Board of County Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Yeah, public comment made last longer than the item.

Keep going. So thanks for checking in. My pleasure. How are we doing, sir? Good, thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Thank you. I didn't look at you.

All right.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good rainy couple of days we've had, which is well received by the folks at Tampa Bay Water and all of us, of course. But anyway, welcome to our August 25th commission meeting. And glad to have you here today. If you're online, welcome as well. And we will get started with our invocation and our pledge. Commissioner Shearer, please.

Dear gracious God our Father, we thank you for the gift of this day, for the community we share, for the privilege and responsibility of serving our neighbors. As we begin this meeting, we ask you to grant wisdom to those who lead, clarity to those who speak, and understanding to all who listen. Where there are difficult decisions, give us discernment. Where there are differences of opinion, give us patience and respect. And in all that is decided here, help us to remember the people whose lives are affected by the work we do. Teach us to seek what is just, to love mercy, to walk humbly, and to use whatever authority and influence we have for the good of others. We ask your blessing upon our community, upon those who serve it, and upon all who call it home. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right.

We have one proclamation today, and before I do that, I wanted to again welcome and thank Corporal Clyde Thornton, Deputy Mike Winnick, Deputy Kevin McSweeney, and Deputy Jeff Atkinson for being here and taking care of us as they do every meeting. So thank you, gentlemen. Absolutely. Thank you. All right, today I get to talk to, about a building department, Appreciation Day, probably one of the departments that I spend a lot of time with, with Kevin McAndrew and company, and always appreciate the work that they do on so many levels. As changes occur in technology, as changes occur in their business, they always stand up and do the job for our residents, Even sometimes our residents don't realize you're doing a job for them, but I appreciate the safety that you all look out for all of them every single day. So with that, Jim McMillan, our building official, please come on up. Cami Vassar, deputy building official. Robert Dryden, customer operations manager. Bo Cunningham. Building Inspector, Mark Roberts, Plans Examiner, Barbara Metcalf, Permit Technician, and Torsha Sneed, Flood Desk. And did I forget anybody? Okay, good.

Good to have you here.

I'm gonna read this proclamation and then you all can decide amongst yourselves who would like to say a few words. You're chosen, huh? Okay, all right. And if somebody else wants to, you can join in as well. The safety of our homes, businesses, and public infrastructure relies on the dedicated professionals of the building department, including building officials, inspectors, plans examiners, and permit technicians. Florida's unique coastal environment and vulnerability to severe weather you've had that in the last couple of years, require rigorous construction standards, and our local building departments ensure these standards are met through strict enforcement of the building, Florida Building Code. And building safety professionals are largely unsung guardians of public safety, ensuring structural integrity, fire protection, electric safety, electrical safety, plumbing compliance, and accessibility for all residents. These professionals foster community and economic growth by reviewing building plans and conducting inspections that keep construction projects running efficiently while minimizing risks. Building Department Appreciation Day informs and educates the public about the critical role of our community's largely unknown protectors of public safety. our local building code officials who assure us of safety, sustainable energy, efficient and livable buildings that are essential to Pinellas County's prosperity. And now therefore be it proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commission that September 1st, 2026 be recognized as Building Department Appreciation Day in Pinellas County. And again, thank you.

Hello, everybody.

Hello, everybody. My name is Jim McKillen. I'm the building official for Pinellas County, as well as the manager for Building and Development Review Services Building Division. I am here today on behalf of the building division's entire team to give a heartfelt thank you for your support and recognition of our mission, which is to protect the health, safety and welfare of our citizens and the built environment. recovering from hurricanes helene and milton have presented our department with unprecedented challenges our staff faced damage assessment operations complex documentation reviews and assisted anxious residents desperate to rebuild. Staff worked exhausting hours under immense pressure to keep our community moving forward with recovery efforts which continue to this day. Data collected in May of 2026 show 5,800 storm repair permits had been issued. As their manager, I am incredibly proud of their resilience and dedication. Commissioners and executive management, you have validated their sacrifices and given them a well-deserved moral boost. Thank you for your leadership, your support, and providing us with the technology and tool upgrades, allowing our team to work as efficiently as possible. We thank you all for the recognition.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Okay, we have a couple of citizens to be heard. We'll start with David Ballard Geddes Jr. Followed by Lisa McMurray.

hi good afternoon david ballard get his junior i live on georgia avenue in palm harbor the federalist papers again reveals three constitutions the former the latter and the last resort one and one and one is three gotta be good-looking it's just so hard to see tip your hat to the new constitution and pray you don't get fooled again the change it had to come and you knew it all along even mcjagger at madison square gardens in nineteen sixty nine he stated in front of the crowd welcome to the breakfast show lunch dinner. Okay. The Federalist Papers were not written by Hamilton, Madison, or John Jay. The Federalist Papers were originally drafted by a shoemaker named Jacob Boehm. Shoemaker, stick to thy last. The Declaration of Independence, again, counterfeits itself as preamble to a second constitution seen as the capture of water in Article I, Section 8, Clause 11. birthing unwarranted Fourteenth Amendment water jurisdictions as declared, thus revealing the methodology of the Prince in the Declaration of Independence written by Niccolo Machiavelli, for it is better to be feared than it is to be loved. Even George Washington, claiming to be of greatest rankness and truly one's worst enemy, in his Farewell to Christianity address, states that we are being given a useful lesson on our heads, seen as a useful art for limited times in Article I, Section 8, Clause 8, our current Constitution, is unconstitutionally being used as a bill of attainder, a letter of marquee, an ex post facto form of reprisal seen as inexcusably defective in Federalist Paper 64 using water as their weapon of choice, deaf to the voice of justice and consequently as written in the Declaration of Independence. Abraham Lincoln, he did not write the 14th Amendment. He amended the 14th Amendment to include the Rebellion Clause, denouncing the Book of Common Rebellion. Such well-bound Book of Common Rebellion is possibly referenced in statute 298.36. London bridges falling down, London bridges falling down, and they can take their wayfaring mercenaries down with them. Welcome to the bond market. Thank you.

Okay, as Lisa McMurray comes up, I just wanted to take the opportunity to introduce her. She is the chair of our Employee Advisory Council, which she'll tell you. And I just wanted to give her a sense of appreciation from the commission for her being on that board for 25 years and chairman, I believe, for 20 of those years. So she is a trooper. So thank you for what you do for us. for our employees every single day. So thank you, and the mic is yours.

Thank you, Commissioner Ivers. Good afternoon, Commissioners Barry, Jewell. My name is Lisa McMurray. I'm the chairperson of the Pinellas County.

Lisa, could you pull that down so we can hear you? Thank you, Lisa. I'm short even with you. Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you.

I currently work for utilities, where our department helps ensure that our residents have safe, reliable drinking water. I'm here today representing the classified employees of Pinellas County. I listen to the Board of County Commissioners meetings and I understand the budget challenges facing the county. I also believe Pinellas County has historically been a good steward of both general fund and enterprise resources. I understand that difficult decisions are being considered including reductions and potentially elimination of entire departments. I appreciate the commission's recognition that Workforce Relations and the Office of Human Rights provide critical services and are necessary for the county's operations. But today I want to speak about the people behind the services, the dedicated employees who keep Pinellas County moving forward every day. Our employees are the people behind our award-winning beaches, our 9-11 operations, our traffic signals, mosquito control, utility services, road maintenance, sewer repairs, passport services, and so many other services our residents rely on. The list is extensive. And our commitment doesn't stop when the workday ends or when circumstances become difficult. During hurricanes, county employees leave their families to serve our community. Some sleep on cots at county facilities. Others work in shelters, answer calls at the emergency operations center, assist residents who are frightened or uncertain, and clear roads after the storm. So people can get to work, obtain supplies, and begin rebuilding. Some of these employees are dealing with catastrophic losses of their own, yet they still report to work to help their neighbors. That's who Pinellas County employees are. We show up. A few years ago on Christmas Eve, some of our employees were called away from their families to repair a broken water main in Pinellas County neighborhood. It may seem like a small example, but situations like this happen regularly. County employees routinely put the needs of the community ahead of their own personal time. And these employees are not just county workers. Many are also Pinellas County residents. Their friends, families, and neighbors live here too. They are the people residents encounter every day, and they are the face of Pinellas County and our communities. At an employee advisory council meeting, a delegate meeting, a representative from Visitors and Conventions Bureau made a statement that stayed with me.

We are all stewards of Pinellas County.

This is something I have understood throughout my 28 years of county service. not long after that meeting i was at the beach having dinner while waiting for a table i overheard visitors talking about where to watch the sunset how far certain attractions were and what they should see in downtown saint petersburg i found myself answering their questions telling them about our community and sharing some of its history they didn't know about some of the movies that were filmed here i was proud to let them know That moment reminded me that many county employees feel the same way. We aren't simply doing a job, we take pride in the place we live. Most of us didn't chose public service because we expect to become wealthy. We chose it because we have a calling to serve, to help others, to protect our environment, to maintain our infrastructure, and to make our community better. The work can be rewarding, but it can also be stressful, difficult, overlooked, and sometimes, yes, thankless. Yet despite these challenges, county employees continue to come to work, do their jobs, and serve our residents with professionalism and dedication. This is why I felt compelled to speak today, especially in the midst of budget discussions. Pinellas County workforce is not aligned in the budget. We are dedicated professionals. We are your neighbors. We are the people who keep the county's essential services operating every day in good times and in the most difficult circumstances. I respectfully ask that as you make these difficult budget decisions, you recognize the value of the people behind the services and consider the impact these decisions have on the workforce and the residents we serve. In light of football season, I thought of this quote. The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual. Thank you for your time, your cooperation, and your service to Pinellas County.

