Good afternoon, everybody. I hope everybody is having a wonderful Tuesday. I'd like to call to order the August 19th, 2025 meeting of the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners. If we could please rise for the invocation led by Commissioner Peters and stay standing for the Vice Chair Eggers to lead us in the pledge. Okay, we actually do not have any proclamations today, so we're going to move on to public comment. We do have on item number 19, we do have a dedication for Senator James Sebesta. We don't know if any of his family will be in attendance today, but if they are, we'll certainly recognize them at that time. So now we'll move on to public comment. First speaker we have is Mr. Ralph Hoffman.
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for the time given to me. My name is Ralph Hoffman. I live in a community called Fairway Forest, which is up in northern Pinellas County, surrounded by the Lensbrook Golf Course. I'm here today not only as a concerned citizen, but I also represent the Tarpon Lake Village Homeowners Associations with about 450 residents. The community was developed in the early 80s. Within the last two to three years, we noticed severe road flooding during even moderate rain events, which were reported to Pinellas County via the click fix, highlighting the course, which was the lack of maintenance by the county and the golf course to keep water flowing properly through the golf course waterways. Fast forward last year during Milton, the neighborhood became impassable, and in the end, two homes flooded during the event, including mine. As I learned in the meantime, my property, even though it never flooded in 40-plus years, is in a flood zone, and I will accept that. However, I will argue that the neglect of the stormwater management contributed to the flooding, and that was caused by the lack of follow-up by the county and the golf course. Nothing would have happened if Commissioner Eggers wouldn't have come out and looked at the course, and I really appreciated that. After this one, we saw the county starting to dredge certain parts of the waterways, sending letters to the golf course to ask them what they were telling them what they needed to do, including bringing certain parts back to the status of 2007, which aerial photos were supplied to the golf course. It really was about clearing overgrowth and sediment in the ponds. In the meantime, again, nothing has really happened, and the golf course did as little as possible to keep the county at ease and move on with the day-to-day business. Even inspections from 2021 already showed deficiencies. I don't know if they ever were brought to the golf course, but they were definitely never enforced. According to the county, recent inspections state that the water is flowing, so the golf course did everything that they needed to do. The fact is the water was always flowing. It is just in a limited amount because it's limited through the sediment and the overgrowth of vegetation in the waterways, and that has not changed. So what I'm asking today, and then the letters from the county to the golf course have stated that if they don't comply with what needs to be done, they can be fined. I'm asking for the commissioners here and the county to enforce what they sent out in the letters, meaning to enforce the golf course to clear out the waterways and make this a safe neighborhood. Thank you very much for
your time. That was really it. Thank you. Next we have Rob Roberts. Good afternoon.
Afternoon, commissioners. My name is Rob Roberts. I'm a resident of Seminole. I'm a newly appointed to the Pinellas County Historical Commission. With the coming 50-year anniversary of Heritage Village, the 250-year anniversary of our nation, the Pinellas County Historical Commission's shared vision is for the park to plan development for the next 50 years. To that end, we have come to ask for your support for a key initiative at Heritage Village. It's called the Power of Place Oral History Initiative. The Power Place Initiative is the signature program celebrating Heritage Village's 50th and the United States' 250th anniversary in 2026. This initiative situates Pinellas County history within a national context by collecting stories tied to specific locations, fostering a sense of rootedness at the local level, while contributing to the broader U.S. semi-quincentennial narrative. By embedding Heritage Village's 50th anniversary celebration with this thematic framework, the project not only celebrates a local institution, but it amplifies local meaning with a national moment of reflection. These records rely on personal memory, emotion, and lived experience. The interview process requires empathy and trust building. The initiative positions Pinellas County's Heritage Village as a national model for integrating local storytelling into the America 250 commemoration. Number two, it strengthens Heritage Village's role as a living history hub showcasing decades of preservation while engaging new generations. Number three, it provides rich curriculum and community-based accessible content for schools, universities, and lifelong learners. And it also leaves behind a recorded, searchable, and attributed archive of local narratives echoing Place, linking Heritage Village history with the national story. In essence, the initiative transforms spaces into memory-rich storytelling venues. It motivates civic identity rooted in locality and links the county's half-century of heritage preservation to the nation's 250-year journey, making place both local and national history. It is our sincere hope that we can look forward to commission support for this banner initiative. Let's make Heritage Village not just a place of history,
but a place of living memory. Thank you. I have a question, Mr. Chair. So I have a question for you. So, um, when you ask for our support, what, what specifically are you asking for? Are you looking for us to just get behind you and, you know, rah-rah, are you looking for funding? What are you looking for? Yeah, the rah-rah would be good.
The rah-rah is good? We are seeking funding from our friends. We're collaborating with, uh, Pinellas County Historical Society. Okay. And continually to work to seek other, other funding for it. So how much is the funding that you're seeking? I'm not really in the best position to speak about this. I could cite a number. It was submitted in a package to the commission some time back. I mean, I could throw out the number, but I think, you know, I think you probably know what it is. I don't remember seeing
it. So I'm just was curious. So, um, I think it's 50,000 over two years into 27. Okay. Thank you. But
we'll be continually seeking other sources as well. Okay. Is there any other questions? You definitely got our rah-rah. So that's rah-rah. You definitely have the rah-rah. That's very good. That's, that's a lot of it
right there. So Barry, since it's a park, uh, a historical park, are they eligible for an MSTU?
