food pantry, wildfire deployment, Amendment 3 town halls

2:52:49Three things. First, I want to thank uh thank the team, especially Tony Stilo, uh Stillo and uh Sarah Sucrum. Uh they teamed up with Life Church's Food Pantry in Spring Hill and served over seven hundred and twenty-five households uh for the farm share program. So that's a pretty pretty good thing. Secondly, I want to give kudos to our public safety folks, our fire, our fire guys, specifically Brian Spooner, Jess Walker, Chad Carver, and Jared Kelly. They were part of

2:53:19a deployed unit that went to North Texas to help fight wildfires, notably the Ross Fire and the Bug Beach Fire. And during that two-week deployment, uh they supported line construction expensive. Exposure protection, water supply operations, and tactical adjustments based on the incident management team direction. Again, it's just another example of the professionalism and the expertise that our team has and attracts the talent that we do that we can actually afford to go and support. We came at the request of F Dem.

2:53:50They they asked for us and uh they answered the call. So uh very, very happy, very, very proud of that. Uh thirdly, I wanted to just make sure I was clear on um uh this idea of town halls for amendment three. I've I've s I've sent you an email and and uh attorney Goldstein also kind of opined on just some general concerns on a fine line between educating and advocacy. And so I I just I wanna ask the board, you know,

2:54:21We can we can I I I can always put together a very neutral presentation at a town hall kind of event, uh which was what the majority direction appeared to be at the time. But town halls can go places where maybe you did not intend. We've seen that in other places. And I just want to ask the board if they want to consider or think about alternative approaches to education that could perhaps mitigate mitigate that risk. Static websites are are one thing when we go to live presentations that that's a different it's a

2:54:51different thing. And so County Attorney had some concerns after I was thinking about it. But I've got some concerns too. So I just want to ask the board Is there any any additional direction on that, change of direction, thoughts on the matter?

2:55:06Mish.

2:55:07Um I agree with I agree with you. Um I'm not a fan of the town halls. Um things that I've gone to recently with the temperature of of the country. There's been a lot of um things pop up. So um I I would never want to put county staff in that position and um Me personally I'm for putting information on the website and things like that. And if people have questions they can reach out. That's just my opinion.

2:55:39Ms. Shirkey.

2:55:40When I um asked everybody at FAC, it wasn't real scientific the way I did it. I would've liked to have gotten more responses to see what other counties are doing. Uh I will tell you that the the public relations person they hired and the um um person in charge of this at fact uh When I said w got a little contentious I heard at the Largo Town Hall, they said, We love that. It's earned media, it's fine. The City of Largo

2:56:11did absolutely nothing wrong. So that was they liked the idea of getting media to to hear it. I I have another one tomorrow night. Amy will be there with m my leaders from the Trin uh the uh um what I call it, the um holiday area. But um you know I'm not gonna if no one else wants us to do it, that's fine. Um but I don't think there's anything wrong with having the

2:56:41public learn about our budget personally.

2:56:49I I think the town hall is a good idea. I'm a little fearful as far as the feedback, the dialogue. Um But I do think they need to know what the budget would mean if it went through. Um and I think especially now that we know amendment one which is everyone familiar with Amendment One?

2:57:07Yep.

2:57:08Alright, so they got reserves, they're maxed out, they want to go make it part of the constitution where it's mandatory to put more reserves in. Now part of the reason all of our budgets have gone up is because we put reserves in place. So they're saying we don't want you to go have reserves and be financially strong, but we're going to get stronger, and then we can go fill backfill what needs to be backfilled. Um and I think if the public actually Got wind of even both of those right now. They would say, well, why are they saying they're spending too much money and you guys have too

2:57:38much money? And now you don't have too much money, but you want to go spend more money. I mean it's like ridiculous to to the situation they're putting us in, but they're taking the opposite approach to make them financially more viable to take care of problems that may happen after this thing. It's to me I I think people are just gonna get frustrated. And I think it's okay to share the information one way or the other, but I think even if you just w did one town hall and say look because of everything maybe we don't have input

2:58:08back. We're not gonna respond back because we don't want to put opinions out there. We're just gonna show you what the facts are we know.

2:58:16I I just want to be clear. What what Commissioner Starkey is is doing with her bear in mind you as elected officials in your capacity have a lot more flexibility than myself or my my team. When they go out because they are paid government employees, the advocacy is is it's it's certainly different. And so, you know, for example, if if um you know Amy comes out to one of your events, she She's she's strictly there presenting the information. You're moderating a session with your constituents. And that's that's a different that's a

2:58:46different story from education and advocacy. When we do a town hall that is sponsored by Pasco County and we're saying that it's a Pasco County sponsored event, You guys, you may be there, you may not be there, you may be two of you may be there, but it it becomes a a Pasco County paid event. And I think that was sort of the impetus of where David and I had the concerns about paid staff. in a fine line between advocacy and education. You saw that in the Largo. There was accusations that staff were advocating versus educating. And I get great probably

2:59:17a lot of great media coverage. And of course who wouldn't who wouldn't like that? I don't know what the impact to staff or what what the ramifications were internally on that. That's my concern. I'm not suggesting that we don't support staff would clearly support any sort of town hall that you and your individual commission aspect we want to support. One hundred percent. I'm just saying that a county sponsored one starts to walk that line that we were concerned about.

