Public comment on agenda items
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, Apr 9, 2025
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Apr 9, 2025
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 19m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 65% of 60 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Here. Okay, so uh now is the time for public comment. Thank you. Citizens are given an opportunity to comment on any current or future agenda item coming before the board. And on other business under the board's purview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First we will take public comment from those are Who are here in person and then we will take public comment from those who have pre-registered for a WebEx link and are currently on cue. We request that
you that when you address the board comments are directed Not personally against the Commissioner Oakley, but rather directed at the issues. This provides me to respect between board members and the public. After stating your name and address for the clerk, a 3-minute timer will be activated and a green light will be shown on the podium. After two minutes, a yellow light will indicate you have one minute left. When your time is up, a red light will be displayed. Three beeps
will sound and you should close your comments immediately. WebEx participants will be disconnected automatically when their time is up. And Madam Clerk, do we have folks signed up for public comments?
Yes, Madam Chair, we do. Just for the record, there is no one signed up for WebEx this morning. Okay. We have uh I'll call up the first three names that have signed up. We have Pastor Troy Peterson, Valerie LaFrance, and then Keila Nunez. Pastor Troy Peterson.
Good morning, Chair and Commissioners. Nikki, Seth. Pastor Troy Peterson, 8114, Leo Kidd Road, that's Light of the World Tabernacle where I serve. Mostly evangelist for somebody carries Pasco and uh Pasco director for Protect Our Children project. Uh a couple of things up and coming. Uh last meeting on the other side of the county I gave you all uh a flyer for our Easter egg hunt in Waterfront
Park. Uh that'd be April nineteenth. It's always a good time had by all. The kids get to climb on the fire trucks and police cars and stuff like that and free food, hot dogs and popcorn and And uh it's just a real blessed time of the church working with community. Um You know, I remember Back last year when some of the Pasco Watch ladies came in
and read out of a book that was in our libraries and uh When I went and spoke to the school board, I couldn't even speak. I just wept. When I found out these books were in our schools and in our libraries. And uh But I want to thank you, Commissioner, uh, for standing up against this wickedness that has tried to come in. to indoctrinate
our children and um I thank you for f fighting with us and anything we can do to to help. You know, I was reminded when the governor asked us to to come to Tallahassee and We took a whole team, some of us rode our motorcycles, it was a good time. But I could not believe... that in the state of Florida you used to be able to Uh a child would say To the Counselor
that I'm pregnant. And I don't wanna tell my parents 'cause they're gonna kill me or ground me or take away my car and that counselor could take that young lady under the age 18 to go have an abortion. No longer in Florida, um Can that be done? I also found out We were asked to talk to our state medical board. that taxpayer funded Mutalization of turning a boy into a girl
was happening. and hormone blockers and stuff like that. And So the governor stopped that as well. And some of that comes through These books. that are in our libraries. Now I'm a taxpayer. And it's a small minority of people that are wanting these books. So we here in Pasco County have an opportunity to protect our children from this indoctrination.
And I appreciate uh what's being done with the library cards and so that small children can't have access to these books. But I prefer these books not even be in the library. Thank you for your time.
Yeah. Valerie Lebron's followed by Keila Nunez followed by Rick Morales Nadal.
Good morning.
I'd like to have these passed out to all. May I ask um these to be passed out as just information? All in favor?
Aye. Just ten is a great. Thank you.
My name is Valerie La France, [address removed]. Thank you again for allowing the public to always h have an opportunity to speak at your meetings. I I want to first thank um First I must say that I I'm here to represent Protect Our Children project. I'll speak on behalf of them as well as parents, children who can't have a say here, I don't think, but it'd be great if I could have all these little
children come up and tell you uh regarding the library materials and what is very disturbing. I would like to thank Commissioner Weightman for continuing to be on the forefront of sharing this information. I did have a discussion with Sean McGarvey, the library director last time at the one of the meetings, and Kathy Assistant Administrator spoke to me also, but I still have concerns and there was a new article that just came out. So I would like to address the situation again of
the policy of library cars and the type of materials that are in the library that are undisturbing. And I will refuse to discuss what the materials are because we all know what they are. I would like to also address the because we have to I can't direct to all of you individually, but I would just like a show of hands of those who support Commissioner Weightman because I've not found out anything from any of the other commissioners if they stand in agreement with their colleague. Am I allowed, Chairman, to ask
for just a a silent hand raise?
