Welcome to The Works. In today's episode, we're going beneath the surface with Hillsborough County's Jet Vac and Underground Camera Crew. Stormwater systems are made of ditches, swales, ponds, reservoirs, thousands of miles of pipe. Our guys have been face to face with alligators in the pipes, snakes. We've pulled out cell phones, computers, anything you could think of. It is really a two-part system utilizing the jet vac to clean the pipe and then the robotics to inspect it. These inspections also give you a better idea of what can be repaired or replaced, which definitely reduces costs. These guys cleaned last year over 100 miles of pipe alone. It is essential with all the sediment, vegetation, litter that goes into these stormwater systems that you keep them flowing. We can mitigate stormwater damage to not only our assets but to citizens' property as well and just keep the county as a whole safer. It is September 17, 2026, and welcome to the Hillsborough County Commission on Human Trafficking Board meeting. At this time, I would like to call the meeting to order. And Lisa, could you please determine a quorum? Present. And from I believe it is the Director of Guest Services. Thank you. Karen Torres. And just for the record, only one of them will be voting on items that come up for a vote. Today we have Captain Cave from HCSO and Member Aguilera. Thank you. Chair Rose. Present. Detective English. She may be virtual. She asked me for the links in case she frees, her time frees up and she can come in. Do we have someone from the Port of Texas? We do. Member Kluge. Thank you. Bureau Chief Mobley. I think she might be late. She did indicate she would be here. Member Petrelak. Thank you. And State Attorney's Office, I don't believe could make it. Detective Aguilar. Thank you. Captain Malave. Thank you. And Detective Kelly is also here from the Temple Terrace Police Department. This is Malave's first meeting. So only one of you, remember, can vote during a call for a vote. Member Nascimento, Visit Tampa Bay had a conflict. I know they will not be here. But Madam Chair, you do have a quorum with 13 members in person. Perfect. Thank you. And at this time, it's public comment. And Lisa, could you please read the directives? Absolutely. Happy to. The Commission on Human Trafficking has established a period at each meeting for public comment to allow citizens to speak. Anyone who wishes to speak virtually or in person during this meeting may do so by contacting the Commission's administrator whose contact information is on the Commission's webpage on the county website. All speakers who wish to speak virtually will be required to provide their name, email address, and telephone number. This information is being requested to facilitate the public comment process. The chair will call on speakers by name in the order in which the request was made to speak have been received. Prioritization is on a first come first served basis. All virtual speakers will be muted upon joining the meeting and will be unmuted after being recognized by the chair by name. The Commission respects the rights of citizens to express their opinions and concerns. However, the Commission requests that citizens present their concerns in a respectful manner to maintain a polite atmosphere where all individuals are respected. Up to three minutes are allowed per person. I'm sorry, up to three minutes are allowed for each speaker. Thank you. And do we have anyone in person or online virtual for public comment? We have a few people here. I'm sorry, bring her down a little bit. We have a few people here. I don't believe any of them wish to speak. Is that correct? And we had one person who was going to speak virtually? Mark, is she online? Good question. Hang on, I sent it over. She said she may not wish to speak. So she might not be signed in. I do not have a person's name. So I don't. Okay, it is Kim Joanitis. And I think I'm saying that wrong. She is on the line. Okay, can you ask her if she would like to speak? Kim, would you like to speak? At this time, I would like to thank you for all the hard work that you are doing. Give thanks. Thank you. Thank you, Joan. Thank you so much. And I just heard from Detective English. She said she is also on the WebEx. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. So at this time, Vice Chair Grover Skipper and I would like to... Commissioner Cepeda, could you please join us? Hey, Dottie and I, Vice Chair Grover Skipper. Sorry, I guess I have to be very formal here. I apologize. You guys know me. I'm not so formal these days. We just really want financial support. We're very appreciative. We're very thankful. We wish you much, much. And so we do have the certificate of appreciation to you about really helping us and about creating awareness and really joining forces and joining arms with us in this fight. Yeah, we just want to thank you so much. I know you're a passionate warrior when it comes to anti-human trafficking efforts, and you certainly have helped this commission over the years. So we just wanted to publicly thank you for all the hard work. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all. You're welcome. Do you want to just say something? A moment? No, it just really has been an honor to be here and serve on this board with all of you amazing people. You have such a heart for people and really want to make a change. And the great thing is you all are making a difference in our community and the lives of so many people. Every individual is so important. And I'm so glad that you all see that in every person. And I'm just so blessed to have served here on this board. And I'm also was really a blessing to be able to make sure that as my term limit ended here that I was able to get recurring funds for this commission of almost $300,000 a year, $267,000 each year that will be recurring. So you don't have to keep going back and trying to get that from the commission every year. So that's really good. But I hope you'll be able to get more as well. But because I know you're all doing amazing, amazing work here. And God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you. And at this time, please go ahead and review our minutes from our prior board meeting and to have a motion to approve. This is Charles Click. I motion to approve the minutes. And I also want to thank Commissioner for all your hard work for the board. And you've been a champion. As I said, I appreciate you, sir. To give the committee meeting, I apologize, is that we've over the vending because of the money and there was a company to fit into the contract. So the cost of the Lisa was to go back to the budgeting, et cetera, and plead our case and was able to have the funds roll over to fiscal year 27. So that Survivor Ventures had basically a full year to honor that contract. So that that was huge for us, right? We have our human trafficking training, RFP or RFQ went out for that. There were two proposals that were received for the training for code enforcement, animal control, and other public facing counting employees. We are waiting to find out who that award is going to. So that award is pending. And then, of course, you know, I know Dottie's going to have a lot to talk about, I believe, with Don't Buy It on Tampa Bay, only because there's been several email exchanges. I'm going to say, yes, in probably the last 72 hours. And I have been training folks for the last 72 hours. So it's really fallen, fallen on Dottie and Lisa a lot. And I apologize for that. It just kind of all happened at once. And but you are going to love it. It's phenomenal. The changes have been made. Some of it had to do with logos and et cetera