Board of County Commissioners: Regular Meeting - 06.03.26

Welcome to a meeting of your Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. Representing District 1, Harry Cohen. Representing District 2, Ken Hagan. Representing District 3, Gwen Myers. Representing District 4, Christine Miller. Representing District 5, Donna Cameron Cepeda. Representing District 6, Chris Bowles. Representing District 7, Joshua Wostel. The county administrator is Bonnie Wise. The county attorney is Julia Mandel. Time is set aside at the beginning of each meeting for citizens to speak on any issue. So we have time for everyone. Speakers are asked to limit their comments to three minutes. Today's meeting is brought to you with closed captioning by Hillsborough Television. Welcome to the June 3, 2026 regularly scheduled board meeting of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. Would everyone please rise for the pledge and invocation given by our Chaplain Commissioner, Gwen Myers. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Oh, gracious Heavenly Father, I come to you again, thanking you for your grace and mercy. Father, I ask a special blessing of this board, that how we talk to each other on this board, it is with respect in your name. I pray for our county administrator and our county attorney as they continue to negotiate with the raids, Father. Give them the guidance and the peace. And we as board members understand that it is going to be your will, your way on the final decision. Bless our first responders. Bless all our employees who serve this county. In your holy name I pray, amen. Good morning. This is an award I look forward to every year. I was on the Board of County Commissioners way back in 05 when we established this award, and it's something that I truly look forward to presenting. But it is our pleasure today to present the 2026 Wade Boggs Athletic Achievement Award. The board established this award in 2005 to recognize the exemplary athletic, academic, and community service achievements of a high school baseball player or team in Hillsborough County. Those who win this award are sterling examples of drive and leadership, not just on the field, but throughout their daily lives. The namesake of the Wade Boggs Athletic Achievement Award is a National Baseball Hall of Fame member, 12-time All-Star, and a long-time local resident who graduated from Plant High School and has coached at Wharton. Wade Boggs had an incredible 3,010 hits during his 18-year career in Major League Baseball. He played for the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and the then Tampa Bay Double Rays, where he finished his career. The Rays retired his number 12 in 2000, and the Red Sox retired his number 26 in 2016. Unfortunately, Wade Boggs is not able to be here today. I just want to say that we're extremely fortunate to have Wade in our community. He's incredibly generous with his time and is extremely charitable, always giving back. So, and I also want to say, and he's been here for 21 years in a row for this award, so we can give him a pass on this one year. But I wish him the best, and we'll see you next year, Wade. Standing in for him, though, is Coach Scott Hoffman, the former long-time head baseball coach at Wharton, who is Mr. Boggs' representative on the award selection committee. So, Coach, would you please come join me at the podium? Coach, thank you for being here today, and I'd just like to say a few words before we honor these student athletes. Sure. I know Wade is sad that he can't be here. His apologies to everybody. Thanks, Commissioner, for doing his work, you know, and making sure that he stays relevant in the game. He's very, very in love with the high school athletics as far as baseball goes. I coached with him for 20 years. I had the luxury of listening to this man talk about hitting and life and stuff like that. He's the only guy that I know that with 20 years, he rode a school bus to every game and rode it back. So it wasn't like something where he was just showing up for games. He was there at every practice. So he knows what high school baseball is about. He loves it. And again, he can't, he apologized, he can't be here, but he is truly honored and wants to thank all your parents for raising such wonderful, wonderful human beings. Okay. And now I'd like to thank all the members of the selection committee who reviewed the nominations and recommended this year's honorees. Please stand if you're with us today. They are Tampa City Councilman Charlie Miranda, Anthony Tony Bell, Pop Quest, I don't see Pop here. K.R. Lombardia, K.B. Scholl, Scott Levinson, I don't see Scott, and then Pep Prado. Before we begin the presentations, I want to take a moment to remember someone whose loss we're feeling today, and it's a significant one. Tony Saladino, who passed away last August, was not only Hillsborough County's Mr. Baseball for decades, but he also was a revered educator, coach, mentor, confidant, and goodwill ambassador. I can tell you, not only was Tony a great man, but he had a great memory. And on a personal note, the reason why I can say that is when I first met Tony, I guess it would have been in 05, he said, I know who you are. You made the All-Saladino Tournament Team in 1985, so he had that kind of memory going back almost 20 years. But he always sat beside Mr. Boggs on the front row of this ceremony, a man of unending faith. Tony Saladino represented everything that is great about baseball in Hillsborough County as a community. I will never forget him. We take comfort in knowing that he's once again with his beloved Bertha, and I think it would be appropriate if we could just stand for a moment and remember this wonderful man with a moment of silence. This year, in addition to honoring the overall winner of this prestigious award, the selection committee continued its long tradition of naming two honorable mention recipients, whom we will now recognize. Will the following individuals please join me at the podium? Winston Pennant and head coach Kennedy Duran of Sumner High School. And it's my understanding that Rick Altman couldn't be here today, but if Coach, or Rick is here today, if Rick can please come forward. Thank you for coming. Winston Pennant, who lives in Riverview, is one of the most accomplished athletes in Sumner baseball history. A four-year varsity letterman who plays center and right field, he has demonstrated consistency, leadership, and elite performance throughout his high school career. Serving as a team captain the past two seasons, Winston has been a cornerstone of the program both on and off the field. He is Sumner's all-time career home run leader with 13, as well as a single-season record holder. This past season, Winston hit 400 with 30 hits, 23 RBIs, 22 runs scored, 5 home runs, and 10 stolen basins. Winston's combination of talent, discipline, and leadership makes him an exceptional student-athlete and a standout representative of the Sumner baseball program. He had a 4.2 GPA, reflecting his commitment to challenging coursework. In addition, Winston is deeply committed to serving his community, actively participating in campus cleanups, volunteering his time to help maintain a positive working environment for students, staff, and visitors, and helping shape the next generation of athletes. Further, Winston is a strong supporter of his church's community outreach efforts, contributing to service projects, events, and programs that will assist local families and strengthen community connections. Winston will continue his academic and baseball career at Ole Miss, at least you keep it in the SEC, and I know he will continue to do great things. Congratulations, Winston, on being named a 2026 Wade Boggs honorable mention. Great job. Let's get it up for Winston. Let's share some thoughts, and then, Coach, you're up next. Thank you, everybody. It is outstanding when you have your best player being the hardest worker and a mentor to the younger in our program. Our school has only been open six years, so we achieved great things. Thank you, guys, due to the fact of gentlemen like this. Just an outstanding player, but an outstanding student and a better person. Thank you, guys. I'd like to thank my parents for always pushing me throughout the years and my coaches and teammates for always having my back, and thank you for the community for avoiding me for this, and that's it. And now Matthew Altman. Due to prior commitment, Matthew's unable to be here today, but my understanding, his father is here. If your team needs a win, you want Matthew Altman on the pitcher's mound, where he is absolutely dominating. This past season, Matthew went 13-0. Yes, 13-0. He also had a microscopic .44 earn run average and struck out 83 batters in 79 innings. Opponents only hit 182 against him. According to Max Preps, Matthew's 13-year-old record ranked number one both in the nation and in Florida. This illustrates why he's a perfect game All-American, a prospect-wire All-American, and a first-team All-Western Conference member. Matthew's work ethic, leadership, and mentorship of younger players inspired the entire Gaither team. For instance, this season, he pitched on a Saturday and won. Knowing he would not be able to pitch on Gaither's senior night, he also put team above self. He also has committed to his community, volunteering at his church for three years, at Metropolitan Ministries for more than four years, and with Buddy Baseball. He also volunteers his time to train a 9-and-under team. Matthew's a member of the Gaither Honor Roll and was duly enrolled at HCC. He plans to continue his baseball and academic career at Florida A&M University with plans to study marketing. I'm certain Matthew would continue to make us proud at FAMU, at home, and both on and off the field. But congratulations to Matthew for being a 2026 Wade Boggs honorable mention. Doug, do you want to say a few words? Thank you for putting Matthew up here. He's a hard-working kid, and go Rattlers. Amen. And I want to point out, we have a county attorney whose son, I believe, was starting shortstop for the Rattlers for a few years. I think he just graduated, but got a heck of a program. At this time, would Wilson Anderson, head coach Miguel Menendez of Jesuit High School, please join us at the podium. I'm only done this 21 years. I should know you guys should stay up here, so I apologize. Wilson Anderson has had an absolutely amazing career for the Jesuit High School Tigers. Let's start with this. In Coach Menendez's 12th year at the helm, Wilson is the only player to ever spend his entire career on varsity. Jesuit is a perennial powerhouse, and this is really saying something. Here's something else that's incredible. Wilson has been a valuable member of Jesuit's team that earned four straight trips to the state Final Four, including winning the 2024 state championship, and it gets even better. This season, Wilson helped lead his team to the 2026 state 4A title with a dominating performance on the mound. Six and one-third innings pitched, 12 strikeouts, only one hit given up, and it all added up to a 9-0 victory over Orlando Bishop Moore. For the season, Wilson was 11-2 with a 1.62 ERA and an astonishing 111 strikeouts and only 69 innings pitched. And he can really bring it. His throws in the mid-90s, it hit 98. He's also a force in the batter's box and at shortstop hitting 430 with 40 hits, 36 RBIs, 20 runs scored, 11 doubles, 4 triples, and 4 homers. And he finished the season with a fielding percentage of 940. This young man's a heck of a ball player. An ultimate competitor and true leader, Wilson was voted team captain the last two seasons. His leadership helped shape the Tiger culture and had a massive impact on the team's success. He also was unafraid to have tough conversations with his peers, holding them accountable for everything they do. Wilson also excels in the classroom, graduating with honors with a 3.6 GPA and is an all-star in the community, volunteering over 200 hours in community service while at Jesuit. He's a part of the Agman Christie Service Club, and his faith is a huge part of the person he is. Wilson plans to take his immense talents to Mississippi State University, again in the SEC. Coach, I know you like that. My high school coach and committee appointee, Carol Lombardia, went to Mississippi State. Wilson, congratulations on being named the 2026 recipient of the Wade Boggs Athletic Achievement Award. You're joining some elite company. You epitomized the criteria that the award is designed to recognize. Excellence in all aspects of student-athletes continue to make us all proud. And please display this trophy in a place where everybody can see it. Congratulations. Thank you so much for everyone here that voted for me and everyone that's here today. This couldn't be possible without God and my coaches and my teammates. And, yeah, I'm just so grateful for everyone here. And it was a really awesome year, and it wouldn't be possible without, again, my coaches and teammates. So thank you so much. I just want to thank the committee and thank everybody here for voting for Wilson and continuing to put this award on and recognizing high school baseball in Florida and here in Tampa. It's important. It's valuable. Wilson, I can say a ton of great things about him. You know, the best thing I can say about him is that he makes my job easy as a coach, right? Like, everybody sees all the talent, and that's obviously beneficial, right? I tell people all the time I just got to try not to screw up his name on a line-up card, and we're going to probably be successful that day. But the reality is what he does in the locker room, how he treats the other teammates, you know, how he handles those kind of things off the field is what makes us special and what makes Jesuits special. So I know he won't let you guys down in the future. So thank you again. And, you know, I mentioned earlier Jesuit is a powerhouse, but, you know, they just won their fourth state title. So Coach has got a heck of a program there. And before we take some photos, I just want to say, in closing, as a former player and someone that coached myself, I just want to thank the coaches for everything they do for these kids, volunteering their time, teaching them. I've often said, you know, life's greatest lessons are learned on the ball fields. And so they're teaching them not only the fundamentals of the game, but about life as well. So I want to thank the coaches and all the coaches out there for everything you do. So now let me take a couple quick photos. Scott, we're going to come on too. Congratulations. Congratulations, gentlemen. Okay, Bonnie, you want to change the agenda? Yes. Good morning, commissioners. We have a few items for time certain. The first one is item D1 at 10 o'clock. This is to hold a public hearing to consider a draft ordinance relating to the senior citizen discount for the solid waste non-advalorum disposal assessment. Item D2 at 10 o'clock as well is also a public hearing to adopt the solid waste rate resolution, which establishes the solid waste non-advalorum disposal and collection assessment rates and other user fees and charges and the solid waste disposal and collection rolls. Item F3 at 1015 is Commissioner Miller's item to receive a presentation from HCSO regarding fence, regulations, and challenges that they are facing. 