Commissioners miscellaneous reports

1:32:49Okay, now we'll go to miscellaneous business. Vice Chairman Oakley?

1:32:54All right. Just um I don't ha I didn't put any pictures in to show where we've been, but We all went to Um we had a great trip there in Tallahassee and On Pasco County Legislative Day, we held meetings With Representative Brad Yeager. Representative Jeff Hokham. Commissioner Wilton Simpson. Uh Senator Hooper. Representative Steele and members of the Pasco County Legislative Delegation.

1:33:25So It was a good meeting and I think we've uh Got a handle on uh a lot of things while we were up there. Some a little different than I've seen in the past, so Very interesting uh meeting. So The next item I have is uh I recently added a member to my team, Lori Bowman. Join us as an executive executive assistant. which Marie continues as my legislative assistant. We exer decided to have Lori

1:33:56on our team and She's already uh Doing some great jobs we have for her there in office, so Um One thing we found out that she did 'cause we moved her over in a lateral move so quickly. Um She or someone forgot to set up the meeting for the agenda review with uh Mr. Kabala and myself, so I blamed it on her yesterday.

1:34:24Well I get what I asked for, so

1:34:28But anyway that's basically that's all I had. I Uh appreciate everything staff's doing. Uh continue to try to work with them to make things better here in the county. So Thank you. Commissioner Weightman.

1:34:44Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, just to echo uh Commissioner Oakley, we had a Fantastic Pasco day up in Tallahassee and really appreciate Representative Maggard's time. Gave us about thirty minutes and Representative Yeager. And uh appreciated the time they spent with us and wanna thank Ralph and and the team and and Mr. Cabal and his team and And the uh Mr. the reception that we had uh afterwards was really nice and got to mix and mingle with the greater Pasco

1:35:14Chamber of Commerce. So all in all it was a it was a good day, very good day. Uh next, just to get at the board's temperature on Friday. We have the transport the transportation management. Uh area group. uh meeting and uh There's probably gonna be uh conversation around a regional MPO. So before that meeting, uh I figured there might be some board members who wanted to share some thoughts and opinions.

1:35:45uh on that on that particular issue.

1:35:50Uh yeah, I'm I'm happy to um and I would encourage everyone to talk to our MBO MPO director. Uh But Uh I'm in favor of coming together regionally to work on regional solutions to transit. And I think it's a really important as our fifty-four quarter fills in, it's just gonna get more and more crowded that we have um a regional solution. And this is how Orlando came together and got all that federal money.

1:36:21Um my and other areas around the country have done it. Uh I think the devil's in the details 'cause 'cause we want to be sure we're not a little fish in a big pond. We want to continue to represent our county proportionately. Um and I don't think anyone in another county is gonna care. I mean, we need to control how we do the local things here. Um But we need to speak with one voice on transit in the area. So um I don't

1:36:51really know how it works but I figure there's a solution to every problem And since since the solution was not T Barta. We need to keep finding that solution and so I'm looking forward to this conversation to see how we can move forward and and try and speak with one voice to help our constituents. You know it's not It's not for us today. But it's for our population in ten, twenty years. And if we don't start doing something now We are really doing a disservice to the community. So um

1:37:21I'm looking forward to the discussion and see how we move forward. Again, we gotta take care of our local stuff. Um, but we also have a responsibility for the regional solution. So that's how I feel about it. Yeah.

1:37:38Mr. Brever?

1:37:41I'd like to echo those comments too, uh you know, transportation. is such a critical area. Without transportation we cannot have jobs. Without transportation, public safety is at issue. With I mean we could go through the whole list. thinking regionally and going after the money. I've from day one I've been a strong advocate of lobbying. Uh And uh we need to continue those efforts and

1:38:12If we can play a bigger role in it then we should all do that.

