mosquitoes because they are a threat to public health there are many mosquito borne illnesses they can pass on to humans and other animals therefore we want to mitigate their populations and we're only spraying whenever we have justification and that could come from our surveillance data or from our inspectors who go out and are looking at different larval production sites every single day we don't have a spray schedule because everything we do is based on data that we collect so it's based on the number of mosquitoes that we find in our traps every day it's based on what the inspectors are finding out in the field if they're finding a lot of breeding they'll obviously treat then but we don't have a set schedule because everything is based on data that we find we don't do any individual spray requests you can always submit a request for spray a request for a property inspection or report any standing water that you have around your house and we'll come send out an inspector they'll come look at that area see if it's breeding and then based on the data that they find we'll see if that area is eligible for treatment but we don't do treatment based on special events we're spraying right at sunset because dawn and dusk are the most active times for mosquitoes so in order for our treatments to be the most effective we obviously want to treat when the mosquitoes are most active and we're going to be able to mitigate the population best at those times welcome to the works in today's episode we're taken to the skies with Hillsborough County mosquito control to find out how they combat the spread of disease and the rising mosquito population so when it comes to mosquitoes how exactly are we combating them in the sky nobody complains about larvae they complain about mosquitoes and specifically adult mosquitoes female mosquitoes ones that bite you right but it's a lot easier to control adult mosquitoes by controlling the larvae what we do is we use a larvicide product that attacks the larval in the swamps of the mangrove areas along the coast here we stop their growth so they never grow up and become adult mosquitoes most people to the untrained eye are going to sit here and say that this owner starved for dogs we're gonna head up to that dog hall right now we'll go out we'll assess the situation I'm looking at least dogs are like garbage I mean that's just that did you see those bags through there she was very upset about losing all of her cats she she called me up a few times in tears I need my photos I need to be able to paint this picture for the judge so that he sees what I see 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 good morning and welcome to the October 21st 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 stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and God's call all-powerful and almighty God thank you for each day that you sustain us and to allow us to do your will thank you for our young leaders the middle students and high school students and high school students and the high school students who are leaders who are leaders here today to receive the yay award continue to bless our first responders as we recognize them this morning I ask for a special blessing for our board that we continue to do your will and your work father I ask and I thank you for our raise making it to the world series it's a blessing for our region that we can celebrate all of your accomplishments and I ask a special blessing for all of our employees as they continue to do the work of our constituents of Hillsborough County again bless this meeting in your name I pray amen good morning everyone today it's a pleasure to celebrate the accomplishments of five outstanding young people as we celebrate the board of county commissioners yay awards the youth excellent achievement awards this is the 16th year of the program which was created to recognize young people's positive contributions positive contributions in areas such as academics community service and the performing arts I look I look forward to this ceremony every year I know the entire board of county commissioners and staff does as well it gives us great hope for the future to see how much these young people have accomplished in such a short amount of time before we introduce the winners I want to recognize members of the Hillsborough County Commission on the status of women the COSW does an outstanding job each year of selecting the winners I know the winners I know it must be a challenge I know it must be a challenge to pick just a handful of winners from all the wonderful nominees that we have and we appreciate their work so please if the members of the COSW please stand so we can recognize you at this time I would like to invite chair Lee Lowry to come up forward here and I know there's another special guest also like to invite Tony Tony's not here okay he has a difficult thank you thank you thank you thank you very much for being here and for your service you please come and say a few words thank you chair Hagan and thanks to the whole commission especially the person who appointed me commissioner Rostal so I'm very pleased to be the chair of the commission on the status of women and this is one of the most fun things we do every year is to these amazing students so we'll talk about them in just a second again thanks to my fellow COSW members we really appreciate all the work that you do and one of the things that we do besides this and our Women's Hall of Fame which is coming up so look for that we study an issue these have been human trafficking housing all kinds of things if it affects the wellness of women we'll study it so most recently what we did is we discussed amplifying the voices of early childhood educators not only do these folks take care of some of our most precious assets and our little children under three but they really struggle they are largely women they do not typically have retirement they don't have a lot of time off they don't get paid very well so we have created a one pager which commissioners you've all received digitally and I'll put a couple at the back for anyone who'd like to take it but we're going to continue amplifying those voices because they're just so important to our community and yes Tony Salvaggia was supposed to be with us but he has been delayed and isn't able to join us so that's all I have to say and thanks again to the commissioners for allowing us to do this thank you Lee all of our honorees have demonstrated a special drive determination and commitment to our community that are critical for the next generation of leaders too often it's the worst examples of teen behavior that are displayed and get attention on the internet and in the news while young people who excel and do good deeds go unnoticed we take a different approach here in Hillsborough County the young people who devote themselves to the betterment of the community through strong leadership and determined action will shape our future the board and the residents of Hillsborough County are committed to honoring and encouraging their efforts today we celebrate the next generation of the yay awards they are in three categories volunteer community service leadership and success despite difficult odds and I'll present our first two awards the yay award recipients recipients in the volunteer community service category give their time to make life better for others this describes Millie Dashner perfectly Millie would you and your family please come and join me at the podium Millie Dashner makes serving her community a part of who she is a year after year Millie dedicates approximately 100 hours of her summer to volunteering what gives her true but what makes her truly stand out is that she doesn't simply give her time she gives her heart Millie understands that volunteerism is about making a difference in the lives of others whether she is tutoring mentoring of others or supporting her teammates she's consistently looking for for ways to lift others up Millie is a leader in her school she's maintained a 4.0 GPA during her years at Martinez Middle School and has been recognized on the principal's honor roll every year Millie is also deeply involved in her middle school's future farmers of America program she served in the FFA leadership roles in both the seventh and eighth grades where she had the opportunity to mentor new team members she represented Martinez Middle School at both the Hillsborough County Fair and the Florida State Fair where she demonstrated her knowledge skills and commitment to the program beyond the classroom one of the clearest examples of Millie's commitment to service is her involvement with the keys to kindness camp Millie first attended the camp as a participant in 2020 today she returns as a volunteer to help children learn about kindness character and community service she also shows her leadership skills on the field Millie represents Martinez Middle School as a member of both the volleyball and flag football programs through athletics he's demonstrated teamwork commitment and the ability to work toward a common goal while supporting her teammates Millie's greatest impact may be the example she sets for others she mentors teaches and inspires the people around her to become better for her compassion leadership humility and unwavering commitment to serving her community we're proud to recognize Millie Daschner as a 2026 yay award winner for volunteer or community service in the middle school category Millie thank you for all you do for our community congratulations and I think this is for you and would like to say a few words hi I'm Millie thank you so much for electing me for the 2026 yeah yeah award honored for volunteer excellence I'd like to start off by saying that all of these volunteer opportunities that I got to achieve and do thank you so much for honoring for honoring me and supporting me in my volunteer journey thank you all that's it congratulations if you get a chance check out her shoes she's got some really really cool kicks on here now would Zach Hartman please and your family with you please come forward thank you for joining us today Zach has made a service a way of life for nearly a decade he's dedicated himself to helping others protecting the environment and making sure children his community have access to resources they need to succeed a senior at Sickles High School Zach is the founder of a youth-led initiative called Zach's Planet which focuses on reducing landfill waste through Zach is the founder of a youth-led initiative called Zach's Planet, which focuses on reducing landfill waste through reuse and community engagement. Over the past 10 years, Zach's Planet has become a nationally recognized service project and nonprofit that has collected and donated more than 330,000 books, kept more than 200,000 pounds of unwanted goods out of landfills, and impacted more than 65,000 students nationwide. Zach has additionally donated over $1 million in books to communities in need, stocking little free libraries across the nation. His leadership has earned national recognition. Most recently, Zach earned a Congressional Award Gold Medal, Congress' highest honor for youth achievement. Zach has also earned six gold President's Volunteer Service Awards and the EPA President's Environmental Youth Award. He was selected as one of only 20 people nationwide for the Points of Light Youth Ambassador Council. Zach is also an Eagle Scout. He created an Eagle Scout project to provide children in foster care with sturdy duffel bags filled with items intended to bring comfort and dignity during difficult transitions. Zach led 30 Scouts in preparing 250 bags containing more than 10,000 worth of donated items, including blankets, books, art supplies, backpacks, and more. Zach's story is one of turning compassion into action. Whether he's helping a child discover the joy of owning a book, creating resources for children who need them, keeping usable items out of landfills, or helping children in foster care feel valued, he continues to show that young people can make a lasting difference in their communities. For his extraordinary commitment to volunteerism, leadership, and service to others, I'm proud to present Zach with the EA Award for Volunteer Community Service in the high school category. Congratulations, Zach. Please, say a few words. First, I'd like to thank the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners and the Commission on the Status of Women for this incredible honor. Thank you so much. I'd also like to thank my principal, Ms. Luloff, my vice principal, Mr. Humphrey, and my student government teacher, Ms. Kasabang, for all being here today to support me. And, of course, I'd like to give a special thank you to my parents for always believing in me. When I was seven years old, I realized something pretty simple, like the things that we no longer need can be useful to someone who actually does. That idea grew into my service project, Zach's Planet, and eventually a registered nonprofit that I co-founded, EcoBrothers. If someone had told me when I was seven years old that we'd distribute more than 330,000 books, help more than 65,000 students, or even, like, lead my student government in sewing up stuffed animals for, like, pet shelters in our area, I really would have been, like, a little overwhelmed by all of it. So, but I'm really thankful that I was able to not have to figure it all out on my own, and there were people around me to help me. And for the past decade, I've been lucky enough to work with the incredible principals, teachers, media specialists, and all of the people throughout Hillsborough County who took a chance on me when I was a little kid with some pretty big dreams. And for the past decade, they've trusted my ideas, they've opened their schools, they've been really, like, rallying with their students, and it helped turn those dreams into really big ideas. And from putting books into, like, children's hands and being able to create, like, massive school libraries, it's been really real, and the support that I needed was always there for me. So even when I took on the Eagle Scout project, that same dedication helped me to provide hundreds of duffel bags filled with comfort items to local kids in foster care. And none of that would have happened because of one person or one idea. It happened because people cared enough to get involved. And looking back, I'm proud on what we've accomplished, and I'm even more grateful for everyone who helped make it possible. Thank you for this incredible honor and for encouraging youth leaders like me to keep going. I've got to tell you, I'm extremely comforted in knowing that we've got young leaders like Zach and Millie that are the next leaders for Hillsborough County and our country. So I'm very proud of you and you, Millie, and keep up the great work. Commissioner Cohen will present our next Yay Award winner. Good morning, everyone. The Yay Award recipients in the leadership category demonstrate positive impact on others in an ongoing endeavor such as the arts, sports, and academics. And these two young individuals epitomize what leadership is all about. Would Vanshika Prabhu and her family and guests please join me at the podium? I am excited to recognize this inspiring eighth grader from Roland Park K-8 school and share what she has achieved in such a short time. Where to start? Well, she's president of the National Junior Honor Society, president of the Student Council, and director of the school's morning show. She also is a team leader with numerous clubs and activities, including robotics, history fair, math, and Black History Month drama teams, just to name a few. On the school's morning show, Vanshika runs a production crew on a daily deadline. In the Honor Society and Student Council, she uses her imagination and quick thinking to collaborate with her respective committees. With the Black History Month team, she led a drama production, which included directing classmates, setting a rehearsal schedule, and getting a group of middle schoolers to perform in front of their own school. Vanshika also plays ice hockey for the Hillsborough South High School travel team as part of the Power Pole Arena team. Now, I want you all to imagine this, a middle schooler on a high school roster, which means she has earned that spot against older, bigger, and more experienced players. She does all of this while taking Latin 1 and Latin 2 as an eighth grader and holding a perfect academic and attendance record. Her skills as leader were put to the test as a participant in Odyssey of the Mind, a creative problem-solving program where team members present their solution at a competition to a predefined, long-term problem that takes many months to complete. This program involves writing, design, construction, and a theatrical performance. During her season, her six-person team lost three members just before the World Finals. Vanshika worked closely with the two remaining teammates, reassessed what three people could realistically pull off, and recreated the entire performance. They rewrote the script, rebuilt the preps, reassigned every role, and placed third in the world. She led the team, again, the following year to a ninth-place world finish. That is truly an amazing achievement. Most importantly, Vanshika is well-known for her compassionate and caring attitude to her family and classmates. That is a very important trait to possess. For her compassion, leadership, and drive, Vanshika Prabhu is the middle school recipient of the Yay Award in the leadership category. Vanshika, would you like to come up and say a few words? Good morning. I should probably start by apologizing to everyone who's ever been in a group project with me. In sixth grade, a teacher asked our class to make a poster, and I showed up the next day with a slideshow and a rehearsal schedule. Nobody ever asked for their rehearsal schedule, and I have not grown out of this. Here's the thing I actually want to say. My first opportunity at leadership came in third grade when three of our six Odyssey of the Minds teammates left right before the World Finals. The three of us who were left rewrote the script, rebuilt props, and placed third in the world anyway. What I remember most fondly is not the trophy, though that was a great plus. It is the two people who had every reason to quit and decided to stay, and that Mrs. Martinez put in more hours with us than anyone had any right to ask for. A lot of what I'm getting credit for today started with you. Being president of NJHS and student council taught me the rest of it. You cannot order your classmates to care. There is no authority that works on middle schoolers. I've learned over the years that being a leader is not about being the loudest voice in the room. It's about being the person who's willing to show up even when times look rough. Principal Von Aiken, thank you for running a school where a kid can say, I want to try that, and the answer is usually yes. A lot of kids never get that answer. Vice Principal Gabriel Angaro, thank you for holding this place together. Most of what you do, students never see, and it makes our school a better place every day. To my friends, they quizzed me, they ran lines with me, held up poster boards, and they never once acted like it was a favor that needed repaying. They let me be bossy and still sat with me at lunch, which is one of the highest forms of friendship there is. And to my family, thank you for believing I could handle it before even I believed it. And finally, thank you to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners for this opportunity. I will try to use it responsibly, which for me probably means I'll be signing up for something else by Friday. Thank you. We're going to present you with this, and we're going to go take a picture with the board. Okay. Our next winner is an incredible young man whose leadership and optimism are also inspirational. Would Arman Aluwalia and his party please join me at the podium? Good morning. Good morning and welcome. Arman is a 17-year-old 11th grader at Hillsborough High School IB. As a sophomore, he founded the organization Cancer Crusaders, with the hope of making a difference in the fight against cancer. Since then, he has built a 30-plus member organization that has partnered with the American Cancer Society. Additionally, he organized fundraising events at Relay for Life through bake and handicraft sales, raising over $1,200. He and his organization also volunteered at Miles for Moffitt, a community-wide Moffitt Cancer Center movement that raises funds for life-saving cancer research. This past summer, he and the Cancer Crusaders organized a three-on-three basketball tournament that brought together 12 teams, secured donated apparel from NBA Cares, and raised $600 for cancer research. But that's not all. As president of his school's chapter of the Health Occupations, Students of America, and a former leadership officer in Future Business Leaders of America, he guided peers through competitive events at the state and national level, earning international finalist and national finalist honors. Arman has built one of the strongest academic and research profiles in his school. He maintains a 4.75 weighted GPA and is currently tracking toward valedictorian or salutatorian standing in his graduating class, while also taking on rigorous coursework, including IB, AP, and dual enrollment courses. Arman's academic strength also extends into original research. Through the high school internship program in integrated mathematical oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center, Arman spent eight weeks of his junior year summer period to help build mathematical models of tumor growth and treatment response. This work goes well beyond typical high school science exposure, and it reflects both technical rigor and a genuine commitment to cancer research. He additionally presented circadian rhythm research at the University of Florida during a summer residential program going into his junior year. He shadowed physicians at a true medical clinic, observing different procedures conducted by doctors and how they treated patients. He continued to volunteer at BayCare's Mies Countryside Hospital across pre-op, urgent care, and nursing station settings, gaining direct exposure to patient-facing health care operations alongside his research background. Because of his work, Arman received his school's Rensselaer Medal and Scholarship offer for excellence in math and science. It is no surprise that Arman was chosen as the high school recipient of the Yay Award in the leadership category. Congratulations, Arman. Good morning, everyone. First and foremost, I'd like to thank the Hillsborough County Commission for recognizing me with the 2026 Yay Leadership Award. Thank you to my parents and my brother for always supporting me in whatever I have done and teaching me the fundamental qualities of being a good person. Thank you to my school counselor, Ms. Jackson, for taking the time to nominate me for this award and for constantly believing in me these past four years. I want to thank my teachers at Hillsborough High School for always helping me as a student and an individual, no matter how big or small the problem may be. Last but not least, I am grateful for the students and the peers that I've been surrounded with and all of my leadership opportunities. Whether it's collaborating in a team competition or organizing a fundraising event, working with people who are as committed to a goal as myself has given me the confidence and motivation to act as a leader. Because of the support and the willingness to help from the people that I've mentioned, I've learned somewhat of what it means to be a leader, and that's why I'm standing before you today. Thank you. Commissioner Cameron Cepeda will present our last award. Thank you. Good morning. Well, I look forward to this ceremony every year, and all of us do. I believe all the commissioners really do. It's just absolutely amazing. The kids are so inspiring, especially the winner in our last category. The Yay Awards recipient in the Success Despite Difficult Odds category has overcome tremendous personal obstacles to obtain success and have a positive impact on others. Now I want to introduce a very special young lady who attends Sickles High School. Would Kelsey Meister and her group please join me at the podium? Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for joining us today. A junior at Sickles, Kelsey, who is 16, has faced circumstances that would be extraordinarily difficult for anyone, especially a teenager. Especially a teenager. Foremost is a severe medical condition suffered by her father that has greatly impacted his quality of life and the entire family. Instead of withdrawing, Kelsey has used these challenges to make an extraordinary commitment to make a positive difference in the lives of others. With the blessing of Sickles administrators, Kelsey launched an angel tree program, similar to the Salvation Army's, an effort that quickly expanded and brightened the lives of 74 families from Sickles and Smith Middle School in just its first year of existence. Kelsey also made and delivered 60 heartwarming cards to a memory care center, so every resident there would have a personal reminder that someone was thinking of them at Easter. Her latest project to brighten the days of these same residents is making personalized art canvases that picture treasured moments these residents once enjoyed. Her father served as her inspiration for this project after she made him a canvas depicting one of his most cherished memories. Kelsey also serves as a great example for other young people. As a volunteer student camp counselor for Hillsborough Middle Schoolers, she built meaningful connections with younger students, a gesture that their parents greatly appreciated. In addition to these achievements, Kelsey holds a 4.25 weighted GPA, sometimes completing school work in hospital rooms and has successfully completed three advanced placement courses. She is currently enrolled in four additional AP courses. A leader in the Sickles Student Government Association, Kelsey has helped lobby for state legislation to ban cosmetic animal testing, and she has served as secretary and director of membership for Leaders in Action. Among participation in numerous other clubs and organizations, further, Kelsey serves as spirit sergeant for the Sickles Wall of Sound marching band and is an award-winning starting left fielder for the Sickles softball team. As Kelsey's softball coach wrote about her, they say that iron sharpens iron, and I know to be true because Kelsey is the iron that sharpens her fellow coaches and teammates. Kelsey, you are not only a true Griffin, you are an incredible person whose journey has been inspiring, and I'm happy to present you with this Yay Award in the Success Despite Difficult Odds category for high school students. You richly deserve this. Would you like to say a few words? Receiving this award today is such an honor and privilege. I am incredibly grateful to the Board of County Commissioners for this recognition. Today I want to acknowledge some of the many people who have supported me when facing obstacles in my life. First, I want to thank my Sickles High School family for their unwavering support, especially Ms. Luloff, Mr. Humphrey, and Ms. Cassavine. My wonderful band directors, Ms. Rosen and Mr. Bosma, and my incredible softball coaches, Coach Patterson, Assistant Coach Benson, and Assistant Coach Arnold. I am so proud to represent Sickles High School today. I also want to thank my youth group leader, Allie Basil, for her spiritual guidance and encouragement. She has been there for me through many highs and lows of my life over the past several years, and because of her, my faith has strengthened not only as an individual but also as a leader. I am so grateful for the unconditional love and support of my grandparents and my siblings. My older sisters, Caitlin and Allison, have always been my role models. Allison traveled more than 2,400 miles from Los Angeles to be here today, which means the world to me. Caitlin, who is pursuing her Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, somehow always spends time to tutor me, encourage me, and help me achieve my goals. My mom, Susan Meister, has been my biggest cheerleader and one of my greatest inspirations. Watching her strength, determination, and perseverance throughout these difficult years has taught me more than words can express. She has shown me what it means to keep going even when life feels overwhelming. She believed in me even on the days I couldn't believe in myself, and even took the initiative to nominate me for this award. Without her love, encouragement, and efforts, I would not be standing here today. Finally, I want to recognize someone who has had the greatest influence on the person I am today, and that is my dad. Growing up, my dad was and remains my best friend. He made countless sacrifices to give me the best life possible. He taught me so many lessons about love, kindness, strength, and character. Although our lives have changed in many ways, we could never imagine. The lessons he taught me and the love he has given me will always be a part of who I am. In many ways, my dad is the true recipient of this award. Every accomplishment I achieve carries a piece of him because his love, sacrifices, and influence live on through me. If there is one lesson I have learned over the past few years, it is that even through heartbreaking challenges and unexpected setbacks, there is always something to be grateful for. I have also learned that no matter how difficult our own circumstances may be, there are always others facing challenges on their own. And sometimes the most meaningful act of kindness is to take what we have experienced and use it to bring hope and compassion into someone else's life. We may not get to choose the challenges life throws in front of us, but we can choose how we respond to them. And when we choose to lift others up, even during our own darkest moments, we create light not only for ourselves, but for the world around us. Thank you so much for this incredible honor. Thank you for those beautiful words. What a precious heart that you have, and all these amazing young people to serve others. Absolutely amazing. And we'll just step up and have some people. Congratulations. So would everyone who was a recipient of the Yale Awards today please come up? We're going to have photos with everyone. Congratulations to all of our young leaders. On behalf of the Board of County Commissioners, I thank you for all that you do to help to continue to make Hillsborough County future so incredibly bright. Each of you is a point of pride for your community, and we look forward to the good works you will accomplish as you grow into adults. This concludes Hillsborough County's 2026 Year Awards presentation ceremony. And now we've got one more special recognition that Commissioner Bowles will present. Good morning, everyone. How are you all? Thank you so much for coming this early in the morning. Since I have so many of my brothers and sisters from fire rescue and the sheriff's office, can I just have the fire chief and undersheriff come up here, please? We're going to crowd it out up here. But I do love that you all are here. Thank you so much. Are you okay with that, sir? Good morning. Good morning, sir. For those of you who don't know, this is Fire Chief Jason Daugherty, and this is Undersheriff Tommy St. John. You know, one of the things that I don't get to do is play with these guys anymore. Every once in a while, I get to dip my toe back in, and this is one of the days that I feel really special about recognizing for them. Today was designated by, excuse me, celebrated on October 28th, designated by Congress in 2017, National First Responders Day was created. This was a special observance and is a great opportunity for everyone to show their appreciation for the everyday heroes on the front lines that serve our community and protect the citizens here. We are indeed fortunate to be served by both Hillsborough Fire Rescue and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, because as I believe and I think that everyone may agree that they are one of the finest public service agencies, not only here, but in our area, but I would say in the state of Florida and perhaps the country. And there are many ways to honor these first responders and others on this special day. For starters, we can simply say thank you, give them a handshake, and they would certainly appreciate that, and it would mean a lot to them. But our first responders do sacrifice a great deal, and often they carry the effects of their service home with them, which is another reason why we find it certainly relevant to support our local first responders. In fact, we do have one of your deputies who was struck just the other day, and I presume she's doing better. Very good, very good. And while she was struck by a vehicle on the interstate. And as a 28-year member of myself of Hillsborough Fire Rescue and a former battalion chief, I certainly have great privilege and honor to present the following proclamation, honoring these brave men and women that are here in this crowd and these two gentlemen that stand before me and everyone that they represent, the 1,400 firefighters, the 4,000 sheriff's deputies and support staff that support our community, who protect our communities and provide aid when it is needed. The proclamation reads, and I'm going to hand, let's see, one to you, sir. The proclamation reads, whereas first responders stand on the front lines of the community, courageously rushing towards crisis to selflessly serve and protect the public during natural disasters, fires, accidents, medical emergencies, and other health and safety threats. And whereas these fearless responders include firefighters, law enforcement, emergency medical technicians, 9-1-1 operators, paramedics, and other emergency personnel who often are our neighbors, friends, and relatives. And whereas 4.6 million career and voluntary first responders support the communities where they live across our nation, often putting their own lives on the line, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. And whereas the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that on average, 155 firefighters and police officers tragically die each year in the line of duty. And in addition, first responders' rates of occupational injury is higher than the national average. And whereas first responders' sacrifices extend well beyond the hours they work, as they often face high stress daily and the trauma that witness can wear on them both mentally and physically. And whereas Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, and its more than 1,300 employees, roughly 1,400, preserve and protect the lives and property by providing quality, timely emergency response services and enhance public safety through education, fire prevention, and emergency planning in the 909 square mile response area. And whereas Hillsborough County probably supports National First Responders Day. I'm going to just, I know it's not on there, but you guys do the same exact thing, but make sure that law and order is taken care of. So I want to make sure that that was, I'm not sure why I was here. But call for action to support all first responders through resources and awareness so they can live healthier, more productive lives, and pass their knowledge and skills onto the next generation of first responders. Now, therefore, it be proclaimed that the Board of County Commissioners of Hillsborough County, Florida, does hereby declare October 28, 2026 as First Responders Day in Hillsborough County and encourages everyone to personally thank a first responder for their services and dedication and urgent support for all programs that provide assistance to first responders and their families. Executed this day, the 21st of October, 2026. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Would either one of you like to jump up here and say something? Want to go first? Thank you. So first of all, congratulations to all of our young men and women that received awards. Hillsborough County Fire Rescue is always hiring, so I look forward when you graduate to see an interview process. So thank you, Commissioner, for this recognition and for your own service to our community as a first responder. As you mentioned, you weren't just a battalion chief. You were a firefighter, a driver engineer, a captain. And as you moved your way up the ranks, and I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you thank you for your service. I also wanted to thank Sheriff Chronister, the under-sheriff, Tommy St. John, his staff that's here with us for their incredible work they do and their team does for our community each day and for the partnership they give Hillsborough County Fire Rescue. And to your point, Commissioner, I believe public safety in Hillsborough County between the Sheriff's Office and Fire Rescue, there is no men and women better to serve the community than Hillsborough County Fire and Hillsborough County Sheriffs. To the men and women of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, thank you for yourself with service. Albert Einstein once said, Only a life lived for others is a life worth living. That quote embodies who you are and what you do each and every day. As your fire chief, I'm so proud of the service you provide to our community each day. Before I close, I want to remember two of our members of our Hillsborough County Fire Rescue family who lost their life this past year. Driver Engineer Jenny Thomas, who lost her life in a line of duty from a work-related cancer, and Lieutenant James Sargent, who died by suicide while battling mental health challenges. Their losses remind us that our responsibility extends beyond responding in emergencies. We must continue caring for the physical and mental well-being of those who care for others. To our county administration, our county commissioners, and all of our leadership, thank you for being the team behind the team, and thank you for allowing us to serve this outstanding community. On behalf of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue, to our command staff, thank you very much. Thank you. On behalf of Sheriff Chad Chronister, thank you, Commissioner, Board of County Commissioners, County Administrators, you know, I agree. Well, first of all, we are hiring too. It's joinHCSO.com. Congratulations to the award winners. I do think today is very special. Thank you for taking the time to recognize our incredible, you know, public safety first responder team in this county. By far, we have the most amazing and dedicated men and women that give their everything to ensure that we're safe, we're healthy, and they respond to your every need. And I would agree with the fire chief, we could absolutely be the number one in the nation. So, once again, thank you to the HCSO family, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue family, and our Board of County Commissioners for recognizing us today. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you, Commissioner Bowles. Bonnie, you want to review the changes to the agenda? Yes. Good morning, everyone. We have one off-the-agenda item, which is item G3. This is to receive a report from the Management and Budget Department regarding the status of HOPE Affordable Housing Trust Funds. We have one item that has been removed from consent for highlighting or accommodation or announcements. This is item A6 by Commissioner Cohen. This is to approve the proposed ordinance relating to electric bikes, bicycles, motorized scooters, and other micro-ability devices. We have one item that has been removed from consent for discussion or questions by Commissioner Westall, which is item A1. This is to approve and execute five state housing initiatives, partnership program funding agreements. We have several items for time certain today. The first one is item D2, which is related to item B3, which is at 10 o'clock, to conduct a public hearing to receive public input and discuss amending the approved list of infrastructure projects for the renewed community investment tax. Item B3, related to item D2 at 10 o'clock as well, to approve a resolution amending the adopted fiscal year 27 to 31 capital improvement program to add the new CIP project for Zoo Tampa capital improvements. Item E1 at 1015 is to receive a special appearance by Santiago Corrada, president and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, to present their activity report for 2026. Item E2 is at 1030. This is to receive a special appearance by Craig Richard, president and CEO of Tampa Bay Economic Development Council, to present their activity report for 2026. And item D1 at 11 o'clock is to conduct a public hearing on agricultural enclave certification application. 1145 is a recess for lunch. Those are the changes to the agenda. I have a motion to approve the changes. Move to approve. Second. Motion to Commissioner Myers. Second, Commissioner Walsall approve the change of the agenda. Please record your vote. Motion carried, 7 to 0. Okay, the board will go on to the public comment portion of the agenda. The board welcomes comments from citizens about any issue or concern. Your opinions are valued in terms of providing valuable input to board members. However, at the same time as requested, when you address the board, comments are not made, they're not directed at the staff or the board, but rather the issues. We set aside 45 minutes for public comment this morning. When you come forward, please state your name and speak clearly into the microphone. Each person will be given three minutes. First three speakers are Ann Malone, followed by John Marinello, and then Betsy Coville. Unfortunately, Ann Malone is out sick today. I'm wondering if we can speak her speech for her. No, sir. We got 25 people signed up, but we won't get to all of them. Thank you. Julie, I was at the shelter for a very long time, but I got very lucky and found my perfect home. But I feel so bad for the other homeless animals that have to live in the heat and cold and horribly loud and noisy 40-year-old shelter that floods every time it rains. They can't wait any longer. However, they need a new shelter now, not five years from now. Please help save more of us homeless animals. We love all of you. We hope you love us, too, and do the right thing. Build a new shelter now. Well, I hope you listened to what Julie had to say. We need a new shelter, and we need it now. What we don't need is $2.9 million that somehow has made it onto the budget to fix the current PRC shelter. If you want to use that money, then put it towards the new shelter and stop wasting time and money. And yesterday, we were given a reminder of just how urgent a new shelter is needed. Electrical fire broke out at the shelter, requiring the fire department to respond and staff to evacuate kennels and personnel. Thankfully, everyone was safe. But think about that for a moment. These are the conditions our animals and staff are living and working in every day. How many more warnings do we need? I want to thank the commissioners for the progress being made towards moving our new shelter forward, but we cannot afford to lose momentum. Tonight, as we consider an $800 million investment in the new Tampa Bay Rays Stadium, let's remember that investing in our animal shelter is also an investment in our community. If we can make an $800 million investment in the Bay Rays Stadium, surely we can make building a safe, modern animal shelter a priority. Thank you for moving forward, but please don't delay. Our animals and the people who care for them need a new shelter, and they need it now. Thank you. Please state your name for the record, sir. John Maranello, and that was Julie, my dog. Thank you. Betsy Covill, followed by Anthony Huffman, and then Ellen Snelling. Good morning. My name is Dr. Betsy Covill. I am back again fighting for the shelter. When voters renewed the community investment tax, a new shelter was explicitly identified as an eligible key project. Now we find the BOCC has over $2.9 million in the remaining HOPE Affordable Housing Trust Funds. A new shelter is not a luxury or a disposable line item. It is a fundamental public service. Our community tax dollars should protect our local infrastructure and animal welfare first. We will not tolerate a Band-Aid. There are far too many hazards that jeopardize both the staff and animals, and with our recent electrical fire, there is no time to waste. That is why we will keep hounding you until we see a solid plan with a BOCC commitment, not in years, but at the same pace that would be accomplished for the ballpark. We do not want you to put lipstick on a pig. That is throwing good money after bad. We need shovels in the ground this year. Commissioner Miller, I want to sincerely thank you for your motion to explore using leftover HOPE funding. But with all that respect, that is not what we were promised. We were promised a new shelter, not another round of temporary fixes to a facility that has outlived its ability to adequately serve this community. And if anyone still questions the urgency, let's tell you what happened over PRC's adoption event. It was fully operational, staff, community coming in, and all of a sudden smoke began coming from the ceiling near the main conference room. There was a strong electrical smell. Staff had to evacuate the building, and Hillsborough County Fire Rescue responded. For approximately an hour, shelter operations came to a halt. Thankfully, nothing catastrophic happened. But what if it had? What if that smoke had turned into flames? What if animals or people had been trapped? Commissioners, this isn't a hypothetical. This happened just days ago. Building we have repeatedly told you is deteriorating. How many more warning signs do you need? We cannot keep putting Band-Aids on a facility that needs replacing. I sincerely hope it doesn't take a tragedy or the loss of human life or animal life before this board recognizes the urgency. We need a funded plan, a timeline, and action, not more promises. These animals cannot speak for themselves, but we can. And we will continue, continue speaking until there's changes. Thank you. Thank you. Anthony Huffman, and then Ellen Snelling, and then Mary Ho. Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Council. So I think it's no surprise I come to you to ask you to support the rate increase for towing that's before you today. We've worked with staff for over a year to arrive at this pricing. Also on the table is an emergency fuel service charge. Anybody who stopped at the gas pump recently knows what we face. To borrow a line from one of my favorite actors, Tommy Norse, it's in everything. If you change the oil in your car, you're paying more. If you buy tires, you're paying more. If you get supply parts, you're paying more. Our industry is really suffering at this point. To give you an idea, we try to employ the best people possible for the job. This is a 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week job. They see horrific things, and we want to be able to pay them what they deserve. In doing so, like any business, we have to arrive at operational costs, and then from there, we piecemeal it out to what we can actually afford to pay your average driver. So, with that said, like I said, we've worked with the staff. We've worked with Hillsborough County Consumer Protection Code Enforcement for over a year to arrive at what's before you today. If you have any questions, happy to answer them. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate the comments. Ellen Snelling, Mary Ho, and then Teresa Miller. Good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Ellen Snelling, the board chair of the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance. And our mission is to prevent substance use, but our job has become much more difficult with the prevalence of colorful candies, seltzers, and shots that contain concentrated kratom extracts sold in neighborhood stores. Thank you for bringing forward item A5, which would place 7-0-H in synthetics into Hillsborough's synthetic drug ordinance. I'm here to urge you to go a step further and add kratom's active ingredient metragenine to the ordinance. A mind-boggling variety of allegedly natural kratom products, and I have several samples here if you'd like to see them afterwards. But they're shots and flavored candies that are full of metragenine, not 7-0-H. That's what I'm seeing out in the stores. Brightly colored gummies, white rabbit seltzers, fruit flavored tablets, and colorful shots, easy to access. Did you know kratom is an opioid that binds to the same receptors as heroin and carries risk of drug abuse, addiction, and death? That's why kratom is referred to as gas station heroin. This is really important to pay attention to. In 2025, 11 deaths were caused by kratom in Hillsborough County, reporting the Medical Examiner's Office. In 2026, just through yesterday, there have been 31 deaths where kratom was found to be a cause of death. And this is awaiting final confirmation. But you can see the jump. We're expecting the numbers to basically quadruple by the end of this year. This is an epidemic. I'm meeting with parents who have lost their child to kratom. It's beyond heartbreaking to listen to a sobbing mother who lost a child because of a product marketed as a safe nutritional supplement sold at a gas station. I'm going to read a statement from Wendy Cummings, a mom who lives in Hillsborough County but could not attend today. I lost my beautiful 30-year-old son, Cody, six months ago. I had never heard of kratom until I got a call from the Medical Examiner's Office. His death certificate lists the cause of death as toxic effects of mitragynine. I believe he thought it was safe because he bought it legally. Cody left behind a 7-year-old daughter who will grow up without her father. There are at least 31 grieving families in Hillsborough County who lost a loved one in 2026 because of a product legally purchased at a neighborhood store. County commissioners, you can save young lives by amending the ordinance. I implore you to ban kratom, an addictive and deadly gas station drug. And Sarasota has already done this many years ago. Liberty County did. And several other counties, including Leon County, are in the process of banning. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Nelling. Mary Ho, and then Teresa Miller, and then Dana McDonald. Good morning. My name is Mary Huff. Good morning. Thank you for letting me tell you my story. I am here as a mother. I am also here on behalf of thousands of members of Kratom Danger Awareness, a group made up of families who have lost loved ones, people struggling with kratom dependence, and people in recovery. On February 2nd, 2026, at 8.14 p.m., my world ended. Sorry. We found my son, Timothy, an only child in his room, deceased. According to a toxicology report performed at the University of Florida, cause of death was mitragynine toxicity. I am here because no family should have to experience this kind of loss. Two weeks before my son died, he took a pre-employment drug test. If those tests had screened for Kratom, he would still be here. Why is that important? Because imagine truck drivers, school bus drivers, or people in the medical field being under the influence of an opioid because it does not show up on drug tests. I live in Vanity County, where officials were supposed to pass an ordinance in September of 2025, but it was pushed aside. In that ordinance, if that ordinance had been put into place, my son would be alive today. How do I know this? He didn't have a car, and if he had asked me to drive him to another county, that would have immediately raised a red flag, giving us the chance to intervene and prevent his death. Please do not be swayed by claims of miraculous health benefits or by lobbyists who present selective information, half-truths, or so-called facts. If you take mitragynine from bulk Kratom powder and chemically convert it into 7-OH or pseudo-indoxil or MGM and sell the resulting opioid, at what precise step does it cease to be Kratom-derived? The answer is, it doesn't. It can lead to addiction, withdrawal, overdose death, where I'll leave Kratom and the dangerous derivatives made from it should be banned. We are also concerned when Kratom-related deaths are dismissed as polysubstance deaths. Many people use prescription or over-the-counter medications, such as Benadryl or cough syrup. If it is so safe, why should you have to worry about taking an over-the-counter medication? Polysubstance use should not be used to minimize Kratom's role or the risks associated with it. The Kratom market changes quickly, and rules are difficult and costly to enforce. Regulations will not bring back those we have lost, and they may not prevent future dependence, injury, or death. Kratom is illegal to import. I will say it again. Illegal to import. It makes it through, whether it's in fertilizer, and then it's being legally manufactured into products, and they end up on store shelves. Make that make sense. That means an import problem has become a legal marketplace problem. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate the comments. Teresa Miller, followed by Dana McDonald and then Olivia McDonald. Hello. I hope I sent this last night, so I hope you got it. It's a brand-new article that was just released by a doctor I met 17 years ago in Atlanta when prescription drug pill mills were an issue. It's been almost 20 years since I got what I call sort of a funky email from my son, and I told my husband something's wrong, but we never expected him to have a severe addiction to Oxycontin. That was over 20 years ago, and since then, I've gotten my master's in mental health and joined the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance Board, and hardly a day goes by if I'm given the chance that I don't hand out information and try to prevent someone from becoming addicted to drugs. A few years ago, an article came out, The Deadly Dose, and the Tampa Bay Times. If you didn't get a chance to read it, this Kratom issue is not new. I suspect someone's loved one passed away, and they did this article. But here we go again with this deja vu with Kratom. But what makes Kratom worse is the industry has free reign. They market it as sober-friendly, as an energy drink, and they can sell it anywhere. If you went in and bought anything in the gas station, you'd assume it'd be legal, but there's anything but the truth. People keep asking me, how is it sold? I said, the problem is, it's not illegal. Therefore, you have these nefarious companies and people trying to make money off of innocent people. We've been trying in Tallahassee to get the lawmakers for three years to address this issue and to ban Kratom, but we've been unsuccessful. Many consumers quite innocently take it, believing the industry hype and believing the clerks who say it's safe and healthy. But because Kratom lacks FDA approval, when I went into a store, and I know a little bit more than the average person, I picked up a super strong bottle of, or a can of Kratom. And I said, oh, this looks good, and I love mango. And it was three times the can next to it, but both of them said one serving. How can anyone know, you know, what the truth is with this labeling? Please, if you get a chance, go to your local vape shop, gas station, and observe some of this for yourself. I know you care about this community, and I'm asking you to educate yourself. Review the research. Sit down and listen to these parents who've lived through the ultimate loss of a child. But what makes it even more heartbreaking is that they lost a child to a deadly product that should never be on our shelves. So please, let's work together and be the mentor that Hillsborough continues to be and proudly ban Kratom in our county when we get the opportunity and you meet. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Ma'am, can you please repeat your name for the record? Teresa Miller, no H. Next three speakers, Dana McDonald, followed by Olivia McDonald, and then Rachel Reynolds. Hi, my name is Dana McDonald. I am the mother to an older daughter and twin boys, Colton Cade. Cade, a truly beautiful and kind 20-year-old college student, only two months from turning 21, died this year in Tallahassee from Kratom. The night before Cade died, he called me. He was confused and agitated. He did not understand why he felt the way he did. We both naturally felt it was anxiety. We did not in those moments understand that an herbal supplement was causing havoc in his body. Cade was found dead the next morning by his childhood friend and college roommate, whom also had to take a leave from college. Dr. Cohen, the chief medical examiner in our state's capital, also a forensic toxicologist and neuropathologist, personally, told me Cade would still be alive if he had not ingested Kratom. His death was marked accidental from mitrogeninine toxicity. After Cade's death, Colt realized he had a dependence on Kratom. Colt experienced severe withdrawals and had to be admitted into a professional rehab center, while simultaneously grieving the loss of his twin. Colt shared a story with me about a person he met in the detox center. When Colt shared his story with this person, his actual comeback to Colt was, wow, man, I'm sorry, that's tough. It was harder to come off of Kratom than heroin, a supplement. Colt, unfortunately, could not be here today, but when I spoke to him last night, I told him how proud I was of him. His actual response to me was, mom, honestly, it was just pure survival. This is what my son told me about getting off an herbal, herbal supplement. Kratom has changed our lives forever. We grieve every day. I cry every day. The call I received from a tele-assie detective is burned into my memory. I will never get the final call from my son out of my head. Herbal does not mean safe. It does not. I understand I cannot bring my child back, but my boys deserve better than a wannabe pharmacist, store clerk, saying, hey, try this. It helps with anxiety. Please take a stand for the parents who place their students in your care in this county, and also for your own citizens. Ban Kratom completely. It's dangerous. God bless. Thank you. Olivia McDonald is next, followed by Rachel Reynolds. Good morning. My name is Olivia McDonald, and I have the utmost privilege of being Cade McDonald's other sister. Despite being younger, Cade was someone I always looked up to. He was kind, compassionate, loving, and funny. He was genuinely every good word in the dictionary and loved by so many. But in January, two months shy of his 21st birthday, Cade died from acute nitrogenine toxicity after consuming Kratom. And after losing his twin brother, Colt spent their shared 21st birthday in a rehab center, detoxing from natural Kratom. Something he genuinely believed was safer because it was labeled natural. Out of sympathy, my mother and I were allowed just five minutes in the rehab lobby to give him a birthday card and a single cupcake. That is how he spent his first ever birthday without his twin. Colt experienced severe withdrawals, requiring medical supervision, and a withdrawal protocol comparable to those used for other serious drug dependencies. Our limited phone calls with him were frightening, and they were heartbreaking, and his body was struggling to recover. I urge all of you to speak with those rehab centers and hear firsthand what patients withdrawing from Kratom are experiencing. Colt and Cade were introduced to Kratom as an herbal product that is supposedly to relieve anxiety. They believed it was harmless, and they were unaware of its potential for dependence and addiction. And rather than warning them of these dangers, the smoke shops encouraged repeat purchases through text messages and even a reward system. An October 2026 study published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine found that commercial Kratom products sold in America differ chemically from the traditional preparations in Southeast Asia. Their historical profiles cannot be applied to American products. Natural does not mean safe. Being Colt and Cade's big sister will always be my greatest privilege, but Kratom stole Cade's future. It stole the sister-in-law I would have had, the nieces and nephews I would have loved, and a lifetime of memories that we will never have the chance to make. Kratom stole Colt's twin, his college career, and a piece of our family that can never be replaced. Please recognize the dangers of all forms of Kratom, not just the synthetic products. A natural label does not eliminate the risks. And no family should ever have to bury one son while watching another fight the addiction that took his twin's life. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your comments. Next up is Rachel Reynolds, followed by Rita Barrio. Is Rachel here? Rita Barrio, please. Good morning, everyone. And first, I want to thank everyone that spoke before me, especially Olivia and Ms. Dana McDonald, for speaking about Cade. I'm here to speak on approving a draft ordinance amending the county's synthetic drug ordinance, and as a result, banning all sales of all Kratom products in Hillsborough County. Like they said before me, Kratom is sold in many places in many different forms, as they showed you. Depending on the product, Kratom can act like a stimulant or even, like they said, an opioid. It causes dependency, high blood pressure, breathing problems, seizures, and as we heard in our most tragic cases, it takes our loved ones. And it really is everywhere as a college student. It's sold at gas stations, liquor and convenience stores, smoke shops. I could buy it in seconds with many places not even properly checking identification. And many places are on and around college campuses. This convenience is not an accident. Kratom comes in, as you saw, flavored shots, gummies, and bright packaging that targets vulnerable college students and sometimes even younger groups. It sits at the register with the convenience and the appeal of a simple pack of gum or a candy bar. A college student may be intoxicated, anxious, depressed, or even just bored, unknowingly assumes the products are safe because why else would it be so easy to get? As we heard, we can't undo the losses or the pain, but we can make a decision now about what comes next. Thank you for listening, and please ban all Kratom sales in Hillsborough County. Thank you. All right, thank you. And ma'am, can you state your name for the record? Rita Barrow. All right, thank you. Thank you. Denise Herndon, Denise here, followed by Leanne Benatti and then Teresa Benatti. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Denise Herndon. I haven't been here for a while. I was given complimentary tickets to the Mack Parkman Foundation and learned a lot about repetitive head injuries. And this is something that they've gone together with the VA. We need to start studying all kids, starting in Head Start or kindergarten. My first head trauma was about three and a half, four years old, when my brother started hitting me with his cowboy boots once he got hit and passed out because of somebody swinging a golf club. Over the years, I've had a lot of head trauma, but what's caused my traumatic brain injury now is growing skull fractures that I started in 07. They ended in 2013. My son was responsible for a patient hitting me in the head as a respiratory therapist at St. Anthony's with a TV on a reticulating arm. And how I know my son was involved was because he asked me if I was working in the ER. Out of all the years he would come and visit me for lunch or dinner, he never asked me where I was working. As soon as I said yes, I got a call down to ER and this kid hit me. And I was almost knocked out from that. None of the other traumas did I ever almost get knocked out. This is something that we need to, our kids are our future and you don't need to go to a private school to get a good education. And that proved it right here with all the awards that were given out. Anybody who has the desire, and it really upsets me when I hear when somebody has committed a crime, oh, I had such a poor childhood, oh, well, your childhood, 18 years, is a small portion. And if you have a desire to do something, you can do it. It's the people tell you you can't do it. You can't do it. And as long as you tell yourself you can't do something or somebody else tells you that you can't do something, you won't. Everybody has a desire to do whatever they want. It's peer pressure. Peer pressure starts this kratom crap. And now that social media is around, bullying at school was bad enough and peer pressure with social media, it's even worse. And our EMS and firefighters, they see the worst of everything. They take out these mangled bodies. And as a respiratory therapist, I get to take care of them, but I don't see the stuff that they have to take them out. We need to do something here. Thank you, Ms. Herndon. Teresa, or Leanne Benatti, followed by Teresa Benatti and then Stephen Michelini. Good morning. My name is Leanne Benatti. I'm a 65-year Tampa native. I'm also the mother of 21-year-old triplets. I'm here to talk about a young man who would have been one of those leaders. Earlier this year, my children lost one of their closest friends. His name was Cade. He was just 20 years old. He was Olivia's brother and Dana's son. As you've heard in the testimony earlier, Cade died following a tragic and, frankly, I would say criminal reaction involving Kratom. 20 years old. His entire life was ahead of him. And what really haunts me is how easily these young people can get these products. You don't need a drug dealer and you don't need a prescription. You can walk into a gas station or a convenience store and find them sitting next to energy drinks and chewing gum. The packaging says it's herbal. It's natural. And isn't that what we teach ourselves to believe? That natural means safe? Well, natural does not mean safe, especially in the case of Kratom. Kratom contains substances that act on the brain's opioid receptors. And some of the concentrated products being sold today contain something called 7-OH, a powerful opioid-like compound. After K died, I talked with my three children and I asked them what they knew about Kratom. All three attend colleges in different towns, and all three gave virtually the same answer. Mom, it's everywhere. It's rampant. Everybody knows about it. Three different college towns, three nearly identical answers. And that terrified me. And then I spoke with my nephews. One of them told me that he tried Kratom one time. His heart began racing so violently, he thought something was terribly wrong. He was frightened enough that he took himself to the emergency room. He was also taking a medication for depression. And now, knowing what I know today about the potential dangers of mixing these substances with other medications, I am incredibly grateful that he recognized the warning signs and sought help. Kate didn't get that chance. When we told my son Grant that Kate had died, he broke down sobbing. He said, Mom, no. No, it cannot be true. These young men should be thinking about their careers and their families and their futures, not funerals. Commissioners, I'm not a doctor. I'm not a lawyer. I'm just a mom. I cannot understand how we can recognize the dangers of these powerful substances and still allow them to be marketed to these young people as harmless. Please pass this ordinance. And please don't stop here. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate the comments. Teresa Bignotti and Stephen Michelini and Frank Santini. Good morning, Chair and Commissioners. My name is Teresa Bignotti. I'm a nurse practitioner. I do have experience in prescribing opioids, and this is something that's very carefully considered. You look at the patient as a whole person. You look at their medical background. You do a risk assessment to see are they at risk of becoming addicted. You're giving them written and verbal instructions about other forms of medication that they can take. So, in other words, there's a very precise, well-documented, researched approach to giving patients medicine that are opioids. It's not lost on me that these wonderful leaders were here today, and then we were followed by first responders. I want to challenge you all that you all can be the first responders in helping protect Hillsborough County against this, you know, you could be the award winner today, all of you. So, the purpose for me standing up here is to honor Cade, but it's also to ensure patient safety. I'd like to advocate for Hillsborough County resident safety and to ask you to pass this ordinance. Kratom is marketed as herbal and natural. Clinically, it does not behave like an herb. Its active compounds act on the same opioid receptors in the brain as morphine and oxycodone. At low doses, it stimulates. At higher doses, it sedates. It slows their breathing, creates physical dependence. The concentrated form 7-OH is sold as tablets, gummies, and shots can be more potent than morphine. The DEA has moved to place this in Schedule 1, the same category as heroin. Here is what we see clinically. Young adults reach for these products for anxiety, stress, or sleep, believing that they're safer than a prescription. Many end up using every day and can't stop because withdrawal looks like an opioid withdrawal. Body aches, sweats, insomnia, agitation. Addiction specialists in Florida report Kratom dependence peaking in teens and people in their 20s. And, in fact, in our risk assessment, just being a young male puts you at higher risk. The local data is sobering. Our own medical examiner reports that Kratom's main active ingredients contributed to 34 deaths in this county in the past two years. Statewide, medical examiners have linked at least 587 overdose deaths to 7-OH and related compounds. Florida Poison Control logged 95 calls involving these products in just the first four months of this year. These products are engineered to stay one step ahead of the law. When Florida restricted 7-OH, manufacturers reformulated to get around it. The state's emergency rule expires next June unless the legislature acts. Your ordinance makes sure Hillsboro families aren't left unprotected. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate the comments. We have Stephen Michelini, followed by Frank Santini, and then Justin Heller. Good evening. Good morning, Commissioner. Steve Michelini. I'm here on behalf of the Hillsboro Towing Association and urging you to pass the requested change in rates. As you may recall, three years ago, when you first initiated the rate establishment, it provided for a three-year review. And since then, we've had so many changes in the types of vehicles, the types of towing that has to occur, and types of equipment that are involved. We've also experienced extraordinary increases in fuel. We went line by line with the county staff to examine the categories. We found that there were probably 15 or 20 different categories that were not covered by your previous ordinance or your previous resolution. And we inserted new criteria and established rates for that. What was happening in the public was that since no rate was established, some of the towing companies, not the ones that we represent, but some of them were abusing that privilege and said there was no rate that was established so they could set their own rate. So what we've done is work with staff, establish those rates. We started over a year ago, and we went line by line, explaining exactly what was happening and why the rate increases were being requested and why they were justified. We've had tremendous increases, as you well know, in fuel charges. And some of the other communities are using a percentage or a mileage rate, but that's not a fair way of calculating the use of fuel. Because when a wrecker pulls up to a site, the engine has to continue running to operate the equipment. We work very closely with the legal staff as well. They vetted this request. We're respectfully requesting that you pass this, and they request the legal department to come back with a resolution that would enable that to take effect immediately upon passage of this board. We appreciate your time. We appreciate all of what the staff has done. And trust me, this has been a very detailed and exhausting study where we went through, as I said, line by line for each category. And actually, there was a learning experience on both sides, on the enforcement side as well as on the provider side. So we appreciate your time and consideration. Respectfully request that you direct the legal department to come back with a resolution and to have it take effect immediately. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, sir. We have Frank Santini, followed by Justin Heller. Good morning. Good morning. Frank Santini, 7269 Bucks Ford Drive here in Riverview. I'd be remiss if I didn't just acknowledge the courageousness of the parents and families who spoke about Cratom today. But I'm actually here to speak about the Microbability Ordinance eBikes brought by Commissioner Cohen. I have a unique perspective. I'm a personal injury attorney. So I became concerned about this issue because of the amount of calls I was having to my office about eBike crashes, micro-mobility crashes, a lot of kids in these accidents. Adults, too, but a lot of kids as well. And I started looking at what data was available out there statewide, and there's actually not a lot of data out there statewide on specifically micro-mobility accidents. So it inspired me to start Santini research at my firm to try to understand how many accidents are happening, how they're happening. So that's one of the reasons I'm here. I have data I can share with the commissioner. You know, one of the things you'll see with the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicle data out there is they're just tracking bicycle data and looping in with eBikes. So unless bicyclists have gotten a lot more reckless in the last couple years, we're seeing a dramatic increase not only here in Hillsborough County, but also statewide with injuries and fatalities in these incidents. If you look at some of the data from hospitals here in Florida, traumatic brain injuries, the facial injuries are on par with motorcycle accidents when it comes to these eBike accidents, eScooters, and other types of accidents. I was at Orange County on September 29th when they debated and ultimately adopted their ordinance on micro-mobility. One of the things I brought up at that meeting was these eMotorcycles. Sometimes they call them eMotos. These are not eBikes. These are little motorcycles that can go 40, 50, 60 miles an hour that some kids are riding on the sidewalk. But they're being marketed in some cases as eBikes. And the manufacturers are actually getting savvy. They're putting pedals on these motorcycles that are operable but really just for show because they want to be able to market them as eBikes when they're really motorcycles. So that's one thing to take into consideration as you think about the definitional strategies in the ordinance. Crash typology, you know, types of crashes that are happening. FDOT has some good studies on that as well as Metroplan Orlando and likely others. We're seeing a lot of accidents, obviously, at conflict points, intersections, and driveways. One of the most common types of accidents you see is left-turning vehicle and an opposite-traveling eBike, eScooter in the bike lane. That's a conflict point. And that's been pointed out in studies. And it marries with what I see in practice as well. Thank you, sir. Happy to share the research. Thank you. Appreciate the comments. Justin Heller. Mr. Heller will be our last speaker this morning. Good morning. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Justin Heller. I serve as the Region 6 Local Area Chair for the Professional Record Operators of Florida, PWF. I'm also the Vice President of a local towing company. Some of you may remember me last year working with you all on the towing ordinance. Some others may remember me from my work with the multifamily industry. But I want to thank you for recognizing the financial challenges that are facing our industry in towing. I do need to clarify some things, though, important for the record. PWF's name appeared on a few of the rate recommendations submitted to this county. PWF was neither involved in the developing nor approving of those recommendations of rates. Those recommendations do not reflect the adjustments PWF has been working and pursuing with other neighboring counties. Commissioners, over the past six years, our industry's operating costs have increased by more than 40%. A tow truck that costs approximately $72,000 in 2019 is approximately $140,000 now. Insurance, our payrolls, our maintenance, fuel, nearly every expense associated with operating a towing company has increased dramatically. This isn't about the cost of running a tow truck. It's about the people driving them. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices in the Tampa Bay area have increased approximately 36% since 2020. Our drivers, dispatchers, our office staff are all your constituents. They live here. They pay taxes here. They raise their families here. They face the same rising cost of housing, groceries, and insurance as everyone else. We cannot expect our industry to pay today's wages, purchase today's equipment, and meet today's safety standards while operating under yesterday's regulated rates. The approximately 15% increases currently proposed do not actually reflect the full extent of these rising expenses. PWF is requesting a 25% adjustment to existing regulated towing rates, along with the conditional $25 fuel surcharge and appropriate specialized recovery fees. That request is still below the increase that we have experienced in operating costs and consumer prices. We recognize that the financial burden most motorists face. We believe that their interests deserve consideration alongside the cost of maintaining dependable 24-hour towing services. Commissioners, I emailed each of you yesterday all of our alternative proposal. My request is simple. Before adopting a final rate resolution, please ensure that PWF's actual proposal receives the same consideration as the recommendations previously submitted under our name. All right. Thank you, sir. That closes a public comment portion of the agenda. Bonnie, I believe we got one item that was pulled for highlighting. Thank you very much, Ms. Wise. I just wanted to point out that item A6 is the item related to an ordinance that is going to govern the use of e-bikes, bicycles, motorized scooters, and other micromobility devices. It sets the public hearing for that at 10 a.m. on November 10th. And I just wanted to express gratitude to the speaker this morning who sent us some very good information that we will be able to integrate into that discussion when we have it. And with that, I will move consent. All right. Commissioner Wolfson. Thank you. Just for the benefit of the public, the Kratom ordinance is something that is only on the agenda today to schedule the public hearing. I want to be clear about that and that for now, yes, we're focused on banning the 7-hydroxymetragynine, but this is a stepping stone. And that's what the goal of the public hearing is for. So I wanted the public to be clear about that, which is being scheduled, I think, on item A5, if you want to read more about what we're doing. Thank you. Okay. So we've got a motion for the consent agenda. Commissioner Cohen, second Commissioner Myers. Please record your vote. Motion carries 7-0. Bonnie, first item. The first item is item D2. This is our 10 o'clock item. It's a public hearing to receive public input and discuss amending the projects for the renewed community investment tax. This is related to item B3, which is a resolution including the zoo as a capital improvement item. Kevin Bricke will take us through both the public hearing and item B3. Good morning, Commissioners. Kevin Bricke, Management and Budget. Items D2 and B3 are follow-up items from the board action from the last meeting on October 7th, which approved a funding agreement with Zoo Tampa for a capital contribution. D2 is the public hearing. B3 is amending the CIP and the budget to add the first $5 million. The public comment will be regarding considering adding the zoo project to the approved list for the renewed CIT. I'd recommend you take public comment. Okay, thank you. This is a public hearing. We've got four individuals that have signed up to speak. We've got a surrogate Doss, followed by Martha Shepley and Chris Massaro. Morning, Shigret Doss. I was going to talk about something a little differently. My offer, Jennifer Kuhl. I signed up for D2, opposed, and not against the zoo, but more so against the deal on how this county decides who gets processed and who doesn't get processed. And I'm going to say this in plain English. Part of every sales tax dollar in this county goes into a fund that voters approve for roads, pipes, and for buildings. Today, you want to take $75 million out of it and hand it to one private nonprofit corporation. Now, you set aside $50 million for the museums and the cultural places combined. So one of them gets $75 million by itself. The other five get told to go look somewhere else for the money. You all voted twice, and you came up 4-3 in September. You came up 4-3 on October 7th. Seven of y'all up there, you can't get five to say yes. But you want to lock the public in until 2041 at $5 million a year for 15 years. But this is what I want to see happen. Before the money moves, this deal got three votes, a posted agenda, a staff report, and they got this microphone. That's called due process, and you know how to do it when the money is public. In the same county, in 2016, I held a title to four properties, 517 Tuscany Street in Brandon, 2534 Clareside Drive in Valrico, 12725 Bramfield Drive in Riverview, and 4336 Spinnaker Cove Lane in Tampa. Section 720 of the Florida statute says an association lien gets the same foreclosure as a regular mortgage. Notice, then you get a chance in court. I didn't get any damn thing. No hearing, no courtroom. My name simply was erased from the title of four homes, Disabled American Veteran. Now, over $1.5 million of values what those properties hold today, not to mention the amount of money I would have lost in rental income that I never got to collect. And I'm telling everybody in the world to go look it up by folio. And to the people living in those properties, you're actually living in a property that was taken from a disabled American veteran without a date in court. What I got instead was a sitting judge and a police officer who falsely accused me of a crime that I had to fight through to avoid five years in prison for something I didn't do. I ended up winning that case. Of course, that's why I'm here. But on May 5th, I put in front of all of you a letter that I sent to the chief judge of the 13th Judicial Circuit, the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, and other entities. And you all sat on and did anything. I'm telling the state of Florida and everybody else, these people are up for election. And four of those judges, judges I spoke about, are up for retention. If they don't do what's in the best interest of the people, hold them accountable and get rid of them. And like in North Carolina, my brother's a professor at North Carolina A&T, and those babies had to walk two miles to vote. I can't believe that in a country I was willing to die for that some 40-some years later, kids are still having to do that. That's unimaginable. Shout out to the greatest institution of higher learning, Jefferson High School. Thank you, sir. Martha Shepley. Is Martha here? No. How about Chris Massaro? And then I think we have Andrea Thomas that's signed up virtually. Good morning, sir. Good morning. Chris Massaro, chief zoological officer for Zootampa at Lowry Park. I want to start by expressing my gratitude to Hillsborough County, the board of county commissioners, county administrators, for their continued support and partnership between the county and Zootampa through CIT. Our partnership will continue to advance Zootampa's mission, serving as a living classroom, providing exceptional educational programs and learning opportunities to our community, particularly our community's youth, protecting and conserving wildlife, both locally and globally, including the critically endangered Florida Panther, and emitting well over 600 Florida manatees into our rescue and rehabilitation efforts, with the goal of releasing each one back into the Florida waters. Also creating unforgettable and affordable experiences for the 1.2 million guests we welcome every year. Zootampa is a place for families to gather, connect with each other, and our natural world. I wanted to provide a quick comment based on the funding question that came up previous to me stepping up. I think it's important to provide context to this comment for clarification for members of our community. Unlike other cultural attractions in Hillsborough County, Zootampa does not have access to the Community Redevelopment Agency, or CRA, simply due to its location. This is limiting significant sources of funding that's available to others. In fact, in recent years, the CRA funding has provided other cultural organizations approximately $78 million in support, with an additional $100 million currently unallocated. It's projected that the downtown and channel-side CRAs will generate nearly $800 million over the next 15 years. This is funding and support that Zootampa does not have access to, but the other cultural facilities do. The CIT remains the zoo's only source of significant county funding. Hillsborough County deserves a world-class zoo. That's what Zootampa delivers every day, and we will continue to deliver this through the very important and beneficial partnership with the county. Thank you again. Thank you, sir. Is there Andrea Thomas on the line? Yes, sir. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I understand the final vote on the proposed Zoo Tampa expansion is today, and I wanted to quickly address the concerns I have to this expansion, specifically the expansion into the area directly across the street, Laurie Park. This park is an extremely valuable green space. I walk in this park every evening with my father, and every day I witness its importance. It is a hub of activity, boats unloading in the boat ramps, people fishing in the river, people playing with their children and walking their dogs, a place to come and appreciate the beauty of nature and catch up with your neighbors. Its importance is not only recreational, but environmental as well. This space is home to lots of native wildlife, grand oaks, and several freshwater springs. In the evenings, you can hear barred owls calling, and right now, asters are blooming along the riverside. The park is also a low spot. So during our daily summer afternoon thunderstorm, almost half of this park is inaccessible due to all the rainwater flowing to the river. If any of this space is paved or otherwise obstructed, the water will have nowhere else to go. Floridians have seen what overdevelopment has done to our communities with the population boom we have seen these past few years. Allowing that to happen to Laurie Park would be extremely detrimental to the Laurie Park community. I believe New Tampa has good intentions, but I feel it's important to stress just how valuable this park is. I encourage them and everyone to visit the park themselves to see just why it is worth protecting. Thank you for your time. All right, thank you. That closes the public hearing. Commissioner Woelstel, you're recognized. Thank you. I just wanted to, maybe there's confusion about the map that was seen, but it does not take anything from Laurie Park. So maybe there's like a, they looked at something different, but it does not take a single blade of grass from there. I wanted to thank Commissioner Bowles, Miller, and Cepeda for your constant support on this item. I think that it's going to be an enormous benefit to the community. I won't relabor all of the other comments that I've had and the benefits that it will bring for our community and to the wildlife. So I will move for approval of the project. Got a motion to approve. Commissioner Woelstel. I'll second. I'll second it. Second Commissioner Miller. I don't see anyone else in the queue. I'm just going to restate my position. It hasn't changed. Fully support the zoo. However, knowing that we set aside $50 million out of the CIT, and yet one institution is requesting not only all the money, but an additional $25 million on top of that, knowing that we've already had over $90 million in capital requests from several other cultural institutions, that just doesn't make any sense to me. So for that reason, I'll again be voting no. Commissioner Woelstel. I just, I want to ask you for, I've never seen this document. So if you could provide me the line items, details of what staff advertised in the 2024 CIT of these projects, I've never seen a bucketed for $50 million. So if you could email that to me, I wasn't aware. It's just been in a bucket since on every item that I've seen on every public hearing, even including in 2024. And if you could also just confirm administrator-wise, just very briefly, $90 million, you budgeted $90 million a year for four years of the same CIT. 60% of the public facilities budget for an unapproved and unexpected item for the Tampa Bay Rays. Is all $360 million that's budgeted for the Rays eligible to go to these other organizations that made requests? So... Just very brief. Is all $360 million that is budgeted for the Rays eligible for those? We would need to have a public hearing for, to include the Rays. Is all $360 million that's being budgeted for the Rays eligible for these other organizations? Pursuant to a public hearing, just like we're having a public hearing to add anything as well. Your inability to just say yes is astounding, but the answer for the community is yes. The $360 million could go to each of these other organizations that were just referenced. I just wanted to be very clear about that, since it's continued to be brought up and never mentioned. Thank you very much. And I'll just close by saying we could also use the animal shelter money for the cultural institutions, as well as Lithia Pinecrest and Van Dyke and every other project that's on there. So, the Rays are the same situation as every other institution. Okay, we've got a motion and a second. Please record your vote. Motion carries four to three, with Commissioners Cohen, Hagan, and Myers voting no. Do you need to make comments on B3? Is asking to approve a resolution to add the zoo project to the CIP in a budget amendment to add the first $5 million. Okay, I'll move approval. Got a motion. Commissioner Wollstuhl, do you have a second? Second. Second, Commissioner Bowles. Don't see anyone in the queue. Please record your vote on B3. Motion carried four to three, with Commissioners Cohen, Hagan, and Myers voting no. Okay. Thank you. Bonnie, next item. We can move to our 1015 time certain. And this is item E1. This is to receive a special appearance by Santiago Corrada, President and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay. There's that smiling face. You're smiling to cry. You know, you haven't had the dice yet, and you're smiling. I love coming over here. It's always great. Good morning, Honorable Chair, Honorable Commissioners, esteemed County Administrator team. Those in the public and those watching on TV, Santiago Corrada, President and CEO of Visit Tampa Bay, another spectacular year that asks for a little clarification that I'll offer. I don't know if the PowerPoint is up, but when we usually present, we compare to the prior fiscal year. But in this case, we have to go back to a prior, prior fiscal year, fiscal year 24, because our fiscal years run October through September. And if you'll remember, we had some weather disturbances at the end of fiscal year 24, beginning of fiscal year 25. And we had two visitors, not tourists, Milton and Helene, that disrupted a lot of lives. And when those lives were disrupted and they needed housing, they found it in our hotels. So the first six months of fiscal year 25 were dramatically impacted by inflated occupancy and revenue numbers that we were trying to match this year. We knew that going into this year, and we tried to shorten the gap. So when we get to the money, we'll talk about that. But again, apples to apples, oranges to oranges, if we're comparing a normal fiscal year 26 to a pretty normal fiscal year 24, we're on record-setting pace, with the exception of those first six months in fiscal year 25 that we were trying to make up for. Average daily rates comparable to the prior year, you see the bump there in fiscal year 25. Revenue per all available rooms in Hillsborough County, you see, again, better than fiscal year 24. And then happy to report that for the fourth consecutive fiscal year, we were over a billion dollars in hotel taxable revenue, actually $1,140,000. This was sent in a little prior to the final number. So again, a great year. And then we look at our four submarkets because you represent the entire county. We like showing you this. You can see some of those dips in some parts of the county, again, comparing this fiscal year to last fiscal year. We saw a difference in those first six months of last fiscal year, of the fiscal year impacted by the hurricane of over $6.5 million, which is pretty atypical for us. You see there, if we charted the hotel taxable revenue, you see that blue line. Those are those months I'm talking about that were impacted by the hurricane. And then you see the yellow line back to normal after we overcame those those months. So bed tax collections, again, record setting compared to a normal year, very involved in the community. These are some images from Hillsborough County Day up in Tallahassee. We're doing highlights because a lot happens in our fiscal year. We're on a timer. So Hillsborough County Day, huge success. As many of you, if you follow the news, know we're very involved with the school system. We're very proud to partner with Hillsborough County Public Schools to open the first Tourism Academy Magnet program at Jefferson High School, an additional program at Sumner, getting young people ready, partnership, very, very, doing very, very well. What I'd like to point out is the 2,334 referrals to small businesses and our partners, so they benefit from the work that we do. We booked a number of rooms for future years. Groups booked will bring in an estimated amount of over $272 million in impact. And then the groups that were actualized this year brought in another $227 million in economic impact. We just hosted Connect Marketplace. The best of the industry was here. Best show ever. They're still bragging about it. Highest attendance. And we have hosted more, I believe, industry events than any other competitor. If you look back from 2021 through 2030, and in the last slide you saw we were booking business 2033, 2036, 2038. So we want to make sure that funnel continues to be full. Our marketing campaign is doing extremely well. If you have any questions about any of this stuff, I've got a ton of data that I can share with you. And this is a nice number. We earned free media over $24 million, and it's pretty staggering. 1,233 media placements. Tampa Bay averaged four stories per day about the destination. So phenomenal work. And then the Governor's Conference of Tourism was held recently. We received a number of awards, creative loafing, a number of other awards. But at the Governor's Conference, we submitted six entries, and we won seven awards because we won best of show for our marketing campaign around pet lovers, specifically dog lovers. And so we saw a huge impact by that campaign. Thank you. I think I've broken my all-time record. If there are any questions, I'd love to be able to answer them for you. And I have to say hello to my good friend, Craig Richard, because our partnership with the EDC and Make It Tampa Bay also contributes to this number. We all do it together. It can't be done if any one piece of the puzzle is missing. So when all puzzle pieces are in, we have numbers like these. Outstanding. I think you did break the record. Although we've got several commissioners, I want to congratulate you. Commissioner Cameron Cepeda. Yes, I want to thank you, Santiago. You are doing amazing. You and your team, absolutely amazing. Great presentation. I just want to say thank you for all that you're doing. Amazing work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. Commissioner Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to say thank you, too, but mine is very specific to one of the many projects that you manage is the Visitor Information Centers. And you have two in Tampa, but for those of you that don't know, they have one in East County. And I wanted to particularly thank you for your support in their new facility, making it attractive for all of our visitors that are entering from that side of the county. So thank you for your support and all you do. Thank you. And I want to thank, obviously, the Tourism Development Council and, of course, you all, because you approved those dollars that then we help create those situations. So thank you to the TDC and, of course, all of you. Commissioner Bowles. Just reiterating my colleagues' comments, thank you for the hard work that everything that you guys are doing over there. And we're going to continue to help looking for opportunities to bring in more visitors here to Tampa Bay. And I think the World Series may help with that a little bit. A little bit. Yeah. Well, thank you very much, Santiago. Keep up the outstanding work. Thank you. Appreciate it. Well, for your support. Thank you so much. Okay, Bonnie. Thank you. Our next item is item E2. This is a special appearance by Santiago's friend, Craig Richard, who is the president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council. You have a tough act to follow. I know. I'm always after Santiago. Good morning, Craig. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Craig Richard, president and CEO of the Tampa Bay Economic Development Council. And it's so good to be here with all of you. And many friendly faces from the other night when we had our annual meeting. So I'll preface this. Our annual meeting numbers are going to be a little different from the numbers that you're going to see today. These numbers are up until August the 31st. And our annual meeting was through September 3rd. So a little bit of different numbers, but nevertheless, great news. So the first thing is, again, through August 31st, these are about nine companies that were announced from the fiscal year. About 1,130 new jobs, $187 million in capital investment. Some very strong companies in here. And I think we ended the year in 22 companies. So it was a big difference. What I want to point out on our goals here, the announced project at that time was nine. Our goal was 22. We did make our goal. And in terms of non-government funding, our goal is to at least achieve $1.7 million in capital for non-funding, non-government funding. At this time, it was $2.6 million. And I'm pleased to report us over $2.8 million to date. So we're very strong. And again, this is kind of exemplifies our public-private partnership. The county provides about $500,000 towards this contract for services. We provide that, which is about 10% of our entire budget. So strong funding support from the private sector in support of economic development. These are a couple of projects in the defense technology sector that we worked this past year. Extend, which is out in the Hillsborough County, plans on adding another 15 jobs. Orion Edge is another defense tech company. We acquired 8,000 square feet of new space and invested about $6 million in capital investment. Some of the places that we went to this year included Bio, and we went along with the state of Florida on this. And the Site Selectors Guild, which is a convention of all the site selection consultants that work expansion and relocation projects. It was in Atlanta. We did a signature sales mission to Atlanta, which included observing some of the things that encouraged redevelopment over there, like the Beltline and some other digital infrastructure projects. Industrial Asset Management Council, which was in Little Rock. Pleased to report that our international mission with our global Tampa Bay partners, which includes Pinellas County and Pasco County, we all went to Dublin, Ireland. And what's important about this is that we generated four leads from that mission that we're currently working and are anticipating some expansion opportunities here in Hillsborough County. Expand Tampa Bay is the name of our business retention and expansion program. This is when we go out and visit personally with businesses in our targeted industry sectors. During this time period, we visited over 155 companies, and that represents about 83,000 local employees. Fifty-eight percent of those are planning to expand, so that's great news. Ninety-five percent of that 155 companies plan to create at least 25 new jobs over the next year. And 84 percent of the projects are planning to expand their footprint locally. So my good friend Santiago mentioned some of the great stats on some of the campaigns. I want to highlight Make It Tampa Bay, which is a collaboration between Visit Tampa Bay, the EDC, and, of course, Hillsborough County. It's your funding that goes to support this campaign. They created a new website and digital infrastructure for it, which generated over 47 million impressions across all of our digital channels, 72,000 visitors to the Make It Tampa Bay website, and 113,000 total for the whole fiscal year of 2026. And this campaign includes markets like New York, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Atlanta, Washington, and Boston. And just to recap what that campaign is about, it's about attracting the talent that our businesses need to be successful. So it's all about young professionals coming in here and looking at jobs for enhancing their careers and for entrepreneurial opportunities right here in Tampa Bay. Our social media campaigns were on fire this year, having 142,000 impressions. And this generated about three new leads that we currently expect to land this year. And what we did was showcase some of the CEOs that, you know, are operating here, are expanding and growing here. And no better story to tell than your own CEOs talking about what it's like to do business here. And I think I might have broke my record, too. So that concludes my report. Again, thank you so much for your support. You know, I have this saying at every meeting that economic development is a team sport. And I mean it because just last month we had the San Jose Chamber of Commerce come and benchmark Hillsborough County about what we're doing that's so successful in economic development. And their number one takeaway was the partnership and collaboration in this region. And I just want to thank you for that again. Happy to answer any questions. Sure. I don't see one in the queue. One question I have, and I should have teed you up on this, but I know you can answer it. As you know, the board approved during our budget process an additional $100,000 to help the EDC. Can you just briefly tell us how that money will benefit? Absolutely. So let me go back to some of the visits that we made. Oh, like here. So when we go out of town, instead of just being a participant in some of these conferences and conventions, we want to highlight, we want to be like a main sponsor in some of these. Some of these include the Site Selectors Guild, which is, again, where we would be a feature sponsor of this guild. All of the site selection consultants would know who we are just by our placement. So that $110,000 goes towards enhanced branding and sponsorships of some of the things that we participate in. And I know that you had given me one of the previous year's flags. We did a similar type and how that benefited. I don't remember the company, but I know that you had mentioned how that directly impacted or influenced a company or two coming here. Is that accurate? Exactly right. So just like I mentioned on these, these generated another 25% more leads because of that enhanced branding. We have four companies that have signed on to expand or, or at least announce that they're expanding or relocating from some of those signature missions that we, us sponsored. Awesome. Yeah. No, thank you. And it's all about the outcome and that is a great outcome from that. Great. Appreciate it, Craig. Keep up the good work. Thank you. Good to see you all. Okay. Bonnie. Thank you. My recommendation, commissioners, is to continue with the rest of the agenda. And for anyone who's here for D1, that will be taken up last. So let's move to item B1. This is to approve funding for the Friends of the Riverwalk Engineering Design of the Cass Street Underpass Extension of the Tampa Riverwalk. And Josh Bilotti will take us through this item. B1. Good morning, Josh. Good morning, commissioners. Josh Bilotti, Engineering and Operations. This item is a funding agreement with the Friends of the Riverwalk Incorporated, which is a Florida not-for-profit corporation whose stated mission is to enhance, develop, and promote the Tampa Riverwalk with a focus on improving mobility and connectivity and expanding access to the Tampa Riverwalk as a vibrant waterfront destination. The funding agreement will provide the Friends of the Riverwalk with up to $200,000 in one-time funding towards the preliminary engineering design of the Cass Street Pedestrian Underpass Extension. Now, you'll notice that your current backup material for this agenda item includes a resolution for the board's adoption. However, it is missing the agreement, which was inadvertently omitted. So we've provided a hard copy of this agreement for each of the board members as well as the clerk's office for the record. The agreement has been executed by the Friends of the Riverwalk and has been reviewed for legal sufficiency by the county attorney's office. The terms of the agreement are summarized in the agenda item background and in the resolution, and they provide for county contribution of funds in an amount not to exceed $200,000 for the purpose of preliminary design services for the Cass Street Pedestrian Underpass Project. The county funds are available in the adopted CIP and were set aside as a commissioner flag item that was approved in the FY26 budget. Also of note, the City of Tampa is providing an additional in-kind contribution to this project of up to $200,000. The Friends of the Riverwalk has passed the financial review by management and budget, which is also included in your backup material. The Friends of the Riverwalk provided us with this artist's rendering of the Cass Street Pedestrian Underpass Extension, which is meant to enhance safety, connectivity, and access to destinations along the river, linking Curtis Hickson Park to the Strass Performing Arts Center. That's all I have on this item. Staff is seeking your adoption of the resolution and approval of the funding agreement, and I'm here for any questions. All right. Thanks, Josh. Commissioner Wollstall. Thanks. On the up to, we're up to, city's up to, is it like you're going to make sure, you can make sure they're 50-50? Yeah, I understood it to be a match. Okay. Thank you. And thank you for that. And I just wanted to mention, this was my flag item, and this is a really, really dangerous area where people have to cross Cass Street at grade. When they are on the Riverwalk, they actually have to exit it, cross the street where there are railroad tracks, and it happens to be right between the Art Museum and the Performing Arts Center. Tremendous number of people on foot and on bikes. So I'm really glad that the City of Tampa agreed to match our preliminary work on this, and I think it's a really, really good idea. So I'd like to move approval. Second. All right. Good job, Commissioner Cohen. Got a motion. Second, Commissioner Willstall. Please accord your vote on B1. Motion carried, 7-0. B2. Thank you. We can now go to item B2. This is to approve the proposed CDBGDR Public Service Workforce Training Program, and Rob Hendrickson will take us through this exciting new program. Good morning, Commissioners. Rob Hendrickson, Management and Budget and Program Manager for our CDBGDR program. I haven't been here in a while, but we've been busy. And in the spring, we committed to obtaining your approval for our major projects and programs before proceeding. We've done that for infrastructure. You've approved 175 million worth of projects and our multiple different types of housing programs. Today, I'm excited to bring to your attention a program that comes out of our allocation for public service. That's a category HUD gives to us to create community support programs that build our resilience and help us mitigate the impacts of future storms. With that in line, we come to you today with a trades training and certification program that is designed to empower lower-income residents, fuel economic growth, build resilience, and especially important, improve and increase our regional construction labor pool, which we know is relied upon heavily after these events. Our approach, in a nutshell, our approach is to partner with Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida Gulf Coast. They've been, since the 70s, running successful apprenticeship programs in partnership with 80 employers in the region, construction firms, and Hillsborough College, which is used for facilities and tools and classes. The concept here was, let's leverage something that's proven and build on it for the cohort of people HUD wants us to serve. We intend to expand their offerings as follows. One is to essentially allow for, again, income-eligible tradespeople to go through the first two years of their apprenticeships, provide them hand tools, and offer three new courses I'll explain in a minute that will help bring people up to a certain level of capability and help them build their leadership skills. An important point here is, those who are wishing to join the program and be trained aren't necessarily only with the in-network employers. They can come to us from the outside. We can match them with employers or even employers who aren't in the network of the association can join. So that's important as well, and HUD will want to see that. To administer the program, ABC would be a subrecipient, which really means they're governed by all of our rules. We collaborate, we partner, and we monitor. There are four components to the training we're presenting, and they are meant to incrementally build skills. A new core training for people brand new to the trades, two years of apprenticeship training. And this apprenticeship training will cover electrical, plumbing, sprinkler fitting, sheet metal, carpentry, and roofing, all high-demand skill sets after storms. The other point to make is with apprenticeship training year two, the drop-off rate for those who don't complete drastically reduces to about 3%. So that's a critical juncture in a four-year program. OSHA 30 training, which is advanced safety training, and crew leader training, where we really look for our future leaders in the construction trades and invest in those softer skills as opposed to the harder skills that we've covered earlier. All told, we're looking at four course components offered twice in two full cycles over four years at a total cost of $1.54 million, $1.54 million inclusive of the various charges that go into running classes like this. Speaking personally, I'm excited about the concept that this will essentially run for the majority of our grant period, which ends in May of 2031. So we have two full cycles. We can apply lessons learned, and we can really sink our teeth into this program. My dad swung hammers for a living, so this has personal importance to me. And we're really seeking your support for the program and to enter into that subrecipient agreement with ABC. I appreciate it. Commissioner Wilson? I don't see anyone else. I just wanted to say I thought this was a creative program to improve trade skills, which we all know has a desperate hole in not just this area, but in Florida entirely. And there will be long-term benefits for the individuals that go into this program, so I'll move for approval. Second. A motion to approve. Commissioner Wellstall. Second, Commissioner Cameron Cepeda. Please record your vote on B2. Motion carried 7 to 0. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We can now move to the commissioner items. And the first commissioner item is Commissioner Cameron Cepeda's item, item F1, regarding a budget amendment resolution. Thank you. My motion is to approve the FY27 budget amendment resolution to increase funding to Hillsborough County Veterans Helping Veterans Incorporated by $10,000 from $20,000 to $30,000. This additional funding of $10,000 is available as a result of the expiration of the FY26 funding agreement with the Lotus Coalition, which left $10,000 unexpended. Second. Motion to commission. Cameron Cepeda. Second, Commissioner Cohen. Please record your vote. Motion carried 7 to 0. All right. Thank you. The next commissioner item is Commissioner Cohen's item regarding the renaming of the Warren L.A. media room at the Courthouse Annex. Thank you very much. And this item was brought up at the last meeting. The renaming shall add the name of Mark Seawalk, who worked for 30 years with Mr. L.A. as his camera person at the Courthouse. Both men together spent careers providing the community with broadcast journalism on courts, crimes, and politics that was widely respected. And I'm looking forward to the renaming of the rooms. I'd like to motion to approve. Second. Motion to commission. Second. Commissioner Wostel. We'll see an also in the queue. Please record your vote on F2. Motion carried 7 to 0. Thank you, Bonnie. Thank you. The next four items are Commissioner Myers' items. They are for sponsorships for four different already approved budgeted items. All right. Commissioner Myers. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move to approve F3 as presented. This is reoccurring funding. Motion to commissioner Myers. Do I have a second? Second. Commissioner Miller. Please record your vote on F3. Motion carried 6 to 1. Okay. Move to approve item F4 as presented. Again, this is reoccurring funding. Okay. Motion to commissioner Myers. Do I have a second? Second. Second. Commissioner Miller. Please record your vote. Motion carried 5 to 1 with Commissioner Cameron Cepeda voting no. Mr. Chairman, that prior motion from the last item was 6 to 0, not 6 to 1. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. Okay. Move to approve item F5. This is new funding that was identified and adopted in the FY27 budget. All right. Motion to commissioner Myers. Do I have a second? Second. Second. I'm sorry, Commissioner Cohen. Please record your vote. Motion carried 6 to 0. And lastly, move to approve item F6 as presented. This is reoccurring funding. Motion to commissioner Myers. Second. Second, Commissioner Bowles. Please record your vote. Motion carried 5 to 1 with Commissioner Cameron Cepeda voting no. Monty. Thank you. We can now move to the first staff report. This is item G1. This is to receive a report on towing immobilization rates. And Joe Gross will take us through this staff report. Good morning. Joe Gross, Code Enforcement. So as we have heard this morning, tow rates were last adjusted in 2023. And considerations in the most recent review included the sharp price increase in diesel fuel, the segment of the industry that handles incidents involving an ordinate effort or specialized equipment. The same firms also participate in the rapid incident scene clearance program, which involves very severe traffic hazards, wrecks of tractor trailers, buses, boats, other large vehicles. So we expanded our review this time to include some other comparable jurisdictions, and we provided our analysis in the report. Throughout the process, we worked closely with the Hillsborough County Towing Association, and most of the members of that were also members of PWF, the Professional Records Association of Florida, who you heard from a member this morning. But they provided invaluable expertise in describing the challenges and intricacies of their industry. The options are outlined on page 3 of the report, and we're available for any questions or comments. All right. Thanks, Joe. Do you have any questions, comments from Board members? Commissioner Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I want to thank the county attorney's office and the staff for pulling this review together and working through the information that was requested. The issue was originally brought to our attention by members of the towing industry who expressed concerns that the county's current rates were no longer keeping pace with the actual cost of providing these services. Rather than simply taking that information at face value, I asked for the staff to review the rates and the underlying costs so that we could make a decision based on the facts. Staff's review has now helped confirm that these are legitimate issues that need to be addressed. These companies provide a very important service to law enforcement and to our community, and we need to make sure that the rates established by the county allow them to reasonably cover the cost of providing those services. At the same time, there are often non-consensual toes, so we also have the responsibility to make sure that our residents are protected and that these rates remain fair and reasonable. My goal from the beginning has been to find that balance, a fair rate for the industry, while maintaining appropriate protections for the public. I appreciate the industry bringing this concern forward to us, and I appreciate all of our staff for taking the time to verify this issue and bring us a thoughtful review and recommendation. So with that, I move that the board accept staff's recommendation and direct the county attorney and appropriate staff to move forward with the necessary ordinance amendments to update the county's towing and immobilization rates as presented. Second. Okay, we've got a motion by Commissioner Miller. Second, Commissioner Wostel. If I could just clarify, this will actually come back as a resolution, not as an ordinance. Thank you. As a resolution. Okay. Don't see anyone else in the queue. Please record your vote on G1. Motion carried 7 to 0. Next item. Thank you. The next item is item G2. This is a receiver report from the board policy work group, and Brandon Wagner will take us through this item and really want to thank Commissioner Bowles and his staff for the time he spent and going through all this, too. Good morning, Commissioners. Brandon Wagner, Government Relations and Strategic Services. I'm pleased to stand before you today to quickly outline the staff report on the board policy work group. This was an initiative spearheaded by Commissioner Bowles with the approval of Board of County Commissioners, and it was dovetailed nicely with the Clerk of the Circuit Court's audit of board policies back in 2025 where they had found opportunities where we could do some refreshing and rescinding of board policies that had perhaps met their useful life or needed to be updated to reflect current operations. The work group included Commissioner Bowles, Kathleen Yates from Commissioner Bowles' office, Orlando Perez from the County Attorney's Office, Beth Cardenas, Rachel French, and Jessica Reyna from Government Relations and Strategic Services, and myself. There were four primary goals that we undertook in trying to achieve this work group's efforts, which is to modernize the board policies to ensure that they were continuously accurate, they were consistent with one another, meaning they didn't conflict or they weren't duplicative, and that we were operating in compliance with those policies. Second, we wanted to make sure that we streamlined. Do we need all these? Were there opportunities for improvements, for consolidation, like I said, and in other ways to make sure that what we have is actually necessary and not more or less? Third, the formatting and the way that these board policies have been authored over the years vary depending upon the time frame in which they were done. Sometimes they were done with different fonts. Sometimes they were done with different formatting of the template, and that required some review and some consideration of that. And as well, to finally put into place a standard by which these board policies would be managed over time to ensure that they stayed current and that they didn't lapse again into obscurity. So quickly, the phase one was to take and undertake and review each one of those board policies. We sent them to the relevant departments or teams for review, asking the questions. Are these still relevant? Do they meet current operations? And if not, what do you recommend that we do with those? We collaborated with those departments and department heads and subject matter experts as a work group and developed consensus suggestions and options for you to consider today. And this review took place over about a six-month period of time, 18 meetings, interactions with most of the 29 department directors and others to yield the options that we have before you today. 