1145 is recess for lunch. Those are the changes to the agenda. I have a motion to approve the changes. I have a motion to approve. Second. Motion to approve the changes. Commissioner Meyer. Second, Commissioner Cohen. Please record your vote. Change of the agenda. Motion carried, 7 to 0. Okay, it's time for the board to go into public comments. The board welcomes comments from the citizens about any issue or concern. Your opinions are valued in terms of providing valuable input to board members. However, at the same time, it is requested that when you address the board, the comments are not directed personally against staff or the board members, but rather the issues. We've set aside 45 minutes for public comment this morning. The chair will call speakers by name in the order in which their requests to speak have been received. Each person will be given three minutes. Please state your name and speak clearly into the microphone. The first three speakers, Tom Cobert, followed by Denise Herndon, and then Carol McElloz, I believe. Morning, Mr. Cobert. Morning. Mr. Chairman, commissioners, staff, and deputies, good morning. My name is Tom Cobert. I'm here to address F3, the property tax thing coming out of Tallahassee. I have never seen a proposal move that fast at the state level in my life. In the old days, you know, people would say that smells like old, weak old fish. They're looking to decimate us at the county level statewide, and it's all for the governor's benefit, and I'm not going to get into why he's doing it. We have a county commissioner that saw what was being done, and that's why we have F3. And we need to work together and work with the other counties in the state of Florida and kill this. Right now, they're counting on the citizens not realizing, yeah, they might get a break on their property taxes, but they're going to lose so much in public services, it's going to be unbelievable. And as a community activist, I'm not going to remain idle in this, and I proved my worth back in the early 90s. Phyllis Pazansky named me one of the seven movers and shakers, and I've learned a lot since then. But I know that y'all are going to do the right thing, and I'll be in touch. Thank you for listening. Thanks, Mr. Colbert. Denise Herndon, followed by Carol McElos, who's virtual, and then Surgret Doss. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Denise Herndon. I'm here to speak about A20. I went to a town hall meeting last month of Gwynn Myers, and it was more like a political agenda, clapping everything that was done and then putting down somebody that was running against her. This is on the agenda A20 to transfer some county property. It's this 100 right here in the center of this red. Well, and that's to help alleviate the flooding and Progress Village. Well, Gwynn Myers, I don't believe that you were really fighting for the people of Progress Village. We had a downpour rain there, and this event was at the new splash pad on 78th Street, just south of Progress Boulevard. The sidewalk was the only place to cross the road, and it was nice that they had that flashing light, but I couldn't even walk on the sidewalk because it was flooded as I get down, and this was south. So the gentleman that is running this company to do the flooding issue and to have this portion of this land right here, it's the 100. It's kind of like in the center here. Well, the man running this, he's had something to do with this complex, and he owns all of this vacant land right in here all the way up to Progress Village. This man has been involved with the Hillsborough County and State of Florida. I was looking stuff up, and I was getting a real good brain exercise on this considering how many companies he's owned or been involved with since 01. 2001 that I could find, and there's even more. Like I had said last month, magic works by illusion or distracting somebody when you don't tell everything that's going on. And Gwen Myers, I went to just about every one of your town hall meetings, and I almost didn't go to your one last month. Thank God I did because I found out what you were truly doing there. You were popping yourself up and saying it's all for flooding, but how is Progress Village going to be really benefiting from this when in the future, the man that owns the company or... Thank you. Is Carol on the line? And then followed by that is Surgret Dawson, Nadia Askar. It's not on the line. Okay. Surgret Dawson, followed by Nadia Askar Virtual, and then Sarah Grossman. Good morning, sir. Good morning. I didn't know this was a track of my time. I'm Surgret Dawson. You know, Florida's Constitution, Article 4 particularly, it has provisions that lay out veterans services because Florida has its own Department of Veterans Affairs. And I know that the federal government provides states, and, you know, the county is going to get some portion of that to ensure that there are services that are known to veterans. And a lot of veterans aren't aware of these services being out there. And one of the things that I wanted to talk about today was, in Hillsborough County, there's a fee waiver when it comes to certain filings in the state court. One of the questions that are asked delves into whether or not a veteran is receiving veterans benefits, but also about the veterans' compensation. And because we know that the veterans' compensation is actually not income, that line item should be excluded from the waiver application, or there should be some sort of process that allows veterans to be vetted, whether it's through some other system. But these things are already provided for, but they're not being enforced over here. Ironically, I was here the other day and you didn't call me up when you gave out, you called May Good Services Month or whatever, and I saw Chief Judge Sabella and some other people here. And I just thought it was pretty coincidental that I didn't get a chance to speak to this issue back then. The bottom line is, there's too much red tape involved with veterans receiving services that we've already earned and that everybody, and I think it should be for everybody, by the way. But we have a special place because only 6% of the people in this country, as some of you all know, have ever put on a uniform for this nation. I also wanted to speak to the fact that there is a, the nation's largest insurer, State Farm, has an admitted practice of taking advantage of veterans who've been injured in accidents. I think that, you know, I'm speaking to the whole world when I'm speaking here, but especially to those veterans who are on this panel. you might want to look into that. And also they took advantage of a senior in the case that I'm very familiar with. And I appreciated seeing you all give the awards to the young people. And it's interesting, you all, they mentioned schools that I'm familiar with. I have a daughter who graduated from Sumner a year early and she's in college now. I have a son who graduated from Jesuit and he's in his senior year at UCF, wants to be a kinesiologist. He's going to go to grad school. And I also have a daughter who got her pharmacy degree. She's actually a doctor of pharmacy from FAMU. So I appreciated those schools and I'm giving them a shout out. And as always, I actually appreciate the fact that the Rays are going to be and remain local. And I'm a little biased because two former Rays, Tino Martinez and Fred McGriff, attended the same institution and I did, which is actually the greatest institution of higher learning in the city of Tampa, the University of Thomas Jefferson High School. You all take care. Thank you, sir. Our next three speakers are virtual. Nadia Askar followed by Sarah Grossman and Farrah Shaheen. Is Nadia on the line? Good morning. Good morning. So my name is Nadia Askar. I am a resident of Hillsborough County. I'm here to speak about the county budget in hopes to ensure that the people of Hillsborough County, that their needs are met. I'm here to also support the demands of local community members who all want funding from the county to be removed from FIBA, the Florida Israeli Business Accelerator and Israeli-linked businesses so that we can instead focus on supporting local businesses owned by Hillsborough County locals. Our Hillsborough County funds belong to citizens of Hillsborough County and our budget should support that. Our budget should support our community and our local businesses so that they can thrive. The businesses that FIBA brings to Hillsborough County are in no need of any financial support. For example, Extend Defense, a company that specializes in military-grade AI drones used by Israeli soldiers. They are currently merging with JFB Construction Holdings for an estimated $1.5 billion on the stock market. Our tax dollars should not be given to bring billion-dollar international corporations that are complicit in violence and genocide to Hillsborough County rather than upholding the local economy. The county is responsible for allocating our taxes responsibly and based on what the people actually want. Based on Hillsborough County surveys, you know, several in-person conversations, collections from hundreds of pledges, it is not real. Working-class people are struggling to pay for rent and food and Israeli companies are not driving economic rules that support these working-class people or any of the initiatives that programs that would actually benefit the community. CHIBA claims that these businesses would create local jobs but in reality, Hillsborough County residents are employed, the few Hillsborough County residents that are employed and these jobs are centered in AI industry which is inherently seeking a replace worker. We have major needs that need to be met locally and putting money in a foreign entity, profiting from war, and murder will not make our lives better for us here. So we need to keep these funds locally to address our local issues, support our local businesses and other needs that benefit the people of this county, right? Across the county in Hillsborough, people are struggling to get by. An estimated 67% of people are living from each check to paycheck. So the funds allocated each year can be spent, can be better spent on social programs, affordable housing, elder care, public transportation improvements, food security, local initiatives that benefit citizens rather than Colton's Farms and other parts of the world. We must cut ties that we have, any ties that we have with genocide and war wherever possible and spend these tax dollars on programs that we desperately need, that Hillsborough County residents desperately need. We demand that our county budget reflect... Appreciate your comments. Is Sarah Grossman on the line? Yes, good morning. Good morning. Hi, my name is Sarah Grossman. I am also calling about the county budget. I am calling to urge you to vote no on the Hillsborough County FY27 budget if it allows any money to FIBA supporters of Business Accelerator because FIBA supports companies that are directly contributing to the genocide in Palestine and would be better spent on Hillsborough citizens' needs. There are 116 non-profits that are planned to receive less of Hillsborough County funding than FIBA in 2027 and most of these programs are for children and families. The list includes several crisis centers, cultural groups, and medical support groups. Some of these are the Humane Society, NAACP Empowerment Center, and Tickle Cell Association. Hillsborough County's general funds belong to the citizens of Hillsborough County and should be used by social programs that benefit us such as public transit, affordable housing, infrastructure, youth programs, education, sustainability. Before I go, I just want to be clear that my issue is not with the county spending money on non-profits. My issue is just with funding a genocide. Even though the county intends to remove all recurring funds to non-profits in 2029, I am calling to demand no funds go to Israel starting now. Thank you. Thank you. Final speaker, Faris Shaheen. Commissioner Faris is not on the line. Okay, thank you. That closes the public comment. Can we have a motion to approve consent? Move to approve. Second. Motion, Commissioner Myers. Second, Commissioner Cohen. Please record your vote on the consent agenda. Motion carried, 7-0. Okay, Arnie, first item. We have time before our 10 o'clock time certain, so we'll move to item B1. This is to receive a presentation on an unsolicited public-private partnership for lodging for declaring during emergencies. And John Muller will take us through this item. Chief Dougherty is here and Kevin Brickety are also here as needed. Morning. Okay, good morning, Chair and Commissioners. John Muller, Director of Facilities Management and Real Estate Services. Go ahead, HCV, and put up our presentation, please. Today, I'm presenting a public-private partnership or P3 for emergency management lodging. Here with me today, Bonnie pointed out, the chief, but also senior county attorney, Jared Delfino, who worked on this as well. I'll preface this brief by stating that first, there's a lot on these slides. That is because the information on these slides form the basis of what will be a public interest determination. We aren't presenting that determination today. That's a second step dependent upon your approval. However, I am definitely presenting to you the outline of what that looks like. And secondly, and this is for the public as well, I'll note that a P3 in its basic form could be viewed as having two components, a method of financing and a sharing or elimination of risk. So the opportunity today is to be the owner of the ground beneath a 102-room hotel located about 0.9 miles from our public safety operations complex. I'll repeat for clarity to be the ground owner, not the owner of the hotel building. The private partner that's proposing mainsail lodging and development is well-known locally and is a owner-operator of 14 hotels. So why? Well, when constructed 10 years ago, PSOC's lodging for the over 350-plus personnel that could be working in and out of that there during a storm event was value engineered out. We have sought lodging alternatives. Guaranteeing a hotel close by would have cost-hardening, which we would not be able to walk away with easily, and an annual payment or some cost each year. So we looked at, hey, can we just rent an adequate space? We also considered building small lodging quarters at PSOC, which had some level of basic privacy. This, we determined, was expensive, but also created an asset which would sit idle if not used and be a constant demand of maintenance and operational dollars. For this reason, in the upcoming PSOC expansion, we really just opted for more additional much-needed showers and restrooms with an open bay. So that's the path that has led us here to consider this proposal, which you can see on the lower right. In short, it's an investment by us of $7.5 million to become the landowner, harden the hotel with $2.5 million of that money, receive lease payments, receive free use of all rooms during declared