1:38:16Very good. Mr. Rokley. I'll just add to that the being together's much better than trying to stay alone on some of this. But regionally we really need to uh do the right thing and regionally speak with one voice. For our area. Yeah. 'Cause really in in fact the transit that would help us would also help Hillsborough and Pineads Counties at the same time. So I think we need to pay attention to it and and be a part of it. So

1:38:45And I'll and I'll agree with the the dialogue as well. You know, Miami Dade Orange County. Um we had a whole bunch of money from the feds that was gonna go to us and it ended up going to Carolina before and then after that it went to California. So by not having one voice strong is important. Now, I will tell you Hillsworth County is gonna be the key piece. They've got the core infrastructure of that line rail line that runs right up. that not only goes north south but also runs east west all the way to Saint Pete. uh from from

1:39:15USF. So They've got to get into the game. Now the new elections, I think we might have a better thing. I'm I'm excited to see what's gonna happen Friday. Um But as I said, when I Asked for Commissioner Weightman and Bradford to be on that T M A. We've been talking about this transit for seven, eight years. We had CSX at the table to work with us. Uh even up in in uh D C they said unless you get the rail line on on board with you, it's tough to get anything done. It may take some federal

1:39:45legislation. But I think if you guys are in the room, if you c if you can't make it great. Commissioner Weightman, if you're not going to make it, I'm going to be there anyway. But one

1:39:56And it's here. It's here right there. Tar Starkey TLC.

1:40:00we need to make sure we have three of us there and I'll I'll be a backup for for you two guys if in case something happens where you can't make it or you you get a little sicker or whatever whatever may happen. So we'll have hopefully the three of us there. Um but I think it's a very important dialogue to go. And I think Commissioner Starkey you as you as you mentioned, the population as we increase, et cetera I want to make sure we're not that little fish either. And I think we're we're gonna take a good good portion of the growth, not all of it, but we should be focusing more on not just population but land mass as well and

1:40:30and future growth coming up.

1:40:32You know um Uh a thought is you know If there was a metric of how many people are doing a Twenty mile commute. We'd probably win. No, no.

1:40:48Look at it.

1:40:50I think it's a great way to go. I mean right now the TMA for the past seven years, every time we've had votes and gone forward, it's been a very good group. I think we've looked for the region every step of the way. And you know, I think it it says a lot to the previous meeting last year. When we had two Penellas County representatives make a motion and second the forty one uh interchange overpass to get done and funded as a top priority project. So that tells you that the group respects what we are doing.

1:41:17Yeah

1:41:17and if we all work together we can make some things happen. But uh Commissioner Oakley, just as you say that one voice, one bay as they call it.

1:41:28Yeah.

1:41:31I think I'm chair of that. I think I wasn't there and they made me chair. I think that's what happened. Yeah, guilty guilty is

1:41:37charged.

1:41:40Uh Commissioner Weightman, anything else?

1:41:42Thanks. Thank you, and just one last thing. I want to thank uh Keith Wiley and Park staff. Uh as of Friday the universal playground uh is fixed and everything is uh up to date and mended and just appreciate our staff uh getting on it and getting that getting that part back in game shape. So thank you.

1:42:04That's all? Okay. Commissioner Starkey. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Starkey.

1:42:09Well, I also want to um thank everyone who traveled to Tallahassee and we had a Great meeting with our most of our legislators. I I called the ones I missed because um just couldn't hit 'em all and Uh but I think it was a very successful trip. But I really want to shout out to Um Commission is it you say Commissioner Simpson? Is that the right word?

1:42:30Yeah, Commissioner Simpson.

1:42:31Commissioner Simpson because He just gave us so much information that we're gonna be able to move forward on and that was probably the most productive meeting I've ever had with him, I think. So I'm really excited um uh about that meeting and what it means for us.

1:42:46Okay. Catherine that Ed Blummel was here earlier. He is not representative for Wilton Simpson. Oh, he's working

1:42:52with oh when he left before

1:42:53he's gone now. He had to go to Hernando, but

1:42:56Okay.