I just asked staff to put it on our executive leadership team meeting tomorrow. So I don't know
the answer to that. Okay. Well, we'll look into it. So thank you for coming and bringing it to our attention. And so now we know more and that's great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you for all
the hard work you're doing. Okay. Next we have Rob Walker. Ron Walker, 7100 Olberton Road, Largo. Guys, the last meeting I dropped off for each of you, a folder, which was a simple road map for you to create a Pinellas County false claims ordinance. Now I realize that perhaps you feel collectively that you lack the intellectual capacity to write one, but you don't have to write one. Simply copy Broward County. It's virtually perfect. Now I imagine you took my folder and put it on the top of the most pile of the most urgent business you had to conduct. Not. Regardless, I rather think that the way my attitude toward this false claims ordinance is treated is generally the way you treat constituents. Ignore them until it approaches the election. I kind of resent it, but I've learned to live with it. If you could see yourselves passing a Pinellas County false claims ordinance, you really would become heroes. And you would protect the constituents of Pinellas County from massive frauds if you care about them. Well, I have some questions about that, but I've got to believe that some of you do. And I think you'd be very wise to look at that folder I left and entertain copying Broward County's false claims ordinance. It's virtually a perfect ordinance. You won't have to work hard. Now I'm sure you're getting counsel from one or two counselors who are terrified that their workload will go up. I would suggest you ignore them. Other than that, guys, have a pleasant day and think hard about protecting the people of Pinellas County with a false claims ordinance or ignoring them for a long, long time isn't going to get you a lot of points at election time. So think about it and have a really good day and a good meeting. Take care.
Thanks. We have David Ballard Geddes, Jr. Chairman, Commissioners, David Ballard Geddes, Jr. I live on I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. Historically speaking, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of our current Constitution states to capture, capture both land and water with the intention of uniformly bankrupting the United States in Clause 4, Section 8 in Article 1. George Washington again states that we are being given a useful lesson on our heads here to indirectly undermine that which cannot be directly overthrown. He is claiming to be of greatest rankness and truly one's worst enemy. Capturing, uniformly bankrupting, undermining, hiding behind the Mona Lisa smile on the one dollar bill is two separate symbols stating debts both public and private representing one debt land and one debt water in its capture. The Declaration of Independence states that this government is here to eat us out of our subsistence. And when it becomes necessary to dissolve our current political structure and to assume among the powers of the earth separate but equal stations capturing the water, it declares to throw off our current government and lay its new foundation as unwarranted jurisdictions as its process thereto, declaring a long train of usurpations that mankind is more disposed to suffer while evils are still sufferable, undermining, bankrupting, creating debts both public and private, both land and water, evincing our current constitution as a design to reduce us under absolute despotism as declared, taking our liberty, our property and our life while birthing unwarranted water jurisdictions under the 14th amendment thereof, unconstitutionally using our current constitution as a form of reprisal, as a bill of attainder, a letter of marquee, as an ex post facto law reflective of a contrived debt contracted and engaged into before the adoption of our current constitution in Article 6 dissolving our current constitution in an attempt to invoke a maritime assumption of power over an original jurisdiction in regards to facts and equity in the substance of Article 3 Section 2 makes the constitutional hypocrisy of George Washington and his money notwithstanding of constitutional legitimacy and is no good. Thank you.
And next we have Greg Pound.
Greg Pound, Largo, Florida. I'd just like to read a verse out of Isaiah chapter 9 verse 16 and it says, So all through history you see the big problem has always been with leadership. That's why we have a constitution, a three-form, a branch of a government that's to protect itself. We have three branches of government set up. It's a check and balance system. And when this check and balance system gets out of line, then we have a situation where we have the people in leadership running a monopoly over the people. So in our government, the government is of we the people. So what we have here is this county. Now when I seen how corrupt Pinellas County was and what you guys were doing to the children through DCF and what they call cooperative agreement contracts for federal grant money in the billions. I'm not talking about millions. I'm talking about billions of dollars coming into the state of Florida to get involved in families. And once we see what's happened to the families in the state of Florida, and especially in Pinellas County through the DCF, putting parents in classes where they're supposed to teach your children how to do such perverted stuff at the youngest age, you couldn't make it up. I've read it before you guys. I brought the paperwork and and just this whole thing goes on and on. Now this started off with Jim Coates and Robert Guattieri when Robert Guattieri was Jim Coates's attorney. And so what happens is that our daughter was got bit or accidentally picked up by my by someone by my sister's dog and and this whole thing it was an all accident. And so what happens DCF comes out first run in with ever DCF. And then when you find out that when when when we've seen what was going on the lies that were written up and all the stuff that was done to take our children from us and put them with your comptroller of Pinellas County Linda Steenbergs my mother-in-law and her new husband. Isaac Wood was a fire chief in Largo which was my wife's father. And so this and so it's just it's once you read it you just have to see it. But it's enlightened me and it brought me to the state where I could see the corruption that was going on in our county. I could see the the what you what they were doing for people. The Bible says law when it says when lawlessness increase most people's love will grow cold. So when you have people in leadership who lose their love for truth and for what's right and and half the people don't even when you're not studying law you don't understand the rule of law begins with the Ten Commandments. That's our rule of law. So what we're dealing with I ran for sheriff against Robert Guattari first Jim Coates then Robert Guattari and by all rights the three attorneys I ran against were all attorneys practicing attorneys and it was illegal for them to run. I should have been I was a shoo-in candidate for sheriff and I should have been the sheriff this book in Dallas County by law. I filed it up in the Florida Supreme Court and went through the second district appeals court in Lakeland and all they did was cover. And so what we have is we have massive corruption and I and and you guys listen when we have a suicide rate three times higher than any other county this county is under judgment because of the corruption that's in it. Thank you.