Thank you, Lisa. Appreciate that.

Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair.

Yes.

If I may, Lisa also serves on the Office for Human Rights Board, and she was also an integral part when we were doing our selection process for the new director of the department. So I just wanted to echo it's been a pleasure working with her.

Thank you. Thanks, Lisa. Okay. Greg Powell.

Yes, Greg Pound. The issue that I'd like to bring to the county commissioners is 2019, I was on my way to courthouse, as I've been doing for approximately 15 years, exposing the corruption in your Pinellas County courthouse as the people went to court every day. And on my way to court, I was rear end in the back of my car, car totaled out, and So what happened is I was exposing the child molestation, the government's destroying families for money, and all the things that's going on in Pinellas County that's got us in a situation we're in today with the suicide rate, the drug problem among our youth, just destroying our families because of federal grant money that comes into this county in order to destroy their families. It's called cooperative agreement contracts. You'd have to read them. I've explained it over and over again. And so what happens is now I'm being fined for a young man who was in so many wrecks, he couldn't even count him in the deposition. And the guy smashes in the back of my car, throws my car out, and the courts put a judgment against me for $18,000. So I have to file in the appeals court. I'm in the appeals court. I file in the appeals court, and they want to supplement my record, my appeal, With the transcript that they did at a hearing for my attorney, and I asked the judge, I said, Your Honor, I said, did you read my motions pleading you not to dismiss my attorney? And she said, yes. I said, no, I asked, did you receive it? She said, yes. I said, did you read it? She said, no. So what happens is now they supplemented a transcript into my appeal in the Second District Appeals Court with a bunch of lies. So you've got out of control corruption. I mean, when I run for sheriff in this county and I get beat up, I get beat up, my head smashed against the wall where I should have went to the hospital. They took me to PIMS. You go read the newspaper articles and read what they said in order to discredit me as a candidate for sheriff against Jim Coats. And then when I run against his attorney, Robert Guattari, who's still an attorney, who's an illegal sheriff in this county that's working with the corruption in the courthouse, And what you're doing to people, just like you did to this plastic surgeon, the stuff that's happened to him, and he reacted to it. And this is the corruption. We've got massive corruption in this county. They're destroying our families. I mean, these people are out of control. The Bible shows corruption always starts from the tops down. It's been that way since the beginning of time. It's always top-down corruption, not bottom-up. It's not the poor people you see on the street that's raping and robbing our system, destroying our republic. We've got out-of-control corruption. We've got the city attorney here who doesn't know whether it's right or wrong for an attorney to be a sheriff of Pinellas County. We've got problems here. You people are looking the other way for your jobs and your money. Thank you.

All right. We are moving on to our consent and as we do that, I did want to draw attention to item four and five, which is division of inspector general. Two reports that came out. Just to reiterate to our residents that our inspector general has a report or two seemingly, maybe even more, on every single report that we do, every single meeting that we have, which means that they're looking over operations, they're looking over procedures, they're looking over all aspects of our county to make sure that we're abiding by the rules, that we have procedures in place, and when we don't, they call it out and we take action, they take action on that. So I just wanted to give a special shout out to our Division of Inspector General for the work that they do. That's all I had, and do we have anybody who wants to pull anything from the, is that? Number 11. Number 11 you wanted to pull, okay. Anybody else? All right, do I have a motion to approve the rest of the, move approval from Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Flowers. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Item 11.

And this is just a question. Barry, the language says that we're spending, we're matching 2.7, I think 88 million on this. Where's the money coming from?

Kathy's already on her way up, so I'll let her answer that. These were pre-approved projects.

Kathy Perkins, Director for Emergency Management. Thank you, Commissioner, for your question. So Emergency Management had penny for monies. We had $1.25 million in a mitigation fund for projects that we could do. And then the Lealman CRA would contribute $1.764 million.

Okay. So I'm supporting this. I'm voting for it because I know we need the shelter. But when we do that, can we itemize where the money is coming from? Because nowhere in here did it say it was from the Lowman CRA.

Got it.

And I read the Lowman CRA's minutes and saw it in the minutes and then looked at that and didn't see it in that. So for continuity's sake, can we be clear in the future where the money is coming from? And then I want to talk to you later about the CRA. So in our next meeting, make sure that's on the list. Thank you.

Yep. Need a motion.

Second.

Motion by Commissioner Flowers, second by Commissioner Peters. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. We are on to a regular agenda. Item 14.

This is an award for airport car rental or rental car concessions for St. Pete Clearwater International Airport.

We have a motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Flowers. I noticed five vendors, three contracts. They're somewhat different, eight and a half, 9.4, 10.4 million each. What's the difference in the contracts themselves? Could somebody just speak? That sounds like a Mark question to me.

Yeah.

I was just thinking there might be one for all of them, but there's three separate ones. Thank you, Mark.

Mark Sprague, director of the St. Pete Colorado National Airport. There's no differences in the contracts themselves. The reason why they're different monies is because of the square footage that they have actually in the car rental lot.

So otherwise they're the same?

They're identically the same. It's just the square footage. Thank you, Mark.

Appreciate it. Yes, did you have a question, Commissioner Flowers?

If I can. Yes. I just want to say, because I use it frequently.

Yes, you do.

I just want to say I really appreciate, I call it the contactless service that they now have. Because before you had to go to the counter, stand in line, and wait to get all your stuff. But now if you make your reservation, you can go right out to the lot. And so I've noticed for the traffic, because you get your luggage right there, and then people are standing in the lines for their cars, and so it kind of gets a little crowded, but by having that service, it has really thinned out that area, so people get straight to catch the buses out to the beaches, or they can go straight out and get their cars, and it kind of moves people more expeditiously through the airport, so I wanted to say thank you for that, however they came up with how they do it, but thank you for that.

That's a big collaboration. We're always looking at customer convenience.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mark. I appreciate it. Pull up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. All right. Let's move on to number 15.

This fiscal year 2026, a lead event funding recommendation. This is for the Clearwater Offshore Nationals. I think you had a question and Brian sent you an email regarding it.

Thank you, Brian, for that. Any other questions on that?

Move approval. Second.

Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Latvala. Pull up the voting card, please. Motion passes unanimously. Item 16, please.

This is an amendment to add a carrot connect, which is an electronic information exchange platform to this contract. So this is the same for 16 and 17.

Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions, comments? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 17.

Yeah, the same thing. This is for the permanent supportive housing and for safe haven with Boyd.

I should have done those together, but I didn't. Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Flowers. Assuming no questions, bring up the voting card for item 17. One more. Motion carries unanimously. Number 18.

This authorizes me as County Administrator to be able to adjust for pre-approved ARPA projects to where if we are undersent by a few dollars on one, we can move it over to an existing already bid project that we're currently implementing to be able to maximize the use of those ARPA funds. We have to spend those by the end of the year. So at the end, time will type and we can move funds around appropriately.

Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Scott. And that voting card from the last one was still up there.

It's showing recorded on my end that I'm preparing for the next voting card, but let me know if there's any issues.

Okay, bring up the card for 18 if you can and see if we... We can't move our...

Does it look correct for 18 currently?

Motion carries unanimously. And it's still there. I can't move mine. Am I the only one?

My 17 is still, 18 popped up, but 18 has gone away.

Now 17 is back up. Oh, perfect. Got it. Thank you. Thank you for taking care of that.

Mine is still up.

Yours is still up?

Yeah.

Everybody else's still?

Mine's fine.

I can't maneuver the screen until it goes away. Okay, you're good to go. If it's not working, you can let me know whether you're a yes or no.

I can record for you. Okay.

I do show unanimous on 18, though, as well as 17. All right.

Item 19, please.

It's the third amendment to an agreement with Precision Sidewalk Safety. This is for our trip hazard prevention and maintenance.

Motion by Commissioner Scott, second by Commissioner LaValla. Any questions or comments on 19? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 20.

This is a resilient Florida grant program application. This is for our South Cross Bayou Reclamation Facility for high service pump station improvements. There we go. No.

Motion and a second. Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Scott. Question on this. Are these grants that come in as other income grants? Are they registered as expenses on the department? On the capital? On the capital or are they zeroed out outside the operating statement? Chris, come on up and answer the question. I just want to make sure. I kind of know the answer. I want to make sure that the point being when we get a lot of grants and we try to get grants, we get the revenue but sometimes it's and it shows up as expenses. I'm just wondering if that was the case.

Yes, sir. Chris Rose, Office of Management and Budget. They do show up as expenses in the capital budget.

In the capital side, so it doesn't show up at all on the... That's correct. Okay.

