizen survey, which represents the voice of our customers. As you're looking at what uh what are present here this morning over the next two and a half hours, just kidding, ten minutes and what Uh keep in mind that there's a lag time between what we do in activities as an organization and the public actually recognizing what it does and realizing the value to themselves in that.

1:00:37So uh we have been at work for quite some time now to uh create a better community and it is showing up and the citizens are seeing that. So We uh work with the National Citizen Survey. We have since two thousand nine Uh this year we had about an 18% response rate. My understanding is most surveys across the country are down right now, and most of the companies can't explain why, but that's okay. We got a good sample and uh this happens to be compared to about 350 communities around the country that

1:01:07did the same survey. Interestingly, this was the first year since I have seen this that we had a very even distribution of responses across all five districts. That tells me that we've got a very valid sample here, so this data is very accurate. Uh usually we see a lot more responses on the west side just based on population. This was a very, very even distribution of of responses. That's a very, very positive thing for us here and makes the data more valid. We

1:01:38also do concurrently an open commu uh an open survey that has exactly the same questions as the uh the valid instrument. We do that really for comparison purposes and to give us additional information, particularly around comments to uh inform what we're doing. When we look at livable communities, this is a new chart that they're using this year. You'll see that uh they take everything all the responses from from the county and they determine which areas were most important overall by category. And then looking at the quality

1:02:08of what we provide within those categories, and they put that into this graph. If you will notice There are at the top three areas. There's lower, similar, and higher, and that is our comparison to other communities that take this survey. The one thing I want to point out to you, and I want and I point it out to staff in this as well. We right now, our quality of services and what we do as a county, we are a good county. And if our vision was to be Florida's good county, we could stop right

1:02:38now because we're really doing good work. But we want to become premier, which means all of the categories you see in this chart need to be on the right-hand column. Because we need to be better than the average. We need to be higher than the other communities in these. And that's when we say good to great, that's what we're talking about. Taking what we do now that's good and taking it to the next level, which is great. Really good news though. Everything just about across the board is up from last year. The overall quality of

1:03:08life in Pasco County is up twelve percent from last year. That's wonderful.

1:03:15And uh here again I just just the last time I'll say it is if you look to see the uh the color of the bands there We are either similar or lower. We're similar in five and lower in one than our uh what we're compared to across the averages. So we got some work to do, but we're moving the right direction and that is the exciting part.

1:03:38So you can see the benchmark line is the dotted line at the top here. We're at 74% now. We have been on the rise over time, you can see. Very, very positive. The the analogy I like to use here is um how many of you've seen the Titanic movie? Have you seen the Titanic movie? Okay. Don't tell me how it ends, I haven't seen it yet, but

1:04:01There's a scene in that movie Where the two uh the the uh the two guys on watch are up in the crow's nest and they're freezing, but then suddenly they see an iceberg. So they do exactly what they're supposed to. They call down to the bridge, the officer on duty immediately does everything possible to turn that ship. He has the wheel turned hard over one way, he has one engine all back full, the other all ahead full. He can't do anything else to turn that ship. He's done everything. Right. But then you look at the picture in the front, uh off the bow, and

1:04:31the ship is just moving so slowly. So slowly. And of course it's too late and it hits the iceberg. This is a big organization. 2,900 employees representing 57 lines of business to 550,000 customers across 740 square miles. That's big and it does turn slow. But the good news is we're turning enough to where we are not gonna hit the iceberg. So

1:04:56On that chart, what's the difference between the blue and the yellow?

1:04:58Ah, glad you asked.

1:05:00This is not every other, so I've got to

1:05:02backup. So the blue represents the valid survey, the National Citizen Survey. That's the one that goes out to random samples based on zip codes. And then the other is the online survey. The difference between the two is that when you have an opt-in instrument, which rep is represented by the yellow lines. Generally, bless you, generally the people that take that survey have something they want to tell you about that needs to be fixed. When you have a random survey, which is the blue lines, you have a pretty good chance of getting it in front of people that think you're doing a pretty

1:05:32good job. And so that's really the valid survey and what we look at. But we use the two for comparisons. And they generally track fairly even. They correlate pretty close, interestingly enough.