also. But more importantly, you know that September 22nd, we have our Don't Buy It Tampa Bay community event and and we're utilizing the Don't Buy It Tampa Bay campaign as our core. All right. So we're very, very excited about all of that. And then just some of the other key updates that we we talked about the hotel restaurant outreach and how many folks attended. There was approximately 50 volunteers. We know that's not what we are expecting. But unfortunately, there was a lot of things that were going on downtown, you know, so we've got to think about that the next time. Very appreciative of the hotel space. But we've got to think that through next time. Right. So, yeah. So we're getting there. We'll do better about our strategic plan. So we're still in the process with the strategic plan. You know, we will get back to you. It's really what we're doing just so that you know, if you're going, why is it taking them so long? First, remember, it's our 2030 strategic plan. So don't get like overexcited. OK, because we're built out for the next few years already. But we're also looking at as best as we can forecast into the future. And we're not genies. We don't have all that going on. But as best as we can forecast into the future with the pocket and tip and bright lab and all the information that we're receiving, it's how can we consolidate some of the information that we have in our strategic plan so that we really can implement it instead of all these words. And then we at the end of the day, we go back and we weren't really able to implement anything. So that's another reason why it's taking us just a little bit longer. And then I think that's pretty much it. Is there any updates that you'd like to give from the steering committee meeting? No, I think I think we've got it. Then we're good. All right. And then at this point, I really did my chair's report because I did the steering committee and the strategic plan all into one. So I apologize for that. And I also talked about the upcoming human trafficking town hall meeting on the 22nd. However, since we have a couple of minutes, I would like for Dottie to be able to talk a little bit more about what's coming up on September 22, because it's phenomenal. Yes, and I hope all of y'all can plan on being there. There are flyers. Yes, flyers, and there's plenty on the table over there. There's also a trifold that our partner ABC event planning had created these flyers. There's a few of them over there. We were at a South Tampa Chamber event yesterday promoting it. There seemed to be a lot of interest in folks coming. We really want individuals there who really don't know much about human trafficking, but it's hard to kind of filter out those folks. But that's what we really are hoping that there'd be people in the community neighborhood associations, neighborhood folks that want to just learn a little bit about the reality of human trafficking. It's not necessarily a kidnapping or snatching off the street, although that could happen, but typically doesn't here in the United States. But for them to understand what it really is, and then they understand what it is, signs to look for, and then what to do with that information. So those are the three key things that we really want to emphasize in the Don't Buy It campaign town hall. We're hoping that Thaddeus Bullard, AKA Titus O'Neil, who has been our spokesperson, can make a brief appearance. But I think he's still out of town. I'm not sure. But if he does, wonderful. If not, we will be showing his PSA that he did for us just a few months ago. So he's uh, he's very much supportive of the work that we do. But getting down, I'll just go step by step briefly with what the night is going to look like. At 4 30, the doors are going to open. So the doors will open. People who have registered on Eventbrite, because although the event is free, we do require registration just so we can know that we're not going to pass capacity or or even for the snacks that we're going to provide. Um, so the doors open and sharply at five o'clock. We need to start at five. The Children's Board is so gracious to lend us that space, but they close at six o'clock. So they're extending their time and their staff to us to be available to stay until seven. So we need to wrap up and get out of there as quickly as possible. Um, there'll be a welcome in introductions. Um, commissioner Cepeda has graciously after me being a pest, um, has graciously agreed to with Connie make opening remarks. So Connie will open it and uh, commissioner Cepeda will make whatever wonderful remarks that she is going to make. And then I'll make some brief remarks kind of laying out, you know, the lay of the land for the evening. And then we'll have a human trafficking 101 training. Very high level view because it's only a half an hour. Now certainly we can talk about everything human trafficking in a half an hour, not. Um, but it'll be a very high level view really focusing on what is human trafficking signs to look for in the community. And then what do you do with that information? And we have a survivor leader who will be presenting that human trafficking 101. Um, then after that we will go in that we will have and before the panel we'll show that 30 second PSA of Titus O'Neil. Um, and then we'll have a Q and A after that and what we would like to do with the Q and A, because we've done a lot of these events and many times you get some really interesting questions. Um, so we feel like having individuals write their questions down, give it to a designated person or in a designated place and have someone read those questions for the Q and A might be a most time expedient way of doing things and also to guarantee that there won't be any questions that might not be appropriate. Um, so after the Q and A we'll do a wrap up with next steps, the action call to the community, which basically will take this information and share it with your, your neighbors, uh, put the human trafficking, uh, hotline numbers in your phone so you're ready to roll. It's not if you see something, it's when you see something. As y'all all know, Florida's third in the nation for the reported, highest reported cases of human trafficking in Tampa is the second block is the second city in the state of Florida with the highest reported cases. So, um, it's happening right here, right under our noses and our community needs to know what signs to look for and what to do with that information. So that is pretty much what the night will look like. Um, we have a lot of registrants already. Um, I think over 90, um, I think do you have the latest? Just under 90. Just under 90. Okay. And we still have a few more days to go and, and to push it out, but. And, uh, vice chair that also includes, uh, we were asked to, um, even if we're staff members, board members, uh, the panelists to go ahead and register so that we will have a log of everyone who is in the room and you know what the audience looks like. So we know how many are educated about human trafficking and how many are not, um, or from the general public. So if you do plan on coming, Detective Aguilar, you're on the panel, please register. So, um, uh, so with that numbered being just under 90, that includes myself. Yeah, I read the chair and vice chair have already registered. Um, a few other members, um, have already registered. So of the general public, I probably say we're hovering about 80. Okay. And, and that's, that's good. We still have a few days. There's going to be some, um, media promotion of this Tampa Bay 28. We'll be doing, um, story, maybe some interviews, um, on Monday, I do believe. Um, so I think it's getting a lot of