As we gather here today, we are very thankful for just allowing us to be present. We are thankful for having the use of our limbs, but more importantly, we are thankful for a heart and a mind to want to serve the residents of Pinellas County. We ask that you just continue to bless our work. For those who are still suffering under the auspices of the previous storms, we ask that you just continue to give them peace and allow them to have the strength to move forward. For all of the businesses within our community who were also impacted and are still struggling just a little, we ask that you allow them to remember that there is always a ray of sunshine after the storm. We ask that you just bless all of the departments that are here within Pinellas County that serve to provide benefit and quality of life to our residents. We ask for each person that is present here in the room today that you allow them to continue to persevere forward, knowing that sometimes our roles are not easy, but that is why we have taken on the responsibility that we have, because we are able to withstand any scrutiny or any storm that may come as long as we are making decisions that are true and that are right. We ask that you bless this meeting for all of us today. We understand that while their anger is not with us specifically, their anger and or disappointment is just in the situation. Allow us to respond accordingly so that we take into account all of the feelings, all of the thoughts of each and every person that shall come before us on today. More importantly, we are just thankful for being here in your presence. we could be somewhere else doing something else or we could not have a presence here on this earth and be called to glory but you have allowed us to see another day you've allowed us to be healthy to be strong and to be even-minded we are thankful for all of these things and all that we ask is that you just continue to bless us in the work that we do so that we can always do it to the glory and unification of your name these and all other blessings we ask in the majestic name of the ones that we serve let every heart say amen i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all i have to remember okay we have a couple of proclamations uh today the first one is it professionals day proclamation i would like to invite jeff roars and dana zordon from bts business technology service to the podium to accept the it professionals day proclamation come on up bts is the county's technology partner and they are a great collaborators and because of that they've also asked me to invite following people to join them chris short and rakesh patel from the clerk of the court brandon king from court technology jim armstrong and ivan morley from the property appraiser's office eric ferguson from the public defender's office burt mills and jamie cunahan from the pinellas county sheriff's office jennifer bryan and nick fatolas from the tax collector's office and david wise and mark gillette from the supervisor of elections office welcome everybody hope you're all doing great today so information technology professionals play a crucial role in supporting local governments operations ensuring the efficient delivery of services and the effective management of critical systems that serve our community it professionals are instrumental in maintaining the technological infrastructure that supports public services from managing data system to securing communication networks which are vital for the smooth functioning of local government their expertise and dedication of these professionals enable local government entities to enhance transparency streamline processes and improve accessibility for residents thereby fostering a more responsive and accountable administration it professionals face complex challenges as they work behind the scenes to implement innovative solutions that address the unique needs of local government driving improvements in public services and operational efficiencies business technology services otherwise known as bts created by interlocal agreement in 2008 they serve as the it agency for all pinellas county government including its constitutional officers thereby creating efficiencies streamlining functionality enhancing cost savings across county agencies and department we take this opportunity to recognize and celebrate the significant contributions of it professionals specifically those bts employees who serve pinellas residents every day as they support local government operations and enhance the quality of life for our entire community now therefore be a proclaim by the pinellas county board of county commissioners that september 16th 2025 be recognized as national it professionals day yeah just like to say thank you to the commission for this proclamation and recognizing it professionals day as you see we this year we decided to recognize not only bts but all of our it partners across the county so we have many of the constitutional offices represented today and their it leaders from across the county so that's that's we're really happy to also recognize our partners this is a team sport uh we can't we can't provide all of the diverse it needs and meet all the diverse it needs uh ourselves in bts so um many of many of who you see up here are our partners we work with every day and we're happy to share this recognition with them so thank you jeff you have proclamation and i invite my fellow commissioners up and we got a big group here so let's figure out how we can okay for our next proclamation we have national workforce development month proclamation i would like to invite members of the am skills team to join me at the podium tom madonna president ceo and tim martin pinellas program coordinator will accept the national workforce development month proclamation so am skills does does great work if you've never had an opportunity uh to take a tour of their facilities up in pasco county i very much encourage you to to do that national workforce development month was created in 2005 and is recognized annually in september in 2014 congress reauthorized the workforce innovation and opportunity act with overwhelming bipartisan support and recognition of the need to strengthen the focus of the united states on the skills necessary to effectively prepare individuals for employment and local and regional industries investment in the education training and career advancement of the workforce in pinellas county known as workforce development is crucial to the ability of pinellas county to compete in the global economy collaboration among state and local governments educational institutions workforce and human services agencies local businesses and community-based organization provides for long-term sustainable and successful workforce development across traditional sectors in emerging industries workforce development is crucial to sustaining economic security for workers in pinellas county and economic development overall pinellas county recognizes that the workforce system and partner programs have helped build the economy of pinellas county and provide increased economic opportunities and provide a pathway into the 21st century jobs that support families while ensuring that businesses find the skilled workforce needed to compete in the global economy now therefore it will be proclaimed by the pinellas county board of county commissioners that september 2025 be recognized as national workforce development month on behalf of am skills uh we were again created uh actually in 2014 by pinellas county pasco and hernando county specifically to address workforce needs and we've been been accomplishing that now for the past 10 years uh recently um i had just last week or two weeks ago attended the expansion ribbon cutting ceremonies of chrome alloy and uh commissioner eggers was there as well but what was interesting is we ran into seven people who are working for chrome alloy who had been through am skills programs uh it was amazing to see this one story was a woman who had spent 31 years in prison went through our program we helped her secure a job at chrome alloy and she's been there four years now so another great story uh a young man he uh said he was working at a supermarket came through the program so he must have been about 22 when he went through the program he's been at chrome alloy now for four years uh and he bought his own house recently so some great stories and workforce is so important so it's not just to help you bring employers into your uh into the county but also to help maintain those that are here and help to expand them so it's critical that we continue to focus on workforce helping to recruit and introduce people to these careers and we're here to help you accomplish that thank you you know i'm commissioner uh chairman um i just want to say it's been wonderful to watch am skills because you had some bumps in pinellas county in the beginning but you really have have just risen to the occasion and you know in pasco what you're doing is incredible and i expect what you're going to do in pinellas is going to match that and i'm just really thrilled to have you here and see that you've been so successful so thank you thank you very much chair i just wanted to echo those comments um not only have they done a great job up in pasco county not only they're doing this with individual companies like they did with chromoloy i'm glad to hear that you know you have that relationship of getting their their technicians you know up to speed i mean some of the techno technological requirements are huge there and you all take that first step to get them at least qualified to to be further educated on the job so really great work and i am looking forward to uh continuing conversations in the coming year to see how that relationship here in pinellas can evolve so thank you thank you i can add my three cents um kudos to all the work you do in collaboration with pinellas technical college as well st petersburg clearwater campus um i've been to a number of graduations um looked at the way that you all handle um all of the soft support services as well for placement it's okay to have a skill set but if you don't know how to interview for that job then it doesn't work so you all provide also that soft skill piece that they need so just want to throw my hat in the ring and say thank you so very much for what you're doing to continue to support those who desire to move forward okay for our next proclamation we have our remembrance day uh proclamation i would like to invite representatives from east lake fire rescue fire chief jason genaro and chairman kevin keeney to please join me at the podium to receive the remembrance day pinellas county and the citizens of our great nation join with our fellow americans across the nation in honoring and remembering those who lost their lives in the horrific terrorist attacks on september 11 2001. we continue to offer support to the families and friends who lost loved ones in the devastating events of this day and especially our firefighters police and first responders who continue to step forward and serve our communities with dedication and vigilance we commend the firefighters police and first responders who courageously risked their lives to rescue those in need as well as the ordinary citizens and volunteers who selflessly gave their lives to aid their friends and co-workers who were injured or trapped in the twin towers and the events of september 11 2001 tested the strength and resolve of our country they also reminded us of the values set out by our forefathers who saw a vision for the united states that we would live and be free of tyrannical rule and today we are even more determined than ever we will not give into terrorism and threats to the safety and security of the united states of america the united states is unified in our purpose to prevent further tragedies like those experienced on september 11 2001 and it is right to honor the men and women of our armed forces who have fought tirelessly to keep us safe from further attacks on u.s soil today we remember the lives that were lost honor the heroic actions taken by our first responders and thank the members of our military and their continued service and sacrifice now therefore be proclaimed by the pinellas county board of county commissioners that september 11th 2025 be recognized as remembrance day the men and women of east lake fire rescue are incredibly humbled to be here as representatives of the 343 ftny members who lost their lives on 9-11 in addition to the other first responders and volunteers who lost their lives and the civilians as well thank you very much for the invitation and please just take a moment to pray for everyone who was lost that day thank you okay before we go on to citizens to be heard i do want to uh just thank and recognize um the deputies that are here to keep us safe today deputy mike winnick deputy kevin mcsweeney and uh deputy hinson also i uh recently uh just learned that um deputy stopper who was a frequent deputy that protected us here at meetings um recently passed away from from cancer so if we could please just take a moment of silence to uh mr chair if you get any information relative to the arrangement um yes okay yeah we'll do all right um now we will move on to public uh comment and uh dave if you please remind me we have two speakers for item number 10 when we get there all right uh first we have david ballard gettis jr hi good afternoon commissioners david ballard gettis jr i live on georgia avenue in palm harbor based on pinellas county resolution 95 286 section 4c-2 stating absolute bill of sale full warranties of title and release of county lien the county has sold itself to the water district in a 30-year transfer of title agreement the county is seen as self-liquidating itself in statute 163.01 transferring county function and power in home rule charter section 2.04 q as sold the county nullifying its own ad valorem property tax lien has entered into a quid pro quo agreement with the water district and is intending to shapeshift the county from its fortnighted statesmanship into a politically laundered watershed jurisdiction under the 14th amendment dissolving our current government in statute 15303 section 7 and 11 intending to assume itself as separate but equal stations insurrected as individual independent privatized prideful despotic water jurisdictions as a non-ad valorem levy as a power of the earth as declared as enumerated from article 1 section 2 intending to usurp the reins of government as declared hoping to reconstitute itself in statute 373.715 implicating implicating both the county and the water district and giving rise to unduly elected fiefdoms birthed as a non-ad valorem levy not based on the millage rate in statute 197.3632 in support of a constitutionally predispositioned water jurisdiction racketeered as a district not to exceed 10 miles square in article 1 section 8 clause 17 of our current constitution birthing itself as a ship of war as a sale from article 1 section 10 intent on taking the liberty property and life of the christian population as based on the reclaim water variance application as deduced in the 14th amendment and racketeering charges will be uh brought before this board and the district soon thank you thank you david here are my findings thank you sir okay thank you okay next uh hillary simpson yeah or do you want me to speak to it with it in front of okay that's that sounds fine good afternoon hillary thank you um first i wanted to say thank you um chair scott vice chair eggers commissioners flowers norike peters and latvala for taking the time to schedule meetings with me regarding what i'm about to discuss with you today and special thank you to your legislative aides who have been so gracious in their responses as well i'm here today to talk to you guys about noise in pinellas county so for the last two years i've been dealing with excessive noise from a adjoining property and have found that the current noise ordinance in pinellas county has been challenging to enforce and my inter my understanding of why it's been so challenging is because it relies on a tool that is cumbersome to obtain um so i have compiled a comparison of the different noise ordinances within the the various municipalities of pinellas county and what i'll highlight here i'll talk about the eight the 17 municipalities within the table um the seven on the left all have municipalities ordinances that define excessive noise based on distance from the source of origin and i think that this is important because it reduces the need for a costly tool that's cumbersome to obtain and more easily enforces noise in a timely manner and and hopefully provides more accountability in real time the 10 municipalities on the right all define excessive noise based on decimal meter readings you can see that the eight that are highlighted all either have thresholds for decimal readings that are lower than pinellas county or they have expanded quiet hours and i want to highlight that as well because pinellas county encompasses the largest amount of residents that we have as well as transient residents and it has the highest propensity to create excessive noise as a result and so i think it's really important that we focus on recognizing that sleep and noise pollution can can cause health concerns and can affect well-being and quality of life for our residents um i think that this shows that a noise ordinance that focuses on distance and defines excessive noise via distance is feasible and is already being done within several municipalities within the county um and if if the alternative is relaying on decimal meter readings then i think that we have room to decrease our thresholds um for what's classified excessive and also expand our quiet hours most of what you see here encompasses quiet hours that begin at 10 on either side of the table and some even go as far as to state 6 pm as the beginning of quiet hours and most decimal thresholds are between the 60 and 65 reading for during the day and 50 to 55 for quiet hour duration so um i just wanted to give you guys that insight um and encourage you to take a look and utilize it when we're modifying our noise ordinance thank you thank you hold on one second oh okay um and it really wasn't for you but thank you for coming and i know i'm on your you're on my calendar and and i look forward to seeing you so um i really like that she brought this up and so very since we're talking about this i think in the next meeting if we could maybe take a look at that i like the idea of distance versus decibel um the quiet hours are we i think we already have in place um but the the the decibel thing can be very problematic where distance you know and after seeing that there was bowling alleys in some neighborhoods i think the distance of noise is you know i mean really and basketball courts the distance of noise might be a much uh user-friendly tool than having to get those meters that sometimes don't calibrate properly that don't stand up in court um so i i think if we don't have this if we could look at this before we vote on it i think would be really a good thing to include for a discussion when when is the uh north ordinance coming to the commission so it'll be on your agenda at the next meeting so they have looked at this i'll make sure tom and kevin get this um and then you can have full discussion okay because i i i think this is a a good option on us for a solution so thank you and i know you get with the attorneys and we'll look at it and then i'll see you when we have our meeting thank you thank you for coming a copy of all of the ordinances that i'm happy to provide just to save some time um via email well kevin's going to come out and get that they have looked at the other ordinances but but i mean make sure we have them all so kevin's going to get your contact information thanks hillary and kevin's been great if he can make this work i know he will no pressure i'm sure i'm sure the things that they're talking about are things that they've looked at but yeah it'll be a full discussion we completely agree that enhancements need to occur thank you appreciate it thank you mr chair yes okay next we have angie no last name just angie you have an angie she's in the back comment okay hey everyone good afternoon good morning good afternoon i hope everyone's having a good day i am here because i feel the need to address something that's horrible i used to live out of this pack for fun i would hike i've hiked all of the national parks i've had a ball long story short four years ago i fought a battle and i won but i still i lost everything through no fault of my own and i became homeless now this pack is how i survive in the real world um my experience has brought me to see and understand the complexities of homelessness not all homeless people are dangerous however i worry every day about finding a safe place to camp for the night because as a woman as a woman because of the horrific number of drug addicts people that need mental health care and those they those people need help they're not all dangerous that this that they're batshit um and most importantly um jesus christ most importantly are the registered sex offenders that live in the forest the swamps and the places where you enjoy during the day but at night these people sleep there they don't care because they're not unchecked yes they're registered sex offenders but at the end of the night i have to sleep with bear spray i had a business before i'm 45 years old i've never been homeless in my life i've worked since i was 14 years old my parents were cops god rest their souls i came from a family of military this is not fun for me anymore i will burn this pack which brings me to why i'm here you guys gave i worry every night about being arrested for trying to find a safe place to sleep however you guys gave 427 million dollars to the agency that made me homeless in the first place and i can't get any relief that money is used to cover lawsuit settlements they know that they did me dirty goatee area agreed to make my life right and for four years i am sleeping where i can it's not fair it's not fair i gotta sleep amongst everybody i come from this state why am i suffering i was paying tax dollars shelters or just as bad as jail my relief get welfare i don't get i don't i've never asked any government agency before they die why am i still homeless i shower out of this bag i do my laundry out of this bag i eat out of this bag dehydrated food i don't get food stamps i get nothing i work on horse ranches if i can't farms if i can't angie help me okay if if you could wait in the lobby we'll have somebody come and speak with you next we have greg pound greg pound largo florida i'd like to read something out of the bible this comes out of um mark chapter 16 when christ established his church this is what he said and these signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out demons so the first thing that he gave his church the responsibility to do was to go and cast out demons and when it says to and these signs shall follow them that believe there's a difference between believing god and believing god and the difference is obedience and so as it goes through the list here i want to read to you some things that are of people in our county that are demon possessed and these demons they begin with hate it begins with hate whether it's parents going through a divorce or bad relationships whatever it is it begins with hate now these here are classes that parents were put in to teach their little children at five years old touching their sexual organs for pleasure is normal this is a class through the sheriff's department that's at five years old at six years old there's a whole list of things i'm just going to read these that i picked out that sexual identity includes sexual orientation lesbian gay straights and bisexuals now these are supposed to be taught to your children in pinellas county at the age of six years old okay here we have the largo police department officers arrested for child porn these are people who have demons in them the demons are they get the people out of control if you're an adult looking at child porn you have a demon in you that's controlling you and if we don't get back as a society this is a jodeo christian country built on christ in the bible and the word of god here's judge downey on 49th street hooked to a penis pump with a courtroom full of people this man has a demon in them drug your rehabilitation your medication we have to go back in the you go to any church and none of them are casting demons out of people the demons come in and take up strongholds in the people and control them look at this guy here this richard simmons talking about licking chocolate off little children they dip in chocolate when he when he comes to um tampa here this is tbt so what you have is we have now a society that is filled with demons we have people out of control and it begins with hate when the bible says the devil comes to steal kill and to destroy that's what he's doing and i'm telling you it doesn't matter who you are what the situation is in your family and what you're dealing with when you see all these people that are obese you go to public's or any store and you see them these are demons and people controlling them they got them out of control you can't be 500 pounds and can't even walk in the store to get more food and you're in a and you're in a cart going to get more food and you don't see that you don't see the physical these are demonic spirits that come in and take over people and get them out of control and if we don't deal with it and we keep giving medication and think this and that we need to get back the church needs to come back and these signs shall follow them that believe they shall cast out demons we need to get back thank you greg okay uh moving on to our consent agenda items um five through nine anybody would like to pull anything just to have um a summary real quickly on the two uh where they consider large purchases or large contracts okay so seven and eight so do i have a motion for approval okay um second thing all right all in favor all right all right okay all right let's move to item number seven item number seven is ranking of firms within visual chicago um however you say that for advertising and promotion obviously this is with cbb this replaces the bbk and miles partnership contract so long-standing relationships with them uh we actually should have put this on the regular agenda we um just because it's a change but um uh yes so this is um a significant contract um if you have questions brian is here to answer this yeah well yeah just it's 139 million dollar contract it's a new slip that in you know yeah yeah yeah so we should have put that on the regular i apologize and it's a uh long-standing relationship with a previous company which again i'm i'm sitting on the tdc as the next officio and totally agree with the the decision and everything else but i just thought it would be helpful for us to all hear it and maybe residents who might be seeing uh this five year 140 million dollar contract thank you certainly brian lowak president ceo visit st p clearwater and as you stated this is uh our currently we have two agreements with two different agencies one for the traditional advertising one for the digital advertising and those agreements are coming up uh to the end of their term so as we've been doing with everything the last couple years at visit st p clearwater when we have the opportunity to make improvement we go ahead and take advantage of that and so we went out to rfp for this and what we did was we combined both traditional and digital media because of the changing landscape uh in the media market now we put it into one uh all under the same umbrella however we split up uh into two separate rfps the creative and brand strat strategy side for one rfp and the digital the media planning and buying into one rfp and between the two uh we received nine nine applicants for one ten applicants for the other all the big firms um put their ring in the hat we put together a review committee made up of uh steve grimes our chief marketing officer myself marketing directors from around the county as well as a tdc member captain dylan hubbard represented the tdc on that review panel that envision applied for both rfps and they were the number one ranked firm for both of those we put it together in one rfp and so you will see the um slight increase of the the increase of the price there over the term of the agreement that's because it's combining two different um currently traditional and the digital into one and it also accounts for the additional increase to the advertising budget and visit st p clearwater over the next five years based on the current base funding so just real quickly how were the uh each each rfp was raped by your commit the committee um how how did that break down uh how was the breakdown of the voting on the by the committee now i don't mean by person but just how did it was it split was it you know it was unanimous on both correct so each of them considered separately the same company got both correct and there was there was quite a gap between first place and second place in both sides i think it's important to understand this big contract that we have that it's really important for our county really important for tourism in our county really important for property owners restaurants hotels etc this is really helps feed one of our major industries and that to this group is extremely important to us um so having that relationship for so many years with somebody else making a change will be interesting but i know that they're you'll you'll do a good job bringing them on and making them do their do their things thank you brian yes sir uh thank you mr chairman speaking of making a change um last year um we don't have to rehash this but uh pinellas county was devastated by two hurricanes and uh the tourism industry hoteliers were concerned with how we were going to rebound after they literally got sand out of their pools and all that kind of stuff and you know there was a lot of worry about how