Public comment opportunity
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, Jun 4, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
The county’s minutes for Board of County Commissioners, Jun 4, 2024
The published PDF, as served by the county. This item is one entry in it.
What was said
Machine transcription of 12m of recording, with speaker names inferred from voice matching. 98% of 42 lines carry a name. It shows what was said, not what was decided, and both the words and the names can be wrong.
Here. Make me note we have a quorum here at the meeting. Uh now's the time for public comment. Citizens are given a opportunity to comment on any current or future agenda item before the board. And and on business under the board's purview. Today's public comment will be handled as follows. First, we will take public comment for those who are here in person. Then we would take public comment for those that are pre-registered
for a WebEx link and are currently on queue. We request that they address the board. Please do not direct any personal Um items against the board commissioners or team members, but rather direct them at the issues. This provides mutual respect between the board members and the public. After stating your name and address for the clerk, a three-minute timer
will be activated. after two minutes a single beat will Uh indicate that you have one minute left. When your time is up, two beeps will sound and you will close your be able to close your comments. Um
uh WebEx uh participants will also be uh disconnected when they're through with their time. Uh Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up for public comment?
Mr. Chairman we have four people who've signed up for public comment. I have Cindy, I think it's Burkle. Buckle, thank you. Um the next person didn't put their name, but the t agenda topic they want to talk about is C twenty seven liquid sodium hypochlorite and then followed by Nancy Hazelwood, followed by Lisa Moretti. So Ms. Buckle, do you please come to the podium? Thank you.
State your name and address of the clerk.
Cindy, C-I-N-D-I, Buckle, B-U-C, K-E-L, [address removed].
And what I am up here to talk about are our water resources and the lack thereof. I do not understand. How development can continue with the lagoons and the water features when we are clearly very, very short on water, to the point where we will be purchasing Water from Tampa Bay Water. which there are a couple of commissioners that
are on that board as well. for a total of $510,000. So I imagine the city people, the city water We'll probably go up. The other issue I have is the same day the water restrictions came out for us, Two once a week. There was notification that any water features um needed to be had a sign saying using reclaimed water Only.
Now I drove up and down State Road 56 yesterday. And I noticed the huge waterfall. is still running, and there is no sign for reclaimed water. One of the other subdivisions completely changed theirs to planning. But there are several fountains, there are several irrigated man-made ponds on State Road 56. You can tell this because the ponds in the subdivisions
are lowering because of no rain. Yet these ponds that were created With the concrete pumps to be able to pump in and out are perfectly level every time you go by. I am on a well. And right now our pressure has dropped. We've had to put a submersible well in to follow the aquifer down. because it is several inches below, it is lower than it has ever been. The other issue that
could happen with this is sinkholes. I have spoken with a lot of new residents and a lot of the new subdivisions. And they are also concerned about the water. Okay. That's all I have to say.
All right. Thank you for your comments.
Uh the next person they did not put their name but again it's um C twenty seven liquid sodium hypochlorite. Okay.
Oh. A different item. Okay. She was on C twenty five before.
That concerns me because of the volatility of this chemical. Um It is highly volatile unless it's kept cool. There's a possibility of actual explosions due to this. It is also a cancer causing carcinogen. Um the county Is spending I believe it is six hundred and ten thousand dollars to buy twelve
point five percent to put in all of the water treatment plants to I imagine make the water safe to drink. But at this point, um
I have someone who has a master's in chemistry and not only that but you can just go and read about this chemical. It is not safe. It is corrosive and it's most likely to cause damage to a lot of the water lines. Um Once again We're spending money buying water and we're putting dangerous chemicals in it to make it potable.
Yes ma'am. If you will I'll let uh Dave David Allen would you come up go outside with her and explain to her about the water and just answer real quick on part of it. We're not out of water or short water. We're out of what they call free water because it comes out of a well. They call it free. But we have plenty of water with Tampa Bay water for our region. But David Allen will explain some of that information for you. If you'll step outside with him.
You'll you'll do that right now. Next person.
Uh Mr. Chair, the next person is Nancy Hazelwood, followed by Lisa Moretti.
Good morning. I see a new face. Hello. Nancy Hazelwood, [address removed]. It's nice to see y'all again. So I noticed on the agenda that you're getting ready to approve for uh different villages and V O P H, villages of Pasadena Hill. And uh I was thinking that's 3,597 units. How many cars is
that gonna put on the road? Close to ten thousand? Do we really need that amount? When they put on V O P H there was a set number of units. agreed upon for that whole area. And I I just find it kinda odd that we're going back and granting them more because they did have a large amount already agreed upon. Uh so I was wondering if y'all wouldn't take some of this into
consideration and maybe make that a bit lower. I know you uh you gotta take each one individual, but Altogether that's three thousand five hundred and ninety seven more units than the cars that are being dropped on us. Uh, your citizens are kind of suffering from this. Thank y'all.
Thank you.
Lisa Mari? Thank you.
Good morning. My name's Lisa Moretti, [address removed]. I've been reviewing the documentation on forgivable loans made by Pasco County from our Penny for Pasco monies, and over and over I see out-of-develop out-of-area developers being given really favorable loan rates and then having them wiped clean. And in many cases that we've reviewed, they don't appear to have met the percentages of jobs they were to have brought to Pasco in exchange for free
money from Pasco taxpayers. But it gets worse. Over and over we also see that they receive an ad valorem rebate. This is really mind-boggling on many levels, penny for Pasco monies. That the that one percent tax that the good people of Pasco voted for to be invested in schools and land preservation and infrastructure. Is estimated to have generated over a billion dollars in the last 18 years. But right now we have kids sweating away in portable classrooms in some schools who have had those temporary
classrooms on site there for more than 10 years. And some of our own school board members currently seated don't even know that kids are stuck in portables. Why is there such a huge disconnect? We don't need to be giving away free money from one hand to big corporations who can afford to invest in Pasco while baking our kids in substandard learning conditions and hot portables. And now, from the other hand, you're about to add two new ad valorem taxes to the backs of Pasco County taxpayers on today's agenda. If
there was ever a tax and spend scheme, this is it. You have Cherry Hills on your agenda this afternoon. The developer on that project. who also has numerous other projects in the county. hasn't paid their taxes on the properties that they own. You're going to increase their property values in a very lucrative racket that they have running on the county and municipalities of Casco. Is the rule in Pasco that developers just don't pay taxes? Just we regular citizens get the honor of paying property taxes and these added ad
valorem taxes that we don't even get to vote on? I urge you to reconsider adding more taxes to the backs of CASCO taxpayers today. Stop rebating and erasing the very same taxes from the developers who are creating our infrastructure problems with your help. I hope you realize that Pasco residents have had enough and vote no. But here's what I find truly sad. You've been doing this all with very little thought. to the very longtime families, your neighbors, the kids you went to school with, your teachers
when you were in school, People you know. Not just us little squawking chickens, as I think you like to call us. You are taxing the people that once mattered to you. out of their homes and out of this county. And I have to wonder if you really care.
Thank you.
All right.
Anyone else?
Mr. Chairman Mariano on WebEx.
I don't know if you want to
make a
is Is there anyone else in the audience that did not sign up wish to speak at this time?
Seeing no one, we will close public comment. Uh
See where I'm at here.
Mm-hmm.