Thank you Greg. All right that concludes public comment. So now we will move on to the consent agenda items 2 through 12. Would any commissioner like to? Second. All right we have a motion from Commissioner Egger second from Commissioner Nowicki. Any discussion? Nope. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?
Nope. Okay. Passed unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to item number 13. Item 13 is an agreement with BKN Creative for Marketing Services with Human Services. This is the additional marketing services for Care About Me and the project not to exceed 600,000 over the next year. A motion from Commissioner Wickey,
a second from Commissioner Peters. Okay. Is there any further discussion on this item? Okay. All right. I just have a quick comment. You know I've had a lot of questions about the fiscal effectiveness of the Care About Me program. I am going to support this today a little reluctantly but in the hopes that it's going to be Successful and had some good conversation with with Matt's board last week about putting some metrics Together and kind of following this very very closely. So we'll see how this goes and and have some further Discussion about it and and fingers crossed that we hope it's successful. Okay. Just one. Thank you. Um yeah
I also had some conversation with Karen Yatchim about it um after after you know a little bit of a Uh time on on on the phone with her when we talked through the issue talked through her perspective And how she is going to be holding the folks accountable? Um to To the issue at hand. I mean this is something that is a lot of money I am convinced that then there's a need in this county for it for the service complete complete completely convinced And yet I don't think that we've gotten or we've reached out uh the best we can um and Letting folks know the way they can plug into the this kind of service So i'm i'm really hoping and and praying that this this works And that the additional attention additional marketing and the additional platform that people can choose to get some help Uh will catch and so I will be supporting this as well. Thank you
Commissioner LaBelle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I don't want to get too specific because I don't want to get any calls with 850 area codes Um, but um This program has gotten the attention of folks in the state capitol Um, and I know that uh we have had staff uh talk to uh leaders in the state about what they're doing And um, you know, um, you know looking at ways to expand it Um, and I think that is a testament to karen and and her team and um You know and and certainly metrics are important and and um, you know There are things to improve upon it, but I think that any time that um You know the legislature wants to you know learn about something that we're doing here. I think is
Is uh, very neat. There are no further conversation if we could open up the voting place passes unanimously Moving on item number 14. Commissioner shares a yes, right?
There was only six up there Yeah, he said he got it. I heard it out of my ear Okay, they didn't they didn't pick it up in the back item 14. Um, it's a funding recommendation for the uh 2026 human services social rock and grant phone funding So we try to put this in place ahead of time. So we went through the competitive selection process We had a total of 75 applications requesting three 7.3 million dollars This breakdown of 18 um community agencies Um allocating a little over 1.7 million dollars Is all contingent upon approval within the budget? So if anything changes within the budget then so goes the the grant program This allows us to get everything in place and be ready for the new fiscal year
A motion by commissioner wiki. Was it a second by commissioner flowers? I think
Any uh, mr. Eggers, uh, yeah, I just was curious. Um I saw that there was a list and there was a alternate. Is there anybody that did make either one of those lists? Karen if you want to come speak to it I want to make sure I saw something in here that wasn't included. I just want to have the conversation if there is. Thank you
Good afternoon Karen Yatchim human services director. So yes, there were 75 applications And of the so we recommended the board recommended 18 to move forward and if for some reason one of the organizations cannot move forward We have two alternates to then choose from So the remaining balance was probably around 60 organizations that did not meet the level of funding recommendations
That include neighborly care I didn't see them. I just want to make sure I And just curious if it didn't include them. What was their issue? There's abilities of florida. That's included say that again Abilities of florida is included Neighborly care Neighborly care which includes our meals on wheels program we'll make sure yeah It was 833 pages. I didn't get to it
I'm sorry. I'm trying to look it's
I I don't know. I'm a social service That's where I came from so Come on, dave
I thought we get it
I don't see them on the list, but it's seven pages and not alphabetical. So i'm trying to do my best I can I can send a follow-up email if they did apply and did
Yeah, I just like to I was just curious because we're obviously that program meals on wheels extremely important And I just want to make sure that they got their funding that they need And I think they did get some additional funding from a different source
But I just wanted to make sure I so we we fund them through general fund And that was one of the decision packages that was moved forward to keep them at the same level of Meals that could be delivered from us outside of this
Yeah, I was just wondering if they had gotten shortened somewhere else and if the program was at risk I just didn't I hadn't heard that
Yeah, we have not heard that from we reached out to them after the budget information session to ask them that specific question And they have not reported an additional funding gap to us. All right. Thank you. Appreciate that. Mr. Chair
Um through area agency on aging they get some money from us as well But in the meeting yesterday, I was going to say this from my report They were able to get some additional funding out of the state funding level folks specifically for the meal program
Okay, perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. Thank you Matt. Just a quick question. Is this um, so we're funding 18 this year Is that consistent pretty much with what we did last year as well?