1:42:57Yeah, I found out that this morning I didn't realize that. Yeah,

1:42:59so

1:42:59I and I saw him sitting here. He represents Wilton Simpson now.

1:43:03Well that well that's great. Um so I look forward to uh continue to work on um the uh information Wilton gave us. And um I do wanna say I was a little disappointed to hear about the commissioners being added to an a a two term Um requirement. Yeah, eight year requirement because I think Florida will really be at a disadvantage. Um You

1:43:34know, you hear it all the time, even our legislators that eight years too too little, twelve years, yeah. Um but eight years you're just learning learning learning the ropes and really starting to get effective. I can say that there's no way that I'm putting together a meet a national Zoom call with Congresswoman Virginia Fox's staff. She's the chair of workforce and education in the US Congress and we're gonna work on fixing Problems with the Workforce Innovation

1:44:04Act, WIOA. And counties in Florida send back millions of dollars every year because we can't figure out. how to use it effectively. It's very hard to use and that's really frustrating when when you can't use the money like you'd like. So There's no way I could have had that kind of opportunity as a five year commissioner. I mean, it takes a while to get to that level. And and And soon uh Commissioner Truax is gonna be running for SNACO

1:44:35second vice president. So in two years he will be president of NACO. He wouldn't have been able to do that. We wouldn't have had him walking into the White House or walking, you know, m being at the table with With Um our leaders up in Washington and around the country. And So I think it's I think it's um.

1:44:57thank you.

1:44:58I wish it was three terms and not two. I I don't have a problem with term length.

1:45:03Yeah. So I just wanted to say that. Um so last night I wanna thank everyone who came to the International Trade and Tourism event. Um, you know, we had the Belizean contingent here in February 'cause that was originally our date. uh to celebrate this and they um they had already booked their tickets. So we we did that event we did that, you know, here at the commission, but our our big um kind of get together was yesterday. And I think it was a big success. I know I talked to some of our

1:45:33international business people who were there and actually there was a lot of business going down there last night, a lot of networking. So Uh I'm I got a a number of compliments and I I thought it uh turned out very well. Um Adam said something very interesting last night that two percent of our visitors are international. And I remember when I started working so hard in manufactur on the manufacturing arena and my husband uh was a two year chair of PE D. C. at that time and he said Why

1:46:03do you care so much about manufacturing? It's only four percent of Pasco County jobs. I said, and therein is the problem. Um because those are great jobs and they don't move. And um I'd love to know what percentage of percentage of our jobs are now with manufacturing, but Um so n so uh Not only do we have a great opportunity, I think, to help our local businesses learn how to import, export, and put their footprint on a bigger um global experience, but

1:46:33we have the opportunity to increase our tourism. internationally. And I know um Adam was just in Germany and I meant to ask him how that went, but Um so just thank you to everyone uh who came and I hope you had a good time and I um want to in to grow that event next year into something even bigger and better. So I think that's all I have. Okay. Commissioner Bradford?

1:47:00Well I'm gonna start with it's not on my uh miscellaneous business, but uh apologize for not being able to make uh Tallahassee, Mr. Chair. However, I was uh hot on the phone calling Representative Yeager. Uh Senator Hooper and others. Uh Uh yeah, I was tracking you. Did they have a meeting? Yeah, okay. Where are they at now? So we uh had good discussions. Uh you guys uh did a great job. Also reached out to Representative Maggard,

1:47:30uh spoke with him. Uh I think and I wanna say this appropriately. We can have disagreements. We all can have disagreements. But if we can and there's ten things on the agenda, ten things on the item, if we can agree on eight. or six or seven. Let's move those forward, then we'll worry about the rest next time. That's the mindset that we have to have as we deal with the different levels

1:48:00of elected officials from our level all the way up to the federal level. I d I think that's a no brainer. So I apologize for not being there. So let me take it back to a local level.