events and storms, and receive 1,000 nights a year at half cost to create another revenue stream. I'll note that the sportsplex is the likely candidate as they are located 0.9 miles away. I have to note this is an opportunity where the timing is unique. It was when we were evaluating hotels, we liked this hotel. It was one of our preferred ones and for its proximity, kitchenettes, on-site laundry, but by chance, this hotel happened to be put up for sale as part of a larger portfolio last year. So I have copied again here from the mainstream proposal to again highlight the benefits. I'll note that the ground lease payments of $150,000 a year would increase 2% over a year for a 30-year term. I'll also note that we tweaked down the starting value of additional room nights to $80,000 per year. And lastly, I will note that we intend for all tax revenues to continue. Room tax revenue continues. The hotel currently pays about $164,000 in ad valorem. This will continue as the hotel owner is private and we will ensure the ground portion has a payment in lieu of taxes agreement in the case it should be determined as a muni-exempt. So we'll still recoup that revenue and keep that going. We also see these taxes most likely increasing primarily because upon the sale and improvements, the assessed value should increase. This is a very preliminary look at the investment. I will note we do intend to have an outside independent review done should you authorize us to proceed. We have not included the tax revenues here increases because those are existing today. What we have looked at is how quickly do we think that review will show our investment back. We believe the independent review should show this somewhere around the 21-year range plus or minus. If the value of the land appraises as we think it were and if the monies that we put towards hardening, that if you look at just that portion, we think that'll be by year 26. But the point is we don't see this as some sort of payback that we'll never get back in the 30-year horizon. We feel this is a sound deal for our end. We also believe the value of the income that we estimate to be generated from the 1,000 room nights that we would get at 50% would essentially pair up with the upfront money we're paying. As we pay the $7.5 million, we're really paying for hotel rooms in the future. But then we get that money back on these half-room nights. And we think that is going to show out to be awash based on our assumptions. But really, finally, being the ground owner allows us to be in a prime position should the worst happen, a foreclosure or other. We will place protections in to recoup the investment dollars that could be unused during the initial years of the 30 years. We'll also ask for the hotel owner to submit his formal pro forma. He has put a pro forma. It's a little difficult to read, but I will tell you that his net income is estimated at $300 to $400 per year. I think that's very fair considering the risks that he is taking on and running the entire operation. So let's talk about some other risks. So, of course, we're going to look at flood and storm surge. So the hotel is in, the hotel is in a position where it sits behind the Mango Canal, which connects to Six Mile Creek. With regards to flooding, the models show the buildings and properties to be out of, the building and properties proper, to be out of the 100 and 500-year floodplains. The canal, of course, which some of it sits on our property, shows 100-year floodplains. And if you look over at the right on the storm surge, the storm surge has the creek being primarily in evacuation zone C and a touch on B. I note this because the hotel is proper, is really in zones D&E, which is the exact similar situation with PSOC. So we are comfortable that this property would have to receive a storm surge of over 22 feet before an issue. And as a reference mark, Helene, I think, was seven feet of storm surge. And lastly, I note we have an opportunity with the close proximity to consider dedicated fiber connections, between PSOC and the hotel for secure networks. Bringing it home. So with regards to the P3 and next steps, this is a qualifying project with the purpose being emergency management. Today's presentation is a duly noticed public meeting. I'll note the statute requires a meeting, not a hearing. What we are asking today is to come back in short order with the public interest determination statement, the public comment that we receive at the next meeting and a proposed final agreement. The requirements of the public determination you can read in the statute, but really most of it I've covered today. Given the unique requirements of the type of hotel, proximity to PSOC, we are using the public determination option and not a public bidding process. We would also ask for funding of the seven and a half million. Four million would come from the existing PSOC renovation project. As I stated, it wasn't enough really to do what we want to do, so we do have funding there available. But lastly, we do and would plan on requesting three and a half million from construction reserves. And so in closing, I'll just note that should you prove this item today, specifically, you've received this presentation, but items B and C is that we're determining this to be a qualifying project and authorizing us to take the next steps to do the public determination and bring back the negotiated proposal. We're here for any questions. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Going to board discussion, Commissioner Myers. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to see if the chief want to say something before I make comment. Chief Donnery. Thank you, Commissioner. Good morning, all commissioners. I just want to thank our county administrator and deputy county administrator and John and the other folks that worked on this. I can tell you this is something we've been looking at for the past 10 years on how we can better serve not just our community, but the folks that serve the community and two years ago many of y'all were there at the PSOC when we endured the three storms back to back to back and we have to do something to provide better for our folks that are serving the community. We were sleeping in offices on floors in different places. This is a great opportunity that I think does keep the taxpayers' interest in mind and will help save the county money, but it's something much needed, so I appreciate everybody that has worked on this project and presented this to you all today and hopefully you can support this moving forward. Thank you. And thank you, Chief. Between you and John, you all kind of highlighted all my comments, but this is a win-win for our county, so I'm going to move to approve item B1 as presented to us. So we've got a motion to approve Commissioner Meyers, second Commissioner Miller, Commissioner Bowles. John, this came to me and I would have asked you this prior to this. With us owning the land, if there's a liability issue, who's going to be responsible for injury, death, anything like that? Because if we own the land and we essentially own the property, not the building. Do you want to answer it? I would like it. Attorney Delfino answered. Good morning, Commissioners. Jared Delfino, assistant county attorney. Liability would be on the ground lease tenant, so they would be responsible for any and all liabilities that would occur on the premises. So, you know, we have the deeper pockets, presumably, and so there would be... We also have immunity under the statutes, sovereign immunity, so if there was any liability, it would be capped under statute. Okay. Commissioner Rostell. What's the total property tax abatement for the period, this 30-year period? So we intend for the taxes to continue. Am I answering your question? Well, if we're going to own the land, that means they're abated from some portion of property taxes, right? No. What we're going to do, commissioners, for the ground lease portion, we estimated just say 10%, but we intend to put, after consulting with the property appraiser, they may or may not make that determination. That's unknown, but what we'll do to protect ourselves for that 10% is we're going to put in our agreement the pilot, the payment in lieu of taxes. So we intend to get that ground lease portion regardless. Okay. And is there going to be any type of credit to the county for years that you don't have to use these rooms? Not at this point. That wasn't part of the proposal structure. So, but I think we'll take a look at that in the financial analysis. On the other hand, the risk looking at from the operator's side is, as far as I read our deal, the declared disaster emergency could be unlimited as well. And so if you look at my presentation, we had done an estimate of 1,000 room nights, which is roughly along with the 1,000 room nights that we get back. So if we use 1,000 room nights a year for emergency, we're also getting 1,000 room nights at half rate to generate revenue back. So we're trying to watch that. Okay. And this will only be applicable when the county administrator declares a state of emergency, right? Right now, it's during a declared emergency event. All right. Thank you. Okay, I don't see anyone else in the queue. We have a motion. Commissioner Myers, second Commissioner Miller, please record your vote. The motion carried with seven to zero. Thanks, John. Thanks, Chief. Thank you very much. Bonnie. Thank you. We have time still. So item B2 is our executing our agreements with the construction firms regarding the CDBGDR program for the single family housing program. This is to repair or reconstruct approved applicant storm damaged homes. And Rob Hendrickson will take us through this item. Audrey Ziegler is here and our consultants if needed. Good morning. Rob Hendrickson, management and budget and rebuilding for tomorrow, CDBGDR program manager. The purpose of this item is to bring the construction firm's Ducky Recovery and Dynamic Group under contract to repair and rebuild homes for our program, our single family housing program, for which in the last month we've already received just shy of 1,000 applications. Our HUD approved action plan, if you recall, allocates $211 million to this program of which we anticipate spending $165 million on repairs and reconstructions which will get us to approximately 7 to 800 repairs and reconstructions together. We're looking at that mix as we go forward. The reason each of these contracts is set at $90 million, which of course totals more than $165 million is because we've built in flexibility to provide more work to either of the two firms, either based on capacity or performance, which we will closely monitor. The second part of this agenda item refers to the delegation of authority and we know that the board shares our objective to help homeowners as quickly as possible. For that reason, the agenda item asks for the board's approval to delegate the approval of change orders to the county administrator and by extension to our capable housing lead, Audrey Ziegler. Lastly, note that authorizing our team to approve change orders will not change the fact that these contracts are bound by light item pricing, that we must still operate within the allocated HUD-approved budget, and that any contract modifications would be brought back to you for approval. I'm available for any questions. All right. Thank you. Commissioner Rostel. After we selected this, I asked both organizations when did they expect to be able to start swinging hammers and both of them predicted sometime in the middle of next year. So when you guys came back and predicted August, I was surprised and confirmed that they were also surprised. So whatever you and Director Ziegler did should probably be shared with other people in other jurisdictions because in my findings, no one has moved this quick after approval to get to actually swinging hammers. so I'll move for approval. Second. Okay, we've got a motion to approve. Commissioner Rostel, second Commissioner Myers. Please record your vote on B2. Motion carried 7 to 0. Thank you. B3. Thank you. Our next item is item B3. This is to execute agreements with the three highest ranked firms for emergency debris management services for the solid waste department. Scott Stromer will take us through this item. Good morning, Scott Stromer, Director of Procurement. I'm asking the board to approve and execute five agreements, five-year agreements with the three highest ranked firms for disaster debris management services, Crowder Gold Joint Venture Incorporated for Zone 1, Ceres Environmental Services for Zone 2, Phillips Environmental LLC for Zone 3. The estimated total expenditure for the contract term based on historical usage and the best guess is about $125 million. All three of the recommended firms are highly qualified and experienced. All three were fully engaged in 2024 to help with the extraordinary successful cleanup of the debris caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Prior to 2017, the best I recall, we only had one contractor for debris management. In 2017, the county went to two contractors, splitting the county into two distinct areas. The current solicitation calls for the award of three contractors, splitting the county into three distinct areas to improve readiness, including the ability for the award of contractors to also assist in the other zones if needed. The current solicitation also included updated federal clauses and requirements, language pertaining to the county's disadvantaged business enterprise requirements, which was replaced with the new small business encouragement requirements. And the current solicitation also included significant updates in addition to the pay items and services to better align with FEMA's latest recommendations and requirements, all of which are required and or aimed at ensuring maximum federal reimbursement. The procurement process, evaluation, and recommendation also fully complies with the applicable code of federal regulations procurement standards, which is also required for federal reimbursement. Because of the deferment from the last meeting upon board approval, the agreements will be changed to reflect the term beginning on the date of board approval and continue through June 30, 2031, prior to execution by the board chair. With that, I recommend approval. All right, thanks, Scott. Commissioner Bowles. You described why we're moving away from the proven model that we had used with the four versus the three. Is it to align with the current waste management pickup zones or because I don't want to go backwards in my point of view that we provided absolutely excellent service to the citizens of Hillsborough County with the four zone model. and since primarily this is kind of reimbursed at some point and sometime, maybe not 100%, by federal governments, I don't want to get hung up on low bid options where we're kind of putting aside safety, security, and comfort of our citizens to save a buck that we're going to get back in the end. Okay, so the county for years only had one. Beginning in 2017, we had two, which has continued for the last nine years. In the latest iteration, Public Works has asked for three, and