I think so. It's usually between 18 and 19. Yeah. Any other questions? Okay. We have a motion and a second
Hearing no other questions, if we can pull up the voting, please Passes unanimously. Item number 15
Item 15 is the annual agreement with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office for our environmental lands deputies
Motion by Commissioner Wickie second by was that Commissioner Shearer? Okay. All right. Any further discussion? Okay hearing none If we could open up the voting, please Passes unanimously Moving on item number 16
Item 16 is the national resources conservation service emergency watershed protection program grant For tree debris removal from various channels throughout the unincorporated areas This total funding is a little over 5.9 million dollars And comes to us as a recovery effort from hurricane milton
Okay. Motion by Commissioner Wickie second by Commissioner Peters Any further discussion? Hearing none if we could open up the voting
Passes unanimously moving on item 17 This resolution's authority to use golf carts in the autumn woods subdivision in palm harbor
Dave is that where you live? No
I wouldn't be voting on it. I might be voting twice
We have a motion by Commissioner Eggers. Did I hear a second? Second by Commissioner Peters Any discussion? Okay. If we can open up the voting, please Passes unanimously Moving on item 18
This is the same thing for golf carts on community streets within Innswood subdivision in incorporated
All right motion by Commissioner Eggers second by Commissioner Peters Any discussion? Hearing none if we could open up the voting I pass unanimously item number 19
This resolution is supporting the honorary designation of U.S. 92 state route 600 Gandy Boulevard from Southwest Shore Boulevard in Hillsborough County to 4th Street North North in Pinellas County is designated as a Senator James A. Sebasta Memorial Highway Speak to it more
Motion by Commissioner Newiggy seconded by Commissioner Peters and comment from Commissioner LaBella
Thank you Mr. Chairman I knew Senator Sebasta my entire life and anybody that knew him I know Representative Peters did He was a lovely man and he was an icon not just in Tampa Bay and Pinellas County but really in Florida And before I was born For Commissioner Eggers is a curiosity back in the 1970s both of my parents worked for Jim Sebasta when he ran for Secretary of State in the early 70s And there's not too many politicians that my mother Worked for or would work. She worked for Jim Sebasta Because he he was a lovely man and genuine man And somebody whose impact Certainly was felt in Tampa Bay and really statewide But just his focus and impact on transportation I think is very fitting That you know, he gets a road named after him And and death so and and I want to thank I believe Senator Collins was the sponsor of this bill I want to thank him and the entire legislature for doing this I was born in the 80s
So I've got one one quick story about About Senator Sebasta I had never met him before until it was like I don't know the late 90s and at the time I was President of the Florida Motor Coach Association we were we were trying to do a fuel tax rebate bill So we needed we had a house sponsor and it was Representative Fuller out of Jacksonville and we needed a senate sponsor so We had asked Senator Sebasta if he would be interested in it So I had a meeting in his office and I go in and I'm talking with his with his aide And then the senator walks in and he sits down and he says all right You got two minutes to tell me why I should sponsor your bill I'm like so I give him my two-minute elevator speech And he looks at me and he says okay, I'll sponsor your bill So from their point so he was always a good friend of mine after after that and always appreciated him for you know kind of put me on the spot, but also Getting it getting it done for us. So so I have fond fond memories of him And Kelly provided us today with public works nice sign for yeah So we'll get a one of these sent to his family. Yeah All right, any other discussion? No. All right. Well, if we could open up the voting passes unanimously
Okay, moving on to item 20. This is a transfer of three vehicles from Pinellas County Emergency Medical Services to the Pinellas County Sheriff These are tactical paramedic vehicles and so then henceforth the sheriff will just maintain them was motioned by Commissioner Nowicki
Second by Commissioner Eggers. Any further discussion? Okay, we can open up voting, please as unanimously All right, I'm 21 madam attorney
Under item number 21. I'm seeking authorization to file the reference lawsuit This will be a foreclosure action related to a special magistrate lien arising from a code enforcement case
Okay, motion by Commissioner Nowicki second by Commissioner Lavalla any discussion? Okay hearing none if we could open up the voting ask unanimously
I'm 22 similar to item 21 This is a case where we're requesting authorization to file a foreclosure action based upon the special magistrate lien Arising from a code enforcement case. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki second second by Commissioner Peters any discussion?
Okay, if we can open the voting
Passed unanimously any reports. Yeah, I do have a couple of things I would like to mention I know that last week during the work session we reviewed the Firms that have made submittals for the lobbying contract that you all are going to be having some interviews on in a couple of weeks I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention for awareness only if you choose to ask questions about it. That'll be up to you There are two firms on the list that are also law firms Shoemaker just for everyone's information is outside counsel for the county on a new contract that relates to a d.o.t Project where we we we had shoemaker come to work with us to help with some of the the issues there Gray Robinson has active litigation against the county Related to some issues out at one of the buildings on site with the sheriff's the the jail complex So I just wanted to bring that to your attention for your awareness If you choose to ask questions, of course, they will be here to be questioned And if you would like any additional information from me about those cases, please contact me outside the meeting I also just wanted to mention This morning we got some very bad news in the county attorney's office. One of our employees died in her sleep last night So you have some very upset people in my office right now So I just ask we are going to do everything we can to help her family She's young. She's leaving behind two young children We're going to do what we can to help her So I ask you all to keep your county attorney colleagues in your thoughts because it's been a tough day for us
I'm very sorry to hear that
Mr. Chair, you all probably know too that Gray Robinson provides the legal services for the career source board consortium that Commissioner Chris Lavalla and I serve on We don't have any litigation on that over there, but they do serve in that capacity. Thank you, sir.