This is pub this is your public comment. This is not interaction with public.
Okay. Well I am going to request that um Commissioner Weightman that you be um I'm going to charge you gently to ask each one of your colleagues and get back uh with me to find out where each of you stand. Because we should be standing united. very united. Protect our children. We want to protect the innocence of our children. We want to protect the privacy rights. We are responsible as adults. Even the librarians are responsible to make
sure certain types of uh disturbing materials are not available. We wouldn't even have this issue about redoing a card or setting up a new process if the materials weren't even in the library. I'm a taxpayer also. I'd appreciate we remove all these materials like other counties have. This to me is not difficult to do. I would like to see the savings of that. uh uh savings of taxpayer monies. If people really are calling and asking for these type of materials to be in our public
libraries, then Why don't they just purchase them themselves and start a private library for those type of materials? There are some businesses that already do that. Protect Our Children Project is dedicated to pushing back against the institutions that are trying to sexualize our children and indoctrinate them into believing anti-God, anti-life, anti-family. and anti American philosophies. There's danger to this. These are innocent children. They
should be free.
Am I done? Okay. So um thank you very much. Protect our innocent. Thank you.
Okay, Keila Nunes followed by Rick Morales Nadal, followed by Tonya Riddlesworth.
Good morning, I'm Kayla Nunez. I live in Newport Ritchie and I am a mother of three boys. I am here to support the Protect the Children Foundation and to encourage you all as our lawmakers. um to turn back toward God's law, the original law and lawmaker. I encourage you, let's go back to what God tells us is right and wrong. Marriage and relationships should be between a man and a woman according to God's law so that our nation would be
blessed. America started out as an Amer uh as a Christian nation who in God we trust. Let's turn back to that. So again our nation would be blessed by the one and only God and Maker of all things who can bless this nation. So I I again support that we remove these materials from our libraries because the library is an extension of the education system as far as I'm
concerned or as far as m I can think and I would hope we all think that, that that is the purpose of our library, to bring educational materials to our children. So is this what we are wanting to teach our children? That this is acceptable because when you bring these into the library, a public place um that is uh funded by taxpayers, all of us, and we condone these materials by bringing them and making them available freely to our
children, we're saying this is okay for you to do. So Um would it be okay to lead a prayer? During my time.
You know?
Yes?
No.
No, I cannot lead a prayer. Okay. Um, but I do ask then that God bless this nation. God bless America. God bless you all. He's put you in a position of authority so that you can make these wise decisions for us and help us to educate our children. Help us to again be a nation that trusts in God. In God we trust. Sure. And w in God we put our faith. And
I proclaim that in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And pray that your families would be blessed, that your children would be blessed. and educated and raised to love the Lord. Our Creator, God of the universe, our Maker, Our one and only Savior. the only one that can redeem our soul that is eternal. From eternal damnation. The only one that will
call us all into account for what we have done with this life that He gave us. that he created us to live. and that he has a purpose for us to do it with. And in that perfect, perfect plan of His, perfect purpose of His, is where we find our total peace and joy. Thank you.
Rick Morales and Adam, followed by Tonya Riddlesworth.