1:48:17Yeah. March the eleventh and twelfth. There we go. We cleaned we collected a hundred and twelve tons from the sites of Wind Dixie and Moon Lake Park. That is the weight The increase is the weight of roughly of twenty eight of my F one fifty four pickup trucks.

1:48:39I think that might be a record. I think that might be the most I've ever It is? I think. It is. Not that it's a contest I'm

1:48:46gonna be in. Not that I keep track of those numbers, but uh it's an all-time uh Uh Ghostbusters. Uh I did want publicly acknowledge the great team that was out there, our county employees from Public Works, Solid Waste, Code Compliance, County Staff, Local Volunteers, uh that coordinated uh there. Uh my uh

1:49:14Uh wife Deborah, she was out there uh helping feed the county employees. Uh we fed everybody. Uh nobody went uh hungry, I was told. And I was going back and forth between uh Several uh the two locations. I did want to thank uh Commissioner Mariano, he's always been very, very supportive and uh I asked him to come by and uh to uh show support and he was there and I appreciate that. He was with uh also with County

1:49:44employees uh Um come to find out. One of the county's emp uh employees I did not know happens to be a friend of his and they play golf together and I asked him, I said, Does the commissioner cheat?

1:49:58Yeah.

1:50:00He would answer the question, so

1:50:05So anyway that that was a very, very uh A good time to keep it local and y and it it's important that we don't forget where we came from. The second thing that uh I'm uh proud of is I completed a training course.

1:50:24From the Florida Institute of Government and that was part of my appointment for the canvassing board. Canvassing board uh some people know, but basically the canvassing board is you are a the impartial judge that does not get involved in politics. You are prohibited. You can't talk about it. I can't be involved uh in fundraisers. I can't even I can't even have lunch and talk to a

1:50:54school board uh candidate or uh commission candidate or a mosquito control board. I am absolutely prohibitive one hundred percent from getting involved in that, which uh I think might be a blessing. So thank you for that. Trader you can

1:51:11always say that.

1:51:12I I'm pretty sure it's a blessing. So uh Got the certificate. We're all set there. Uh the third one is uh yesterday uh We went over to the ag area agency on aging for our monthly meeting. Uh

1:51:31Yeah, seniors Seniors is a big part of our our challenge here in Pasco. Well when I go over there. The one thing that always sticks in my mind when I come home is Seniors is the fastest growing sub-segment of homelessness. They're too proud to ask for help. They're scared. They lose their house. They end up living in a car. Uh

1:52:02and that's sobering. And we have to do it.

1:52:07a better job at doing that. And I know it requires money. And I know that everybody is dedicated. Dedicated to that. I want to try to keep that on the radar screen. So that's all I have, Mr. Chairman Mariano.

1:52:20Okay. Thank you very much. And uh it was a great day out there at Moon Lake. And those of you who have been out to Moon Lake, the community has really cleaned up so much. Like Gulf Hir Gulf Island the same type of thing. The community's gotten better and better every year. So even though we've gone back there a few times, it's been well worth it, I think. And with the numbers you have this year it was even better.

1:52:38Keep bringing those four pickup trucks, guys.

1:52:42All right. Uh Commissioner Starkey.

1:52:43Well um I just wanted to go back to the comments that the gentleman made earlier this morning. And have a discussion about that. because you know, and I hear it all the time, and I just you know, we have have our citizens' academy, but It would be I wish there was some way we could educate our our folks more because You know, he mentioned that about car washes. Hey, and I used to say this to my husband too before I, you know, got into the job I'm in now. Why are they building another seven eleven when there's one right

1:53:13across the street, you know, or or but these car washes, we we can't control the market that way, right? It it's the zoning. And then the market dictates what goes in there. and um I get frustrated driving down State Road fifty four and seeing all the fast food. And that our that our highway is lined with fast food Um um establishments W and it's fast food with a driveway all around,