All right, moving on to item number 24
So two items one just a reminder that we have our public hearings our budget public hearings coming up september 4th and september 18th Those will be our two public hearings at the 18th will be a final adoption of the budget the other item is that we have a joint bcc tdc meeting coming up here And september the 11th That happens to also be when we will have 9 11 ceremonies commissioner eggers pointed that out the other day And so brian's talking to his tdc members and i'm asking you is i don't know everybody's calendar But if we could quickly if is it possible to move it back to some to where you can go to any festivities or celebrate or not and so the question is whether you want to move it or not It's late we've got to make a decision obviously we've got food and And the venue's available, but we'd have to change the arrangements if we move it to like later in the day
So we're talking about just move same day, but just later in the day. I think that's the request of It's so fine with me what everybody else I have a elc
Committee meeting at three o'clock, so that would be my only conflict. It's it's um 9 11. It's uh
So there are a couple events that that are early because that's obviously when the event happened So I think if we move it back a couple of hours Would probably allow moved it to noon you think yeah, noon probably we start at noon That would provide enough wiggle room in there for the normally they go about an hour and a half two hours
Yeah, yeah, you've got some things to talk about so you want to leave yourself a couple hours, but yeah two hours Two hours um Noon how about i'm good with noon just maybe just see me afterwards because brian's doing the same thing He may lose tdc members if we do this right, so So he's he's doing that i just figured i've got every we'll just so if you can get to me at the break Then we can try to lock that down if we can move it or not and i'll let you know here at six
Okay, um, that's all i have all right wow moving right along here, um, what are we going to do for a couple hours between now and six o'clock? All right, so now move on to county commission, uh, new business um, give us a share why don't we let me start with you
I got to go to the grand opening of the estera us tungsten heavy ally factory, uh, it was great to see this kind of investment in pinellas county it was uh the effort was led by our pinellas county economic development and dr johnson and i i really enjoyed being there to see that and be a part of it um on august 9th i attended the uh pinellas county annual death fest on saturday morning uh, that's a particularly uh, that that event was important to me you know i have a little bit of uh, i'm a little hard of hearing at times myself uh, but i was also at this event that we had a grand opening there for the family center on deafness at the lealman center and it was just so heartwarming to see uh the children and and the people that the dedicated people that help them have a nice facility to to help those children catch up uh, a lot of them don't know their death you know people you don't know your child's death until they're in first grade and then by the time you figure it out they're very far behind they'll catch up so i was just glad glad to see that that lealman center looking so nice and and those kids were so excited and i was happy to be there uh and then um on august 12th i met with joe hanny the ceo of the clearwater aquarium i toured the facilities to learn more about their struggles uh what's going well there and what's not going so well there and uh so uh i just wanted to be more up to speed on the clearwater aquarium and he gave me a thorough rundown so i'll be prepared for their next report or whatever comes their way i'll at least be up to date on that and so that that'd be my report for you chair thank you sir
mr levo thank you mr chair um i also attended the estera grand opening uh which was very informative um a week or two ago um the county had a beach nourishment public hearing in bel-air beach that i attended thank you to staff uh commissioner and commissioner peters uh for doing that um i attended the grand opening of the clearwater brewing company uh in uh downtown clearwater um congratulations to those folks and if you're into uh beer and um go check it out i think they also have some food there too um this morning i i would um joined our chair and commissioner eggers at the largo fire station 39 ribbon cutting um on uh thursday august 21st at 5 30 yak will have an open house uh at the pinellas county parks building in the magnolia room and also yak applications will close on august 25th so if you know any students that want to partake in yak make sure that they apply also this afternoon i attended the uh seminole tuesday club because they had a very uh wonderful speaker of my wife um and also um in sad news a friend of all of us uh caribou miller uh passed away recently and she was a wonderful lady and a few weeks ago she attended a jwb meeting um and uh she will be missed by all you thank you thank you
um i think one of the best news i have is that i think bts is really close to finding a replacement for cats which is wonderful and it can be mobile it can use on your phone it'll be better higher technology and uh much more user-friendly so thank you thank you to the team at bts that's working on that i appreciate it um i attended the the psta legislative committee um and you know spoke with harry and with ron our our legislative team federal and state uh to come up with you know our priorities and what we want to focus on uh of course the beach renourishment meeting i thought was very well attended we still don't have the signatures we need um to make a comprehensive full nourishment but we're gonna you know push through and do what we need to do and hopefully some of those residents at the last minute will say yes i want it but um but um i'm really excited that we are going to be moving forward and and re-nourishing our beaches um we had our ofab meeting um where we uh ranked the proposals that were submitted we will be inviting three we are inviting three of those applicants um back to um to uh presentation and question and answers um so you know hopefully soon we'll decide if we're gonna fund those programs and what it'll look like um they're very different one is with the boys and girls club it's much more preventative uh another one is with west care which is kind of adding more services and then another one is a very comprehensive uh every almost every partner in the county is included in it but it's a very expensive proposal so uh they go from you know 14 million to 30 million so they're very different um so we'll be doing that i believe it's next week we'll be interviewing um uh two on one day and then and then another one on another day uh so that'll be coming to you soon if that moves forward um tampa bay water is moving forward on their their budget and the south hillsborough pipeline they're also testing um some areas in pasco for a potential new water source water source um and the tampa bay estuary program i don't mention them much i'm new on that committee um i will leave the state of the bay reports over by the coffee machine um it's very interesting um there was talk about um and this could be good for our three county just a thought there's talk about pasco in particular jack mariano sits he's the chair of this committee and he would like the estuary to be expanded north to include um tarpon springs and the um the river that has just dropped out of my mind um up in tarpon springs but they want to expand the estuary to northern uh pinellas enclave thank you um northern pinellas county and and pasco um the i i don't know that we have support of the board yet but it could be a great conversation to have in the tri county um because they have a limited budget the the quality the water quality in tampa bay has degraded significantly um where it was really really bad in