Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Okay, we're going to go ahead and get started. I want to take the opportunity to welcome the folks that are here to be a part of a proclamation or just to speak to the commission and we'll do that in just a few minutes. And also the staff, good to have you here as well. And with that, we'll get started with the invocation and that'll be done by, who's up for that? That was you, I think. That's okay. All right, go ahead, Renee.

Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank and praise you for allowing us to be here on this day. We know that the inclement weather has given us hesitation in a lot of areas, but we are still thankful for the rain that you've allowed to flow upon us for our necessary needs. We ask that you send your angels of grace and mercy to those who are sick among us, especially our chairperson. We know that a healing is already on the way, and you've provided him with the ultimate surgeon and the ultimate doctor. We pray especially for those who are within our body, not present here on today, but our experienc

Yes, sir. Thank you for that invocation. Yes, sir. And Commissioner Shearer, if you'll lead us in the pledge.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Yeah. Anytime. Yeah, that was beautiful. Anytime. Yeah, we have four proclamations today, but I'd first like to thank Corporal Thornton, Deputy McSweeney, and Deputy Atkinson for being here today and taking care of us. They always do that with such grace and humility. Thank you for that. And we will get started with our presentations, proclamations. Okay, and first up, we're calling it Remembrance Day Proclamation. It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since 9-11. I can remember five years afterwards thinking that how old were the people have to be that will have heard about that person

So four chiefs decided only one was going to speak.

I don't know what that means. Get them lined up right in the middle and just surround you guys on both sides. And for those of you who are interested Palm Harbor Fire Department and the community have an event at 10 o'clock at Curlew Hills. Palm Harbor Friday. I got it. Thank you. Yep. Tomorrow. Thank you all. All right. Our second proclamation is for Hispanic Heritage Month, and today I'd like to invite Amanda Markowitz, Chief Executive Director of Intercultural Advocacy Institute, Hispanic Outreach Center, Micah Julian, come on up, Director of Advocacy and Support Services, and Liz Mendez, D

Thank you again, ladies. All right, our third proclamation is find the good day. And I'm pleased to welcome several individuals from the Junior League of Clearwater Dunedin who have come to find the good day. Please help me welcome Melina Allison, Junior League Clearwater Dunedin President. Beth Cardenas, Junior League Dunedin Clearwater President-Elect. And Felicia Maranon, she's also a Vice President of Membership.

Thank you for coming today. It's really important and we're dedicated to advancing women's leadership for meaningful community impact through volunteer action, collaboration and training. Find the Good Day, observed annually on the third Thursday of September, encourages individuals to recognize and celebrate the positive aspects of their communities and to take intentional action to uplift others through acts of kindness and service. This day calls upon us to embrace compassion, celebrate community spirit, and inspire meaningful engagement to build more connected, resilient and hopeful commun

Okay, I'd like to have my colleague, Commissioner Latvala, come back on up. Most of our proclamations are special in their own way, and many of them are personal to individuals. This one is special and personal to all of us.

All right, today we have Dr. Brian Hyman and Dr. Yves Gabriel of Morton Plant Hospital to accept the Vascular Disease Awareness Month. Come on up. Vascular disease affects the body's network of arteries and veins and can lead to serious and potentially life-threatening conditions including peripheral artery disease, aortic aneurysms, arterial dissections, blood clots, stroke, and other circulatory disorders. Vascular emergencies can occur suddenly. and may present with symptoms that are difficult to recognize, making awareness, careful evaluation, early diagnosis, and timely treatment critical

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A year ago, if you would have asked me, I would have had no idea what vascular disease or vascular issues were. And if I would have had to guess, I would have just said it was something that would have affected old people. But on a random Monday morning last September, I got a searing pain in my stomach. The only thing that I could compare it to would be a heart attack. But I knew that since it was in my stomach, it was not something related to a heart attack. But my wife took me to the ER. The original ER doctor thought that I was IBS, sent me a couple days later to a

Doctor, don't leave. Doctor. Oh, he's my doctor. Don't leave.

Yeah, hold on just a second. One of the commissioners wants to make a comment.

I just wanted to say how much you are appreciated. I'm not a doctor or a full-time nurse, but when you think about just how small veins and arteries are, and the equipment that we use now, the robotics that are used to be able to have surgeries not be so invasive. But the amount of knowledge and education that you guys go through and then the retraining because you don't stop all of these new procedures are coming out. You're constantly learning. And I will tell you, I've already shared it with Chris and more so with Bianca because I wasn't talking to him. I was chatting with her, but. When I

and and putting and putting all the egos aside and doing what's the right thing to do which is just impressive so again thank you for that as well have a great day guys okay we're going to jump into citizens to be heard and we have a few here so be patient with us and uh... I don't think there's any groups, so most of them will be three. First will be Frank Matowitz. Frank Matowitz. Okay. Could you check on this one, please? I don't know if this is for one of our agenda items or if it's now. We could just double check that one. And then Antoinette Burnham with the Pinellas Coalition for Human

Thank you. Well, you had that time perfectly. All right. Kathy O'Gara will be up now, and then Donald Hudson will be next.

Okay, Donald Hudson followed by Steve Swanson.

Steve Swanson, followed by Linda Stoller, or Stoller.

Linda Stoller, followed by Dale Hennigan.

Joseph Milinar followed by Reverend Ben Atherton.