1:05:41Yeah.

1:05:43Governance, this is your report card as the board. This talks about uh the decisions that are made and the policies that are made and the way uh that you are making decisions to move uh Pasco County forward. That is up eight percent for last year, and there are some really specific jumps in here that are good to see the governance piece. So if you look at the overall confidence in Pasco County government, up eight percent from last year. If you look at the value of services for taxes paid, up seven percent. The uh Working in the best interest

1:06:13of the community up eight percent, being honest, up thirteen percent. In this survey, double-digit movement is unheard of. That is huge. That is huge. Uh looking at um Getting folks involved in government up eight percent. Treating residents fairly up 13%. The overall customer service provided by Pasco County up six percent. I remember just a couple of years ago, you as a board said you guys gotta really get into this customer service thing. We heard you, it's happening, and the citizens

1:06:44are seeing the result of that. Public information services, Tambridge Group, up twelve percent. These are big, big moves forward. Feel good about that. You should be very proud as as a board. That's

1:06:54it.

1:06:57Of course. I may feel this is more important than others do. But I think that jump up thirteen percent, treating all residents fairly, um, needs to really, really, really be recognized. Yeah. So when we think about um Um

1:07:16I'm gonna be a little PC here. Um y you know, w well you know, you you you know, we're you know at a a time where um Not um everybody seems to be agreeing on every issue in the world right now. How's that? Um For this to be so high, I mean it it says a lot about Pasco County. I think it says a lot about this board that's sitting up here, and I think it says a lot about the team in general, that we obviously and the people recognize that this county does care about the residents and we do treat equal

1:07:46everyone on an equal footing. Absolutely.

1:07:51It also says a lot for our citizens of Pasco County. They're g they're some of the greatest citizens that you could have.

1:07:58Don't disagree. Yeah. So I I just think that's important them, you know. And that's across the board. So you gotta figure that's from Pasco County government, I was the sheriff's office to to fire rescue, that's anybody that's in contact With these residents. Right. They feel now more than ever. that people are treated fairly. So I think that's important to notice. Yes. Point out.

1:08:19Question. Um looking at this page to the left you say comparison to national benchmark And the dark one is higher. And then similar, then lower. Is this the similar color over here on the right?

1:08:32Yes.

1:08:32Okay, so um are you able to uh get the higher um areas? I'm curious who has higher and what are they doing?

1:08:44Yeah I'm not supposed to, but I can. I

1:08:46think

1:08:47we should a little secretive about who submits and that, but I do know a couple of counties that take this that we consider. To be good benchmarks for us, so I will contact them and see how far we have to go.

1:08:57Yeah, I'd I'm I'd love to learn, you know, what they're doing that maybe we can copy that that's exactly and do better.

1:09:04Precisely what we're

1:09:05doing. 'Cause I'm not good with being similar, I want to be higher, you know?

1:09:09Absolutely. Yeah, we're all on the same movie. We're on that same sparrow.

1:09:18Yeah, and that's it. So just for information, Commissioner, we in our strategic plan revision, that is part of the strategy to benchmark against those higher performing organizations. So we really see what it's gonna take to go from that good to great. So yes, thank you for bringing that up.

1:09:36The economy This one is interesting. Uh they consider us to be very healthy, thirteen percent jump. Which uh a little surprising, but maybe not. Maybe not. Again, decisions are being made, good things are happening and and people are are seeing that. The one most interesting mark on here, if you look at the very bottom, there is a question about Do you believe that the next six months will be better economically than the last six? That was the largest increase in the entire survey,

1:10:06plus thirty-seven percent. What that tells us is that the past six months there have been a lot of people hurting. So the things that we're doing, the CARES Act funding, all the the different types of programs that we're trying to get out there to help people have been We're timely because a lot of people in our community have been hurting, so they believe the future's gonna gonna be a lot better than the past has. So that's a a very telling metric right there.