1:53:44fast food, parking driveway all around. I I don't like the development pattern we have either, but it's really, really hard to change that. And I think when we do our comp plan revision That will help. We do our form based code. Um stuff that might help. But I know and I'm sure you do too. I work very hard to try and bring higher end restaurants here. and in um restaurants that we see in South Tampa Or Duniden

1:54:15Uh Penales County W I know that's the number one wish of of people up here is that we had more opportunity. But you know, when I when I talk to to the owners of Columbia Restaurant or some of the other places It's gonna sound crazy, but a lot of them say we don't have the density. that will support those restaurants. And so You know, I keep plugging away at it. I will say we just had a couple restaurants open up. We had Cantina. Vallaro. um

1:54:46open up a Trinity Town Center or Tuscan Center. Um In downtown Newport Ritchie, um estuary just opened up, fabulous gastro pub restaurant. Uh and um I think today we're gonna be approving a project hopefully on State Road 54. I think we've got some great opportunity there. And you know when I When I meet with developers and their representatives Whenever we have the opportunity, and I always have Terry in the meetings with me. But I

1:55:16always say Are you building a place that you would want to go to on a Saturday night with your friends or your family? Because that's what we need here. We've got enough of the fast food. You know Not not they're not entertainments. As uh Commissioner Weightman would say. But I think it's really important for us to make sure that as developments come in, we try. as much as we can to help them be the highest quality that we

1:55:46can. Um And Uh but so to hear that gentleman say this morning that we're not, you know, focused on being Premier, I don't that's not true. We're working very hard on that. And I'm really excited. I was just looking at I dropped a pin on US nineteen. And I was looking at it visually and I oh my gosh, it's it's looking so much better. And I can tell you I have three businesses who have remodeled, taken down the old signs, putting in new landscaping in just

1:56:16the last two months uh on the southern part of US nineteen. And there's more to come. David Engel maybe we'll we'll share some stuff in a in a couple meetings, but There are changes coming and um it takes a little while but we are working hard to make this a Premier County.

1:56:32And Commissioner Starkey, believe me I I think what we've done has been great for improving jobs. I mean we're one of the first countries to actually put money in a in a in a government tax, sales tax, to go get echo economic development. We improved it even this year. Um we've I think made that statement. And in and not so much that money's gonna make the difference it's come or not, but it sets an attitude of like this commission wants jobs here. And everything we talk about I think from D d dust to done is all about

1:57:02how do we bring more jobs to Pasco with the project of Moffitt coming in. That project took a long time to get. We actually delayed Ridge Road about an extra year just to make sure they had the cuts they needed. Uh you know, with Commissioner Simpson helping out with the infrastructure. I mean That is going to make such a huge difference in the area. Um

1:57:21But Jack, we we have to make sure that the land around that isn't filled with forty foot um entry level homes. We want the doctors to live here and the scientists to live here so Um as we are approving these projects, we have to We have to have opportunities For Bigger homes. You know, forty foot lot. What what was the number? I think I heard it in Tallahassee. I think Wilton said it. I think that the the price of a home now that adds to the tax base

1:57:51is three fifty. Isn't that what uh five hundred. Oh five hundred. Well, there aren't very many five hundred dollar forty foot white homes. So um

1:58:01Not affordable anyway.

1:58:02Um you know, so we we do have to balance affordability, but we do have to be careful that we don't swamp swamp ourselves and we leave some land open for um people who wanna have that that bigger home experience.

1:58:17You want you want premier places wherever you can get 'em.

1:58:19Yeah.