that was prior to 24, to make sure we were good to go. That solicitation was still in limbo, it was under protest, so it was still kind of in flux. So we had two, so 24, so everybody understands, we had two contractors at the time. Because of the way the storms were coming in, we already had debris from the first storm. So we had to make a very quick decision to quickly grab the resources that were available, which were the other two firms. And the only way I could do that is because I already had a solicitation. I had an RFP, I had all the pricing, so it was going to meet the FEMA requirements for competition. So I just asked those other two that submitted if they would be willing to come in and perform the service, and so they did. So we did an emergency with them, with those two, but we already had two under contract. As for why three are specified, I'll have to defer to Public Works on why they thought that was going to be the best thing. I mean, I can just say, just from the logistics, the more firms you get, the more it is to manage, and the more firms we grab, certainly with the statutes, with them changing that there may be penalties if you don't show up, once we capture those firms, it may impact other cities and counties using that same resource. So if we have four, they can only do so much. So, but for why the three, I'd have to defer to Public Works on what the rationale was. Okay, thank you. And I understand, but we had four, worked out pretty darn good. We had eight years of debris, millions of cubic yards of debris picked up in three or four months. I think that going backwards is a mistake. And again, in my personal opinion. And I do thank you for your comments. To that, I'd actually, I can make a motion, Mr. Chair. Yeah, please. In order. I move that the board directs staff to evaluate options to enhance the county's current disaster debris management model by maintaining a fourth debris removal provider and corresponding fourth operational zone in recognition of the operational benefits associated with increased capacity, redundancy, and post-storm response flexibility. If staff, at some point, or legal counsel, should determine that legal, I see you moving toward your microphone there, that this procurement or contractual constraint to prevent modification of the current solicitation at this stage of the process, I further move that staff return to the board with options to extend the existing contracts for up to one additional year and reissue or amend the solicitation to allow for four three removal providers and four operational zones. I'll second. Julia and Bonnie, did you get all that? Yes. This particular solicitation only, by its terms, called for three vendors. So we would have to rebid the entire thing to bring in a fourth vendor, which is possible, I believe, Scott, for us to do. And I think what would need to occur is if we went ahead, rejected all of the bids now and reiss, did a new solicitation, then there's existing contracts that would need to come back as soon as possible to be able to continue service through this hurricane season. All right, so do you recommend that Commissioner Paul amends his motion or to save a step or are we fine with what's on the floor? With what he's put on the floor is fine, just know that step part one cannot be accomplished so it would have to be part two. So whether or not he wants to amend it or not, I'll leave to him. If it stands, okay, I'm fine either way. If we can't do it, I just figured since there was a backup already provided that there was a possibility of just adding it because, you know, I'm not sure what the metric or what standard hits and I know you probably can't answer this question. It would be, you know, Bookworks or whoever it is that would make that decision at what point but if we had that opportunity to do that at some point in the future, why couldn't we do it now? But if that's the case and the easiest path forward is just extend the contract for a year and then come back with an RFP that provides the four zones and maintain the standard that we've, the excellent standard that was put forward in this last, then I think we're... At this point, my recommendation is to go with the second part of your motion but certainly with both parts of your motion being in play, we can have further conversations but I believe the most appropriate thing to do would be to just go ahead and rebid but we can talk about that with the administration and figure out the best path. We'll get a motion. Commissioner Bowles, second Commissioner Miller. Commissioner Wollstall. It doesn't look like anyone's going to cue to oppose it but just to reinforce your point is that Director Guthrie from the Florida DEM came in here and praised the county and I would argue that pre-planning for the four this time instead of reacting with an emergency bid would allow those organizations to be prepared to have those resources on hand ahead of time instead of surprised. So I wouldn't want to do anything that goes backwards like you said away from all of the praise that the county got during Hurricane Milton which to be clear I hope we don't have to utilize these four organizations so I'll be supportive. Commissioner Miller. Thank you Mr. Chair. I asked this question in my briefing but just for the benefit of the public can you confirm that there's not going to be any gap in services should we have something unexpected happen in the next few weeks? There could be. I mean there could be. The only thing I just want to point out that remember that the previous agreement only has two. We have the ability to do three now. We can have those in place and we can redo that. We'll give public works have them take a look at those requirements and go to the four but at least if we can use the existing contracts for this season there won't be a gap and we can continue on but I just I mean I appreciate that we want to have as many but going back to two would be somewhat it may hurt a little bit and those are 2017 contracts that have really kind of outdated terms and conditions when it comes to federal reimbursement so I just want to make sure and there's the pay items on there too are quite a bit more brief than the more comprehensive one that we have now that's completely updated. So in the motion on the floor is to come back next year you could come back sooner than that though correct? Sure. Okay. So would that be the intent? I'm sorry. Yeah it'd be nice to have these in place you know through the hurricane season this year and then we can start working with public works right now to get that solicitation out on the street. Right. I hear it doesn't appear to be the pleasure of the board they seem to be moving forward with this but thank you very much. Commissioner Mars. Thank you Mr. Chair. I would support the three that we currently have you know as a former county employee you know once we do our bid solicitation and we come to the board of asking the board to go ahead and vote and then we get someone that wants to make a call to commissioners to change because they're not in the loop or they wasn't a part of the bid well that's unfair to all those who have taken the time to meet all the qualifications of the county in the specification document and that's what it appears again today so I would not be supporting this I think we have three I do believe in adding more but to add more later we're already in the hurricane season right now you know anything can pop up we at least have three that can go out and pick up all of the debris we had so much during the last two hurricanes that hit us back to back and so I just believe in what staff has put together and presented to this board in a way of solicitation and everyone had the opportunity to bid and did not make the cut so I will support what staff has presented thank you Thank you Mr. Bowles Thank you Mr. Chair I'm not sure about phone calls or whatnot but the idea is not to go backwards from a model that seemed to be an excellent resource that we used in this last process cleaning up debris I know you're saying that we have three contract a contract for two whatever we did to get the four that's what needs to extend forward that's what I want to happen extend that contract and as far as the other the idea of again low bid because when we go back to 24 when the I want to say the protest I believe it was the end of 24 that there was a protest and I brought up the idea of that we were going I want to say it was somewhere around $7 a cubic yard and again to me doing that when the next one was at 11 and now in this last bid and I don't understand how anybody can save 22 million or 20 something million dollars in today's economy when everything from November to today certainly is a lot more you can ask anybody in this audience and anybody sitting at this board if they're not paying more at the gas pump no one's getting anything less so that being the case at the very least we need to have keep the same model that provides the same level of service that we gave to our citizens out there and it was excellent and from that point you know going backwards to three going to two is a step in the wrong direction thank you all right we got a motion Commissioner Bull sign Commissioner Merrill and I'm just going to say years ago I'm the commission that fought to have two vendors so I certainly support moving forward in this direction we've got a motion in a second please record your vote motion carried six to one Commissioner Myers voted no thanks Bonnie first time certain yes our first time certain is 10 o'clock it is item D1 this is a public hearing relating to the senior citizen discount for solid waste non-advalorum disposal assessment and Hank Ennis from the county attorney's office will take us through this public hearing Hank Ennis county attorney's office commissioners this is a public hearing to consider an amendment to the county solid waste ordinance the ordinance clarifies that when seniors qualify for the senior citizen discount on the solid waste disposal assessment they do not have to qualify again while they still live in their home and the draft ordinance clarifies that the discount terminates when the sale of the home occurs or the home is no longer occupied by the senior citizen this is a public hearing right thank you this is a public hearing one individual has signed up to speak Denise Herndon good morning I'm Denise Herndon since I get this discount because I'm low income at the town hall meeting last month there was a woman that had her home damaged a lot well then she's not an occupant of it so I'm wondering is this occupant meaning that they don't own the home anymore or what is it because some people are still waiting to have their home repaired my home's up on stilts we're going to have to have more than a 22 foot storm surge to flood my home my neighbors around it's a different story I've been blessed and thank God this commission had gotten together with public works to remove the swell that was over the now right-of-way that Sharon Kinney supposedly owns and I know Gene Munger the man that lives on the west side of me had something to do with putting that swell there and if it was not removed his house would have been flooded because he's not up as high as I am because the majority of the water that that swell was diverting to his property I had it going to in between our homes because we live on a lake and it's in between the homes and it just goes to the water I've never seen so much water come up in the almost 27 years I've been in this home as it did with the last storm and I believe somebody was pumping water because for three days we still had water coming I had water pooling on my property but going back to the I don't do social media or anything and I don't get to voice my opinion on too many things but concerning this discount there's people around my lake that have split up property this is just in my area how many other places where properties are split up and they're not paying any any non-ad valorem garbage in collection there's a problem with that so the only issues that I have is occupancy is it because it's damaged during storm we haven't had that many since we've been here in Hillsborough County since 92 and this is supposed to be a low season this year so thank you I thank you that closes public comment Commissioner Bowles thank you I want to thank staff actually for kind of acquiescing to some of my requests with the changes in the ordinance also with solid waste and coordinating with the clerk's office on enhancing their systems and actually I'll address Ms. Herndon's concern one of the changes that I asked was that when the sale of a property occurred at the property appraiser's office not when there was an occupancy change but when there was a sale that that would then transfer and revert back to the away from the discount and that wasn't actually captured in the ordinance and I think with the enhanced changes that we're seeing here at the county and our coordination with the clerk's office some of that we talked about with the API and some other enhancements with the two systems talking to each other and if you got if you all recall last year it was identified that there was a problem with this with our auditor and recently they identified almost as much as $650,000 or more in being captured with this change so in lost ad valorem dollars that will now be recovered so that in itself kind of demonstrates the importance of this ordinance and getting it passed through so again thank you staff and certainly to Victor Christ as well thank you thank you Mr. Chair Mr. Chair would you like to make a motion motion to adopt second motion Commissioner Bowles second Commissioner Wollstall please record your vote motion carried 7-0 D2 D2 is also a public hearing sticking with solid waste this one is for the annual solid waste assessments for rates fees and charges and for the collection rolls George Cassidy will begin this presentation and then Damien Trammell will take it from there it is on good morning George Cassidy public utilities this item is a public hearing to consider solid waste rates for the fiscal year 27 for the department and so as we've been looking at this and preparing for this I was reflecting on the journey that the solid waste department has taken over the last couple of years and I thought it was fair and it was important to share a few things with you so dating back about 2018-2019 we were winding down a series of contracts for collection at that point in time a couple of the contractors that we had on board were struggling financially and what we found at that point in time was that struggling financially to do a service ends up hurting the service and our services suffered to our community I will tell you right now that our phones rang non-stop with customers upset that we'll miss pickups that we weren't doing what we were supposed to be doing as those contracts wound down we started envisioning a new scope of services for the current contracts we were given direction by the board to put assurances in the new contract that we would have reliability in the equipment that we would have assurances that there were adequate resources