1:10:29How can it jump thirty seven percent if it was at twenty six that would be in the negative.

1:10:33W I'm sorry? It

1:10:34would have had to be in the negative.

1:10:35It's from last year, up thirty seven percent from last year. Oh. year over year change. Yeah, year over year change. Right.

1:10:41You were negative last year.

1:10:43No. No,

1:10:44no. Against

1:10:4620%.

1:10:49Oh yeah. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah, not points. Yep. Very well. So just uh another graph that shows you trends on here. The uh health and economy of Pasco trending upwards, the quality of business services established trending up, big numbers increase there, 12%, 14%. The um employment opportunities here's a surprise. This we haven't seen this uh in in a very long time. It's just started to move the right way. So the uh place to work and employment opportunities, some big jumps and trending the right way.

1:11:20So again, you what we're seeing here today with the the Moffats and the other companies coming in is making a difference and the citizens are seeing that. So very important stuff. Uh mobility. Quality of a transportation system still 48% positive that isn't isn't bad uh although it did drop from last year and there are a couple of things specific in that where the numbers were uh lower that I'm gonna I'm gonna share with you here in just a couple of minutes. The the basics here these are fairly flat from last year, a very small drop. Um and most of

1:11:50what we saw is Um either flat Or around mobility, the uh there was some issues on the comments around the potential of overbuilding infrastructure. So that's probably the primary negative we saw in the comments themselves, which we get about uh fifteen hundred to two thousand comments as well. Uh but the other things that are interesting when you look at the ease of travel, when you look at traffic, uh you look at uh what our Folks are doing in traffic control,

1:12:21they are doing a very good job because folks are saying, hey, it's getting a little easier to move across the county. And I can vouch for that myself coming back and forth on Wesley Chapel every day that the light timing is good and it doesn't take as long as it as it used to. So very positive moves on that. Now, the exciting piece here, and and I know Commissioner Starkey, this is exciting for you, the largest increase in perception. On the entire survey was the availability of PAWs and walking trails. 25% increase. There again,

1:12:51the citizens seeing and now experiencing and now liking what we have been doing in that area. And that's what shows up on this survey.

1:13:00That's huge.

1:13:01Really, really positive, and and you should feel good and be excited about those pieces, uh, of course. Community design, this is uh another area, although overall design of areas was positive, the the concerns were mostly again around either overbuilding and then of course the lack of affordable housing. That popped up a lot, and those are really two of the only significant downturns in our numbers. So available affordable housing and then the variety, which the comments supported that. as well the

1:13:31folks are folks are noticing that piece. Just a special note, look at that code enforcement number going up. That was what I'm going to do next. And and in fact, not only has code enforcement gone up by six percent, but also uh you'll see a little bit later that the cleanliness of Pasco County has improved. Yeah. So and yes, it's helpful that we don't have storms making a mess out of everything. That is very helpful. But still, citizens are seeing the work we're doing and we're able to catch up on some of these things that had we the big storms

1:14:01that You know, those keep us busy.

1:14:03I'm sorry, we're gonna probably jump in a lot, Mr. Chairman. Please

1:14:05do.

1:14:06Um a lot of that has to do with obviously policies and th this board enacted and what and then staff carried out. So we talk about the cleanliness of of the county and some of the things that we really focused on as a team and the PIO's office did a great job of getting out too, was you know, obviously, you know. So uh the the um in addition to the code enforcement was you know, what we did with the donation bins in cleaning up that area, what we did with when it came to illegal dumping and what we did with legal dumping. That's a big deal. Neighbor the

1:14:36neighborhood cleanups that have been going on in in multiple districts. So There's the reasons why. Exactly right. Because I can tell the difference. I can tell you right now. Yeah. as we all drive this county on a regular basis, you look at today to what it was three years ago. There's a big difference driving around this county and what you see, especially when it comes to illegal illegal dumping areas.