251 board policies existed. After our review and input, we would suggest that 104 of those policies can be rescinded. Again, either because they've met their useful life, if they don't meet current operations, 122 policies are recommended for updating, amending to proper department names, operational efforts, et cetera. We recommend maintaining 25 of those 251 as they're currently written and then developing three new board policies, again, to meet the needs that we have. An interesting fact, the oldest board policy we reviewed was from 1978. This was a very extensive effort. It took a lot of time and a lot of energy by the work group, but also by the departments and others who participated. And it was done cheerfully. This was not a pulling of teeth. This was actually a really enlightening exercise for all of us. And I think what it yields to you all is an option that will give you a continued control of your policies, but yet not have redundancy and a clear path forward for how they're done in the future. So this chart just simply outlines what that looks like. So if we were to implement the option today, we would go from 251 policies to 150, a 41% reduction. What remains are those that are truly relevant and updated and refreshed. Additionally, we propose standardizing the format for these to include makers of the motion and seconders of the motion, recording the date upon which these were executed. Right now, the current format doesn't provide for that. So when you're looking back at history, it's not always clear the intent and who did it and the why it was done. A lot of that context matters when you're trying to understand why these were put in place originally. We're also proposing to update the cataloging of how these are numbered. Right now, it's an eight-number sequence to which no one can explain why it was implemented. It makes no sense. There's no logic to it. So what we're proposing to the board to adopt is a new nine-category classification by single digit and then begin the numbering sequence, oldest policy to newest policy, with a single digit. So instead of board policy 00.00.00.01, it will now be board policy 1-1. Simple, efficient, clear. The next part of it is how do we access it? Right now, they're PDFs. PDF isn't always the most easy way to do a search. And the highlighted part of it is the board policy number. That doesn't tell you what the context is. The key is to be able to search it and look for the keywords that are necessary. So going forward, this will be stored in a database system that is much more robust that can search multiple keywords and bring these things forward in a quicker fashion. It'll be accessible by you as the board. It'll be accessible by the public on the website. It will also tie into administrative directives where appropriate. And going forward, another key component is initiation of the process by which new commissioners and staff whenever they're onboarded are presented with the board policies so they're aware of the policies that actually exist. So there's no surprises. Additionally, there'll be a scheduled four-year review cycle going forward by which all board policies will be reviewed and recommendations for the board's consideration to be taken. This whole process will be managed through government relations and strategic services with partnership with the county attorney's office and you to make sure again that these board policies never go stale again. So commissioners, the options are to adopt and accept the suggestions made forth in this staff report or to leave it a status quo. But we think that what's being proposed is well thought out, well organized, and will serve this board effectively now and going forward into the future. And as I close again, a tremendous thank you to the clerk's office, to Commissioner Bowles, to this board for allowing us to do this process. This was really a rewarding experience. I also want to give particular thanks to the board policy work group, but in particular Rachel French and Jessica Reyna. They spearheaded this process and managed this process for us. This was a tremendous labor and the paperwork that we each went through I think stacks about yay high. So with that, Mr. Chairman and members, I appreciate the time and the opportunity and I look forward to your favorable consideration of the options. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Brandon. Commissioner Welstel. Thank you. Commissioner Bowles, can you just, are we approving, like I haven't, I actually have read the board policies and I have most of them memorized, particularly the financial policies. Yes, sir. One of them is very robust, was put in in 2017. I like it. It requires super majority to edit. I don't, are you, are you trying to approve all of the edits today? Well, when are we going to get an opportunity to read them without a, like, because, look, staff is very clever and they don't like some policies. They don't like that some of the policies are handcuffing and create accountability. I don't know if they slid in language. They have a tendency, they'll try and remove language that they don't like that creates. So, I mean, we need an opportunity. I, I support rescinding, et cetera, but when can we see the edits before we approve? Commissioner, we had sent out the materials in advance to each office, which included the final versions and the red line versions to see that. So, we've sent that out. In addition, Commissioner, I can tell you, having been part of the work group, there was zero intention of reducing the board's influence or authority through the board policies. There is, there's nothing in here that lessens those, those pieces at all. when did, what is this new board policy that gives staff the ability to deliberate when a commissioner wants to bring a board policy? It just says new board policy. Commissioner, can I, can I speak to that? As a board member, you're welcome to introduce a board policy at any time you wish to. If there's a board policy to be proposed by staff, this proposes a process by which that is to be done, not, not hamstringing commissioners into what they wish to do. It simply, it creates a flow for staff to bring forward an idea. Well, you're rescinding things like fact-based decision making in the budget process. Why are we rescinding that? This is why Sunshine is terrible, by the way. Yeah, I don't disagree with any of the things that you're saying now and previously said just a few minutes ago. Excuse me, I'm very sorry. to answer your first question and if I may, I just pulled it up on my laptop. October 2nd, an email was sent out to all second floor at the very least looking for an update from the, as an update from the board policy group with zip files that basically provided everything to everybody, including all the directors and administrators and then that was done from Ms. French and then it was closed as far as the review period on the 20th, no, I'm sorry, let me look up here, it was the, about a week or so later. I don't, yeah, I don't, I don't have an email from when I searched French on October 2nd, so that's, that's why I didn't get a response from me. Understood. Apologize, Commissioner. I don't know if it came in some group thing that maybe is spam, but that's why I didn't get a response from me. Sure. So 100% agree that over the years the bureaucracy in this building sometimes gets in the way of some of the things that we as maybe commissioners want to do, but it doesn't mean that what we did was take thoughtful, truly thoughtful positions on where we would be with these policies and this does not provide us any missed opportunity to make changes as we go forward. if there's something that we find as a board that needs to be corrected, I will be the first to champion that to come forward and say that as far as a specific policy like the fact-based, a lot of these were incorporated into other policies so that some of the language may have been incorporated into another by merging it into a more relevant policy, but what really brought this to light for me and why I asked for this last year was that when I was campaigning, I was trying to figure out what I got to do when I get on the board, trying to figure that out. Well, they weren't searchable PDFs, they were just kind of buried in on the county's website from that perspective and then being kind of substantiated by the clerk's audit of the financial policies that looked at basically roughly 30% of recension, editing, and keeping what we had, which really what made me think we need to take a hard look at this. So with collaboration of the group, with me being involved as a board member, but with every director and every administrator that was willing to come forward, we put forward these edits and recensions that you're seeing today. Why are we moving to quarterly budget financial reporting requirements? It's 3.5.11. So there are some of the financial stuff. There are actually, and I don't even know if Kevin's still here, and maybe he can come up and speak to it, but one of the largest group of policies had to do with OMB. And a lot of the things that I've asked, and I brought forward my own policy suggestions to the group and some of those were actually asking for more robust reporting from OMB. And so that may have caused that to be rescinded in that particular case. But you could probably tell the board that when I've asked for some of the things that you're kind of going even beyond what the state and what we're doing here. Local. All right. Kevin, hold on one second, Kevin. I got a question just for Commissioner Vols. Before we continue, right now it says receive a staff report. What is your recommendation? I would make a motion that we accept the option of accepting the report and the board policy changes with the caveat, if you will, that we can change these at any time. Any time. We can come back the next meeting and make, if you find five policies you want to bring back from the dead, we can do that. But we've spent six months on these to that effect that, you know, we're looking at basically moving this forward to get us out of the 1970s with some of these. We're not looking at the Constitution of the United States which should survive. Some of these are very, very specific. A lot of development services things were in there that we don't even deal with anymore. Just for example. So I'm saying this doesn't restrict what we can do. It does provide a more streamlined, up-to-date way of how we should be doing things which to some degree I think would eliminate some of the bureaucracy but actually provide us more guidance as to how we should be doing some of our budgetary needs. Okay, so is that a motion? Yes. We've got a motion to Commissioner Bowles. Second, Commissioner Myers. Okay, Kevin, please answer. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The new financial policy that Commissioner Bowles proposed within this framework speaks to budget to actual reporting in a broader sense and so it was struck from that one policy because it would be in this broader policy, a broader, newer policy. Okay. I'm putting... So you know they were... I'm putting tighter leashes on. Staff, the administrator was not providing that until I started asking for it. Why am I not getting this like last year? I understand. And one of the things that I did ask for with this was... Or some of these changes, especially with the OMB, was that we could get regular updates. For example, how are we... What monies aren't being used? How can we find out where these monies are being used throughout the year over a certain dollar amount? Now, if it's $100,000 or whatever, I mean, we can't go to the minutia. But in a $115,000 line budget or whatever it is, we wanted to make sure that, you know, if there are monies available that we could use for sidewalk repairs or fire rescue or for the sheriff or for the pet resource center that we can find where those are available and are sitting stagnant and being essentially depreciating as I think we've both pointed out over the last two years. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Cameron Spada. Yes, thank you. I believe it's a really great agenda item. Thank you so much to everyone that put in all the hard work for this item. However, I do believe we need more time to allow the commissioners to read over all the edits, but I do would like to make a counter motion to receive the report, as you mentioned, but vote on the edits in the following, the next upcoming board meeting. Just, yeah. Okay, so we've got a substitute motion. Commissioner Cameron Spada. Do we have a second? Motion died for lack of a second. Commissioner Miller. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, again, as Commissioner Wostel noted, this is one of the things that's challenging with Sunshine because I was thinking we were receiving a report, so now we're like it's almost like an entirely different ask, and I want to support it, but I do want clarification that I want more time to be able to look at some of these specifics. If I can come back and change it at any time, I just want clarification for the record that I can do that because I recognize and I'm very appreciative that you brought this forward and the amount of work, it sounds like it was a very heavy lift for our staff and it's going to make it easy, but we receive this stuff very late and we also have large agenda. It was a lot to go through and I actually have notes to follow up on the different policies because I thought I was going to have time to do that post that, but as long as I can come back with any changes if something's alarming to me, I'm comfortable with some more supporting your motion today, sir. Commissioner Bowles. Well, I certainly don't want a good idea to die on the vine, so I will be in favor of rescinding my motion, but with the idea that it will come back for approval, accepting, let me second her, Donna, I'm sorry, Commissioner Cepeda's substitute motion. You had the votes, but that's fine. Whatever you want to do, man, it's your item. Listen, listen, so I'll make a new motion. I'll make a motion that we bring back for acceptance of a new board policy as a block outside of anything that anyone wants to put in at our next scheduled board meeting. Second. All right, so we got a new motion by Commissioner Bowles, second Commissioner Wollstel. I don't see anyone else in the queue. Please record your vote. Commissioner Wollstel, motion carried 7-0. Mr. Chair, if I may make one small follow-up. Sure. I know everyone's stomach's up here growling. I do want to thank the staff, the group right there, Rachel, Jennifer, everybody who was involved with this. You guys did a fantastic job, and every director and administrator in their building that helped with this, we were very pointed on hitting it every week for weeks and weeks and weeks. we did a fantastic job. I will say that I'm not sure what happened, but having everybody got, I got the report on the 7th, I think that would have been plenty of time to read, 150. So hopefully you guys can get that to them immediately so that we don't have another delay so we can get this done. Thank you. Commissioner Wollstel, do you want to make a comment? Okay. Bonnie, next item. Next item is item G3. This is to receive report from the Management and Budget Department regarding the status of the HOPE Affordable Housing Trust Funds, and Tom Fessler will take us through this item. Morning, Tom. Morning, Commissioners. Tom Fessler, Chief Financial Administrator. Commissioners, at the September 16th board meeting, Commissioner Miller had a future issue item related to the following to evaluate an unallocated balance in HOPE trust funds to identify any restrictions on those funds to determine whether the funds could be used for the pet resources facility improvement project and to identify any process and timeline associated with reallocating the funds. Currently, there are $12.8 million of HOPE funds that have been unspent. Of that balance, $6.1 million is associated with currently active projects. There's $2.9 million that's unallocated to any project. There is $3.2 million that's associated with a current RFP that went out on the street. We've received proposals and that relates to making 36 properties, county-owned properties available to developers to make proposals to develop. So those, we have received proposals on that. They have not been fully evaluated yet. So those funds could be reallocated in addition to the $2.9 million. and then there's about $500,000 associated with administrative funds. On June 6th or June 18th of 2025, the board adopted an ordinance to repeal the HOPE Affordable Housing Act. What that means is that the board can use the funds that are currently there for other purposes and those other purposes could include a reallocation of the funds to the Pet Resources Project. The options that are available to the board are just to continue for it as is and just use the remaining HOPE funds for affordable housing purposes. Option two is to use the unallocated funds of $2.9 million for another public purpose which could include the Pet Resources Project. If you wanted to go with an option three, in addition to that, you could add to the 2.9 another 3.2 from the current RFP that's out on the street because we have not completed that or made awards related to that. So that would take that amount up to $6.1 million. And option four is the board obviously can do anything else they would like to with the funds. If a decision was made to reallocate the funds say specifically to the Pet Resources Project we could come back at the next board meeting with a budget amendment and move the funds. All right. Thank you. Commissioner Miller. Thank you very much. I want to clarify a few things. I know we're not supposed to speak directly to residents when they give comment but you know part of me just wants to say you shouldn't get all your information from social media because there's a lot of misinformation out there that is I don't even know where it starts but we certainly couldn't keep up with it. I'm sure other commissioners are experiencing the same thing. We can't go out and correct every bit of information and so hopefully they'll listen to this and get the information that is true and factual from here on the board. So for starters I want to say that this is not additional money. It wasn't like we were going to take I mean it's additional money we weren't going to take away from other money. I was simply asking the question these were the kind of questions that I'd hope the Doge committee would have done is to find things like this so that we would have had money and that's not what happened but I specifically want either you or Bonnie to clarify what is available for pet resources so that the community has an understanding of what is there. Can we do that please? For the shelter. For the shelter. Sure. So Commissioner we have 2.9 million dollars that's currently I meant in totality forgive me. What's designated? What's designated? Because there's confusion like I think people think that I'm trying to reduce it to this and that's not I want to know what's available. Okay. I understand. So Commissioner it's currently in the CIP currently that project has 13 million approximately 13 million dollars budgeted as far as the renewal of the CIT there's another 30 million dollars that's there that was designated for the pet resources shelter. So it would be a total of 43 million dollars is anticipated to be available for the project. So just for clarification purposes there's 43 million set aside for pet resources in the facility and if that were to ever change it would have to come back to this board in some fashion and would be noticed to the public. That is correct. Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. I just want to know that that way when this runs later there's clarification that there's 43 million. I was looking for additional and here's why. Actually the second point I wanted to make on this is that this board approved quarterly report. So nothing's going to change. We're going to have regular updates on the status of moving forward. It will be very transparent to the public. I appreciate that they want to come downtown twice a month and remind us of that but know that we asked for this report. You're going to get quarterly information. It's going to be noticed when it's on there when they're going to be giving the report so that everyone's going to have accurate information related to pet resources and the building that will potentially go there or eventually go there. So I want to say that because of Sunshine we don't get to have these conversations in advance. I didn't know what the response was going to be to this and quite frankly I didn't get the information on my desk until about 4.20 on Friday. So I've only had a little bit of time but I wanted to move this conversation forward. Right now I'm looking at supporting option three which would make an additional 6.1 million available but I'm interested to see what my colleagues have to say. I specifically wanted to have a conversation around that I understand that pet resources explored the possibility as part of the new facility having housing on site that would help the facility needs and recruiting veterinary text or veterinarians to come through that program and that's been one of our issues is being able to keep appropriate staff on there and so that's why I was interested in this particular pocket of money and potentially being able to move it to pet resources. So I see that I have two other colleagues in the queue and I was kind of curious what there is before I make any formal motion. Thank you. Commissioner Myers. Thank you Mr. Chair. As chair of the county's affordable housing project I support option one and here's why we just did a solicitation on July 9th 2026 for county issued RLP 2600304 for new construction and development of county owned affordable housing in field property so we take the $2.9 million away we cannot do this new project which is going to be five we have ten proposals to come in five we deem responsible the evaluation committee has not met yet they're scheduled to meet on November the 5th and so I would like because I was here in the community we need to build more affordable housing and we talk about this every other month at our advisory board meeting and Commissioner Miller I would like to see the funding stay since we already have $43 million allocated to pet resources that we can build more single family and monthly family housing as that what everyone is requesting and asking us to do as a board and so I like to make a motion for the county to continue the process because if the funding goes away on the allocation we I'm sorry on the solicitation we just received we cannot do these projects and so but just for clarification it's 3.2 that is currently under the RFP the 2.9 million is the unallocated right so I want to get 3.2 let her finish please just for whatever is allocated I want to use that for the affordable housing project that is my motion all right there's a motion by Commissioner Myers is there a second I'll second and I'm in the queue okay so we have a motion and a second Commissioner Wollstuhl Commissioner Miller you should do option three for a variety of reasons the maker and the seconder of the motion were part of the Democrat majority board that railroaded future boards intentionally with guidance from the county attorney's office on how they could bind future boards from their money and their priorities including you Commissioner Bowles which thank you for winning and giving me the extra vote to undo the ordinance this was taking from you from your elected voice through a conniving maneuver to bind the county administrator to have to appropriate this funds intentionally circumventing state law that prevents boards from binding future boards how it was done was inappropriate these funds are part of that the funds that they wanted allocated during that time were already appropriated to the projects when it was their time for their priorities you should strip these funds and prioritize it to whatever you want and I will help you get your votes thank you Commissioner Myers you have any comments I'll make my comments okay Commissioner Cohen and then