2:59:40So what if we tried this? What if you put something together? As the presentation. And then we could actually take that, put it on the screen. Show it to people as it's This is what staff says. Staff doesn't even have to come out. And then the commissioner can have their their own dialogue with whoever

2:59:57is. I'm all for getting if if you want materials we have those ready for you. We can provide that a hundred percent.

3:00:02I I think maybe I don't know if we wanna do a slideshow or just a video, but

3:00:07Slides would certainly be faster and easier.

3:00:09Okay. Alright, Commissioner Starkey.

3:00:12You were um I thought we talked about staff or someone going out to the Rotary Clubs, et cetera. Did that happen?

3:00:19Well no, that's kind of part of this, is how aggressive did we want and then we ended up landing on on workshops or I'm sorry these town halls. And that would be the same question is is do you do you want staff to do that? I mean, I haven't been invited. I mean that's one thing, uh, versus ad actively pinging. That's That's the that's the question here.

3:00:38Uh you know what I'm wondering if we ask the chambers to sponsor? A budget night. Then it's not the county

3:00:46doing it.

3:00:49Well to be clear, even if they're sponsoring it, staff is going there and you're paying staff to go there, it still implicates a statute if they're advocating.

3:00:58No, no, no, not the not to talk about Amendment three. To talk about our budget.

3:01:04And where the money goes. I I tell you that my my first group in Trinity Odessa They were fascinated. and loved it and thanked me. And um as a matter of fact I had some people that had to leave that meeting in the middle of her presentation are coming tomorrow night because they wanted to hear to learn more about how we do our budget. Because they're reading stuff online. And it's not true. Do you have that taped? No?

3:01:32Do you have it on social media where we share it?

3:01:34No, I don't do social media.

3:01:37Fine, don't share.

3:01:41I hate such went there and just Did the presentation about the budget and then filmed it and then made it available.

3:01:51I mean Amy just really gave a great p budget presentation just now, high level on our budget.

3:02:02Right, that's what

3:02:02she did at my meeting.

3:02:03Okay.

3:02:08on our budget. And then you get questions about that. And then if Amy responds to this question, somebody might argue she's advocating against Amendment 3 or I mean I also wouldn't necessarily have a problem if if it was a static presentation at these town halls were interest presenting the budget. It even if it was the information on our website about Amendment 3, that's also permissible. Where you get into a problem is when you open it up to dialogue.

3:02:39Because the second you can op open it up to dialogue And they're asking staff questions, and staff's gonna feel like they need to respond to those questions, it may be hard for them to do you're putting staff on the spot to have to respond to a question in a way that is not advocacy.

3:02:55So if they left right after the presentation and it's on to the commissioner to field the questions from there, is that easier or better? Or is there a problem?

3:03:04I think that's less of a problem, yes. If if the commission's gonna do in all of the

3:03:09Let me ask wait, wait, wait. I'm sorry. I interrupted

3:03:12you.

3:03:13If if if she makes a presentation and someone says, Okay, what happens if your budget's cut by thirty percent? Why is that advocating? That's education. She's not saying if it's a good idea or not. Well

3:03:25I think it depends on if she's opining that a a certain department or depart I raised my hand, jumping in.

3:03:35The the um i if if if she's opining on what services that the board would cut, she's not author I'm I'm not even authorized to really opine on that. That's the decision of the majority of this body to decide. You know, this body could decide to raise taxes. This body could decide to shift funds. You could do you could do a hundred different things. So I I I mean I think we've done a pretty good job of presenting the budget. We present here's the here's the shortfall and then you connect

3:04:06the dots. Uh that's that's kind of what it what it's been. I I where I where I get squirrely is when we start getting into the QA and uh hyp the the hypotheticals. That that becomes a problem. But

3:04:18can't you can't want someone just say we we are not allowed to advocate we can only um you know so we we're showing you where our money is And and how it's divided up and the percentage that's going to law enforcement, percentage for fire, whatever, the unfunded mandates. This is a great opportunity 'cause we'll get a lot of people to come learn about our budget.

3:04:44So we can we can certainly do that, but the I w I do think that the very definition of a town hall implies a public feedback loop.

3:04:51Well call call it what you want. Budget budget meeting. Budget presentation. Budget presentation.

3:04:59That's two.

3:05:00I know. You guys don't like it? No? You don't have to go. No, you're

3:05:08I'm my position has my position hasn't hasn't changed. Last time I The impetus You know, our budget hearings tonight at five fifteen. If we were going to do this, it should have been done When we start this process three months ago, four months ago?

3:05:30I mean I would argue that it's been a very public process to begin with. Now I know that people don't may or may not pay attention to the thing.

3:05:41And I don't think that's that's right.

3:05:44Oh now that no, my my impetus is for them to learn where their money goes.

3:05:51Mr. Oakley. That just thought a lot of times when you're having um these meetings out, even though you're educating the public. You better have security there too 'cause things have changed in this past year that that lead to the wrong people being at some of these meetings They may not have anything to do with what's happening. But they're there only to disrupt the meeting. So you have that one put your Ceph out in front of the public. It's three nays it's

3:06:21four thirty

3:06:22eight.

3:06:23Well we can continue to support in your individual capacity if you would like presentations. We will certainly continue to do that. Thank you.

3:06:30You could invite them to your rotary or chamber Dade City or whatever. Um I did not I did not get to mention this. I'm gonna pass these out again. Oh you're not done. We were supposed to update these and we never did. Okay, well Paul was working on that side.

3:06:52You have these? I keep these

3:06:52in my classroom.

3:06:57I don't have anything else. I'm gonna bring