1:15:07And you put penalties in place There's a positive reaction. Yeah.

1:15:13Yeah. And that's some of the comments about the board making this making decisions well together that result in these type of things, we saw in the survey as well. So that even that's getting noticed, which is which is awesome.

1:15:24Mr. Chairman Mariano, just one more thing on the on the slide too. Take a look at the ambulance or emergency medical services and fire services. Uh eighty eight and eighty nine percent. Now I gotta know what we what we what what's the number to get higher? Top decile. Right? Ninety percent and up. I mean it's that's that's that's phenomenal numbers and I I gotta think we could be real close to step

1:15:42making that next step. Oh yes. Yeah. Yeah. And if you look at this from two thousand nine, the increase is is Amazing. So again we yeah, the trends the trends are all the right way. It just it it takes time, painfully slow sometimes, but yes, we're headed the right way.

1:15:59Uh the natural environment again mostly level from last year, not not a whole lot of of um movement up or down on that. The one thing that we do notice is, and you brought it up earlier with the the parks and the bond, that you all remember once upon a time we'd ask our citizens if they wanted additional quality of life services, and they said, Yes, but we want the people who only the people who use them. user fees to pay for them. Well the bonds are the representation of their saying we all will pay

1:16:30for that and we've come a long way as a county when you consider uh consider that. So more and more this becomes important to um to all uh all of our citizens collectively. This is just a slide I threw in there that uh we're asking people how they feel the pace of growth is and Yeah, job growth, they're they're happy with that. Still a little concern about population growth and uh the the build out of the county. Some of that has to do with our communicating it and letting folks understand

1:17:00the why behind what we do. And we realize that that even as we try to get from good to great, some of it isn't about our changing what we do, but communicating better what we do, why we do and and how citizens can benefit from it. So

1:17:16So the overall quality of Pasco County services, we are now just inching over the benchmark. It is uh it is a a nice number to have. That's about the what we provide in our services. So we continue to get better there.

1:17:34And the overall customer service by all employees, that's the how we provide that service, which a lot of times is more important. It's how we treat our customers, how we explain things, how we work through things with them. We are uh we are at 75%, which is which is very nice, but again, we're at the benchmark. We'll continue to move that upward.

1:17:58The other question we ask each year is outside of law enforcement, fire rescue, emergency medical, what do you consider the most uh critical or essential services to maintain over time.

1:18:11And the The order in this change quite a bit this year. And the uh the conference call I had with the company that does this and the others that some of the others that take the survey. It really had a lot to do with COVID. It really had a lot to do with people viewing their world through different lenses. So you can see Veteran Services made a huge jump. Because people realize there's they're hearing stories of folks that are hurting and they realize that wait a second, that's a service we've got to continue to provide. It was a really

1:18:41different perspective to to see overall. So we we boiled that down into the chart that we normally do just to pull those out. Road maintenance has been number one from the very first time we took the survey. It has been at the top all along. But the top four or five have changed. Have changed. More around the services that we provide to people. Specifically. Now, I will tell you too that this is also heavily influenced by those who do and

1:19:12or don't use any of those services. Generally, it's just the ones who have had experience with that service who will will give you a a vote up or down. There are a lot of don't know's that are answered in this in this section

1:19:23there. Mark, might it be something to with the success that these operations may have too? All of a sudden, where was a problem like animal service was a problem years ago? All of a sudden, we've got a great team out there doing a great job, and all of a sudden it's not as important anymore because we're taking care of it. 100%.

1:19:37Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. We we go from we go from something that's a problem that everybody perceives as a problem to something that not only is d working well, but is working so well that people don't even recognize how well it's working because it's working that well. You don't hear transparent. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly right.

1:19:54I notice on here there's nothing that relates to flooding.

1:19:59Coming up.

1:20:00Mm. Oh

1:20:01yep. Okay. That was a perfect leading commissioner. Perfect leading.