Commissioner um suffice to say that the hope ordinance was passed in a public meeting transparently in front of everybody and when the board decided that it wanted to go in a different direction it was able to do so again in a public meeting that was transparent to everybody I want to get a little bit of clarification here on Commissioner Myers motion because um I think what I understood the issue to be is that you don't want the money that is encumbered by this current RFP to be included in the money for that would go to pet resources but I'm what I'm interested in is the unallocated 2.9 million if that would be if you if because I would support using that for pet resources I don't support moving into the RFP that's already on the street for the county-owned properties if we take those funding away we cannot do the project from my understanding from county staff so um Ms. Wise Cheryl so maybe I can clarify because I think we're getting confused between the 3.2 and the 2.9 so I just want to clarify this again the 3.2 is associated with the RFP that has been out and the and the proposals received although they have not been evaluated it sounds like that's what you're trying to protect yes the 3.2 the 2.9 has not been allocated yet and has not gone through a process so that could be available then for some other purpose hopefully that clears it up so what I would like to know and perhaps Mr. Fessler you can help me with this do we have a sense of what we think the pet resources center is actually going to cost probably let Greg respond I was getting to that and Greg please answer but it was my understanding that when Commissioner Miller's report that she asked for comes back to the board that the expected project costs would be included that was my understanding I could be wrong for the record Greg Mr. Horwood Down Deputy County Administrator yes Mr. Chair you are correct when we come back in December per the Commissioner's request we will have a comprehensive report that talks about different options and the funding that would be needed to accomplish each one of those options as staff if we have a particular dollar amount that the board is authorized we always want to work toward that right now there's 43 million depending on the outcome of this particular motion there could be more we may be in a position to recommend to the board additional dollars if needed for things that the board would express support for this want to be abundantly clear we're not going to go out and to use a common phrase build a Taj Mahal we're going to actually build something that's very serviceable and correct some of the deficiencies that exist in the current pet resources facility I hope that answers your question okay I'm gonna make up a couple couple couple comments I think Commissioner Miller wants to wants to close to me it's really two issues it's number one do we want to reallocate hope some of the hope funding and and how much and then number two how do we want to direct those dollars and I've always been supportive of affordable housing because I see it I've said it before I see it firsthand with my son trying to trying to find a place that being said I am open to reallocating at least the 2.9 and maybe even I'm going between two and three right now but I also want to say I'm not I promise I'm not being the pat yourself on the back kind of guy but in light of many of the comments and I want to try to avoid anyone misunderstanding or misconstruing my comments because I think this board's been very consistent for several meetings on the direction what we want to do particularly Commissioner Miller and yet some of the same folks keep coming down questioning us like we're playing that we're not committed I mean we're all walking toward the same goal we all share the same goals here but I want to be crystal clear the animal shelter was placed on our CIT project list because of me I'll be very clear about that I began working on this project with Mike Merrill when he was county administrator now I cannot tell you what year but I know Bonnie came on in 2020 so it was well before that and if anyone questions that you can ask Greg because we've because him and I met on dozens of occasions he knows I was pounding the tail about this facility so much so he actually said to me Commissioner it's as if you want the facility to be named after you and I said no that's not it he goes because if we you know when we if we build a new facility it really should still be named Mike Merrill after Mike Merrill you remember that conversation okay so I want to be crystal clear I'm 100% supportive of the project and it was on the CIT list because of me I don't like doing that but I'm getting tired of the comments that are coming in I'm not on social media so I don't see all that stuff but it's extremely frustrating this board is 100% committed toward doing this project and nothing we've done should give any indication or any interpretation otherwise so that was the question one of the questions I had and Commissioner Cohen asked it was just to confirm the amount of money that's already set aside we don't know what the project cost is so while I'm personally supportive of reallocating some of the money I'm reluctant to today put it toward animal services I'd rather keep it in abeyance let's get the cost of the facility and if it needs more than then I'm fully supportive of that but I don't know why we would make that decision today is a real comment I want to make so with that Commissioner Miller do you want to or Commissioner Bowles and then Commissioner Miller yeah thank you again agree with you and agree with you and agree with you I think we're all on pretty much in some regard rolling to go in the same direction on this the 43 million about the the labor it those are all CIT dollars roughly no commissioner there's 13 million in there right now that's not I believe not CIT I think it's all general funds the 30 million the additional 30 million dollars would be the renewed CIT was part of the project list it was adopted by the board back in 2024 so to that to that point the 2.9 which are general funds yeah that's correct would that would that be an offset or in addition to in in how you would see it I didn't hear your question I'm sorry with the 2.9 and general funds would that be an offset or in addition to and because I think depending on that getting the report in December from Administrator Hornell would be useful to know where we're going in some of that so so a couple of things to answer your question we are waiting on the report I asked for this money I really just didn't know the answer sometimes you know I people think I'm asking questions that I know already I don't I just wanted the information wanted to be able to process it and be able to have a discussion this is the only way we can do that to your point though if we do nothing the 2.9 could be encumbered in the next few minutes you know in the next few months and then we'll be having the same conversation like oh the RFP went out now it's encumbered so I want to know what my options are for that not happening should we need the actual money for pet resources so my question is is it could I ask for a vote today to move the 2.9 million to pet resources and consider potentially housing for vets or some option of that in the plan that's coming back to us in December and if for some reason it's not needed you say you were not trying to build Taj Mahal but we're gonna meet up to the amount that I think the same option would apply here unused money could then be discussed to be used for some other option so I I'm moving towards I was originally gonna ask for all of it but based on the conversation my motion today would be to and that would be to remove the 2.9 million to the pet resource center facility project and to direct staff to return to add this to the board by board report that's coming back to us second motion by Commissioner Miller second by Commissioner Wilstle and just one we have a set we have a motion on the floor for the other is it the same I think it's the same motion oh this is substitute so this is a substitute motion that's correct okay substitute motion I'm sorry can you all clarify for us the substitute motion please is option two let me just let's essentially let's I mean and then we'll yes evaluate when we get the report rather than if the money is needed yeah so option two would be to reallocate the 2.9 million to this project and I will say I'm gonna support the motion and I'm gonna play sound a little bit like Commissioner Wilson here or I think his position would be is that when government has the money they're gonna spend the money so you probably feel that way right so I want to say just because we're giving this money don't say okay we've got up to and then we we keep going I mean we want to find every way to I mean I guess the term is value engineer we want a quality facility but we don't want the Taj Mahal and if there if we have the ability to construct a first-class facility and then later reallocate those dollars toward another purpose want to make sure that we maintain that flexibility which I know we do if I may can we just restate again for the public what the total amount would be with this 2.9 being moved here if this were to pass right so it would be 43 million plus 2.9 okay thank you very much it would be at our disposal okay Commissioner Cohen and I just want to clarify that this then does not include the 3.2 million for the RFP that's already on the street that's going to be left alone and continue that's thank you Commissioner Myers you're good okay you got substitute motion Commissioner Miller second Commissioner Wostel please record your vote motion carried seven to zero good discussion thanks Tom appreciate it all right Bonnie okay let's move to item A1 which was the item that was removed from consent by Commissioner Wostel this is to execute five state housing initiatives also known as SHIP program funding agreements and Cheryl Howell will take us through this item I don't I don't need a brief Commissioners I'm not asking you to vote no on this I'm simply I've made it very clear it's inappropriate that this was even put on consent I do not support us continuing to award taxpayer dollars to an elected officials organization where they are greatly profiting off of that I'm simply asking for a a friendly motion to divide the question to approve all five of the listed projects excess of the ETB CA and we'll vote on that one separately okay so a motion for the the five can we have a motion on that second or Commissioner Myers I took Commissioner Wostel's comments State Representative Don Hart has resigned as a president of the East Tampa Association that deals with housing she's no longer the president okay so I'll pass the gavel to Commissioner Miller and make make that motion for the the five and a second okay we have a motion by Commissioner Hagen and a second by Commissioner Cohen please record your vote thank you motion carried seven to zero okay we have a motion for the remaining item so moved Commissioner motion Commissioner Cohen second Commissioner Myers please record your vote motion carried five to two with Commissioner Bowles and most of voting no okay Bonnie thank you we have future discussion items and remember commissioners you have to decide how you want to handle item D1 you want to break or what okay Commissioner Wostel I am I agree keep keep keep going I'm getting the ticket number up one second my computer is not cooperating with me sorry about that I would like to direct the Public Works Office to identify the cost for ticket number CN 0 7 7 3 6 6 3 which was a newly identified need for a full culvert replacement in town and country and proportionately I will prepare an item to allocate my $600,000 of unallocated transportation funding out of my flag list thank you got that but any other future issues items okay if not we'll go into our last item which is D1 and board members this is unusual that will handle a land use item during a BOCC meeting we're going to follow the same process and procedure that we do during during land use so at this time anyone that plans on speaking today if you'd please stand raise your right hand so the clerk will swear you in do you swear or affirm that the testimony are about to give will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth okay yes Adam needs to come on up to introduce it thank you good afternoon Commissioners Adam Gormley Development Services Department item D1 is a public hearing to consider agricultural enclave certification application AG ENC 261535 I'll give a brief presentation I know at the land use meeting we went over the our staff report but I'll briefly go over the highlights of this the subject property consists of five full excuse me eight folios that have been submitted pursuant to state law seeking certification as an agricultural enclave there are several our criteria to be considered an agricultural enclave we have analyzed the report analyzed the surrounding properties and find that the property does not qualify as as meeting the definition of an agricultural enclave I'll hit the high points of the findings of not meeting the criteria first is and these are the definitional requirements of 163 3164 sub for Florida statutes the first is that the agricultural enclave be undeveloped property within an unincorporated area while this property is within unincorporated Hillsborough County it is not undeveloped under the definition of state law state law defines development for the purposes of this certification as including mining operations and specifically the commencement of excavation on a parcel of land this parcel has a several approved special uses and operating permits as land excavation active operation and has engaged in excavation activities as demonstrated in the backup so first of all it does not is not qualify as undeveloped second point is that the property would have been used for bona fide agricultural purposes for the previous five years as shown on the on the Elmo five of the eight parcels have been granted Greenbelt by the Hillsborough County property appraiser which is an indication that they've been used for bona fide agricultural purposes however three have not and there is no further evidence that has been provided that would substantiate a finding that they have been used for bona fide agricultural purposes which short in short means it is used in good faith for good faith commercial agricultural purposes I'll move to the proximity requirements there's a there are several options to qualify for as an ag enclave for surrounding development the first is that the perimeter of the property 75% of the perimeter have existing industrial commercial or residential development development finding is that only 31% have existing development and therefore do not meet that criteria the second is that 75% of the perimeter is parcels designated on the zoning map to be used for industrial commercial or residential purposes and at least 50% of such parcels has existing industrial commercial development finding is that only 57% of the property's perimeter is zoned or designated for industrial commercial or residential purposes falling short of the 75% and further the only 33% of such parcels have existing developments does not meet that second criteria the third is that property have a combination of interstate highway and parcels that are within an urban service district the third is that the property is that the property is that the property is that the property does not exceed 700 acres and is surrounded on 50% of their perimeter by parcels designated for industrial commercial or residential purposes and further that the part the subject parcels are surrounded on at least 50% of their perimeter by parcels within urban service boundary found that the only that 50 well 57% of the perimeter has industrial commercial or residential designations only 28% of the surrounding properties are within urban service area and therefore do not meet that the threshold in the statute finally there's criteria that the property be within a established rural study area and therefore do not meet that the threshold in the statute. And finally there's criteria that the property be within a established rural study area as adopted in the comprehensive plan and there is no such designation for this area so would that find that the property does not qualify as a agricultural enclave under the criteria under state law further I'll note that the proposed development under the certification application is for development at 17.2 dwelling units per acre and in addition requesting commercial or proposing commercial office and hotel development with a .25 FAR the surrounding the adjacent development the Suncoast DRI has a density of 2.6 dwelling units per acre and therefore does not meet is actually less than the 17 proposed further the commercial development proposed is not something that is eligible under the agricultural enclave statute absent proximity to a interstate highway which the subject site does not have and I'm available for any questions and this is a public hearing all right appreciate the description Adam okay again we're going to follow the same process as during land use the applicant presentation followed by any proponent testimony then opponent testimony and applicant rebuttal so the applicant come forward that have the concerns the. Okay that's a formalized as the line on the. The report of the. The report is actually talking about this again but actually an even a little bit more. The report I'm looking for President Trump to measure and I've actually quoted. The report the report I'm reporting in the report with Cameron from one at the Houston Street Tampa Florida. First of all let me say thank you for continuing this to allow us to be adequately prepared we appreciate that. Courtesy and we are prepared today with me as part of the applicant's team is Sam Sibeli the project engineer. you. As Adam said, this is a new law. It's highly technical. We relied on the engineer to sort of do the calculations and get us to where we are today. We submitted the application with a lot of documents that support the position that we do meet the criteria. As Adam said, there are three several areas where we just did. I've been told by the core reporter to slow down, so let me slow down. We do feel because this is a new law, there are different ways of interpreting certain sections. It's not the most elegantly written statute, and we disagree with some of the findings that staff have made based on the objective evidence. I'm going to ask the project engineer to present the case to you, but I would ask the board to focus on three main areas. The term adjacent, and what that term means in a legal sense. Number two, the essential bona fide agricultural use of the site. And number three, whether the property is undeveloped. I'm also going to remind the board that we are seeking to qualify under section 4C2, which is a specific set of criteria. To the extent that the staff report talks about other sections of the statute, we would argue that that's irrelevant, and we're asking you to focus on the areas that we are seeking to qualify under. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Sabali, and we'll reserve any time for rebuttal. Thank you. Good afternoon. It is afternoon. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, commissioners. My name is Sam Sabali. I am a registered professional engineer in Florida and a regional director with Thomas and Hutton Engineering in Orlando. Our office is located at 5127 South Orange Avenue, Orlando. I have over 30 years of engineering experience in land development and planning in Florida. And this afternoon, I am representing Mr. Stephen Dibbs regarding this agricultural enclave application. I have reviewed the county's report, our application, and the supporting documentation. And I would like to focus my comments on the findings that led county staff to recommend denial. I will follow the same order outlined in the staff report, and I will explain where our findings differ from those of the county staff. The first criterion concerns whether the property qualifies as undeveloped. County staff's position is that the property does not qualify because it was used for an authorized excavation operation, which is the land mining. So I would like to explain a little bit about the history of that operation and the condition of the property today. The subject property consists of approximately 317 acres, and approximately 42-acre portion was historically used for excavation, which resulted in the creation of a man-made lake known today as Brooker Creek Lake. The important point here is that the actual excavation activity has ceased more than four years before the January 1, 2025 date, which is the reference date established by the legislation. Specifically, the excavation was conducted under the original land mining permit, which expired in December 2021. Although a new operating permit was issued by Hillsborough County in September of 2024, no excavation has taken place under that new permit. So as of January 1, 2025, there was no active excavation operation. The lake has remained, but the property has not been developed, and it doesn't contain any residential, commercial, or other urban improvements. In fact, development of the property is what we are seeking. So when you look at it, the property is not developed. If it was, we would not be seeking development, which is the opportunity the owner is pursuing. So I recognize that excavation is included within the statutory definition of development. However, there is an important distinction between an excavation operation that occurred many years ago and the actual condition and use of the property as it stands today. So as of January 1, 2025, there is no development on the property. The mining operation has ceased. County staff's conclusion appears to be based on the fact that excavation had previously occurred, but from an engineering perspective, I believe we need to distinguish between the historical activity and the condition of the property on the date established by the legislation. So in my professional opinion, a previous excavation operation that has ceased does not necessarily mean that the entire property should be considered as developed. Let me see. I have some slides which I would like to point to. Okay, so this aerial view shows the property. It shows what is called Brooker Creek Lake, which is the excavated area, and you can see there is no development on the property except for that lake which was created several years ago. The second criterion concerns the agricultural use, and county staff acknowledges that five of the eight property folios maintained agricultural classifications for the required five-year period. The other three were classified as mining, lowlands, and preservation. However, what I believe is important is that all folios are under common ownership and have historically been part of one larger agricultural property. So agricultural properties are not always made up entirely of pasture land or cultivated fields. They commonly include wetlands, lakes, wooded areas, and other parts which support the overall operation. This property has a history of agricultural activities, including livestock operations. So while three of the folios may have different tax classifications, that does not necessarily mean that those areas were excluded from the agricultural operation. In essence, you cannot tell the difference between these three folios and the other five folios. If you look at the property, it all looks the same. It's been used all in the same manner, and it's all been used for agricultural purposes. So I believe we need to look at how the property was actually used as a whole, rather than just looking solely at the tax classification of the individual lots. The owner did not have a need to change the classification because from a taxing perspective, it was all taxed in a similar manner. The third criterion, which concerns the perimeter requirements, the statute, as Adam said, provides different alternatives. And the first alternative, D1, generally requires 75 percent of the property's perimeter to meet certain surrounding development conditions. Staff concluded that our property does not meet that alternative. We do disagree