traction and we're excited. Even the, the human trafficking 101, uh, half hour training, we'll be utilizing the don't buy it campaign with all the, the messaging and all of that, that, uh, FKQ created for us. So it'll be a great way to show the community what the don't buy it campaign is and how they can get involved to help bring resolve to this issue in our community. Yes, Lisa. And if I may, probably most people sitting around this table and people listening are on Facebook and or Instagram. Please go to the don't buy it Tampa Bay page on either Instagram or Facebook, uh, follow the page so that there's engagement. We need to build because it's fairly new. We need to build an audience on both of those platforms and the event is listed on both of those platforms. So if you could share out the event to your friends, neighbors, family members, business associates, so that we have as many people in the room who need to hear this information, who've never heard it before. Um, so social media is one of those things where, you know, it, once it gets out and builds momentum, it can snowball. And I know some of you have quite a presence on social media. I'm not going to say who I'm looking at right now. But, um, so if you want to spread that around, that would be great. And I want to give a shout out to to the crisis center. Um, because I think most of us have learned over the years giving this kind of information many times will trigger individuals who might not realize that maybe they were or are a victim or they know someone and it just clicks all of a sudden. So the crisis center will be there. Um, Shayla and maybe some other, um, individuals who can handle crisis management. If there's anyone who might want to speak with somebody, there'll be a quiet room available to at the children's board for, for that as well. So we appreciate that. Shayla very much. Um, I was going to say one other thing and it went out of my head as soon as it popped into my head, but I think we're, we're on track, um, to have a great community event. So, oh, I know what it was. Um, I know we want to highlight organizations in the community. We might not have time to verbally list each one or say each one, but if your organizations can bring collateral, bring material to have on a community table, we are going to invite one of the action steps at the end is to invite them to go talk to someone in these organizations and get involved. You know, pick an organization that resonates the most and get involved. So bring your, bring your material to, to place on the community table. Any questions? Any input? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Vice Chair Grover Skipper. That was awesome. And it's going to be just an incredible, incredible event. One of the areas that I would like to ask you to spread the word and spread the invite for Tuesday night is any youth groups 15 and older. Like that's where I've been spreading it because we want those kids. We want those parents to come in. We know it's early five to seven, but that's our target. Our target audience is right there. So if we could do that. Um, Lisa, when you come back staff report, please. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Detective Aguilar. I believe you know what you're supposed to say. So go for it. I do. Um, basically just asked to kind of talk to everybody about the statewide shield operation. I'm sure many of you guys are aware of it, but it was an operation led by the Florida Department of Law enforcement last month. Uh, statewide. So, uh, span the entire state of Florida. Um, FDA lead partner with a lot of agencies throughout the state, including the sheriff's office here in the Tampa Police Department. Uh, it was basically an operation targeting missing juveniles. Um, essentially trying to locate them. We had a hub setup. Um, St. Joseph Hospital was kind enough to donate space to us. Uh, it was basically a place to bring juveniles after they were recovered, where we can get them in contact with case management, um, victim advocates, DCF employees, you know, uh, workers and that sort of thing. Uh, also at the hospital, they were able to get medical care, uh, testing from, you know, any sort of medical issues it might have. Uh, also there, they were able to get like showers, new clothing, food, a bunch of things like that. So I believe, uh, last numbers we recovered 163 kids total throughout the state of Florida with 46 of them being here in the Tampa area. Um, it's my understanding that the Tampa area, which consisted of Pinellas, Hillsborough and, um, uh, Pasco County, right? Yeah. Um, it's my understanding we recovered the most out of the state with the 46. Uh, I can tell you from personal experience, one of the miners that we located here in the city of Tampa was a human trafficking victim that we, uh, located in a hotel. Um, she was missing out of South Florida. So, um, did a lot of good work. There was some arrests made a couple, I guess, a couple of meetings ago, we talked about funding and law enforcement operations. The reason I'm bringing this up is at the time it wasn't able to essentially discuss what that operation was, but some of the funds from our commission here were used to support that operation, uh, buying some needed supplies, a lot of which went to the, uh, the juveniles were recovered and stuff. So just wanted to thank everybody for voting for those funds. Uh, it was obviously helpful for a great, um, you know, for a great, for a great thing. Uh, this is an operation we've done in the last couple of years. I hope to do it again in the future. Uh, it's something that we have had a lot of success with that. We found a lot of, uh, need in the community, um, and a lot of support. So again, thank everybody. And if anybody has any questions about it, I'm here to answer. Thank you. Yeah. And I think, um, we will be briefly addressing that, um, at the town hall meeting. Yeah. It's actually one of your questions, detective. I didn't want to give that away. If you looked at the questions, yeah, it is actually one of the questions. And that brings me to this. There are going to be times such as the approval for the funds for operations statewide that we will be asked collectively as a board to approve something. And we do not have all the information and details as, as Lisa sent out a beautiful email and correspondence to us requesting our approval. She gave us just enough information that we knew. Oh, don't ask. Right. It's crucial for us to approve this. It's something that we do and we would support no matter what. So just know that it's possible something else could come up like this. And again, thank you so much for being very diligent and very, very quickly responding because we were on a time crunch. So again, thank you everyone for your quick response on that. At this time, uh, Lisa, would you like to give the staff report unless there's someone else? Well, that was part of it. Okay. So, um, the staff report, uh, for this month for this board meeting is really an overview of what you've done because we are at the end of our fiscal year, September 30th is the last day of, um, fiscal. So all of the projects for fiscal year 2026 have been done, completed, uh, funded. We have a few outstanding invoices that we're waiting to come in. Um, as you mentioned previously and as is in your packet, uh, seeing that some of the expenses would not be incurred or would be too close to the end of the fiscal year. I respectfully requested, um, management and budget to carry forward some of those funds into fiscal year 27. They were very gracious in doing so. So you can see that, uh, as the chair mentioned survivor ventures funding