we would get visitors to come back uh soon after we all saw commercials that said the sun's still shining and it had pictures of our beaches all different kinds of destinations i think there were like four or five different commercials that y'all blasted all over uh like different markets in the northeast i think in canada uh other areas that you target um who came up with that strategy uh the sun still shining campaign yeah um and uh the entire team came up with that and um they do that every day they come up with creative things and i i really want to give them credit for that because at the time it was i mean we're in the eoc um you know around the clock and and the team they were the ones who said you know i know there's there's a lot going on out there on the beaches however you know the folks who are planning trips for uh from canada from the uk from south america and they're looking to come here in six months they're considering that now and we need to get in front of them and actually commissioner peters at the time was chair and we went out two weeks after those storms over to uh travel week london and when folks came up to us and said you know we're sorry to hear about the beaches we you know with a smile we said well don't worry we're still shining uh and we can't wait to have you back so but when you said the team that's not the marketing agency that was a long-time vendor yeah of visit say pink clear our internal that was your team our internal team correct yeah that was my my point sorry yeah so sometimes sometimes change is good and um you know i wanted to highlight the bright team that you have you know that that came up with that strategy um it wasn't some slick new york marketing agency it was your team thank you sir mission so and to add on to that the ampersand campaign was your staff as well right again all of this we worked together with our with our agency um i will tell you we we looked and we wanted to push really for something different outside of the box uh and steve grimes uh and his entire uh team katie bridges everybody on the advertising promotion side um they have really impressed me they impress me every day um with the ideas and the creative solutions that they bring to the table each and every day so so that campaign i thought was outstanding because we couldn't sell every one of our beaches but we could sell our craft breweries and we could sell our art and we can sell and so that ampersand campaign i thought was brilliant and and so i whoever was responsible i thought it was brilliant but um i guess since we're on the subject and you're here i have been visiting some of the local tourist destinations and they are suffering like they've never suffered before right now so i have restaurants that just don't even know if they're going to be able to keep the doors open they they they they i want so they've never in the 20 years that they've been in business have not experienced what they're going through they even survived 2008 better than what they're going through now you know and um and and the truth is in my neighborhood less than half of the neighbors are living in their homes yet so the residents aren't living there and this is the time of year when it's not big tourism um and and we will lost 40 percent of our vacation rentals i don't know how many are online and you may know that but not on right off the cuff um because i am curious if you can get back to me and let me know how many vacation rentals are back online because i know we lost 40 percent um and then i also know that the you know when you give the hotel rates and it sounds like our tourism was only down five percent the vast majority of the people living in those hotels were residents so we sold the rooms but they were to residents and and the tourist t-shirt shops didn't benefit from the residents and the local restaurants are not benefiting from the residents being in the uh in the um hotel rooms and so you know they're feeling that whole 12 months of just pain and suffering working to get back open and open and and they can't get people in their doors so are we working on another staycation campaign i think i saw a commercial for it but are we working on stuff to help um even running in our own county to get people to go to the beaches or go to those restaurants on the beaches because i can tell you i don't know if a lot of them are going to make it to january 1st yeah so to answer the first question we still currently have about 17 of our short-term vacation rentals that uh we lost on the supply that are not back up and running yet um on uh on the bright news to that is as you mentioned we lost about 40 40 to 60 right off the get-go uh in october so every month we've um seen that that number improve uh as far as the supply on the county wide on the hotel rooms we have about five percent of the hotel supply that's still offline and not open however about 75 of that supply is all in the southern county beaches from uh treasure island down to st pete beach if you look at clearwater clearwater beach as well as st petersburg their adr has held steady the demand stayed strong and their supply is all there um so they're having good years on the hotel sides it's it's particularly those uh barrier island communities in the southern portion of the county yeah those are the places i've been going and they are they are hurting really really really bad i mean really bad one of the things that we did recently because as everyone knows last saturday was national beach day we really put some advertising behind that and we hit the greater tampa bay market hard with that and we also saw during the summer time with school being out that's typically where you're not getting the midwest and northeast visitors but with the school being out we advertised in the greater tampa bay area along the i-4 corridor and florida drive markets like we never have before and we did see a bump in visitation from those uh greater tampa bay areas but we have seen a decline in florida as a whole uh driving over so we're going to continue to hammer home on the greater tampa bay area with the growth in in pole county pasco and east hillsborough county and i want to congratulate you on seven to seven day um i i had a friend come in town she wanted to stay at the don cesar and the prices were so high and i called and i said is there anything for locals and he's like yeah we're doing seven to seven days so that turned out to be a great perk for her um and so i assume i was out of town but i assume that was a great success and so congratulations on that and i see we have copycats now so i see hillsborough county's doing 813 days and i wouldn't be surprised if you see that all across the nation so kudos to you guys for coming up with a great idea we consider ourselves trendsetters yes you are thanks brian thank you dave yeah sorry uh again i i really wanted to tip my hat to you all as well your your team is just first rate and i i like the idea and i hope that the the work and messaging that you do have been doing continues and that you know perhaps don't get distracted with other challenges that uh some think you might need to take on um but i but i i did want to i did want to second the comments about the group i think it was first rate i do like the concept of the staycation and letting people in this county understand where some of these restaurants are what they're all about what their menus are like because we know in areas where they're where they're they've kind of recovered people are going to restaurants like crazy so it's just a matter of understanding what's available what what kind of meal they might be able to get uh you know it may be a little bit different that i'm not trying to take take away business from areas that are doing okay but i think sometimes spreading the wealth is is helping folks get through a tough time so i think whatever we can do to kind of highlight that would be great so yeah the the local market the drive market greater tampa bay market uh folks inside pinellas county just to make a staycation as you mentioned that's our bread and butter uh and we get about 71 percent of our visitors uh and hotel stays overnight visitors are from the greater tampa bay area so they will always be key uh and who we are targeting thank you we have a motion move approval okay motion by commissioner egger second by commissioner latvallo um all in favor any opposed okay motion passed unanimously on to item number eight item eight rink and affirms with an agreement with nomad global communications for the care mobile medical unit um and we have karen here to answer any questions i know we have a couple of units already and this will be another one so just trying to understand a little bit what our fleet looks like and and what they each each fleet unit brings to the table sure so karen yatcham i'm director of human services so this will be our third vehicle for the health care for the homeless program we have one 45 foot vehicle that goes to various locations in the community and that is a massive massive vehicle that provides all clinical services we also have a street medicine van that goes out to areas where people live that are unsheltered to deliver primary health care and link them back to the medical home this van is going to be specific to behavioral health so reaching out to those who may need behavioral health services in our community diagnosing treating linking them back to the medical home we're also exploring the potential of using this van for an extension of the pinellas matters program so individuals that are going into the hospital who have overdosed that are being prescribed suboxone we could use this van as part of opioid settlement to have a team go out and continue those medications for those who are unsheltered and not able to get into clinics so this this this uh unit is has unique as a unique service within the other two weren't providing that uh this would be specific to behavioral health care thank you afternoon karen so um will this be staff with our own professionals are we contracting that out all the services are contracted out so no county staff would be on so we're just providing the vehicle and just owning the vehicle correct about how many people do we anticipate we might serve a year with us any idea well i would say for this so in total for the health care for the homeless program we serve around 2100 annually um for the street medicine van i'm just trying to go off to right around 500 that we serve that are unsheltered um i would say probably around the same you know it's it's a we're going out and really kind of outreaching but really trying to bring them back into the clinic um meeting them where they are is this a five day a week seven day a week five day a week all right all right motion motion by commissioner flowers second by commissioner peters all in favor all right any opposed okay passed unanimously okay uh going on to our regular agenda uh item number 10 and i do have two speakers uh for item number 10. item number 10 is funding recommendations and agreements with non-profit entities for the alcohol and drug abuse trust funds these are our substance use advisory board that makes these recommendations they've reviewed this total amount of funding doesn't exceed thirty five thousand dollars all right uh first public speaker we have is uh rodolfo truncaso rodolfo going once going twice okay uh no um next would be elizabeth dimmitt um she said against elizabeth dimmitt going once twice well that concludes public comment at item number 10. commissioner flowers i'm supporting the recommendations but i do have a question i see where gulf coast jewish family community services was funded for six thousand dollars for uh computer upgrades and i believe we funded them quite handsomely uh through um our opera dollars for some technology things and we just funded them through another um so anyway i'm just asking is this are this two different systems that they're asking a continuation of what we funded them for in another area you don't know well i would i don't know what we funded them for our but that was outside of this department this is for actual laptops for the staff that are providing substance use services i did read their their thing so i'd have to check with well the the so it would be different because i'm sorry please forgive me it would be different because the previous one was for their main server okay so okay i answered my own question i'm sorry hey just take a minute for the memory to come back but yeah it was for the actual server unit that they um that they have in the cold room i just answered my question thank you okay anybody else move approval all right motion from commissioner flowers second from commissioner eggers if we could bring up the voting please i'm a yes yeah i think we're all yes i think we're all yes yeah i didn't pop but i'm a yes yeah okay all right pass unanimously uh moving on to item number 11. item 11 is opioid abatement funding advisory board bylaws and so these are before you they've been discussed and um recommended for your approval no fiscal impact motion by commissioner peters second by commissioner wiki do you have any further discussion nope we could open up the voting yeah mine isn't pop i'm yes mine has not popped up either so i think we got some technology people in the room pass unanimously all right we'll go on to item number 12 public works item 12 is a hazard mitigation grant um a program point of contact so we changing the point of contacts we have to modify it with the floor department of emergency management motion by commissioner egger second by commissioner flowers any discussion hearing none if we can up up voting um yes as well mine is not popped up anybody inside outside back in all right passes unanimously item number 13. this is the same thing it's name change um with um the federal emergency management agency okay motion by commissioner egger second by commissioner peters any discussion if we could open up voting please i am a yes all right pass unanimously moving on to 14. item 14 is local agency emergency repairs agreement um with the floor department of transportation this is for um improvements or um emergency repairs out on the denean causeway so it's 58 000 of reimbursement all right um motion by commissioner flowers second by commissioner peters any questions all right uh hearing none if we can open up voting i'm a yes all right moving on to item number 15. 15 is intergovernmental services agreement with the juvenile welfare board for information technology services from bts motion by commissioner flowers a second by commissioner nowicki any discussion hearing none if we could open up the voting and i am trying to log back in i'm a yes passed unanimously uh okay it looks like it popped up all right item number 16. this is a resolution approving the issuance of single family mortgage revenue bonds by the finance or the housing finance authority uh to finance uh loans made through a joint program with other various housing finance authorities total principal amount not to exceed 250 million this is for calendar years 25 through 28. um and again it's done in conjunction with pasco and polk county and katherine driver is here if you have questions okay motion by commissioner flowers i was gonna see a question like the the makeup of like make sure like is the money staying in pinellas or is it going to pasco and um when you're when you're ready i'll have her come up you ready ready come on katherine afternoon katherine thank you uh katherine and driver with the housing finance authority of pinellas county um so um this is um how we've historically had our single family program we've had interlocal agreements with pasco county and with polk county they're um not large enough to issue bonds on their own so if they don't have a program with us they're not able to offer these below market interest rate mortgages we can only use new allocation in pinellas county but any carry forward allocation we have which is allocation that's more than a year old um we have three years to use that we can use that in the other counties as well and so um this allows us to have a three-year plan of finance and get into the market to price the bonds um on a moment's notice instead of having to go through the process of a tougher hearing multiple tougher hearings and then having to come before the board every time we need to issue that and then perhaps lose out on you know where the market is to price our bonds so does that answer your questions or do you have any others yeah i mean um so it's you know it's a joint and so we're essentially taking there i just want to make sure there's no like pinellas county taxpayer money going towards like pasco or the other there's there's no taxpayer money going into those other counties the housing finance authority does use its own money to finance um the down payment and closing cost assistance loans in those counties but that's our own funds that are generated through interest income and program income we don't receive any county dollars perfect thank you okay any other questions no thanks captain thank you very much okay so i think we had a motion by commissioner do we have a second second by commissioner nowiki all right any further discussion okay if we can open up voting please all right passes unanimously on to item number 17. item 17's companion this resolution approves of pinellas county as an area of operation for the housing finance authority of hillsboro with respect to the financing um by the authority of acquisition for multifamily housing developments located in pinellas um so this property is 304 units um and again catherine's here to answer questions okay motion by commissioner flowers second by commissioner peters any questions discussion all right we can open up voting passes unanimously madam attorney i have no reports today none none all right administrator um two items um first um i want to announce that we have hired uh tristan summers who's currently an aide for rep cheney uh to be our intergovernmental affairs liaison and he'll start on september 22nd so we're excited for him to join the team and get busy and uh work on our behalf and then the second item is i need someone for him to work with which is your guys's job is to select uh a state uh lobby firm which is the second part of today's uh discussion so um so you interviewed um all the different firms the other day um it's under it's the contract amount is under my authorities just speed this up if you give us direction if you can come to a consensus around the firm then i can put them under contract and and get them going working on our program for next year so i don't have to bring back a contract to you for approval but again um it that would be a discussion for today if you can come to that if you can have that debate give us that direction we can make that happen thank you mr chair um i think we have a huge opportunity here to go in a different direction than we have in the past few years um i've been very vocal that i was not happy with the previous firm that we had um and so i i i was so welcoming to have this new process and bring in a new firm um and what i can tell you is i think everybody that submitted a proposal are very nice people they're all nice people and i know most of them um but i want to strongly represent supporting johnson stewart and i've got a lot of reason why so if you'll indulge me i'd like to explain why i feel strongly about that particular firm um so you know as they showed when they presented they have won numerous awards they're an award-winning boutique firm who carefully and strategically pick their clients um and with them we will be a a concierge it'll be a concierge firm with us where when you're in a huge firm and we that's what we experienced with southern we were in this huge firm and we didn't get the concierge experience we didn't get the communications about what was going on that was associated with we got boilerplates we didn't know what was going on that was related to pinellas county um and that's my fear about really large firms but when you get a concierge a small boutique firm that's not too small but not too big and they have the ability to really communicate closely and and what makes them even even better is that one of their team members lives in pinellas county they live in st petersburg um so their communications are going to be tailored specifically to our needs and if we need to talk to them they can be here in 20 to 30 minutes if they're not up in tallahassee um because they live here and they understand it and out of all the proposals they mentioned in their proposals all the issues that we're having because they know them because they live here and they know it and and that to me gives me reassurance um i did call on their references and when i called on their references everybody had some references there's one that didn't have i don't think any but when i um when i called on their references i actually called the leadership in both the house and the senate and it's interesting because i know the senate leadership still but i don't know the house members um but they were gracious and they took my call and when i asked them about johnson stewart because they listed them as references the overwhelming support it was just overwhelming um when i asked them when they actually i had one member that said i had several members that said well who are the other firms that you're looking at and they said you know i don't have bad things to say about any of them but i will tell you of the group johnson stewart's the one i think would do the best for your needs so um so just on references alone um the recommendations were significant for them um versus any other firm that we have um the other thing that uh concerned me is they do represent counties they don't represent city they have one city that they represent um and and i i i like that they represent just a handful i think there's three counties in the state that they represent um and therefore there's not a conflict where a firm that and and this is the one thing that worried me about one of the uh firms is when i ask because they represent six cities and i asked how are you going to handle that because because those six cities and they've been very successful with those six cities i mean they have they have gotten them great things um they've been very successful and i called each of those cities and the cities uh were happy with their service but the question is when you add the county in on top of that how does that play out and when they answered it at first i was comfortable with it but the more i thought about it the more i thought so if the timmins consulting would step in and take over the county stuff then shoemaker would continue to represent the cities but are we then paying shoemaker to go against us right so timmins is going to stay and they're going to work for us but then you've got shoemaker that's not going to represent us and we're paying them but they're going to represent the cities and so in a way i feel and i may be wrong i may be feeling i may be misreading this but that's kind of how i feel um and so that gives me concern that one firm would have six cities and the county i mean how do you deal with that conflict um johnson stewart has palm beach and if you've not watched this and and i have watched it palm beach is like our sister county right and they have more municipalities than we do um and so johnson stewart represents them so they get a county that has a lot of municipalities they understand the dynamics of a county that has a lot of municipalities and i would say hand over fist palm beach county comes home with record numbers every single year every single year we certainly haven't had record numbers with our previous firm and so um so just by just by that tells me even without the recommendations i had that tells me that so um almost there i'm sorry um what i like about them is they're a true team um not just that they live here and in the region i mean that's one thing but they they they operate as a team and they aren't just about appropriations they're committed to the policy part two and a lot of firms are really bad if i get to the money that's all i have to do and and and with a firm we need somebody who's going to be watching the policy that's going to go okay this is really bad for your community and we're going to make sure that we either kill this because it's bad but we're going to let you know what's happening or we're going to this is good and we're going to promote it but we're going to let you know it's out there we didn't get that the proof from the previous firms um and the one thing that johnson stewart did when they presented is they talked about how they're going to communicate this and um and so the communication part i thought was really important to me um and what i can tell you is this this team effort that they have it's this what impressed on me and like i said every one of these firms have good people working for them they do but what impressed me when i worked with them when i was in the legislature was this dogged passion that they have for their clients it's this never quit it's a cliche you never quit till the fat lady things right it's a cliche but this firm this firm they would come to me at the last minute going we can't get it we can't get it can you help us because they would be so passionate about their client and the issue that they were supporting and and the one that i remember the most when jeff johnson came to me it was a policy i don't remember which policy but he was so passionate about it because it was the right thing for florida it was the right thing for his client of course um and he didn't he didn't have the votes and he came to me and i was a freshman it was my first year and maybe that's why he's impressed on me so much because it was my first year and i was so impressed with this man's passion and dedication and his grit he just has true grit and um and he said i i don't have the votes but can i count on you i really need a good showing this is important it's important to my client it's important to the state and i asked him i said do you have a lot of the freshman vote and i was in a huge class we had a huge freshman class and and when you get elected uh that year the the committee start right away and so a lot of the lobbyists don't have an opportunity to get to know the new freshmen right away and he said i just haven't had a chance to get to know them can you help me and i just was so impressed with this guy who was just dogged dedicated never going to give up thought he was losing this never going to make it but he wasn't going to quit fighting to make sure that his client was represented and uh and in the end i was able to whip some votes and he and he persevered and to his amazement he you know he was shocked but it was that passion and dedication to his client and a policy that was good to florida that maybe made that gentleman and don't get me wrong and tell us you have plenty of things that come before you that you know it makes you question some things but that kind of dogged dedication for his client and policy was just so impressive and i never forgot it it was my first year in the legislature in 2013 and i'll never forget it i i i am just so impressed impressed with jeff and amanda and anita came later and anita is just wonderful and amazing um so that's kind of my experience with their firm um and they just they just don't quit and i'm so impressed but at the end of the whole story we got a great team who lives locally who gave us the cheapest price of all of them they are significantly well not significantly they're at 225 000 i think the highest one well of the four that we're looking at uh is 270 000 and we're looking at saving every penny we can and they're at 225 versus 275 and that 45 000 to me makes a difference and i really think that concierge service that we can get from that boutique firm that's an award-winning firm is really what we need i don't think we need a big firm i think firms would lobby lobby with uh lawyers also a legal firm we thought there was a conflict with gray robinson it turns out maybe there wasn't but we have two firms in the mix that have the potential to have those conflicts every single day because they're big firms and they have lawyers on one side and lobbyists on the other where this is a boutique firm that is solely focused on our needs and communicating with us and working for us and so i want to strongly advocate um and and i'm hoping that i can get consensus on johnson stewart and i look forward to the conversation thank you thank you mr chairman um i have a little bit different perspective on the way tallahassee works uh number one before i say anything uh two of the firms had people that previously worked for my father in tallahassee uh neither one of them are both of them are great people uh there were two different firms uh i talked to the attorney it's not an issue um which i knew it wasn't um johnson stewart are great folks all four really all four of the the companies we talked about were great folks um my tallahassee experience is different than commissioner peters um i actually think representing six cities in pinellas county is a good thing especially when it's six cities along the beach that don't always agree with each other um i and this i mean no disrespect to my colleague um but i uh her tallahassee experience was a little bit different than mine uh she was in the doghouse a little bit more than i was um i was well yeah um i i took an active role in four different budgets uh two times as a budget uh chair and a budget silo uh which means i helped write part of the budget and then two times as a full chair in a policy committee and i sat in the room with the budget chair um as part of the speaker's uh leadership team at no point during those four years did it come up with did somebody say um you know this city has a request that means the county doesn't get money there was never a time that said you know pinellas county only gets x amount of dollars how are we going to spend it um spent and and that uh two of those times pinellas had