the 80s they got it really really great and good and then we had some accidents uh some spills and then a you know a couple horrible hurricanes and so the water quality in tampa bay is not not great um and so the question is if we were to expand the estuary north with the same resources will it take longer to fix tampa bay to get it back to where it was um will we have the resources to to make a real impact if we expand our resources so or our area so it could be a good conversation on the tri county um all three counties and manatee are on this board so um so it's something that if you're looking for topics this may be a topic for you um and i think that's um that's all i have for you oh and one last thing and this was all they should have reported a while ago but they also did a study on the fish in tampa bay um and they did it in three jacksonville miami and and tampa bay um where they looked at the fish in the bay to see uh what kind of pharmaceuticals were in the fish and i i have that report i asked him to send it to me i'm happy to follow up and send it to you but it was shocking how much heart medication opioids and um statins are in the fish now they didn't check the fish out in the open water of the gulf they only stayed within tampa bay but the amount of pharmaceuticals that i lots of hormones lots of you know synthetic hormones um the amount of pharmaceuticals that are in the fish in the bloodstream and in the fish is just incredible it was shocking um i don't know if they did it outside in the gulf if they would have found the same thing but with the sewer overflows that have happened that have gone into our bay whether it be hillsboro or or pinellas or whoever i it was shocking that
report was just shocking so there you go thanks i've actually um i don't think necessarily this area but i've heard reports where they've actually found caffeine in fish too yes yeah they they do
find caffeine but um i was suggesting we stop drinking coffee i was uh i was more interested in um oh they're finding the pharmaceuticals in coffee is that what you said or in fish i'm not suggesting we stop drinking coffee okay yeah yeah no then it was just it wasn't just the opiates it was the heart medication it was the um yeah the the cholesterol medication it was a lot a lot mr wiki yeah i'm not
not feeling a hundred percent too well today chair so um no report but i'm just focused on um you know working well with everyone and continuing to learn so thank you okay thank you sir thank you something's
going around my grandson had to stay home today i did a kova test he's kova free but something something's percolating so hope you feel better so um i'll start with the area agency on aging since i kind of jumped in and gave a little bit of information there but um we were able to uh recover some of the funding that um was going to be cut from um area agency on aging we did have a increase in our um community care for the elderly program um of 647 234 so um that allowed us to move a number of seniors off the wait list to take care of who we have and then move seniors off of the wait list so that was um i think an affirmative thing the downside is there may be an elimination for the utility assistance program for seniors um and during these months that's when they really need it because bills are high you're running your ac because it's it's extremely hot and then of course in the height of winter the heat so um we are hopeful again super kudos to um representative gus bill arrakis follow the work that he has done to really help us focus um and make sure that we remain in the budget on the federal government side we did receive some additional dollars from the state government side so our our reduction and services is not as dire as we um originally believed them to be so great job um to the staff for doing that um i did ask darlena to send all of you information related to the fundraiser the area agency on agent pinellas and pasco so just let her know if you're able to attend that would be lovely if you can um i attended the tampa bay regional planning council meeting um we had a clean audit um that was discussed during our executive committee meeting and then presented at the regular board meeting so it's always good to get those um two of our grants were restored we had several grants that were being held up if you will because of all the different changes and movement of resiliency and sustainability and what fell where and to whom but two of those grants were released and so we're super excited about that because that allows us to continue to work with counties and municipalities when it comes to planning long-term planning especially with um our um hurricane season which so far we've been good we've been really good um i attended the store of um grand opening it was really wonderful as a matter of fact i've reached out to um panellas technical college uh uh to mr mark hunt and said hey y'all may want to go over here because you may be able to partner with them and create a training program for the employees that they will need um to expand their plans i also attended with um commissioner brian scott was there as well the tampa international airports uh presentation on um infrastructure infrastructure acceleration yeah and so i thought that was very well attended by people from all over the region um and um i got a chance to to meet the new president ceo face to face and i thought it was a good presentation i thought the information was very good timely and certainly looking forward to what we need to do to expand our metropolis um i will be a panelist on um what's going to be called the ruby table talk and on that panel um is dr tonja williams from st petersburg college um judge more judge patrice more from um the sixth judicial circuit um darla otay who is the head of um oh gosh it's not girls inc yes it is girls inc who's the executive director for girls inc um and the conversation really is going to be focused around how to how to balance you know all of us have busy lives and we have things going on outside of being an elected official but just how do you balance it um and and keep your head above water and then we'll open it up for questions so i'm sure it's going to be all kinds of questions all over the place um i had a chance to be um the speaker for uh reverend elizabeth siplen's sixth year anniversary at new faith free methodist church on sunday so that was really good i enjoyed that a lot um and um just a heads up more and more seniors are being i got two calls on yesterday alone seniors being scammed one um that i'm going to be calling once the the family member gives me all of the information i'm going to be calling our state attorney um because someone who's a caregiver somehow or another was able to take out an insurance policy on the client's house um and so that's of concern and then another um which i know sheriff bob gualtieri has done a wonderful job especially right after the hurricanes with people coming in um not being licensed you know doing work and stuff um but this older lady uh has a contractor that claims he did work on her home no work has been done on her home he has a lien on her home now so just a general announcement for anyone who's listening especially if you have a grandparent or aunt or uncle or senior person who may need a little help or a little support please make sure you're there for them because unfortunately we have people that are not reputable and they take advantage of our seniors and and that's just not nice um having said that um some new data came out that shows that people who are 65 and older are selling their homes and renting because it helps them cut down on costs because they can't afford the homeowner's insurance and and then the property tax depending on when they got their home so they're selling their home um it will at least pay off the mortgage maybe it'll have a few dollars in their pocket that can help them live month to month or year to year and then they're renting the issue with that is rents are so high so um that's a sad statistic interesting statistic but just a sad statistic and i know that uh we're doing a lot of work i'm just trying to figure things out the last thing i'll say is i attended the florida league of cities conference annual conference i uh go back every year as a past president there was a session there on property tax and as you could imagine it was the room was almost the size of a ballroom it was packed um because the representatives from tallahassee came down and was trying to go through as much as they have right now which is basically what we've already heard so um it was a lot of conversation a lot of communication um but again we're all just waiting to see what happens so thus ended my report thank you commissioner