is being carried forward. Their contract runs through April of 2027. I think it's April 15th or 16th of 2027. So we will be able to fulfill the rest of the contract with the remaining funds. Uh, you also mentioned the, um, invitation that it was out from procurement for the government training. That will take place after the, uh, 60 days. They have a, a, a requirement to, uh, execute the training 60 days after the award is made. We received 14 separate, um, proposals and procurement is going through those proposals. They start at the lowest bidder and work their way through each bid. Uh, they are doing their work before it comes to me to look them over to make sure that the people who bid are qualified to perform the service. So that's the process that we're in right now. Any deficiency in documents that the bidder did not supply during the, um, the open, uh, uh, bid process, they have five days to cure that. So procurement as they are going through the documents, if something is missing, they will contact the vendor and say, you have five days to supply us the documents that were not, uh, submitted and are required. So that's procurement's, uh, a job and that's what they're doing right now. Could I ask a question? I know we've talked about it before, but, um, um, what part are we able to play in helping to select the right vendor? Because this is a training that needs to be the right organization. And I have discussed that with procurement and they understand that there, there isn't really, there isn't an avenue for a citizen to participate in the government procurement process. Um, as the administrator, I can offer my, uh, I'm listed as a reviewer. I'm the secondary reviewer. Procurement has an employee that's the primary person. So after her name is Maria. So after Maria reviews for all of the documents, if they have complied with all of the, the documentation that is required, she will send it to me. Then I can either go back and say, no, these folks are not qualified based on what they have submitted because procurement is just looking to check the boxes, you know, of everything. They have the insurance, they have, you know, all of those technical, all of those technical things. And then it comes to me to, to, to look over the more nuanced features, you know, have they provided this type of education before? How long have they been doing this? Do they have the staff to cover the number of sessions in the days that we have allotted? Can they do it within the timeframe? Because we have to, one of the trainings has to be on a Wednesday because that's an in-service training day for one of the departments. So if they can't do it on a Wednesday, the, you know, in the, in the 60 day time period that they have, then they aren't going to be qualified. So there, there are nuances that I would weigh in on. How, how is that different from, let's say an example, survivor ventures, when they were chosen, there was an ad hoc committee from us, from the commission that looked at those and made help to make the selection. How is this process different from that? So this was, this is an ITB, which is an invitation to bid. So it goes out as an open call, let's say the RFP. And I am by no means, I might call on someone else for help here, because I am by no means an expert in this. An RFP is a, RFQ, I'm sorry, is what we did with survivor ventures contract. That is a request for qualifications. So it's a much more in depth process. The bid document, I think, I don't know, is somewhere upwards of 60 or 70 pages for that. Okay. A group of people are selected to be on the committee. Member Petrolak was on the committee and Major Bauman was on the committee. Major Bauman served as chair of that committee. I was just an observer. I was only there to answer questions that they might have. One of our other staff members, Director Rucker, Felicia Crosby Rucker was also in that process. So that is a much more involved process. It was a lot more money. That was $100,000 process. And this is 20,000. We have allotted 20,000. That doesn't mean we're going to spend the 20,000. If a company is qualified and they bid under 20,000, we will go with, you know, maybe less, we will spend less than 20,000. Okay. That helped to clarify. Thank you. I hope I did everything right. And if procurement is watching, they can chime in and correct me at any time. Management budget, anything to correct me about? Okay. Good. Good job. All right. So, um, we also have the direct award, uh, for the, um, the town hall. I asked for that money to be carried over to 2027 because the, since the event is on the 22nd, and we have already passed all of our deadlines for submitting invoices. Um, that's why I carried that over to 27. Um, and then we had a whopping $1,250 of unencumbered funds. That was what was left after you have all decided what projects you wanted to spend money on. So I pushed that, um, pushing the envelope a little bit, but I, uh, I asked for that to be, um, carried over to 2027 as well. Mm-hmm. So in addition to the aforementioned $267,000 that the commissioner mentioned, um, this money, uh, $111,250 will also be in 2027's budget. That being said, it's already allocated to other projects. Um, at this point, along those lines, if Heather Cazola could, uh, speak to the Children's Network of Hillsborough County because their contract is also a little bit different, and they also might have funding that is not, uh, fully spent in 2026. Heather? Yeah, absolutely. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Heather Cazola with Hillsborough County Children's Services, um, and I oversee the contract that the commission currently has with the Children's Network of Hillsborough County. Um, so the way that ours, their invoices don't come in until the 20th, so I don't have August numbers yet that are locked in. Um, so I will get those and you guys will have those at the next meeting for the, um, August and September. So this is just through July. Um, we started the contract in February of this year, so it wasn't a full year. Um, but by the time we got it and got everything approved, it started in February. So this data is through July. Um, they have currently, what we have left originally, it was $100,500. And, um, they have spent through July, uh, $57,899. So have $42,600. I know it sounds like a lot, but they're, we've got, um, a lot of big, um, ticket things that are to come in in our August and September numbers. Uh, one of the things that we weren't sure with the youth stipend, um, you know, that one is a little harder to measure if you're able to utilize it based on the youth that we have, um, that were being served, our human, um, trafficking victim youth that they're serving. Uh, they have currently into, uh, July, they have spent, they had, um, let's see, $21,600 for that budget item and they had spent $13,370. I did get their rough numbers for August. Um, and so in August they're going to invoice $3,586, which would leave them with just over $4,500 in September. So they should be spending down that stipend. So there shouldn't be a whole lot that's left over from that stipend line. The other lines are their training and their advertising, which kind of come in blocks. So I do expect that they'll spend the majority of the training and the, uh, and the advertisement. So really it was that youth stipend one that we weren't sure if all of that was going to be spent. So we may have a little bit left in that, but it doesn't look like it'll be a large percentage of that left. So I'll make sure that you guys have all of those updated numbers as they come in for August and then into September. Um, with that, just to let everybody kind