1:20:08So as we look at the quality of the services, we always we always throw that up there as well. All of these are on the rise. Even if they're not uh uh up to the benchmarks yet in some areas, they're all going the right direction. So the blue lines are what we look at and and that's that's very positive, very positive. Uh this one I'm gonna pass go past. You can look at it. This is again what do you think has the greatest impact on quality of life? Same things. It's always gonna be uh life safety is always gonna be at the top as it should be. Uh the end

1:20:39you can see drainage and flooding is a third one on there. So let's get to how we're doing on those particular pieces. These are the conclusion strengths. 78% of our residents rated the county as excellent or good place to live, so that's up 6% from last year. We'd like to get that around 90. I think that would that would be top decile, which is nice for us. You can see the big bumps, ease of car travel, plus 11%.

1:21:03Which becomes a little bit of a head scratcher when people s are more concerned about building uh out b or uh growth outpacing infrastructure, but it doesn't appear to be turning out bad because they're saying we're we're still fine with travel. So even that in and of itself, people may perceive something and then later prove themselves that it wasn't as big a deal as you might have thought. Ease of bicycle travel up thirteen, there's the walking pass up 25 traffic flow on major streets plus nine. Kudos to the traffic folks for that one. That's a big deal. And

1:21:33I will tell you that also uh in traffic enforcement went up this year, and I shared that with uh with Chase for for the sheriff to know. So that was that remember last year that was a big that was a big problem. So uh good good job there. And then quality of economic development up uh 70 percent Overall quality of license, community, value services user, all the governance pieces we talked about, treating citizens fairly, all uh up, which very, very positive. Really excited about that stuff. So Commissioner, here you go. These are

1:22:03these are outstanding. Quality of road repair up eleven percent, storm drainage up twelve percent, animal services up eighteen percent, PIO services up twelve percent, these are gigantic jumps. And if we look back and say, Commissioner to your point, the road the road conditions, uh the road repair, flooding, those type of things. If that's still number one in what people want us focused on, we are focused on it and getting amazing results. So very exciting there.

1:22:32Yes, sir. So let's give a little coups to Mike Carbella for the for uh driving the road repair and the stone branches. The team you've got, even especially utilities, et cetera, I mean, really has elevated the game across the board. Mike Shoe made obviously animal services and Well yeah, I think we took care of Tambri today.

1:22:46Yeah. This this is this is all a result of great people doing great work. And as leaders the job is to get all the barriers out of their way so they can do their best work. And this is this is how it turns out. So it's uh it's all going the right direction.

1:22:59Mr. Chairman, sorry, this is good stuff. So and you're right, you know, and I'm I I was first elected and we came on at fourteen. And all I heard about Stormwater, stormwater, stormwater. Now we know there's still things we're working on. We'll continue to work on. It will never stop. It never stops in any county or city. It's just the fact of the matter. Um But That's not the case anymore.

1:23:24But they know that they know this board cares about that. That's

1:23:27not the

1:23:28looking after those needs.

1:23:29Yeah.

1:23:30That's

1:23:30right. So that's not the number to moving target. That's not the number one thing I hear about on a regular basis as I did. So again, I appreciate all your all your great efforts and your amazing efforts and it's very much appreciated. Um It's good stuff. Yeah. It

1:23:46it's exciting to see that from the time oh seven, eight, nine years now. Just amazing results. So the things that we're going to keep our eye on here is uh around the mobility, concerns around rapid growth, multifamily housing outpacing infrastructure, uh, the economy, that there's not a lot of housing uh options for low uh lower income. And there are still a few issues around some of the safety on the on the west side, but not nearly what we've seen in the past. That used to be the the highest percentage of comments were directly. Directed

1:24:17at that area and those issues, not this year at all. Not this year at all. So very positive there. So, the overarching message, as I mentioned earlier, is that citizens are seeing what we're doing. They're seeing how it benefits them. They're excited about it and they're willing to tell us the good the good work that's uh happening here. The ratings are coming up across the board. We're excited about that. The quality of life is improved and increased. You can see that by the people that are coming down here and buying houses, sight unseen, because they want to be part of

1:24:47where we're going. Um the pandemic did impact a few things. Can you go back

1:24:51because you you la you didn't touch on the bottom mess, so this many issues. Can you speak to that one?