a presiding officer um there may have been a time uh i think these six cities uh predominantly were in linda cheney's district there may have been a time when i said rep cheney like what are your top five you know requests that i can go to bat for with the speaker or the speaker may have asked her what are your top five requests you're not going to get you know all 20 of your requests what is your top five that was a common theme um but it was never uh you know pitting one city against another or it's always you know hey representative eggers what is your you know top three your top five if you're in the dog house what is your top request so that way we can make sure that it doesn't see the light of day um and so the the firm that i uh want to advocate for is shoemaker um they're local um and that's no disrespect to johnson stewart uh we're getting two uh firms in one um you know we just um it's not really public but um my friend and and really the board um advocated spending six figures for a lobbyist to to talk to the white house um and so um i think that if we pick shoemaker we should um talk to them about their fee if that's something that um you know we we want to to talk about if we're concerned about their price uh but they're tampa bay based um and i think uh as equal um and they have numerous tampa bay clients they have numerous clients in in pinellas county um their principal uh mr suskey uh lived in pinellas county for many years i met him in pinellas county 20 years ago um and they have an office they're the only one that has an office in pinellas county they have an office in st petersburg um and i think that it's important that they have people in their firm that can work both sides of the aisle um you know as we you know have issues and you know whether it's st pete or you know uh regionally we can call on them and say hey can you have you know former mayor so and so make a call for us you know help us with city of tampa city of st pete or whatever um i think they bring a wealth of knowledge um and as well as you know if um you know having um uh timmons consulting come to the table and i think the other thing that is valuable is uh one of her clients is bay county and bay county just went through a hurricane um they have a lot of the same uh experiences that that we're going through um and that's no disrespect to uh johnson stewart um you know or any of the other firms i think gray robinson is great uh they represent i believe orange county um uh sean foster i wish he would have been here the other day so y'all could have seen you know how great of a guy he is uh because he does a wonderful job as well um and so you know i think all four of them are great but i think um the shoemaker proposal because of the stuff that they do in in pinellas county um and the um relationships that they have in tallahassee and i and i frankly believe that there's the cities that they represent in pinellas help they they do not uh hurt uh them in tallahassee because i saw it firsthand and it was never an issue uh because those relationships when it comes to the budget time are member to member and it's whatever that members uh hires priority or you know when the firms go to the presiding officers or to the budget chairs and and so forth first of all i appreciate both of your perspectives um you know not having worked in tallahassee i don't see the other side to it so it's really important to hear from both of you um one of the firms i believe and i was looking at both of those firms frankly uh just the two of them kind of uh worked for me one of them um is a i think is just i don't mean i shouldn't say just that's the wrong word one of them have lawyers and advisors and the other one just have i think advisors if i'm not mistaken um and so johnson and stewart has just advisors and i think the other firm has how does that help us or hurt us just i mean i just a comment from okay so it doesn't matter then if we if we go with yeah in tallahassee purposes it doesn't matter how about from us it trying to get it it only matters if we have a conflict like we we understood there was a conflict with gray robinson we currently use shoemaker for legal services so it doesn't affect the lobby side at all unless all of a sudden there's a conflict with the legal side and the lobby side so all of a sudden if shoemaker decides to sue us then we have a conflict um that's the only time it would happen right and so it came up with gray robinson i think gray robinson demonstrated that it wasn't in fact i don't know if that's we never talked to you to see if in fact what they said was correct um but that's that's when it comes up with when you have both sides it can and we use shoemaker for legal so it could if they were to sue us i think it's really and i and i cannot speak to the lobbyist side i really don't have the experience that you all from tallahassee wood and i think it's really going to be more policy call for you all whether you have a comfort level with that or not you know i threw that information out there so you would have it as part of making your decision gray robinson it's i would say it's conflict there's there's a there's a bit of adversarial position there they were brought in as a third party defendant in a lawsuit that we have so our suit against them is not direct however they are not aligned with our interests i'll put it that way um so really that was information i i provided to you all for your information so that you can make that decision if we really felt strongly on um some litigation we would say hey you know don't go there again it's a third party dispute it's not their interests are not aligned with us is probably a better way to put it because the conflict is not direct in the sense that we sued them we sued a party that brought them into the litigation and don and don will add to it from your county attorney's office since then we discovered new information that we followed up the attorney that was with that firm had been with a different firm when they were representing that third party that uh county attorney's referencing she since went over to the the i believe it's shoemaker firm i'm sorry i lost track of which from gray robinson firm um so that there was she did not bring that case with her it remained with her old firm now the county attorney is correct they didn't transfer the property properly between the attorneys so on the record it still looks as though there is a direct conflict so anyway i just wanted to clear that up it appears there's no real conflict at this point but it still looks like it on the record does that make sense yeah and i and i really do like the idea that a lot of local a lot of locals on both sides i i really kind of like the idea of having some experience in the county with relationships with i mean like the city of oldsmart i mean i they're like kindred spirits to me that we i talk to them all the time and and feel comfortable that the city attorney there tom trask is is you know really really good and and so he brings i've been able to talk to him about a couple of things uh relating to the city of oldsmart and this and so i i'm not i'm not uncomfortable having you know multiple city representatives i'm just just a general uh general comment but that's all i have for now i just wanted to hear your all's perspective primarily why thank you mr chair so um i have had the pleasure of working with all of these entities except sunrise consulting group i've never worked with them but i've worked with everybody of course i already shared that gray robinson does the workforce for um career source hillsborough pinellas um so it will be both on the legal representation side as well as the lobbying side to assure that uh career source is receiving financial enumeration or um redistribution of dollars for that service for shoemaker i've worked with them um over the years um it is a very good firm and then some of the a lot of former elected officials who are attorneys end up working for lobbying firms but the work that they're doing is based on policy it's a help if the person has some legal background at times um for them to be able to utilize that um should the need arise um i am familiar with johnson and stewart uh anita berry who came in with that group um she attends a lot of fac and flc events and activities and she tries to stay very close to um what's going on within that realm and i also reached out to ginger uh the executive director with the florida association of counties just asking her as it relates to relationships when it comes to issues that um support counties and where we are right now for the latest issues over the last three years or so um how have the relationships been so i got a little advice from her um i do i do that's bad grammar i appreciate um the johnson and stewart strategy group having someone um who worked in the governor's office for the last couple of years that doesn't mean that you know she would get any special treatment but i appreciate the the relationship the ability to um be able to reach out to someone in the governor's office and have a conversation perhaps with um his top his chief of staff or whomever because quite frankly that is how you get some things through just to be honest you know you got to know somebody to be able to have a conversation um either directly with the legislator or the governor or someone who has their ear when it comes time to what they're going to support and what they won't support um i will say and i think i've shared this before this is nothing negative to anyone but i had a good relationship with southern group whenever i would call them they would respond and oftentimes they just get called give me updates they did send um little updates if you will to us through email and i would read those whenever i was going to tallahassee i would reach out to them and they always connected um to see if i needed help or support or to get an appointment with someone or whatever the case may be so i i had a good relationship with them but again that's just my that was just my relationship not everybody's but i had a good relationship um with them um and their staff and when i went to tallahassee i'd also go to their offices right there off of uh the main strip you know to chat and hear what just happened in the last committee meeting or whatever so i would know then um how to best address either a senator or a house member um i'd like the the thought process of a more boutique firm not one that is so large i'm not saying that we would get lost in the fray with a larger firm but at some point somebody has to be your priority some you know it could be a topic a issue but even if it's an issue that is similar for pinellas and hillsboro we still will have some differences because of the makeup of our communities and what our priorities are so at some point and i think you all recall when they said you would be our top five i think they said top five who's that i'm sorry it uh uh um gray robinson was the first one to present before us when they talked about the gentleman talked about um layering layers and that we would be um considered to be in their top five but we could have a conflict with the other top four or so how do you and and i'm saying this because on the city level on the school board level and even here somebody's somebody's not going to get as much as the other but that's just that's just the way that politics goes that's the way it happens so um i will uh i would say i'm leaning more towards johnston and stewart i i like gray robinson i've worked with them i have a good relationship with their team members and stuff but i am going more towards johnston and stewart government strategies um only because so many things are coming up when it comes to issues specific to us anything related to storm recovery and stuff that's kind of like a state of florida issue but um things that are specific to us and what we want to do here in pinellas county to move the needle um i would right now johnson and stewart would be my number one and gray robinson would be my number two if you had to ask me do we know the relative sizes of the two johnson group and then the shoemaker group i mean in terms of number of attorneys the number of do we do we have a yeah i'm just curious shoemaker is huge they're huge they're in ohio yeah because they're in ohio they're in now in dc and in in florida but they're only they do have an office in st petersburg but the only person in the st petersburg office from st petersburg is rick chrysman um and so that's you know they have an office here but it's mostly the lawyers and rick chrysman and rick chrysman isn't on our team he's not representing us and so um but but they are a very large very large firm yeah and bob book corn is a part of their firm for the hillsborough county all right so um as i uh reviewed these these uh proposals here it was schumacher and johnson and stewart that rose to the rose to the top for me and i really like johnson stewart's uh they're completely completely capable and they were the lowest cost which i really like um and i've worked with with anita and folks from her firm and and i know a lot of people in the shoemaker alan susky and jd and they're i mean great great people really enjoy working with all of them the um only that gives me some pause with with shoemaker is that i do i do as a business practice is it good to mix lobbying with with the legal you know where somebody's lobbying for you today and on the other potentially on the other side of the courtroom with you tomorrow um and i understand there's you know conflict of interest um things there that you know that are in place to protect us from that but still just as a business practice is that is that a good idea so i i would lean uh more towards johnson stewart just really for that reason probably for that reason that reason only but that's kind of where thank you chair um i had to leave a little bit early but finished watching the the rest of the interviews and presentations and and thought they were really good um you know i don't know a lot of the firms but my brief experience um has been you know with johnson and stewart and shoemaker um you know most recently um in the last few months and um it's it's be really hard to you know pick between the two um but you know there's hard decisions um so um i think um you know alan susky and and anita barry are both you know top notch and will really help bring home the bacon um but i think if the you know rubber when the rubber meets the road i think i would have to you know go with shoemaker um at the end of the day would be my but um input but um johnson stewart um you know it's a world-class boutique firm and and shoemaker is right you know i think just edges them out you know just a hair in in my opinion so thank you i guess we need to narrow it down well i guess we got to narrow it down so the only two we're talking about are johnson and stewart and schumacher so i guess that that takes the other the other two out of out of play here so um i guess why don't we just do a show of hands if you're um if you're schumacher raise your hand all right johnson stewart all right barry you got your direction that's clear direction all right all right um is that end of your report barry that's the end of my report okay all right thank you for all that discussion okay that's what we're here for all right now we're on to item number 20 appointment to the panellas county construction licensing board six appointments so are we doing a ballot here i'm done with my assignment there's gonna be a test on that later the board has selected um brian crone stephen james second craig boyle john sousey james milliken and michael williams all right thank you derry lynn all right um now we'll move on to commissioner new business well since you left the room i'll we'll start with commission thank you chair um yeah i'll be you know relatively brief as always um uh last week i attended a licensing board meeting um and so where we had our first round of public hearings for increasing fees for child and daycare centers um that have been historically low and and some of them not even raised for 10 years and when we talk about raising fees i know we all take that you know seriously and don't want to unjustly you know raise fees and the burdens to residents and business owners and but they're you know from 25 to 50 so uh if you guys get any emails you know what's what's going on um and within those um public hearings we also were able to include a three percent um indexed every year so we wouldn't have to have continual uh public hearings on increasing fees so that's exciting um we have the continuum of care meeting tomorrow um last week i toured independence hall which was uh pretty nice over the weekend and it was a good reminder that our founding fathers pledged their lives their fortune and sacred honor to make america happened and obviously just been locked in on the budget um you know i know um you know i don't know how i feel about it and just you know kind of wish there you know was more that could be done but we'll be talking about that later this evening um and you know looking forward to you know budget session being over and you know looking at a couple new ordinances such as uh revisiting our billboard ordinance and our lobbying ordinance um and with that i yield back chair thank you thank you thank you sir i'm gonna be short and brief as well i know we got other things to do um so i had a chance to attend the ribbon cutting um for founders point which is a 20 unit uh affordable housing um program through boley for persons who may have been dealing with some drug addiction in their lives so that was really nice the city the city of st petersburg put in about 365 000 we put in a little over 600 000 through our arp program and again that was one of those um other projects that are also funded by the florida housing finance corps and others and it's made possible by the ability to bond those smaller projects i attended my area agency on aging pinellas and pasco board meeting um thank you so much for those who have responded to say you will be attending the um fundraising event so i thank you very much for that um we are just continuing to try to move seniors off of the wait list and get them um into programs and services so that they can remain in their home um for as long as possible uh ginger delegaul came down to meet with me from tallahassee so we had a chance to talk about um what i will look for in my presidency on next year chris i already addressed what you requested so we'll see how that works you know what i'm talking about okay um yep um i attended the big c meeting as always our staff did a wonderful job um doing a presentation updating um updating um individuals about where we are for recovery and then talking about um the beach renourishment that i think started that day if i'm not mistaken or maybe the next day i believe it was that day but anyway we had a really good conversation and dialogue and i just had a chance to talk about some of the other legislative things that are um potentially that will potentially be on the table for the next legislative session and sharing with them when the next community uh legislative event will be which is this month for the pinellas county legislative uh delegation i also attended um there the national association of county subcommittees are starting back up so i had a chance to attend my first uh committee uh for the housing component portion some really good things that hopefully will be coming down the pipe from the federal government to help provide some funding there so i am hopeful that that that that continues and we stay um on track with that um that's it that's all i'm gonna say for today thank you sir all right um so just a few things um come up that um we we've had discussion before um at this at the county level about fixa and their uh the four departments there that have currently there internally uh they internally provide their own benefits and um they've approached me and quite frankly a state representative about you know how they could tap into the the state benefits or the county benefits um and so just just giving everybody a heads up i've had a little conversation with our legal i had a little conversation with hr um just kind of working my way through it going to look at some cost differentials and what that would mean um and certainly it's not for this coming year's budget discussion it's for if anything it would be for next year but i just wanted everybody to just get a heads up that that looking into it don't know where it's going to go i know that we've had conversations before i haven't been uh as privy to those and i'd like to just make sure i understand all those pitfalls and pathways to either failure or success so anyway um i also met uh i've met with a couple people on astancia boulevard um it's a it's a private road that was made i guess private when the development occurred some 40 years ago i say that 40 years ago 30 to 50 years ago um one of those situations where i think that uh probably we should never have allowed it to be set up the way it was um over the years things have transpired we've had some legal issues that have come up um and some i don't even know where all of that is but right now we have a road that is crumbling and in disrepair it is a private road the folks that live in and around there have no ownership they have no connection to it there's a couple of areas that do a couple of developments that do um and you know at the end of the day our responsibility is to bring safety to our residents and i don't know what the answer is there but i can tell you i need creative juices flowing in our in our legal team i need creative juices flowing in our public works team administration we have to come up with an answer there again it's not a simple one we did something else up on county road 95 in palm harbor where we put the response this was 40 years ago we put the responsibility of making sure that any flooding that occurred that they a private entity would be responsible for you know pumping the water out of the area and then of course they've had ownership changes and nobody's there that claims that responsibility and our folks stepped up during a storm to make sure that we had relief for the residents in that area so a situation that probably shouldn't have occurred either so we've got probably some of those in and around the county but at the end of the day we have public safety requirements i think that we need to make sure that we're clear on and we need some really creative thought processes and all of that so that's all i'm going to say about that for now i did go to the chrome alloy uh ribbon cutting in oldsmar 140 employees right now they're going to be growing in the tampa bay region to 1200 employees state of the art they they work on jet engines they do all of the small little pieces that put together and they also assemble they're a vertically integrated company that does all of that um mayor gannon from old smar our economic development group was there amskills was there as we talked earlier it was just a really good day and a really exciting good company i just really want to again again give them um kudos the company and our the team that kind of helped put it together um as i was coming in just as a side note the box art on i guess it was martin luther king and drew has been redone as dogs and beach on the bike just couldn't you couldn't beat the combination uh a local artist uh anna hamilton put that together uh went to that uh quote unquote ribbon cutting um i'm just going to briefly touch on three names um carol carol bill miller who we mentioned last week had passed away a real activist in our community you know just so such a wonderful lady her funeral was last week it was beautiful heartfelt very personal um and just again our thoughts and prayers are with the family uh carol you made a difference and um and she's one of those folks that you definitely will miss uh just always had a smile always made you feel comfortable whether you're there every day or whether it was your first time there uh just a really a really great person um i mentioned that another person a good friend of mine mike bowman passed away he owned dunedin refrigeration uh he and his wife amanda both attend uh the church that i go to just a really great guy also giving back to the community in ways that we'll never know all of it but he also was on a couple of boards and committees for the city of dunedin um mike is such a special guy and uh his funeral is this week and again thoughts and prayers to amanda and the entire family um and in that same vein a a really good friend of mine uh ed armstrong passed away um this past week or two great attorney in his own right land use and zoning very active in politics bless his heart he actually even worked on my very first campaign back in 03 and i don't know how he kept his head together as he talked to me about about the whole process but uh just a really good man um and uh more importantly just a really good friend he's an incredible wife and daughter and um uh we're just going to miss ed uh just spoke to him recently and we're going to get together and talk and meet and uh he had uh unfortunate things happen to him on a golf course uh i guess that's probably if he had to pass he had to do it there but god bless him he was a he was a good person um uh let's see real quickly for pinellas we have a work session next week and a meeting and a board meeting next week so we'll be active on that front uh looking forward to our joint tdc bocc meeting i know we have another special meeting next year i got a promise that we're going to try to work real hard not to schedule a lot of stuff on 9 11. i think we've got to get back to what that day is all about and try not to get filled with distractions but you know i know we do the best we can but um it's just a hard thing to to start to lose the the focus of that day um so anyway just a comment honor flight is next week september 16th 7 and 9 at the airport our our own airport and um i was at a ball game i don't go to too many of the games anymore but i was at one last night in in tampa just for a short period because of today of course but keep pinellas beautiful got some dollars from the rays and they had three incredibly nice representatives that were there receiving the check from the rays to continue doing the work to to keep pinellas beautiful does for us um and i guess the last thing i would say is uh barry do we have on the schedule anywhere where we're going to talk about our preferences for the discussions with our legislative delegation uh we're trying um and that's that's part of it what you're shooting for november um is that come on up matt they're trying to get dates they've been working with um rep anderson's um as he's the head of the delegation this year um on dates on that so uh matt spore assistant county administrator so um tristan begins september 22nd um we will contract with uh johnston and stewart here probably today or tomorrow get that done and we will be back in front of you in october to have the initial discussion and then it's november 14th will be the bcc joint meetings so we'll have a chance to discuss the kind of yeah we'll be bringing to you you know and we just be as you're thinking about this year's you know going to be um a tough year you know for for financing they're always tough you know for for funding but we need to think about that and that's part of what we want to do with our new lobbyist and then have that discussion with you and but we've got a really really tight time frame in order to get before the delegation i know we always have a limited amount of time and if we're going to do any dive into any topic it'd be nice not to have 20 topics right so we'll we'll give you a list of recommendations these are not topics that are going to be new these are ones you've seen before um that haven't went anywhere um but you may have other ideas and that's fine when i i'll meet with you next week we can begin to get any other topics uh that you want to bring up so where we can kind of staff those ahead of that discussion here in october yeah oh yeah one final thing that um not on that front but uh curlew hills is having a 9 11 ceremony 10 to 11 30 um really really well done i don't know if you've ever been up there to see the facility in the back where they've actually replicated the towers and just it's just a really special event that they have there and i understand there's a parade out on the island the treasure island uh uh it was early in the morning i think they tried it madeira beach treasure island area they're separate oh they're separate oh they each have one oh okay thank you um anyway they're going to do it early enough i guess so it remembers the first well one of them is anyway so i don't know much about that one except that they're having it and maybe we need to find out where what that is but i know the one at curlew hills special occasion try to get out there if you can thank you mr sure good mr labell thank you mr chair um i attended the uh amplified clearwater post-session wrap-up the uh psta clearwater bus station groundbreaking which you did a great job at uh the weather was a little dicey but y'all handled it well we're going to get struck by lightning yeah we almost did i thought the lord was about to come back um the and i also attended the uh home two suites uh by hilton ribbon cutting uh which is on omerton near pie um and also which was really cool the uh rose uh awards which is the recognition of service excellence uh put on uh by the florida restaurant lodging association pinellas chapter uh that was uh at sand pearl last week and there were 32 nominees i wanted to congratulate uh the winners ruth barbary alicia lopardo um uh andy suraj la jarvis smiley um and then there are two people uh that i wanted to highlight who are winners uh whose stories were really touching um and and all the winners had had great stories but these two were were uh were pretty incredible uh robert halliday uh from the trade winds um and uh robert um was the first uh hourly employee who returned to the trade winds