with some of the computation, but since we're not relying on it, we will not spend time discussing it this morning. Instead, our application relies on the second alternative, which is D2, and this applies to properties which are 700 acres or less. So the property is approximately 317 acres, and we clearly meet the 700 acres or less definition. The second part of the requirement is that the property has at least 50 percent of the the perimeter adjacent to properties which are designated for residential, commercial, or industrial development on a future land use map. Our analysis identified 65 percent. The staff identified 57 percent. And I'm going to go to the map which shows the adjacency. All right. So the difference between that is how we treated the western boundary. So staff, in terms of the future land use, did not account for some of the properties on the western boundary. The reason we included them is some of these folios consist of a combination of both agricultural and residential. So we counted it because it was a single folio. Staff discounted it. Irrespective of that, staff did conclude that we meet the 50 percent, which is the requirement. So we do have 57 percent. So that's not a point, you know, we're going to argue, but we do meet the 50 percent. The second part of that is the adjacency to the urban service area. And this is where we have significant differences from what the county staff has indicated and what we have come up with. So for for that part, the statute also says some more. The statute also says you need to have 50 percent of the parcels or the qualifying parcels adjacent to the urban service area. If you read the language, it says the parcel or parcels adjacent to the urban service area. So in essence, we're agreeing with staff. Okay, we have 57 percent. And staff counted in their perimeter analysis under the first part, they counted the property on the north side where we have a qualifying perimeter. They accounted for the boundary on the east side adjacent to Theramore where we have a qualifying perimeter. And they accounted for the boundary on the south side where we have a qualifying perimeter. So based on the county staff on interpretation, Theramore, Suncoast crossings, and Cheval to the south all qualify. And the language as we read it, it says the parcel or the qualifying parcels are adjacent to the urban service area. So you can see that all the qualifying parcels are adjacent to the urban service area. So in essence, we have 100 percent of the qualifying parcels meeting that definition, which is 50 percent. So basically, it's how you look at the definition and how you look at the computation. If you account for the qualifying parcels, then we definitely meet the second part of that requirement. So the last item which staff discussed was the density. Our application identified 17.2 dwelling units per acre based on a multi-family component of Suncoast crossings development to the north. Now Suncoast crossing is a large mixed-use development of regional impact. It has a lot of different uses and when you look at the density, you can look at it in many different ways. We looked at the multi-family component and that was 17.2 dwelling units per acre. So we understand that it could be looked at differently. What I would like to point out is Cheval on the south side has also an approval for multi-family development for 16 dwelling units per acre and that was recognized by staff during the comprehensive plan amendment and the plan development rezoning applications. So from the standpoint of what density we are adjacent to, we can discuss that further and evaluate it. You know, but I think the first step for us is to go through the agricultural enclave certification review. And once a decision is made on that, we can sit down and figure out what the adjacent density is and what's appropriate for development. So in closing, I would like to emphasize that our disagreement with county staff is focused on mainly three specific findings. One, if the property is undeveloped. It is our opinion that the excavation operation, which ceased before January 1, 2025, does not render the property to be developed. The property doesn't have any development on it. It just has the excavated lake and this is the current condition and the condition prior to the effective date of the legislation. The second one revolves around agricultural use and the property has a history of agricultural use. Although three of the eight folios did not maintain agricultural classification through the property appraiser, the entire property was functioning as a single agricultural operation with no distinguishing physical characteristic between these folios. The third one. Sorry, sir. Thank you. All right. Thank you. You have an opportunity to finish during rebuttal. Okay. Proponent testimony. We have folks that have signed up, but it doesn't say if you're proponent or opponent. But is there anyone here in support of the item? Okay. Seeing none. We'll go to opponent testimony. We have a total, remind everyone, a total of 15 minutes. I'm going to call on the individuals that are here before I go to virtual. But we have Melissa Nordbeck, Jane Graham, and Brittany Berry are the first three speakers. Again, we have a total of 15 minutes. So please be mindful. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. My name is Jane Graham, Sunshine City Law, representing Keystone Civic Association, neighboring property owners, Ethel Hammer and Gary Englehart, the Berry family, John Zumwalt, Craig Torrens, Aaron Turner, and Barbara Adderhold. We have provided written comments and comments into the record and information on my client's standing. The county report recommends denial based on the failure to meet statutory criteria for the agricultural enclave certification. My clients support and adopt all the findings within this report, although we believe it doesn't go quite far enough to reject it. The failure to meet the statutory requirements for the agricultural enclave renders it ineligible. And there's no gray area here. There's no discretion. There's no weighing the evidence. I would like to focus on one fundamental requirement that it fails. The idea that the agricultural enclave applies only to undeveloped parcels. The statute, 163.3164.14, doesn't define undeveloped, but it does define development, which says that it has the same meaning as 380.04. Now, if you look at 380, it's clear that it says the term development means the carrying out of any building activity or mining operation, the making of any material change in the use or appearance of any structure or land. So this property is not undeveloped. It has been excavated as a mining operation for almost two decades. Actually, the pictures here are before and after pictures from 2008 to 2012 to 2026, which shows that the mining has made a material change in the appearance of the land. These are pictures from Google Earth. There's also the current land excavation permits on site, which you'll see in a second. Now, the active land excavation permit, which is a development permit, is for all eight parcels, and that's included in the staff report. Some of you might be feeling a little deja vu, because most recently, on March 14, 2024, you as a board approved resolution RR 24-014 for the special use approval for land excavation to extend this permit 10 years to excavate 1.9 million cubic yards on the site. The resolution minutes and planning commission report are in the packet that I've provided you, and this is a development order. Now, Mr. Dibbs' team claims that the lake created by the borough pit operation is not developed land, and they broadly cite Hillsborough land regulations without specific citations to say that the pit is a lake and not mining. But the Agricultural Enclave statute does not cite or rely on local Hillsborough regulations or create any exception or exemption. The statute plainly says undeveloped, and that is a past tense in the state of was developed at some point. It doesn't have to be continuing. Here, mining has occurred over an 18-year period that clearly counts as development under the statute. If you do look to Hillsborough LDC, 6.11.54, which is the land excavation statute code for special use, says that the types of land excavation can create a lake, and so that's particular for this type of mining permit. The LDC also does speak to mining as a material change in land, and as you see, this is a material change in land. Interestingly, Mr. Dibbs' position was not taken by any of the three law firms' letters that were included in Appendix H. This is something that is said simply by their engineer, who is not an attorney. The fact that none of the attorneys signed off on this should be a red flag to you. On the bona fide agricultural use, you'll hear from others on this. I just want to highlight that your own property appraiser's office confirmed that three of the eight parcels are not classified as agricultural lands, and we've provided further information as to why it doesn't meet the criteria. Finally, the weight of the evidence, this is not a weight of the evidence issue. This is does it meet the clear criteria. This is a check the box. It doesn't check the box. Thanks so much. And if possible, Ethel Hammer is on. I'd like if we could have her go next. That would be great. Sure. Ms. Hammer, are you on the line? Ethel, can you hear us, please? Could you pause? Please unmute yourself. Ethel, can you hear us? I'm sure it's going to go on, Ethel, with or without you. All right. Do you want to? Yeah. Is Jim around? Jim Berry? Yeah, I'm here. You guys ready to hear me? Yeah, that would be great. Let's go, Jim. Okay, buddy. I'm Dr. James Berry, 19506, Berry Acres Trail, Odessa. I'm right next door to this property on the western boundary. I'm here to speak against Stephen Dibbs' application for ag enclaves. And please follow the sound management of your staff and deny this request for an agricultural enclaves. It does not meet the requirements of Florida statutes. And you have no discretion to ignore these requirements. Dibbs land is not undeveloped. It's an active dirt mining operation on its second 10-year permit. I would like to highlight one point from my own observations. This property is not a bona fide agricultural use. Clearly, you have copies of the mining permit in your records for active mining operation. I can tell you firsthand that for years I have witnessed the dump trucks going in and off the site. Just look at the well-developed road they built to accommodate the trucks entering and exiting Loots Lake Fern Road. The site is a mining operation. Millions of yards of dirt have been sold. The few cattle grazing is incidental to the mining use. Florida Supreme Court stated in Walden v. Borden Company as it related to cattle grazing as an incidental agricultural use for land in connection with a mining operation. The legislature did not intend to get preferential tax treatment to land such as that in the instant case that was obviously purchased for use in connection with the company's mining operations and is still being used for that purpose, even though it accommodates also an incidental use for ag purposes. This is exactly what's happening here. The few cows grazing is clearly incidental to the millions of yards of dirt removed from this property. And even if you disagree with that, your own staff report explains that the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser's Office confirmed that only five of the eight parcel folios on site have been classified as agricultural. In accordance with Florida Statute Section 193461, for five years, they're supposed to be ag use. The land has been that the land has been used for agricultural purposes. There is no choice but to deny this request for certification. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Berry. Ethel, going to give you one more chance. You on the line? Ethel, press star six to unmute yourself. All right. The show's going to go on. Please, whoever's next. We've given her two opportunities. Yep. Thank you. My name is Brittany Berry. You just heard my father-in-law. My family owns and lives on, so do I, on this property at 19506 Berry Acres Trail in Odessa for the last 43 years. We're raising our two young daughters, cows, donkeys, chickens, and ducks on our property. The decisions made regarding the DIBS property will directly affect our family, home, and ability to safely access our land. I'm speaking in opposition to the agricultural enclave. I request my testimony be made part of the official record. So I urge you to follow your staff's recommendation and deny this application. It does not reap the requirements. So as a primary eyewitness that lives on this property since 2018, and I've been part of the family since 2008, I have woken up to dump trucks coming in and out of this property weekdays and weekends, as early as 6 a.m., as late as 8 p.m. It's been occurring since 2008, since they received the operation permit. There is lack of adequate road and safety infrastructure along Lutes Lake Fern Road. So Lutes Lake Fern Road is a road with no margin on either side, no sidewalks, no bike lanes. There are three schools and three daycares within a mile of this property. You can imagine how the dump trucks have affected those schools and those daycares, and allowing greater property density is going to have a big, big impact on Lutes Lake Fern. Berry Acres Trail is not simply a road on a development map. It's a one-lane driveway my family and two other families depend on to reach our home. Just a picture of Berry Acres Trail. The proposed density is also extraordinary. 17.2 dwelling units per acre, more than six times the density of the most intense surrounding development. Suncoast DRI in Pasco County is that most intense surrounding development. It's approximately 86 times the existing density of agricultural properties to the west, where Berry Acres Trail is located. So we have cows, we have neighbors with horses, and that goes throughout the Keystone-Odessa community plan. Our family chose to live in Keystone-Odessa because of its rural character. The protections that have been established through thoughtful community planning and the Keystone-Odessa community plan are in place. This property does not meet the requirements for an agricultural enclave as written, and I appreciate your time today. I know it's been a long meeting. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Berry. All right, we have Melissa Nordbeck, Sam Sabali, Nathan Smith, Martha Shepley. Anyone here want to speak? Part of the presentation, Ethel is trying to get on. We know that she's not being able to. We'd like Nathan next. Sure. And then if we could try Ethel right now. You're pushing your luck. All right, go ahead. Good afternoon. Nathan Smith, 19030 Blake Road, Odessa. I'm speaking on behalf of Keystone Civic Association to urge you to follow the staff's recommendations to deny certification. KCA is an association formed for civic improvement and social benefits together with promotion of the interests, welfare, and ideals of the Keystone community, composed of members with their physical address, personal, or business located within the Keystone boundaries, and we uphold the Keystone Community Plan. Keystone Civic Association appreciates the county staff's thoughtful analysis of this application in terms of the required elements of the agricultural certification. The staff has explained why it fails to qualify as an agricultural enclave on numerous grounds. For this alone, we ask that you deny. There is no discretion in the statute to ignore its requirements in this respect. Because the application fails to meet statutory requirements, it cannot be approved. Most simply, the site is not undeveloped. It was already developed. It continues to be developed, as is evident by what sits on the property today, a quarry. Second, as the staff report explains, it does not meet the perimeter requirements. It is not surrounded by 75% existing industrial, commercial, or residential development. It is only 31%. The future land use map does not include land that is to be developed for industrial, commercial, or residential purposes. It is an agricultural designation, and the surrounding properties are agricultural, natural preservation, and residential. There isn't room for discretion or legal gymnastics here. We implore you to deny this application. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Ms. Hammer. Please unmute yourself. All right. Three strikes, you're out, Ethel. Okay. We've got a minute 33. Okay. I'd like to just speak to one point that Ethel was going to say, which is that one point about the process, which deserves some discussion, is that the statute has clear criteria about how the agricultural enclave is met. It explains that within 30 days of receiving the application, the local government shall provide the applicant a written report detailing whether it complies with the requirements. The statute then requires a public hearing to approve or deny certification. The statute is interesting because it provides for a public hearing, but in reality, there's no wiggle room or gray area for the commission to say, I will overlook the requirements of what must be in an agricultural enclave and approve anyway. And so there's no process for you to waive or vary from the statutory requirements. It's black and white. And here, as your staff has explained and how we have shown, the requirements simply haven't been met. And as such, you cannot approve it. If Mr. Dibbs had made a request which falls within the statutory definition, your vote today would be a yes, and it would have to be a yes. But unfortunately, he continues to ask for favors where the law doesn't apply. And so because of that, you must deny this application. Thank you very much. I have some documents to provide for the record as well. Okay. Great. Thank you. This time, the applicant has a five-minute rebuttal. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Board. Jim Porter with Ackerman. I'm going to ask you to look at this site holistically. We appreciate all the concern. This property has been a subject of contention in other areas for years. Approval of this and development of this site will be a major economic benefit to the county with what it's capable of producing. We do ask you to look at this site overall. We're not asking for any waivers. We're not asking for any variances. We feel we have met the criteria as demonstrated in the application. As the attorney just said, there's no wiggle room here. We feel we meet it. We disagree with the way staff has interpreted certain things. But if you look at this property holistically, look at where it sits. Look at what surrounds it, especially in Pasco County. And as Commissioner Wasthel pointed out in a past hearing, this law doesn't stop at the county line. The property around this area is developed in a highly suburban manner. And what we're seeking is fundamental fairness in being treated the same as our neighbors. That's the essence of this new law, recognizing that there are places that are surrounded by residential that deserve to be developed in a way that's fair. Again, if you look at this property holistically, you have to look at the bona fide agricultural use. Green Belt is not the only way to establish bona fide agricultural use. The Florida Supreme Court has determined you must look at the totality of the circumstances. It's a fact-driven decision. Same thing with developed and whether the property is developed or not. There's not been activity on this site for over five years. I'm going to submit evidence into the record that supports that. Again, we're not asking for any waivers. We're asking you to look at this application, read our submittal, read the backup documentation, especially the economic impact found in subsection or in Exhibit K, and ask you to approve this. Mr. Sabali, who's the engineer, has one final comment, and then we'll respectfully ask for your approval. Thank you, Commissioners. So I just wanted to clarify the perimeter requirements and the section we are trying to qualify under. It has two components. So the one component is more than 50 percent of our perimeter is adjacent to property, which has future land use designation, which includes residential, commercial, industrial, and staff has determined it is 57 percent. So we meet that standard. The only other criterion is whether our parcel or the qualifying parcels are adjacent to the urban service area. And I do have the map here, and it shows that all the qualifying parcels are adjacent to the urban service area. That's the only difference between our interpretation and staff's interpretation related to the perimeter requirements. So that's all I wanted to add. And if you have any questions for me, I will be happy to address them. Thank you. All right. Thank you, sir. This time we're going to board discussion. Commissioner Wollstall. Thank you very much. I will be relatively brief. I'm still frustrated that we even have to vote on this. This really has nothing to do with the board, but I am happy that this law has a sunset of January the 1st, 2028. I didn't realize that until I sat down here today. I just want to address, since some of my past comments were brought up, and make clear that all of those are irrelevant to today's quasi-judicial hearing. Those were for past applications. I do remember the application for the permit for mining. I'm discouraged to hear that it hasn't been utilized because of the public berating that went on when that application came through. And to find out it wasn't even used is disappointing, to say the most. I would just point out that the opposition's concerns about impacts to the area, roads, are largely irrelevant. That has also nothing to do with today's hearing. What I do believe is germane to today's topic is that the applicant has a 30-day timeline to submit a writ of certiorari to the local district court within 30 days, which is obviously their goal, which is why this is the only land-use hearing I've ever remembered that they brought a stenographer to or a court reporter. I do, in this instance, have to point out that the applicant's own engineer gave admission that they could understand why staff, Mr. Gormley, came to some of the conclusions that he did. And I think that that points out that the law is very gray, and probably the appropriate way that this is going to be defined more extensively is in the court of law and not in this boardroom. And I, again, don't understand why we're even voting on it. I do lean in and agree with staff's arguments that this does not meet the definition of state law for agricultural enclave. And I do agree with the opposition and the applicant's points that the law is gray in its definitions, but black and white in the essence that it doesn't allow wiggle room or points of view like we have in other land-use meetings. So, for those reasons, I can't support today's agricultural enclave application. Okay. I'll make a couple comments, and then we'll vote. I actually didn't, I've forgotten a lot. I've been here, but this is only a couple years ago. I didn't, or I forgot about opposing the land-use excavation permit a couple years ago. But one thing's for certain, over the years, I've consistently opposed developing this property, so my position shouldn't surprise anyone. I'm not going to repeat everything Adam said. He was thorough in his description and explanation of the request and how it clearly does not qualify for meeting the criteria for agricultural enclave. Mr. Commissioner Wostel stated this, I mean, attorneys can debate the meaning and interpretation of statutes and the law, but one thing is undeniable, the land is not undeveloped. The mining operation's gone on for at least 18 years. Is that right, Adam? Maybe longer. Yes, sir. I had an operating permit in 2008, so. Okay. So, what I'm going to do is I'll pass the gavel, and I'll make a motion to deny, based on staff's report, for the findings, to support the findings of denial. Second. We have a motion by Chair Hagan and a second by Commissioner Bowles. Any discussion? Please record your vote. Motion carries, 6 to 1. Commissioner Cameron Cepeda voted no. Okay. I want to thank everyone that came down. I apologize for the late timing of the meeting. And with that, we're adjourned. Thank you.