That's right.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

All right. We had a motion and a second on item 20. Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 21.

This is an agreement with JPMorgan Chase for our banking services.

Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions? Bring up the voting card, please. One more. Motion carries unanimously. IA County Attorneys reports.

On item number 22, I am going to ask that this item be deferred until your September 10th meeting. No action necessary on the part of the board. We will simply put it on the agenda at that time.

Okay. Thank you.

Under item number 23, I'm requesting authority to file suit in the referenced case. This will be a foreclosure of a special magistrate lien arising from a code enforcement proceeding. Okay.

Motion by Commissioner Peter, second by Commissioner Flowers. Any questions? Bring up the voting card, please. One more. Motion carries unanimously. Item 24.

24, I'm seeking ratification of the chair's authority to file a petition to maintain custody of a cruelly or neglectfully treated animal.

Motion by Commissioner Peter, second by Commissioner Scott. Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously.

Item 25. 25, I'm asking that the board approve the resolution that is attached to the agenda item. This is a resolution approving the early extension of the 2026 tax rolls. This will allow your tax collector to get the tax bills out on time while the value adjustment board process continues.

Motion by Commissioner Letvala, second by Commissioner Peters. Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Any other reports?

No reports today.

Thank you. County Administrator reports? No report. We're working on budget. That's all I have to report. Okay. Well, good. Keep working hard. We got some meetings coming up. We do. All right. We're going to jump into County Commission comments, and we will start with Commissioner Scott.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I want to thank Lisa for coming up to public comment today and just speaking on behalf of the Pinellas County employees. And personally, I've always been very impressed with the quality of staff we hear at Pinellas County. And they certainly have my support and appreciate everything that they do every day. I mean, working for... Working for the government isn't always necessarily a sexy job, but it's one that is necessary and they make life livable here in Pinellas County. So thank you for all the hard work that they do. So a couple items here on just some update community events. I was at the upper chamber, Tampa Bay Chamber legislative luncheon along with Commissioner Nowicki. And we did some Q&A with the crowd there. A lot of discussion on Amendment 3, as you can imagine, among some other things. I got to experience our special magistrate process firsthand with the result of the short-term rental that is just two doors down from me. It's very interesting to kind of watch that process and see how that played out. And I thought I understood it pretty well just from my interaction from code enforcement, but actually seeing it in real time gave me even a deeper appreciation for the hard work that code enforcement has to go through to make sure they check every box and there's a very methodical process they have to follow to make sure if they're going to take something before special magistrate that is actually going to stick so in this particular case code enforcement had recommended a thousand dollar fine which was uh the uh was knocked down to five hundred dollars but they were a fine $500. And immediately following my case was Hillary Simpson, who regularly complains about a short-term rental adjacent to her home, and she had the exact same result as well. So just want to hats off to the code enforcement team for all their hard work and following through on a very detailed and thorough investigation to get the result that we got. And being able to see, you know, the types of questions that were asked and the types of defenses that the attorney representing the short-term rental tried to come out with gave us a little better understanding of how to approach things differently in the future. So thankful to go through that process and that we were able to get a positive result. Was that the Tunnel to Towers home dedication in Pinellas Park? I think it was Friday last week. And Representative Luna's staff was all down from D.C. last week as well, touring the entire county. They took a bus all over the county, even up into Pasco County and toured her entire district. So I met them for coffee. Nice to meet her entire team, even the folks that were down from D.C. Also, I think at our work session last week, I looked at a line item that was in the... public defenders budget that was $767,000. And then there was another that was for public defender special, and then another $939,300 in public defender mitigation, advocacy and treatment. I just wanted to have a line of sight, better understanding of what that money was actually being spent for. And I had a really great conversation last week with Sarah Malo, and I very much appreciate everything that she does and her passion for her job. These monies are not required under Title V. They're not required that we spend any of these monies by the state. What they're for is basically they're providing social services to people that are in the criminal defense, situation and trying to keep them from getting re-arrested, trying to connect them with social services, helping them out with transportation, things like that. And it supports five FTEs, all non-lawyers. Basically, it's providing case management is what it is. was not a program that that she started it was a program that bob dillinger started back in the day and the i'm sure this is helping people out that the challenge that i had with it and have with it is that how do we define success with it and and there weren't any metrics on that i mean how many people are not getting re-arrested how many people you know how is this affecting jail population you know um how is this affecting recidivism and none of that data is available and i this is kind of situation i look at almost like pinellas hope it's like if you got rid of it there's going to be a problem we don't really know where the problem's going to go And I kind of view this as one of those social services that's great intentions and probably started as one thing and probably got some mission creep and now is probably doing a lot of different things that it probably never intended to do perhaps at the start. I'm not really suggesting we have a specific call to action on this this year, but it's just another one of those line items that I think is probably being duplicative. There are a ton of not-for-profits out here that do these exact same things, connecting people to homeless services, mental health services, substance abuse services. Basically, Public Defender's Office is a law firm that's providing social services. completely outside the mission of what their core function is. But if we didn't do it, there would be people that probably would get rearrested. The jail population may go up, and that costs us money too. So what I would just like to see in the future is that if we can try to get some metrics on this. How is the money, what's the return on that investment? and it's really really hard to know right now because it's just not being tracked so that would be something that i would request you know from sarah and from our health and human services team if we could try to get some understanding in the future of are we getting for that spend because you look at that there's 1.7 million dollars then you look at safe harbor there's another 2.4 million dollars and we could probably go through the health and human services budget and probably find a lot of other line items like that too that you know health care for the homeless and uh dental van for the homeless and you know there's a lot of those types of things where i'm sure it's doing good in the community but just seems that there's a lot of overlap and it's a very decentralized system very fragmented system that i think could be a lot more efficient we just have to figure out different ways of doing it so that is my uh report mr chairman thank you okay thank you commissioner scott commissioner wiki

Thank you chair. Um, first, uh, for new business, um, you know, I, I was wondering maybe, you know, I could connect, you know, Barry could help me maybe connect somebody with staff with Sunstar, um, to, you know, I've been hearing a lot of things about priority dispatch. Um, and I guess that was kind of relatively implemented in 2019, you know, before my time. And so I've just been hearing kind of some complaints about it that, um, Sunstar may not have the resources that there's like 20 minute call wait times and then it's elevated to like emergency 911 response, kind of defeating the whole priority dispatch system. So I don't know, maybe we could get a report on how many times priority dispatch calls come in and then Sunstar then has to elevate those calls to 911 emergency responses instead of using the priority dispatch system. So maybe we could get some more numbers on that.

Those numbers are readily available so we should Those should be, there's, you know, there is the transport between facilities and serve, you know, places like that, that does not have that timeframe, but they usually follow our first responders out. I think they have a 10 minute target time. I'm not sure what it is, but very, there's a lot going on with that.

We certainly can get you more information. I'd love for you to meet with staff and kind of go through that because priority dispatch just is, is really on the fire and EMS side versus, uh, and it's integrated with Sunstar. and Priority Dispatch really is talking about how, you know, how many, what, sending the appropriate response to the situation, you know, rather than, you know, two Sunstar and two fire trucks and, you know, and trying to make some of those calls. Happy to go through that. We can get choked up with staff, and they've got all kinds of data on that type of information.

Okay, great, thank you. And then I wanted to bring up, I didn't know the proper format on the administrator review. I guess I didn't understand why we set a date and then the date was pushed back. And I guess I also didn't understand on why it's not televised, but last year the administrator review was televised. So I just didn't know if there was any clarity because those are only my, you know, I did one last year, it was televised, and then I saw this year it's not televised, so I guess I was just.

There was no particular reason, but we certainly can, if the will of the commission is to put it on the, you know, we can do that. That's not.

It has changed depending upon the chair. No particular reason. We haven't even had that conversation with the current chair yet.

My issue has always been about transparency, so more than likely we'll be on the agenda somewhere.

Okay. And then I just wanted to also thank Julie and Jewel, you know, for the canvassing board, you know, I know they had a really close election. So they had to, you know, Jewel and her staff was working really hard along with the supervisor of election staff working really hard. And I thought, you know, they had a clean election. and Jewel working hard on the canvassing board. So I appreciate that. And then lastly, there was the good Florida tax watch article that was sent out. And it was interesting to see how Pinellas County ranked number six as the most highest millage rate out of 67 counties. So I found that interesting. So there's definitely some good information in that Florida Tax Watch article. So thank you, Commissioner Flowers. And that is it, Chair, thank you. Commissioner Peters.