of know some additional numbers, um, the youth that have been served underneath this contract, we've had 10 community youth and nine youth that are in the foster care system. So a pretty good even spread across, um, both community and youth that are in our dependency system that have been served through the program. And then the only other thing that I have is, um, I do want to thank again, the commission for the funding for the supplies for the operation. Um, we were able to put together some really wonderful things that the kids could have when they are brought to the hub. So when they come in, they have their own personal space, um, sheets that are nice, bright colors and things that they can take with them when they leave. Um, just, you know, whether it be a little teddy bear, a little trinket, a fidget things, just something that really is that calming environment for them. And then of course, um, snacks, our kids, you know, when they get in, they want to take a nap, they want to take a shower and they want to eat. So yes, the, the chicken fingers are the biggest hit there at St. Joe's. Um, but being able to have all of that for them, you guys were able to make that possible. So we really appreciate, um, just being able to provide that for the youth as they were coming in so that it's a very comfortable environment after they've been recovered. Uh, and so that we spent just over $2,000 in supplies. So any questions? All right. Thank you guys very much. Thank you, Heather. Um, I also wanted to speak a little bit. Um, I'll ask Misty to elaborate, but, uh, we did, we, you did fund the board of County commissioners did fund the hotel outreach project, uh, that was led by, uh, soap, which is the name of, uh, a nonprofit organization and, uh, managed by sale of freedom. They had 147 site visits, uh, 129 of those were hotels and motels, 18 were restaurants and, uh, that was over six states. Staff accepted soap or wipes during 106 of the 125 hotel and motel visits where they were offered. Um, and that's 85% of them resource folders were accepted, um, by 93% of them, which was, uh, 114 of the 123 site visits. So that was also, um, very, uh, successful, at least in my eyes. Misty, would you like to elaborate? Hi, Lisa. Yeah, we had a great event that we did. Um, a lot of different community partners got together. We had people even from way down in Sarasota from the hospital there that came up to do the event. Um, Teresa did a great job on presenting on the purpose behind the soap project and her personal story and then really we broke into teams after labeling the soaps and the wipes and went out to the various hotels to educate the hotel front desk on signs of human trafficking as well as to share various missing children's posters. Um, we did have some material left over because as Lisa mentioned earlier we only had about 50 volunteers or Connie I think you had mentioned that so we did have some that were left over that our teams did a couple of additional outreach dates. Um, where we went out even Tony went with us on one of them with one of his partners so that was really fun to be able to go out and educate the hotels motels and give them the materials. And we want to thank the Hotel Motel Association. Um, so, so, um, member Aguilera supplied the venue space and breakfast for our volunteers so thank you very much to the Hotel Lodging Association. I forgot you changed your name. You changed your name. I'm sorry. I'm old school. Um, so, you also funded, um, a few other things. Uh, we did a bus tour early in the year with the, um, Detective Aguilar. You're a busy guy. He was, he was there for that as well on one of the buses. We had HCSO, uh, Detective, uh, uh, Daniels and Major Bauman on the other bus and we had a variety of, uh, elected officials from both the city and the county and some, uh, high level staff members, some directors who, uh, were on, uh, that tour. So I think that was, uh, uh, eye opener and probably looking forward to doing that again, um, in the, in maybe January, February timeframe. We, um, had also the one more child loft 181, which management and budget Rob Parkinson spoke about at the, um, steering committee meeting. So most of you heard how successful that is. Uh, he also offered an invitation for a field trip to go visit loft 181. So we could see, uh, you can see the, the work that they're doing, um, and, and get some joy out of, uh, this, uh, usually very heavy, uh, subject that we discuss here. Uh, the Seminole, um, heights ministerio mujeres restoradas por Dios. I'm sure I said that wrong. Uh, project is also ongoing. Uh, you funded that, uh, there are a lot of human trafficking victims who visit that location just because of where it is, uh, and receive dental services, medical services, um, and counseling services or just resources, food, those kinds of things. Uh, so that funding is in process. Uh, the homeless and community services department is managing that for us. So thank you to them. Uh, none of this would be possible without the partnerships we have with other departments. We have here at the table, healthcare services. So thank you to healthcare services for being here, management and budget in criminal justice grants program, children's services, of course. Um, I'm getting lots of help from, uh, human resources, our training director who you've met before. Jacqueline, um, is helping with the government training that will happen, uh, towards, I don't know, probably November time frame. Uh, that'll be open to the departments of Hillsborough County that are front facing. So we're looking at, uh, animal control, code enforcement, public works, uh, waste management, all of those departments who have what we call eyes on the street. Uh, so she will be handling the registration for that process. Uh, that's the, that's the ITV that we talked about a minute ago. Um, she's going to, uh, handle the outreach to the departments and all of that. So thank you to, uh, all of the departments across Hillsborough County who make the work of the commission on human trafficking possible. I just want to say, I, I ran into our awesome tax collector in the lobby on the way up here and she wants, she wants all of the tax collectors offices across the state of Florida to be trained in this. So, you know, I just wanted to bring that up. I don't know, you know, if her office has been trained, but you know, tax collectors office might be interested in being a part of that. I have no idea, but she's, she's, she's very interested. Chair Rose and I, uh, met with the property appraiser's office, uh, right now is their busy season as is the tax collector, as you all could well imagine. So once they get through their busiest part of the year, then they would be open to having their employees trained. So we could talk about that for 2027 and maybe budget funds for training for those agencies. But when we talked to them, they were like, there's no way in we could expend any personnel, um, during that, during this, you know, October, November, December timeframe. Um, so we also, uh, replenish the phones, the emergency phones at the crisis center. So that, um, is a resource that all of the law enforcement agencies use to keep in touch with victims. Once their phones have been confiscated for, um, for their, uh, inspection detect them, not using the right word for evidence. There we go. Uh, that's the word I was looking for. Um, and I think that covers about everything that you have been doing. Um, survivor ventures has run into some issues. So there might be some, uh, there might be a possibility you might want to amend the contract. That's a very arduous process. I'm not sure if you're