Reverend Ben Atherton and then Elizabeth Dodd.

Thank you. Elizabeth God, followed by Ash Alonzo.

Thank you. Ash Alonzo, followed by Courtney Prokopas.

Courtney Prokopas, followed by Laura Karas.

Thank you. Laura Karas followed by Kate Provera.

Thank you. Kate Provera, followed by Hickey McNichols, or Nikki McNichols, excuse me. Kate Prevera. Okay, Nicky McNichols.

Thank you for your work with the homeless. Michael Raposa followed by Brandon Spencer.

Thank you, and thank you, Michael, for all your hard work and your organization's hard work on behalf of the homeless. Thank you. Brandon Spencer, followed by David Ballard Geddes, Jr. Good afternoon, Commission.

David Ballard Geddes, Jr., followed by Greg Pound.

Okay, Greg Pound and then Joseph Krasnosolovsky.

Okay, Joseph Krasinowski. Come on up. Joseph, you'll have four minutes.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Hey, Joseph, can you leave? Do you have a copy of that? Do we have a copy of his letter? Okay, we'll get a copy to everybody. Yes, we got it. Thank you, Joseph. Appreciate it. Okay, that's all the... uh... consent excuse me that's all the uh... citizens to be heard we're going on to the consent agenda it looks as though is is darren darvin land here darvin land or darren land nobody here by that name okay then we'll go ahead and take the consent she had a comment on items eleven which i was going to pull off if she was here do i have a motion on the consent please

Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Flowers. Are there any questions or comments on item 13? I'll pull up the card please, voting card. Oh, where are the screens behind me? There they come.

A unanimous vote on item 13. Item 14, please.

Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Flowers. Any comments or questions? Cleaning up the voting card for item 14.

Okay, unanimous on item 14. Anybody in the back being able to fix that item?

motion by commissioner peters and second by commissioner flowers and uh... and you know we're gonna have talk about budgets later but this is an item that is near and dear to my part that we have some funding available for some of the small projects that are in the unincorporated area they are special and they do good work in this particular one is for an african-american cemetery uh... very supportive of it but uh... if you can read the voting card please Mr. Chairman, I just one quick question. Commissioner Scott, excuse me.

Yeah, and I agree with everything that you just said there, but there was a caps item on this and a consumer protection case regarding the contractor hired to restore water access. I was just wondering if there was any resolution, if we knew if there was any resolution to that or not. Oh, so here comes all three.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Audrey. That motion carries unanimously. Go ahead.

Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Flowers. Any comments, questions on item 16? Bring up the voting card, please. Oh, excuse me, hold on.

Commissioner Scott, I apologize. So the initial funding agreement, I'll add in some dates for progress reports. Have we got them? Has any work been completed at this point? Should have had her stay up. Get your steps in.

Okay, thank you. Thank you. Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 17.

Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second. Second by Commissioner Flowers. We have one card, David Ballard Geddes, Jr. Speaking to the issue on the table, please.

Are there any other questions on this item? Jewel, any thoughts on this?

Thank you. Any other questions? Do I have a motion? Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Bring up the voting card, please. It's not coming up on the screen. All right, we'll take a voice vote. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries unanimously. Item 18.

Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Flowers. Any questions?

Commissioner Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I had some questions about this at our work session on this item and the next item. And I had a conversation this morning meeting with Karen and Matt. Very good meeting with them, and I appreciate all of their time on this. I'm gonna be supportive of both of these items. Both of these have non-funding agreements for future years should we decide not to fund them. But I'm just gonna throw this out for a request for a future work session that we really kind of talk about this space and define our mission in it. Because these programs were put in

I think you brought that up at the workshop, and it's a good idea that we kind of take a, you know, kind of a holistic look at all of our social programs and make sure that we're not overlapping, duplicating, or that indeed we want to continue down that path.

And just be realistic about the problems we can solve and what we can't solve.

Okay, yes. Thank you for that clarification. Bring up the voting card for item 18. Motion carries unanimously. Item 19, please.

Okay, motion by Commissioner Peters. Second. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions or comments? We have a, Helen Rimes would like to speak. Good afternoon. Welcome.

Appreciate that partnership, Helen. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Did you have a comment?

Just real quick. This young lady, when I was a city council member in the city of St. Petersburg, she started out as a receptionist. Student intern. Yeah, with the city of St. Pete. And I have watched her rise up through the ranks. And then she moved up to the mayor's office, like as the receptionist when you walk in. And now she's working with Amy Foster through the housing department, homelessness, all of that. So she's doing an absolutely wonderful job. And I can tell you, she doesn't just work in the office anymore. If there's something going on in the community or they need someone's pres

Thank you for that, Commissioner Flowers.

Item 20. Oh, I'm sorry. We had a motion and a second. Bring up the voting card, please. I'll get us all in trouble.

Yeah, a motion carries unanimously. Item 20.

Okay, thank you. Will the board please? Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second. Second by Commissioner Peters. Any comments, questions? Print the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 21.

Second. Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions or comments on item 21? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 22.

Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any comments or questions on item 22? Voting card please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 23.

Motion by Commissioner Nowicki, second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions or comments? I'm sure none, since we did all this individually. Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. And boy, I had to bite my tongue on that one because I'm not happy.

Item 23 withdrawn. Anything else under county reports? No, nothing else today. Thank you. County administrator reports. Item 25.