Yeah, I just want to congratulate Jewel and Julie on that election. That's two elections in a row with a mandatory recount. Wow, that's incredible. And the fact there was a difference of two votes in the beginning and then turned out to only be seven votes. So clearly every vote counts and it's really good to have a supervisor of election and a team that is so good. It's the redundancy that they do that they make sure they don't have errors and they do a great job. I don't have a lot to report except for I went to the Tempe Estuary meeting down at Port Manatee it was this year. They're going all through the estuary for their meetings. Would have been nice if they let us tour it, but they didn't. But anyways, one of the presentations was very interesting. Back in the 60s, the way that this country decided in this state to get rid of tires, because we didn't recycle tires back then, and burning them was very dangerous. And so they decided to tie them together and dump them in the bay. And so we have a bunch of tire reefs in the bay, and they are analyzing one that's just off of Pinellas Point. And they've done a lot of surveys with anglers and boaters and other scientists to see what is the best approach, how much each approach is going to cost. If you totally remove the tires, how much is that going to cost? If we remove some of the tires and put other structures that will actually create a reef, like concrete or rocks. The tires, things don't grow on it properly to create a reef, although they did find quite a few species of fish in and around it. But most of the coral growth was on rocks and the cement that got poured into the tires to keep them sunk. So it was interesting. But what they did find when they went and surveyed the site is that many of the tires have broken free and they're moving, so they're scattered. Many of the tires are frayed and they're not really dissolving, but they're breaking off into pieces and they're getting into the water. And that has a big impact on water quality. So it was a very interesting presentation. Both the scientists, both the anglers and boaters all said that full removal would be the most optimal. They'll never be able to do full removal because of how many tires have moved. They don't believe they can get them all, but they can get the vast majority of them, which of course is the most expensive. So they are seeking ways in which they can fund that and they will do it in sections. So I believe they have some funding to do some of it now and then over time as they get grants and things like that, they will remove that reef and then maybe there's a potential of rebuilding a new reef in the same location. So that's, it was very interesting. I really enjoyed the presentation, thanks.

Thank you. That's interesting. Commissioner Shearer.

Oh, thank you, Chair. I've been focused on the budget, which leads me to the email I sent to Barry yesterday that I copied you all on. I've been trying very hard to get a grasp on the size of our departments and how much money is spent on our departments. And I have become aware that not all of our departments reflect exactly what we're gonna spend on those departments. It's the budgeted amount. And that amount that we're given is lower than what is actually going to cost because of contra numbers. Now, a contra number, and I've reviewed this with Chris many times, if you go to the Public Works Department and you study the budget, you'll see that the budget is $173 million. But that is not the total cost of that budget. That budget is funded by six different funds, but you won't see the penny fund in there. Now, the Public Works Department does a lot of work for the penny and charges the penny. It's not reflected in that budget because they charge it back. What the budgeting process is, my understanding is, you take the total cost of the Public Works Department and then they back out the penny costs or in other funds and then that's the number you see. So if the Public Works Department was $200 million and they back out the contra numbers for the anticipated penny revenues that are gonna come in for funding, then you get down to $173 million. And so what I have been asking for is an accounting of the Contra numbers so I can add them back to the budgets and see what the department actually costs in total. No, I'm not saying that it's wrong. We definitely want to charge different funds for administration and expenses. But as a commission, we need to know what those chargebacks are and we need to know what the total cost of the department is. And that's why I respectfully requested and have been requesting a complete list of the contra charges that Chris is using to present the budgets to us because those contras, if you want to know what the total cost of the budget is, you add those contra charges back. I don't get that and you don't get it. I haven't seen these contra charges and I don't know how to find them. So but I've been asking for that and then I think as a commission we should also know how much have we charged our different funds for administration overhead and expenses for the last couple years. I don't know what that number is. And so I've been trying to get a handle on it, and that's why I requested it. And I know that, Barry, I know that you guys have been respectful and you've met with me and talked to me about it, but all I get is I get an explanation of what you're doing, but I don't know how much it costs. I'm a numbers guy. I want to know what we've been charging these funds for and what we're going to charge them for this year. I want to know what we're actually spending on our department. That was the basis of my email. I still would like it. I'm asking the board to please ask them to provide it to us because I think you should have... these detailed list of contra numbers that were charging to the cost of our department to lower the department costs. So that's kind of where I am. I can't make an accurate decision. I don't know how big our departments are.

I think it may be a fair request. That's fine. I'm sure we can get that information. What they should be charging or not should be charging is that's the discussion we can have because clearly the penny doesn't, it's not just capital, it's people's, people working to implement capital. So that's expenses. Some of those are contractor expenses and some of those are department expenses. So to understand what that amount is is fair.

And I, one of the reasons I was digging into it is I want to make sure we're not, not just that we're overcharging, maybe we're undercharging. Maybe we're not charging enough, but I don't know because I have no idea what we're charging.

Well, to the same extent that they have administrative costs passed on to each department, I'm sure there are some of those administrative costs on the projects that are being charged to the projects.

Right, but you don't see them in the budget.

It's not all in one spot, and that's what makes it difficult. So our staff has met with Commissioner several times, all right, and and so it's not as easy to produce that report because first off all the maintenance stuff is not a capital project so we have a lot that's going on that is in public works that's not going to be charged back to a capital project we also have an indirect cost plan it's federally certified indirect cost plan that's how we get all of our administrative back charges it's two years in the rear and we use that because that's how that we have to use that for all of our all of our federal grants, anything that comes through has to be under a certified federal indirect cost plan. So that's how you get your administrative chargebacks. And you're asking questions, and when we started this, I was like, and that's why I said in my email, I'm absolutely on board. If there's ways, if there's costs that we're not charging back to the projects, let's do that because then that would lower our general fund cost.

The departments have already been budgeted. We have the budget. And Chris has developed contra numbers to get to those budgets. And so he has the contra numbers. I just want the contra numbers so I can add them back and find out what the department thought.

Chris is working on it. The last one. We thought we had answered previous questions when they met with you.

If he has a budget for the department and it includes contra numbers, he's already got the information. He doesn't have to develop it. It's already been done.

Where you at, Chris? Come on up.

afternoon commissioners chris rose office of management and budget just as the county administrator said we have these in the budget you are correct both current year and next year it is harder to pull out than you think it is so we are doing that right now and what's the total amount of contra charges for the public works department i don't know off the top of my head sir

but you've subtracted it from something to come down to 173 million, right? You started at a number. Was it 26 million? Was it five million? Was it 57 million? I don't know.

But if it's accurate, it's immaterial because that's a chargeback to the capital projects.

And that's fine. I'm just saying what's the top number? Okay. I need a top number for each department, and then you can subtract your contract numbers.

We'll get the contrast, and you can add those to the budget. So this is overall what the department's spending. But also remember, Public Works does capital projects not just for Public Works. uh... and so they're managing several different funds for managing grants they bring in a lot of grants and so they're each each projects handled usually through multiple funding sources uh... and so you it's got to be different for each each different area just like i was saying uh... on federal grants that's a different than just charging back your administrative costing uh... to your and that's another problem and that's a that's another problem i have with this because we're budgeting what we're gonna be charging funds in the future

But we're not, and we're voting on what we're gonna charge these funds in the future. But we don't see a list of what we're charging these funds in the future, and we're voting to approve a budget based on that.

But they are, because they're all in the capital budget. Every single project's in the capital budget.

The contra charges are not. I don't see those. I don't know what we're charging these funds.

So it's on both sides. You'll see both the positive and the negative. So it is charging from one fund to the other. So it is budgeted. It's in the overall budget, sir.

Not in this book.

It's not laid out the way you're asking, no.

He'll complete that report, and we'll get that to you as soon as we can.

It's hard for me to approve a budget when I don't know what I'm approving.

understand we thought we had a card when that when staff met with you they thought that they'd walk through that process to me but i have never been given well again let's remember that the budget that we're approving includes capital and operating what you're trying to do is distinguish the two so that we fully understand what is being charged to those accounts away from the the main account but it's no more or less in total it's just a matter of trying to see more missed anything or anything i just i don't know what

Who decided what we are allowed to charge you these different funds? Is it us staff? Is it state statute?

Yeah, I mean

The projects, if we're talking about a small capital project that is just penny funds, that's a lot simpler than Joe's Creek or something that involves multiple sources over multiple budget years, grant funds, state funds, federal funds, and penny funds as matching dollars. There's requirements that they'd be treated appropriately. So it's a fair question. We haven't been able to put it in the format that you're looking for, but it's all there.

I would just be happy with a close to total number, and this is what this department was, and we back these contra numbers out, and a total.

That's what I responded to this morning. They're working on your August 20th memo, and they'll get that to you as soon as they can.

Okay. Thank you. I just got a big vote coming up, and I want to understand what I'm voting on.

Yeah, and again, we know that staff is pretty taxed right now and no pun intended, but we're going to. We're going to do our best to deliver what the commissioners are asking for and so. You know, and next year that list will probably grow on what we don't think of this year. So get ready. We're all doing our best to try to scrutinize the budget right now for either, as you said, undercharging from capital or overcharging. So just to get a more realistic picture. number for what's actually being spent by the department regardless of where it's categorized at the end we at least get a feeling for what's in there and it doesn't mean that what's been done allocating out to capital isn't the right thing to do so we just want to make sure you understand that we all understand that okay marching orders okay Are you finished, Commissioner Shearer? Yes. Commissioner Flowers.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm going to start out by just making a comment. I hope no one gets offended by this, but we've had several meetings where a person from the public has come up and made some very strong allegations against the sheriff and against other persons that work in county government. They have an opportunity and a right to say whatever it is that they desire. But I also just want to say publicly that... Oh, I'm sorry. But I also just want to say publicly that we are not the court system here. So whatever has been adjudicated through the courts... And whatever decision the judges come up with, that is the judge's decision. And this is not a place, nor do we have the ability to override overturn or to change those decisions. And I think when some people hear the comments here, they are receiving the impression that we are not acting. We don't have the ability nor the authority to act. That's number one. Number two, the allegations that have been made against some of the officers as molesting children and things of that nature. While we sit and we listen, those are still very serious words to say about someone in the profession that those persons are. And we never addressed it because I know we have our unwritten policy that we don't, you know, go back and forth with persons when they're speaking, but just for the general public to understand when allegations are made, there are avenues by which to, um, have that information researched or have that person charged if that is correct information. Um, and if it is not correct information, um, then it shouldn't be a continual talking point. And in the instances that have been provided consistently here, none of those allegations have been proven to be true. So I just wanted to say that because I've gotten a couple of requests of, you know, is what that person's saying accurate. Um, and so I'm sure they weren't the only ones to ask that question.