that if a truck went down there was another truck available to continue the services and so we did that so we've got equipment reliability we've got additional resources and one very important feature in the contracts that we have today is something to insulate the contractors against inflationary impacts it's a CPI index so it's a consumer price index it's posted we apply that annually to keep them whole in their business model so that we continue to have high levels of service the rate plan that we're proposing for you today is simply those embedded CPI indexes in the contracts that we have for collections and also for disposal Damien's going to come up and share a little bit more detail on the solid waste program as well as how these index are applied and at the end it is really a focus on keeping these contracts whole to maintain the services that we're enjoying so thank you very much Damien good morning commissioners Damien Trammell solid waste management department director item D2 is a public hearing to adopt the annual solid waste assessment fees rates and charges next slide during the May 6th board meeting I presented an overview of the solid waste system I will again briefly provide an overview of our system with the recommendation at the conclusion of the presentation our goal is to ensure adequate disposal capacity for both current and future residents while improving our collection and disposal system with a focus on public health and safety next slide curbside collection services are provided to more than 327,000 single family homes each week and we also provide collection services to 20,000 commercial businesses our infrastructure include a landfill a waste energy facility also known as the resource recovery facility two transfer stations two yard waste sites in five community collection centers next slide our services extend beyond just curbside collection residents may self-haul bulky items such as appliances furniture, paint batteries and electronics to community collection centers six days a week at no additional costs in addition to other benefits we offer a community cleanup program that supplies rollout containers to neighborhoods for bulky waste disposal and no extra costs next slide the system processes more than 1.2 million tons of waste annually approximately 41% is processed at the resource recovery facility which is operating at design capacity another 43% is disposed of at the landfill and approximately 16% of the remaining waste is being recycled next slide customers receive two annual assessments on their property tax bill the disposal assessment and the collection assessment next slide in physical year 2027 the solid waste system will experience increased operating costs driven primarily by the consumer price index adjustments provisions included within our service contracts Joyce Cassidy assistant county administrator provided a clear overview of our challenges and their underlying causes I would just highlight a few more to his opening statement approximately 70 to 80% of the services provided by the county solid waste system are delivered by contracts awarded through competitive procurement most of these contracts include consumer price adjustments calls that allow for annual modifications based on inflationary increases in labor fuel equipment maintenance and other operating expenses the importance of the consumer price index provisions cannot be overstated several years ago Hillsborough County as George Cassidy mentioned experienced significant surge disruptions when residential solid waste collection was interrupted for weeks at a time it was one of the most challenging times that I can recall in solid waste history the consumer price index clauses help mitigate that risk of similar disruptions by allowing contracts to keep pace with legitimate increases in operating costs today the county provides curbside collection services to over 327,000 customers throughout Hillsborough County the three franchise collectors are Republic Service of Florida Waste Management of Tampa and FCC Environmental Services our system includes two garbage collections one yard waste collection and one recycling collection per week totaling approximately 1.2 million services weekly all three contracts will expire in 2030 each of these contracts contain annual consumer price index provisions designed to account for inflationary increases in operating costs also the county's disposal and processing service agreements include consumer price based adjustments this includes the agreement with Reworld for the operation of our resource recovery facility the agreement with waste management for the operation of our landfill and several other related operational and service contracts throughout the system while the consumer price index adjustments contribute to increased costs within the system they play a vital role in maintaining reliable service delivery and ensuring that the county can continue to provide essential solidly services to our residents efficiently and effectively next slide last year we forecasted a rate plan that projected a 6.5% rate increase for physical year 2027 we were successful reducing our operating expenses which allowed us to lower our proposed rate increase by 2.2% bringing it down to 4.3% of the proposed 4.3% rate increase 2.4% will fund the annual cost increases from residential collection service contracts 1.9% will help cover other contractual disposal cost increases as well as ongoing system maintenance next slide we offer for consideration we offer for consideration a rate increase of 4.3% for the residential assessment in physical year 2027 if approved this change will result in an annual increase of $22 which is approximately $1.83 per month of the proposed $22 annual increase $12.09 will be allocated towards our residential collection service contracts and $9.91 will help support our contractual disposal cost increases as well as ongoing system maintenance next slide we continue to seek improved opportunities to help mitigate future rate increases there are three initiatives I would like to highlight today first the board approved the construction of a renewable natural gas plant at our landfill this project will generate revenue at no cost to the county for the foreseeable future the second the board approved the construction of a new recycling facility this project is expected to reduce our recycling costs by a minimum of 30% and finally we are reorganizing our roll cart program by internalizing a portion of the operation to reduce overall costs both the renewable natural gas plant and the recycling facility are expected to be in operation in 2028 the additional revenues and cost savings generated by these projects will begin to be reflected starting in 2029 helping to mitigate future rate increases next slide this will conclude my presentation the purpose of this public hearing is for the board to adopt a resolution that establishes the solid assessment for FY27 written notices were mailed to over 327,000 homeowners and this public hearing was also advertised in the Tampa Bay Times and the Florida Sentinel so far we have received 40 written responses once the new rates are adopted they will take effect on October 2026 thank you board all right thank you this public hearing two individuals have signed up to speak Paula Maves who's virtual and then Denise Herndon is Paula on the line my name is Paula Maves and I just have a couple of questions and I hope somebody can answer them well actually one now so when things drop down like gas prices or whatever are we going to see a drop in the cost for what we have to pay and also rather than picking garbage up twice a week why don't we consider taking it just once a week would that help to drop down prices I realize the increase isn't that much however a little bit every year my property taxes are outrageous you know include in it you know I have a lot of the assessments plus I have a CDD on there too which I wish I didn't have but besides that you know every little bit especially for individuals who are on fixed income and you know I am talking you know countywide those individuals that are on fixed income you know every little bit causes them more stress and anxiety and I'm just looking out for the county as a whole and just wondering you know when things are going to drop are they going to drop when these you know recycling places come up you know are you going to be dropping these assessments or are you just going to mitigate the increased part of it and not look back to drop the prices that's my biggest question alright thank you we'll address your questions during a board discussion second speaker Denise Herndon thank you I'm Denise Herndon and I'm so blessed to be living in the situation that I'm living in but most people that would see it thinks that how can she live like that and I've had few of my neighbors say that but God has allowed me to deal with things that I never thought I would be dealing with sanitation is one of the most important parts of keeping us healthy and if we don't have the sanitation it's not just the services that these increases need to come up it's the landfills because people are just disposable society they don't need it they just dispose of it I have ceiling fan motors that I can't take to a landfill even though that I'm paying for it even with my discount because I don't drive I quit using the internet in my home in 2014 when I realized Sherlyn Hammond was my son's dark web and I made up an acronym REB really evil evil B word and I have it written on my house I have a few REBs that live around me you don't have to be involved in the dark web to do this but Sherlyn Hammond has hacked into the Hillsborough County records hospital records she's got doctors on her staff that do things that had imprisoned me for 14 days under a Baker Act and then I have Dwight thinking I should have the Marchman Act for what but going back I'm getting way off the subject here going back to the garbage increases we do need this and whether we get it cutting the services down we still have to have a place to put that with so many Airbnbs thank God one of them that's near my home they would have seven cans out continuously they would never bring them in and how many other homes around Hillsborough County that have these Airbnbs that put so much trash out that the homeowners don't even use and not only that but what's left around the area we need this increase even though I don't get it what I think we need to do is make sure that everybody that is supposed to be paying it is paying it and I see just in my little neighborhood that there are some that aren't paying it and thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you all right that closes public comment before we go into a board discussion Bonnie can you or staff or someone address the one individual's questions I know she mentioned if once a week was considered and I'm not sure what her other yeah so maybe when George did his little history that was considered when we were going out for the contracts in 2018-2019 and the public and the board overwhelmingly supported keeping that the two days a week because the amount that was saved was really pretty minimal however as we go to the next series of contracts as we go into 2030 and I guess so we will start that a few years prior it's always something good to look at to see what the value would be at that time and I vividly recall those discussions and we had the I think it was 111 211 the different numbers and so we clearly considered that and that's what I recall as well as the savings wasn't that significant okay Commissioner Bowles Director Trammell can you Damien on one of your slides sir I don't know if you have those in front you showed a savings and a cost difference from where earlier this year or when it was first brought up that you have actually showed a difference in that we actually have a savings that we were at a higher rate now we're at a lower rate it was $1.47 or something are you referring to the forecasted rate exactly yes okay and so my point is is that in kind of addressing again what the virtual speaker was speaking about we're always looking for ways to save money we're not here just trying to get as much money out of everybody as possible and that when this first was approached or brought to us that rate was higher now we're actually through your cost savings and looking at ways to do that we've actually were able to lower that rate that is correct commission yes yes well thank you yeah so there was actually 2.2% decrease that's correct yes thank you whoever put that up but thank you very much I just want to kind of kind of solidify that we're always looking for ways to lower those costs if possible yes sir that's correct thank you yes commissioner Cohen thank you very much you know there's no question that when we make and consider issues like this we have to think about affordability in our society and the fact that people really are struggling with the increasing cost of food and gas and insurance and all of the things that that drive the cost of living but in this particular case I was here six years ago Commissioner Myers and Hagan were due and we got the calls in our office about the service and one of the things that really stuck out to me when we went to negotiate the contracts that that we're in now was how important it was to pay the people that do this work a living wage this is really hard work it's going to get very hot out there in the summer and if you don't pay people appropriately to do it they won't do it and we will end up having a degradation in service and you know part of the reason that people wanted to pick up twice a week was because when the garbage sits for a long time during the summer it starts to smell and it the amount of garbage that's produced is going to be the same regardless of whether the pickup is once or twice a week so the trucks will just fill up twice as fast if they're taking twice the amount so for all of those reasons I want to move this forward we recognize it is I think $1.86 a month it is a relatively modest increase but we've competitively bid these contracts based on the wages that have to be paid to get this work done and we're obligated to this whether we like it or not at this point and I think that the staff and everyone has done a great job of trying to minimize the increase as much as possible I know you've looked for savings under every couch cushion that you can find but this is just the cost of getting this done and making sure that it gets done in a way that is satisfactory to our citizens and they feel that they're getting what they pay for second Mr. Damien how much of this assessment is going to be used for improvement of your facilities there's about 1.3 million dollars will be used to improve the facilities to make sure that there is money set aside for repairs and other areas regarding the system and is any of this being used for new facility no it's not sir this is purely for operations yes okay did you happen to take the time or was there any consideration of what the reduction in rate would be if we contracted the service area outside of only being inside of only being