Okay. Item 26. Who's handling that one? I'll turn it over to... Move approval. Okay. A motion by Commissioner Latvala and second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any comments or questions? Bring up the voting card, please. There we go. Item carries unanimously. Item 27. We have a motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Nowicki. Comments or questions on item 27? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 28, before we go around the room, I think I'd like to go ahead and take up the county attorney contract negotiations if we could. I think we sent out the informati

So, yes. Mr. Chairman, I just want to say good job. Thank you. I agree with, you know, with the proposal. And if we need a motion, I'm happy to make one. Yeah, that'd be great. I'll make a motion.

Motion by Commissioner Scott, second by Commissioner Flowers. Any questions or comments? Okay, then I would say all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries unanimously. And is the sick county attorney to be still here? There you go. Come on up. Come on up. I just want to, again... The larger board, which is made up of county commissioners and our constitutionals unanimously selected Don to be our next county attorney. Very proud of that action that we took. And we spent a few weeks. I've dragged a little bit, but sorry about that. But we are we are negotiated, I think, a very

and thank you to jewel white for her mentorship and friendship over so many years yeah well uh we're glad to have you um and um all of the things that you've brought in general to your position but also the dogged um work that you did on the on the raise uh contract negotiations i couldn't thank you more for that close tough scrutinizing work that you did. I'm very proud of that work. It didn't come to pass, but it was no fault of this board nor of you. Thank you for protecting the residents of Pinellas County, which is what your job is. Thank you. Again, congratulations. Thank you.

I know Jules is not leaving anytime soon, but I want to... Yeah, let's give him a clap. Applause I also want to thank Jewel. She's just done an outstanding job in her position, and you've done a great job mentoring him, so thank you. Yeah, thanks, Commissioner. What's that?

That's a good thing. Okay. She keeps us all out of jail. All right, we're going to go ahead and go around the room, and we'll start with Commissioner Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let's see, yesterday we had a very long for Pinellas Day. We had a work session followed by a regular meeting and the work session really focused on the uh what the founding documents for regional mpo might look like so we had a very robust discussion about all that gave wit a lot of a lot of good feedback so stay tuned more more to come on that but should it should it happen the new time frame would be july of 2028 to have a regional mpo informed and functioning. And then we went from there straight to PSTA for our first budget meeting there, budget hearing. And we re

Ripped the old house down and built a brand new one in 30 days. I know, amazing. It was amazing, right? Also had the honor of presiding over County Road 1 Honorary Designation Ceremony in memory of recognition of Sergeant Nicholas A. Flowers, native son of Pinellas County. Went to Palm Harbor University High School. An Army intelligence specialist who served our country in Iraq, Korea, and Germany, and he was a patriot. May all who travel on that section of County Road 1 remember his contribution to our community and beyond. Enjoyed Representative Ana Polina Luna's remarks at the Baylor Women'

Thank you chair. Um, the only new business I have, you know, I sent everybody an email last week talking about the flock camera, a license plate reader resolution. Um, you know, I'm happy to, you know, entertain and move that forward today. Um, though, if it's, you know, the kind of the will of this board to wait for the sheriff to come and do a presentation, you know, I'd like to get a list, uh, of the sheriff's, uh, inventory of assets. Um, of all the tools and devices that he has to fight crime. I support law enforcement. I support ICE and DHS too for the people that spoke earlier. So I jus

I'm sure that the sheriff stands ready to have that dialogue. I'm sure he has a pretty good handle on the tools that he has available to him, whether they're

Yeah, I mean, for me, I mean, it would be like a list of all assets used to fight crime. vehicles of all modes of transportation i don't know if they have robotic dogs that go after people uh mobile command centers it's a facial recognition uh big operation that's really um that's pretty tall list to ask for the sheriff i'd be happy to talk to him about it and forward that to him but yeah

Yeah, I don't know how robust that is, that list, but I'm sure that there's a general category of things that he could bring to us that give a sense of the scope of his tools that he has at his disposal. Okay, for a general category of assets, you know, so you don't have to get into the details about the number of revolvers he has or the number of, you know, but that we have every sheriff has every deputy has a revolver, you know, every deputy has, you know, that kind of thing, but.

so we can just say that he has forensic tools he doesn't have to tell us all of the forensic tools okay i think that otherwise we might be here for a couple of hours before we start talking about it but i do think the idea of the scope of the of the what he has at his disposal is that is certainly at his he knows it pretty good thank you and will and i think does anybody else have any comments on that uh... sure uh...

Honestly, I'm looking forward to seeing the sheriff. I don't need a special list of his tools at his hand that he needs to talk about. That's not something that I'd be requesting. I'm just looking forward to hearing an update on Flock. There are specific questions I have on it, but moving forward on your proposal on the ordinance, I would like to wait until we talk to the sheriff. I can wait 30 days. I don't think it's going to be a big deal. Yeah, it'll be, I think, the first workshop in October. I just don't want to add. I don't need to see a big giant list of things that he has.

That's why I don't want to get into all the details. He can say generally what he has at his disposal, which is significant.

Yeah, generally, just nothing too encumbrance. We'll keep it to a page or less.

Again, I think the primary thing is to talk about the technology that referred to often as flock, but there's two or three manufacturers of that technology and how it's used. Again, if you listen to his press conference, I think I listened to it. Most people listen to it. There'll probably be some of that and maybe a little bit more interaction that we can have with having the sheriff here. So I look forward to that dialogue.