going to want to do that. We can talk about that at the steering committee because the number of days are, they are limited to five unless they clear it through me and I make an exception where they can service a client for more than five days. And really that's not enough time. Survivor ventures to their credit have been taking on an additional 20 to 30 days of housing for these clients at their own expense. So when someone shows up on their doorstep, they're, or they're contacted, they don't say no, they take the person in. And, um, I've got some success stories, uh, barring time. I can share them offline with anyone who's interested, but, um, they're doing a great job. They just can't, you know, the, the five days just isn't enough. And we knew that, but we also, we did, but this was emergency housing. This wasn't long. Transitional. Right. Right. And so we knew we were kind of in a catch 22 doing this, but again, we were looking just at how do we do that emergency housing. Right. You know, right then and there. And it speaks to the need for transitional housing that really is there. It's so limited. They don't want to put somebody out on the street because there's nowhere else for them to go. Right. Right. And then the issue is if we amended the contract to expand it, even half the time, even at given say an additional 10 days, like meet them halfway with what they're already doing 30 days. It's still right. One, it's still an issue to what would, what would it really take for us to do that? And would it solve anything? And we'd run out of money really fast. Yeah. We, we, we'd go through the money much faster. Exactly. Right. We would go through it very fast. So I think we would have to err on the expertise of law enforcement and folks that are out there really utilizing this, you know, along with survivor ventures, if we wanted to have a conversation about amending the contract. And, and maybe have a conversation about additional beds. I mean, that's, that's goes back to state legislation. Um, it goes back to a lot of, um, grant writing, you know, finding funds elsewhere because the county, especially with amendment three looming, um, in the background of all these discussions, we don't know how much money we are going to have in our budgets for next year. Right. Which does lead me to this United Way, Pasco County did get their housing grant. So, you know, a few years ago they had a phenomenal, phenomenal housing grant. And then, you know, they reapplied and they didn't get it. You know how that works with, with federal grants or any kind of grants. Um, but they were awarded another housing grant. So know that that is out there. We can get you all the information and connect you with Ben. Um, but he sent out a message about three or four weeks ago, I believe, letting us know that he was back with United Way, Pasco and that they have this phenomenal, um, housing grant. So what I'm also wondering is might be stepping over the lines here. Um, could we connect you to United Way, Pasco County and Survivor Ventures? I don't know. Anything is possible. It's just that we cannot spend Hillsborough County tax dollars in another county. That I know, but they can spend, but the reason I mentioned it. Yes. But the reason I mention it is because United Way, Pasco, their grant is for all over the state, the entire state. So it's not about us as much as it is about them being able to help serve our survivors that we serve. Yeah, we can discuss partnerships. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Okay. Perfect. Anything else, uh, Lisa? That's all I have. That's all you got. Do we have any old business? Anyone have any old business before we dive in? Um, SOS ministry, St. Paul's Catholic Church. You have an event coming up, uh, on the 19th. We do. We have our, my gosh, I'm embarrassed to say it. I don't know if it's the 9th or 10th. I'm Alex Petrolak, by the way. What did I, did I call you someone else? No. Okay. I'm just reintroducing myself to hear my name. He's saying his name for the record as I requested. Thank you. I appreciate it. I tried to abide, but yeah, we're having our, I think it's our 9th or 10th annual, uh, tea luncheon, uh, this, this coming week. Uh, if you know Brent Witte and Pamela Witte, they will be the recipients of our second annual hero of the, of the year award. Last year was, uh, uh, as it should be, uh, was, uh, Sheriff Chronister. Uh, if it doesn't begin with law enforcement, it begins nowhere. But anyway, we're having that, uh, that luncheon this weekend. I wish I could tell you, we'd like to invite you to come, but it's sold out, which I'm, I'm really happy to tell you that. So thank you for the plug. Of course. I love it. I'm sorry that I'm missing it, but I'm going to do mother of the bride stuff in Denver. So hello. Um, all right. Well, I would like to, is there any other old business? Yes. Yes. Okay. So if you have, I guess, would this be considered a new business then? Great. Okay. So sorry. Um, Gonzalez. Um, so this will be, um, the second time that we will be doing this event, but on July 24th, myself and some representatives with the spring at Tampa Bay, as well as the Harrell center at USA for the study of family violence and our human trafficking advocate with FDLE, we presented on the intersection between domestic violence and human trafficking. Um, it was a webinar on July 24th and we had, I want to say over a hundred registered at once, which was really nice. So a lot of folks were really interested in that one was, um, geared more towards our client facing folks, but we are going to be doing a part two to this event in person at the university of South Florida, their Tampa campus on October 14th, from 3 30 to 5 30 PM. And so this will be specifically for our college students, but it is open for the community. So anyone can attend in that sense. And so, um, Lisa was so sweet. She printed out the flyer, so it has all of the registration information there. So absolutely please feel free to come on out. Um, and yeah, no, we're excited. Thank you. I was going to actually do that in new business, so I don't have to do that now. So thank you. You incorporated old and new all in together much, much appreciated. Absolutely. Yeah. Right there. Yes. Um, so the last meeting we had here, um, the organization, um, that we had nonprofit that was speaking here lighthouse, uh, just wanted to, in case you all didn't catch it or they didn't mention it. Um, it's a year and a half residential program. So if you know anyone that has, uh, addictions, they do allow them to stay there for free at no cost at all. So just in case you didn't catch that, um, cause a lot of places are not like that. So, um, I think that was really awesome. And because most people that do have addictions are usually in that situation that they do not have the funds, you know, too. So that's really awesome in case you didn't know that about lighthouse. Thank you. And it's in river view off 78th street. Thank you. And if anybody needs, um, that information, they can contact me and I'll share, uh, pastor Samuel's information with them. Thank you, commissioner. Thank you, commissioner. That was really great information for us to know. Thank you so much. One more time, any other old business before we roll into new business? Yes, Lisa. Oh, I thought you were. Okay. So I do, we have some flyers over there and I do want to let you know that last year start a new, um, from Jones Day was came through, um, Hillsborough County, October the 8th. They are coming back Friday, October the 16th. They actually pulled together several survivor leaders to get input about what worked and what didn't work. So it's