Commissioner, I appreciate your saying that. And now, and not then. We give them the time, like you said.

So that's perfect. Because that's the rule. So I just wanted to say that. So moving on to the things that I have done. The policy committees for the Florida Association of Counties are beginning to meet. After we had our workshop about e-bikes, I did some research as well, and I know that that is a big issue, as I shared with our school safety committees. So I drafted a policy proposal for the Florida Association of Counties to take up at the next meeting we're going to be having in Jacksonville. Um, and I submitted it through the application process and whatnot. And I believe I copied you guys on it just so you could see. So I will be asking that that be taken up as a policy, uh, to move forward. And I'm sure we're not the only ones that are having that issue. But since, um, I know some of us were very concerned about it and it's a concern, I think it will be a concern in other communities as well. So I did do that. And if you have anything, I know that sometimes, uh, um, uh, commissioner Peters has submitted stuff and I think commissioner Scott has submitted things. If it's something going on that you think, you know, it involves all 67 counties, please go ahead and get that in so we can, um, take care of it because we're usually pretty successful in getting that as a part of our policy committee. I was really trying to see if the end of the next Innovation Conference could be here because we have some wonderful things going on with some of the corporations that have moved here that are doing things with drones that are doing things with technology. So I thought it would be wonderful went through the whole process Brian. He's left. Brian Lowack had already reached out to a couple of hotels. We had proposals, submittals quickly. Barry, myself, Brian, and Dr. Cynthia Johnson were going to have a meeting the other day. And then I was informed that the legislative conference is going to be here in 2027. And so it was kind of like... And you're also asking for the innovation conference. So I've acquiesced. So we will have the legislative conference here in 2027. It will be at the Hilton in St. Pete. Yeah, it will be at the Hilton in St. Pete. Commissioner Scott came for the last one that was here where it was really nice. And we had the after reception in the gardens at the Woodson Museum and all of that. So please know that I'm trying to put together something really nice to show off all of the wonderful things that we have been doing here in Pinellas County so that our colleagues can see it. But I was trying to put something together because I did have a special request from our commissioner, LaVallo, and it didn't work out, but parts of it will work out. So bear with me, young man. Yeah, he's not young.

Much younger. Yeah.

We had a very successful Area Agency on Aging, Pinellas and Pasco fundraiser in Tampa at the Pelican. Yeah, Pelican Restaurant off of Courtney Campbell Causeway. Very successful in that. And so I want to thank all of the corporations that sponsored or helped to co-sponsor and everyone who participated because we put those funds back into the pot and use those to help our seniors. We are well on our way to the senior living facility that we will be building in Pasco County. Of course, the land has already been identified. Congressman Bill Arrakis has been absolutely wonderful in getting us money from the federal government for the construction. The Pasco County Commission has been really wonderful. Their building department has been great. So we are moving right along, and we sincerely hope we will be shoveling dirt very soon. So that's going to be the first project ever that Area Agents on Aging has done where we are providing affordable living quarters for our seniors. I was a speaker yesterday regarding Amendment 3 for the Democratic Women's Club of Upper Pinellas. And I also presented the same thing at the League of Women Voters last week at Allendale Church. So it's really nice to get the questions that people are asking and only providing educational information. And I always give them links where they can go research it for themselves and they'll know they're not just the recommendations from me as an individual.

Thank you.

I have a meeting coming up with the president of the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus, President Moez. I hope I'm saying the name correctly. I went over and visited the facility the day after the lightning struck and burnt the research facility. Well, the lightning struck, it caught on fire, and it burnt that facility. The professors, some of them were able to recoup a lot of the research material, which we're really excited about, because if not, that was going to be years worth of research absolutely gone. I also want to say thank you to Eckerd College publicly because Eckerd provided space for the professors and those researchers to go over there and work until the facilities are rebuilt on the USF St. Pete campus. So thank you and shout out to both of them. and as many have already said thank you so much and shout out to the supervisor of elections office throughout the state a lot of people look at our soe for the way that we run our elections for how smooth they run our results are in by 720 740 at the latest we did have a recount process but that shows that the system works And so thank you to everybody who had to go through that process. And I also want to say thank you to the workers, the volunteers, because that's a whole day that they volunteer, almost 16 hours that they volunteer. I was over at Lake Vista. There was an issue with the machine. And no sooner than the person shared the concern, there was somebody who had already been called and was walking up the sidewalk from the SOE office to take care of it. So that's what I like. I just love it. And I'm so glad and so excited. And I want to thank everybody for their participation and support in those areas. And the last thing I'll have is there is going to be a wellness day experience October 10th. I'll just keep doing a reminder. And it's for men. The number of prostate cancer diagnosis is on the rise. And so this organization is just really trying to make sure that men are taking their exams seriously. I'm sure it's probably not a comfortable exam, but it certainly is one that can detect early because I know of several men to include one of my assistant pastors now at my church who was diagnosed recently. And it's because they went to an event like this, they got tested and it was discovered. So men take your health seriously as well as women. And that's all I have. Thank you, Commissioner Flowers. Commissioner LaBella.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I wasn't going to say anything, but since you mentioned it, Commissioner, the First Amendment does afford people the opportunity. to make fools of themselves on occasion. And I will always defend that right. One of the things that I did not realize when I first got elected to this commission is that some of the folks that would travel to Tallahassee to speak before committees also come here on occasion. So it's kind of nice to get the Tallahassee perspective from time to time. But I will always support our residents and non-residents from wherever they may be from, their opportunity to speak to their government folks and and give their grievances to their government. I have a couple since we've talked a little bit about the budget. In previous years, I've mentioned my thoughts on cutting libraries, parks, and communications. uh... at the time that wasn't very popular uh... our administrator uh... had a suggestion on uh... giving a couple parks back to the state uh... which some residents didn't necessarily like uh... i understand where he was coming from because we talk a lot about unfunded mandates uh... and and I, um, might be in the minority on this board, but I kind of appreciate where our administrator was coming from in that, uh, suggestion and recommendation. Um, one thing though, that I am not in favor of, uh, and probably will never be in favor of, um, is cutting the sheriff's budget anymore and especially closing down safe harbor because that will mean putting a couple hundred people many of which with substance abuse issues onto the streets of largo and clearwater which is in Pinellas County, but more specifically in District 5. And I don't want to burden my community with that issue. And if we do shut down Safe Harbor, I will want to bus some of those people to Tarpon Springs, to Tierra Verde and to St. Pete and other parts of the county to help spread that issue around so it's not just in Largo and Clearwater. But hopefully we don't have to close down Safe Harbor. As for what I've been doing lately, on the first day of school, I welcomed the students and teachers back at Largo Middle School with school board member Katie Blacksburg, and they have a new principal at Largo Middle. who is one of the up and coming principals in Pinellas County. She was a principal at a local elementary school in Largo last year and now is moving up to Largo Middle. And one of the first things that she did was institute a uniform policy that looked like the students were adjusting well too on the first day. And also another thing that they started, which was interesting, is usually middle schools start at like 9.30 or nine o'clock, something like that. But at Largo Middle and a couple other middle schools in Pinellas County, they have the same schedule as high schools. So they start at like 7.30. And so a lot of the teachers and students look like they're pretty tired on the first day of school. So hopefully they are adjusting now that we are a week or two into school. And speaking of school, applications for YACC are open. The deadline to apply is next week, September 1st. You can apply on pinellas.gov forward slash YACC. pinellas.gov forward slash YAC. And then tomorrow, I will be presenting an overview of the county budget at the Big C meeting. So I picked the lucky straw to do that. And then Thursday, I will be joining the chairman, our distinguished chairman, who's turning 70 on June 2nd at the Besties Award. uh... presentation in saint pete so i may have to mention to them about your coming birthday next year uh... i'm looking forward to that from your from your lips to god's ears and i turned seventy next year