Okay. Commissioner Scott, did you have something?

Yeah, just briefly. Yeah, I definitely want to hear from the sheriff. I want to give him the courtesy and respect as an independently elected constitutional officer before we just pass a resolution or something like that. So I definitely want to wait and talk with the sheriff. Agreed. And I don't need a big list of stuff. He's got a lot of stuff. We know it. Right.

Well, that'll be less than a page. I've got a lot of stuff. Anybody else have a comment on this? So we're going to go ahead and move and have that workshop topic and get into that technology and how it's used and the truth and what some people might not understand about it. We'll see. We'll have that conversation. So. All right.

Anything else? Yeah, no, I mean, just again, you know, reiterate, you know, I called the sheriff before I, you know, emailed everybody because I do have respect for the sheriff. So I don't want that to be, you know, misconstrued, you know, as an independent elected. I gave him a call and reached out to him and sent him a copy of the resolution ahead of time to give him that respect. And we talked multiple times on the phone. so you know i'm looking forward to a robust conversation and um you know to hear his more perspective and and again don't want to take away anything from this but you know

Yeah, I did attend the Besties event, and I meant to bring the award that the best place to take your dog was Fort DeSoto. And I apologize I forgot to bring it with me, but I'll bring it to our next meeting. And so it was a great event. A lot of people got celebrated for all the great work they do in tourism. And so thrilled to see that Pinellas County won one. How great is that? And I've been meeting with the community, a bunch of mayors, and getting some updates and Kind of their thoughts on you know how the city is doing after the storms and and you know what they're thinking budgetarily in

Mike Lee. Thank you, Chair. I don't have too much. I've really, the last six weeks, as Chris and Barry know, I've been focused on a budget. So I've been working hard on that. But I know that we all have in this important season. And we've worked, one of us is on another taxing authority of some time. So I appreciate everybody digging in on the budgets and working hard on them. I did yesterday. The Fort Pinellas meeting was long, but we got a lot done. The things that I think are very important are the special act committee that we were on. I think we've made some good decisions on how to give

Yeah, so anyway, the hard work that we all put on these budgets is making progress, and so thank you for the work that you do in other places. So that's my report.

Well, and the commissioners that were at MPO and PSTA, thank you yesterday. That is a long day. So anyway, appreciate that. Commissioner Flowers?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So all of us that with each other at the besties awards and we did have a lot of fun just joshing each other, but also celebrating what I really enjoyed about it is to see the restaurants and businesses that. have been able to get themselves back up on their feet. And now they're getting an award for the service. And it seems to be quite competitive in that room. But I had a really good time and I got a chance to meet some people that I didn't know. I had an opportunity, of course, to attend the Forward Pinellas Workshop, as well as the actual board meeting, and that was

Thank you also very much for the time to share. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Latvella. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the proclamation today in honor of my doctors. And I look forward soon to us doing one in honor of your doctors once you conquer your battle that you're waging. uh... we love you uh... there at least i love you know that i can't speak for everybody else uh... as for my reports uh... as has been said i uh... was also at the besties award awards and i had the honor of presenting some awards along with you miss sherman uh... i presented uh... the best casual eats

Thank you, Commissioner. So yeah, I too attended the Besties. Brian Lowack and his team pulled it up, beautiful event off, and it was just a lot of fun seeing, and I think Commissioner Flowers commented on, just the folks that had gotten their businesses going again and were being considered for it, whether they won it or not. It was an exciting evening to recognize those folks, but they had a Besties in so many different categories, it was wonderful. But anyway, it was a great evening, a lot of fun. I kind of sat in the back and listened to the MPO work session yesterday, and I think it was a

To that point, Mr. Chair, and I like that idea. I was at, I've been to Sprouse Horizon Park a couple times in Pinellas Park. And the new thing now in these little league fields, And Little League Complexes are having tiki bars and restaurants and stuff like that. And from what I've heard is Pinellas Park is making a decent amount of money doing stuff like that. And so if we're... if we're looking at like naming different facilities, could we also look at doing things like that at some of our, like also doing that at some of our facilities? Like we're adding like a restaurant slash like beverag

I don't know. That may be kind of dangerous.

Well, that's what I was. That was my question when I was in Pinellas park was these, you get these little league parents that are, and especially like travel ball. Cause they're very competitive, but that's like the thing now is that they go and you know, So now they can get sloshed when they yell at the umpires.

Well, yeah, maybe the bar component might be looked at a little differently than the food component. Yeah, Commissioner Scott.

a for three hundred million dollars or less in a very good campus uh... uh... will only only on the corner like a little small that yeah i think that's a real good idea current policies is like for naming a building or whatever the person needs to be deceased five years and have made a significant contribution but i think that we could certainly look at expanding that uh... and do it for a time frame like with the mahafi you know that was associated for a number of years uh... with Duke Energy at one point, and so they paid for naming rights for that period of time, and then when that time wen

Well, and to Commissioner Scott's point, I still think that we should look at some commercialization of our county building, like what Largo is doing. I mean, they just got a sports bar from Tampa to move in. To move in? Yeah, I think they're up to three restaurants now.