new and expanded, um, did a great job. Uh, so we do have some flyers over there. This is really an invitation for all of you to come as your organizations. You can register, reach out to them, say, Hey, if you don't already have a table, et cetera, whatever, you're welcome to do that. But also for you to invite your clients, et cetera, to come or just to stop by and say hi. It's a little bit different than a traditional awareness event that we all go to because it incorporates sexual violence, domestic violence, and human trafficking. They really gear it to the survivor community and it's all about resources. We're used to resources, but they bring in some different resources that we all traditionally don't bring in. You know, so for instance, FDLE is there and they're there, not just driver's license, but Florida ID, right? And so there are some folks there again that we traditionally just don't, maybe we interact with them, but in a different way and they aren't traditionally at our awareness events. So there's flyers over again, there again, it's, um, October the 16th and it's at the Hillsboro County Bar Association, literally right, right down the street, you know, on Tampa street. And then this is really cool. So a lot of, you know, truckers against trafficking. Yes. Right. Um, so Trevor truckers against trafficking has partnered with quality carriers and there's a gentleman by the name of Bruce that has recently moved down from Connecticut that works for quality carriers. And he reached out to me yesterday because quality carriers and truckers against trafficking are having a phenomenal event. November the 18th, um, at the convention center, they actually have a truck. So truckers against trafficking have these huge semis that are almost like human trafficking museums. They're phenomenal. Yes. And they have a driver for quality carriers that's driving out Arizona, I think, or Colorado apologize. Don't remember which and bringing the truck here for the November 18th event. So again, you can RSVP, you can reach out to him directly. You can find out more information. How can your organization be part of it, but also attend the event and spread the word. He asked, could we spread the word to other organizations? Um, he's new here. So if we could really help spread the word, but we all know truckers against trafficking also. And I know you probably know quality carriers and CRX, um, but truckers against trafficking, they were here in June, excuse me, in June and did a community event. Several of us were there at that community event. So just wanted to let you know that again, there's flyers, um, over on the side table. That is all that I have, um, for new business. Anybody else have anything else for new business? I do. Go right ahead. I do. Um, earlier this morning, I got a phone call from Liana Dean, who I've known a lot of us have known her for many, many years. She is the chair of the Pasco Human Trafficking Commission and she just wanted to get our not our permission, but she wanted to give us a heads up that the Pasco Human Trafficking Commission has created a big campaign for January on human trafficking and sextortion that, um, is going to be aired these little video snippets. I think that's what they are. They're going to be aired and, um, you probably, well, they, they're not quite sure, but they want to air it at USF in Pinellas County and they also want to air it at USF in Hillsborough County. And she said the Pasco County Human Trafficking Commission does not want to step on our toes. So would we be okay with them showing their video snippets at USF in Tampa? And I said, I'm perfectly okay with it, but I will ask the commission, the commission because you're having a commission meeting tomorrow. It's my opinion, just to get the information out, you know, who gets the credit. I don't think that really matters. If, if the information is going out to, uh, a targeted group of people that need to know the information. But I thought I'd do my due diligence and throw it out to the commission. Uh, this would be, I think sometime in January is when they want to do this. And I will say that our don't buy it campaign, speaking of partnerships, came from the Pasco County Human Trafficking Commission. So they have been very generous in partnering with us, allowing us to use the same don't buy it. Um, they did don't buy at Pasco. We're doing don't buy at Tampa Bay. Um, but, but they've been a great partner already. So I just wanted to, to give you a heads up if there's any opposition to it. Um, let's, let's talk about it. No opposition. I think it's great. My only question would be back to Leanna is, are they having an event around that? And if they are, can we come to the event and promote, um, also the Hillsborough County Commission on Human Trafficking? Yeah. That might, would be my only question back to them because here's the other part about this partnership. We, they were gracious enough to give us all their bylaws, how they structured the Pasco County Commission on Human Trafficking. We are basically, we are exactly how they are. We are structured very differently, but we are modeled after them. You know, so again, it, there are partners in so many things that we do collectively, right? So that would be my question back. Yeah, I, if they do, I'm sure that there would not be an issue with us being there, but certainly I will do, you know, the respect and, and throw that back to her. So, um, and she also was asking if we had any, um, not anxiety might not be the right word, but concerns with amendment three that we might not be funded our commission. Um, so, so we might need to, we can't really speak to that here. Okay. Yeah. All right. Well, nevermind. Um, yeah, just because it is a political issue and we refrain from, uh, expressing opinions. Um, I did mention that it may affect our budget, but, um, whether for or against, uh, discussion. Oh, I would not say for it. That's not what I was asking at all. I didn't want you to go there. No, I was not. No, no, no. Everybody's got their own opinions and I know that would not be appropriate, but she's concerned that it might impact our budget as their budget and then that would give us greater, um, opportunity and motivation maybe to do more partnership with them. Sure. So that's where I was going with that. Yeah. Well, and that actually dovetails it to something that I neglected to say when I went through all the projects is that, um, we can't thank FKQ marketing enough for the work that they've done, um, over the years. Uh, however, going into 2027, we can't continue to fund FKQ's marketing campaign, the don't buy it campaign, your campaign, um, because there just won't be the money for it. That will wipe out your entire budget for 2027, if we were to maintain that level. So we will be looking for partnerships, how that, you know, comes to be. I'm not quite sure yet. FKQ said they will work with us on a more, um, uh, restrained budget. Some of the collateral that they have out there, like the heart buses and, and the Uber's, uh, wraps, the car wraps, those things carry forwards past the end of the fiscal. That'll probably run into December, in some cases even January. Um, but a lot of the, you know, the billboards, a lot of the electronic billboards will go away. What we have running at the airport will go away, um, because those things are all paid for. And, um, once their contract ends, once the, their agreements with these other outlets end, we have to start anew, um, because that's all paid media and we won't be able to afford the paid media in 2027. So they, they're going to get creative and we're going to figure out, you know, what