Uh good morning. Um I'm Rick Morales um from SBA, uh the Office of Disaster Assistance. I came to provide uh the updates. Um I'm staying in Oldsmar, I'm from Puerto Rico. I have I have I have stayed here for months uh since Debbie. I remember the last time that I was here in the town hall, like i i the room the room it was even more crowded, like hundreds of people were here and a lot of speakers and even It was a great experience. So the deadlines uh that are approaching uh is for the physical damages, all
those uh for Milton and Helene, all those homeowners, renters, nonprofits and businesses that had damages for for Milton and Helene, they can still apply with us and because this is recorded, uh This can disseminate the information better. Uh we are still here here in Pinellas in Clearwater, Epicenter, Saint Petersburg College in Clearwater, Monday to Friday, a.m. to five PM, and the phone number is eight hundred six fine twenty-nine fifty-five. Eight
hundred-six five nine twenty-nine fifty-five. We have had a good relationship with the emergency. Management Department with the Economic Development Department. Um Laura Will Coxon uh she did uh reach out uh to us. Thank you so much for the opportunity. We have been doing a lot of meetings virtually in person, so we are still here uh providing and doing the outreach with the survivors in this county because Pinellas County is one of the uh worst counties with damages, like Hillsboro. So that's why we are still
For all those businesses and nonprofits uh that that lost uh profits because of Milton and Helene. They are using that um for ordinary expenses for the pay for the payroll. Um more than sixty thousand uh survivors constituents have applied with Milton and more than thirty thousand with Helene between um Both declarations we have approved more than one million, like eight hundred uh million uh for Milton, like uh 700 million uh for Helene. We have uh been doing great. The
people have been using also um our programs for mitigation, combining the program from the state Elevate Florida with FEMA, and using our programs too. So they are using all these programs on all different ways, like obviously. Obviously, the one year deferment with zero percent interest rates, that's one of the best benefits. And yeah, thank you so much for the opportunity for having me here. Yeah.
I think. Has a lot of information.
Tonya Riddlesworth.
Good morning.
Uh hi, my name is Tanya Riddlesworth. I think some of you know me. I've met with some of you before and I hope to meet with some of you in the future about this same topic. Uh address is [address removed]. Um so I'm on McKendry Road, the dirt road that connects up to 52 where they're building the old Pasco Town Center and down to Overpass Road where the new hospital is being built. So I'm here to talk to you today about the Connected City and the presentation that you'll see later related to the Connected City
and the progress there. And I just encourage you guys to ask a lot of questions if you're able to, or maybe have the discussions with them, with the planners afterwards about what's happening with the Connected City and what was planned for, and how that's not really. What's being played out. So I moved here 10 years ago, bought my small farm to raise my family. I had my homestead there. Our next door neighbor had 40 acres with cows, beautiful area. It's
now going to be townhomes. I had to spend a lot of my money to fight to get those townhomes not to be right next to my house. We did succeed with getting a little bit of land there between us. But that's not what was originally sold to us. When the connected city was proposed and I went to those meetings 11, 10, 11 years ago. Um and Matt Armstrong, he promised us that there was going to be some step down between these new multi-family high development zones
and all our small properties that we had here. Um so it you know in order to get that I actually had to fight for it. It wasn't given So that's that's one topic that I wanted to discuss because coming from from now forward with the Connected City, you're starting to encroach on all these small farms and the people that already lived here in the Connected City. So you're gonna be getting a lot of pushback from those people and not wanting, you know, townhomes and apartments right next to them. So that was one issue that I just want to discuss as we
move forward with the Connected City. Um the second issue is a little bit more black and white and I I don't understand how some things are being passed um lately with uh the community hub zone, uh specifically FASA and um tall timbers, which I know hasn't been passed here yet, but it has by the planning development. In that community, in the land development code, apartments are not allowed. What is permitted, and I'm reading directly here from your land development code, is small family detached
courtyard houses and row houses. So so far Tall Timbers is proposing apartments, which is not a permitted use, and I believe also FASA apartments. Again, not a permitted use. I think the reasoning prior was because there was no single-family home entitlements left. Which is fine. Um I know you're gonna reevaluate and see if you can add some of those, but um if not, the alternate uses would be courtyard houses, row
houses, not apartments, not townhomes. Um So that I think is a major issue that needs to be addressed today when you guys have that presentation later.
Thank you. Thank you. Madam Chair, that is um all that I have signed up. I don't know if there's any other um uh citizens that attend.
Would anyone else here in the room like to address the board this morning?
Okay. Madam Chair, before you close uh public comment, um Rick Morales Nadal, the individual who spoke from SBA, he has a bunch of handouts that he would have liked to have made part of the record. He did not ask.
Okay.
If we I
take a motion. We've received a file. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye.
Thank
you. Great.