after the hurricanes um and he stayed there for two weeks and did all kinds of um clean up whatever was needed uh and i believe he even stayed there some nights um and he uh my understanding was very integral to helping the uh folks at duke uh use their facility um because if y'all remember uh the trade ruins was one of the places that duke was stationed at uh to help get the power back on along the beach um and so robert did all kinds of stuff uh at trade winds after the uh hurricanes last year so robert uh holiday uh at the trade winds won one of the rose awards and then another story uh which was pretty neat uh tyler camp uh from clearwater or i'm sorry clear sky cafe at clearwater beach uh was also a pretty incredible story i believe he is a server either a server or wait uh staff kitchen staff at clear sky right after the hurricane he showed up and um said do y'all need a tractor because there's sand all over the place and they kind of looked at him and he said my grandfather has a tractor if you want me to go get it so he went and i didn't know that there are such places in pinellas county that still exist uh but went and got his grandfather's tractor and cleared the sand out of clear skies parking lot and other places and then went next door and helped clear out the sand at the trade winds um and which was important because they're trying to get people they were trying to get the trade winds back open so uh rescue people and and other folks could uh stay there um so he basically single-handedly helped clear off part of mandalay and and that whole uh section of clearwater beach by himself using his grandfather's tractor uh and he's a waiter at clear sky cafe so robert holiday at trade winds tyler camp at clear sky uh special kudos to them for for what they did after the hurricanes um and also um with what uh commissioner eger said about it at armstrong uh he was a a titan in clearwater and really in all of pinellas county and and i don't want to age you of course commissioner but in in 2003 i was a uh junior in college um and so um you don't feel older yeah yeah i don't want to make you feel old or anything um but uh i think i was 21 or 22 um but um i i too remember my last conversation uh with that armstrong and it was a special one um it happened a couple months ago and he called me and it was so special and so meaningful i said mr armstrong can i put you on speakerphone and can you tell me what you just told me and he goes okay and so i put him on speakerphone and i said can you tell me what you just said to me and so he did and the person next to me started laughing and he goes oh hey jack and i said uh i said i just wanted my dad to hear what you just told me um and and so um ed is um ed it was a wonderful man and and a real uh titan and um and um and and clear water and will be missed so i i echo that ed armstrong was a wonderful man um and i bet that was funny nice going um i really all i have is um yes treasure island has a 9-11 event and it's a parade it's a walk-a-thon kind of thing um and parade um and yes madare beach has their at their 9-11 memorials so they'll have one as well um but they're both coinciding when the plane hit the tower so so it would be difficult to make both so um but um i did get the privilege again for my second time to pose for the canine and commissioner photo oh there it is um just right on cue nice going you got a great team back there um and and what a great dog marv is he what a great dog and really really really well behaved he's three years old i hope he gets adopted quickly he's he's really well trained still pulls on leash a little bit but he's just really outstanding and the art at the airport i hadn't been to the airport in a while and the art that's displayed at the airport is really really something not just the sand sculpture but um they're really becoming their own little art museum there to give a flavor for the the visitors coming in of what kind of art is here in pinellas county and i was really quite impressed with it i i hadn't been in a while so that just means i have to travel more often than i have been um but yes the marv is great i hope he gets adopted really quickly um also we worked on the ofab um applications we interviewed uh the top applications we ended up going with the most expensive one and it will be coming before you um it was a county-wide collaboration um staff is going to kind of negotiate the details but it was pretty all-inclusive of almost everybody in the county to create an urgent care walk-in kind of place not really a central receiving facility it's not for crisis we have a crisis system it's a urgent care it's it's replicating what bay care is doing in pasco county um but it's a partnership with every provider almost in the county so it's a very collaborative effort to do something that could truly be transformative and that's what we're going for is something that wasn't just extending what we're already doing um doing more of the same it was coming up with something that was transformational and so our hope is that this will be successful and we'll negotiate a good contract and that this truly will be transformative change um and and you know people get easy access to care comprehensive care both in health care and mental health and substance use disorder um so i'm looking forward to seeing that come to fruition um the staff are going to have a challenge negotiating the details because it's very big very comprehensive um and because of all the partners it'll you know it's going to be a big deal so uh hopefully you'll support it when it comes to you um again it was a big ticket it was just under 30 million dollars over a three-year period um but i i do believe it was the only proposal that gave us transformational change so we're very hopeful that it'll be successful but with that that's that's what i have okay all right um let's see what i got here um we had a tdc meeting uh i guess two weeks ago um also um joined uh barry and and kelly and matt and and jill and a delegation from congressman luna's office on a on a zoom call with the army corps on a relative to beach uh nourishment um i would say it was a positive meeting um the the corps seems to want to wait find a way to get to yes so we have a follow-up with them well it was set for two weeks i don't know if we have a firm date on it um yet at this point but it should be coming up here pretty quick okay so uh more more to come on that um also um i think later that day had a meeting with with the phillies and and and that crew to talk about um about their stadium uh request um delivered a proclamation celebrating habitat for humanity's 40th anniversary in the tempa bay area and their one thousandth home dedication so congratulations to the to the couple and family it was a very nice event mr latvell and i attended the uh psta ribbon cutting or groundbreaking rather of the new uh clearwater transit station and i think we pretty close almost got struck by lightning so um but anyway so it was a nice nice event um spoke at the rotary club of the gulf beaches last week and tomorrow at 7 a.m i will be speaking at the seminal rotary club so i may have to sleep fast tonight depending on how late um this this this goes uh this evening so um we will we will see about about that um so that's all i have on on uh for my activity report i did want to um since we've got some a little bit of time to kill before our our public hearing i did want to touch on uh take this opportunity to touch on creative pinellas um since we've had an email or two um yeah regarding regarding that i want to commend you how active you've gotten our citizens yeah involved in our decision making i think you've done an outstanding job at really invigorating their participation i'm just glad that if we have folks that show up tonight it's not because of myself or commissioner nowicki it's because of you well i suspect we are going to have some folks uh show up tonight so you know at our work session just to kind of recap um what i had proposed was that we take um the eight hundred sixty one thousand dollars that we have historically provided to creative pinellas and move that back over to tdc take five hundred thousand of that and move that into a grant program to be administered by visit st p clearwater for arts and cultural tourism and um and remove the general fund and the transportation trust fund and move that back into into our side of the table uh which we could use for further for the rollback and i am still firm on that on that commitment there i have um done a little further research and a little further digging and and had an opportunity to meet with margaret murray this morning and i've met with her a few a few times in the past but when i had made that that initial proposal i was really under the impression that of the of the 861 000 that about half of that was going towards their payroll which is a non-compliant use of tdc funds anyways and the other half was going to grants and i was incorrect in that that um actually 53 of that money is going towards payroll and only 104 000 is actually going to grants so it's only 12 of the money nine percent of the money goes for arts and cultural programming and then 308 000 the money goes to arts and tourism marketing which is what st p clearwater does which we just approved 139 million dollar contract for a new marketing firm to handle those things handle those things for us so i i just see a lot of a lot of duplication here and i see non-compliant use of of tdc funds and i just feel that they've really missed their mission and they haven't really delivered on that and you know reading through the emails um there's a you know a pretty common theme through it i mean people are are we need to make sure that we fund impact and results and not feelings and what we're getting through is feelings and while i appreciate all of that but it's not it's not the intended use of tdc funds it's just not i mean tdc funds are all about heads and beds and you know if you talk about ways that we support the arts since i mean visit st p clearwater primarily promotes the arts in advertising marketing and pr campaigns regionally domestically and internationally we administer the tdt capital funds project since 2017 that has approved 41 million 760 000 in funding for museums and cultural institutions for elite events funding program for fiscal year 26 invested two point uh almost 2.7 million dollars into 49 events projected to attract 1 million 655 234 attendees produce 181 636 room nights for an economic economic impact of over 152 million dollars which is a 57 to 1 return on investment and of those events 11 of them are arts events that will receive an investment of 615 thousand dollars projected to attract 305 000 attendees 43 100 room nights uh with an economic impact of almost 36 million dollars which is a 58 to 1 return on investment and we can never get these kind of metrics out of out of creative panels because they just don't have them and they you know they they point to they point to national studies of what a dollar invested in arts creates an economic impact and you know i appreciate all that and i appreciate their mission and what they're doing but it just it just hasn't been an effective uh program and since it was intended to be they were spun off in 2011 for 300 000 one-time payment and it was going to be they're going to be on their own and they've never happened i mean basically since then we funded them close to 17 million dollars between tdc and and general fund and basically that's been a no-bid contract i mean it's just really kind of flown under the radar nobody really looked at a whole lot nobody really questioned it a lot but it's never been it's never been competitively uh bit out and and i think we would be better off taking you know really kind of quintupling the money that is being dedicated to grants this year and giving that to visit st p clearwater as an initial startup and and let's talk about it in a year and let's and let's see how that works out let's see what kind of results um we can we can get from that and you know looking through the emails you know you know defunding creative panels accounts to sabotaging an entire industry in our county and will further the struggle that our artists have affording the ever-increasing cost of living in our beautiful county and state and i think we can all appreciate that but it's not the intended purpose of tdt dollars and you know you see just a lot of these times types of things and you know please continue funding creative panelist my friends and i enjoy driving over from north tampa regularly to their exhibitions and openings well i'm hoping they're staying in a hotel room when i'm over here when they're over here but i'm guessing that's probably that's probably not the case and you know creative panelist funded me thousands this year i'd not be paying my bills without them uh they deserve all the funding in the universe they have shown myself and tons of other real world real artists a true dollar they can use to live and eat appreciate that plight but again it's just not the intended purpose of of of tdc funds so i i think it's just time to shake this up i really do and um you know like i said i i think this has really flown under the radar for for a long time and i admire i really admire um margaret murray's passion and and her heart's in the right place and she's and she's trying to do a lot of a lot of great things and ultimately i think she'll be successful but i you know i think it's time for a little disruption i mean we've you know we've all had a lot of disruption in the last year we probably got a lot more coming i mean we had back-to-back hurricanes last year which forced us to really kind of look at how we're doing things and and really assess some things and uh we probably have a lot more coming up next year with a referendum for property tax that's going to be on the on the ballot so you know i think sometimes you just have to shake things up and and let the chips fall where they may and and foster some some innovation and some and some competition and i i just think that's that's my position on that i haven't i haven't really changed on that and i just think that's where we need to move forward yeah well i think commissioner okay thank you mr chair um and thank you for bringing this forward um you know one thing i learned a long time ago is any time you bring forward any kind of issue it's going to be the most important to somebody um that's just the way that uh government works um a couple years ago i wanted to uh cut the budget in libraries and you know people showed up and um and you know didn't want us to do that if we tried to cut the budget to parks people would show up and and um um you know oppose that which you know it's fine and that's certainly they're right um you know i think one of the important um things to note is that we're not defunding the arts where we may be defunding an agency that supports the arts we're not defunding the arts so i have a question for you uh because you've kind of done a deep dive in this and i want to be sensitive you know and i'm not um you know i don't want to celebrate this but when push comes to shove it seems like the worst thing that may be happening is there might be a handful of people that lose their jobs is that an accurate assessment of of what you see will be happening like 10 or so people i don't really know honestly they have other grant funding that they get some of their payroll is is covered through through other grants i mean the vast majority of their funding is grants one way or the other um they do get a little bit of private funding but i i really kind of think honestly that's sort of where they've they've fallen down through the years yeah because it was you know there's there's supposed to be a 501c3 and and you know get and raise funds and and they don't really they really haven't done that i i think quite honestly they've just sort of gotten comfortable expecting that it's that the county is just going to continue to fund them because because we have right you know but and i think that funding has gone up over the past 15 years and and in recent years it just keeps going up and up well the last um i i don't have well it's actually going back to 2000 i think i don't know if i have it here but 11 and 12 it was like 1.2 million dollars a year it's kind of stayed you know and i don't have every single year of of of what it's been um but for for next year it was it's was proposed at um about one about 1.1 ish something something like that so i mean they are they are you know starting to get do better at at uh individual fundraising um i mean honestly sometimes you need to shake things up and and and sort of force the issue you know this problem conversation probably should happen five or six years ago and and it didn't and i don't know if they're if their board served them really well in in this and i don't really know uh that many of them personally but um there just wasn't it didn't really seem to be a lot of oversight of what was what was happening what was going on like i said i think you know margaret's very passionate and she's she's trying to do a lot of good things but i just you know i think it's time to shake it up go in a different direction and allow us to provide a little bit of tax relief to our residents as well who are all screaming from the rafters that they want some relief did yeah so um my question is so we have a sports commission and we have a film commission and if we kind of got rid of the gallery and all that kind of stuff which it sounds like that's what you want to do um that would you instead of just being in tdt we have a sports commission we have a film commission we had an arts commission and that's different they do the grants they manage it it would be different and so to me that kind of makes sense to kind of do it that way but you'd still have one person that oversees that that commission that program that you know kind of knows what's the new up and coming that would work for those grants and how to best use those grants for a better roi um so is that what you have in mind i just i had talked to some people and i thought i think what he has in mind is like an arts commission versus what we're doing um there was a shake-up with them we moved them around several years ago um but but to me i think if it fits like in in that that if you had a film a sports and film and arts kind of go together anyways so it could fit under arts i don't know if it's it's a good or under film i don't know because they they go together anyways um but it sounds to me like instead of just letting it go because there is a return on investment on arts there's no question and if we're still going to do the grants which it sounds like we're still going to give the grants to the artists so we're not taking the art money away right um that if we rolled it into an arts commission or we rolled the arts commission into the film commission and it's an arts commission not just a films commission it's arts and films commission to me that kind of makes sense and i didn't know if that's what you had in mind or am i thinking something completely different well the the initial conversation i had with uh with brian loak was to create a a arts and cultural like elite events tourism based program where we can get where we can track roi on the on those on those types of things arts commission maybe i mean i haven't had that specific discussion with them but that's a that's an idea okay and it kind of fits okay that's that's what i that's my thank you um i i started my comments last time first of all we have a public hearing tonight so um and and some of the changes to the budget are being presented at the public hearing that we gave direction on last week so all this conversation that we're having to me seems like out of place and it should be happening tonight um not today when you know the folks that are expecting that kind of conversation will be here tonight um i you know i'm not saying that the model that's in place is the best or the worst or anything in between what i'm saying is is that we made a commitment some years ago to a program that has evolved over time under the watchful eye of the county commission and the county commission has changed over that time and the conversation that we're having today right now is the kind of conversation that we should be having in a workshop that deep dives and understands the alternatives that are available to us and to our residents frankly i mean this is you know we've got in you know we can cavalierly say there's nine and a half employees that will lose their jobs the end of the month it's huge and again it's a commitment that we made it's a commitment that we've made and we gave watchful eye from our our finance department where the money was being spent so if it wasn't being spent right that kind of communication that kind of information should have been shared all i'm saying is is that we complain about the state dumping things on us all or nothing we never get phased in on anything like we're going to do this over time and right now we're talking about chopping an organization that's been doing really good work now again i'm not i'm not the judge of the kind of work but they're doing good work and not phasing them over time and you know if you want to talk about taking 20 of their budget and and then having workshop on it and and understanding what they do and maybe they do meet what we want done maybe they don't maybe it's a model that's passed its time maybe it isn't and i think those kind of conversations are valid i like the ideas that we bring for we've had some really good ideas around this table about scrutinizing the our budget and that's really what we've been doing for the last four or five years which i'm really happy about and tonight's going to be no different scrutinizing is important but it's also important to honor commitments it's also important to phase things in and out it's also important to have a deep dive conversation in a workshop that's what we do we've always done it that way where we have a good conversation um and we talk about the alternative you know putting it back in the tdc let them do that we talk about the current model that's in place um and again whether it's perceptions or misperceptions that are out there they're out there because of all of this happening on the fly so to speak because a lot of people are have been totally taken off guard that had no idea that this was coming in past times and people have been led along the budget process that we may have a problem in month one of the budget process february comes march comes we have our workshops in june you start to get flags you start to get ideas that things might happen and this has happened rather suddenly and i think it speaks volumes to people that are committed to the arts and i you know i go back to that study that we just did that survey that we just did and we talk about one of those three findings was the importance of arts and culture in our community and the signal that we're sending may not be the reality of what we're trying to say it may be a much more a much better signal but it doesn't come across that way and i i just think we need to slow it down and and have the discussion that we're trying we're starting to have now you're reading a bunch of numbers right now that i think are really interesting and informative and maybe they're valid i don't know so again i'm again this i feel really a little uncomfortable having this discussion now but it's been brought up so i'm adding to it it um this is a public hearing tonight to talk about items that we've added or taken away and the folks that are here they'll be here tonight to talk about that so maybe we'll just have to do this all over again for them so those are my thoughts um again i think people wrote in i've never seen so many individual letters that were written very unique there may have been common threads but it wasn't like a rubber stamp letter everybody had the same letter that wrote in they had very heartfelt um comments uh about art and what it means and what this group actually does that's different than what other groups do so um i think we need to learn a little bit more about what they're doing uh talk a little bit about the comment that you made tdc funds not being used the right way well that's the first time i've heard that one so i think that's something that would be good to understand more um and i'll leave it at that thank you okay all right sounds good any else um and i'll just not add about that but i mean i still do support you know cutting uh funding for the libraries commissioner huadvala so if you want to bring that uh up tonight i do support that all right all right well there's nothing else we commissioner we we do have the um joint resolution for the oh where do we have that tri-county meeting um and we have we've replaced that so we've confirmed with both pasca and hillsborough county that the date of the joint meeting will be october 17th and your resolution has been updated okay and confirmed with your staffs so all right i have a motion for commissioner peter second from commissioner eggers all in favor any opposed okay motion carries okay all right we are adjourned until six o'clock and we will we will have food coming in good evening everybody i hope everybody is doing having a nice thursday evening it's great to see so many members of the public out tonight so i'd like to call to order our public hearing for september 4th 2025 and the first item we have on the agenda is number 22. thank you mr chair agenda item number 22 is a proposed resolution for the surface water assessment within the unincorporated areas of pinellas county the resolution overrides previous rate resolution number 17-63 which set a maximum annual increase of three percent for surface water assessment not to exceed 128.66 per equivalent residential unit and proposes a seven percent rate increase in fiscal year 2026 and up to five percent annual thereafter not to exceed 179.11 per equivalent residential unit the public hearing was properly advertised in an affidavit of publication has been received for filing eight emails in opposition have been received by the clerk and it matters properly before the board to be heard thank you darry lynn we will not be taking a vote on this tonight instead after taking any public comment on this specific item from anyone wishing to comment i'll entertain a motion to continue this public hearing item to the new special meeting of the board of county commissioners scheduled at 1 p.m on thursday september 11th immediately following the joint bcc cvb meeting at the sheridan sankey resort located at 1160 gulf boulevard clearwater beach florida at that meeting for timing purposes we will take up this item and we will also take up the certification of the corrected level and solid waste collection mstu assessment role mr rose can explain why we are doing so proceeding in this matter good evening commissioners chris rose office of management and budget so there's a timing issue with the state we have uh we needed a few more days after we sent out the trim notices to pick this up so that's why we're continuing it to another meeting just to get those days in and we cannot go past the 15th so we cannot pick it up at the second meeting either so thank you for your indulgence but we're we just need a few more days okay do we have any public comment on this item item number 22 i do not have any speakers cards filled out so do we have one have you have you filled out a card sir 22 okay please come on up i have a stack of cards here so i'm not sure i can find it but come on up david hi good evening i'm not going to repeat the same speech i gave at two o'clock earlier today but i will uh refer to some issues um of concern on the ad valorem here in regards to the proposed non-ad valorem assessment um which supports this this surface water charge um based on statute law that assessment is a levy um this ad valorem trim notice is a uh a property tax lien so now we've gone from a property tax lien into a a watershed levy um with this surface water assessment now let's say for instance that the county based on resolution has already been sold to the water district and in a quid pro quo agreement over the next 30 years this county is intending on shape shifting itself into little watershed jurisdictions which is reflective of a non-ad valorem assessment so in effect everything line itemed underneath this apparent ad valorem charge will slowly become part of the non-ad valorem assessment this part will be dissolved and they will assume powers as a non-ad valorem watershed government um that that's a concern to me when this charge here is not based on the millage rate based on statute one nine seven three six three two um we have a total shape shifting of of of of an ad valorem lien into a non-ad valorem levy that's not based on a millage rate and our existing ad valorem which is not even listed as an ad valorem anymore it's just listed as a taxing authority so the ad valorem part's already gone it recognizes a non-ad valorem charge as a surface water assessment but the ad valorem portion has already changed labeling here back in 2022 it says ad valorem and it says non-ad valorem and here on my trim notice it says oh taxing authority and then it goes to non-ad valorem so what happened to the ad valorem we've got some uh penmanship here that needs to be called into question and i think uh we're trying to to birth watersheds um uh nefarious through nefarious means on on the uh millage rate here in this water surface assessment so thank you for listening to me again thank you david okay uh do i have a motion no motion is to continue motion continue okay all right motion from commissioner flowers second by commissioner egerton all in favor opposed okay motion carries mr chair if i could add just one thing just for the benefit of the public that may be watching um the meeting on the 11th will not be supported for virtual technology so there will be no ability to comment virtually any commentary will have to be made in person at the meeting at the sheraton sand