Thank you, Commissioner. Appreciate it. So again, just a few things here. I mentioned the Inspector General audits. They look at things going on. So for our residents, just to, you know, I'd like to take the opportunity to remind folks that We had a Doge report done because they thought, you know, the thought was that we were wasting a lot of money. And the Doge report came down. It was pretty friendly to Pinellas County. It certainly doesn't alleviate our responsibilities to continue doing more and more to make all of us accountable. uh... but in perspective is what i'm trying to get out i don't think that we are uh... wasting taxpayer dollars i do want to take a look at those dollars that we were just discussing so that we have us of feeling uh... of the amount of dollars that were being charged by the grants that we're getting we don't go out get grants uh... it makes a big difference and so we're we're trying to fund we're trying to take care of we're trying to expense we're trying to make sure that we implement those so It's a tricky thing. You know, you mentioned we have the sixth highest millage rate. I don't know what millage rates are included by everybody, and I'm not going to be defensive about them. As I've said, we have lowered them each for the last five years, and we'll continue looking at those opportunities. I also would like to remind our residents there's a tax commission that meets, I think it's every 10 years. right and their there's due to be next year to talk discuss the tax system within the state of florida and those that affect the county's as well you know these you know come out with suggestions to make us all more accountable again the cart before the horse as we discuss the the amendment three this year some people have been critical about how slow the exemptions have been rolled out as they have done you know and and i think that's a fair statement so the way to the way to combat that is to make just a rip the band-aid often do it in one year neither is right uh... in my opinion i think if you do you know these exemptions that we're looking at and you do the more incrementally it allows us to bring forward the kind of government, the kind of Pinellas County that we've been presenting to our residents over the decades. Some good, some not so good maybe, but we continue to try to do that job. So I just think we just have to think through, all of us to think through what it means. And as I've told a couple of different groups that I've spoken to, Um, if the vote is to do that, we'll do it. I mean, we'll we'll we'll make it happen. Um, and it would be nice to be able to do it more incrementally. That's what it's one of the complaints I have with Tallahassee often is that they want to rip the bandaid off in one year. when we could do things a little more incrementally, but they have that shot, because they may not be up there, but for two years or four years, so they have a shot and they do it now. That doesn't make it right, and I want our residents to make sure that they continue to think through things. So I'm gonna continue to hold our employees accountable to their budgeting process, like our residents are demanding. So either way that that comes out, we're gonna respond and we're gonna respond appropriately. And that means if it passes, we have to respond. If it doesn't pass, we will respond because the message will be clear. that smaller government is the way we want to go. So just a few comments, just a few things. I wanted to thank Kevin McAndrew for a field visit. I had a young man who was complaining about fence in a flood zone. And you know, fencing has always been easy. You don't have to get a permit for a six foot fence anywhere in our county up comma. except in a flood zone um and a lot of our fence companies didn't know that very simple thing and there's a certain type of fencing that needs to be used regardless of that kevin took the time and appreciated kevin going out there and holding the hand of a resident and making sure that they understood why it was in place. And maybe even own a little bit that we haven't done enough, loudly enough to educate our fence companies. And so he stepped that up as well. And that's what I respect about the building department and Kevin. They own mistakes that they make them, not often, but they also get out there in the field and work with our residents. So I wanted to give them a pat on the back for that. I also wanted to thank the commissions that did come to our tri-county meeting. This is a big deal. I had one of the commissioners say, well, what did you accomplish? He didn't show up, of course. And I said, well, luckily for you, we didn't do a whole lot in terms of decisions, but I told him you can be part of the solution or part of the problem. And I think having the discussion on regional issues together getting a feel for what they mean in each of our counties and bringing ideas to the table is really important and a really big deal and i hope our commission continues to support it as you have and and making sure that our some of our hillsborough folks understand the importance of it Really big deal this week fixa which is our Palm Harbor group that? Palm Harbor East Lake group that takes care of our recreation and library services recognized Colin Levizak his mom Amanda at their at their meeting our County staffed Mr. Tempton was there and gave them an award as well and what this young man did was uh... is on his own quietly sometimes early morning uh... late at night dot late into the evening but you know later in the evening uh... said they went out and cleaned up graffiti that somebody put all over the facilities and the recreation did on his own dot material dot the the grinding material whatever it took to get that job done and he was out there without fanfare he was out there just doing what he thought was right What a great young man. I told him about Yak. I didn't know the deadline. Thank you for mentioning that today, September 1st. I'll make sure he gets that. But he is really one of those special young kids that went above and beyond. Certainly we can all take notes and lessons from that, but certainly the young people that are high schools can do the same. So congratulations, Colin Levizak, and to his mom for raising a special young man. Had a good meeting this morning with our veterans engagement board. I sit on that board and we. Talk about. What the what the our veterans hospital is doing for our for our vets and also we hear from our vets in different groups. There's different groups that are on that board talking about the things that are affecting our military veterans, and so it's really a good board to be on. And Brett Miller, who is on that board, he's been our chair in the past, is one of our leaders. Father Bob Swick helped establish the board when it first came out in 2015, and they do a lot of good work. So I want to thank them and the multitude of folks that are on that board. I have a meeting with Florida. I'm on the Florida Healthy Kids Board. of next tomorrow and so we'll be having our quarterly board meeting um we have um i talked to the uh the county attorney because i was a little uncomfortable with um leaving the um resolution or excuse me leaving a potential code change to our um Oh, what's the name, the town, the facilities that we're talking about?

The data centers?

Yeah, yeah, thank you. And so it's been her recommendation that we don't do code changes for a lot of reasons, but we talked about maybe something else, stepping up and doing a resolution of support, and maybe we can do something that just kind of says, hey, we're not in favor. So Jewel, maybe you want to comment on that just briefly.

Yeah, I think that we've had discussion about data centers here. I know that you've seen many of your colleagues around the state take action, both county and city levels. We've expressed a concern to you about SB 180 and just some other moving pieces, but I think probably one of the biggest concerns I would have in moving forward with the proposed moratorium is we've already expressed to you that our code does not allow data centers, and I would be hesitant to enact a moratorium on something that is not currently allowed because I feel like that would give the impression that it is, in fact, allowed. Commissioner Niggers, I did speak earlier and I suggested a resolution. I think some others of you have had that conversation with members on my staff. A resolution would be, I think, preferable for a number of reasons. I think that we could use a resolution passed by the board to express our intent that these aren't allowed by our code. We don't intend for them to be allowed by our code. We stand by what's currently in our code. But I do think we need to take a look at some of the provisions eventually, perhaps maybe once SB 180 is not an issue. My understanding is there are, not the kind of data centers we're talking about, but smaller versions that are maybe associated with hospitals or, you know, educational institutes. So I think we need to take a look at maybe some definitions in the code and clarifying those remain allowed and others don't. But, you know, we could get certainly with the BDRS staff and planning staff to take a look at something like that. Another nice thing about a resolution is you could pass that at any meeting rather than having to go through the DRC and the LPA and several public hearings before an ordinance like a moratorium could make it to this body. So we certainly understand the issues related with data centers. And I think a resolution stating our intent and reinforcing that that's what this board supports is no data centers, you know, and unincorporated County, I think would be a, I think it would be a good compromise move.

And I, and I really, you talked about it and intuitively it made sense to me, but I don't want to send her down that path unless we felt comfortable. Yeah. Giving her some of that direction, but commissioner Scott, go ahead.

No, I agree completely that I think a resolution would be a really smart thing to do because there's a lot of angst out in the public on this particular item, and I've gotten emails as well as I'm sure all of you have, and they're really pushing us, some groups, to do a moratorium, but we can't because of SB 180, and a moratorium is only good for a year anyways. So I think if we were to do a resolution that just laid out our intent, I think that would just go a long way to building some trust with the public because there's just a concern out there that if we don't do a moratorium, that some slick developer is going to come through here and they're just going to find a way to get it through. And before you know it, we're going to have this. We don't have the space anyways. I mean, let's be honest about it. But I think there's also a big difference, like Jewel was saying, about defining what a data center is. I mean, it's a Google or an Amazon or Microsoft data center that takes up acres and acres and acres. That's for retail purposes. It's a lot different than a data center that the sheriff's office uses or a hospital uses. I mean, they're already here, but they're for in-house specific purposes.

purposes industrial purposes specific to their mission so i think there's a big distinction there between between what they are yeah so but i think resolution is a great idea thank you commissioner scott commissioner flowers thank you mr chair i just want to ask this question just for clarity because pinellas park just recently did a moratorium they had a proposed data center that was going to come over there i know citrus county has done one they did one for 14 months because of something else that was going on So, and you may not know the answer to this. How are they getting around SB 180? Because this is all the state of Florida. So just asking the question because, excuse me, I think I shared with you guys at NACO, there were three huge sessions on data centers because it's all over the United States, the issue or concern. And then I know with the Florida Association of Counties, we had breakout sessions on data centers because it is becoming a real issue in more of our rural communities that have the land available for potential. So, just curious.

Well, one thing I would point out is if you paid attention to the action taken over in Hillsborough, they deferred theirs until the expiration of SB 180, recognizing the potential impact. I wouldn't recommend that you do that either because the language in SB 180 talks about proposing which is something short of adopting. I can talk with you offline about what some of my colleagues in some of those counties have told me they advised their boards that passed ordinances nonetheless. It's a risk. I mean, it's a risk. And also I don't know the status of the ordinances and their land development code in those other communities. Here we have a code that specifically says if a use is not specifically provided for in this code, it is prohibited. I don't know what the codes look like in those other areas. And perhaps it might have just been a risk assessment and they thought it was worth it. Your code doesn't allow for data centers. And some of the look that we might want to take, and I think that some of what you've heard us describe here as far as the smaller ones, those are ancillary to another use. They're not a primary use. So we've got data centers in this county that are ancillary uses, not the primary use, which is what people are upset about. So I can tell you what some of my colleagues have said, but I think that some folks are just taking a risk analysis and deciding that it's worth it for them because perhaps their codes do not already prohibit them.