Listen, as long as they have food that's not that food that's in the vending machine across the street, I'm good. Well, maybe we'll do trucks outside, Barry. Uh-uh. Well, we could do that once every three months. I like that idea, though, a nice restaurant or something, because, you know, when you're working, you may want a good hot meal or whatever, or...

it seems like largo is making it more of like a destination which i don't know why people would want to go hang out at city hall but like they have more like it's like more of like a community hangout spot which i don't know that our facility will be like that but if we add like a chick-fil-a for instance or Something like that.

Relax, Blaine. We're okay. All right. Anything else before we take what looks like about an hour and a half break before we come back for budget tonight? We're adjourned.

We're going to go ahead and get started with the public hearing portion of the commission meeting. And we will start with item 29.

Oh, okay. That's why I have Jayden Rivera, but... Okay, so we'll get to that in just a minute. Commissioners, any comments, questions? Move approval from Commissioner Nowicki. Second from Commissioner Scott. And we do have a couple of speakers, so we'll go to the person that's preregistered online. I have Jayden Rivera, so...

This is your opportunity to express your thoughts and comments on the issue.

I just wanted to see your guys. Hold on. Hold on just a minute. Uh, commissioner flowers, young man.

Um, if you, um, if you will go to our website and look me up, my name's Renee flowers. And if you can email me, I'll be happy to answer your questions for you tomorrow online. Um, I think you were intending to call in during the public comment piece to ask this question. Um, but yeah, um, I just know about the class is doing the project. That's all. So, um, so thank you so much for being involved in the process and for hanging around and cause you could have been doing something else at six o'clock. But if you could look me up under Pinellas, uh, county government.com. Pinellas.gov, I'm sorry.

Thank you for calling in. All right. Okay. We do have Laura McDonald who is available for questions, but she doesn't need to speak. So if we have questions, she's available. Mary Summers from representing Bay Care Hospitals is here. She's welcome to come up. You have three minutes. And then Anna Rivas is next.

Thank you, Mary. Appreciate it. Um, Anna Rivas. Good evening.

Thank you, Anna. Appreciate your comments. Okay, I don't have any other cards. We've got a motion and a second. Any other comments, questions? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion passes unanimously. Item 30. Oh. Now, everybody be patient with me tonight because there's a script and you've got different paths to go down depending on where we're heading. So this is agenda item 30. Can the clerk please read the title of this item?

Has any correspondence been received regarding the tentative millages and tentative budgets?

Okay, and good evening. Tonight's public hearing is the first of two public hearings for the consideration and adoption of the fiscal year 27 millages and budgets. Before we get started, I'll walk through the sequence of events for tonight. The county administrator will present changes to the proposed budget since it was originally presented to the board on August 11th. The county administrator will provide a budget overview presentation that incorporates these changes. We will accept public comment on the following property tax levies and budgets by the following tax authority classification.

Thank you. We have the Board of County Commissioners as taxing authority for the BCC countywide, dependent special districts, and MSTUs as previously referenced. I will now proceed with the public hearings.

Thank you. Are there any questions from the board on the presentation? Yeah, Commissioner Flowers.

Chair, Chris, for the sheriff's contract with PI, is that for the officers that are there for security, or is that the officers that are there for security plus the hanger for his helicopter?

Any other questions? We will now continue this public hearing as taxing authority for the BCC countywide dependent special districts and MSTU levies as previously referenced by taking public comment from citizens who wish to be heard regarding our fiscal year 27 millages and budgets. And I do have a card from Shaquina Reese uh... you're welcome to come and you have three minutes to address the commission good evening

Thank you. I'm looking for my place that I left. 26. Thank you. Or 25. 25. At this time, we'll take public comments from those who have preregistered online.

Okay. Okay, we are now at the part about board discussion on any changes, a motion and a vote for any changes. So... We are open for discussion. Just to kind of wrap up where we were last week when we left our budget workshop, with the form that we have in this form here that talked about the yellow and gold together, those are the recommendations from administration and represent a 51.4%

So I have a question about the box culverts. So if we were to go to that millage rate, remove that millage number three? So the box coverts, is that preventing flooding? Is that what that's about? Kelly, could you educate me on the box coverts?

No, I understand all that, but I do know when Milton came, There's a lot of talk about the culverts weren't big enough. The culverts were clogged. And we were, I think, an F. Were we an F at one point? So we were an F. We're now a B. The potential on that is, am I talking about the right culverts?

And many of them contributed to the funding in areas that have never been funded. contributed to the flooding in areas that have never flooded before. Is that correct?

And same thing in that Seminole area where it flooded, where it's never flooded before, Alligator Creek, weren't a lot of those covert issues by Alligator Creek?

So I was driving on Dumie today, and that road has decreased. It wasn't this bad six months ago, and now all of a sudden it's terrible. So I don't know what's happening. So when you look at core function of government, and this is my concern, because originally I was all for getting rid of this third millage. But then when I saw that it was going to be box culverts, But that's one of the number one reasons we're flooding in non-flood zones, right? And in not high flood zone risk areas, because Seminole, where they flooded, wasn't a real high flood zone risk area. And because of the age of thes

Are you talking about the half that they've recommended or the additional?