key on september 11th um i have a question the meetings will still be televised though right uh the the the the joint bcc tdc meeting is not um it would require massive amounts of setup and staff so we've we've never um televised those this we had to add this piece to it because of the timing as chris went over but we won't have the ability to televise a meeting at that time but it'll be audio recorded yes the clerk will have um they'll still be the clerks there and we'll have an audio and a record of the meeting and everything and there'll be minutes and everything like that okay now we are going to move on to the to the fyi 26 tentative millages and tentative budget have any correspondence that been received regarding the tentative millages intended budget one email of concern 156 emails and 108 voicemails in opposition have been received by the clerk regarding the tentative budget the office of management and budget also received 50 phone calls okay good evening tonight's public hearing is the first of two public hearings for the consideration and adoption of the fyi 26 millages and budgets before we get started i'll walk through the sequence of events for tonight the county administrator will present changes to the proposed budget since it was originally presented to the board on july 22nd the county administrator will provide a budget overview presentation that incorporates these changes we will accept public comment on the following property tax levies and budgets by the following taxing authority classification the bcc county-wide levy for the pinellis county general fund and the county levy supporting the health department fund the levies for dependent special districts and unincorporated area municipal services taxing units that going forward will be referred to as mstus dependent special districts include the emergency medical services authority and pinellis planning council and mstus include the unincorporated area municipal services taxing unit public library services district palm harbor community services district feather sound community services district east lake library services district east lake recreation district greater seminal recreation district and the special fire protection districts if you wish to speak regarding the tentative millages intended budgets you should have filled out a blue card if you have not yet filled out a card in which to speak please see the staff seated at the entry door and they will assist you for all the pre-registered online participants you will be instructed at the proper time to raise your hand in the virtual meeting after hearing all public comment i will ask the board if they recommend any further changes to the tentative millage or tentative budgets if so i will ask the board for a motion and a vote to adopt any changes finally we will adopt the resolutions for the fy 26 tentative millage rates and tentative budgets which will be the basis for the final budget public hearing that will be held on thursday september 18th at 6 pm and in accordance with florida statutes the tentative millage rates will be adopted first and then the tentative budget will be adopted for each taxing authority before we begin this public hearing if anyone has specific questions or concerns regarding the assessed value of their property exemptions or classifications related to your property or information on the trim notices tonight we have kevin mckeon and jackie war here with us from the pinellas county property appraisers office if anyone would like to speak with them please follow them at this time and they will answer your questions for those attending virtually please contact pinellas county property appraisers office at 727-464-3207 monday through friday 8 a.m to 5 p.m or email mike mike m-i-k-e at p-c-p-a-o dot org Florida statutes also provide that a taxing authority may adopt the tax levies and budgets of all its dependent special districts and ms to use by a single unanimous vote however if a member of the general public requests that the tax levy or budget of a dependent special tax district or ms to you be separately discussed and separately adopted we will then discuss and adopt that district's tax levy and budget separately at this time does any member of the general public attending the murdering meeting in person request separate discussion or separate adoption of a tax levy or budget of any dependent special district or ms to you hearing none since we have not heard from anyone requesting separate discussion at separate adoption of any dependent special districts or ms to use we will proceed with adoption of the tentative millages and tentative budgets for the bcc county-wide levy for the pinellas county general fund and the county levy supporting the health department fund and then for the dependent special districts and ms to use by single unanimous vote we will now open the first public official public hearing on the fy 26 tentative millage rates and budgets this public hearing is being held in accordance with chapters 129 and 200 of florida statutes the meeting has been duly noticed by the property appraisers mailing of the trim notice thank you we the board of county commissioners as taxing authority for the bcc county-wide dependent special districts and ms to use as previously referenced will now proceed with the public hearings in accordance with florida statutes i want to publicly note that the percentage increase in the millage rates for all budgets over the rollback rate based upon the maximum millage or maximum rates on the trim notice and subsequent decreases to the rates to fund the fy 26 tentative budget is a 2.5 percent increase over the aggregate rollback rate of 6.0265 the primary purpose of the increases in millage over the rollback rate are due to the following in the general fund the unincorporated area msu and in the emergency medical services authority over the rollback rate are required to support personnel and operating expenditure levels that are driven by inflationary factors and board priorities in the pinellas planning council sufficient revenues exist with a decreased millage to support personnel and operating expenditure levels as per the request of board pinellas in the public library services district the pump or mstu the palm harbor community services mstu the feather sound community services mstu the east lake library services mstu east lake recreation service mstu greater seminal recreation area and seven fire special fire protection districts bell air bluffs fire district dunneen fire district high point fire district pinellas park fire district seminal fire district tarpon springs fire district terra verde fire district revenue increases are needed to support increased expenditures by the agencies providing services for those districts and the other five special fire protection districts clearwater fire protection district gandy fire district largo fire district safety harbor fire district and south pasadena fire district sufficient revenues will exist with a decreased millage to support personnel and operating expenditure levels chairman before we begin the fy 26 budget presentation i want to note that a schedule of changes to the proposed budget was distributed to the board on august 22nd and attached to the agenda packet available online for the purposes are the for the proposed changes including the adjusted budgets amount for the general fund airport fund star center fund sewer fund fleet management fund risk financing fund and the and the employee health benefits fund the general fund went from one billion one hundred sixteen million four hundred ninety million eight hundred eight hundred and fifty thousand to one point one billion one hundred eleven million five hundred eighty four four hundred eighty dollars the airport fund from 11 11 million four hundred and two hundred and ten dollars and the sewer fund from 311 million four hundred and to $13,084,410. The sewer fund from $311,416,210 to $307,871,210. The fleet management fund from $41,066,160 to $40,066,160. The risk financing fund from $55,037,390 to $52,867,670. The employee health benefit fund from $204,150,540 to $201,150,540. The transportation trust fund from $111,315,130 to $111,315,140. Modifications to both changes discussed at the BCC meetings or work sessions and technical adjustments related to the accounting presentation, updated information, corrections, and other minor changes. We will now continue with the FY26 tentative budget overview presentation. Thank you. Are there any questions from the board on the presentation? Oh, I'm sorry. We're doing the presentation now. Hold on one second, Chris. Okay. Let's do the presentation first. Okay. Okay. Good evening again, commissioners. Chris Rose, Office of Management and Budget. So we have the presentation up in front of you. It is not very long. So just a little overview of the millage rates that we've talked about. This is the countywide millage rate that we're looking at. At the time of the proposed budget, it was the same millage rate as last year's millage rate. Going into the first public budget hearing tonight, we have the changes that we had discussed at the August 14th work session. And that would bring us to a 4.5580 mills. We also have the things that we discussed at the second public, the work session amongst ourselves on August 28th. Those are going to be recommended for amendment into the budget tonight. And those would bring us down to a 4.5423 mills if the board so chooses to make that amendment. So that's the millage progression that we've gotten to tonight. We're in the middle one at the moment until the amendment comes along. So that will be coming momentarily if it is the will of the board. Chair, question? Back on that slide, please. On the 4.5423 includes the health plan drawdown and the benefits and the creative Pinellas discussion that we've had. Yes, it has. So you have the ability to separate those two out in terms of what that millage would look like? We did. Okay, thank you. Because I'll ask for that later. Thanks. Mr. Chair, you have a question? Yes, Chair. During that quiet pause, did I miss my opportunity to pull one? Okay. That was for the public. Okay. Not yet. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Chris, maybe you have it on slides that are coming, but are you able to tell us what the specific millage amounts would be? So if it was 4.5580, that is X number of dollars, just for the benefit of the public. And if it was 4.5423, where we may amend it, this is how much it would be. I have those. I don't have them in front of me, and I may need to look to my staff for those numbers, but yes, ma'am. Okay. At some point, can we get that just for the public to see the variation so that they could see the proposed cost savings? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Thank you. In fact, I have a breakdown of each of those two, the second and the third millages, about two slides from now. So that may answer the question. Okay. Great. Thank you. And so a quick overview of what is in the proposed budget, it does include the $261 million of new CDBGDR program, the People First Pinellas program. That is not in the general fund, but it is in the total proposed budget, a 3% salary increase. It absorbs the fixed costs of the sheriff's office. It supports changes in BTS and the public defender to support the public defender and state attorney, totaling $1.1 million. That's an addition from last year. Roadway improvements in the dedicated millages total $43.0 million, and we have increased our facilities budget by $2 million. In the capital budget, we have, of course, the large beach renourishment program that we've already agreed upon and is out there, but it continues into the next year. Large years of the penny, we're in the middle of the decade right now, so we really are ramping up. More is being done right now in the penny, and that's natural. That's what happens in the 10-year decade. The utilities, we have enhanced repairs and maintenance, and, of course, the ARPA projects that we've all been watching are all on track to meet the December 2026 deadline that we're looking at. Finally, some of the things that went into this budget, of course, the hurricanes that we all experienced in this past year have had some impacts on the revenues in particular, but even some of the expenses in the budget. So $1.5 billion of demolition off the tax roll has occurred, which just has contributed to the lower growth rate that we're experiencing in the property tax tax roll countywide. New construction growth is a net negative, a function of that same information. And then if that $1.5 billion were back on the roll, it would be about $6.7 million of property tax revenues. We, of course, have the unfunded mandates that we've talked about several times here, most of them coming from the state. And then we have some contracts that have been due in this new year that we had planned for. We knew they were coming, but they're now due, and the sheriff's hangar is the best example of that that we've got. So from there, this is kind of what Commissioner Flowers was asking about. So this is the first round of changes that we talked about at the first workshop on August 14th. We reduced risk reserves by 2.170. We reduced fleet reserves by a million. We reduced the number that we paid to the state for juvenile detention because the state gave us a new number. That's another 714 and some change. We eliminated the reserve for personnel lap savings that we had built in, and we reduced one position in the BCC's budget, in this department's budget. Question? On the reduced risk reserves, both of those, the fleet and the risk, those are normally ongoing additions to the reserves, and that's why we're comfortable using that as part of our cost reduction? Yes, sir. We believe that we can continue this going forward into the future. We're not burning down prior year money. It's current money that we are bringing down. Yes, sir. If it was just a one-time thing, it would be a different story. Yes, it would. If you were going below what our expenditure levels are, we've seen the risk fund grow, and so this will right-size that, and so that will be sustainable into the future. So it doesn't create a deficit for future years. The third bullet point is different. That probably is not going to be an ongoing savings. That's just a one-time? It very likely will be. The state plays off of the prior year each time, but a lot of times the state doesn't give us the number in time before we propose it, so we kind of have to wait on them. Fair enough. Thank you. You're welcome. All right, and then the changes, the second round of changes that we are proposing that we talked about on August 28th, they are not in the numbers that are in front of you, but we are asking that we amend those in, and that is, as we discussed, the planned drawdown of the Health Benefits Fund, a recurring $1.7 million, and the general fund portion of Creative Pinellas, which is $156,000. We also have in those recommendations one-time funding for the ERP, so that is coming out of reserves, and that is one time in fiscal year 26. There will be two more years of those, but we will address those when those years come along. But it is a capital project with a fixed beginning and a fixed end for that ERP system. And then finally, there is a recommendation that we have not talked about, but there is a formulaic change in the tax collector's expenditures that is offset by additional revenues that are coming into the tax collector's office. So by state law, we need to make that change, and that's what's before you now. So those are the amendments tonight. And then finally, we can answer any questions you have. We, of course, have one more public budget hearing, the second public budget hearing on September 18th, another Thursday, and then the fiscal year begins on October 1st. Any other questions? Commissioner Flowers? So for the Department of Juvenile Justice, for the $714,490 from reserves, so that still keeps us in line, we're still in line with what the state-required reserve amount is. Yes, ma'am. Is that $714,000 over and above? So what we had budgeted is what we expected the state to tell us. The state gave us a new number, and to the good this year. Okay. We have had other years. So it's not coming from reserves. It is a different number that the state is charging us. So do you have that number on page, on the second slide where we talk about if we, if the Creative Pinellas piece was back in the budget, what would that millage rate be? That 4.5423 would rise up to another level. Do you know what that is? It is going to be a small number, and they're still calculating it right now. So my apologies, but we will get that for you. It's very close to that number. So it's an additional 0.0011 mils that we would add back. 0.0011. Yes, sir. Okay. And we'll translate that to a typical dollar amount for a typical. Yes, sir. Well, that's the dollar. That's the dollar amount. That's the total. Right. For the general fund portion. I understand. So $156,000 is worth 0.0011 mils. Thank you. I was saying that would be 3-4 instead of 3-0, so I'm off that. But anyway. It would be 4.5434 mils. Yes, ma'am. You were closed. Any other questions? Okay. All right. We will now continue this public hearing as taxing authority for the BCC Countywide Dependent Special Districts and MSTU levies, as previously referenced, by taking public comment from citizens who wish to be heard regarding our FY26 budget. I have a lot of blue cards here, so before we start public comment, a couple of items. Number one, if you're here to speak regarding the Office of Human Rights, that is built into the FY26 budget. So if you want to speak on that, you're welcome to. However, there's no need to tonight. We are going to start public comment here, and with the volume of cards that we have, we're going to limit individual speakers to two minutes and group speakers to five minutes. We would appreciate brevity because we have a lot to get through tonight. If you're speaking and somebody has already made the point you want to make, we would appreciate you being extra brief on that. So with that, we will get started, and we've got, let's see, some group speakers, and we'll get to them first. So we'll do, Dave, are you ready for five minutes? I am. I just, one comment, just one, I'm just asking the Chair for an indulgence on, I think one of the group speakers is going to be the Executive Director for Creative Pinellas. You know, at your discretion, of course, but I would love to be able to let her have her full ten minutes. And again, it's not setting a precedent. She represents the group that's being discussed. So it was just a request. Thank you. Okay. Well, if you would like to set it for ten minutes, I'll allow that. All right. Margaret Murray. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're welcome. Good evening. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for having me here tonight. And thank you, as well, for allowing me to continue this conversation about the future of Creative Pinellas. I would like to begin by acknowledging my gratitude for the investment in the arts that the county has provided over the years, and specifically your investment in Creative Pinellas. In listening to recent budget conversations, please know that I'm on your side on this. I, too, relish fiscal restraint and accountability, and I am here tonight to assure you that we are doing everything we can as the county's designated local arts agency to retain your trust in our stewardship of county funds. In fact, we have done more and more every year to support county initiatives, despite the flat funding for the past four years. We are increasingly focused on diversifying our revenue stream and brought in an additional $300,000 this year in non-county grants and contracted services, providing arts management to private entities, hospitality businesses, and municipalities across the county. We remain committed to diversifying our revenue stream, and one other way that we are diversifying is that we are going to begin fundraising, private fundraising. Historically, Creative Pinellas has not sought private funding because we don't want to compete against the very arts organizations and artists that we support. We understand our hierarchy in the Pinellas County arts culture, but we also understand that we need to do what we can to continue supporting our cultural landscape. So, this year alone, some of the big initiatives that we have had, we opened with no impact on TDC or General Fund dollars Sightline Gallery at St. Pete Clearwater Airport that showcases Pinellas County artists to more than 2.5 million travelers every year. We are also in the midst of a $200,000 non-county funded upgrade to our facilities, allowing us to create more arts experiences for visitors, while also offering us the opportunity to generate additional revenue through event rentals. In a short while, you will hear from our new curatorial director about further efforts we are making to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of Creative Pinellas, lessening our reliance on county funding. Now, I've also heard some comments about our board leadership, and I want to assure you that we have brought, we have put together a board of tourism officials and fundraising leaders. We have Kevin McGeever, who's the former content director for Visit Florida on our board. He has been invaluable in helping us shape our cultural tourism programs. We have also brought on George Ann Bissett and Jesse Turtle. George Ann Bissett is a fundraising powerhouse from the Dunedin Fine Arts Center, and Jesse Turtle is the VP of the St. Pete College Foundation, also a fundraising powerhouse. When I came on board as CEO just over a year ago, I immediately directed our energies to creating high-impact, low-cost cultural tourism programs. We shifted our competitive arts grant to focus solely on a bold new tourism initiative called Making Waves, which brings arts experiences directly to visitors along the beaches and parks and at high-traffic events, such as the Sugar Sands Festival and museums throughout the county. In building this program, we worked extensively with Visit St. Pete Clearwater to shape how this could best serve the county's tourism initiatives. We're also working with beach chambers and hospitality and event partners across the county on this initiative. In my research in putting this together, I've not seen any other county in the United States creating the same thing, a two-month-long celebration of our unique natural and cultural landscapes all coming together. This is a sort of bold innovation arts organizations are known for and can successfully implement. The other thing that I did when I came on board is I put our online magazine on hiatus and spent months researching what a robust cultural tourism magazine could look like and found a great team of content creators and tourism marketers to help us implement this. What we did with this magazine does not compete or duplicate Visit St. Pete Clearwater's efforts. It supplements it. It is not duplicative in any way. Our new magazine is a true investment of our resources into reaching visitors during their trip planning window of 59 to 65 days. It is a traveler's guide to local culture, one that will significantly change how visitors worldwide plan their cultural vacations to Pinellas County. While I understand your desire to shift $500,000 in art funding to Visit St. Pete Clearwater, I have to admit that I worry about the decision of dropping half a million dollars in the lap of an organization with no arts administration experience, knowledge, or staff. Our staff has exactly the experience and knowledge required and have administered this program successfully for over six years now. A more cost-effective and impactful solution would be to allow Visit St. Pete Clearwater and Creative Pinellas to play to our respective strengths and work together to both create cultural tourism projects and market them. In fact, we have been working with VSPC on exactly this model, utilizing their marketing reach as well as visitor analysis to determine our success metrics. We take our competitive arts grant and its role in boosting tourism seriously. And in fact, Kylie Diaz from VSPC will be part of the panel-making funding decisions with us, another example of how we are working collaboratively with VSPC to fund cultural tourism. Todd Wellman, our grants administrator, is a former federal grant compliance director and will be overseeing this program. I have also offered to create a county-wide arts funding advisory committee to make sure that we are spending the money in the manner that the county wishes us to. We do more than cultural tourism at Creative Pinellas. I don't know if anyone is aware of this, but after Hurricanes Helene and Milton, we worked with county officials and FEMA officials to create a survey determining how much impact the storm had on cultural organizations and artists. Our website became the go-to site for people and organizations looking for resources. We also created a supply fund drive that went throughout the entire county. We also work with the Pinellas County School System. Every year, we host Youth Art Month with K-8 children exhibiting their artwork in our gallery. We also host to the 13th Congressional District High School Exhibition and Competition for Budding Young Artists. We distributed over $225,000 grants last year. Those go to artists who are small business owners who are enhancing our community and our way of life. So, in short, please continue. Please consider continuing your support of Creative Pinellas. And allow us to address your concerns in a productive, timely way. Being blindsided like this gave us little opportunity to respond effectively. And, in fact, and this is important, if we are not funded in this budget, our county lease requires that we vacate our offices and galleries by the end of the fiscal year in three weeks. As a solid partner to the county for many years, I believe that we deserve the chance to work together to thoughtfully answer any questions you might have and work to afford a solution for all. Right now, I am asking for at least one more year of funding and further conversations to allow us to implement the changes we have underway. Thank you so much. Mr. Chair, I have a question. Thank you, Margaret. Yeah, I have a quick question. I would dispute that Visit St. Pete Clearwater has the arts experience or staff, because they do a pretty good job advising us of which museums to give millions of dollars of bed taxes to every year. They do a good job of that. But earlier, in our meeting earlier, you were talking about some of the funds. And I'm glad, Ms. Murray, that you brought up funds. And you brought up a 53% amount. Is that the TDC funds that, so, Ms. Murray, is it true that in the TDC funds that you get from Visit St. Pete Clearwater in the TDC that 53% go to salaries? That is not correct. Yes. So of the $94 million that the tourism tax brought in last year, we received less than 1% of that. $150,000 of our staff salaries are paid by state grants. We spend about $300,000 on salaries, and those are salaries that go directly to marketing Pinellas County as a tourism destination. There's our marketing staff dollars, and that's an allowable expense. And you think that Creative Pinellas brings heads and beds? I do. And I know that with Making Waves, we'll bring more. This cultural tourism program is going to change the way people look at Pinellas County as a cultural destination. Do you think that you can do it better than the Visit St. Pete Clearwater folks do? We have two different roles. I'm not a tourism marketing agency, and I think that we can work together. We can create the arts experiences because we are embedded in the county. We have the knowledge, we have the relationships, and we can work with Visit St. Pete Clearwater to market those events. Even though you just said they don't have the experience to do that? They have the marketing experience. We can play to our respective strengths. We create arts events. They can market them. Yeah, just real quickly, on the visitations to your gallery, Can you give us a sense how that's grown over the last, or maybe not, the last three to five years, people coming to the gallery, participating in what Creative Pinellas has to offer? Yes, and everyone should have a folder with some information there. And our visitation has increased by about 10 to 20 percent every year. This year, visitation is down a little bit, and I have heard from many cultural organizations that it is down across the county. We have visitors from all over the world coming through our gallery. And, in fact, if you look at the most recent Visit St. Pete Clearwater report, it shows that Florida Botanical Gardens, which is how they lump all of visitation to Heritage Village and Creative Pinellas, has more visitation than even the James Museum, which we market extensively. So there have been times that Pinewood Park is the fourth most visited cultural attraction in Pinellas County. I follow these statistics very carefully. I take my job as a cultural tourism professional very seriously. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Okay, next we have David Ramsey. Reminding the speaker, you'll have five minutes. Thank you. Good evening, Commission. My name is David Ramsey. I've been a resident in Pinellas County for over 50 years. I'm a retired financial advisor for 40, retiring from Raymond James. And I've been on, for the last 40 years, too many to list, but quite a number of arts organizations, city commission, boards related to arts. And I'm here to speak in favor of continuing funding of Creative Pinellas. One of the things you might not know about me, I used to be the city manager at Treasure Island. I have a master's of public administration. So before I ended up in finance, I was actually sitting in desks like yours, having public hearings like this. And I'll share one piece of information. My old mayor, Mayor Jay Clymer from Gulfport, anybody in the room even remember that name, shared with me one day when I was in front of a whole group of people, it was a proposition that I had come up with as staff. We were having public hearings, and we didn't expect to see anybody in the room. Just like tonight, all of a sudden, you know, unintended consequences happen, and here you have all these people voicing their opinion. And I was pretty scared, and I was a little upset, because I really didn't want to be looked at as like I was doing something wrong. After the meeting, the mayor came over to me and said, David, you've got to remember one thing. I said, what's that? He said, these are our constituents. These are people who voted for us. These are the people who you work for. Remember that. And he told me, he said, I want you to do one thing. Listen. Listen to them, because they will tell you what they need. Really quickly, while I have a few minutes, I want to tell you one other economic impact that I think hasn't been discussed so far, and that is, in talking with Chris Steinocher from St. Pete Chamber, Jason Mattis from St. Pete Partnership, and a few economic development people, one of the curious things that they tell me when they bring in a new business, they tell me, they said, you know, these people, they ask them, well, is it like an exit interview? What brought you here? What was the final thing? And often as not, it was the cultural vibe that they got from the community. Now, we were talking about large performance venues, and we as a county and St. Pete as a city, we have pretty much comparable to any other metropolitan area, which means that that isn't enough. You have to have something more. And what I know in St. Petersburg, it is the smaller art venues. It's the makers, the performers. It's just all the small groups of people that contribute toward the whole fabric of the art community. And that is what differentiates us from, say, a city like Charlotte. I can promise you, I went to my high school reunion in Charlotte and was going to spend the Saturday afternoon running around looking at all the galleries, and damn if there wasn't much open. And I asked somebody, I said, where are all the people? He said, the city didn't really support us. They all moved to Asheville. So that's a caution that I would like you to have to consider. We need to continue to support our smaller artists, and which is what Creative Penelope does so well. So thank you for your time, and just one word, listen. Thank you. Next we have Beth Daniels. This is five minutes. Last group. Beth Daniels. Now we're going to individuals. After Beth Daniels, we're going to go to Kanisha Barajos. I'm going to murder this last name. I'm sorry. Chagnow? We ready? Yes. Thank you for your time and your attention. My name is Beth Daniels, and I'm the president of the Clearwater Arts Alliance, the official arts alliance for the city of Clearwater. We strongly urge you to continue the funding for Creative Penelope. We know firsthand what happens when Creative Penelope is funded because we see the results in our own city and across our county. I speak for our group. I also speak with more than way too many years of experience myself. I'm a lifelong Pinellas County resident. I've been involved in especially the music community my entire life, and I still am involved in that. So I've performed in all our halls, and I've been in all the small places, and I've also been on the Clearwater Arts Alliance. Our organization is now 25 years old. We were here the last time that, in fact, I was on the Pinellas County Arts Council, and this commission, many years ago during the financial downturn, defunded that organization. It took years and years and years of work, especially from some of the smaller organizations, to help bring that back into a reality for the county, and we urgently ask you not to let that happen again. You can't imagine the momentum that is lost and the numbers of people and their dedication and the discouragement that comes with that. The numbers are really striking. Creative Pinellas receives less than 1% of the county's tourism tax and just .001% of the overall county budget. That is pennies compared to the return that they, in fact, deliver. And they don't stop there. Every dollar from the county is matched and multiplied with outside funding, as Margaret very eloquently explained. There are a variety of other groups that support them, and they support us. We work together to make a vibrant art community for our entire county. The broader economic impact of the arts is undeniable. The Arts and Economic Prosperity study that was published in 2023, and we had one done specifically for the city of Clearwater. The Clearwater Arts Alliance was a very big part of getting all those surveys done. It showed that that sector of nonprofit art and culture in Clearwater alone is a $125.6 million industry in the city of Clearwater. It supports more than 1,800 jobs and generates $24.6 million in local, state, and government revenue. More than 1.8 million people, both local and non-local, visited our arts and culture events and activities and venues in Clearwater. This proves what we know to be true, that investing in the arts really pays off. The return on investment is undeniable. What do we get for that investment on the ground? We get neighborhoods. I'm glad that Mr. Ramsey brought up that point. We get neighborhoods that have a vibrant culture to them. They are not just big institutions. They're all the little things happening all over our county. We have murals. We have art-wrapped signal boxes. The Clearwater Arts Alliance alone has now put in over 50 within the city limits of Clearwater. They are adding to the pride of neighborhoods and creating a special vibe, which you just can't get any other way. Tourists don't just come to see the beach. They come to experience an interesting and a vibrant community. What the efforts of Creative Pinellas are doing, as well as the Clearwater Arts Alliance and other local groups, it multiplies itself, and it really is doing a great job. Pinellas is known across the nation and the world as an arts designation. That reputation brings visitors. It strengthens our economy. It enhances the daily life of our residents. Defunding them would undercut, not preserve, the county's unique charm and the very tourism economy we all strive to see be successful. I would like to bring up a couple other points that have not been raised, which I'll take off my arts supporter and artist and put on my lawyer hat for a second. Basic due process. There was very little notice of this. People in the arts community only learned about it last week. They need an opportunity to react and to cure. If there are complaints about things, you get in with your staff and you work with them. You don't just blindside them and cut it out. There are too many people, and it's really a shame because that room is packed. Okay? It is packed with people from Gulfport to Tarpon Springs that have come here tonight. And it's really a shame that you can't be looking them in the eye. In conclusion, we strongly support this proposition that you keep them fully funded. Thank you for your time. All right. Please, please, no clapping. Yeah, now we're done with two. Okay. So, Ganesha, sorry, I'm not getting this name correct. Ganesha Barajas-Chandanga. And then Reed Jenkins. Those were big shoes to follow. Well, um... Reminding, excuse me, we're reminding everybody that comes in, two minutes instead of three. Just a reminder. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Ganesha Barajas-Chandanga, and I've been a resident and homeowner of St. Petersburg for the past 11 years. I stand before you not only as a community member, but as a wife of an artist whose career was profoundly changed through the support of Creative Penelas. When my husband received his first grant in 2018, it was not just financial assistance, it was validation. It gave him a sense of self-worth as an artist, and with this support, he was able to build a professional portfolio that has since attracted opportunities on a global scale. Projects that before felt absolutely out of reach. Right now, actually, he is a full-time artist, painting a mural in Maryland. That's why I'm here. And that is thanks in no small part to that first grant, the few that came after, and the many other aspects of the programs, including education and networking, that Creative Penelas provides directly or indirectly to our community's local arts ecosystem. My husband is the poster child of how these programs empower artists not only to pursue their passion, but also to build financial, sustainable careers. This has, of course, also impacted our family. The ripple effect extends beyond the recipient. It uplifts households, strengthens families, and shows the next generation that creative careers are not only possible, but also valued. We came to St. Pete for a job relocation, but we stayed for Dan's career and the arts community that welcomed us like a family. And the results are reflected in real numbers as well. He's the artist, I'm the numbers in the house, and this is my perspective. Home values in central neighborhoods in St. Pete surged from 97K in 2014 to about 475K in 2024. That is 389% increase compared to, for example, Jacksonville, where the real estate grew about 138% over the same period. Our growth reflects... Thank you. Time's up. Reed Jenkins, followed by Maggie Duffy. Evening. My name's Reed Jenkins. I live in South Central St. Petersburg, and I've been a resident here all my life. Creative Pinellas has really changed my family's lives. Things like scholarships to summer camps allowed my wife and I to work. It also allowed my child to be able to experience dance, visual arts, and musical theater, which she found out she really loves. For myself, I was a grant recipient in 2018. I got about $2,000. I was also a teaching assistant at that time with mentally and physically handicapped kids. I spent $500 on the supplies for the grant, the art that I had to create for it, and the other $1,500 went to bills. I made probably like $18,000 that year. That has literally propelled me to being able to make more money off my art. Eventually, I was able to get a grant from Creative Pinellas again for the Lealman Project for a mural. It was the largest mural I've ever done. That has allowed me to become a full-time artist. It has allowed me to not only become a full-time artist, but buy a tattoo shop I was apprenticing at, and also pay other artists last year $60,000. You can see how the impact of something so small can spiral and help you grow. My wife and I lost our house as soon as my youngest daughter was born, was it 2012? Now we're at the point where we're able to start to be able to think about buying a house. And because I'm an artist, I don't have stable income. My wife's a teacher. She doesn't make much. But because of these grants, I've been able to save at least what would be a third to a fourth down payment on a house. This is the investment that these kind of grants give. They literally give the opportunity for us to grow, the opportunity to give back. This is the one opportunity I had to actually give back to Creative Pinellas and talk about them. So all I'm really asking is give them the same opportunity to continue and grow so that other people can have that same kind of impact in their lives and come out of poverty. Thank you for your time. Maggie Duffy, followed by Allison McCarthy. Hello, and thank you for the opportunity to talk to you tonight. My name is Maggie Duffy, and I was recently hired by Creative Pinellas specifically to focus our online efforts to boost cultural tourism through our brand-new digital magazine. I was previously the arts writer for the Tampa Bay Times, and for the past five years, I provided arts and culture content to visit St. Pete Clearwater's magazine, Gulf to Bay. On October 4th, we are launching Current Culture, the brand-new digital magazine. It is an exciting new traveler's guide to local culture. It is geared for visitors to showcase the unique experiences that make our community a must-visit destination, exactly what data shows cultural visitors, younger audiences, and families are seeking. The magazine is built around high-low and shoulder-seeing seasons and will reach visitors in the 59- to 65-day period when they're planning their visits. Each issue also has a spotlight city feature to more easily help visitors plan their vacation. In the first issue, the spotlight city is Clearwater, so it's great that we're here. In response to data we have gathered, we have also developed an arts events calendar that visitors will use to plan their vacations and visits around cultural events here in Pinellas County. This is a highly focused publication with one purpose in mind, drive visitation to cultural events throughout the county, and will have an incredible impact on how we are seen worldwide as a county of the arts. I hope you can see the efforts we're making to promote cultural tourism. Thank you so much. Thank you. Allison McCarthy, followed by Shane O'Hara. Good evening, Commissioners, and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. My name is Allison McCarthy. I was brought on as the new curatorial director of Creative Pinellas specifically because of my experience at the intersection of arts and tourism, honed over a decade at the Dali Museum, the most visited arts museum in the state of Florida. My charge is clear to drive cultural tourism in Pinellas County by creating meaningful, world-class art experiences, not only at the Creative Pinellas Gallery, but also at the Sightline Gallery at St. Pete Clearwater International Airport, which Margaret mentioned welcomes 2.5 million travelers annually. In addition, I will oversee our Making Waves program, which brings artists and cultural experiences directly to the 15 million visitors who come to Pinellas County each year. To truly maximize this opportunity, Creative Pinellas needs to increase our visibility where visitors already gather. Strategic distribution of promotional materials at high-traffic destinations, such as the St. Pete Pier, the Sugar Sand Festival, and Johns Pass, as well as partnerships with Beach Chambers, would significantly amplify awareness of our exhibitions and programs. The impact of reaching visitors at these touch points would be immediate and lasting. At the gallery, I am also committed to strengthening and diversifying our revenue streams. This includes introducing paid events, establishing naming rights for each of our seven gallery spaces, securing corporate sponsorships for exhibitions, and developing a dynamic merchandise line that showcases Pinellas County artists along with the Creative Pinellas brand. I have also been tasked with revitalizing the Pinellas County Visitor Center at the gallery, an effort that can both better serve tourists and generate new revenue. Looking ahead, we will host a spring fundraiser featuring an art auction, and I believe it's time to consider a modest admission fee for exhibitions and related programming to ensure long-term sustainability. Pinellas County has an extraordinary opportunity to harness the power of arts as an engine for cultural tourism and economic growth. With your continued funding, Creative Pinellas can build a more vibrant, visible, cultural presence that strengthens both our economy and our identity as a world-class destination. Thank you so much. Thank you. Shane O'Hara, followed by Michelle Tona. Good evening, County Commissioners. Thank you for letting me speak. My name is Shane O'Hara, and I serve as the board president of Creative Pinellas. I'm also an owner of a local financial planning and investment management firm, and our team at Provise is entrusted with stewarding the assets of families across the county. In my work, every investment must show measurable value, efficient use of dollars, and long-term benefits. By that standard, Creative Pinellas continues to be a sound investment. In 2024, Creative Pinellas received less than 1% of the $94 million in bed tax revenue and just 0.004% of the county's operating budget. Yet, with that modest allocation, it attracted more than $300,000 in outside support. It's also delivering roughly $200,000 in capital improvements to county-owned cultural facilities without any additional county outlay. The return on tourism dollars is also clear. Making Waves will place $120,000 in arts programming directly in tourism hubs, while our new online magazine, Current Culture, launching October 4th, will help visitors plan and extend their trips around our culture. This works because Creative Pinellas has staff whose expertise is 100% focused on the arts. Their daily work is with artists, cultural organizations, and community partners. Visit St. Pete Clearwater does excellent work in tourism marketing, but shifting arts funding decisions to staff without arts expertise would be a mistake. The two organizations are most effective when they complement one another, VSPC bringing visitors here, and Creative Pinellas ensuring their cultural experiences that keep them coming back. I respectfully urge you to maintain this investment. Defunding Creative Pinellas would weaken not just one non-for-profit, but the cultural ecosystem that draws visitors, supports small businesses, and makes Pinellas thrive. Thank you. Michelle Tona, followed by Amelia Wallin. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Is that... What was your name? Okay. Thank you, Amelia. Appreciate that. Okay. Hi. Thank you for your time to speak with you today. My name is Michelle Taneu. I've been a resident of Pinellas County for 35 years. I started a marketing company here in 2006. I've been an active member of the arts community for almost two decades, including founding the Shine Mural Festival in St. Petersburg. I even married an artist. Most recently, I joined the board of Creative Pinellas. Over the years, I've seen the organization progress as a true leader in shaping and promoting Pinellas County as Florida's arts coast. By specifically championing over 50 new public art projects across the Pinellas Trail, Lealman, Safety Harbor, South Pasadena, and more, creating more jobs for artists and uplifting its residents. They've stewarded partnerships with artists and other organizations to build a stronger ecosystem of trust and collaboration that leads to both growth and new efficiency in terms of resource sharing, cross-promotion, and new idea generation. They're driving exciting initiatives that directly relate to art tourism and local spending, like making waves, content culture, current culture, excuse me, hosting new art events and exhibits at the gallery, and launching a dedicated gallery space at St. Pete Clearwater Airport to keep art top of mind upon arrival in the area. I believe Creative Pinellas is the best agency in the area to elevate the arts in a way that brings more resident cultural impact and more lasting economic impact for the county. Further, such a sudden defunding, absent a larger mitigation plan, threatens to unravel valuable work already in place. And finally, we understand the need to show the county's return on investment and business results. We are committed to doing that more clearly going forward. But I do want to acknowledge that our stakeholders require a different approach. To inspire the arts community, we speak their language. Our materials or website may sound different, but our focus and accountability are unwavering. Thank you for your time. Jonathan Ogle, followed by Debbie Garrett. Good evening. My name is Jonathan Ogle, and I'm the Arts Supervisor for Pinellas County Schools. Thank you for the time to speak with you. I'm here to spotlight the strong partnership between Creative Pinellas, the arts community, and the school district. A collaboration cultivating creativity, strengthening community, and expanding access to the arts for thousands of children and families. Each year, our partnership brings student artwork into the public eye through the K-8 Youth Art Month exhibition, the 13th Congressional District of Florida High School Art Competition and Exhibit, and other county-wide shows generously hosted by Creative Pinellas. Additionally, these events serve as professional opportunities that help secondary students build art portfolios, earn arts recognition, and secure scholarships. County funding through Creative Pinellas also directly supports summer art camps. Doors have been opened to hundreds of children, many of whom who would not otherwise have the access to arts over the summer. American historian Will Durant once wrote, The greatness of a civilization is measured not only by its power, but by its ability to create and preserve art. As you've heard this evening, residents and tourists benefit from Creative Pinellas in many ways because it creates and preserves art. The question we must ask is, would Pinellas County be better off or without Creative Pinellas? Based on what we've heard tonight, and we probably will hear much more, I believe that all of us know the answer. Thank you for your continued support in preserving the arts that inspire and educate our next generations. Do this for the kids. Thank you. Debbie Garrett, followed by Barbara St. Clair. Thanks, everyone. My name is Debbie Garrett. I stand here before you as someone who's been an art teacher in the community for about 30 years. When I first moved to Pinellas County, Central Avenue was destitute, and I shared a spot and sold my art on Central Avenue. I'm also an Eckerd College graduate. I am also the co-founder of Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project. I am also a 13-year teacher, art teacher at Job Corps. I also founded an organization called Youth Art Corps, where quilting was one of our entities. But most importantly, I am a two-time grant awardee from Pinellas, Creative Pinellas. The first grant that I got was done for a movie. That movie, I am an award-winning independent filmmaker. And from that movie, I was able to help found the Sunshine City Film Festival and also the Black Art and Film Festival. Also from that film, from that award, I was able to hire artists in the community, filmmakers, also actors. And from that also, I was able to train students to become stagehands. Some work currently now at the Strass Museum and also have artists that also work in the community. I know a lot of the muralists because I saw them grow up and I helped to assist them. Most importantly, my daughter is also a recipient of what, because of what I got from Creative Pinellas, I was able to work and able to help my daughter. One of the questions is, what does Creative Pinellas do for the community? No, they just don't buy cameras. They help to cultivate lives and they help to create and cultivate artists. We want to talk about Atlanta. Atlanta didn't thrive in their art community because they lost their artists early on. I am so concerned that we're going to lose the ability to create an art community. I met the princess of Spain when the dolly was built and she said to me, you have a responsibility to make sure that your community and that your community know about what is happening here in St. Petersburg. We are in a state where we are elevating. We have went through our renaissance period and now I'm concerned that we're going to just stop it. Let's keep it going. Let's keep Creative Pinellas going. It's not easy to get a grant, but I got it. Barbara St. Clair followed by Carol Mickett. Good evening. My name is Barbara St. Clair. I am the former director of Creative Pinellas from 2016 to 2023. Thank you for letting me be here. I realize that I'm listening to everybody talk about the present and the future and I love what I'm hearing. I want to function as a historian just for a few minutes or actually probably a minute and a half at this point. Yes, Creative Pinellas began in 2011. It was a response by the community after the Pinellas County Arts Council closed. And its job, and I found their original presentation to the Board of County Commissioners, its job was to create an online buzz with social media to remind people that arts is in Tampa Bay and they should put themselves on a calendar and to function as a router for the arts in Pinellas County. That lasted about until 2015 when the Board of County Commissioners asked the Board of Directors of Creative, oh, I have to say their budget was $55,000 a year and they had no employees. 2015, the Board of County Commissioners asked the Board of Creative Pinellas to go around the county and find out what the county wanted. And the county said, we want a functioning and good arts agency, we want a good website, we want grants, we want education, we want a place to show our work, we want a place to practice. The Board of County Commissioners decided to give Creative Pinellas $150,000. Creative Pinellas had $150,000 in the bank. They hired me and they said, you have to do all this. I stood before the Board of County Commissioners and I was told, Creative Pinellas is on probation, you have one year to prove yourself as an organization. So we did that. We launched grants. Oops. Mr. Chairman, can we give her another minute since she's the former director, to give a historical perspective. We launched grants, we launched a website, we started workshops in education. And then we went to the County Commission and said, we need more budget. And they told me, you need to fill out a package. And I said, well, what is that? And they said, every time you get additional funds, you need to fill out a package and make your case. This Board of County Commissioners approved quite a number of packages over the years, one at a time. And to get those packages approved, we had to take it to visit St. Pete Clearwater, we had to take it to the TDC, then we took it to the Board of County Commissioners, and the Board of County Commissioners voted on it. We served you. We brought you decision packages. You chose some of them to support. You chose others to say, no, we don't want to do that. And the programming that we developed was at your service. And I remember walking out of the last meeting when I was, it was my last year before I retired. We were unanimously supported by this council, by this commission. And I thank you for that. Thank you. I hope you do it again. Please, I'm going to ask, refrain from applause in this room, please. Carol Mickett, followed by Kendra Patterson. Good evening. Good evening. I'm Carol Mickett. And I'm Robert Stackhouse. So we are a collaborative art team. We show in museums and in private collections and public collections worldwide. And we were indeed Creative Pinellas Art Laureates. We, for 15 years, lived in St. Petersburg. We lived in a commercial building. We lived there and we worked there. We were probably the first artists to ever do that in St. Pete and probably in the county. In 2017, we moved to Tarpon Springs, where we live and we work as artists. Now, in St. Petersburg, which is an incredible art community, it has a center. And people together make decisions. And it's bloomed like crazy since we were there. In Tarpon Springs, in North County, as you all know, North County are these small, independent municipalities. We don't have a central place. One of the few places in the county that is a central hub for the entire county is Creative Pinellas. What Creative Pinellas does is it brings all of these communities together to network, to create and talk about policy, to have creative minds work together, to have school children come, to have parents come. And that does not happen in other places. So, it allows North County and Southern County, namely St. Petersburg, to actually talk together. So, I implore you to keep Creative Pinellas. Kendra Patterson, followed by Mark Ayling. Hello, my name is Kendra Patterson. I am here to strongly urge you to continue the funding of Creative Pinellas, an invaluable organization that supports K-12 students in Pinellas County. By cutting its funding, you would deprive my students of a vital opportunity. Each March, Creative Pinellas hosts an elementary student art show. At that show, I witness my students' excitement as they see their artwork beautifully framed and displayed alongside local artists. This event provides an award ceremony that draws hundreds of supporters, showcasing the community's appreciation of our young artists. Families express their joy not only in seeing their children's creations, but also in the inspiring environment that Creative Pinellas fosters. Defunding this organization would silence the recognition that my students deserve. I urge you to continue supporting Creative Pinellas. And when you do, I will personally send you an invitation to the student art show in March, so you can experience the firsthand joy and excitement that this organization brings to my students and their families. Thank you for your time, and I will see you in March. Thank you. Mark Ayling, followed by Jenny Ruby. Good evening. Good evening. I will speak quickly. My name is Mark Ayling, and I own MGA Sculpture Studio in St. Pete. Before you cut funding from this organization, I would like you to consider something. Creative Pinellas isn't perfect. No arts organization is. I know I run WADA. I've done it for the past 13 years. But what has happened in this county over the last 15 years is something special. For whatever reason, the stars have aligned and created a community of artists that is unique. It's lifted our greater community and brought global attention to what a special place this is. It's inspired a boom of development because people from all over the world now want to live here. Unfortunately, that boom has made it very expensive to live here. So expensive that many very talented artists have been forced to leave. On top of that, we find ourselves in a political climate that has all but erased funding for the arts on a national level. We have a governor who has made it very clear that the arts are too woke. No funding there. Now the county is looking to cut funding. Please consider what you are looking to do. I understand that you want to be responsible stewards of the county's resources. But some investments give rewards that are hard to monetize directly. However, if you step back and look at where we are now compared to 15 years ago, I can make a pretty compelling case that the creative community has had a lot to do with this area's success. And funds from organizations like Creative Pinellas, the Arts Alliance, the Warehouse Arts District, have played a major part in the success that we all now enjoy. We need Pinellas County to invest in our creative community now more than ever. Margaret Murray is a good leader. Give her the opportunity to lead. Thank you. Thank you very much. Jay Ruby, followed by Laura Spencer. Good evening. My name is Janae Preby. I've been working in Pinellas County as an arts administrator since 2018. I have worked for Creative Pinellas on two occasions. I know firsthand the impact this organization has had and the quality of work it produces. I've also worked directly with Visit St. Pete Clearwater in several capacities. While I respect that it's their job to market and promote Pinellas County as a tourist destination, in my experience, it was an uphill battle trying to educate them on matters of art. We struggled for years to get Visit St. Pete Clearwater to pay mural artists for the use of their work in their ad campaigns. The artists own the copyrights to their mural work, even though it's in a public space. It's no different than purchasing a song to use in a commercial. There are royalties that must legally be paid to the owner of that work. An organization that is responsible for generating a billion dollars by promoting the vibrant cultural offerings of this area was refusing to pay $500 to an artist to use their work. That is not the organization I want in charge of supporting or funding artists in Pinellas County. Respectfully, Visit St. Pete does not understand best practices for curating, funding, creating, or administrating arts programming. That's exactly why Creative Pinellas was founded. The organization is staffed and overseen by a board with some of the best arts professionals I've met in this county, and that's increasingly true under Margaret's leadership. Furthermore, what Creative Pinellas is doing, directly and indirectly, is building and sustaining a thriving art culture. It's not one-off projects. It's not tourist art. It's a community and a culture that is generating real art with real value. That is what will bring tourists. Not whatever whitewashed, safe beach art I can guarantee will be coming down the pipeline if we lose Creative Pinellas. And I hope the turnout here today and the emails and calls that have been flooding your inboxes are a clear indication of the strength, dedication, and tenacity of this art community. An attack on Creative Pinellas is an attack on every art organization and every artist in this county. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen that are inside, ladies and gentlemen, the chair has requested at least three times that you not applaud. The reason being is because, number one, it allows persons to hear their names called when they come up to speak. And it's just being mindful because we make the same requests for people who sometimes aren't excited, you know, and clap. They do other things. So I am going to ask you, as a personal favor to me, please honor his request. I know you're excited for what you guys are saying and doing. Do hands. The guys on the outside are clapping. We can hear them. And I know it really fuels you. But if you could please do me that favor and honor him for that because he's doing a yeoman's job this evening. And we want to hear from everybody that has signed up to speak. So can y'all help me with that? All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Do the hands, honey. Do the hands. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Flowers. I appreciate that. And also, we still have a large stack of cards here. So I'm just going to ask if what you're going to say has already been said, if you could just speak it very quick or wave speaking. That would be great because we do have a lot that we have to get through yet this evening. So Laura Spencer followed by Matthew Falhaver. Good evening, everyone. And thank you for the opportunity to speak in front of you tonight in advocation for Creative Pinellas. My name is Laura Spencer. My professional artist name is Miss Crit. I was born and raised here in Pinellas County, and I am living proof of not only the success of Creative Pinellas, but Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School. So I am that living, breathing artist that has chosen to stay in Pinellas County, live my life, and raise my family here. So this evening, I want to take this as an opportunity to, like Barbara St. Clair, talk about the history of Creative Pinellas and the tourism programs that they have already put in place. In fact, I have participated in two of the four programs that I would like to highlight. First and foremost, in 2020, 2021, and 2022, Creative Pinellas ran a program called Arts Annual Beyond the Walls, in which they paired an artist with a hotel and hospitality venue in Pinellas County. I was able to showcase my work in the lobby of the hotels and the foyers at the Alden Suites and the Bellevue Inn in Clearwater twice. Right there, that tells you that people are coming on their vacation and directly impacted by the arts. Furthermore, I am also one of the two muralists that created a mural at the St. Pete Clearwater International Airport. When you walk off of your plane, if you fly Allegiant, you will be greeted at Gate 12 by two murals, by myself and the artist Leo Gomez. And I don't know any other way that you can further impact arts and tourism in Pinellas County than by presenting it as soon as you walk off your airplane. I could speak at length this evening about the other accolades I've been provided by Creative Pinellas. I was a 2019 Emerging Artist grantee, along with my partner, George Rekkesh, and my fellow art colleague. Thank you all for your time. Thank you. Matthew Falhaber, followed by George Ann Bissette. Good evening. My name is Matthew Falhaber. I am a fourth-generation Floridian. I own the Work Gallery in St. Petersburg. My staff and I run a traditional gallery on one side, a gift shop on the other. We work with lots of talented local artists, some well-established, and some just fledglings with a lot of promise. This is supposed to be three minutes' worth, so it's cutting down. Over the years, I have attended many events by Creative Pinellas and was lucky to bear witness to the lives they were able to change. The grants they offer help infuse life into the arts community. With those grants, artists are able to purchase new materials, create new bodies of work. Receiving a grant can also boost the morale of an artist, who in turn can help them succeed, as you've heard tonight. Creative Pinellas has built a beautiful community through the work they do. It is that simple. In these times, what do we need more than a strong sense of community? In conclusion, I'd like to focus on things we remember from societies that are long gone. Cave paintings evolved into beautiful works of art, such as sculptures in museums today. Art cave paintings evolved into things like the great masters and the art movements that we've known to love and have museums to get dedicated to in town. Art has always been an integral part of life, and societies that prioritized artists are some of the most recognizable in our history books. I strongly urge the Board of County Commissioners to consider continuing to fund Creative Pinellas, and thereby share your support for our local arts community and the residents whom you serve. Thank you for your time today. It is greatly appreciated. Thank you. Am I allowed to hand these to someone? Just give it a card. George Ann Bissett, followed by Gerald Strain. Hello, and good evening. George Ann Bissett from Dunedin, Florida. I've been in the arts community for 21 years. I retired two years ago from the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. But something that I have learned in the last year and a half, a very clear message that I get from helping the Dunedin History Museum, is that there is such a vibe in Pinellas County, and remember, Creative Pinellas is our mothership, that people keep walking into the history museum time and time again saying, what a wonderful place Dunedin is. And the rest of this county, please keep in mind, you have been so supportive of the arts, and we thank you. Let's keep this vibe going. Out there are hundreds of people that all want Creative Pinellas to stay. Our leader, Margaret, is superb. And the arts have done a tremendous amount from St. Petersburg up to Tarpon. We truly live in a wonderful county, and I thank you all. Thank you. Gerald Strain, followed by Heather Rippert. Hello. Good evening. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. I'm Gerald Strain. Two weeks ago, a friend of mine came from Atlanta, and I took her to the gallery at Creative Pinellas. And she was welcomed warmly and sincerely. And we talked a lot about the art that we saw. We were both very excited. And she said, the art community in Atlanta is very weak. And we had a good time. And when she got home, she said that she wants to move. She wants to move to Pinellas County and be a volunteer at Creative Pinellas. Thank you. Thank you. Heather Rippert, followed by Chris Dior. Hello. Good evening. My name is Heather Rippert. Thank you for having me here this evening. I'm here tonight twofold. First, as an artist, and second, as a board member of the Clearwater Arts Alliance. As an artist, I've benefited from Creative Pinellas in many ways. I received an Emerging Artist Grant in 2022. I was selected to be a brand ambassador representing the Arts Coast, along with two other artists at the Piedmont Park Arts Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2022. I also received a grant for a signal box wrap in 2023. I've participated and attended countless exhibits at the galleries at Creative Pinellas, among many other things. These examples of my participation are a mere sliver of the ways Creative Pinellas uplifts our communities. Pinellas County is known nationally and internationally as an arts destination. That reputation brings visitors, strengthens our economy, and enhances the daily life for our residents. I cannot begin to tell you how often I hear comments from people about how my signal box depicting vibrant flamingos brightens their day and sparks joy. This project was funded by Creative Pinellas. At the opening reception of the exhibit from my Emerging Artist Grant period, I have to also share with you how deeply moved so many attendees were by my series of paintings created during the grant period that were about my personal experience of loss and grief when my father and best friend died four months apart. And that touches the more personal ways that art moves, touches, and inspires. That project was funded by Creative Pinellas. Defunding Creative Pinellas would undercut, not preserve, our county's unique charm and very tourism. Thank you. Chris Dwyer, followed by Elizabeth Baker. Hello, sirs. This is Chris Dyer. I'm an artist. I've been doing it for 25 years. I've lived in many places around the world, big art cities like Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and Denver, Colorado, and Lima, Peru. And I can absolutely tell you that proper, beautiful, inspiring, soulful art ignites the culture and the passion of a city, makes it special. Not like, there's lots of art, you know. We artists need support to bring the best of it. And institutions like Creative Pinellas helps us be supported in that mission of making our best art and keep on growing and making our city super dope. I have moved here three years ago. I moved here not knowing anybody just because I heard St. Pete was a cool city with cool people making cool art. It's like, all right, let's go there. Came here, bought a house, and then started meeting people. Now I know a lot of cool artists. It's really lovely. I want them to do well. I want everybody to pay their rents and mortgages. So please, support Creative Pinellas and, yeah, and the arts so we can keep on making St. Pete super awesome. Woo! Elizabeth Baker followed by Jeff Serena. My artist name is actually the Honorable Elizabeth A. Baker, so I wanted to make that clarification. I was born and raised in St. Petersburg, and I am probably the best poster child for what happens when you get a Creative Pinellas grant. I was given a Creative Pinellas grant in 2017. From that grant, I was able to create a body of work that got me a Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship, a fellowship that has less than 2% acceptance rate in a cohort with people that have literal Nobel Prizes. I was the youngest one in my cohort at 33 years old. That is what a Creative Pinellas grant does. Not only did I get that fellowship from Harvard, but I was able to do fellowships in Switzerland and other countries and then come back to this county where I was born and have that expertise and understanding of what an art world looks like outside of here. I have more than a handful, maybe 12 at this point, records, albums, different things, and Creative Pinellas funds things for me that are experimental art. We don't have a lot of experimental art funding anywhere else, and it's important that we have organizations like Creative Pinellas. I think it's also important to have a person like me that can come back into the community, give back to kids, and show them that you don't just have to be making murals, no offense, mural artists, but you can be doing weird stuff and still have a sustainable career. So I believe that it's very important for you to consider the funding going to Creative Pinellas to bring in not only the artists that are here, but enrich the artist community with internationally acclaimed artists. That's it. Thank you. Jeff Serena, followed by Alex Kaufman. Good evening. My name is Jeff Serena, and I'm Director of Operations and Membership at the Warehouse Arts District Association in St. Petersburg. I'm here to support Creative Pinellas. They connect the various arts hubs and arts communities within the county through programs, partnership, and advocacy. No one else can do what they do. In the interest of brevity and in recognition of the many people who wish to speak, I cede the rest of my time. Thank you. Thank you. Alex Kaufman, followed by Karen Seal. Yes, I did. My name is Alex Kaufman. I'm an artist in St. Pete, and I am here to speak against defunding Creative Pinellas with a quick personal story. I moved to St. Pete 15 years ago, not as an artist, but a burnout college grad dreaming of finally escaping Florida with one last final stop at the beach. Creative Pinellas was my first introduction to the arts here in St. Pete. It got me interested in what this place had to offer, and for the first time in my life, I lived somewhere that felt like it had potential and some place that I could build a foundation on. Without Creative Pinellas, I would have never started down this path, and I would have left a long time ago. For the last 10 years, I've been involved in several major art projects around the county. Let me ask the committee, have you ever heard of any of these things? The first flight monument at the St. Petersburg Pier, the Gladiolus Blossom sculpture in front of the St. Pete Police Station, and now the longest mosaic in the state of Florida. Right here in the 727. Do these things contribute to the tourism and the appeal of the county? If you truly believe there is no ROI on an organization like this, please go ahead and vote to defund Creative Pinellas. But note, you're not just defunding a single organization. You're defunding the arts of the county. You're defunding the culture of the county. And you're defunding the future of the county, pushing away young artists like myself, who might finally decide it's time to leave Florida. Thank you. Thank you. Karen Seal, followed by Peter Biafor. Good evening, Karen. Good evening. It's nice to be back with you all. This is the first time I've come back to appear in front of you since I retired in 2022. And it's for a good reason. I am recently back on the Creative Pinellas Board. And as you know, since 1999, I have been a passionate advocate for the arts. And in 2015, when we went through the robust public hearings that Barbara St. Claire mentioned, we heard from hundreds of people how important it was to have an independent arts council and organization and a cultural plan. So tonight, you've heard from your citizens eloquent, inspirational, and personal testimonials. You've heard facts about economic impact, the personal impact to their lives and to their children, the impact to tourism development, education, and so on. It's a good investment. I respectfully ask you all to please continue funding Creative Pinellas and become even more engaged and involved with Creative Pinellas. Thank you. I was short, wasn't I? You were. Thank you, Karen. Pete Biafor, followed by Rita Relkus. And I apologize if I didn't get that name correct. Good evening, Commissioners. I've been a resident of Pinellas County since 1976. I'm not an artist. I've never received a grant. But I've lived here all these years, and I believe that Creative Pinellas encourages tourism to come to this county. And on a personal note, I'd like to say I have extended family in the UK and Scotland. And I hear from them that people in Europe are not vacationing in America. They're choosing to pick their vacation spots overseas rather than come here because of the climate in this country. Creative Pinellas is, I believe, produces more revenue than it takes. I believe it's a wonderful program. I think that we need this in this county. We need this in this country. The arts are valuable. I'm not an artist, but I can appreciate art. The work they do with children is wonderful. Please fund Creative Pinellas. Thank you. Thank you. Rita Relks, followed by Mitzi Gordon. Rita Relks. Okay. Is Rita... Okay. So no... No Rita Relks. Okay. All right. Mitzi. Followed by Tina Parachi. Good evening. Mitzi Gordon. I'm a two-time former employee of Creative Pinellas, where I served a term as executive director in the early inception of the agency. In 2015, I stood before the commission to request the funding that Barbara St. Clair and Karen Seal referenced. The agency, as I had inherited it, had to change. I knew that. And that change began with your investment at that time. I'm here today to urge you to continue that investment. I'm also a two-time grant recipient of the agency. I know this agency well and the path it took to arrive at the level of sustainability it's achieved today, supporting a countywide cultural network that includes visitors and locals with a low draw, high leverage, and measurable value. Creative Pinellas remains a sound investment. Defunding the agency would destabilize our cultural infrastructure. They are partners to VSPC. The agencies are not interchangeable. Visit St. Pete Clearwater excels at promoting our beaches and hospitality, but is not positioned to address collectors, arts patrons, and the local artist constituency. Supporting a Creative Pinellas Visit St. Pete Clearwater partnership delivers far greater impact than shifting arts funding into tourism marketing alone. As an agency staffed with long-time arts professionals, Creative Pinellas is singularly qualified to administer these initiatives, and they are deeply embedded in our community, as you can see by the turnout here today. Under Margaret Murray, the agency delivers strong outcomes with a minimal and well-leveraged draw on county funds. Thank you for your hearing. Thank you. Tina Parachi, followed by Michael Oberlander. Good evening. Hello, everyone. Thank you for your time. My name is Tina Parachi, and I'm coming to share my perspective as not only an artist, but an educator in Pinellas. I teach at USF St. Pete and Tampa with classes such as curatorial practice and public art, where we can look at how impactful public art and groups like Creative Pinellas is for our community. And so looking to see shifting that to a different organization that doesn't specialize in this and doesn't quite do it how we do it in the terms of the culture, the relationships, just seeing the people out there in that room, everyone recognizing each other, because they've built a community. And that's something that has gotten bigger and bigger every year. And so why would we take away that momentum? And so from my artist's perspective, I've been funded by some of their grants for some of the projects that we're doing, and we'd like to host this at Making Waves, where we're 3D printing. This is just a model, but we're using clay 3D printing to restore our oyster habitat here in the Bay Area. These outplants are looking at seawall areas because they're being replaced by synthetic materials, and oysters can't live there. Our water's getting worse. Red tide's a huge issue. People want to come to our beaches. If they have red tide, they don't want to come. If they want to share in our events that we'll be hosting at these outplants, where we'll have dancers, visual artists, sculptors, and all sorts of performances coming together to celebrate the arts and to celebrate our beautiful environment that we hear at St. Pete. When I was teaching at UC Berkeley, I would hear from the students that visited this county and say it was because of the arts that they would go there every year. It was because of the culture that they had. And so looking to see coming back to Florida, moving back, and seeing what kinds of great projects they're holding now, and seeing the wonderful leadership that Margaret has put forward, I just want to urge you to not only consider continuing this beyond this year with the short sight that we've had, but to also continue to fund Creative Pinellas because of all of its outreach between the arts, between experimental research, and thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Michael Oberlander, followed by Barbara Cordova. Michaela, I'm sorry about that. Good evening. My name is Michaela Oberlander, and I'm from Tarpon Springs, Florida. I'm here to speak on behalf of my husband, the visual artist Kevin Grass. Kevin would have been here, but he was killed on February 5th while riding his bicycle to work on Drew Street in Clearwater. But talking about how unsafe Pinellas County is for cyclists is a topic for another time. I am here to speak on behalf of continuing full funding for Creative Pinellas. Kevin received a grant from PreNative Pinellas so he could create a 14-foot by 7-foot tall easel painting that dealt with the Me Too movement. He painted the piece for ArtPrize 2018, and it was exhibited in the Ford Presidential Library for a month, where more than 140,000 people saw it. He was competing for $200,000, the largest art prize on earth. And out of 1,267 entries, he made it into the top 25 among the popular vote. His painting represented our area well in this international competition. Right before the pandemic, Kevin was assigned to mentor the figurative artist Zoe Pappas via Creative Pinellas. Kevin met Zoe and taught her in our garage to maintain social distancing. When Kevin died, Zoe was able to take over two of the drawing classes he was teaching at St. Pete College in Clearwater because Creative Pinellas' mentoring program led to a passing of the torch. One of Kevin's beach landscapes was selected for a signal box in Largo via Creative Pinellas. Kevin also participated in several arts annual exhibitions at Creative Pinellas over the years. As you can see, Creative Pinellas has been a positive force for our family and for Kevin's artistic endeavors. When Kevin died tragically, Creative Pinellas showed that it is an organization with heart. They had large photos made of him for a celebration of life at the Lipa Ratner Museum of Arts. I look at them every single day and find comfort in them. I think defunding Creative Pinellas would be a serious mistake. If you would refer to the Arts and Economic Prosperity Survey, AEP 6, you will find many details about why continuing funding for Creative Pinellas is a good idea. On behalf of Kevin Grass and our family, I implore you to reconsider defunding this important and vibrant organization. Creative Pinellas makes our lives better, and it deserves your full financial support. Thank you. Barbara Cordova followed by Ash Alonzo, I believe. Is there a Barbara Cordova? Yeah, I'm right here. I'm just waiting for the signal to start. So, hello. I am Barbara Cordova. I'm the founder of Artists for a Better World International. I'm L.A.-based, where we started, and then I moved here in 2022. And we're an arts organization that has been uniting artists of all kinds for about 28 years. We went non-profit 2019. When I moved here, I said, where are all the artists? I want to meet new artists. We have some members here. We have a great little group. And I said, no, we're going to go bigger. So, I live in Seminole, and the first organization I found out about was Creative Pinellas, eight minutes from where I live. So, I said, okay. I don't know what it is. I'm going to go there. And I connected, and it was like magic, because that's what we do. We connect with other artists, and as a team, we create big aesthetic effects. So, by going there, I met first Barbara St. Clair, who came and spoke at one of our events over at Postcard Mania. I met other artists who were in our events. And I was about to take my members, a couple of them here, who will also speak, back to Creative Pinellas in the next week or so, to show them what it was all about. I had no idea I'd be introducing them to it by coming to something like this. But what this meeting has done for me is show me the power of all of us together, even though in the face of, you know, the possibility of losing this wonderful space, we're uniting. And that's what happens, and that's what our group does. We do art and human rights. We're doing an event at the Imagine Museum. It's all about freedom of creation, inspiration, one of our basic human rights. And one of the groups, a big dance troupe, who I just reconnected with, because of Creative Pinellas and our connection, we're going to have kids dancing in our event, because I met the leader of that group. Absolutely vital to keep the arts going in our culture. I'm from L.A. I was there during some really, the riots and chaos came out here. This is a much saner atmosphere, and let's keep it that way and not turn it into a degraded Hollywood situation. Thank you. Thank you. Ash Alonzo, followed by Michelle Duff. Ash Alonzo, St. Pete, 33713. Creative Pinellas doesn't just award grants to hardworking local artists. It hosts professional development workshops to help them improve their businesses. It provides exhibition opportunities and connects them with projects to build their portfolios. Last year, Creative Pinellas revamped its annual exhibition into a hurricane relief fundraiser. Creative Pinellas' impact cannot be replaced with a competitive grant managed by an organization whose number one priority is tourists. My first career was non-profits. I left the field this year because of how low the salaries are. The hypocrisy of the chair commissioner saying it's wasteful to allocate $1 million towards a necessary resource like Creative Pinellas after the county signed off on $312 million for the private Rays Stadium is laughable. Defunding the arts in the name of reducing government waste is such a transparent and shameful attempt by Brian Scott to generate interest in his re-election campaign. He claims to be focused on keeping Pinellas County affordable and preserving our county's unique charm, but defunding public goods only displaces Floridians and decimates our county's cultural value. As someone who grew up here and has lived in Tampa Bay for a quarter of a century, I remember the murals came first, before the co-working spaces and the Michelin restaurants and the sky-high condos. It was the artists who put us on the map and jump-started our county's development. All world-class destinations have official arts agencies. Vote no on defunding Creative Pinellas. Thank you, Ash. Michelle Duff, followed by Leslie Curran. Hi, I'm Rochelle LeVette. I am a photographer, is what I do full-time. I also run the Artists for a Better World Florida chapter. I'm the director of that. And I just wanted to say a short couple of things. Art is just so important in the culture, in our cities, our towns, our small towns, everywhere. It uplifts society. Art just is so important. And my daughter, who is also a painter, we also have things actually in the Imagine Museum. If you like to go see those. But I just, art is just so important. And if you take away this funding, I just think it would really, we'd have like, you know, a lot less art around. We wouldn't have all those beautiful murals. I know a lot of you have seen those just all over the place. You know, have less of those. We'd have less people creating things out there that are beautiful, you know, whether it's statues or whatever it is. It's like creative panelist. I don't know a lot about the group. But I do know that they have supported so many art projects and probably even, I'm in Safety Harbor, probably even help on the, getting the sidewalk, the chalk art there. I mean, there's so many different things that they've probably done. I don't even know what all. But I just want to say, please, please, please, let's have more art, not less. It's so important in our society and Pinellas and beyond. Thank you. Thank you. Leslie Curran, followed by Sam Oh. Well, this is a little different setup than I remember it. Thank you all for holding this hearing. There, as you know, a lot of very enthusiastic artists in the other room. I just want to just say everyone that spoke really spoke from the heart very eloquently. It rewrote what I was going to say four times. I just wanted to talk to you about the aspect of the Visit St. Pete Clearwater taking over, really, the creative Pinellas. And it really concerned me. I have Articles Gallery and Fine Art Services in St. Petersburg. I've been open for about 23 years. I laugh, for-profit organization. I'm not non-profit. And I know what the Visit St. Pete Clearwater does. I sat on the TDC board for a number of years. And just want