Thank you. Yeah, Commissioner Peters.

So when I asked this, I don't remember if it was Thursday or when I asked this, the response I got was that Ford Pinellas was working on something that would be countywide and therefore to impact all the cities, so therefore it would truly be countywide versus if the county does something. So, Barry, is that our understanding?

That was my understanding.

And I talked to Whit about it yesterday. And Witt said they hope to have it to us by October, sometime in October. He also said November. I said October would be better, so I'm hoping it comes in October. But I don't think that we should do something different than what Ford Pinellas is going to propose that we're going to then adopt.

Forward Pinellas is a comprehensive plan, and the only regulatory authority Forward Pinellas has is to ensure that the other local governments' plans within Pinellas County are consistent. We would be enacting this through our land development codes. Forward Pinellas has no ability to do that. They can create a model, but it really is not going to have a lot of impact in the other communities. It is best for the individual communities here to handle it themselves in a consistent manner. Now, Forward Pinellas can put into their local rules and their plan a framework with which all of the local governments would have to be consistent.

That's what they're looking at.

That's exactly what they're looking at. But the local land development codes is where you really need to have the restrictions in place.

Okay. Thank you.

And let me just say, a developer could not be denied a data center use strictly because of the Forward Pinellas plan.

But for clarification, this you know this come about by two inquiries into two different one in the unincorporated area and one in. pinellas park and it was simply an inquiry not a formal application and so a lot of the and and that's where people are concerned about it right and the noise that is generated and what they they read and hear without knowing is it an ancillary use is it a big data center um you know what the particulars are we you know we even looked at and i talked to different commissioners about you know water restrictions in use but it's not allowed in Pinellas Park. It's not allowed in our code. So we have those protections in place, but we have not had a formal application.

So okay to have her kind of look into this and bring that forward?

Okay. I would like it sooner than later because we've been talking about this for a long time.

Yeah, I think we can move pretty quickly. Right, you Tom Tom will work with county attorneys on that OK.

Thank you and not not to get into the big discussions about the other thing that's floating around and that's the the flock camera controversy or whatever, which you know again. Uhm, it's all we hear about are the evils of of the of the of the technology and of the of the use. And yet there are many cases and many things that are. Been solved because of it, you know, and so it's not. It's not all bad, but what I have heard repeatedly is that there probably needs to be additional work done. For additional. uh... repercussions for any law enforcement officer that abuses the use of that and abusing to be defined whatever that it is in illegal or personal benefits uh... so i you know again i think it I'm not asking anybody to come forward to explain the technology of flock cameras, but I do think that we probably can look into that aspect. I think regardless of how you might feel individually about them, I think that aspect is probably the one area that we could really make it, because we want to keep this information private. Barry? Commissioner first. Commissioner Scott, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. People have a lot of distrust in government, and this hasn't helped that at all. We didn't make any decisions on any of it. I mean, we don't do that here, right? The sheriff handles that for the county, and the individual agencies handle that amongst themselves. We never voted on it. We never talked about it. Nothing ever came before us on it. Now you're starting to see some agencies come out and talk about it, and I'm glad to see them doing that. Okay, they're talking about some of the good things that it's doing, but the fact that these things just showed up and people are wondering what they are, I mean, it looks like a big, vast surveillance now. I mean, that's what it looks like, and it makes people uncomfortable. It just does. And when it happens without any public input or any comment, People are understandably going to be upset about that. I mean, I don't think that they're being unreasonable. I've talked to a lot of people about these, and some of them are unreasonable, and they're never going to like an answer. But I've talked to a lot of people that are very, like, solid community people that are concerned about it and just wondering where they came from, how they're used, who has access to the data, what are the data retention policies. I mean, those are legitimate concerns. So I'm glad to see that there are some agencies out there actually talk. I mean, Chief Holloway's out there talking about it. Grady Judd's out there talking about him. And I think the more that people do that, people will, they may not like them, but they may at least have a better understanding.

Delay the concerns a little bit, you know, because, yeah. Yeah, I mean, the complaints that you hear about are occasional case around the country where there's been an abuse of that private data and... Go ahead.

In any system, it's, you know, that's no different than an officer sitting in his car and just, you know, plugging in license plates of pretty girls, right? I mean, there have been officers that have been disciplined for things like that, too. So any system like that is... Capable of being abused. There just has to be policies around that to make sure that if it happens that there's, you know.

Well, thank you for the context, because I think that's important as well. Where it's come from and and what our responsibility is for that. But I do think to your point about more groups talking about it. Just.

If you don't talk about it, in the absence of information, they're going to fill in the blanks, and it's not going to be with something good. I mean, it's just not going to be.

Thank you. Appreciate the perspective. Anybody else? Okay.

Can we take a moment for Dolly Parton, who just passed away? She is like an American legend, and if you don't feel that way, but she just passed away. That's fine.

Can you sing something? No, I'm fine.

Can you sing 9 to 5? It's either you or Vince in the wiki. Let me say this.

Any other time I would, but because it's more of a somber moment, I wouldn't do a 9 to 5. Catch me after the 6 o'clock thing. I think my voice will be better, and I'll do one stanza of the I'll Always Love You, because actually she sung that before Whitney Houston. Yes, she did. And she did a wonderful job of it. And so, yeah. But, you know, working nine to five. Her work is done. She's received her wings. And I will feel bad about saying that. I'll be in the newspaper. You know, Renee Flowers is saying you're working nine to five from time to time passing away. Y'all trying to mess with me.

No, we're not. So before we adjourn tonight. A little snippet. Yeah, just a little snippet. Thank you, Commissioner Peters, for that. And like Commissioner Scott, I had a chance to meet Congressman Luna's team here at the courthouse. So it was kind of nice. And she was on her way down. She says, we got to get going because Commissioner Scott's waiting for us. I said, okay, excuse me. And the last thing I would just say, and it's just a brief comment, I wanted to take the opportunity. I don't normally do this political stuff at the dais, but just thank the residents of North County for re-electing me. It was... You know, it's always humble regardless. It's always nerve wracking when you look at seven. It's always 707 too. I tell everybody it's coming at 707 and you just kind of close your eyes and and hope for the best. But I was again honored to be reelected.

So greater percentage than your age too.

Yeah, yeah, just slightly. But anyway, so I was thank you for thank you to the residents. I appreciate it. Is there anything else before we adjourn? Go ahead.

thank you mr chairman uh one thing that i you mentioned doge which sparked something that i talked to barry about um and i don't want to put any carts ahead of the horse but if i run for chair next year and succeed in getting four votes to succeed our distinguished chairman. One of the things that I would like to do, and I talked to Barry about this, is Hillsborough has a citizen doge committee. And that's one thing that I would like us to do. and my idea would be for each commissioner to appoint a resident in their district to serve as somebody on this committee and so there would be seven members and then the chair would serve as a non-voting member each year and then that committee could give recommendations to the commission every year on things in the budget that they would like to see funded. you know, things that they'd like to maybe not see funded, things to decrease, things to increase, things like that. And I think that doing something like that could bring more transparency to the residents, you know, in our budget process, and it would make it a year-round process. uh... if we started this and uh... january and have uh... you know monthly meetings are or bi-monthly me or you know every couple weeks uh... you know something like that uh... it would give uh... you know chris and and his team a little bit more work but they don't have a lot of stuff going on uh... but uh... that's just the thought that that i had and and uh... and if y'all uh... you know if we were to uh... to appoint somebody, if everybody was to appoint somebody to this committee, that's something to start thinking about now.

I think it's a great idea, whether you're the chairman or not. And so we'll see how that vote works out.

You could try to stay on for another year, and then you can be the chairman for your 70th birthday.

But we did have a board of finance at the city of Dunedin that was really effective. I mean, it was good. There was a lot of... pretty fiscally conservative people on there that gave their annual thoughts, but they met monthly at least and kind of followed the commission. They had that retreat in the beginning and kind of followed them with the macro look and then as a budget came, they got more in the detail. So I think it's a great idea. So we can look at that. Probably want to look at that in October so that we get it set up in time for January. Did you have something commissioner here? Oh, okay. I thought you may be Mr.

