CivicHillsborough County, FL › May 15, 2026

Public Safety Coordinating Council - 05.15.26

Hillsborough County, FL Board of County Commissioners May 15, 2026 12 minutes
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Transcript

Speaker5:46

Thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. I'm Susie Lopez. I'm the Hillsborough County State Attorney, and I'd like to call today's Public Safety Coordinating Council full council meeting to order. Will you please stand with me and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the United States of America and to the Republic, one nation. Thank you all very much. If we could start our roll call, please. Good morning. Good morning. Susie Lopez? Here. Judge Sabella? Here. Kimberly Hunman for Lisa McClain. Judge Perroni? Here. Sheriff Chronister? Colonel Robert, you're up for Sheriff Chronister. Nick Bates? Here. Mark Proctor? Victor Crist? Robert Parkinson? Here. Chief Burkaw? Eric DeFelice on behalf of Chief Burkaw. Donna Cameron Cepeda? Here. Deanne Obergine? Antoinette Hagley for Deanna Obergine. Yvette Lewis? Present. Naya Young? Amy Ruiz? Van Ayers? Kelly Hammersley? Present. Patrick Barentine? Here. Chief Daniel? Captain Keith Pippen in for Chief Daniel. Cindy Grant? Here. Representative Gonzales-Pittman? We have quorum. Thank you very much. I believe that everyone has had an opportunity to receive via email the minutes from the January 16th full council meeting. Does anyone have any questions or discussion as to those minutes? Mr. Bates, do you have a- Mr. Proctor, do you have a motion? Is there a second, Mr. Bates? All in favor? Aye. Thank you very much. As to old business, does anyone have any old business to address this morning? Seeing none, new business, Mr. Parkinson, my favorite topic. Absolutely. And for our viewing public, the PSCC has previously voted to support the Florida Department of Corrections Mobile Rancher Unit Project, utilizing this year's justice assistance grant funds. The MRU project is expected to enhance probation compliance rates and reduce recidivism, especially in the area of technical violations. The other Florida communities that have implemented the model have been able to reduce technical violations by about 27%, which for our circuit could mean a reduction of EOP cases in the proximity of about 1,500 cases per year. So we're all very excited about it. The model has also served to enhance jail and prison reentry collaboration across the state. Since the project included purchase and outfitting of a minibus, the partners had to seek DOJ and FDLE approval first. And we did receive that earlier this year. The status update so far as of this month is that on March 30th, the vehicle shell was officially ordered. On April 1st, the diesel platform was ordered from Ford. Upon chassis completion, it's going to be sent for marrying to the shell. Our current completion timeframe for the diesel platform, I'm sorry, for the bus, will be November 15th. And it is scheduled to be delivered on January 10th of 2027. I'd also like to add that since we've been working on this project, we've had a number of nonprofits, including agencies like A Brown Ministries, Inspire Program, that have reached out and want to discuss partnering for MPU deployment. And we've had additional discussion about having a major event once the bus comes so that we can make sure the community and all the stakeholders are aware of this new resource. We also plan to have Department of Corrections present at the Behavioral Health Task Force because we've had a number of behavioral task force organizations that have reached out and also want to partner with the MPU. And many of you are aware that the county received quite a bit of money from the opioid settlements, and that would be yet another avenue to deploy those opioid and substance abuse resources through the MPU van. So that is the status update. I just want to be sure to recognize Mr. Barentine, Mike Anderson, who's the FTC Regional Director, Deb McGinty and Eva Dyer from my staff who have been working so diligently to make this project come to fruition. Thank you very much, Mr. Parkinson. Does anyone have any comment or questions about that? And I would like the minutes to reflect that Mr. Christ has joined us while Mr. Parkinson was speaking. Does anyone else have any other business? Do we have any public comment this morning? Okay. There we go. Mr. Bates? Second by Mr. Proctor. Thank you very much. Everyone have a wonderful and safe weekend. We will move forward. All right, again, we will be talking about this. I will see you again. All right. We will see you again. All right. So you see you again. All right. All right. We will see you again. I will see you again.