I think it's the additional. This additional, is that what I'm talking about where the culverts were going to get cut?

the part of the millage down there down in the blue it's 651. yeah the the amount and that would be um well it's actually more it's more than that it would be the additional one and a half million of the millage okay so so i mean because it's core function i'm really i really have heartburn with this one and because it's something that contributes to flooding i really have heartburn with this one And I'm not comfortable eliminating something like that at this time. You know, next year, if Amendment 3 goes through, we're going to be losing core functions of government, I believe, by the time th

So Kelly. I have an example today just it's kind of goes across some of the infrastructure issues related to. Well, the name of the street is Dunbridge Drive.

They said this is an unknown street to the county, right? Clearly, when you drive down that street, there's been some utility work done from what I've been told. uh... but the road itself is a disaster i mean i i mean it's been paid for the dead you know where the inundations were uh... but it really is it's way beyond so i said well have you found out what like where it is on the on the schedule and i said it was not even on the schedule to me that's that's not what we're talking about here these are that those are the first two additional millages covering the local that they were able to co

So those are the ones we took from an F to a C?

I was talking about the overall rating that we have.

Well, I'm going to continue my story. So there is a culvert that goes into some land that we own behind these houses, and it doesn't look like it's in great condition. It connects the road flooding to this open area. And when I looked at it, I said, well, where's the pond back there? There's no pond. It just kind of goes into this area. Area and yeah, create well, I don't know if it's wetland, but anyway, it creates wetland for sure. And and it creates a lot of issues and we're not taking care of that land. So we have. To use hyperbole, a gazillion. bunches of Brazilian peppers that have actua

This area is not acceptable in my mind. So to me, again, we don't have to bring it up to an A. We don't have to bring it up to a B or whatever the ratings that you do. But when you have... the different elements that are in that property, the different flooding, the different Brazilian peppers, the different road conditions, it speaks to a problem. If we don't have the funding for that stuff right now, getting back to the core issues or core functions of government, that concerns me. And I just went out there to look at it today for the first time. And I wasn't sure what the name of the street

Well, I would argue that when we go back to talk to our residents next year about the penny, that instead of 50 or whatever percentage we're using on infrastructure, that it's higher.

You haven't touched this street either, the one I was just mentioning. Sorry, Kelly.

But again, I worry about how we cluster streets so they all work in the same area. This is like streets all by itself, and it doesn't cluster with anything.

and so it becomes a major project versus a resurfacing and it takes longer to do again if we let things go that's what happens we get more expensive streets correct so those f-rated roads that we're talking about are those roads probably yeah um i didn't mean to i just wanted to bring that example because i just again it was refreshing my mind from from this morning so uh commissioner scott

yes thank you mister i agree with uh... with uh... commissioner peter's uh... i've been you know giving a lot of thought about that third millage rate there and and kind of going back and forth in my mind how i feel about that but uh... i am really concerned i think we should wait before we get rid of that until we get some certainty on aloft. I really think that that's important. But going back to her comments about core function of government, which I totally completely agree with, what is not a core function of government is social action funding. It's completely discretionary. I just do no

On that point, It was a $1.7 million budget for old requests and some new requests, correct?

So that would fund ongoing. I think what Commissioner Scott is referring to is the $667,000.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, I totally agree with Commissioner Scott There are many worthwhile nonprofits in Pinellas County including the folks that are here tonight But I don't believe that It's our function and our body of government to fund them. The state has a whole heck of a lot more money than we do. The state routinely funds different nonprofits and different organizations through their budget. And also, nonprofits do a lot of fundraising. And I know times are tight, and I imagine they're tight in the fundraising world, but our residents are also facing you know rising cost of gas their risi

Just one other thing I forgot. So there may be another potential $100,000 savings as well. When I mentioned at one of our previous meetings about the $1.7 million of discretionary funds that we provide to the Public Defender's Office, 111 uh 130 000 of that is for 10 dedicated apartments at the redwood apartment complex through the panels housing authority that that lease expires on december 31st and um in conversations with the public defender that they may not be needed going forward or would be okay with those with that going away

that would save us an additional hundred thousand dollars next year but i do want to have some further discussion with her about that and can bring that forward at our next meeting so commissioner flowers thank you mr chair so i am going to appeal to the better angels that sing because um the discussions that we've had going forward um up until tonight unless i misread the discussions we were only really talking about not awarding the full 1.17, but staying with the 667,000 and change, staying with that for this year, and it wouldn't be anymore after that. As I shared in our last meeting, it i

My only comment to that night, you know, makes me, makes my heart really hurt when I, when I hear about the number of kids who are living homeless, uh, right now. I mean, they're living in their cars, they're living kids going to school every day. Um, what worries me more about it is that we, uh, We, not all of us sitting here today, but this county government has agreed in principle to be a partner with these organizations. We've agreed to that. I mean, whether we should have or not, we did. And again, this is the only difference I had last year at the budget when we at the last minute defund

Thank you, Chair. Question for clarification goes back to option three. That is not included in the millage rate that you're proposing, right? This would be in addition to a cut?

But the millage that you've proposed does not include the items that are on this remove millage number three that Commissioner Peters was talking about, right? No, it's not. So it's not in the millage.

It says number three. I couldn't read what you're saying. I can't read that far.

Okay, so we're really talking about $667,000. That's correct. Okay. I am of the opinion of Commissioner Peters. I don't want to mess with our drainage system, so keeping that one out is fine with me. And I don't know if you all noticed earlier today, but I actually serve on the Pinellas Safety Coordinating Council. We heard. Yeah, and I got to tell you, there's a myriad of... Programs out there. They're helping the homeless and it is Commissioner Scott brought up It is confusing about about who's even in charge all these programs and and I and I got I just I just think it That I don't want to

You don't want the drainage part cut. Right, not the 651, but you are for the social action funding. Right. Okay. So you have... I've heard from six people. Three to three. Yeah, so there you go.