inside the current urban service area where we provide utilities sir we looked at that and we have not finished the evaluation but we are in the process of looking at that yes okay I don't see anything else in the queue we got a motion commissioner cohen second commissioner myers and just one quick comment I want to echo what commissioner cohen referenced particularly regarding the level of complaints that we received back then it was extreme I mean it was it was non-stop and not to say we never receive complaints now I know we do but it is truly minor compared to what we used to get years ago so I just want to point that out okay we got a motion a second please record your vote the motion carried 43 commissioners Miller Cameron Cepeda and Wollstone voted no okay Bonnie next item next item is our 1015 time certain this is item F3 this is to receive a presentation from the HCSO regarding fence regulations and challenges they're facing commissioner Miller this is your item thank you very much it was brought to my it was brought to my attention actually before I was even a commissioner about some of the safety issues around fencing and Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is going to give us a presentation this morning on it we have coming to the podium Master Deputy Eric Johnson and Deputy Red Jones good morning everybody I got to say this is first time I've been here with y'all I've watched you on TV but I ain't never been in here with y'all so it's kind of impressive thank you for allowing the sheriff's office to be here morning to present something that's very important to us on behalf of the sheriff and the office thank you for everything y'all done for us in the past bringing today a powerpoint and this is a general powerpoint that we've shown around to different industries and communities so far before we get to here and our attorneys have already perused this and gave their cattlemen's association so the people that are in the industry have already gave the blessing for this to move forward on their behalf with what issues we're facing go ahead give me next slide who's my who's my IT person who's doing the clicking are you clicking huh looks like you're clicking sir I got my clicky right here now all right just to do some real quick introductions I move around a lot y'all so I apologize lieutenant Enos we've got captain de covo in there you already know these over here they hear all the time but this is the direct folks we work for in homeland security homeland security is a division under the sheriff's office and under that homeland security division is the agricultural crimes unit a lot of people don't realize that we have an agricultural crimes unit agriculture is still a huge industry for Hillsborough County I wish it would move forward and with y'all help we might be able to make a better industry all right go ahead the current fence law that everybody operates underneath in the state of Florida right now was signed into place in 1949 it has not been touched addressed or even looked at far as I know since 1949 to the point of if you go all the way down it will say any fence or enclosure with at least three feet in height have animals been around animals but three foot is only about that high and a horse and a cow ain't going to pay much mind to that okay back in 1949 it was free range Mr. Oakley Mr. Lykes Brothers and all them had cows wandering all over the state of Florida they was put in place for a reason for public safety the state law is there but it's very hard for us to enforce and I'll get to that why it's hard to enforce in a minute but show you how this has been put back on the back burner for so long the bottom part said is to prevent the intrusion of swine where the running of large running at large of swine is not prohibited by law tells you how long so apparently back in the day you can let your hog run where it nobody can say nothing about it we don't do that anymore we need to update something it's hard to change it at a state level we've tried so I'm asking the commission to work with us at the county level next slide this is just a little I had to put pictures in for other folks so just bear with me but that's Osceola county was first county to put barbed wire up in Hillsborough county but even back in the 20s which I wasn't around you got cars versus cal all right go ahead all right to the point of what I read to you of state statute if you look real close in these photos all three of these photos meet state statute as an existence probable fence as you can see the center one is just what sticks they could pick up but there is some wire in there so is not enough to contain but I'm not here to tell you what a fence is ain't my place to do that ain't my place to tell you the recipe what keeps what in only thing we're arguing and won't stop is what the definition of containment is and that's very easy it stays on your place you don't see us if it stays on your place and I'm talking about horses cows whatever livestock in general not puppy dogs and kitty cats livestock if it stays on your property with the containment that you have you will never see us you will never be an issue for us but it's when these animals are continuously getting out and we have no teeth to do anything about it next slide another picture the same couple different pieces of property this feller here he decided to tie straps to hold the fence up on Tico pole folks there's nothing I can do about it it meets state statute next we all know the outcome there's a lot of liability there's a lot of money in costs when cows meet the road all right go ahead more examples and these are more current photos I don't know anybody's background in here but anything that stands taller than the car and you hit it it's going to roll up on top of the car it's not the cow is going to win the horse is going win okay and this proves what I'm speaking right here this is our intent working for the sheriff's office for 25 years my job is always to keep the public safe no matter what I'm doing my current position has me in agricultural crimes unit I grew up in of this easiest way to fix this problem is containment go ahead just a little bit for you our numbers were from 2024 because it was the most current and accurate we had we started working on this about two years ago I contacted Commissioner Miller almost three years ago about this problem that we're having hoping to address it and she jumped right on board with it but you see the numbers we dealt with loose animals or loose livestock calls was 1165 calls for 2024 it has gone up or why it's going up because a lot of people are thinking well there's so much development we're losing all of our property the thing of it is we get a lot more hobby folks in now when I say hobby folks they got through two acres five acres ten acres and they're putting livestock on it so our calls for service is going up because the footprint of the pasture or such as is going down but there's more people around that smaller footprint so we're getting more calls for service go ahead I'm not going to bore you with a bunch of these but if you've been anywhere in the county you'll recognize some of these cross streets turkey creek and 60 I know probably it's about everybody's going somewhere in the Polk County in Gradyland to go over there for some reason and you know where turkey creek and 60 is turkey creek and 60 is a very very busy intersection all your phosphate trucks run through there school buses everything you think of runs through that intersection at just that one intersection we had 57 calls for service in 2024 all right that is because of one individual that has livestock at that intersection if there was something we could have done to change it we would have already but I need the help of y'all to get this ordinance passed so we can have a documented way of cumulatively working towards the state statute that we have applied the state statute in the past but the judges and everybody looks at it and goes how many times where is your warnings where is the documentation well with the ordinance I have that in place all right go ahead and I'm not going to bore you with a bunch of these because it's just repetitively the same concept you know Cork and Shepherd Road 40 calls of service 4500 cars go ahead 78th Street in Falkenburg y'all know where that is and that whole area used to be very very agricultural back in the day now it's more commercial and residential go ahead Morris Bridge Road Pictorial Drive of course that's booming up there we all know that K-Bar Ranch is gone all right Lithia Pinecrest George Smith same concept go ahead Vareka Road and Bogart 20 calls go ahead and every time we've documented one of these as a particular person in that area this is a repeat customers just repeat customers repeat customers all right 41 and old 41 yep go ahead just because I like colors and it just it was fancy in my eye this is a hot spot map for the whole county all right because I'm not sure where each of y'all have your districts at but it might overlap and explain that this is a countywide problem normal color blue is cold fire hot is hot more calls for service go ahead all right the current statutory definition of fencing does not enable us in law enforcement to address the problem posed by loose livestock due to insufficient or inadequate containment I don't like to use the word fencing because then it comes down to define what's the definition of a fence I ain't gonna give it to you because I don't care if you're containing a horse or you got a rhinoceros in there it's your responsibility to keep it in so you won't hear the definition of fencing in my ordinance that we're proposing just for that reason all right because remember state statute said three pieces of wire three foot high is good enough on a 20-foot center okay go ahead now I got fancy with the help of a bunch of people I tried to write the top part of it and everybody said it turned out all right but this is my quasi loose wording of what the ordinance could be all right it shall be unlawful for any livestock or non domestic non-domestic classified animal to run at large or stray within the limits of Hillsborough County and no owner or responsible persons because that's the fancy little twist here no owner responsible person shall permit livestock non-domestic classified animal to run at large or stray upon the public highways or lands other than persons said in county but shall keep such livestock and non-domestic classified animal contained within the enclosure and sufficiently fenced for the holding and keeping of the same all right a lot of mojumbo there fancy words and stuff like that that says contain your livestock it's that simple and that's all we need help with is something that we can help them get the point across to contain it all right the rest of this I'll leave it with you can read the rest of it all right go ahead all right if the meaning of livestock if people don't know what that is it's real non-domestic any means any animal not defined as domestic animal go down to domestic domestic because dogs cats and I've seen code enforcement in here didn't hey you got a good see there's a division that deals with those animals we don't deal with those animals okay we're dealing strictly with livestock whether people consider a cow a pet or cow for production or cow for consumption it's still a livestock we dealing with the livestock proportion of it go ahead all right we're we're looking for this we went off of the old concept remember the alarm fines you had to owe the county if your alarm went off you come out there you got a warning the first time the second time you started acquiring these little fines that's our concept of what we're doing with this ordinance you're going to be educated the first time two times and we'll work with you we give you a lot of we give the people in Hillsborough County a lot of surplus and supplies we give them fence posts we give them barbed wire we're actually a lot of time about their fence fixing their fence form that's what we do so we're not out here just to hammer somebody but it seems that us our suggestions for all these years decades of saying you need to fix your stuff ain't working and I'm hoping that a dollar amount assigned to it is going to get their attention and put them on the ball to get their fences in order okay but that's essentially what it would in a nutshell it's going to go from a fine excuse me a warning 100 200 300 but the good part of this is if we have that documentation with these fines the warning the fines are going through our system I can take that to court and say this person was given every opportunity before they caught or earned a criminal charge according to state statute so this is almost putting a buffer in there all right go ahead and luckily for y'all that's the end of it all right any question on this I know it throws a lot at y'all real quick okay we appreciate that presentation very much and you're always welcome to come back in here sir commissioner Miller this is your item do you want any follow-up before we open it up thank you mr. chair thank you for the entertainment sir we appreciate it this morning I just want to say thank you for bringing this information forward and I do want to just clarify a few things because apparently there's a flyer out there that thinks I was on the commission in April of 2024 and I was not we had this conversation as fellow cattlemen and I know how passionate you were about it that you had tried to take care of at the state level and you looked at me and said when you get elected you're going to help me with this and it is my pleasure to help because I know that you and all of the folks that you work with your goal is to keep people safe at the end of the day and my motion today is going to not only accept this report but ask staff to work collaboratively with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to evaluate potential ordinance amendments or code changes related to the regulations and enforcement and return to the board with recommendations for consideration at a future meeting okay we got a motion by Commissioner Miller second Commissioner Cohen Commissioner Willstel thank you good job Brett I hoped you were going to wear your outfit from the clay chute personally I'm going to ask the sheriff to require it in the final meeting really briefly we I'm happy to hear that the Cattlemen's Association already supports it we actually have an internal county created agricultural development council they meet out there at FSGA in Dover so I've talked to them and they would like to be included if you want to go and run it by them just to make sure there's no unintended consequences there's other there's other cattlemen in that that aren't active participants of the Cattlemen's Association so that would probably be helpful and I remember when Hurricane Ian came through I was down at Lonesome G Ranch helping them restring just a numerous amount of feet footage of fence that had been wiped out and they had some cattle some livestock go astray and they were rounding them up real life cowboys still here in Hillsboro but we might want some type of grace