flyers commissioner records well looks like we have three hours so i can do the whole tampa bay water meeting um everybody sit back relax um good grief i better go get a coffee for that yeah um first of all i just really wanted to say thank you to the city of dunedin for their purple heart ceremony um on august 7th um i couldn't be more impressed with the speaker again i know i've mentioned his name once before but charlie charles lemon he's an army specialist uh u.s army specialist retired um who um as they say didn't give the ultimate sacrifice but he did lose both of his legs um just the most inspiring speaker family uh was there um and it was just it was just really great uh not too many dry eyes but also just listening to his his speech i'm looking forward to meeting with him uh soon i too attended the estera expansion it was really really good it was nice to see a a smaller company as far as number of employees but what they what their impact is on the county um and the the product that they bring to to the market just really good i was glad to be there along with my fellow commissioners um i joined uh jeff goddard who's the president debbie woodward woodward excuse me who is the chairman of the board at st mark's village they've done a whole new you know common area renovation one of our retirement homes up in palm harbor did a great job a lot of music a lot of residents were there and um again kind of a fixture in palm harbor and um just just really well done i just want to congratulate them on on on all of that work um tampa bay water i will say that um two things one is that last month i didn't bring it up but we had a we have a approval for a performance audit and management study we do it every five years and we did one back in 2015 and one in 2020 and uh really they're so important and so critical um the previous uh prep uh the previous uh general manager of the organization actually was pushed out because of the results of the study it's just really a stringent study they talk about stakeholder um identities and communication uh reliability performance customer experience satisfaction workforce development operational optimization financial viability infrastructure strategy performance community sustainability enterprise resiliency water resource sustainability they have to do it every five years they'll be working on that immediately probably bring it to the board late this year early next year really gives an inside perspective on the organization what they're doing internally and how they work with partners not only in this county but around the region of course that's what tampa bay water represents the region the three counties so that's that's a good thing we also got permission from the districts swift mud that says we can take on high waters we can take 19 percent of the water off the top instead of 10 percent so we're getting a little extra 405 million gallons of water we added to the reservoir in the last month pretty good half a billion up to 10 billion now it's 15 is full it's up to 10 last year at this time we had two so it was after the drought and it's really when the rain started but we were we and we quickly filled up but who knew at that time and we didn't have our desal plant running and it was very very nerve-wracking time but no no no no stoppage of service it was just full full speed ahead but this year the reservoir is more full than normal and so we're in good shape there but that was a that was a big move and the district supported it if you didn't take the water it's going to go right into the bay so this was a really good move um and um we have our friends from polk county that you know they think we shouldn't be doing it we're downstream and it doesn't make any difference to them but uh nonetheless good good move and looking forward to to those continued improvements uh also attended the dedication at the largo fire station well done um a win-win-win so says our chairman today and a few comments i thought they were really good thank you chair chair for those uh also wanted to um mention carol carol uh bue miller who like like you know commissioner latvala said one of the absolutely nicest person that you could ever imagine just a lovely lady and when you were new to the group and it's it was republican group republican club group um nobody could make you feel more welcome she was just beautiful from the inside out and smile and just just gonna really really really miss her um just having her there every time you went uh just a beautiful lady um with a kind just kindness that uh open warm heart and all of that i can't say enough sarah malo had a nice write-up on facebook just beautifully said um much better than i just did but she's just uh just an incredible lady and we'll miss her and um also just to it was pretty impactful what you said uh jewel about your young attorney that you lost and prayers from all of us to her family and friends and um you know youth it's just awful that you lose people so young but um just know let her
know thank you commissioner eggers all right um gosh let's see i had the opportunity to meet um rebecca brown um yesterday for coffee uh who was the new ceo at the innovation center so i had a good a good chat with her uh also had a chance to meet with um the folks from allegiant airlines via virtually uh yesterday had a good discussion with them and and you know what their thoughts are on future plans for their operations here at at pi which includes more growth so we're happy about that um this past monday had an opportunity to or a week ago monday rather to film a safety trail at taylor park or safety video for the penalty trail at taylor park with the sheriff uh so appreciate uh the sheriff and ricky butler and his communications team getting out there on a monday morning and i was all suited my bike year having a new bike out there and we were we were riding up and down the trail doing some safety uh videos so that'll be uh hopefully ready here in another a couple weeks too with my new bike even right yeah so that was that was the first uh my maiden voyage with it so that was a lot of fun uh as commissioner faller mentioned mentioned we both attended the regional infrastructure accelerator kickoff at tia i had a chance to have coffee with the charlie van zant the new city manager at treasure island very nice guy very capable uh got a lot a lot of work to do down there but i think he's gonna do i think he's gonna do a great job wish him all the all the six best and success attended uh the beaches chamber casino night uh this past saturday night along with uh commissioner newwicky so that was a very nice event a lot of fun uh this morning attended the fire station number 39 ribbon cutting and largo i was there a year and a half ago when they did the the groundbreaking so it was nice to come back to see the uh the finished product uh so it's a great it's a great facility going to serve the uh you know serve the community very well they gave yes they did county a lot a lot of kudos on that and and thanks to craig hare um for all of his work on that and ems and fire they did a great job on that um the esteros ribbon cutting was i thought was great that was