There you go. I think if those organizations knew that this conversation was going to happen, they would have been here tonight. Absolutely. It wasn't really on the table.

I know. I'm just saying. It's just, yeah. Well, this is what I was talking about, that sudden change. Commissioner Nowicki.

Thank you, Chair. It's an interesting position to be in. I think I have an angel and a devil on my shoulder, so I'm split on the issue.

And that is Pastor Flowers. That's good advice. But we'll see if we can get to saving that, but maybe making a cut somewhere else if I could get some support in other places, since that's what we're asking for now. How much money are we still putting aside for the new county campus?

And so those last items on the blue graph of the cuts to get to the full rollback, what do those add up to?

You're talking about you're not talking about you're just not talking the green. You're talking the blue.

Well, the just the last line to get to including the sheriff. Well, I mean, obviously, you know, we don't want to take away any more tools from the sheriff. So we're not going to touch that. Yeah.

There's about two million there in the blue.

I'm okay with keeping the social action funding if we can decrease the amount that we're putting aside. Because when is it due for the bids for the new county campus?

I misspoke. I apologize. The bids for the downtown Clearwater land, when is that the due date for those bids?

Yeah, I mean, because we may get in a scenario where we get no bids. You know, we'll know by our second budget hearing if we get bids or not. But, I mean, I think if we get no bids, that's going to dramatically change where we're at. budget-wise and what we're putting aside if we get no offers for the land. So again, I'm in favor of keeping the social action funding, but I would like to decrease what we're putting into the new county campus, putting aside that money for it.

Or more. Or more. Because that's not a core, to a couple commissioners' points, is that, I mean, that's really not a core function of government. so uh... that might be what i call a great area i live in the great having housing for for folks is pretty important yeah i mean but we don't know i mean we don't know you know we don't know what amendment three is going to do you don't know how much the account of campus is going to cost you don't know if we're going to get any bids on the downtown clearwater land it's been active we'll know next friday we're going to

Because I think the social action, I mean, I think it's a small amount in the overall large budget, like the yak, you know, if that's on the chopping block, I'm happy to sacrifice the full 5,000 for my office budget, but maybe we won't need to get that desperate. But, you know, so I'm in favor of keeping the social action funding only if we can find the money somewhere else. like in the reserves we're setting aside to reduce that amount. But I happily yield to my colleagues.

Commissioner Peters was for it. You guys both?

So that is an interesting proposal. And I like the conversation. So I agree with our angel over there. Because if you look at the seven agencies that got funded, the first one is for veterans. And Florida's the most veteran friendly state in the country. I am not okay with putting our veterans out on the street and not giving them the mental health services that they're getting at their program. I haven't seen the measurable outcomes that we're getting in these that we didn't get the grant applications. We don't know what the measurable outcomes are. So we don't know how good they are. But one

It was Jamie Bennett that led the homeless. It was. Jamie Bennett led the homeless.

But I know you hired Dr. Marbot, I think. Yes. I know the county did, and I think Clearwater did as well. And so the reason we got into this business is because it was causing economic decline. It was costing us enormous amount of money in the jails. And children and people didn't have a place to be. And so that's why we invested in this. So I don't want to lose the history on why we did this. But I also am not okay with pulling the rug out from them without notice. And so I would like to go with what we talked about before. Don't do any new funding. Give them notice that this is the last year

Okay. We've got two Chris's that want to speak. And I think Renee too.

And that was where I was going to come to when it was my turn to ask if that was a possibility. Because I know, like I said, I know that around this table we have had the discussion about phasing out social action funding. But in doing it that way, it would give those organizations time to reconfigure their capacity for services and if they need to look at scaling back or whatever you know the situation would be because it wouldn't just be pinellas county government if amendment three passes next year it's not going to be just pinellas county it's going to be all the municipalities everybody w

And I want to thank you for articulating what I was trying to say. Thank you.

So Commissioner, I don't know which Chris is up for. I just wanted, I don't need to talk. I'll support that. Okay. Commissioner LaValle, sorry.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for your suggestion, Commissioner Flowers, and I would support that as well. To Commissioner Nowicki's point about our Clearwater property and with the deadline being next week, are you all seeing a lot of interest in this property?

we were looking at the millage for 600,000 and we said we're gonna keep that. We're gonna keep the one and a half reduction only. And then we looked at the social action funding, but we're not gonna do that. So we're gonna find it in the one time reserve level. That's where we're gonna find the 600,000.

I think I'm seeing nodding heads. Would that be 57%?

No, I'm saying to what you just asked, you have enough nodding heads here.

How much time do you need, OMB director? How much time do you need?

Can I, before we do that, I would make sure this conversation is done because I know Brian had some other thoughts out there and I don't know if you have more thoughts out there. So we might recess and then say, hey, we're not done yet. Sorry, Mr. Chair, but I was reading the room and going, I don't think we're done yet.

Okay, good. So, again, and I would like to know what that millage rollback, now what the rollback is. It was 51.8%, 51.4%. Now it's going to be different.

I think 57.2 if my math is right, but I could be off. Last year I was right on the button. You have a doctorate.