period or exception even though you're very thoughtful and wouldn't abuse this we want to make sure that maybe there's not a younger more rambunctious deputy in the future that sees it and holds them accountable and says hey if a storm comes through there's some type of protection for them so I know that you guys will handle all those ins and outs but it's just some observations and I'm sure this is going to pass with no problem so good job thank you are you able to be point of contact or you Christine on that next meeting with the council county staff will be in contact with you okay thank you commissioner with this ordinance I support it and I was just but a couple thoughts came to mind that's what I was over here whisper I wasn't talking about that outfit you were wearing at but that being the case are you thinking this is a unincorporated or countywide or because the reason I ask that question what about all those roosters and chickens that are roaming around Ybor City that's actually animal control but I'm being kind of tongue in cheek about it yes sir what we handle and what other entities handle within the county is very specific yes sir I would like to keep this countywide because believe it or not we get calls in the city going my neighbor has four horses tied to his front post right now in his yard and I'm like that's subdivision but we need to keep it as broad as we can because that way we as the agricultural crimes unit can come in there and deal with it or investigate or do what we need to be having restrictions within the county county lines are pretty good boundaries and just let's leave it at the county line I kind of I want to along the same lines of what Commissioner Russell is bringing up but whether it's a rambunctious deputy or police officer or a neighbor going hey Bob's chickens keep running out I want him to get a hundred dollar fine well and there's if we can get this implemented with y'all's help then internally at the sheriff's office we will have our own protocol we'll have and it'll be presented but the teaching aspect of how we are going to handle this is going to be there and it's going to be a lot like the alarm system because like with Lonesome G we fully understand because I own cattle myself I run 300 acres of cattle here in Hillsborough or 300 acres of cattle in Hillsborough County alone so I fully understand fence issues I know that we know act of God act of nature whatever you want to say the drunk guy to run through your fence and not in on you know we understand that this is for our repeat customers that I showed you those examples of those fences that is their everyday operation yes sir that's who our target is we understand that the industry has its hiccups and its problems and where our hurdles that we have to jump those are not what we have on our radar the fences that I showed you examples are what we are striving to focus on so okay good and this may be a question for Julia our county attorney excuse me is this a develop would this be considered developmental change because I'm wondering if SB 180 would affect this at all I don't look at that but what I'm hearing the request is is related more to the containment side rather than the fencing side yes and so we we might have an opportunity to look at it from a different perspective to avoid a senate bill 180 but certainly we'll go ahead and look at all that because I don't care if you use coat hanger and and and whatever to hold you if I you never we never get to call from it then it works you know I'm saying that's why we won't give you the recipe of what we define as a fence for what animal so containment containment containment so that's why we left the wording of fencing out of anywhere in this we could because it's just strictly about the containment we don't we don't Commissioner Myers wants to comment then we need to move on Commissioner Myers I too would just like to ask if you all will work with the Outer Culture Economic Development Council on this issue look forward to it okay we got a motion in a second please record your vote motion carried seven zero thank you very much thank y'all appreciate it thank you Bonnie thank you we can move back to the regular agenda tough act to follow this is item f1 this is regarding two board appointments and Glenda will take you through these two good morning commissioners our first board is the human relation board we have one vacant and the term is for three years Commissioner Hagan please choose one one Commissioner Miller one Commissioner Myers one Commissioner Cohen Commissioner Cameron Cepeda one Commissioner Bowles one Commissioner Wollstone one the board has selected Emily Middleton our next board for appointment is the value adjustment board we have two positions that are expiring one member and one alternate the commissioners is to choose the member and the alternate the first vote is going to go for the member and the second vote is going to go for the alternate Commissioner Hagan three and then four Commissioner Miller four three Commissioner Myers three four Commissioner Cohen three four commissioner Cameron Cepeda three five Commissioner Bowles three four Commissioner Wollstone three four the board has selected as member Amanda Clay and as alternate James Finley I can hear a motion to confirm second motion Commissioner Myers and Commissioner Wollstone please accord your vote motion carried seven to zero F2 thank you our next item is F2 this is Commissioner Bowles' item regarding a presentation at the next board meeting regarding the Florida Legislators special action session Commissioner Bowles thank you Chair Hagan I think it goes without saying that yesterday a lot of happened at Tallahassee and are with the Florida legislature approving the property tax reforms that have been held over our heads for quite a quite a few months here and not knowing what was going to happen now we know and in anticipation of our budget workshops that are coming up in July and the next few months that we at least before the voters go in November that we have this come before us and give us an idea and I have no I I know that you are working on this probably already but just to solidify that we have this information I would appreciate you doing that and look forward to what you and the Chief Financial Administrator bringing for us thank you okay we got a motion by Second Commissioner Bowles Second Commissioner Cohen don't stand in the queue thank you for bringing this forward please record your vote motion carried six to zero next item thank you the next item is item G1 this is a staff report regarding agricultural enclaves regarding SB 686 and Florida law and Adam Gormley will take us through this item morning Mr. Chair good morning commissioners Adam Gormley Development Services Department following will be a report on Senate Bill 686 which is dealing with agricultural enclaves this is a report that was requested by Commissioner Miller at the May 6th meeting this is a new it's changed to existing Florida statute 163 3162 excuse me 3164 dealing with agricultural enclaves previously the agriculture enclave statute had dealt with plan amendments and a presumption of urban sprawl it has been changed this session and it will become effective on July 1st and works to provide a preemption on county zoning and comprehensive plan and a process for establishing a agricultural enclave we'll note that currently the act expires January 1, 2028 so it's about a year and a half in duration as it stands right now so the agricultural enclave is there's several factors that will need to be met to be considered an agricultural enclave the first is that it's been land has been used for bona fide agricultural purposes commonly referred to as green belted for five years prior to application be owned and controlled by a single entity or person and has public services available or planned to satisfy concurrency regulations or there's an offer to enter into a proportionate share agreement for such improvements the agricultural enclave needs to be located in a county with less up to or less than 1.75 million people which does qualify Hillsborough County and cannot exceed 1,280 acres however in certain circumstances the size the agricultural enclave could be considered up to 4,480 acres there are several other alternate criteria that can be met to that need to be met to satisfy a definition of agricultural enclave one is that it be surrounded on 75% of its perimeter by either existing residential development a combination of land planned for industrial commercial or residential development and developed at 50% or a combination of interstate highway and land within an urban service area planned for industrial commercial or residential development alternatively it could be a parcel that does not exceed 700 acres and surrounded by 50% of its perimeter by land planned for industrial commercial or residential development and 50% of its perimeter by urban service area last criteria is if it's located in a rural study area that's not applicable in Hillsborough County so there is a process for certification of land that meets the definition of an agricultural enclave the property owner would submit that to the county at a proposed development level and if the project meets the definition of agricultural enclave with the factors I just ran through and the development density is proposed is equal to or less than that of an adjacent parcel or development it can qualify as an agricultural certification the process for certification as that gets submitted to staff staff would produce a report within 30 days detailing whether it meets or does not meet the qualifications as agricultural enclave and then 30 days following the rendering of that written report the board of county commissioners would be required to hold a public hearing to decide whether it does or does not meet to be certified as an agricultural enclave finally that there is a 90 day period from the times that the certification comes into the county and if it's not approved or denied within that time it's deemed to be approved if the board denies a certification of an agricultural enclave need to make findings of fact and conclusions of law and that denial could be challenged by a writ of certiorari to circuit court within 30 days of that decision being rendered if an agricultural enclave is approved the owner may submit plans for a single family residential housing development or if it is adjacent to an interstate that development could include industrial or commercial uses in addition to single family residential for the development standards of a certified agricultural enclave if it is within or if it's adjacent to an urban service area it has to be treated as though it's in that urban service area the development standards such as lot size uses setbacks would need to meet those that are applicable to one or more adjacent parcels or development there is some reserve language there that allows the county to protect establish wildlife corridors in an agricultural enclave development there's a the development process is once that process once that agricultural enclave development proposal is submitted within 30 business days staff would work with an applicant to establish a development process to review those plans and that process cannot take more than 180 days or include a quasi-judicial or public hearing process and some additional limitations or notes on agricultural enclaves is they they're required to be treated as a conforming use for the life of this statute which right now is until January 1st 2028 and finally the county is not permitted to enact a process or requirements that are more burdensome on an agricultural enclave development than would be applied to a similar type development I'll just note that this is a this report is being provided for the requirements of the state law right now there's no action needed to implement this it is a requirement of the state law that we will need to follow once it becomes effective on July 1st of this year and I'm available for any questions all right thanks Adam Commissioner Russell I just the Pandora's box I just I don't think people will appreciate what this opens frankly we've had two two contentious comp plan amendments that came before us recently that I both looked at with concern and warned the people they're fighting pretty low asks for what was on there and even if they don't specifically meet this 75% rule that's in there the problem with one of these laws getting into place once it's done it's very easy to change and amend later and drop that 75 to 50 and so on and so forth so how close to or are the Lutz Lake fern development that came through and the Lithia Pinecrest and 39 properties that recently came through to meeting these requirements or have you had an opportunity to look at them so we've looked at the thank you for the question we've looked at the Lutz Lake fern properties so some information would need to come from the applicant of what their development proposal would be we have looked at the parcels in terms of the greenbelt history some of them do have greenbelt for five years and some of them do not we have not looked in detail at the 39 and Lithia Pinecrest property but I do believe that there is some surrounding I mean it's put in the agriculture use today whether they've had that for five years is something that we would need to look at but we do know that the Lutz Lake fern does have some parcels but not all that have been greenbelted for five years and we have had some communication about intent at least one of those sites from being submitted as an agricultural enclave yeah I just I just don't think people are going to appreciate what this could potentially do in Hillsborough County with the amount of ag land that's left and exists so very concerning thank you Commissioner Miller thank you Mr. Chair thank you Mr. Gormley for that excellent report and I know I asked you a bunch of questions yesterday in our briefing and to Commissioner Wistel's point people have no idea I even think some of our legislators that pass this don't understand the ramifications of what's going to happen in their districts with the passing of this I'm very concerned by it and even how it looks right so it puts a lot of judgment on you based on how I understand it because you're going to be making those decisions whether the 75 say percent threshold was met for the ag lands or what happens when a piece of property has part of it that's been greenbelted but the other part what happens then all of those things come into question and who's making those decisions because when it comes before us we have no say per the law and so I think that this is going to be riddled with holes and all we can do is try to educate our constituents and make the very best decisions that we can but unfortunately in this it's really been taken out of our hands Commissioner Bolts Director Gormley three questions yes sir let's use the loose lake fern does this bill stop at county lines there's no language in the bill that talks about it stopping at county lines and there's no language that references for instance an urban service area or district that's applicable to that jurisdiction