Welcome on this nice sunny Tuesday morning, a little cooler, almost feels like a little bit of a cold front out there. I'd like to, well, you know, this morning on the news, Charlotte was 65 degrees, and I almost wanted to throw something to the TV, right? Yeah. So I'd like to call the August 5th, 2025 meeting of the Fennelles County Board of County Commissioners to order. And before we begin today, I would like to thank Deputy Mike Winnick and Deputy Jeff Atkinson for keeping us safe this morning. And if we could all please stand, I would also like to have a moment of silence to recognize Sergeant Greg Graff from the Fennelles County Schools Police Department, who recently passed away and his funeral is. Remain standing. The invocation will be led by Commissioner Scherr and followed by the pledge led by Commissioner. Dear Heavenly Father, we humbly ask for your guidance in all that is before us today. We thank you for the wisdom and many hours of service of our colleagues on this commission and the dedicated public servants who prepared today's agenda and who managed the daily fairs of our county. May our words be infused with grace and truth as we steward our responsibilities to the people of Fennelles County. We thank you for them and for each other. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I would like to ask David Vargas, President of the Fennelles County Veterans Association, to join me at the podium, please. We will be accepting the Purple Heart Day proclamation. So this is especially poignant this morning. On this past Saturday, we dedicated a stretch of Olmerton Road to Staff Sergeant Matthew Sitton, who was killed in Afghanistan on his third tour of duty on August 2nd, 2012. So the Purple Heart is the oldest military decoration still in present use and was initially created by George Washington in 1782. Initially, it was called the Badge of Military Merit. Purple Heart was the first American service award made available to the common soldier and awarded to any member of the United States Armed Services, wounded or killed in combat with a declared enemy of the United States. Pinellas County Veterans Association was created at the Palm Harbor Chamber of Commerce as an outreach to the veteran community by providing valuable resources and information to our local veterans. They held the inaugural Hero Fest on May 17, 2025, in downtown Palm Harbor, bringing together thousands of community members to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and to celebrate the veteran heroes among us. And 100% of the proceeds were donated back into the community. They established the Veteran Voices mission to ensure local veteran stories are not forgotten and shared with the community. They've also created spaces known as Walls of Honor throughout retirement communities, assisted living, and other medical facilities to memorialize and recognize our veterans. This year, the Pinellas County Veterans Association has worked to establish a Purple Heart Park in Palm Harbor, which is opening this summer. This park will be dedicated to those from our community who have made the ultimate sacrifice in giving their lives in the cause of freedom and the numerous combat wooden veterans who currently reside in Pinellas County. Now, therefore, it will be proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that August 7, 2025, be recognized as Purple Heart Day. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to say thank you. This one here. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to say thank you on behalf of the Pinellas County Veterans Association for this opportunity and recognizing our efforts and our actions. We believe in wholeheartedly to give back as much as we possibly can to all of us who are retired in the service, to give back and always maintain the reverence and the honor, to make sure everyone in the stands we stand on the shoulders of giants. So, once again, our Purple Heart Park, our memorial, just showed up yesterday. So, we do have the stone. It is sitting at Curlew Hills Memorial Center. And we're just looking to get the permits pushed through so we can finish the park this year. Thank you. We'll see if we can help you with those permits. And I would like to invite my fellow commissioners to come up for a photo opportunity. Thank you. We might know a guy. Hey, Chair. Chair, can I just make a comment real quick? Yes, go for it, Commissioner. Yeah, back in 2007, 2006-2007, a young man from a Purple Heart organization came forward. His name was Danny Souter. I always like to mention his name on August 7th. He felt that cities and counties around the country should be Purple Heart cities and counties. And at that time, he approached us at the city of Dunedin as the first one in the country. So, I was really excited about that until we found out little town in Wisconsin had created a Purple Heart city. So, we were second. But, anyway, he was just an incredible ambassador for the organization in that effort. And it really started with his coming, and we sat down after a Veterans Day and just talked for a couple of hours. And he just was, he was the leader in all of that. And it's, now you see them all over the county, all over the state and country. And it's just a testament to him. It had to start sometime, somewhere. So, thank you, Danny Souter. Yep, absolutely. Thanks for that. Okay, next we're going to celebrate National Water Quality Month. So, I would like to ask Drew Boylson and the Utilities Compliance Manager and Kristen Dyer, or Chemist, both with the Utilities Department, to please join me at the podium. Come on up. So, as serving on the Tampa Bay Water Board for a year, I can attest that water is our most valuable natural resource. And access to clean water is one of the most important human rights. Maintaining and improving water quality is essential to protect public health, quality of life, fisheries, wildlife, and watersheds. And to ensure abundant opportunities for public recreation and economic development. It is responsibility of the government and all citizens to provide and protect clean water for future generations. The Penny for Pinellas has supported more than 134 infrastructure projects to protect our waterways by removing pollutants to keep our lakes, our bays, and our gulf healthy, while enhancing our drainage systems, protecting our citizens from flooding, and preventing wastewater overflows. August is National Water Quality Month in the United States, highlighting efforts to encourage public awareness, involvement, and active participation in the protection and restoration of our water resources. Pinellas County encourages all citizens to seek opportunities to learn how they can participate in preserving water quality now and long into the future. Now, therefore, it be proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that August 2025 be recognized as National Water Quality Month. Thank you all very much for your time and this opportunity. Thank you very much for the recognition for us to be up here. You know, with water being our most precious resource, it's such a fantastic field to be in, and it really is awesome to be able to stand up here and kind of be the face of such an awesome organization. So thank you all very much, and we look forward to being the best face for our citizens and to bring the best customer service to our customers. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for that, and on behalf of myself and the entire board, thank you for everything that you do. And Jeremy, you and your team do a great job for the entire county, so thank you so much. So if my fellow commissioners could please join me for some photographs. Okay, next we are moving on to citizens to be heard. Okay. First of all, we have Brian Schneider. Please come on up. My name is Brian Schneider. I live about a half mile east of Countryside Mall. I've been retired for 18 months, and my primary form of recreation is to ride my e-bike, and I do that about 10 to 25 miles most days. On July 3rd, I was riding to Pinellas-Philippi Park via Enterprise Road, and Enterprise Road is not bicycle-friendly, so I was riding on the sidewalk on the north side of Enterprise Road. And between McMullen Booth and Philippi Park, I encountered six places where my progress was inhibited by overgrowth of vegetation. Four of those places I was able to get by bending down, and two of them, including one that you have in front of you, I had to drive around on the grass in order to get through. When I got home, I sent an email, and that resulted in the creation of service request 443035, and that was on July 7th. On July 17th, I called to follow up to find out about the progress of the service request, and I was told that progress was being made. And I inquired as to what that meant, and the woman told me that generally it takes two weeks for the arborist to investigate it before the work is assigned. And I asked a couple more questions, and then a woman asked if I wanted to receive a call with a follow-up, and I said that I did. And so about an hour later, I received a call from Drew McLean, who was a supervisor, very professional, very helpful. And I learned three things that disturbed me. Number one, he only has three crews for the whole county. Number two, most of his work is request-driven. And number three, they have no maintenance program to find things like what you see unless somebody reports them. And he said that he has some requests that are six months old that he hasn't had time to take care of yet. So I told him that I would attend this meeting and try to get him some additional staffing. As a retired person, I don't want to long-term have to ride around with a notebook writing down addresses where there's overgrowth of sidewalks and then have to come home and send e-mails so that the problem gets taken care of. So that's why I'm here this morning. Thank you, Brian. Could you just – what was that service number you were giving you? It's 444-3035, and I did ride through there on Sunday, and that one has been taken care of. I'm not real confident that it would have been had it not been from my phone call. And there were a couple places, including the one that you're showing in front of you, where it wasn't completely cleared. I don't know if the arborist said, we don't want to kill the bush, so only cut it halfway or whatever. But it's not completely clear, but it's a whole lot better than it was, and it's now passable. Okay. Thank you, sir. We appreciate it. Next is Greg Pound. Greg Pound, Largo, Florida. I want to speak on the issue of what's going on with our families. This is a sign I hold down at the beach. Just real quick, I don't need to go over it. I just want the people to see it. I have tons of young people, just like Sunday night and so forth. They come up, shake my hand. They totally agree with this stuff about sex outside of marriage, breeding, violence, and so forth. I want the people to know that Pinellas County leads the state in suicide. Every other county does suicide rent down. This county, the young people, the suicide rate has tripled, tripled in Pinellas County right today. And so we've got a moral problem, and it goes back to this county leading the way and pushing their homosexual agenda of LGBT upon the people of Pinellas County. And these are our youth, our young people, our next generation. And if something's not done, what we're doing is we're taking what's morally wrong and making it lawfully right. And we're bringing ourselves under judgment. Our children and so forth. Did you see in St. Louis where them two people were beat up by almost 100 people, them white people? And what happens is this is happening all over the United States. The white people are being attacked. They're being beat down, beat up, because of their moral standard. They have no morals. We've lost our moral code. We've rejected the word of God. This Bible, everything in this country was built on this Bible. 1 Corinthians 7.1 says it's not good for a man to touch a woman, but because of immorality, let every man have his own wife and every woman own husband. That's why it's improper for a man to reach his hand out to shake hands with a woman. If she extends her hand, then you put your hand out. But in proper etiquette, and all this is based on the Bible. When you study the word of God, these people who started this country were so based, biblically based. That's why we have the Constitution, our Bill of Rights. All of it has come from the word of God. Miss Justice was the church. The Statue of Justice, when it says here, this is from this Hillsdale College. I get this. I subscribe to them, and they send this to me. It says, the Silla U.S. Department of Justice reads, Quo pro deluam justua separa. And it's saying, it says, who prosecutes for Lady Justice? Lady Justice was the church, the body of Christ. That's why, that's what, that's what Christ is coming back, is for his church without spot or wrinkle. If we don't get our morals back, the Bible says sex outside of marriage will destroy. It breeds violence, and it breeds hate, and that's why we have destruction in our family. If we don't get back to abstinence until marriage, that's why you talk to the, go to the old, go to the nursing home and talk to these old people and ask them, how long did you date before you got married? Someone will tell you a month, two months. And they got married, and they never got divorced, because they lived by a moral principle that they, these are things we understood in our society. I mean, my mom and dad didn't, they weren't Christians, but they didn't get, they didn't have sex before they got married. They had eight children. They never got divorced. They stayed together, and that's what it was. They worked through things. Now we have a society that's totally falling apart with a suicide rate, but this county has pushed the, it's all coming down through the court system, through family court. There's a science behind it in social engineering. If you destroy the family, you got the father, the mother, the children, all stuck in the court system for the rest of their life. They're going to be in the system. The leader of the family is the father. The father has to be the one who has himself morally under control. No matter what happens, he has to stand the course, and he has to be the spiritual leader of his family. And if we don't get back to that as men, we're in trouble, men. The white man in America has turned his back on the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not reading their Bibles. They're not seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness and building their