Jobs, golf cart parade, awards, Wiregrass updates

46:51Yeah, thank you for bringing it up. I didn't really I I just got an update from that. That's interesting that it's tucked back. It shouldn't be. Obviously, it should be up by the the road so folks can see it coming by on the trail and so forth. So thank you. Um just just one thing I wanted to bring up. If you remember back in our October of twenty eighteen. Uh we started the uh Our workforce redevelopment program, partnering with Career Source to help us with that. I just wanted to let you know the the goal was about 150 jobs for a million. five hundred dollars and

47:22They exceeded jobs, full-time jobs. There was 163 part-time, which I know we don't count, but it's still 56 part-time jobs. And what I thought was really exciting, especially with the money we're approving today to help the homeless, is out of those 163, 87 of those were homeless in Pasco County. You know, that gives us a return on investment of over six and a half million dollars for that for that million five hundred. So I just I thought the board needed to hear it. I know um we're gonna continue the contract with

47:52them for the next four years. Um they have done an unbelievable job with our team to to put people back to work. So I just wanted to bring it up and brag a little bit about that partnership and what we've done for workforce redevelopment. So and with that that is all I have.

48:08Okay, thank you, Commissioner Mariano. So we start with you. We have 13 minutes. So if you

48:11have I'll be fine with that. Okay. Um I want to say uh last week we had a golf cart parade up in Hudson. Um it's the second time they've uh run it, and this time we had twenty-nine golf carts that participated. Uh drove up and around, everyone had a good time. They At the end of it we had actually had a Kind of a little gathering at a one of the gentlemen's house and someone actually mentioned to me about the Hudson boat ramp. So taking his information from that moment, I actually typed an email to Keith, uh sent it over to him, say,

48:42can we take a look at this? He says, We are looking at it. Uh they're gonna bring the engineer in to go look at it. Did they engineer it as as good as they could? They tried to make it ADA accessible, which I think is a noble way to go. Uh they're just checking to make sure as far as the slope, did they slope it enough? Should it be sloped a little bit more? So they are looking at that actively. The engineers agreeable to come is agreeable already s already had a meeting already and gonna have more on it to go take a look at that to to resolve that situation. Uh as well as pressure cleaning they look to putting grooves in there as well which may uh slow down the boats

49:12to go down. But uh I will say Keith is is on top of it. They are looking at it. Um I think at the last meeting we might have talked about Hudson Channel. I've got a f another phone call today about another leak in the canal that's kind of get gonna get dissipated. So I've already sent an email over to DEP uh asking them to work with the EPA and take a look at those shrimp boats that are out there and what could be causing those leaks is something we need to look at. Um And let's see. As far as the golf carts, uh Mr. Carbella. If

49:43you could, I know they're working on trying to bring that forward, but people are very anxious to try to bring that all the way up to Clark Street. That'll let people go to another set of restaurants like Up It Get Hooked and also down to Leisure Beach where they can actually connect easier. There's access there. We just got to try to make it forward. It's cost a little bit more money I think than the first one we did, but uh I would like to see it keep keep coming forward. And uh lastly, uh I've got tons tons of phone calls, emails, whatever on communications saying that uh they really want us to take a close look at this mask ordinance. I think the

50:13data that came from a study that was done two weeks ago. maybe three weeks ago now we could have actually looked to r to pull it back. Uh even with the current data as of Friday, uh we could still go forward. So uh just want to know let everyone know I'm getting a ton of feedback saying they'd like us to take another look at it.

50:33Thank you, sir.

50:37Yeah, sorry. A couple items, actually three. One, um I think I sent y'all an email last week, but wanna recognize Paula Paula Carbaldo. Carballo. Yeah. I can't say her name today. as a forty under forty uh reckon reckon It was recognized by the Tampa Bay Business Journal. I probably just ought to start that over again.

51:04My former Chief of Staff who's currently running our building construction services group uh was recognized by the Tampa Bay Business Journal as one of their forty under forty uh future leaders and so just want to give props to her again. For that Secondly, we had 22 graduates just over a week ago of the uh certified public managers course. Uh in addition, the clerk, she may talk about it, had nine graduates as well of that course. Um we actually hosted the cohort here in Pasco County. Uh

51:34because

51:36The improvement and the the growth of our people is vitally important to the organization and so we felt that needed to actually host that here and we'll probably be doing that again in the future as well to continue to grow our people. And last um The thousand friends of Florida actually recognize Pasco County and your board rules for how open they were with respect to public meetings and everything through the pandemic and how is a best practice on how to implement virtual

52:07hearings. So just wanna let y'all know that as well. So that was really a collaborative effort. Uh you know, David Goldstein, uh county attorney, uh they they ran a lot of that uh with input from planning and in my team as well. So Um With that, that's all I have, sir. And we will have an agenda item on the twenty first to discuss uh where our COVID response is and where we think we need to go. That will be a regular item.

52:37Excellent. Thank you. Mr. Steisler.

52:39I don't have anything today for you. Thank you.

52:42Madam Clerk.

52:48So I'll start with thanking the board for hosting the CPM because uh we do not have enough to fill a class, so it allows us to provide um individuals to go to class locally and this class ended virtually, so maybe now we can attend virtually too. So thank you for that. Um the other item I wanted to mention is at the next Board of County Commissioners on the twenty-first. Um I plan to have PFM here to give you an investment update. We

53:18usually profile borderly reports, but with COVID happening and everything, I wanted to give the board the opportunity to see investments and also to ask questions if you would like. And that will be done with PFM represented as well as my Director of Finance, Nanny Wong. The other item that I have is I just wanted to advise the board that on Monday, September 28th, my office will be closed to the public so we can perform our training,

53:48our organization-wide training that will be conducted virtually. So our office is closed on September 28th, but our team is reporting to work for training.