She's like a doctor doctor, not the pastor doctor.

Some pastors are doctors, but she's a real doctor.

But I'll pass the tray if you want me to.

The collection, the collection. Commissioner Nowicki. Chair, I don't know if Commissioner Scott had something first. Okay. Thank you. So with, you know, conversation of the reserves, I mean, I don't know if we can adopt in our budget a reserve level that is lower to even achieve a greater reduction. When you mean that wouldn't have an impact on millage? Well, yes, it would if we took if we lowered the reserve rate to 12 percent. and took the money difference between where we're at in 12% and applied it to the full rollback.

Remember, we're trying to touch match one-time expenditure with one-time. Recurring funds. Not recurring. So this is why the social action funding for just one more year meets the test because it's a one-year, one-time.

Well, I don't know. Okay, to that point, yes, I understand, but I don't know if we still can set a reserve policy to be lower and to just free up. Our reserve policy is 20.8%.

And then our... Is bond debt? A bond is still debt though, right? It is. We'd still have debt.

We're going to have 25 million, 20, 25 million a year debt going out for however many years we're looking at, 30 years, 25 years.

I guess my concern and I don't know if I could articulate it enough and I'll just maybe try to articulate it one more time and then maybe they had enough time for the numbers or recess but he's not working on the numbers yet i guess my concern is you know what i was talking about the downtown clearwater is that if we get no bids hypothetically you know just to put on everybody's radar i mean the whole point was selling this land to put down a significant amount of payment for the new county campus so i mean what would you know i think we'd have like budget

Well, that's what I wanted to give some more clarification on that color. I didn't know about a short-term note and stuff. I didn't.

The good thing about bonds as well is when the interest rate goes down, you can always do a refinancing of those bonds and pay a lower interest rate so that when you're making that payment, whatever that is, you're actually paying the loan off sooner rather than later when your interest rate's reduced. With bonds, you can go back to the market on that.

There's always somebody willing to help refinance your bond. Certainly. It's all it is is money. Certainly. But anyway. Okay. Any other additions before we take a 10-minute break? 10-minute break. 12 and a half. All right, we negotiated a 12 and a half minute break.

All right, we're going to take a... Before he calculates, I just want to make sure you guys know that I really appreciate your suggestions and your thoughts and your reconsideration. We're getting there. People who aren't here certainly appreciate the voices.

So we are going to, see that clock up there? I'm gonna say quarter to eight. There's your 14 minutes. There you go. Quarter to eight, we'll resume the meeting.

Okay, so we have to make some corrections. We're back on at the meeting. We resumed our budget hearing. Go ahead, county administrator.

Oh yes, OK. That was going to be my question, because that was a large.

So what we're showing is a 57.9% of the full rollback.

Okay, got it. Okay. So where are we on this?

I would like to make a motion. Don's saying wait, wait, wait, wait.

Okay, so I'd like to make the motion to accept the changes as proposed. Do I read the millage rate we're proposing?

So we have a motion by Commissioner Peters and a second by Commissioner Flowers. Okay. To amend the budget. To amend the budget. Right. Okay. So as proposed. As proposed. Right. As amended. Sorry. Yeah, not the original proposal. Right. I understand. Okay. As the proposed amendment. Correct. Yeah. Okay. All right.

So I know what the changes were. So the changes were to take the 667,000 from social action, out that money, out of the millage rate, out of the general fund millage rate, and then put it into one time fund reserves. That we would spend that through reserves so it would effectively change the millage rate by 667,000. making the new changed recommended millage rate to 4.4989.

Got it. So that's what we made the motion for was to make the changes. We had a second. That's good.

So, yeah. Do I need to say that again then?

I am very clear that that's what our motion was, is to accept all the changes recommended, including the six. From social action, so including the recommended changes plus the 606 social action money, so yes.

And do we have to get into the reserve level? Not yet. Nothing, okay. So we have a motion and we have a second. Are we voting on the millage now?

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously.

I make a motion to modify the proposed millage to 4.4989.

So I have a motion. Second. And a second by Commissioner Flowers. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Now we're right up to item 27.

Okay, so 27, you said that's where we're at? Now that we've received all public comment, no, we already did that, right? No, no. The board must now consider resolutions to the tentative millage rates and tentative budgets. As stated earlier, we will adopt the tentative millage rates and tentative budgets in the following sections. BCC countywide first, and secondly, dependent special districts and MSTUs. I will now ask Communications to display Schedule A as amended that will be referenced during the readings and votes and ask the County Administrator to proceed with the readings.

Okay, the resolutions adopting the millages and budgets for the dependent districts and MSTU requires a unanimous vote. If a unanimous vote is not received for the dependent special districts and MSTUs, we will need to adopt each separately. 32, Barry.

A motion by Commissioner Flower, second by Commissioner Latvala. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously.

Motion by Commissioner Flower, second by Commissioner Scott. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously.

Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Scott. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. recommend adoption of the tentative budgets as amended motion by commissioner flowers second by commissioner peter should just all in favor say aye any opposed motion carries unanimously okay we can take down schedule a and item item 43. Okay. With that, unless the board members have any further comments, the first public hearing of the fiscal year 27 millages and budget is closed.

Chris, you and your staff, thank you. Even with a few more minutes, we get it right. So without further ado, this meeting is adjourned.