1:24:59Yes. So we are talking about becoming Pasco County or becoming the Premier County government. To become the Premier County, it takes everybody working together. So that's us with the schools, with the sheriff, with the citizens, with the businesses, with the stakeholders. It's across the county. It's a huge, huge, huge undertaking. I do believe very strongly though that basic

1:25:31But I see here it says that the appearance of the county is very um It's A a topic for discussion and I would agree.

1:25:41Yes. And that may that is something that will be ongoing. But you look at what we're doing around redevelopment and some of the focuses on the nineteen corridor, particularly in that area. You're gonna see a change in that too.

1:25:53In my commissioner items I'm gonna talk about that. Perfect.

1:25:56Mm Mr. Chairman Mariano. Yes sir. You know, go going back to like the v one of the very first slides about the quality of life, which is showing up here again. So I'm Commissioner Starkey I'm glad you brought it up 'cause You know, the west side of nineteen is probably the uh the biggest image we gotta work on. I mean people the center part of the county, I think it shows that they're like thrilled. That's just from Holiday to Hudson we gotta early work on that area. Um So for for us to be at like seventy four percent for overall quality of life and If so place to live seventy eight percent. What do you think attributes to that forty six percent

1:26:26for the overall image or reputation of Pasco County? What would any any way to any way to dig down into what people are thinking?

1:26:34Again, looking at comments, it's specific issues to specific areas for specific people. You might get one person that has had a bad experience in a neighborhood. that becomes part of the sample size, which isn't a large sample, and that's enough to bring you down in that particular area. So I look at the overall the big percentage across the county and start to work with that. However, you see in the report that you have there where it splits everything up geographically by your districts, I'd be happy to sit down and look

1:27:04at those areas specifically and those comments that link to that so that we can drill down even further. So which is what we have to do at the end of the year.

1:27:14Over in Hudson by the Beak was Walmart, we had to place the access Center across the street that used to feed all the homeless people and they would just c come and come and come. It took actually working with the Sheriff's Office, with FTOT, our own code enforcement. And that area looks a lot better now because they're not just hanging out there all the time. They're still hanging out a little bit, but it's much better. So I think even some of that data would actually be a little higher, but That is something we just need to focus on because that's a that's a very visible road uh that that people look at and we we need to focus to.

1:27:41And keep keep uh keep in mind too, Commissioner, that there's a lag time. So the time it takes from us doing an activity that fixes something to the time when it actually shows up on a survey could be two years.

1:27:52Yeah. And and I'll say that this is what should be proud of w the way it's was from Kathryn from way back when to where it's going now and This board has done so many very strong things and put a mission together to try to ma make us premier. And and I appreciate every one of you to look at the overall county for all our decisions, which I think is what we do. Great.

1:28:11And thank you for that because it makes our job much easier.

1:28:14A little off topic on topic. Now who is responsible for the parking lots of these big supermarkets and Walmarts and everything like that.

1:28:22So my understanding is that private property. How do

1:28:25you can I think feel free to jump

1:28:26in?

1:28:31Okay. Just for an example, if I go to a Walmart and I'm seeing trash all over the night, then it's well, that's not very premiere looking to me, so I want to make sure it's getting taken care of. So

1:28:43our code enforcement guys can go out and educate the property owner. Right. Right.