we can do. Um, but partnerships, um, but even, even the webpage is hosted by FKQ. Um, so, uh, we're going to have to have some serious discussions at the August 20th Steering Committee meeting. You mean October 20th? October 20th. I said August. You know why I said, you know why I said August? Because that's what it says on the, uh, uh, on the agenda that I preached. Yes, I understand because I did September 17th and I was reading. I mean, I mean the October meeting. Sorry. It's okay. It's been, it's, it's been a month. It has. So that brings us back to the need for our friends of the commission on human trafficking so that we really can create and develop that. I know we have been talking about and talking about it, but at the steering committee, meaning we really got to dive into this so that we can figure out how to have money and, and create those public private partnerships. They're out there. People will want to work with us. I'm sure there are people that are out there and have said, wow, how can we? But we don't have a vehicle, a way for them to really financially, you know, partner with us. And that will, that will take some time. I mean, if I were to ballpark it, that'll probably take the better part of a year to get, to get established. Okay. Well, we've been talking about it for a year and a half. Also has to go before the board of county commissioners for approval. So it may, it may, you may do all that work and they still might say no. Um, but we're going to have to figure out some partnerships and some ways to make your work continue with partners taking the lead and your being an advisor to that partner. Okay. So that'll keep you, those kinds of things will keep you going. And those of you in the business community, those of you who are in the private sector, um, need to, um, talk with, um, the commission members, commission on human trafficking members to see how that could work. So we may want to look at inviting some of those folks to the table, um, instead of having guest speakers from within the community, the community of human trafficking, have some outside the community need to have those conversations. Could we hope I'm just thinking outside the box here, um, host some kind of a round table for business partners? Absolutely. Because part of it would be, this is who the, this is who the commission on human trafficking is. These are the initiatives that we have over the last X amount of years. Um, and this is human trafficking basically 101, even if we use what we're doing on, on, uh, Tuesday night, cause it's, you know, 30 minutes, right? Um, give them just some basics cause we don't want to just assume, oh, because they have a passion for this. They know because we know different, right? We know better and we can do better. Absolutely. I mean, you know, the conference, the conference rooms here at County Center are abundant and we can find space, uh, here. I know Visit Tampa Bay has offered their, uh, conference space. Um, there is conference space at Tampa General Hospital that, I mean, there are, there's, there are lots of places, um, even the Tampa Chamber has a conference space. There are lots of places around town where the business community is familiar with going that could host those kinds of things. I mean, you could even talk to the center club, the Tampa club. Right. Oh, I'm sure space wise, it's really about us brainstorming. Well, I mean, to get their members involved. Oh, I, yes. Okay. They have, they have a membership base, um, that is made up of all of the business, not all of the business community, but major corporations have memberships at those clubs, those private clubs. Um, there's even one, I can't remember the name of it on Bayshore Boulevard, um, that, I mean, you could talk to them and talk to their members. So all of those things can be done. Absolutely. And at the steering committee, we can dive into that as well in October. Okay. Thank you. I do have a comment. Sorry. I'm going back to your, um, comment about the, uh, Pasco Commission human trafficking, uh, Port Tampa Bay would be glad to take any snippets and, uh, put those on our, uh, video boards at the cruise terminals, et cetera. So I think it's a great idea to, uh, to work with them on that. And, uh, so whatever the most awareness and education we can do, the better, you know, whatever we can do for that, but we'll be glad to do that. Absolutely. Just continue, uh, connect her with us and we'll, uh, continue that process, especially if we run out of funding here, we'll continue to air any videos we have from FKQ or posters and things of that. If I may, uh, having a little bit of experience with friends of type of organizations, might it make some sense to, uh, maybe get a handful of, of champions, people we know that are business people in the community, uh, who we already know would be open to this and get their insight before we had a very general meeting to see how best to kind of articulate the issues and who they might think would be, would be really appropriate. It just always seems to streamline things. That said, one question, uh, having mentioned the tea luncheon and having this event on the 22nd and the tea luncheon on the 19th, I have a captive audience of 250 people at 35 tables. Can I get at least 35 of those brochures to put at the table? Which ones, the don't buy it, this one? If it, I can print them up, Alex. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Great. Thank you, Alex. Alex, can I, well, I don't want to embarrass you. Good. Will you be wearing a pink hat? A dervy hat? I've opted not for the pink hat anymore. I wore a pink beret the year before last and I've never worn, you know, never be able to live it down. So no more pink hat. I want the pink cowgirl hat. Maybe. Just curious. Okay. One thing that just came up for me that some of you sitting around this table might be concerned about with friends of commission on human trafficking and reaching out to key business people is that these might be some of your key funders. I realize that and I respect that, right? Um, so maybe you go past that key funder and you go to someone else that you're like, you know, they're a great individual. They have a heart, they have a passion, but you don't have to worry about anybody else. Your board's coming back to you and saying, what are you doing? You know, we get that. We understand that. But at the end of the day, if you could maybe start putting together some kind of a list and Lisa, sorry to put this on you, but do you mind sending out, um, some kind of an email to all of us? Just a gentle reminder, you know, for the friends of the commission on human trafficking, start thinking about some key players out in the community that you could make it part of the agenda for the steering committee meeting for October. But I would like also folks that aren't part of the steering committee, if they could contribute to the conversation. I'll send it to the home. You're talking about the commission on human trafficking membership. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. Okay. Sure. Yes. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Well, if there is not anything else at this time, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn today's meeting. Did you motion? Oh, you said you would make a motion. Oh, I didn't mean that. Yes. I'm not making the motion. I'm not allowed to go ahead. You're asking for it. Yes. I'm asking for a motion. Excuse me. Yes. Second of motion. All right. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passed. Thank you so much for an incredible meeting. Have a great day and a wonderful weekend and hope to see you on the 22nd.