family on the Bible, the word of God. We don't get back to it. It's a history, and our leaders have sold us out. We're in trouble for money. Thank you, Greg. Next, we have David Ballard Geddes, Jr. Morning, David. Good morning, commissioners. Good morning, chairman, sir. David Ballard Geddes, Jr. I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. At the Water District meeting in Brooksville this past June, Mr. Dave Dickens again informed us to prepare for another possible hurricane, predicting that there is a high probability of another storm this hurricane season. Or, in my perception, is there more than an average chance that someone is going to modify the weather through cloud seeding, weaponizing the weather, ravaging the coastline, as written in the Declaration of Independence, in an actual act of warfare, as prepondered from Article I, Section 10 of our current Constitution. Chapter 6 of Maloney's Water Code, the largest chapter in this book, is devoted to weather modification operations. Published in 1972, the code references military possibilities, giving the example of Project Cirrus on October 13th in 1947, seeding a hurricane, changing the direction and intensity of the storm. In order to save face, indemnifying itself in an attempt to claim sovereign immunity, having no accountability, no liability, and no responsibility, holding harmless, the code promotes the use of the private sector, allowing third-party contractors, privateers, mercenaries, to conduct cloud seeding, to modify such storms, and such invasive war powers. The code employs large-scale techniques in climate alterations, such as artificial heating of the ground, using ultrasonic vibrations emanating from high in the upper troposphere, prioritizing uncertain experimentation to be at the top of their priority list, highlighting Florida in particular. The code initially grants exemptions from licensing, exempting permit requirements for extraordinary and particular unique weather modifiers, abrusting changing experimental technologies in weather modifying. The code appears to reject the criteria for the First Amendment, wanting to be protected from claims of malpractice, chronic, or wanton negligence thereof, as experimental weather modifications may potentially harm the inhabitants, hoping to catch us with our guard down and taking advantage of the lag time, moving faster than legislation can regulate statutory requirements. Thank you. Thank you, David. Okay, that concludes public comments, and now we're going to move on to our public hearing. So, item number four. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Agenda item number four is case number CW2503. This is a proposal by the City of St. Petersburg to amend the county-wide plan map from residential medium and preservation to office, residential medium, and preservation regarding 3.29 acres, more or less, located at Site 1, 4th Street North, east of 110th Avenue North, Site 2, northeast corner of 4th Street North and 108th Avenue North, and Site 3, northeast corner of 3rd Street North and Gandy Boulevard. The public hearing was properly advertised, and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk, and it matters properly before the authority to be heard. Okay, thank you. I do have one public comment card on this with Craig, and I'm going to apologize, Craig, if I don't get your last name right, Temeski? Temeski? Temeski. Okay, great. Thank you. All right. Yes, Commissioner. I just had one question for staff, whoever's doing it. Thanks. Good morning. Hey, Rodney. Thank you. So, two questions. Three properties interconnected on this development, moving all preservation to the northern piece. Mm-hmm. No issues. The one down on the south end looks a little bit distant from the project, so it's like almost a transfer of density, but transfer of preservation. No issues with that, number one. Number two, it looks like some right-of-way is included in this on the northern end. I'm just curious how that plays in. So, those two questions. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner, there's been several coordination meetings between our staff, St. Pete's staff, and the developers' rep, and we determined this was the best course of action to consolidate the upland while also recognizing and preserving the preservation. So, again, even though these are three desperate sites, they are binded or bound together by a development agreement, and that's a pretty standard approach when you're dealing with development constraints of this nature. How about the right-of-way question? I believe all the wetland, or excuse me, the preservation areas are on private property. It's consistent with the jurisdictional wetland survey that was prepared for all three sites. So, even though the mapping may indicate that it is on right-of-way, it is actually on private property. Thank you. Appreciate it, Rodney. Any other questions? Second. Motion from Commissioner Egger, second from Commissioner Peters. Do we have any other discussion? Okay. Hearing none, if we could open up the voting, please. Okay. Passed unanimously. Thank you very much, everybody. Okay. Now we're moving on to item number five. Agenda item number five is a proposed ordinance creating Division 5 of Article 6, Chapter 22 of the Pinellas County Code of Ordinances, entitled Short-Term Rentals. The public hearing was properly advertised. An affidavit of publication has been received for filing. One email in support has been received by the clerk. The matter is properly before the board to be heard. I do have one individual who pre-registered to speak on this item. However, I don't see them yet on Zoom. Okay. Got it. All right. Well, let me know if that speaker pops up. Yes, sir. Okay. Do we have any comments, questions from the board? Commissioner Eggers? I was just looking for the email that we all had received yesterday. Just really want to have some discussion about the intent of what we're doing as it relates to some of the building requirements and the window elevation and what that actually creates, the problem that it creates for a lot of old residents that we have. And so I just wanted, this is an effort to improve, but not to be onerous. So I just want to make sure I clearly understand what we're trying to do there and see if we can moderate that a little bit. Kevin, I think the commissioner is referring to the egress requirements. Yes. Good morning. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Commissioners, Kevin McAndrew, Director of Building and Development Review Services. Yes, the provision that is being referenced is the egress window requirement within each bedroom, which is requirement of state statute in the Florida Building Code. Outside of the ordinance itself, we've done a lot of further research going back significantly prior to the adoption of the Florida Building Code, and we're able to verify that what's referred to as the Southern Standard Building Code, which goes back to 1973, in effect has the same egress window requirements. So we've been able to, I think, in a very flexible manner, point out that any home that was constructed 73 or more recent and went through a traditional certificate of occupancy or certificate of use would comply with this requirement. And that brought a lot of relief to what initially were a number of inspections that were failing. Additionally, what we're doing on a policy for those homes that were built prior to 73, they may or may not comply with the egress requirements, the height of the window above the floor, as well as the clear opening of the window. For those that do not comply, we are going to allow a period of one year to comply and move forward with a conditional certificate of use. So this way, it gives that property owner a chance to address this over the course of a year. So if they have been in existence and doing business for this time, are we saying that even if they don't come for any changes, even if they don't come for any modifications, that they're going to have to bring this up to standard? If they're looking to operate under the definition of a short-term rental and were built prior to 73, the answer is yes. You know, I will clarify that, you know, the definition of a short-term rental is three times a year, less than 30 days duration. For someone who operates outside of that, greater than 30 days, 31 days, they're not considered a short-term rental. They're not subject to this. So if they're not pursuing or aren't a short-term rental, they have nothing to worry about. It's only because of this. Correct. You're saying that state statute requires that we include this in our ordinance? No, the Florida Building Code, so we have minimum life safety standards. Our ordinance is specific to compliance with this provision within the Florida Building Code. And so we're working within that boundary. But we're making this special to the short-term rental piece, because if it wasn't short-term rental, they wouldn't have to do anything. For those homes built prior to 73, I just want to be clear that every home built after 73 was effectively compliant with this provision. And homes prior to 73, maybe. It's just a question of it's subject to an inspection. It seems a little bit too over the top. I mean, sometimes it's two inches, three inches, and they're going to be spending a lot of money to fix it. And I'm just trying to make sure I get, you know, what we're doing, what we're requiring, versus what the building code requires. I just want to make sure I understand that clearly. We're tied to the Florida Building Code. It's a minimum life safety standard. You know, the essence of this is that you're dealing with guests in a home that, on a frequent turnover, and you want to meet that minimum life safety provision. Any other comments, questions? Okay. And this is not, this is the requirement that we pass back in April. This is anything, we're not adding anything new. That is correct. Right. Okay. Anything else? Mr. Chair, if I could. We do have one recommended change from staff compared to what you have in your agenda. What you'll see on page 13 of the ordinance at the top, the version that's in the agenda, requires a copy of the Pinellas County noise ordinance to be posted. We're recommending that be changed to posting the daily quiet hours of 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. The noise ordinance is very lengthy, and we think that's a more effective way to communicate that. So that is a recommended change. We have prepared a revised ordinance, assuming that the board is okay with that, and provided it to the clerk. Okay. Thank you very much for that. I would agree with that. And I do have copies if you all wish to see it. Okay. That's the quiet hours in the residential neighborhood. Yeah. Rather than saying that the owner has to post, among other things, a copy of the noise ordinance, we're changing it to a simple posting that says daily quiet hours of 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. as provided for in this short-term mental ordinance. That's a little more. A lot more clear. A lot more clear, I believe. All right. Okay. Any- Move approval with the attorney's changes. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Peers, second by Commissioner Flowers. Do you have any further comments or discussion? Has the public speaker- No, sir. Okay. Hearing none, if we could open up the voting, please. Okay. Passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Okay. Now we'll move on to our consent agenda, item 6 through 14. Would anybody like to pull anything? Motion by Commissioner Peers. Second by Commissioner Flowers. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Thank you very much. Motion passed unanimously. Okay. Now we'll move on to regular agenda, item 15. Morning, Commissioners. Item 15 is an agreement with Ajax Building Company, LLC, for the construction manager at risk. If I can, have Robert Shaw bring the team from Ajax up and introduce them. Again, this is phase one for a building of our new campus. They will work in conjunction with our architect on preparing the plans and programs necessary to move forward on construction. This is a construction manager at risk, meaning that they'll be bid out. They'll give us a guaranteed maximum price. And then that shifts the responsibility to them to bring it on budget. So with that, I'll turn it over to Robert and let him introduce it. If you have anything left. I left. Okay. Morning, Robert. Morning, Commissioners. Robert Shaw, working as a consultant with CBRE for the programming, design, and construction of the new government center at the ICOT-Olmerton location. So today we have, as a complement to the services awarded at the last meeting for design, HOK, we have construction management services, as Barry mentioned. Specifically today is the pre-construction services. These services were awarded through an RFQ, a similar process with a committee. Originally seven firms returned a response. We shortlisted that to four. We held oral presentations in this room, and the committee selected Ajax Building Company as the highest scoring company. And we are very happy about that because they do have a relationship with HOK on prior projects and local prior projects. So with that, we're happy with this arrangement. We think it's going to produce a great building, keep us in budget, right, going to keep us in budget, and also help clarify our specifications and goals for the project. So with that, I'd like to introduce the team, Bill, Tim, Lori, and Chris. I'll let Bill give you a little opening statement about Ajax, and then, of course, we're open to questions as needed. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Bill Byrne, I'm CEO of Ajax. We're based right here in Oldsmar, so it's really good to be part of the Pinellas County project. I've got great relationships with the local subcontractors. We anticipate, you know, great participation with them on this project. I'm really excited about getting started. As Robert mentioned, we do have some prior projects ongoing with HOK, so we're very familiar with the way they work. We think we're going to be a good team to move quickly. We know it's important to get through the design phase and put a shovel in the ground. And that's where we really start to enjoy the project, so it's important for us to get moving. And we appreciate the trust that Pinellas County has placed in us for this very, very important project. We're all here locally, so we'll be heavily engaged throughout the entire process to make sure that this project is successful. So thank you again. Thanks, Bill. Okay. The rest of you want to introduce yourself? Take a minute. Speaking of Lakewood, we just renovated Lakewood a couple years ago, so I'm a lot of school for them. I'm Tim Still. I'm regional director for Ajax, located here in Osmar. Chris, through the whole process, and as Bill said, this is near in our heart. So we're looking forward to getting moving and staying within budget. Yes, within budget. Getting started quickly, as quickly as can be. I'm here to team probably three years since you guys met me, and I'm groundbreaking. Well, thank you very much. Nice to meet you all, and we're looking forward to it. So, question, Commissioner Regers. Well, first of all, Osmar got a lot of pub time today, so I'm going to get a hold of the city manager and send a bill. It's a great community. You guys do great work. Talk to me a little bit more in the detail of phase one and the monies that we're providing today for that. Just what are we actually getting in that period? So these are pre-construction services to work directly with HOK, the architect, through this 16-plus-month design process, with the goal of Ajax keeping us in the boundaries that we need to be in as far as the type of building materials, the structures we're using, the building techniques, just how we're executing the job, to make sure that we're within the budget at the end of the day. And we can build a building that's buildable with the subcontractor trades that are here in this marketplace and with materials that are readily available. So in the end, it's a cost-saving effort to make sure that we don't have overruns or have to redesign the project at the end of the job once we get a permit because it didn't meet the budget. So they'll be working hand-in-hand with HOK, making sure that it's real money, real design, real efforts, so that at the end of it, they've got that price that they've got to go out and squeeze in the next phase. We have a five-step deliverable process that follows the design process that they owe us deliverables on and opinions and interactions. And they're going to sit with us through most of these pre-meetings, and they'll sit with us through all the design meetings and the discussions with staff on recommendations. So it's really a – they're just a partner, and they're a partner to help us get the project we want within the budget we want. Appreciate your efforts in this process, and welcome to the team. Robert's been instrumental in this, and it was a negotiated fee, too, so he's not only looked at our best interest for the right team, but making sure it's competitive, you know, with the marketplace. So it really has been a very, very good process, and Robert's been key in leading that. Barry, question for you real quick. Can these – the funds that we're allocating here, can they be recaptured at some point if we decide to bond the project, how we decide to fund it going forward? Well, we will be bonding the project, I can tell you that. But, yes, so we'll do an inducement resolution, which will allow us to claw back, and we can either choose to pay cash or we could roll that into the bond issuance. Chris and I have talked about that. We're going to have a discussion with you at a later date regarding the funding and options as we look at reserve levels and things like that that you have raised, you know, as part of the budget discussion. So those are discussions we do need to have. And the way we can do that is through a recapture, and it's an inducement resolution. Thank you. There you go. Naming rights for our building. All right. Okay, any other questions, comments? Move them. All right. Okay, well, motion by Commissioner Wicke. Do we have a second? I'll second that. All right, second by Commissioner Shearer. Did you have a comment? Yeah, I just wanted to say that, you know, some of us were here at the workshop. I am somewhat concerned that we're moving ahead. I want to move ahead on the design, but we don't have – I have not seen any budget for off-site utility improvements. I don't know that we have thoroughly investigated water and sewer capacity off-site. I don't know what that's going to cost if we have to put new lift stations, if we have to run a larger sewer line all the way to the larger sewer plant. I just don't know, and so I think we should really get that down before we get too far away. They did preliminary investigation. We'll get you an answer on that, Commissioner. You raised that before. We didn't follow up on that. We'll do that immediately and get that back to you. Okay. Okay. Any other questions, comments? All right. Hearing none, if we can open up for voting, please. Passed unanimously. All right. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Look forward to working with you. And we're going to have a kickoff meeting here coming up with both the architect and Ajax and really get going on the project. All right. Moving on to item number 16. Item 16 is affordable housing program project. A funding recommendation. This is for independent place. As you know, the zoning case was heard a year ago that resulted in requirements through a development agreement. The project's before you for funding through a federal home grant for construction costs. And I think Bruce gave you a memo kind of outlining that recently. All right. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Question by Commissioner Ruggins. Yeah. So, Bruce, come on up. Bruce, this, I mean, it looks almost like $400,000 a unit. It's only 20 years. And how much does it, how much, what percentage of the cost does the developer have, you know, in terms of skin in the game? Good morning, Commissioner. Bruce Bussey, Community Development Manager. The home requirements for the funding source is a 20-year requirement. There are other funding sources from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. Those, I believe, have a 40- or 50-year affordability requirement. So, in terms of the development agreement and the county home funding, that's a 20-year. But that will be underneath a 50-year requirement from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation. In terms of the funding, the Pinellas County funding is approximately 15% of the project. The majority of the funds are coming from Florida Housing Finance Corporation. A nonprofit organization has contributed over $126,000. And then there is a deferred developer fee, approximately $700,000. That is essentially what the developer will receive following the construction, lease-up, and operation of the facility. It is a 20-unit special needs facility, so it's a little bit unique. It's not one of our typical affordable housing projects. The clientele that will be served are developing disabled families and individuals for the 20 units. And, Bruce, if you could explain, these are not our regular home dollars. These are specialized around projects like this. So, they are not applicable. We can't use those in other areas. These are not our penny dollars. These are federal dollars, right? Yeah, they got it. These are federal dollars, but, Bruce, can you explain that? Correct. The county received an allocation of home, a special allocation of home funding through the American Recovery Program. That was approximately, let's see. We received a special allocation of $5.4 million of home ARP funding, and those have special requirements in addition to low-income and very low-income that we serve clientele that are either homeless or at risk of homelessness. So, those are dollars that are a little bit challenging to spend unless you can find some projects like these that serve those families. So, we feel like this is a good opportunity to utilize those funds. The subsidy per unit for the county is $68,000. That's right around the range of our typical projects at the maximum, but I would point out that most of our projects that we bring before you are in local jurisdictions where the local city, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, for example, is also contributing. This project being located in the unincorporated area does not have any city contributions associated with it. And this also is for those with special needs as well? Correct. We do have representatives of CASEL here today. If you have any detailed questions, they can certainly answer any more specifics about the clientele or the cost or any part of the development. Any questions, thoughts? Okay. Commissioner Flowers. The American Rescue dollars, are those our dollars that they're getting in this, or is that from somewhere else? Those are federal grant dollars that Pinellas County received. So, that was a one-time special allocation. No, I just want to make sure it was our rescue dollars that we were given and not – I'm always asking, are we spending down? Are those projects online? And so far, we are. There are different tranches of American rescue dollars. So, this was an allocation that was part of a pool that, like Bruce said, of about $5 million, but they have special requirements. So, it was separate and apart from the other ARPA dollars that we typically report back to you on. Right. And the state of Florida also received a home ARP allocation, and they're using part of their funding for this project. So, that's also helpful in terms of meeting those requirements, environmental review requirements, things like that that federal grants have that our penny program and other state funds do not require. Do we have a motion by Commissioner Flowers? Seconded by Commissioner Peters. Any further comments? Okay. If we can open up the voting, please. Asked unanimously. Thank you very much. Item number 17. And I'll ask Paul Cozzi to come up and Jeff Baker to come up. So, this is a donation agreement between Duke Energy and Pinellas County for a pedestrian bridge replacement at Rainier Park. So, this is a one-time charitable donation in the amount of $500,000 to assist in replacing a deteriorating pedestrian bridge out at Rainier Park. I'll turn it over to Paul. And I see a really big check up there. Good morning, Commissioners. Paul Cozzi, Parks and Conservation Resources Director. As you know, the county is in the final months of a $10 million construction project to expand and renovate Rainier Park. As part of our project, we intersected with an important project with Duke Energy with one of their transmission corridors. And I think Duke, Jeff, and I became very familiar with each other as we worked out the details. And I think Jeff became very familiar with how important Rainier Park is to the community. We worked together to basically not only save rate payers for Duke Energy a lot of dollars, but also able to, through this donation, be able to address one of the things that the new park project didn't address. And that is a bridge that's been at Rainier Park since it was Joe's Creek Greenway Park. It's an old wooden deck bridge. We've had to refurbish it several times. And so when we were approached, we were asked, what could you do with this money? And we said, well, this bridge needs to be replaced. It's wooden. It's old. And we really appreciate Duke's donation to be able to help us accomplish this important project. And Jeff, I'll... On you, Jeff. Commissioners, you know, what Paul said is so true. We have a very significant project that is happening in the area of Rainier Park. And without the assistance of many county leaders, we would have had to redesign this project at, you know, great expense to our customers. So on behalf of Duke Energy, we want to thank Paul Cozzi, Kelly Levy, Gene Crossan, Amy Davis, Jill, Barry, Tom, because working together, we came to this solution that would allow us to continue with the project. And, you know, it's one of those things where we realized that the, you know, safety and accessibility of that park is important to those who attend, as well as the greater Littleman community. And this was just the right opportunity for us to make an investment, you know, with the county. So on behalf of Duke Energy, I'm proud to present this check for $500,000 to the Board of County Commissioners for work in Rainier Park. And we're happy to receive it. Thank you. Here it is. All right. You can take it to the bank. I'll get a picture. You're right. That's right. Yeah. Thank you, Jeff. We appreciate it very much. All right. So do we have a motion for number 17? Second. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Flowers. We can open up voting, please. Pass unanimously. On to item number 18, Public Works. Item number 18 is a word of bid to preferred materials for FY26 pavement preservation package number 4. Again, this extends our resurfacings and road work throughout the county. And this bid, this project is for $5.9 million. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki. Second by Commissioner Peters. Any further discussion? Hearing none. We can open up voting, please. Passes unanimously. Thank you. On to item number 19. This is a first amendment to agreements. This is for our transportation engineering services. So they award us to nine vendors for $2.5 million each. They use this kind of like we do for JOC contracts. So they use it for different various projects. And they have different types of services between the different vendors. So, again, it's to extend this. This is a first amendment to the original agreements. And it provides additional work that they can do all within capital projects that are pre-approved by the county commission. Questions? Comments? Motion by Commissioner Eggers. Second. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Any further discussion? Hearing none, if we could open up the voting, please. Passed unanimously. Thank you. Item number 20. This agreement is with the city of Clearwater. Provide funding assistance to construction of a new fire station. This is for the, covers the unincorporated piece of the city's fire service. Second. Motion by Commissioner Wickey. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Any further discussion? All in favor? Or, I'm sorry, if we could open up the voting, please. Excuse me. Passed unanimously. Thank you. Item 21. This is the transfer of three ambulance bus assets to outside the county. We received three donated buses to us, placed them into service. We've tried to use them, but it doesn't necessarily work for our needs. So, we're reassigning those to other rural areas for them to use for evacuations and medical transport. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Do we have any further discussion? Hearing none, if we could open up the voting. Asks is unanimously. On to item 22, solid waste. This is the agreement with Keep Pinellas Beautiful for the Adopt a Program Management Services. $1.9 million. The staff provided a memo providing the information you requested previously. We recommend approval. Okay. Yes, Commissioner Wickey. Thank you, Chair. Quick questions. Question. Was this contract put out for a competitive bid? Don't know the answer to that. Paul, you want to come up? Jill? Morning, Paul. Morning, Paul Sacco, Director of Solid Waste. I can't answer that specifically. I'd have to check with the Purchasing Department, but I believe Keep Pinellas Beautiful is part of the affiliation of Keep America Beautiful, and I believe they're the only one that can provide that service that we're looking for to support the adoptive programs as well as cleanups in the county for illegal dumping and recycling and outreach. But I'd have to find that out for sure. This is, I mean, I think it's a continuing professional relationship, you know, which is allowed by our purchasing code. And so, like Paul said, this is pretty specialized in that they're managing the various things, they're organizing the volunteers. It's pretty unique, the types of services that they provide. So, to answer your question directly, I don't believe it was competitively bid. I believe that it was a continuing professional relationship that we've had for many years. Thank you. And to that point, Chair, you know, I volunteered with, you know, Keep Pinellas Beautiful several times, planting sea oats, picking up trash. You know, but this is, you know, $2 million contract with a 20% increase year over year from the 2020 contract. And it wasn't competitively bid. And it's even more concerning is that I don't think there's any, like, enforceable performance metrics in this contract. So, it's not saying that Keep Pinellas Beautiful is going to pick up one pound of trash. They're not going to get even one new volunteer. This is just an oversight of a volunteer program. Or that a single complaint of the litter hotline will be resolved in any amount of time. It could be one day, 10 days, 20 days. There's not a single performance metric. And so, if we're being asked to approve a multi-year sole source contract without clear outcomes, clear accountability, or any public transparency on performance, and the cost has doubled, you know, since it originally went out. And with, you know, Florida Doge audit team visiting us this week, I mean, these exact contracts are going to be, like, in the crosshairs. Not, you know, single source, no bid. Doubled in price from 2020. And going up 20% a year with no performance metrics. You know, I want to support this mission, but I also want to be able to look to our taxpayers in the eye and say, we did our due diligence. You know, I can't in good conscience, you know, vote to approve this contract with no competitive process and no performance requirements. But I do support Keep Pinellas Beautiful and their vision and their mission. You know, I just couldn't support this because I don't think it earns public trust. Thank you. Understood. Commissioner Flowers? I understand your concern. And maybe Jewel can correct me if I'm wrong. Since I've been in the government spotlight, whenever you have something that is considered to be a sole source, meaning this is the organization or company or business that is the only one that can provide this particular service, in the case of what you just said, would this not fall under that sole source contract of service? There's two ways that you can do things. So it's a continuing professional relationship that they would certainly fall under because we've had that contract in that place. So under our purchasing ordinance, that is allowed. We also have sole source provisions, and there's criteria that we go through to review to determine something sole source. I think this falls under a continuing professional relationship. Okay. And again, Commissioner Winnowicki, I'm not, because you're raising a valid question, you know, persons want to see if you've had a contract for 60 months or so. But I also know that there are certain entities that, because you're dealing with interstate cleanup or you're dealing with waterways and whatnot, there are specific organizations that, not us, but the governments above us say that we can use. So that's why I asked the question, because I know there have been instances where there have been sole source requirements. So let me ask this question. Is this something that we have to vote on today in order to give you an opportunity to find the answer for Commissioner Winnowicki? If it's something we have to vote on today, I'm certainly prepared to move it forward. Or is it something that can wait until the next meeting? Just asking a question. Well, certainly you can defer it to the next meeting. I don't know when the contract ends, but I was just going to look that up. But to answer his question, it's separate from whether we have the authority to do it. It's clear we have the authority to do it. Whether or not you're comfortable with the provisions and whether it was bid or the cost increases, that's separate. If you want us to go back and look at it, you can do one or two things. You can either turn the contract down and we'll look at it or kick it back to us, or you could pass it and we would go back and look. There's a termination provision within the agreement. And if we could bring back ideas on that. So however the board wants to move forward. But he's 100% correct. It was a continuing professional relationship, and the things that he addressed are not within the agreement. And I mean with everything, including what we just approved for. Wait a minute. Jill has comments on that. I'm sorry. I'll stop. I'm sorry. No, no, no. Go ahead. So I guess a couple of answers to the question. I think we did confirm that this was sole source. There are metrics in Schedule A. They are minimal. But you've got to realize this is kind of like a level of service or a level of effort type program. And they're required to report out monthly on what they're doing for each of the areas for solid waste for public works as well as parks. In each of those areas, they're coordinating volunteer efforts to do and support those areas as well as in the solid waste area where they're looking at the illegal dumping. They still provide recycling and outreach, education. They handle volunteer cleanups for areas that are outside the public works and the parks areas. So we have the ability to view those every month. We do view those every month. And if for some reason we don't feel like we're getting the bang for the buck or the return on investment that we're making, we always have the right to get out of this contract if we want to. In preparation for today's meeting, I just looked at the last 18 months for solid waste. And when you look at the contract itself for that $1.9 million over 60 months, that's about $32,000 a month investment from solid waste parks as well as public works. Just in the payback alone from the number of volunteer hours when you equate just the labor. We're not talking about the materials, the equipment that they use to do all that, just the labor that they're coordinating for solid waste efforts. On an average monthly basis, it's about $158,000. So we're getting that return just on the solid waste side, and that's not even including parks and public works. So I know they view the same. The other departments are looking at the same. But there are metrics there, and we do look at what the return is because, quite frankly, if we didn't have Keep Pinellas Beautiful doing those things for us, staff or the county would have to provide that level of service for those areas. And I can tell you that's not something we could do with the existing staff or resources that we have today. They're very much able to leverage what we can't. And I think the increase that you're seeing, you know, from contract to contract is because that has blossomed, and the level of service that they're providing has also increased, I think, over time. I mean, respectfully, though, I mean, they're not actually picking up the trash. They're just overseeing volunteers. And that cost, respectfully, you know, the city of St. Pete, Largo, and other municipalities contribute to Keep Pinellas Beautiful, so it's not just the cost basis that you're talking about. Keep Pinellas Beautiful brings in a lot more money, and they didn't break down the volunteers or the trash specifically for the county. They did it for their whole program. So I just think it's important. We have it for the county. We have those. I think we provided that for Solid Waste Parks and Public Works specific to our department. We have that. Right, but what I'm saying is other people contribute to Keep Pinellas Beautiful, correct? True. So when we're saying, like, they're, you know, adopt a mile program, the cost, like, it's not siphoned off. Like, they're not, like, the numbers that we were saying, it's not siphoned off. Like, it was their whole performance. It wasn't just like, well, if we didn't get any of their money, this is what the county would have done. Does that make sense? Yeah, but I think our performance metrics are for the portion specific to the county. We have an annual report that does everything, but we, I think, provided data to the commission that was specific to Solid Waste, Public Works, and Parks just for those areas. They report out to the county what they do. And they do also have in their requirements for the new five-year period, they have to increase the percentage of their performance. So, for example, we know and we record and monitor the quantity of miles, ponds, trail, or shores adopted throughout the term of the contract. They have to achieve an additional annual increase of 10% adoption of remaining segments. So there's, it varies from the three departments, but the illegal dumping alone and the coverage of that collection, so they're outsourcing it, yes, but we're not having to manage those contracts. And they do report holistically across all of their supporters, and I know some, many of the cities do use them as well. But our tracking and our metrics are specific to Pinellas County. We're not commingling those. The link to their report was to just provide you with some additional reflections on their programs countywide as they report them out. But we track them individually to us by pound collected, by amount diverted. I mean, we have, if you had a chance to look at those spreadsheets, very specific metrics. So if we... I didn't introduce myself. Jill Silverboard, deputy city manager. Good morning, Jill. Deputy county administrator. Sorry. All right. I'm city manager now. All right. If for some reason we decided they weren't doing a good job, what is our escape clause? What's the term? Do we have 30 days, 60 days, or what's that look like? I'd have to look that up. But typically, that's probably a 60-day thing, typically. And we wouldn't be obligated anything beyond that, right? And you had an answer, do you have to approve this today? Their existing contract expires, I think, on August 10th. So there is a little bit of time, certainly. All right. All right. Will, the board, Commissioner Hackers? Yeah. Well, first of all, I mean, the concept of being single source, I mean, I can't argue that. I don't know if there's other organizations like that around, but I guess when I think about overall the, you know, kind of like how tight we are with our, you know, employee levels in terms of trying to get more folks out there doing more work. I mean, the gentleman came up earlier today talking about vegetative growth on sidewalks. We have three crews. Do we have enough? Maybe we need to outsource some to get caught up. And I think this kind of service is only, you only see the problems by omission. So if you don't do it, I mean, I go around every once in a while, you'll see probably the remnants of somebody throwing a bag of garbage out their window. But for the most part, I don't see a problem around our county with trash. Now, that doesn't mean it just goes away, because we know it's all over the place. They have a decent track record. I mean, I just know that, again, what I just said is I don't see a problem. So I think somebody's doing a good job orchestrating volunteers. And as you said, you've been part of that volunteer team yourself. So there's a lot of us out there that are being kind of rallied around to get stuff done. So I'm okay with this. I certainly would like to see maybe down the road, maybe there's another group that does it. Nobody else comes forward to offer the service. But I think because it's sole service, because of their track record, I'm okay moving forward with this and certainly understand the question that was on the table. But I think those are the issues, and I think that's why I'm comfortable at this point. Thank you. Was that a motion? Mr. Chair, could we? Was that a motion, Commissioner? Yes. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Winger. Second. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Did you have a comment, Jill? We were just going to clarify that the increase is tied to the CPI or 4% per year, whichever is less. Mr. Chair? Yes. When does the current agreement expire? I didn't see that. It's like August 10th or somewhere. Like in a week. In a week? Yeah. And it wasn't bid out. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. I missed it. I don't particularly like the idea of not bidding out a contract or at least requesting. Did we request proposals? No. I'm sure there's a continuing professional relationship. There are a lot of things like this. I mean, the amount of work for an area where you don't have, I mean, an organization like this that brings all those volunteers, you know, that have countywide reach, you go through an effort. That's a lot of staff time to create that and do that. But, you know, if you've got a good process and program that works, when you stand up a new program and you have new volunteers or something like that, let's just say another nonprofit would come forward and want to do something like this. Because now somebody's got to manage that contract and manage the programs. And so, you know, there are legitimate reasons for continuing professional relationship. That does not mean we've given away the store. And it certainly does not mean we don't have control measures to make sure we're getting our money's worth. But, you know, Commissioner Flowers. Page 34 of 39 says that there's a 30-day out clause on either side. Ah, thank you. Under Section C. So the agreement remains in effect. I was looking for that. I couldn't find it. Yeah. The contractor or adopting group may terminate this agreement for any reason upon 30 days written notice. Contractor reserves the right to terminate this agreement for noncompliance with stated terms at any time. So if they don't perform, they could cancel it without the 30-day notice. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for finding that. All right. Anything else? All right. Let's open up the voting then. Okay. Passes 5 to 2. Okay. Thank you. Move on to item number 23. This is an agreement with Seminole Electric Cooperative for the purchase and sale of electricity. So this is, we sell to them if their price is better to Duke. And that's part of our waste energy facility. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Inouye. I'll second. Second by Commissioner Peters. Okay. Any further discussion? Hearing none. We could open up the voting, please. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item number 24. Annual Certificate for the Lumb and Solid Waste Collection at Disposal of the Non-Advalorum Assessment Roll. This is for the fee to collect garbage as part of the franchise agreement for Lowellman. Okay. Move approval. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Peters. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. We can open up the voting, please. It's 6 to 1. Moving on to item number 25, utilities. Third amended consent order between County Utilities South Cross and Florida Department of Environmental Management. This includes interim values for total nitrogen and extensive compliance deadline to 20-28. Motion by Commissioner Inouye. Second by Commissioner Peters. Discussion? Questions? Hearing none. If we could open up voting, please. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item 26, BTS. This is the Third Amendment with Tyler Technologies for the Odyssey Maintenance Support. This is requested by BTS. Yes, this is our court case management system. Move approval. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Peters. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. If we can open up the voting. Passes unanimously. You vote one. Okay. Moving on to item 27, Madam Attorney. Under item number 27, I am requesting approval of a delegation of authority to the chair related strictly to this one contract to waive conflicts in the event that one should arise. As I explained last week at the agenda review, I know a couple of you weren't there. This is a delegation to the chair to confer with the county attorney if we get a request for a conflict waiver. Our contracts have a standard term of 30 days. This particular firm asked for 15 days. We don't normally make a lot of recommendations to waive conflicts, but we feel comfortable with this situation, so I am requesting delegation to the chair. Move approval. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Peters. Any discussion? Hearing none. If we can open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Item 28. No reports today. Okay. Thank you. I'm 29. County Administrator. Yeah. Three items, Commissioners. First, a reminder that the third and final beach nourishment project meeting will be held tomorrow night at Beller Beach Community Center at 6 o'clock. We also are working hard to respond to the state doge request, so we have a lot of material that will be completed by tomorrow. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of pages of information. So we're going to be responsive. I was on a call yesterday with them. They're going to be on site on Thursday and Friday. We'll have our team available, and we'll be meeting with them. Question. So, and I'm sure you have, but I'm just going to ask anyways. Have we given due diligence and significant evidence about the unfunded mandates between the elections office, the first responders, the police sheriff's office? So you'll see some of that information in our response. So we'll be copying you. It's going to be from the chair. So whatever he decides to put in that. I mean, just in the- Yes, no, Commissioner, to your point. Just in the last couple of years, it has been excessive. You're exactly right. And I think we'll let the letter speak for itself rather than me going to the details. You'll see that, you know, they, obviously the letter states that, you know, our budgets have went up. Well, our budgets have went up. You'll see that the departments report to you. They've went up minimally. And, but you'll also see that in the sheriff's office, for instance, they enhance benefits for our police officers, which is great, but it comes at a cost. Okay. And that's a, that is a state mandated expense. There's a state mandated expense of Medicare match. There's state mandated expense of court facilities. There's state mandated expense for elections. So we're going to include those within the response, but then also provide everything. And I think the message is, you know, this is a, and that's what you as a commission decided when you passed the resolution, saying we support the state doge efforts is this is an opportunity. We do best practices all the time. We say, how do others do business? And how can we apply that to make ourselves more efficient? You challenge us that every budget year on doing that. That's the reason you've been able to reduce the tax rate three of the last five years. And so we're going to, we're going to, we're going to oppose that, that if you're seeing other ideas and, and best practices, we welcome those. And so this can be a collaborative process and we look forward to meeting with them and moving this process forward. Well, I do appreciate that they recognize that we've made an effort in the last five years. But the one year that we couldn't do anything, it was all unfunded mandates and everything that we would have gained, what it was, you know, what we could have reduced was unfunded mandates. So I think the importance of that is for when they look at the whole big picture, they have to look at the actions that the state, when they require stuff like that, that they can't. I mean, I don't even think they have any, when they vote for that, and it's never really discussed when they vote for that, what the fiscal impact is. They write a little bit of a fiscal impact in the, in the bill description, but those fiscal impacts have big, big consequences. And so I just think we have to highlight it enough for them to at least go, all right, there's a balancing act. And we have been good stewards. I know in the last five years, we've been really good stewards. And so I'm sure it's going to go well and fine, but thank you. Commissioner LaFleur. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I, you know, I welcome them coming and I know you do too. And I know that you've met with them previously. Can we put in the letter, you know, previous discussions that you've had with the DOGE reps? I know that they were here a couple weeks ago and met with you and they had some ideas and, and you had some feedback, you know, with them. And, and my understanding from my talks with you is it was a pretty good meeting. And, and, and the other thing I would like to put in that letter is talking about how we're still waiting on reimbursements from both the state and the feds for last hurricane season and the tens of millions of dollars that we have spent, you know, from those hurricanes. And so, um, you know, I welcome them and I, you know, um, welcome their feedback, but, um, you know, maybe they can come with a check in hands, uh, as well. Well, you know, again, the, the, for final, I've just ended up for the chair's review, the letter there's, we have to upload documents. Obviously this is electronic. Um, they're asking, I mean, there's, I mean, staffs, we had a week to respond and you're asking for every contract performance measure, um, for every contract, every $10,000, every, uh, you know, for the last five years, it's a, it's a, um, it's a monumental task, uh, to pull all this together. And our staff, um, has done a yeoman's job, um, doing that. So when you say, um, thousands of pages, how many thousands are you? I, I would be guessing, um, I'm, I know I was similar County. It was like 60,000 pages, but I mean, think about that. Think about every contract over $10,000. I mean, you know, you know, financial information contracts. Um, and you'll see, you saw the list, right? You know, you got nine pages of, of, um, information requests. And so we're uploading that information. Um, it's a lot. And we'll, we'll, that's what they wanted. They can have it. They have a team of 11 people coming in. Um, and so we'll, I'll be meeting with them, you know, and, uh, welcoming them and, you know, then see where they want to go. You know, so I'm sure this will be the first, you know, of discussions. I mean, they're going to be a requested to meet with people and things like that. And we'll make people available if they're here. I mean, I got, I got Blaine on vacation. Chris is coming back. So Chris will be here. Our budget director, he was on vacation. And, um, you know, Jill's out, you know, and I mean, so on Thursday, so, you know, it's, it will, we'll do the best we can. Um, and they recognize that they, they, they, they're like no issue. You know, if they have to do a follow-up, we can do a follow-up zoom call or whatever at a later date. So, um, it's very cooperative, um, you know, we said, see you on Thursday, but we'll get the information to you, uh, electronically by Wednesday. So, Mr. Eggers? Yeah. So, uh, I, like you said, Commissioner Lett-Valley, we welcome anybody that wants to come down and, and, and scrutinize the spending that, that goes on here. Um, um, certainly, um, I think the, you know, the issue is like the forest for the trees discussion. The, the, the devils in the details, they're going to get into each tree of this forest and try to, uh, take exception with, with what, with what's going on. Um, and, and so there's some, you know, there's almost some policy issues that come out of, um, to Tallahassee that almost need to be looked at, um, whenever you have these unfunded mandates, it's either all or nothing. So there's no real appreciation for incremental increases that, so we can try to absorb a little better over the long haul on things like, um, like what we're talking about. I mean, I almost, we had the discussion just briefly about, you know, bonding a, you know, construction project. So we could pay, you know, 50 million today, or we could pay it over the next, you know, 30 years to not only be intergenerational, but to minimize the impact on taxpayers today. That kind of concept is really important. Um, and so that's number one. Uh, the other thing is that just, it's just a little thing, but we have three millage rates that we've added for infrastructure. And I think that's really a, you know, I'd like to see that gone, but I'd like all the work that's being done because of it is, is, is a big deal. It's called infrastructure investment. And, um, there's no CPI index on gas tax for us here locally, but they do it at the state level because it makes sense to just, and I'm again, we're not talking about increased taxes here. We're talking about having it where it's supposed to be. We've had to implement three millages to offset some of the shortfalls in our sales. So I just, that, and that is, we have out specifically outlined that and the difference between the state gas tax and ours in, in that letter. So we point, we point that out as part of why the millage is what it is. Yeah. And, and, um, though one can argue when the last penny was actually voted on in a 2017, instead of an elect, you know, a 16 or 18, but like we're going to do this year, the penny for Pinellas that was approved by the voters. I think that's important because they understand the importance of the infrastructure improvements that were going on here. So I, I just, I just think there's some, again, the force for the tree discussions that they don't seem to care about. They care about the details within it. And I, and I understand that, but it also is policy based out of Tallahassee so that we can deal with some of these deals on our own here locally. And, um, it makes it increasingly difficult to try to make budgets happen locally. Um, but again, if they find stuff that we're not doing right, well, we welcome it. So, but, um, I just, I, I really concerned about some of the, some of that, uh, rhetoric sometimes that I hear. We'll see how, you know, we'll, we'll see where they go with it. You know, I mean, again, like the chairman has in the letter, we have an opportunity here to be collaborative. We have an opportunity to look at best practices and new ideas. Um, that was some of the earlier discussions when they wanted to look at how we do water and sewer, you know, well, we start getting into water and sewer. I'm like, you know, you, you can go to one city and we do it different in different parts of the city, the way development patterns occur. So in, in one area, the city, uh, collects all the sewage and they send it and they, as a wholesale, we, we wholesale collect it, send it to the, in a different area of the same city. It, it, we provide retail service. Um, and so the city's complete, it just, it depends on how the development and where was the cheapest way at the time to get service, you know? And so things like that require a lot of, of, of, so they're looking at ideas. We have to talk through them to say, does that make sense to do it differently in this area? And so those are the types of discussions. Again, I think collaboration is the key word, but it works two ways. Right. And I think sometimes when you overload in one, at one point in time, it, it makes it difficult. So you've just described the effort that's ongoing to try to respond to some of the stuff. And I think sometimes collaboration and communication, there's no end date to this. I mean, this could go on and on and on and on. And I think, you know, I mean, it, it, it paralyzes a lot of workforce efforts. So anyway, enough of my, to, to, to give, to answer Commissioner Laval's, uh, um, question though, Joe Laurel just text me and said that just on the contract stuff alone, it's 162,000 pages. So, um, you know, so that just, just on that piece. So there's a lot of information there. Well, the, um, and Barry and I have talked, talked about this a lot and, um, great and great comments. And a lot of this is, is being incorporated in, in, into the letter. And, you know, the fact that, you know, our local option fuel tax is not index leading to the fact that we have three levels of services millages. And, um, all of the unfunded mandates that have been talked about, you know, that stuff is going to be incorporated because they need to know that. And, and I, you