1:28:49Mr. Chairman. Um looking going through more in depth on this and going looking at page twelve, which is community design. Um this is something that I've been on my bandwagon about a little bit and I wish I had been on it more. And I it's really Terry's department I think um the or planning. And I think we have a lack I definitely believe we have a lack of this in the county, and that is public places where people want to spend time. And when you think about places like

1:29:19in in Hillsborough County in Tampa The River Walk. um the public parks along the river. Um You know, you downtown Saint Pete walking along beach drive. We don't we haven't I mean, who wants to go hang out in a strip mall parking lot? In that That we have a lot of that, but not a lot of places where you get a you want to go hang out with your friends and have a where there's a sense of place. I'm hoping for that in the new development that's coming at Mitchell 54

1:29:50West or whatever we're calling that. Uh Mark Gold is building those those kind of um places. But I think this is really, really important. That we pay attention to in the next 10 years is making sure that our planning process. uh has this qu um important requirement that we have places where people want to go to and spend time. It's really important

1:30:20for quality of life and I don't wanna have to drive out of the county to get those. We want to have them in our county. So as we redevelop nineteen You know, as as new new places come online on forty one and fifty-six. We have to be cognizant that we need to hold our development plan to this mantra of quality public places. Yeah,

1:30:44makes sense. Very good.

1:30:46Awesome.

1:30:46Thank you. Okay. All

1:30:49right. Mr.

1:30:50Chairman Mariano.

1:30:51Thank you all again. Wait, can you go to slide thirty-four?

1:30:57Progress.

1:31:04I would assume you guys knew I was gonna point this out, right? Um so No, I uh dug into this pretty deep and thanks to Mark for uh obviously detailing me on it before the before the meeting as well and spending time with me on it. Um Yeah, I I I keep beating the The drum here we talked about you know rapid growth of concern. They literally said multifamily housing is a concern and outpacing infrastructure. Now if I'd known this question was on there, I probably wouldn't have spent seventeen hundred dollars out

1:31:34of my office account to do the poll I did. Because I could have just referred to this. But again, we'll have the workshop coming up, but I do want to point this out. I'm not making this stuff up. You know, it's a reality. The citizens said it on this survey, they said it on the survey I did. And again, if you look at the districts and it w I broke it down by district two, as we if if you look, if you really go into in depth on this, you can look at the districts, you can look at the satisfaction and what people feel and look at those percent of those numbers.

1:32:04Um It was very high, I mean, in in District Two, but the big concern again comes in the multifamily housing and we understand the transportation infrastructure is an ongoing and I was said before that's one of the things I hear about most. But the pr the great thing is that w as a county we are being proactive in that in doing things on white and fifty four, you know, fit in the extension of fifty six, um uh the D DI is getting done, diverging diamond, the new interchange, all those things, we're being proactive

1:32:36And getting ahead in some of those areas again with the new interchange and such too that's gonna do that. But I'm just pointing this out. So when we think about these things and we want to approve and we talk about appearance, because appearance was mentioned earlier, appearance is a factor when it comes to that as well. So there's the multiple concerns, but appearance is one I hear about all the time. When you get off 56 and 75, which I 100% agree with, is appearance. So if we want to get to the next level, you know. So as we go through this process and have a workshop coming up, let's think about what our citizens are saying and the statements they're making.

1:33:06If you want to see those numbers increase, then we have to be we have to act. Because if we don't act, that's not gonna improve. So Just wanted to point out here it is, black and white again. So when we come to the workshop we can t get into that further. I don't need to discuss any more today.

1:33:21Well, I would like to discuss that for a second.

1:33:23Well we can get in the weeds

1:33:24all that way.

1:33:25If we want to get deep in the weeds, let's go.

1:33:28I could talk

1:33:29for two hours.

1:33:29I I I I I appreciate um What you're saying, but if you look at the big picture and you look at You have State Road 56 and the expressway. You have two malls. Now two hospitals. That is kind of our, in a way, downtown. Of Pasco County with all the infrastructure that's there with malls and highways and that is where you see m a more dense type of housing. That's just planning So

1:34:00That's the area where you live is the most gonna be the most dense part of the county, my my guess when we're done. So just saying. Yeah, so uh I'd love I would have loved to have had 'em all on our side and taken some of that from you. Yeah. But we didn't get it.