Chair. Yeah, I'm sorry. Mary Murph will kill me if I forget this. The sickle cell foundation, which does some phenomenal fundraising to support families for children and adults who have been diagnosed with sickle cell. They're having their annual fundraiser and extravaganza. 54 years that that chapter has been in Pinellas County, started by Mary Murph, who both of her daughters had sickle cell. Terry, who was a debutante with me, and we were very dear friends. She passed away, but her older sister is still with us. but she has challenges from time to time. And so Mary would kill me if I did not say, yeah, she, she told me and I forgot. And so the event is September 26th. I'll say it again in September, but it's September 26th from five to eight 30 at the university of South Florida's activity center. So that is the sickle cell. Mary, if you're listening or looking, I did it. That is the sickle cell dinner and musical extravaganza. It's always a very good event. And then they have a person to speak who has been diagnosed with sickle cell. they have them to speak about their journey and that person serves as like the ambassador and they travel all over to share that. And as the FYI, I did not know this. I had a chance to talk with Kathy Woods last year and I found out that one of her arms of her businesses actually funds the research for sickle cell and they were a part of the group that funded the research for the young man that has been cured of sickle cell. That was up in Chicago. I didn't know that until, I had my conversation with her, and she shared with me the work they're doing in Dubai regarding sickle cell. So just a little FYI, something I learned, which I did not know, but very excited. Thank you so very much for the research on it, because now that they've found a way to provide a potential cure, it's still in the research development phase, but it will be phenomenal once it gets past that phase. I can help people. Very nice. Thank you, Commissioner Plower.

All right, last chance. All right, we're adjourned until six o'clock.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Welcome back after our couple hour break there and we are going to straight into public hearings and item 29.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Agenda item number 29 is case number ZON 2604. This is a request by Manuel Jones for a zoning change from GO General Office to R3 Single Family Residential on approximately .21 acre located at 1515 Lakeview Road in unincorporated Clearwater. Since this is a quasi-judicial hearing, all those individuals who plan to speak on this item must be sworn in. For those wishing to speak, whether you are attending in person or virtually, if able, please raise your right hand. Do you swear from testimony you're about to give, is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Signify by saying, I do. The public hearing is properly advertised and an affidavit has, a publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and the matter is properly before the board to be heard.

Thank you, ma'am. Board, any questions, comments, action? Motion by Commissioner Peters for approval. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Again, questions, comments? See nobody to comment from the public. Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 30.

Agenda item number 30 is a petition of Charles and Rita King to vacate a portion of a 33 foot wide right of way known as Portsmouth Road lying east of lots 41 through 43 Gulf Breeze Estates, book 27, page 57, lying in section 30, 29, 16, Pinellas County, Florida. The public hearing is properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and the matter is probably before the board to be heard.

Thank you and Lauren Rubenstein is here if she is needed for any questions. What is the will of the board? Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Scott. Final questions, comments? Bring up the voting card please. Motion carries six to one. Item 31 please.

Agenda item number 31 is a petition of OVSS Gateway LLC to vacate a portion of Poultry Boulevard Road, 86th Avenue North, County Road number 139, declared to be a public road in Board of County Commissioners' Minutes Book 7, page 23, filed on April 17, 1928, lying along the south 33 feet of 4100 Gateway Center Boulevard, Gateway Center Business Park, 97, pages 1 through 13, section 22, 30, 16. Pinellas County, Florida. The public hearing is properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk in the matters properly before the board to be heard.

Thank you. What's the will of the board, please? Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions, comments? Okay, break up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 32.

Agenda item number 32 is a petition of Robert and Kathleen Warren to vacate a northerly 35 feet of the easterly 17 feet of that right-of-way East Lake Drive 105.1 East Lake Drive as recorded in the official records book 5654, page 1434 of the public records of Pinellas County, Florida, lying in section 42716, Pinellas County, Florida. The public hearing was properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and the matter is probably for the board to be heard.

Thank you. Cindy Tarapani is here. If you have any questions of the applicant. And what is the will of the board? Commissioner Peters, a motion. Commissioner Scott, a second. Comments, questions? I'll bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. On to 33.

Agenda item number 33 is a proposed ordinance amending section 11832 of the Pinellas County Code relating to the tourist development plan. The public hearing was properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and the mayor is properly before the board to be heard.

commissioners if i can explain uh this is a commanding item to item 34 and so this would amend the plan to allow for that if you vote no then the answer of what you can do on 34 is fixed at the three million dollars so this just authorizes you uh flexibility on your next item okay motion by commissioner scott second by commissioner latvala any questions comments uh voting card please

One more. Motion carries unanimously. Item 34.

Agenda item number 34 is the fiscal year 2027 elite event funding recommendations from the Tourist Development Council. This is a regular agenda item that is companion to agenda item number 33.

Will the board. Motion by Commissioner Scott.

So can I just make a comment? Sure.

Can I get a motion to put it on the table?

Brian, come on up.

No motion for a second? Second. Okay, second by Commissioner Nowicki. I was going to do that, too. Go ahead, Commissioner.

You know, I talked to Brian, so I understand it, but the number 38 to 44. I know some of these are close to some of our hearts, but I attend that kite festival every year in Treasure Island. It turns out every year they always pick a weekend with bad weather, so they don't really get the return. I guess what I'm saying is I know if it doesn't do well, then next year you've got the data. I get where you're coming from. I understand where you're coming from. I understand we didn't increase the funding for many, many, many, many, many years. So I understand where you come from on that. But if anybody else had issues with those 38 to 44, I think it's worth a conversation. But if you all are good with that, then I'm going to end this conversation right here. Because I can tell you the Saver St. Pete, I don't know that that's bringing in bed tax. I don't know that that's marketing what we need to do. The Kite Festival, they get a lot of vendors, but unfortunately, the weather is always bad and they get maybe one good afternoon. I have not been to the Blues Festival. The spring king of the beach, the main king of the beach is always huge. Spring king, king of the beach is always lackluster. And is it merely meeting the goal that there's, you know, they have parameters. You've got to bring in bed nights and you've got to. And are we just doing events for the sake of doing events because we're nice, or are we going to stick to the rules we created that have data metrics? So that's why I'm bringing it up. If you all are fine with it, I'm good, because next year my intuition tells me these are going to fall by the wayside anyways. So we can give them a year to do it, but... And Brian knows I was going to say this. We talked a lot about this. Go ahead, Brian.

Yeah, and just to address your point, I think you bring up a good point. We finally have data now, and we use Placer to collect data. This is the first time we implemented that data capture resource. And what we found is there were many events that were not producing the attendees and out of town attendees. That we had thought in the past and so those those particular events that you see they fall within that 50% threshold and part of the changes to the guidelines last year that were approved implemented for the first time this year for one time only any event couldn't receive. less than 50% of what they received last year. So it's a one time deal and it gives them one year. So this year they're getting 50% of what they received in the past. If their performance doesn't come up, if they're just equal to what they did last year, they will not be part of the program next year.

It was a way to transition them for one year.

Correct. Give them a chance. So if they do bring their numbers up, they now know they're almost on notice. Here's what you need to do to boost your event. Otherwise, next year, you're at risk of falling out.

Yeah. And I don't disagree that when people are in town and these events are going on, it helps. It enhances their experience. While they're here because they get to go to these events. But I just don't want to be funding events for the sake of funding events unless there is. And so, like I said, I'm good with letting this go. But we've kind of set these rules and then didn't follow the rules. And then we set the rules again. And we're kind of not setting the rules. We're going to give them a transition. We've done this since I got on this commission. that's why they change the way they collect data and uh and i get that i get that we weren't collecting data before i get that but we've done this cycle i can't even tell you how many times and so i'm just bringing it up whatever the will of the board is i'm going to be with you but i'm just bringing it up because we have we have talked about this i think every single year and every single year we don't make a solid decision

Well, I'm really, I'm happy that we've changed the way we try to make, allow events to qualify. Metric driven data. So I'm much happier. It caught a few people probably napping a little bit with our new criteria. So that was the rationale for that one group who didn't qualify, but they get 50% for one time. Mr. Scott, did you have something?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So our methodology in the past hasn't always been perfect, but we continue to refine it as new technology comes online and becomes available and as we learn more. So I'm fine with recommendations here, and I'm confident in the way that we're collecting data going forward, and I think we're going to have really good metrics to evaluate this next year with.

Anything else? Okay, so we did get a motion and a second. Did you get that? Okay. Could you bring up the voting card, please? One more. One more. Oh, there we go. Motion carries unanimously. Item 35.

Agenda item number 35 is an amendment by resolution supplementing the fiscal year 2026 budget, realigning reserves and recognizing unanticipated revenue for requesting departments. The public hearing was properly advertised in an affidavit. A publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and the matter is properly before the board to be heard.

Thank you. Will the board, I'm sorry, what'd you say? A motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Questions, comments? Bring up the voting card please. One more, there we go. Motion carries unanimously and we are almost adjourned. We have one little singing thing that was promised.

Y'all have heard me cough and stuff.

Are you? Okay, well, if you can't. No, I'm serious. That's what I would be doing.

No, I'm serious, though, because you know I don't mind.

Well, let me sing this little, little piece, and then that'll be it, and we'll be gone. All right.

One little piece.

No, I'm serious. I hope. Life treats you kind. And I hope you have all you've dreamed of.

There you go. Wow.

Yay. Thank you. No, I know you like to sing, but thank you. That was wonderful in honor of Dolly Parton today, so thank you.

So when Dolly's team calls me, I'm going to call Dolly's team.

All right. Anything else for the good of the order? We are adjourned.

Thank you.