54:00And that's it.

54:01That's it. All right. Thank you. Okay, so just a couple quick things. I think I could fit it in. As we know, the Wiregrass Range Sports Campus of Pasco County is open now. We had a grand opening celebration on August 27th. Definitely a huge day for our community and thanks to Adam Thomas and his entire team for putting this event on. Unfortunately, we had to greatly restrict the attendance due to COVID-19, but again, Florida Sports Coast did an excellent job and they live streamed

54:31this. And live stream to tour for the public so they can be involved. We had to limit it to mostly, you know, commissioners, county staff, and uh some of our direct vendors as well as the Rat Sports team to stay under that fifty person limit with the social distance they can mask. But there'll be plenty of opportunities in the future for the public to be able to um view that. And I know RAT had did their own um uh open house one day too so people in the community for those local primary programmings could uh come visit it. So it's a great, great event. I know it was a long road to get here, but we got there. They

55:01already had two basketball tournaments. During over 500 room nights, um they use Pasco County Hotels, so they stayed here, they shopped here, they ate here. Um Exactly what we wanted to happen. Pretty couple pretty cool things to mention as well. Forty-three out of fifty-two weekends are already booked with sports at that facility. So I would I would say that's already a big success. Yeah, it's amazing. Even with COVID nineteen, forty three out of fifty-two, I can only assume that they'll book as many as they can unless maybe one of the major holidays falls on one of

55:31those weekends. Um and then local programming has already begun. So they have basketball leagues, they have the indoor soccer leagues, they have cheerleading going on, they have volleyball going on. All that's already going on for our our local residents. So already a already a huge success. So thanks to everybody. And again, thanks to the Porter Porter family for the land, donating the land for that facility. And uh obviously a huge asset for the county. Just a question for the team I wanted to bring up. Um A citizen brought this to my attention. You may have heard this before. I'm not sure if you have or not. Staff

56:02comments are not posted on the public version of a cella right now. I think there's a possibility to do it, but they're not being loaded to a cellar. And I bring that up because This will save our save our staff. tons of time if they're published, because now what citizens are having to do is go reach out to staff, they have to stop what they're doing. Turn around, look for those comments and email those comments. to to the citizen. So if they're just posted on the cellar when those comments are made That's

56:32gonna save our team, I think, tons of time. So I don't know if you've heard that or not, but um I have and I think um It besides saving time for our citizen I mean saving time for our staff, it also saves time for our citizens as well, so they can just pull it up when they're looking at whether it be a pre-app meeting or or a permitting or or uh whatever it may be. Let's just that's why we have the seller program so you can pull it up. So if maybe we can look into that, Mr. Biles. Um get a for our team that's in the audience, we can look into that I

57:03think it'll save them quite a bit of time and not having to constantly email those comments to the to the citizens or applicants too.

57:12One last thing, and then we like to recognize some of our extraordinary staff as often as we can. So on August 21st, I received a compliment for building inspector Stephen Switzer, stating he went above and beyond to work with the homeowner after a scheduling issue on the inspection. So I know Dan and Sally have already recognized him. I saw that email, but I did want to publicly recognize Mr. Switzer. It's always great to hear um our public, you know, recognize these folks and uh say they're doing a great job. So again, congratulations to him

57:42and I know our entire team does a great job, but uh we do wanna recognize Mr. Switzer. With that, I am done. Mr. Chairman Mariano

57:50Just quick thing about the Wygrass Ranch. Yes.

57:55I was there for the week before uh and the soft opening they had was well, very well attended. And it won't you talk about the local reach out that they have? They got testing out there for AC for kids going through college. The EC testing, that educational program is another great component that's out there. Really exciting.

58:12Yep, you're correct. Good comment. Good comment. Yeah.

58:15Yeah, great facility. I think we're gonna really be on the map with that one. And maybe with the one that's gonna be presented to you in a second. But um I did wanna um asked the county administrator.

58:29about an getting a manatee protection zone and a no-wake sign and out uh on the south channel of Gulf Harbors. And again this morning when it's high tide. The boats go over the area. At a high speed where the manatees we see every morning, I'm very concerned and I'd ask you to look into it. I don't know if you've been able to find out how we get a sign.

58:52We ha we we have some signs that we don't have manatee signs out there. So parks is working on that 'cause I think we maintain those signs with respect to those who violate the no wake sign, you know, we don't we don't have the ability to enforce that. So we'd have to work on fisheries.

59:10So that someone can enforce it. Because the I mean the sign is at the beginning. Right. People are still speeding through there. Um I hear my neighbors come out and yell at people all the time. FWC

59:21commissioner?

59:22What?

59:22FWC maybe.

59:23Well I think the county has to request it.

59:25Oh Keat Keith's working on that with fish and wildlife. Oh yep, they're working that.

59:33So um the uh other thing was I wanted to share with you that I was honored to receive Um the uh Florida Federation of Republican Women um Commissioner Oakley for the state of Florida.

59:51What they said was that um no I'm not gonna read it self serving. But anyway, I was um honored to get that in. I'll be receiving an award on September twelfth. So

1:00:00Oh this event on Sunday?

1:00:04Or Saturday? Yeah.

1:00:06Um they have a big conference coming. Thankfully it's here in Tampa. So

1:00:11They asked Aubrey to speak of that, actually my daughter. Oh but she but unfortunately she can't, she has to work, so she has an obligation already.

1:00:18But uh yeah, so all right, I think we're I I understand Keith's on now, so.