1:34:19Um Yeah, I uh would have waited to the workshop but since you respond to that I'll be happy to jump back in for a while on this one. Um again w this is about a citizen survey and it's about talking about our citizens or citizens' needs and their concerns and things. So that's what we're here to do. That's why some of these numbers went up. We focused on certain areas. It's time to focus on every area. And this is one of 'em we, as a board of five, Again, I looked in the numbers. Very intently. very intently and I suggest everybody too. And you'll see

1:34:50Those percentages and how they act. You know, so As a team. I'm willing to and I want to continue to focus on every area, on everybody's district. Commissioner Mariano made a statement earlier too. You know, we don't want to ever forget about a certain area of the county. And Commissioner Starkey, you mentioned it too, about when it came to things going on the west side and and areas to gather and things like that. And that's why I mentioned like marked gold. What's great to see now, people are actually willing to make an investment in a part of a county they weren't willing to make Previous years, right?

1:35:20I mean, let's just be honest. You know, years, you know, 14, 15, 16, you weren't seeing many people make investments at say in the holiday area. It's a fact. People are now making investments in that area. Again, the mall that's gonna be revealed, the new community over in holiday, the you know, the master plan community. Things are happening. Things are happening on 19, things are happening all over the place. Again, this board, this team is doing a good job, but let's again let's continue to focus on each and every area that was mentioned here. If it states,

1:35:51if the command if the citizens have stated there's a concern, let's continue to focus on that concern like we have in so many other areas.

1:35:58Mr. Chairman? Yes, sir. You know, it it is important because, you know, if you if you do look at District Two, the the numbers are staggering. I mean I used to always say when campaigning going around is like these people don't know there's a bad economy, you know, years ago and everybody's all all always up and pumped and they love their quality of life there. So obviously we want to maintain it. With when you look at the density increase, as much as supposed to go there by our planners, et cetera. You have too much density, you get too much traffic, and then you gotta start building diverging diamonds, you're not building other other roadway connections, you put more stress on your infrastructure

1:36:29as well. You know, Commissioner Starkey, you talk about a place and and and Starkey Ranch, et cetera. Phenomenal place what you've what you've done there. Matter of fact, we get it more concerts too, by the way.

1:36:37Okay.

1:36:38Um But that that whole type of thing is a place that people like to come. I mean your market area is like perfect that a perfect little place to hang out. The downtown that's right there. So those are the type of things that want. Multifamily housing. The the problem with I think is o is ownership as well. When you look at the 19th core, I think part of the reason we've struggled so much, we had all the retirees from the Midwest, let's say, coming down or even New York coming down. They've now passed away, gone to a nursing home, whatever. And the infill that's come in is you've had all these people from around the around

1:37:08the nation buy up the properties and now they rent them out. They don't like paving assessments, they don't maintain the property as well. and you get all sorts of issues up and down. I think we need to focus, we're gonna focus especially tie into affordable housing, how do we help people own those homes across the board? When we see a town home project coming in, it's not nearly as bad. um as an apartment because and especially like what that one we did at wa at uh the grove, we made it go home ownership, not just a rental. Yep. And and that's the type of focus we need to be. So I think the more ownership we

1:37:38have, the more people are committed to living in a place that are that are there, I I think is is a great way to go. And apartments is is d definitely a facet of that that I think you know we we need to slow it down, especially in that those areas. Right.

1:37:50It's part of the community. Make it part of the community. Keep it the community ordered. Exactly. So all right, I'll be the devil. But

1:37:56great stuff. Great job. Great report. We're we're we're better this year than last year. Next year we'll be better than this year. So

1:38:03And you know what's also very interesting is that this year was a very challenging year emotionally and economically for a lot of people, but we're still but we're seeing positive people are coming out with positive things and feel positive about being here. So that's really Kudos to all for that.