it is more widely worded than that and does not appear to include a stopping at county line any language to that effect so a let's Pasco county has denser res than we do on that particular property so if they let's just say I think it's res 4 res 6 but if it was res 20 they could do res 20 it appears that the law is written to allow them to take that into consideration and is it just the parcels that are touching or is one using that same area that we're talking about or is it all the contiguous it's any parcel that's adjacent and I should have mentioned adjacent the definition of adjacent excludes right-of-way water bodies or canals so if there's a adjacent there's a right-of-way adjacent to the site we look past that right-of-way to the land that's on the other side of that right-of-way canal or water body so there's roughly I don't know how many acres several acres so where Lutes Lake Fern is and where County Line is in that particular area it's to say there's 20 different parcels in there individual parcels or five or ten the ones up here all the way down could be included they could all be either individual parcels or development as a whole the way that the statute is written and roads don't count as like a divider right-of-way that's right-of-way yes so thinking about the lithia pinecrest because it may be res 2 or ag around it but on the other side of lithia there may be res 4 so it could have res 4 on this side it could yes they could look on the other side of the right-of-way from lithia pinecrest okay and the final thing this does have a sunset date yes currently January 1st 2028 so it's a year and a half program as currently written in the law and if a and as we look at this if a project starts today does it have to finish by 28 or nothing can happen after 28 as non-conforming you know I think that's a good question but the way it's written on its face is this is something that can be done until January 1st 2028 and until that time we'd have to treat any development as a conforming use the statute does not address previously approved developments or approved but unbuilt developments so I think that there is a argument that as written currently the door closes on January 1st 28th okay Mr. Chair I told a fib I have one more question the last question is this is only residential so if there's with res 4 in our land use and codes and zoning and all that they don't allow us for commercial we can't we could put housing in but you can't put a stop and go on the on the corner it's residential but if the property is adjacent to an interstate then it could allow residential industrial or commercial development on that agricultural enclave but let's use lithia they couldn't just all of a sudden put a bunch of 7-11's out there or whatever correct for the lithia site and the Lutz Lake Fern neither of those are adjacent to an interstate so for those sites they would be strictly single-family residential thank you sir commissioner Wilson thank you I had to google the actual definition of the word adjacent which unfortunately says not only adjoining but also near I want to understand what near might mean and also joking but not joking do we have the right to reconsider and re-invite someone back up here if we've told them no I would read I would look at the term adjacent to mean touching at least a point we have looked at that term fool a judge agree with that that is something that we would need to make sure it's an adjective by the way near is how it's defined so I just want to make that point so do you guys currently believe that the Lutes Lake Fern because of that I was wondering about the county line question do you believe that it might be meeting this definition there's some information that we don't have on that but in terms of the green belt the property size some of the parcels believe can meet the definition some of them we've confirmed with the property appraiser don't have green belt for that five years and would not the majority of them do the majority of the area on the Lutes Lake Fern site does have has had green belt for the previous five years this is why I warned that group to not get so excited if they if they won that vote because residential 20 on that lot would be an extremely inappropriate location thank you commissioner it's a shame that the press left before this section because this is actual information that the community needs to hear and I'm really kind of disappointed by that I again want to say Mr. Grimley your professionalism is just amazing the fact that you have on top of your regular job been able to sort of understand this so well and explain it to us is very appreciated how can we I think this is for staff how can I make sure that we continue this conversation sort of like we have updates in the live local like what do I need to ask for specifically to say that we continue this updates as people file how was that what should I ask for so commissioner we do as as a matter of course on the land use meeting agendas each month provide an update on live local projects that have come in and their status of development if it's the board's well if you well we can provide a similar report on the land use agenda that would give a month by month update what we do live local is we identify it as the initial point they come in the door and then provide status updates as that project proceeds through the development and land use restriction agreement process so we can do something similar for agricultural enclaves to ensure that the board is kept informed as what has been brought in and what's coming potentially coming to I will add that to my motion then when I when I stated but I want to just clearly restate again if it's not been made clear our powers were preempted hard stop on this as a county commission by the state and it's just really really disappointing so I want to move to accept your report and on agriculture enclaves and then add it to the monthly summaries for the land use second I've got a motion commissioner Miller second commissioner Wollstool but please record your vote a motion carry with seven to zero thank you good job Adam thank you our next staff report is item G2 this is to receive a report regarding the implementation of a dirt road repaving program paving program and Josh Bellotti will take us through this presentation good morning Josh all right good morning commissioners thank you Josh Bellotti engineering and operations department this item is being presented in response to the request by commissioner Cameron Cepeda at the April 15th board meeting regarding implementation of a dirt road program throughout the county there are hundreds of dirt roads and the majority of them are unimproved and are not maintained by the county they're either privately owned or they're platted and recorded rights of way that have not been accepted by the BOCC for maintenance there are only 27 dirt roads amounting to about seven and a half miles that the BOCC has accepted through the process established in the public works road maintenance policy for dirt road maintenance defined as class D or E which essentially means grading on an as-needed basis to ensure passability only there are many challenges to paving a dirt road not least of which is the design and permitting required to create the impervious surface along with the construction of a stabilized base under the roadway and the stormwater conveyance and storage requirements it really amounts to new road construction which is a very high cost per mile especially compared to repaving an existing paved road additionally land acquisition may be needed to meet the right-of-way needs for establishing appropriate turnarounds at the dead ends and or stormwater runoff mitigation to hopefully simplify and expedite the information for today we've included a cursory review of the cost considerations for implementing a program to pave those 27 dirt roads that have been accepted for county maintenance with no additional funding source established the only current funding source available would be the current CIP program for local neighborhood roadway pavement preservation if the board is interested in pursuing alternatives to paving with the goal of improving the dirt roads while maintaining their permeable surface staff could provide some additional analysis for unimproved roadway treatments with a recommendation that includes an estimated cost to conduct a pilot project to improve one of the dirt roads be happy to answer any questions that you might have okay do you have any questions or comments Commissioner Cameron Spader yes thank you very much for that awesome presentation yes so we do have as he mentioned hundreds of dirt roads and the 27 that's been identified that are needing paving so I have been in contact with constituents who are contacting my office actually that their neighborhoods it's dirt roads but their neighborhoods have built up with so many roads so many homes on it now that it really does need paving and as he mentioned it's only 27 there's only 27 of the hundreds of dirt roads and they've been told for years year after year after year next year next year next year that they were going to pave it and so when it was brought to my attention that's why I wanted to bring this up and look into this and also so I would like to ask staff to come back with a pilot project within 90 days and also just recently since we brought this up found out about a geo mesh geo mesh that may be used on that so I would like to bring back more information on that which would be less much less expensive but we need to look into that because we want to make sure also that we definitely have quality roads of course so we'd like to look into that and also move to receive the report thank you we've got a motion by commissioner Cameron Cepeda second commissioner Myers uh josh I got a question I don't see what else on the queue um it sounds like commissioner Cameron Cepeda is referencing a pilot that would be as you stated an alternative to paving not to actual paving right that's correct that's how I understand it right and then with what you bring back will there also be the the cost associated to to doing that yes sir okay um have you looked into the cost of the 27 roads using the alternative source do you have any idea what that cost would be we don't the the report includes some um general cost estimation um for fully paving um but we have not done the analysis on these alternatives yet so that's what we understand that we would be doing in the follow-up um to getting getting the information seeing what the cost will be I would certainly like to to move forward on on these roads if it were possible but I'm not going to get into all the challenges that we face now and and future ones that are coming over the next couple years so um happy to get the information but I'm not going to commit to anything until we see what you know the costs are commissioner Miller thank you mr. chair I have two questions um one is the 90 days I don't know how long it takes you to do something like this study time wise and everything is 90 days sufficient or do you feel like you need more time is that going to press you I believe that should be sufficient time for us to bring back the information that's being requested my second part is I don't know how you would go about doing this but um you have most of the world in my district and I don't get any of these calls to my office about the unpaved road so is there going to be some type of survey about the actual need and desire per the road and and can that be included in the ranking system because I know a lot of people that prefer their dirt roads over a paved road and so um how will we consider that and it would be I'd like it to be part of what's presented back to us please absolutely um but we agree public outreach will be a an important part of that so we'll make sure that that's included and I I want to point out as of several years ago and I don't know if this was Greg's doing or not but I know staff has considered community feedback or whatever the term you're using when they look into the projects that they do so that would certainly make sense to include any community involvement or input on this type of pilot or this type of program Commissioner Cameron Tepeda yes so as I mentioned of the few hundred roads this is only a few roads compared to that but these are specifically roads where there are many homes that have been built it's not like one or two or three homes it's like entire neighborhoods that have been been built out there and that's why they're asking for this so thank you okay got a motion Commissioner Cameron Tepeda second Commissioner Myers Commissioner Wilson just if if there were whole neighborhoods built out there wouldn't that have been something that development services predicted and had significant impact fees for and mobility fees if there's a dirt road that they would if we were going to approve a neighborhood we would have required that to be transitioned to an impervious surface right so I would like to if somebody could just send me if there's one road in question so I can look at it a little bit further yeah and I can maybe help clarify for you a little bit there so when there's an entire development or neighborhood or community that's built and accepted by the board it will have typically had to meet county standards in order to be accepted right what we're talking about in these 27 specific roads are roads that were there previously as unimproved roads however through that roadway process that was established in the manual that I referenced they were they petitioned the residents of that road petitioned for the board to accept it for dirt road maintenance so that's how those have become county maintained dirt roads but that's why there's only 27 of them there's a very select few that have gone through that process okay I'll take a look at the roads thank you what your camera's good yeah and just quickly add that yeah these are homes that have been added and added over time it wasn't like a development just they were you know continually built and over time thank you okay got a motion in a second please record your vote motion carried seven to zero thanks Josh thank you Bonnie and that we're up to future discussion items okay commissioner have any items commissioner Myers I'd like the staff to look into the code of silence on issues that we had in place before that any procurement item that comes the code of silence will remain through until board awards I hope I'm saying that correctly we've had it in place before and then we took it out so I'm asking if staff administration and county attorneys office can look into it and bring us back and then we can discuss it okay we can update on where we are where we were we are here to commission Miller I'd like to direct the county attorney's office to review and advise the board on its legal authority and available mechanisms to remove a Hillsborough County appointed member of the Tampa Sports Authority midterm including any procedural requirements voting thresholds and legal considerations Bonnie you got that Joey I've got that okay I don't see anyone else in the queue so we're adjourned you