know, met, uh, last week, um, with one of our, one of our state reps to, to go over, you know, kind of County Budget 101, who's sitting on the, on the House Special Committee on Property Taxes. And, and there was not an understanding that FRS, when our FRS payments for the sheriff go up, that the money doesn't come from the state for us to fill that gap. I mean, they didn't know that. So, and, and that's not, and that's not a knock against any members of our state legislative delegation. They don't deal with local government budgeting, so it's just different. But just to show there's a, there's a big difference in understanding between what we do here and, and, and what happens in, in Tallahassee. So, so that's going to be really important to make sure that we outline that in the letter, and it will be. And I, you know, I welcome, as, as we all do, another set of eyes. If they're coming in with a collaborative mindset, this could really be a good thing. If there's a predetermined outcome already, well, then it's just going to be what it's going to be. But, you know, my hope all along going into this is that if, if the Doge team is looking at our information and looking at 30 or 40 counties worth of other information, that they will be able to see trends and efficiencies that we just can't identify because we're only looking at our own data. And that perhaps the state could set some financial benchmarks that counties could strive for. You know, I think that would be a great outcome of this. So, I'm, I'm looking forward to it. And, you know, hopefully they're coming in with an open collaborative mind and we can get some good outcomes from this. Because at the end of the day, we want to provide the most efficient, effective services that we can for our residents at the lowest possible cost. That's our goal. You know, to that point, Mr. Chair, the state loves grading things. And as a former education chair, you know, we graded schools. We, now we grade school districts. Pinellas back-to-back A-rated school district. Congratulations to them. First time ever. In comparison, I don't believe Hillsborough is an A-rated school district. You know, perhaps to your point, one thing that the state legislature could look at and, you know, there's a lot of great things that the legislature and the current governor has done. You know, bringing efficiencies, you know, bringing efficiencies, bringing a new way of doing things. Perhaps, you know, they could look at, you know, grading counties and grading county governments. Because I'm very confident, to your point, that if they did that, Pinellas would be very high up. You know, and that could, you know, give counties something to strive for and, you know, be an A-rated county. You know, and looking at efficiencies and maybe that's something that, you know, the property tax task force could look at, you know. And when I was in the legislature, you know, there were things about the county that I, you know, didn't know. Because you don't focus on that. You focus on your job that you're elected to do. You don't worry about what cities and counties, you know, are doing, you know. And so I don't think it's necessarily a knock on them per se. They're just, you know, they're worried about 67 counties, you know. And they're worried about 20 million citizens and looking at the state as a whole and things like that. They're not, you know, worried about, you know, some of the minute details that we're elected to do. And so I think, you know, maybe that we put that on our legislative agenda as, you know, a ranking system for counties. Matt's taking notes. I like it. All right. And then the last item that I had, speaking with, about working with our state legislators as our state lobbying contract. So at your direction, we did provide an RFQ. We received some medals. We had a team made up of not only Pinellas County staff, but also, for instance, our other folks that do this for a living up in neighboring counties. They were part of a team. We're going to make a recommendation to you today regarding what we believe are the three finalists. So I would ask that you talk about that at your next Thursday at your work session. You can decide to interview those three, scrap those three, put in three, however you want to do it. You tell us who you want to interview. We'll set those up for the 28th. And then you can make a decision following that regarding who you want as your state lobbying contract. Okay. Perfect. Could you send us a list of everybody that applied and just give us the top three? No, no, no. You'll get all of them. We'll get all of them. Okay. And that way, if you want to interview four, well, then you tell us you want to interview four. So that's fine. Whatever you want. We'll give you the complete submittal of all of them and then what the staff ranked as the top three. Okay. But again, that's just for your consideration. Okay. And that concludes my report. All right. Thank you. All right. Moving on to item number 30. We have an appointment to the Suncoast Health Council. We have ballots, I'm assuming. Thank you. The board has voted three votes for Melissa Bader, three votes for Chase Gebby, and one for Marlena Pena. I do have another set of ballots then. So the vote would be between Melissa Bader and Chase Gebby. Prepared. The board has selected Chase Gebby with four nominations, and Melissa Bader has three. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Now we are on to commission new business. Commissioner Shearer, you want to kick us off? All right. Well, we'll go over here then. Commissioner. Oh, you got him? Yeah. Okay. All right. Mike. Mike. On July 25th, I met with Safety Harbor Mayor Joe Ayoub, and we toured the construction of the new marina and pier that they lost in the storm, and that was good to do. Got an update on that. And then I also met with Brian Lovac and his team at Visit St. Pete Clearwater, learned about their promotion events and their ad programs. It was very informative, and I was glad I got to do that, finally. On July the 26th, Doug and I visited, well, we actually went down to the back-to-school fair at the Ruth Clark Center in St. Petersburg, and got to participate in that, and it was a great event where we handed out thousands of backpacks to children that are getting ready to go back to school, and also got to tour the Everett Health Center that's located on the campus. It was just a great event, and I enjoyed doing it, and it was a great way to spend my Saturday morning. So, on August the 1st, I got to visit on the ambassador program for the Pinellas County Economic Development. I got to go visit with Five-Fold Engineering, a great group of guys, five guys that own this company, and they produce parts and components for military equipment. That is, they send to Rebel, and then, you know, they help provide for our military and make our equipment, and that's the industry we want to, you know, to grow in Pinellas County, and Dr. Johnson and her team are really helping them. I also, August 4th, I think that was yesterday, right? I got an opportunity to take pictures with little mama. Oh, finally, I got my dog picture done. There you go. There you go. All right. Oh. So, that was great. That's a nice picture. Yeah, thank you. There's a mural involved. Well, there's nothing little about that dog, though. No? Well, that's a little dog. I thought it was a little dog, but anyway, that was great to do, and I appreciate the opportunity to meet little mama. That's cute. I think, wasn't it the same dog that was that? Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, that we had at the ribbon cutting. Little mama's famous. Really sweet dog. Yes. Smart. And last night, I attended the Florida Airport Council with our airport manager, and got to meet a lot of people. It was the Florida Association of Counties Airport Council. I got to meet a lot of operators from all across the state of Florida. Our airport is extremely important to us, and I want to see it thrive, so I thought it was important to show up and let people know that Pinellas County Commission cares. Anyway, that's kind of what I've been up to for the last few weeks. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Michelle, I bow. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I attended the JWB CEO Search Committee, held its first meeting, which I chair. Yesterday, CareerSource, Tampa Bay, had a board retreat, which was exhilarating. Estara has a ribbon cutting tomorrow. They're a pretty big company, and they do a lot of smart people things, aerospace, defense, automotive, energy, medical, and advanced manufacturing. So I think if you all don't have anything to do, you should attend that. Also, very important, YAC applications are going to be opening this week. So if you know students in high school that would like to be a part of the YAC program, make sure they apply. And we will have an open house on August 21st. First, and a couple sad notes, you mentioned Sergeant Greg Gaff, who passed away in the line of duty recently. His funeral was this morning. And then also, Clearwater lost a legend, Terry Bollea, who, children of the 80s, such as myself, he was our first hero. We knew him as Hulk Hogan, worldwide legend. But in Pinellas County in Clearwater, he was often seen at various charity events around town and gave back tremendously to the local nonprofits and local charities. And, you know, after his passing, you know, there were pictures all over social media with him and people smiling and because, you know, everybody knew him and everybody met him. And I am not one for meeting people. But last year at a Clearwater for Youth event, I was there with some of y'all. And my friend, Commissioner Flowers, we were sitting together. And Hulk Hogan walks up with his family and some friends because he was one of the guests of honor. And I said, oh, there's Hulk Hogan. And typical Commissioner Flowers, she said, oh, I made a comment of, you know, I've never met him, even though he's all around Clearwater. And she said, oh, well, we're going to go meet him. So she grabbed my arm and up we went to meet Hulk Hogan, which was really a great honor because, like I said, he was really the first hero I ever had as a kid. You know, Body Slam and Andre the Giant and WrestleMania III was something that I will never forget because he was a larger than life personality and really lived that way his entire life up until the very end. And he will be missed around Clearwater and around Pinellas County. Well, he didn't body slam you. That's good. Yeah. He was a good man. So I attended the renaming of the HCA Pasadena Hospital. They have merged with the St. Petersburg Hospital. When you talk about efficiencies, I think that was a wise move on their part for the hospital. I also want to congratulate Animal Services on their new renovation. I attended the Ribbon Cutty last week, and the place looks great. I didn't tour the kennels. I'll get back there to see those, but I think it's really wonderful, and it was a great partner with St. Pete College and everything all around. They came in under budget. It was a pleasure to be there. And little mama was there, too, and she's just a great dog. I hope she gets adopted soon. I want to thank BTS for their continued work on replacing the cat system. We appreciate you continuing to move this along. Hopefully, it'll be done soon. Congratulations to our county attorney, Jewel White, for being selected to lead the Florida Association of Counties Attorneys this year. I know you'll do an amazing job, as you always do. We're reviewing proposals on the opiate abatement funding, and I look forward to the discussion with my colleagues on the direction of our strategic plan for assisting victims of the opiate epidemic. I have not read them all. I haven't gone through them all, but I'm really hoping there's something in there with transformative change. So far, the ones I have read are not taking us there, but maybe the ones I haven't read yet will surprise me. We're holding the last community meeting, as Barry mentioned, on Beach Nourishment tomorrow at Beller Beach Community Center at 6 p.m. To my amazement, we have 125 residents that have not signed yet, and I think maybe we just haven't ... I just don't know that we have done a well enough job to help them understand the damage that they could cause to their neighbors and so forth by not signing, because it won't be a complete nourishment. But we'll do our job tomorrow night and see if we have some success at getting those last 125 people to sign. I'll be attending the economic development meeting and tour of the new heavy alloy manufacturing tomorrow. So I'm really excited to see several of you that'll be there. I think that'll be great. And I've received feedback from changes to the EMS pre-authorization. Barry, you briefly mentioned it to me, but people are reaching out to me. And I really would like to talk about this in a workshop, maybe. Some of the hospitals are taking a look to see if it's one patient that may have to be admitted or if it's eight patients a week or 10 patients a week. And I think when they get that data, it might be worth taking a look at it. If it's not, I mean, we don't want to do one thing that will cause a chain reaction to something bigger. So I would love to have a discussion about it, whether that's you and me or with a group. But I think once they get their day together, then we'll have a clearer picture. Commissioner, we can do it however you want. First, this is not a new issue. This has been ongoing for several years, and they have had discussions in the groups which the hospitals are a part of. The question is, do you not process paperwork where people are eligible for reimbursement through insurance, or do you pass that cost and make our taxpayers pick it up because they don't want to do the paperwork? Either way, somebody's paying. And so that's really the issue. And so it's a process issue internal, and it results in way over a million dollars in cost. So they've been working on this issue, and now they're trying to implement that. I welcome the discussion. We can certainly do it individually, or we can bring it to a workshop and have Jim Forgerty explain that. But that's really the heart of the issue. Right, and maybe I just don't understand that process very well, but if we have to start admitting patients that come in through the ER and then admitting them for 12 hours just because of this thing, is that cost going to be even greater? When somebody comes into the hospital, what's the first thing they do? They get your insurance information. They do. They're going to get paid, right? Okay. When they're going to transport them, okay, if they don't process that insurance, insurance isn't paying us. So that means our taxpayers are paying for a transport that could have been reimbursed had they not processed that insurance. That's the issue. That's the heart of the issue. And so it's a question. I mean, either way, it's either a taxpayer paying or the insurance, which, again, if they don't have insurance or it's not a covered cost, we pick that up. We do that for anybody, right? The question is, is how you're doing that? So I can, however you want to do it, I can bring it in here. We can have that individually. I support the workshop on that because I had multiple hospitals reach out to me as well, and their problem is the 24-hour prior authorization. So they could get authorization, but then we're saying that you won't come and pick them up within 24 hours. So now they have to admit them, which admitting them then costs more staff, more, and then, so I think, I think. I'll have Jim come in and explain it. How about that? Okay, thank you. I'd appreciate it. And that's all I have. Thanks. Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Commissioner Peters, for bringing that up. That was definitely something I heard not good things about, so thank you. I attended the Tierra Verde Bayway cleanup two weekends ago. I was also at several back-to-school fairs. I mean, there's a lot of back-to-school fairs and a lot of backpacks and medical services being provided, and so it's great to see Evra, you know, Junior League, you know, a lot of, you know, community partners come together and really make sure the kids are prepared to get back to school. I did a K-9 photo shoot at Fort DeSoto in front of the big flag. So not a flattering angle down, but, you know, it's a cute dog, foxy, and a nice flag, so. That's cute. Yeah. I believe she was, yeah, yeah, she was cute. She was rescued from an abused home, so. Yeah, it was. Yeah. Yeah, it really was. I also attended the noise abatement, you know, workshop at Pi. I found that to be very interesting, you know, and hands-off to the airport team. I mean, they're doing, you know, great things with, like, geofencing around particular neighborhoods that have, like, high statistics of complaints. So if a plane does enter, you know, airspace at a height or at a certain time, you know, it's automatically recorded without having to register a complaint. So it's interesting to see in some of these hot spot areas with the geofencing, you know, so hats off to the team at Pi for doing everything they can to make sure there's as little as noise intrusion as possible. I attended a town hall with Representative Cross and Shore Acres. You had a new restaurant in Carillon, the Blue Halo, open up last week. Raising Cane's opened up yesterday in Tyrone, so if you want to go get some chicken tenders in St. Pete, go to Raising Cane's. Also, quick shout-out to Doug for getting married last week. So congrats to Doug for getting married. Attended the 7-to-7 day. Sadly, the drone show did not go off, but the rescheduled date is October 18th at 8 p.m. for all the folks that were disappointed, and there is a rain date of October 19th. And that's all I have, Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Floppers. Well, hello. Hello. So I attended the St. Pete Youth Farm, which is on the backside of the Enoch Davis Center. If you haven't had a chance to go down there, please go take a visit. It gives our youth an opportunity to engage in agriculture as well as other means of zero-scaping. And I think they even have a fish, a tilapia fish pond thing, but I had a chance to go down there and speak to the youth about leadership, how the government works. I took with me some of our documents to hand out, and I took with me some of our documents to hand out, and they asked some really good questions. So hats off to Carla Bristol and all of the other volunteers that continue to make that a success. I attended the McCabe Church Anniversary Brunch that was held at the Enoch Davis Center. And I don't want to tell a story because I believe they're over 100 years old, but I can't remember the exact date. But they will have a number of activities. I'm sure some of you will receive, well, all of you will receive invitations so that if there are any that you would desire to attend, you certainly can. So PERC is having a job fair in connection with a number of other nonprofits, like the Penelope County Urban League, the City of St. Pete, who is not a nonprofit. But that will be at the Coliseum on tomorrow, and the time is from 10 to 3. So for anyone who is interested or if you just want to pop in, please feel free to do so. So much like Commissioner Scherr, attending back-to-school events, the Junior League hosts the one at the John and Ruth Clark Health Center with Everett, and that's always a huge event. Parking was huge all over the place. So thank you so very much. I'm sure they appreciated seeing your face down there. The National Council for Negro Women had its book bag giveaway at the Council House. That's what we call it. But there were a number of other nonprofit entities all over the county. So no kids should have an issue with a backpack and school supplies, even though they have laptops now. But there were plenty of organizations, even up in Clearwater, all over, giving those things out. So hats off to the community groups that are stepping up to fill that void and that gap. Many of these organizations take what they have remaining, and they donate them to schools in the community. So now the teachers are getting some of those supplies as well. So hats off to anyone who is participating in that. The Youth Development Foundation, which is the 501c3 portion of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, will be accepting applications for its youth leadership program. It takes in young ladies as well as young men. The men are called Pathfinders. So if anyone is interested, if you hear me and you're interested, please email my office and I will send you the link for that. It's no cost, but it is a very good program for youth to go through. And they are exposed to a number of things, to include college tours, tutoring, if they need assistance in areas, to help them with their grades. And then certainly with scholarships and helping them to go on to technical trade schools or college, whichever is their choice. School starts on Monday. So just drive careful. Make sure you're looking out because it will be chaotic and a lot of buses will be on the roadways. I had an opportunity to co-sponsor with the Woodson African American Museum as well as the NAACP on a community information session at Child's Park. I'm sorry, not in, at Child's Park. And again, it was just going over. Number one, our school district did receive the unfreezing of $9 million. So that helped them out tremendously so that at the start of the year, they would not be looking at some of the cuts that they had perceived. But it gave Laura Hines, who's the chair, an opportunity to provide that information to people who may not have been able to attend the one that was held at the district. It was very well attended. So hats off to Laura Hines as the chair and to Kevin Hendrick, who is the superintendent. That was much appreciated. And I know the community appreciated getting that information. I have been appointed to serve on the ICG newly elected commissioner committee with the Florida Association of County. So if Commissioner Sherrill or Commissioner Nowicki, if you would like to see about attending that, if you're available, it's real nice just to get some of the information. I know sometimes you said you weren't sure about how things went or whatnot. So it's just a really good activity to participate in that helps you through the government structure if you desire to do that. And I'll make sure you get, both of you get information on that. It's up to you, but it's really, really good. And just to piggyback a little bit on what was being discussed regarding the Doge visit, I serve on a property tax committee with the Florida Association of Counties. We have, along with the leadership from FAC, have been in constant communication with the staff from Doge, really just trying to do exactly what Commissioner Lottweiler said. Be a support and share what it is that counties do. Not to be adversarial, but here is what we do, just in case maybe you didn't know the connection. So that when they are going out into the various counties, that hopefully it kind of clicks about the movement of funds, what programming we actually do, what the unfunded mandates are, and how that has affected both large counties and smaller counties. I'll give an example. Okeechobee County budgets about $38 million. The sheriff's office takes up 41% of that. That leaves very little for fire department, that leaves very little for stormwater, sewer, or their day-to-day sanitation pickup, et cetera. And so to assist with that, Representative Overdorf, I hope I got his name right, he's out of Palm City. He is one of the co-chairs of the state's property tax committee. And then the young lady, Representative Vicki Lopez out of Miami, I believe, she's District 118. She is also, they have two co-chairs. But we have also been communicating back and forth with them as well because that whole House committee has been meeting. And what you just said is what came up at our meeting on Monday, actually, about some of the things that they were not aware of that we do or we fund or we financially support, that they were not aware that that is our financial responsibility and how we are trying to grapple with that. So we've had some really good discussions. One thing that came out of that, and I think I sent a clip to Barry, some of the counties are creating 60-second little video snippets of this is where the property tax dollars go. This is what it funds. And then the Florida Association of County, we have a three-minute one, but then we've broken the three-minute one into 30-second snippets. So if you're only looking at stormwater, you're only concerned about sanitation, or you're only concerned about safety with your police and fire, then you could just go to those snippets. So I think I sent the link to Barry. It's the one from Okeechobee County where the immediate past president, Terry Burroughs, and his commission put that together. But it's just a real good educational piece to say this is what property tax dollars funds. So I thought it was a good educational component piece. And I, too, look forward to them coming. I know that we here in Pinellas County work extremely hard. Some of our decisions are tough decisions because we're trying to look at efficiencies throughout the county. So I appreciate that, but I just wanted to share those snippets with you. The Florida Association of Counties will have its legislative conference coming up. It's in Gainesville. So if you've not received the information on that, I will be more than happy to get that to you. If you have something that you would like to put up as a potential policy and you're not going to be able to attend that conference, please get it to me, and I will make sure it gets to Davin so that they can craft it into language, and it's presented at the legislative conference that will be in Gainesville. The last thing is, yesterday, I received a phone call. Apparently, the city of St. Petersburg put out an RFP for the MLK parade. I've received different comments on it. I had a conversation with Doyle. Doyle shared that the reason the RFP was going out is because legal told them they had to, because it had not been put out for bid, and it had been a number of years, four or five years. I do know that you can do a contract for five years with two follow-up year renewals as long as things are going well, but nevertheless, they put it out for bid. There was a lot of back and forth. I got a lot of phone calls. I spoke to Toriano and his team as well. He was very saddened, but the RFP did go out. Toriano and his Dream Big Committee did not submit an RFP. The organization that did submit, and I confirmed that this morning, was the Collard Green Festival. I believe they partnered with another vendor, and they submitted that bid. The reason I'm sharing this is because we just approved at our last meeting the $65,000 from the TDC to go to the MLK Dream Big Committee. That committee, if the city council votes on it on Thursday, this coming Thursday, which is when their meeting is, and it's going to be a pretty interesting meeting. But the entity that had the highest score that did submit, and I believe there were only four applications, if memory serves me right, serves me correct, those funds would not be, MLK Dream Big will not be the entity holding it. So if that's not the entity, you can't just turn around and give the dollars to another organization who did not submit. The Collard Green Festival is a nice event. It has grown. It started out being very small right in front of the Woodson Museum, and it has grown. And now it comes down 9th Avenue, hooks down 22nd Street, almost to about 4th Avenue. So it's grown. I don't know who on that board may have parade experience or whatever the case may be. But nevertheless, they're not the ones that apply for that $65,000. So whatever action needs to be taken, I guess Juul could weigh in or whatever, but those dollars won't, you know, MLK Dream Big won't be in charge of those dollars. That's the short of it. So I'm saddened because this parade started with Savelle Brown with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference back when it used to come down 9th Street and ended at Bartlett Park. He always had Bethune-Cookman and Family Bands. It wasn't a huge parade. It grew over the years. He continued to run it until there were some questions with the city. He wasn't able to run it anymore. Initially, Advantage Village Academy, which is a nonprofit that Toriano has, and it still operates, took it over. They took a beating the first year financially, but they took it over, and it has grown ever since then. And it is, and this is not me citing, this is news citing, the largest MLK event parade, rather. So I'm very saddened to see that happen because a lot of people, a lot of organizations have come together to make that program, the parade, the Battle of the Bands, all of the things around it to make it a success. And so much so that, you know, family who had come to us, they left us, and then they were like, no, we don't want to go back to town, but they came back to us. And as a result of that, we had five other very large historically black colleges and universities, as well as other colleges, to come and perform for the Bands. So I'm very saddened on that, but I felt that since I had that information, I just got it yesterday. I felt like I had a responsibility to make sure that you guys knew because of the financial support that we just voted on. So putting that out there, next steps, whatever we need to do to – they haven't gotten the money, so it's not like we've got to take it back from them, but it just has, you know. I'll inform Brian LOWAC and we'll review it. Okay, so that's my sad news. To leave it on a happy note, I am thankful, so I will publicly say thank you to the new president of the National Association of Counties. I was reappointed to the CEWD, which deals with community economic workforce development. I was reappointed to that committee, and then I was appointed to chair the housing subcommittee, a piece of it, so I'm excited about that. And then I was appointed to the large urban caucus committee. So if you have any questions, concerns, comments, thoughts, ideas relative to how we can further affordable housing, affordable or attainable housing, please get that to me, and I will look forward to sharing that with my meetings. I know that was long, but thank you all for your patience and your time. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Commissioner Eggers. Thank you, Commissioner. Appreciate that, all those updates. Just another quick comment about Sergeant Greg Graft. Obviously, condolences to his wife, three kids, six grandchildren, extended family and friends. It didn't connect the dots, but he was involved with the active assailant training and family reunification on last week. Obviously, the sheriff did a great job bringing everybody together for that event at Clearwater High School and I think it was Plum Elementary. So both of those took place, the active assailant piece and then the family reunification. So thank you, Sheriff, for that. But on the way there, I guess one of the trucks that was supposed to participate in that event had an accident. Obviously, Sergeant Greg Graft passed away, I think, in and around that event. So things happened on the fly. But just, again, condolences to the family and a thanks to the sheriff for a really good event and really well done. But you could see the intensity of the officers involved in responding. And I made a comment to somebody. I said, but, you know, that adrenaline is not high like it would be normally. And they said, all of their bosses and their bosses' bosses and their bosses' bosses are watching. So trust me, their adrenaline is high anyway. So it was really well done. But you could see each of them doing their best to make it a very successful event. And I'm sure many, many lessons learned from that day. So Sergeant Greg Graft being a part of that and making sure that those efforts in the future are good ones and, you know, successful when they happen, minimizing casualties and all of that. So you all mentioned backpacks. They're having blessing of the backpacks at St. Andrew's Presbyterian in Dunedin, 930 this Sunday. So if you're so inclined, you want to have your backpacks. And they said teachers' briefcases, too, are welcome to be blessed as well. So you're all welcome to come to St. Andrew's at 930 a.m. on Sunday to get those done. Just a few items. Chicken Salad Chicks reopening in Palm Harbor. Just a great event. Just beautiful. And they had a grand opening in Clearwater, Commissioner Latvala. So, yeah, it's actually, yeah, today. And it's actually the biggest one that they have. So it's going to be amazing. Is that where you're going immediately following this meeting? Actually, in full disclosure, and I forgot to mention this because I didn't want there to be a big line, but it opens today and my wife did ask me if I wanted to have it for dinner. It's going to be a very popular place. I had a chance to meet with Bob Fortner from the Palm Harbor Museum to discuss recent successes there, but also long-term financial stability. I know I'm going to be meeting with staff to talk a little bit more about that, but clearly that's an important aspect. It kind of comes under different umbrellas within the county, including Heritage Village, but I just think there needs to be some discussion about that long-term financial stability of that organization. Let's see. Ridgemore Boulevard Bridge Community Meeting. I want to thank Kelly and Tom Washburn and FDOT. I think they did a nice job of laying out alternatives for the community, all with the caveat that it's going to be a painful process anyway. No matter which way we go, no matter what we try to set up and try to anticipate, it's going to be tough. But I think we at least got a lot of good input. They could actually vote that night on their preferred way. So I really commend FDOT, but more importantly, Kelly and Tom from our public works group did a great job. I went up to AmSkills, Pasco County Utilities Internship Graduation, and Tampa Bay Water was in the house too. And both of those organizations teaming up with AmSkills to get folks interested in working a career in utilities. There was probably 12 that were graduating. A couple were already working with Pasco County Utilities. I just thought it was a great effort teaming up with AmSkills, which is, you know, doing a remarkable job at expanding their footprint all over the Tampa Bay region. I know they would like to do a little bit more with Pinellas County, and we'll probably have some discussion on that in the months ahead. Let's see. Also was that the ribbon cutting for the Vet Center? Thank Rep. Chaney. And our chair gave her the key to the county, which I thought was really cool. But her efforts to help that center along, and I'm looking forward to a tour there. I think the Kennel expansion is coming up soon, and who knew that reggae music was the music of calming influence on dogs? I mean, they didn't know that. Of all the music, they did research and found out that reggae music was number one. And I know the chair was disappointed because you are a... I prefer blues. Blues. Yeah, it was down the list. But we're trying to call them dogs, not you. But anyway, it was really good. It was a great event. And, well, there's some pictures there. Up with your dog there, Commissioner. That's right. She did get adopted. Yeah. She did. Yay! Got adopted. Good job, Commissioner Shearer. Anyway, was also at the Matthew Sitton, Staff Sergeant Matthew Sitton Memorial on this past week on Saturday down on Ulmerton Road. I want to thank Bernie Jacques doing the state legislative process of it. Mayor Brown and the Largo Commission doing their part. You know, commissioners here doing our part to make sure that everything was a go. And it was packed, and it was really good. And mom and dad were obviously, you know, this was 13 years ago, but still, you know, fresh as yesterday for them. Just beautiful people, very involved in the Gold Star family efforts, and just talked a lot about his amazing life and what he did, not only in service but before service. And he actually died in 2013, I think it was, almost the same time that Corporal Gross passed. His family's been very involved up in the Oldsmar area. It had the bridge between Countryside, Safety Harbor, and Oldsmar renamed after their son. And they were there. The mom was there, too, as part of the Gold Star family. So just a really warm, special, sad, but also a good day of celebration along Ulmerton Road at the Bend. So I mentioned the Purple Heart Ceremony and Danny Sauter earlier. I look forward to the Astera expansion effort. Didn't realize they were going to have roundtable discussions and lunches. I don't know if I'll be there the whole time, but looking forward to being there at the beginning. Commissioner Latvala, thank you for your comments about Hulk Hogan. That was nice to hear your personal touch on that. And the last thing I would just mention, again, in my frustrations, and it sometimes comes to the surface a little bit with some of the state stuff that goes on, but it's not necessarily the intent of what they're doing. Sometimes it's more about when and how it gets done or how it gets passed on to us. And so, like all the commissioners who have spoken, we welcome new innovative ideas and thoughts. But I do think policy is important, and those discussions are important to have as well. And, Commissioner Latvala, I thought you had a couple good ideas there regarding those efforts, and look forward to meeting with our legislative delegation and coming up with maybe some additional constructive ideas. So, that's all I'll add. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Eggers. All right. Well, since our last meeting, we've had a PSTA board meeting, and I'm very happy to report that for the second year in a row there will be a partial rollback in the millage rate at PSTA, so that is really good news, and enhanced services as well. So, the community bus study that was completed earlier in the year, there's going to be some route changes that are really going to enhance a lot of different routes with more coverage and quicker headway. So, very encouraged about that. I spoke at the North Pinellas Republican Club in Tarver Springs a couple weeks back, and interesting, one of the questions I got there, which I did not know the answer to, was how many illegal immigrants have been arrested in Pinellas County. I deferred them to the sheriff, but I have no idea. But I just thought that was an interesting comment that came out. I also had a very nice meeting with Anne-Marie Winter from the Area Agency on Aging, and Commissioner Flowers, appreciate your service on that. I didn't realize all of the wonderful things they do to support seniors in Pinellas and Pasco County, but they really do. And she's extremely passionate about what she does. She absolutely loved it. So, that was a very, very nice exchange with her. I mentioned earlier, did have a meeting with Representative Jacques to go over County Budget 101 and just give them a lot of the nuances that our legislative delegations just don't know. I mean, for instance, the fact that we are going to approve 23 different millage rates, and he was surprised to learn that there's separate millage rates just for fire. That isn't already included in property tax. And the fact that the state does not give us money for additional payments into the Florida retirement system. In fact, Pinellas County has a very low debt load, and we've chosen to kind of pay things as we go along, which gets a little more impact on property taxes today. So, anyways, it was a very, very good meeting, and I had offered myself and also volunteered Mike Twitty at their next meeting if they wanted a local perspective to be at their next meeting that we would be willing to go up and join them in that. So, anyways, we'll see where all that goes, but it was a very good meeting. Mike Twitty and I attended the Big C last week, I think it was, and I presented a county legislative update there. And thank you, Commissioner Flowers, for bringing up NACO. That reminded me that I was appointed to the International Economic Development Innovation Council as well as the large urban county caucus. So, we'll see you there. We'll see you there. Let's see. Mr. Eggers brought up the Almerton Road dedication for Staff Sergeant Matthew Sitton. Very nice, very, very nice event. Sad, but also well-deserved. If you're driving west on Almerton Road, when you get near any Roxo-Christian school, just look to the right, and you'll see the sign right there. So, great to meet the parents and great comments from Mayor Woody Brown as well as Representative Jacques. And our chair. And our chair. And his mother was just, yeah, it was just tremendous. I mean, I don't know how she kept a straight face. She just wanted to hug. Yeah, she did. Just absolutely, absolutely wonderful. And then, finally, Commissioner Peters and Commissioner Eggers and myself had a great time last Friday at the ribbon-cutting for the enhanced, for the new surgery center for animal services. That was just fabulous. And hats off to Jennifer Renner and her team for getting that project done and under budget. And Representative Cheney was so surprised. She's called me twice since then. I'd go, wow, I had no idea you were going to do that. Thank you so much for doing that. She was just really, really thrilled. And I said, look, I have no idea what doors that opens. I haven't tried. I said, I'm pretty sure it doesn't open the door to the checkbook. Just saying. But anyways. But she was thrilled. And then afterwards, her and I had an opportunity to do a full tour with Jennifer. And we went into the surgery center. They were spaying and neutering cats. And it's just like a production line. I mean, they could do, like, 30 a day. I mean, it's just amazing how many, there are two, you know, two vet surgeons there that were just rolling them, just rolling them right through. So it was pretty amazing the level of care that they can provide there for animals. And thank you, Commissioner Scheer, for doing your part to help get little mama adopted. And I just want to thank everybody also for really embracing the canine commissioner. I really do appreciate that. And it's really helped get a lot of dogs adopted. And I just, and I hope that continues for years, for years to come. And we've all participated, my understanding, with the exception of one commissioner. He was just kidding. He really loves animals. I think they can use cats, too. Maybe, should we need, do we need to get your cat or what? I just, I mean, he really doesn't, he does not, he does not hate cats or dogs. Well, just so you know, I asked everybody to help me publicly shame you because you haven't done that yet, so. We'll get one. How about your wife? I've got a picture of me from, yeah, right. We can get a non-shedding dog, you know. How about we just get you to animal service with a picture, and then they'll superimpose one over on top of you. Yeah, there you go. There you go. We've got to have all seven, right? Right. I'm just saying. Well, I'll take that as a yes. I think I will, too. Can we make a motion that Commissioner Quaggala has to? I think it's absolutely appropriate. I think that's a great motion. I'll second. Yeah, so all in favor? All right. All right. Well, with that, I think unless there's anything else for the good of the order. That was a pretty good ending. I like that. Yeah, I like that, too. I like that, too. So, all right. Thanks, everybody, for a good meeting, and we're adjourned. Commissioners, we do have some sandwiches over there. We didn't know how long the meeting would go, so please help yourself.