i mean what a what a feather in our cap for pinellas county to have that level of a of a defense contractor right here in pinellas county i mean that's pretty darn cool yeah it really is so so hats off to um to dr johnson and the team at pinellas county economic development for making for making that happen um tomorrow we've got tdc meeting um friday we have the 1000th home dedication for habitat and i have a proclamation for for those folks also friday afternoon we have groundbreaking for the psta's new transit uh center in clearwater yeah so that's that's uh it's coming up that's been a long long time in the in the making on uh next monday i will be up on the pinellas trail up in in tarpa springs with puppies yes that you heard that right plural uh for for my next canine commissioner endeavor so um so keep an eye out for that yeah i'm gonna bring that along with me that's a good idea and then uh finally uh just uh some some kudos for for pinellas county communications specifically john carkeet and eric bell that recently received three awards from the florida public relations association in the category of collateral of public relations uh they got three awards award of distinction the judge's award and the judge's creativity award for our 2024 accomplishments report so congratulations to them and the job and a job well done that is uh that is my report and and so i guess that means we're we actually we could we could go we could go hang the sign all right all right well if there's nothing else for the good of the order then we are adjourned until six o'clock see you all then good evening everybody like to open up our public hearing so we'll move to
item number 26. thank you mr chair agenda item number 26 is a petition of apartments at gateway to llc to vacate a portion of 34th street north extension county road number 265 declared to be a public road in board of county commissioner's minutes book 23 page 253 filed on april 12 1949 beginning being 100 feet in width lying within property owned by apartments at gateway 2 llc as recorded in official records book 17960 page 495 and within property owned by apartments at gateway 2 llc as recorded in official records book 17960 page 512 all in sections 22 23 26 27-30-16 pinellas county florida the public hearing was properly advertised in an affidavit of publication has been received for filing letters of no objection have been received by the clerk from the appropriate parties all interested parties have been notified as to the date of the public hearing and no correspondence has been received by the clerk the matter is properly before the board to be heard thank you darlin okay approval
okay we have a motion by commissioner egger second by commissioner flowers any discussion hearing none if we can open up the voting please passes unanimously thank you moving on to item 27 agenda item number 27
is a proposed resolution adopting the joe's creek industrial park master plan the public hearing was properly advertised in an affidavit of publication has been received for filing no correspondence has been received by the clerk the matter is properly before the board to be heard okay thank you darlin
any questions thoughts yes we have motion by commissioner flower second by commissioner eggers any further discussion if we open up the voting passes unanimously thank you very much moving on to item 28
agenda item number 28 is a proposed ordinance amending pinellas county code chapter 122-3 related to the dory slasberg driver education safety act to increase the current locally collected fee of three dollars per civil traffic penalty to the maximum of five dollars per case as allowed within florida statute 318.1215 the public hearing was properly advertised in an affidavit of publication has been received for filing no correspondence has been received by the clerk and it matters properly before the board to be heard
thank you darlin okay motion by commissioner peters second second by commissioner flowers do we have any further
discussion yes i see the superintendents here i didn't know if he may have wanted to say something or regarding this now you're shaming him into it yeah
okay oh i'm sorry all right who had 604
and he was turning around too i just you know since he came all this way good evening kevin yeah good
evening thank you for considering this we run driver's education programs in all of our high schools many large districts have really uh trimmed back on driver's education because it is so expensive and we've actually accelerated it we now offer it in 14 of our 16 high schools during the day we offer camps after school and in the summer it's for all students in the county public private home school and we think it's one of the most important things we do in terms of life ready skills and so this gives us an opportunity to continue to fund it uh leasing these cars buying the cars paying the instructors all those things the costs continue to rise and it's an expensive program to run and we appreciate your
support number one make sure that the speaker fills out a card as is proper protocol um but number two real quick i just wanted to mention that i served uh as well as uh commissioner peters served with irv slasberg who was tire a tireless advocate for driver safety and every session and he sponsored a seat belt law i believe seven years in a row and it didn't matter what the topic was we could be talking about whatever and he would get up and start debating about driver safety um and sometimes it would be somewhat annoying until you knew that dory slasberg was his daughter and when he turned out of office um his replacement was emily slasberg who is a friend of mine um irv's daughter but more importantly dory's uh slasberg's twin sister um who was riding in the car uh with dory the day that dory was killed as well as a car full of other um teenagers um in a very tragic uh horrific accident in south florida and so i just wanted to mention them in that brief story um and i'm glad that we're doing this yeah
and i would uh add to that i took driver's ed when i was in high school and remember it being very impactful and as the owner and operator of a commercial vehicle uh company i completely understand and appreciate the value of driver training so i fully support this as well yeah no i mean really
y'all are lucky hey maybe with all this driver's ed our insurance rates might go down in pinellas county because we're the highest insurance rates in the state so it'd be nice but thank you for all the effort you're doing to make sure we have good safe drivers so thank you yep all right thank you
kevin uh any further discussion okay if we can open up the voting please pass unanimously okay on to
item number 29. thank you mr chair agenda item number 29 is an interlocal agreement with the city of pinellas park which would enable the city to include unincorporated enclaves and properties that border the city prop boundary in their comprehensive playing efforts and ensure that subject property owners and the county are notified of these activities the agreement would also establish the boundaries of the proposed planning area and ensure that the unincorporated property owners could participate in any administrative legislative quasi judicial or judicial proceedings for the city's comprehensive plan amendments the public hearing was properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing no correspondence has been received by the clerk in the matters properly before the board to be heard thank you darlin okay any thoughts questions
from the board we do have uh one speaker uh danielle stewart danielle only for questions okay great thank you for being here appreciate it okay okay motion by commissioner eggers second second by commissioner flowers any further discussion hearing none if we could open up the voting passed unanimously okay thank you well that concludes our public hearing
for tonight thank you all have a great evening we are adjourned i hope you feel better sir