1:58:20Um and I I'll say as far as I think We're we're taking a great step and up and down restoring our canals. From Moffitt, if you come down Ridge Road, it's probably about a fifteen minute drive. How many people do you know that if they're gonna move to Florida, what do they want to do? Go to the beach or do fishing. Go get a boat. We work on these waterways up and down. that access point is coming across real easy for them, that's where they're gonna wanna live. A lot of them. I mean the be the Wesley Chapel demographics it's still real strong and popular. Um The

1:58:51change of what Pasco had gone through. You know, years ago we had all these retirees from the Midwest coming down, et cetera. They settled in. Well, as they've passed on New people have come in. With not the same demographic. And I will tell you from a gentleman who had a jewelry store right in front of uh the Gulfview Mall. He was at one point Almost all the business was right from West Pasco. Slowly Wesley Chapel grew up. And got stronger and stronger. And when they started to get their retail, all of a sudden the businesses here didn't

1:59:22have that market anymore spending money. They're spending it over there. That's why you see is such a such a big change. So I think th the the restoration work we're doing the canals is gonna be a phenomenal help. Uh it's a it's a great start. I think Sun West Park when we put some assets up to that, uh a little bit b bit more coming up, when we build the other set of boat ramps coming in, create more opportunities. And I will tell you when uh I I I'm going to uh Tallahassee tomorrow uh and I will be have a meeting, Ralph Lair set it up for me with with Fish and Wildlife and I'm I'm gonna be pushing that treat

1:59:52us the same as citrus and Rando. Our our numbers are the same for scalloping. We should be getting the same treatment. And I'm gonna be n you know Pushing that issue for us. But definitely a lot of things we've done have been great. Um you'll see more and more on the west side. I had just some people from Shady Hills meet with me the other day. That came to speak at the M P O. Talk with him for probably two hours afterward. They're afraid of too much industrial coming on Shady Hills because the infrastructure there is not there to support it. So we're gonna work with him. Matter of fact that gentleman was now

2:00:22gonna be uh my uh B PAC member.

2:00:25Uh.

2:00:26He was gonna he was gonna go as a C C A C A C alternate but I said look, I could use on B PAC right now. So he's now gonna be coming up for a for a thing. So we're definitely I think doing a lot of great things. Um and again zoning we can't control. Once someone has permission to do whatever fits in a zoning category, they can do What if it fits? We don't control that. We don't see. Like some people ask me, what's going on over there? I'm not sure what's going on over there. Because sometimes you don't know what's coming out of the ground.

2:00:53You may we we don't hear about it because it doesn't come before us.

2:00:56And I think the market also sometimes corrects things so Um If if uh you're building a storage facility, which we, you know, did make them go back and have jobs out in the front, if you can't get You're not gonna get a bank loan to build that, you know? Uh so sometimes the financing Uh if it's uh something's overbuilt, sometimes it's hard to get financing. So that helps too.

2:01:23I will say that right now it's hard to imagine the fundamental uh effect a Moffat's gonna have on Pasco County because it's not built yet. It's hard for people to say, okay, there's there's a field. But I guarantee you. Yeah I think everybody will agree with me. Once we get that first building built that excitement is going to grow. Angeline got far as I heard was seven thousand homes. I've

2:01:53been up there, drove through that uh With uh my family and told her no, we're not buying a new house. And uh so we uh we went all through that area. How the different developers are going to develop that, the high tech school that's gonna be on that property. Um

2:02:14It's gonna drive an economic engine here that uh none of us have ever seen. Which will bleed off into everything that you s you said, uh, Mr. Chair. Uh, 'cause doctors and radiologists and physician assistants and all that, they got disposable income. Mm-hmm.

2:02:33That's what you need.

2:02:35And I'll finish with this. Uh in two days my uh My uh nurse practitioners

2:02:44Grandchild. Oh so I'd be happy about that. She'll be induced, so we'll

2:02:51So

2:02:52Congratulations. All right. I'm we'll we'll end it here uh Mr. Carbellar if you could Maybe get with uh our information officers and maybe let them do some digging for us as far as the things we've actually created. Maybe work with David Engel, Bill Cronin, and talk about the jobs we're creating in this area, what's coming up, because I think it's time for a presentation for that gentleman to hear and to see. Um Yeah.

2:03:17How can we push that out, you know, if you're not listening to us, how can we get this message out? to the public of all the improvements and things, the good works of the county. Yeah, I think we need to have a strategy.