to say that once I heard this about defunding Creative Pinellas, I looked on the website, looked up arts and culture to just see, you know, what was new. And there was my gallery. So I was very happy to see that, of course. But then I looked at the image of the gallery, which was about 14 years old. And then it also, the verbiage said that Leslie Curran chairs the St. Pete City Council. Well, that was 14 years ago. So it left me thinking, how can that organization really take Creative Pinellas to the level that it needs to be? Visit St. Pete Clearwater does an award-winning job with their marketing the beaches and hospitality. And unfortunately, arts and culture is kind of second tier, and they should be equal. You market to international visitors. Go to Basel. Set up a booth. Promote in the domestic and international markets. Wrap the buses and subway like we did one time up in New York City, which was a huge marketing award-winning promotion. You know, artists need visitors. The beaches need visitors. But most importantly, artists need buyers. Support. Sam O, followed by John Stewart. Good evening, everybody. My name is Sam Obeid. I'm a full-time, internationally-renowned local spoken word poet, a teaching artist, and an advocate for youth voice. I've lived in Pinellas County for three years, worked in Pinellas County for over 15 years. I've called Tampa Bay my home for 17 years now. As a teaching artist, my kids and I function on two principles, high affirmation and high accountability. My colleagues will take care of the high affirmation, the creative Pinellas. I, however, am here to hold you accountable to the sudden disdain you seem to have found overnight for an organization that you created. See, the thing is, I know, and I think all of you know, that the arts are a force of culture. The arts change you fundamentally, at your core. The arts give the public knowledge, and knowledge is power. But most importantly, the arts are the highest tribute to the First Amendment, and that scares you. It is no surprise to anybody in the arts community that this attack comes on the heels of street art from our crosswalks being unceremoniously erased. Creative Pinellas has been doing their job, and that scares you. The arts community is doing their job, and that scares you. We hear you loud and clear. As an artist, it appalls me that you think an entire organization can be dumbed down into one or two staff members inside a tourism organization. That in itself tells us about the respect that you have for the arts. Do you not think that we deserve to be courted? Do you not think that we deserve to be cultivated and supported? Did you really think that you would dangle a few dollars in front of our face, and we would forgo our principles and run after you? We won't. Unlike you, we are not afraid. We are clear about our principles. We are clear in our mission. Politicians come and go, but artists, we are legacy. We stay forever. And just so you know, yes, people do travel to see me perform. Come to the show. Maybe two. Without question, you are the proof necessary that we definitely need more of the arts in our lives. John Stewart, followed by Keaton Fox. Good evening. My name is John Stewart, and I'm not that John Stewart. I'm sorry. But I am a John Stewart who lives in St. Petersburg, and I taught General Humanities for 25 years and Advanced Placement Art History for 12 years at Osceola High School in Seminole. My classes took field trips to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota and to the Dali Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. We also made trips to the international art show Art Basel Miami Beach, leaving at 5 a.m. and returning at midnight. I often hired buses from Escott Bus Lines, Chairman Brian Scott's company, for those trips. The buses were always clean and comfortable, and the drivers were courteous and efficient. Now that I'm retired, I see Escott buses at panelists' art sites like museums, plays, and concerts. Chairman Scott has proposed eliminated funding for Creative Pinellas as a cost-cutting measure. His success as the president of Escott Bus Lines is a prime example of why Creative Pinellas and its professional staff are vital to our business community. As been pointed out, people come here for the beaches and for the artistic culture fostered by Creative Pinellas. In fact, the tourist publicity for Pinellas County always mentions our beaches and our vibrant arts community together, as in this quote from a radio ad, Where white sand beaches meet the arts, from the Dali Museum to the more than 500 public murals. That's the way they said it. Please continue funding Creative Pinellas so all Pinellas businessmen and businesswomen and businesses can benefit from the arts. Justice Chairman Scott's Escott Bus Lines has benefited. Cutting the funding for Creative Pinellas is like cutting the funding that keeps our beaches in top condition. Both are essential to our tourist-driven economy, and both need to be strongly supported. Thank you. Thank you for being a customer. All right, Keaton Fox, followed by Rochelle Lovett. Leave it. Good evening, everyone. My name is Keaton Fox. I'm an artist living and working in St. Pete, and I want to use my time tonight to talk about connections. As artists, our work does not exist in isolation. We need connections to audiences, to opportunities, and to each other in order to thrive. Creative Pinellas is the organization that makes those connections possible. This year, for the first time, I've been able to rely solely on my art practice for income, and that is in no small part because of the connections Creative Pinellas has made possible. Some concrete examples. In 2023, Creative Pinellas awarded me a scholarship to attend CoStarters, a business development program for artists in partnership with the Tampa Bay Innovation Center. That connected me not only to essential business training, but also to a network of other artists and entrepreneurs. In 2024, I received the Floridorama Fund Artist Grant, which connected me directly to another vibrant arts organization and helped me form a new partnership. In 2023, Creative Pinellas facilitated my first media appearances, connecting me to the Tampa Bay Morning Blend and the Arts Alive podcast to promote my Floridorama grant project. Each of these connections is different, business, community, partnerships, marketing, but they all build on top of one another. Together, they've created a career, and even more importantly, a community. Some of my closest friends and my chosen family are connections I've made specifically through Creative Pinellas programming. This is why Creative Pinellas is integral to our sustainability as artists, especially in a city that's becoming increasingly expensive. The grants are important, yes, but the true value is in the connections. If you take away Creative Pinellas, you take away those connections, and with them, you take away the support that enables local artists to succeed. Thank you. Rochelle Levitt. Rochelle, or I think, yeah, Rochelle. And then Anne Schofield. My name is Angel Curculo. Already, my friend Rochelle is already here, and we belong to the same group. I also work for the Artists for a Better World in this area. English is my second language, forgive me, but I believe art is international language. That's why I'm here. So I'm living in this amazing area the last four years. I'm coming from Europe, and I have all this influence from that area about the arts, and especially I'm an artist more than 35 years, and I'm conceived in more than 33 countries, but mostly I'm here because I'm a teacher. I'm an art teacher. And what I see on the children's eyes when I'm teaching art is unbelievable. And also, I teach in the foundation, like young prison, children in the prison, like 14 years old. It's amazing. You see them get alive again, and they fight for their freedom because most of the times they're not really prisoners. They're not really criminals. So I'm here to just let you know that my observation is wherever is no art, criminality take place. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ann Schofield, followed by Lori Elmer. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity to give you two minutes of information in support of Art for Youth. I am a 50-year resident of Pinellas County. I am a past chairman of City of Largo Professional Development, and I am listed in this Tour of Turtles book, which was an art installation project for the community in support of the Marine Science Center over on Island Estates. I was not the artist of this turtle. The artists were the Girl Scouts. The troop of 7 to 11-year-olds created the designs, executed the art, and took pride in their community. If you drive around, you will see dolphins in various places. That's an art installation. Largo Library has a turtle in the youth section. You will see the electric boxes along the side of the road, which are decorated and not just plain gray. That is art. That is exposing the community to art. And the next generation, which were the 5- and 7-year-old that just had to go home because their bedtime is earlier than ours, had a message, Ocean, the 7-year-old wanted to tell you, art is beautiful. And Victor wanted to tell you, it's important to honor creativity. I don't want to be political, but I want to remind you, having been involved in municipal government, with the very small budget of 4% that you are overseeing and working with, the creative Pinellas, which a lot of focus has been on tourism, it's very important to our economy, yes. Remember, though, the residents and the youth, and the youth coming up. Art is very important to them and culture and to honoring the culture in their community. And on a political side, having worked for municipal government, I want to remind you, if you relinquish this organization out of your budget, you also give up any oversight to the projects that they oversee. Ours needed approval before it could be created. And that is how community can work together to keep everything for everything, in general, acceptable to everyone. Thank you very much. Thank you. Lori Elmer, followed by Francine Sotomayor. Hi, my name is Lori Elmer. I am a lifelong resident of Pinellas County, so that's 61 years I've been here. And I am a co-owner of Studios at 5663. I am an entrepreneur, an employer, a taxpayer, and I vote. I'm here tonight to ask you to continue funding Creative Pinellas, because without them, we lose the very heart of our arts community. What I want you to hear from me tonight is the human impact. When I received a $10,000 grant from Creative Pinellas, plus ongoing organizational support from them, I didn't buy easels, and I didn't buy a camera. I used every single penny to bring free arts programming to kids who might never otherwise have had access. In 2024 alone, that grant allowed us to reach 450 underserved kids. The credibility of that summer program, it helped us secure additional funding to serve another 450 kids this summer. That's 900 kids with that one grant. This is what Creative Pinellas makes possible. They don't just hand out grants. They provide ongoing support to make sure the grants have the greatest impact. They multiply impact that transforms lives. Defunding them would not only rob artists and the community of opportunity, it would strip our county of its arts identity, weaken small businesses, and make Pinellas a less vibrant, less attractive place to live and visit. It would be the first step in losing our credibility as an arts destination. I urge you, don't take away this gem that's a driving force for the arts in our community. You should be looking for ways to provide even more funding. To strengthen Creative Pinellas, Defunding Creative Pinellas would send a clear and painful message to artists, arts organizations, and the children and families we serve that Pinellas County no longer values what we bring to the table. Thank you. Francine Sotomayor, followed by Jim O'Connell. Do we have Francine in the house? Okay. We'll move on to Jim O'Connell, which will be followed by Lee Davis. Do we have Jim O'Connell in the house? Okay. We'll move on to Lee Davis, which will be followed by Medina Karajik. Greetings. My name is Lee Davis. I'm an eight-year resident of St. Petersburg, a producer and former employee of Pinellas Community Foundation and Creative Pinellas. The people here tonight represent the neighborhoods, small businesses, entrepreneurs, civic groups, and nonprofits. Along with you, the commissioners, the representatives of and for the community are what makes Pinellas County Pinellas County. In a state that is surrounded by beaches, the artists and the joy, the creativity, the community partnerships in schools, senior centers, are what makes Pinellas County the arts coast. It is the reason people are buying $27 million condos in downtown St. Pete. The arts are what have made Pinellas County vital. When artists thrive, we all thrive. Creation and collaboration ripples through our identity, our sense of well-being, and our economy. Creative Pinellas is a place where the community comes together, free and open for all, residents and visitors alike. VSPC, while an important partner, is not connecting communities across the county. It is not a grant-making agency. It is not in the mission of partnering with schools, and they are not equipped to offer visitors something to do when they arrive. The budget line that supports elite events should also support celebrations like First Night, a regional, family-friendly, alcohol-free, art-centered tradition. Defunding Creative Pinellas is not a solution. It is a message. A message that we are regressing, not progressing. Defunding Creative Pinellas is a message that visitors matter more than residents, that the commission values visitors more than they value their community's vitality, economic growth, and joy. That visitor experience is more important than the voice and the vote of Creative Pinellas and of Pinellas County residents, and I do not believe that is the case. I urge the commission to commit to a solution that helps sustain Creative Pinellas and keeps Pinellas County thriving. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Medina Karajic, followed by Jeremiah Woods. Good evening. Greetings. My name is Medina Karajic. I'm a resident of Pinellas County for over 25 years, an artist myself, and last year I served as the arts and cultural program coordinator for Creative Pinellas. In that role, I went directly into the community at festivals, public events, church gatherings, all kinds of places, anywhere where we could talk to the people, to administer our county-wide cultural plan survey, where we collected over 1,000 responses. Today there's a proposal to cut Creative Pinellas' funding. Commissioner Brian Scott said he doesn't see a return on investment, that Creative Pinellas is just giving artists money for easels and cameras, and that it's not going to tourism, and that's not a fact. It's an opinion, and it is baseless. The facts are clear. 88% of survey respondents were full-time Pinellas residents, and they told us arts and culture are essential to their lives and communities. Visitors from across Florida and beyond said arts events were a primary reason they come here. Some I spoke to in person said they drove three, four, sometimes six hours, just to attend our festivals, bringing direct spending into our county. The numbers prove it. In 2022, Pinellas County's nonprofit arts sector generated nearly $295 million in economic activity and supported more than 4,500 jobs, a 20% increase from 2015. And Creative Pinellas grantees make real impact. Last year, through the Beyond Placemaking grant, the Tampa Bay Chalk Festival brought economic and tourism benefits to St. Pete's Historic Black Business District. EQV supported over 150 men and boys by combining mental health resources with creative programming. Black on the Scene launched a film club for high school students, expanding opportunities for the youth. That's just naming a few from 2024. These grants didn't just fund projects. They reinvested back into our neighborhoods, local businesses, and future generations. These are measurable, proven returns. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Jeremiah Woods, followed by Ashley Marbet. We have a Jeremiah Woods in the house. Okay, hearing none, we'll move on to Ashley Marbet. Good evening, Commissioners. Ashley Marbet, St. Pete resident, fifth generation from Pinellas County. I'm here today to talk in support of funding Creative Pinellas. I grew up and there weren't a lot of opportunity for local artists. I saw a lot of people leave the county, and then I saw a lot of people come back. And working today in the real estate sector, I see a lot of people, when I ask them, what are you coming to Pinellas County for, they all tell me, because of the arts. So I feel it's important to fund organizations like Creative Pinellas. I think thanks to them, we have a very thriving art community. I've seen many people benefit off of it, either through exposure from emerging artists, exhibits, through grants, through workshops that help give them tools to grow. So I wanted to just give you my thoughts, and thank you so much. Thank you, Ashley. Dorian Angelo, followed by Grace Pride, I think. We have a Dorian Angelo in the house. Going once, going twice. Grace Pride, I think. That will be followed by Taylor Rhodes. Hi. Good evening. Thanks for having me here. I just want to say, if you get rid of Creative Pinellas, you get rid of the life of Pinellas County. So don't do that. Appreciate your brevity. Thank you. Taylor Rhodes, followed by Tina, I think it's Yeggy. Teggy, I'm not sure. Good evening. Hello. My name is Tay. Thank you so much for the opportunity of allowing us to speak today on behalf of Creative Pinellas. I wrote a speech, a brief speech, on why Creative Pinellas matters to our community. To begin my speech, I would like to say art provides a unique and deep connection amongst people, reminding us of how rich humanity can be, wordlessly expressing thoughts, emotion, experience, potential, and perspective. Despite the division occurring within society today, art allows us to see through another person's lens, to understand life isn't all black and white, rather an entire spectrum of color with depth and dimension. I've had the pleasure of experiencing Studios at 5663 in Pinellas Park as both vendor and visitor. Without Creative Pinellas, I would not have found my people, a place to belong and share artistic passion. Moving from Sarasota, you know, another home to the arts, to Clearwater, made making friends a little difficult, but Studios at 5663 has helped me greatly. John Gascott is an amazing artist and leader who's a big face in the St. Pete and Pinellas art community. If you defund Creative Pinellas, you'll be hurting communities like his. Artists will have a harder time finding work. Nobody will know of important events. And the art we are known for will cease to exist. Pinellas County is all about creative community. Why change that? Thank you. Thank you. Taylor Rhodes. Tina Yegi. I apologize if I didn't get that right. Do we have a Tina in the house? Tina going once, going twice. Heather Tenero, followed by Liz Dimmitt. Heather. There we go. Okay. Come on down, Heather. My name is Heather Tenero. I'm the owner and hive mother at the Hive Community Clay, a thriving ceramic community on 49th Street South. Excuse me. Much of what I wanted to say has already been said. So I will take you back 50 years to when my parents moved here from Tampa. We had beaches then. They've been here for a long time. But let me tell you what we called it when I was five years old. The land of the newlywed and nearly dead. My parents were the newlyweds. And everyone who lived around us were really sweet old people. This town didn't start to thrive and grow until the arts blossomed here. I moved away. I lived in Asheville for a number of years. I lived in Boston and Seattle. And I came back here. Not just because my family is wonderful and I love them, but because our arts community here is able to support and nurture the people in it. And creative Pinellas is a huge part of that. So please don't take away the backbone of our community. Let us grow. And please don't send us back to the newlyweds and nearly deads. Thanks, y'all. Thank you. Liz Dimmitt, followed by Hal Friedman. Hi, everyone. Let's talk business. I am the CEO of Florida Rama, an arts and tech startup and cultural tourism attraction here in Pinellas County. And I am the managing partner of Demet Chevrolet, a fourth-generation Pinellas County business that has been operating for over 101 years here. My professional background is in financial analysis and art business administration. I spent 17 years in New York City as a cultural strategist, helping global organizations drive strategies by activating cultural strategies. I'm talking to you today as a multi-business owner and a taxpayer. Creative Pinellas is a business incubator for entrepreneurs, also called artists, and creative professionals. It is a critical pipeline for talent for companies like Florida Rama. Let me give you an example. Since 2020, when we opened Florida Rama, we've hired over 80 artists. Half of them had direct support, training, and development through Creative Pinellas. Note, they weren't just grants. They were grown as creative professionals. This pipeline of talent is what feeds directly our cultural tourism assets here in the county, which include over 15 museums, 75 commercial art galleries, 10 performing arts venues, and then many, many others. The economic impact of these organizations to tourism is non-deniable. Pinellas County also needs to attract not only tourists, but businesses need to relocate here, and the workforce talent needs to be here to support those companies. What businesses and workers care about isn't the beaches. It's housing, education, and culture. Thank you, Liz. Hal Friedman, followed by Willie Rudowski. Good evening. Thank you for allowing us to speak. I'm going to be quick because most of what was said, most of what I was going to say has already been said, but I'm on the board of Creative Clay, which is an organization that teaches artists with disabilities. Creative Pinellas used to fund part of our mixed abilities summer camp for kids. So I have an immediate connection with them. Enough on that. You keep talking about visit St. Pete Clearwater, and I would think if you ask them for their statistics, because they've got more statistics than you can shake a stick at, you'll understand how important the arts are to this community. And I think that would be a good place to start. And they're not the people to run it. They're the people to market it, to survey it, and basically sell it as a place to come. And finally, and this is for Commissioner Flowers, actually, because she asked a question earlier, which never got answered. And I think she was interested in what the effect is of that difference in the two millage rates. The difference in the $156,000 that Creative Pinellas needs to fund them is 15 cents a person for the people in Pinellas County. And if you went and asked anybody, would you give me 15% to have the vibrant arts community that you have? I don't think anybody would say no. So please, fund that 15 cents a person and keep Creative Pinellas going strong. Thank you. Willie Radowski, followed by Victoria Jorgensen. Good evening. I am not an artist. I am not a gallery owner. I am a registered voter. I am a patron of the arts. And I recognize that you've already heard about the impact that Creative Pinellas has on schools and on the artists themselves. I want to remind you, if you have ever traveled to countries that were formerly behind the Iron Curtain and have seen what gray looks like, you will see communities that do not have art. And the art that was put up was very brutalist. That's not what we want. That doesn't attract tourism. We need to fund Creative Pinellas to continue the vibrant communities that we have here in the county. I'm asking you, please, do not cut the already small amount that you give Creative Pinellas now. You need to increase it. Thank you. Victoria Jorgensen, followed by Ingrid Redenberg. Thank you for the correct pronunciation of my Danish name. I appreciate that. I haven't done too well at it tonight, so I'm glad I got one right. I want to compliment you. The one piece of art I see in the other room is a logo, and it's a beautiful logo. An artist did that. And I was just thinking how much more pleasant it would be in there if there were pieces of art on the walls as well as in here. It would be really nice. I'm a filmmaker. I've been a filmmaker for 50 years. I also ran a business in Tampa before I decided to move to Pinellas County because I wanted to be closer to the arts. So I sold my business, a couple buildings, my home, another home that I had as a rental in order to live in Gulfport, which is where I live now. My films have gone around the world, including Cannes Film Festival, which was with some help from the film commission here in Pinellas County, and I appreciate that. I have received three grants, one emerging and two professional from Creative Pinellas. I've also been a recipient of mentor grants and worked with several people, introducing them to people who can change their career. And I have also traveled to Toronto, Brazil, Germany, and many other places with my films and brought people back, one who actually moved here, several who have used the hotels to visit. And they've come to visit because they want to see the arts. So I thank you for considering to continue funding Creative Pinellas. Thank you. Thank you. Ingrid Bredenberg, followed by Sabine Von Alok. Good evening. My name is Ingrid Bredenberg, and I live in Gulfport. My family moved here in the mid-60s. My dad was a professor at Eckerd College. Before my 33-year career as a strategic coach and leadership development expert that worked with government and businesses, I worked in the arts here in St. Petersburg. I ran the St. Petersburg City Galleries as well as Eckerd College Galleries. And I actually co-founded Women in the Arts with Sally Parks many years ago. I'm here in support of Creative Pinellas and the funding of it. This afternoon, I watched your session, and I heard Chair Scott talk about impact, not feelings. You've been hearing a lot of feelings, but you've also been hearing about the impact. And I'm here to really call on all of you to do the job that you do, which is governance, which is making decisions, which is deliberating using facts. As you have heard, there's frustration in the speed at which this decision to defund Creative Pinellas has come about. And I would ask you to really consider the long-term, big picture. That's the job that a commission does, is to have the longer-term, bigger picture. What is good not just for today, not just for your bottom line or balance your budget today, but really understand that decisions made today will impact generations to come. And you have an opportunity to have a legacy here, making decisions based on facts, based on impact, based on proven multipliers of the money that has been already spent or allocated through Creative Pinellas, and the returns that you're getting. If you want to take credit for some of the results, good job. Sabine, she left. Okay, thank you. Geraldine. Oh, boy, I'm not even going to try this one. I'm just going to say H. Last name starts with an H. Do we have a Geraldine in the house? Hello? No? Okay, thank you. Sloban Nihin. Once, twice. Thank you. Autumn Pearson. Jillian Probert. Shannon O'Leary. Joy Simet. Syret. Okay. Well, that concludes public comment. Commissioner Leibold. Thank you. All right. All right. Come on up, Joy. These are waved. These are waved. Yeah, it's about 95-ish. All against. Good evening. Good evening. Hi. I'm Joy Garrett-Douglas. I'm an employee of the Dolly Museum. I'm the community programming education manager. I came in here pretty late and I didn't realize I could still sign up, so I'm happy to be here. I have a short speech. I have a short speech, but I just would like to say that Southern Living named St. Pete, one of Florida's best getaway spaces, not just for the sunshine, but for the art that fills our streets and makes the city unforgettable. Our murals and art festivals and public events aren't just beautiful, they are powerful agents of change. Peer-reviewed research published in City shows that public art revitalizes urban spaces, boosts tourism, creates jobs, creates jobs, and supports local businesses. These benefits rely on consistent funding and strong policy support. Similarly, a peer-reviewed research study in sustainability highlights that formerly funded arts initiatives drive economic revitalization, increases tourism, and strengthens cultural identity. But the authors also caution that without ongoing support, the long-term benefits can fade or become inequitable. In 2024, BBC Travel called Pinellas Artsy and Nature-filled, spotlighting the murals and the Shine Festival as proof that art draws people here from across the globe. From large-scale mural projects to painted power boxes, from summer camps to port and street festivals, Creative Pinellas has been there, organizing, funding, and investing with creative spirit that fuels our country. Because of this support, we celebrate Creative Pinellas for putting our money where our art is and helping our city. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we just had two more. Julie Wilson, followed by Ora Fraze. Hey, everyone. Thanks for letting me speak. I listened to what everyone had to say, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't repeat anything. I'm the former director of marketing at the MFA, and I have worked with Visit St. Pete Clearwater, and they're a great organization. They do so much for the county, absolutely. But their priority has not been the arts. It's subjective, depending on whether or not they like the art. And when I think about them offering or being asked to do this grant distribution, grant allocation, yeah, they said yes. But what's the plan? Where's their experience? Where's the proposal? So, yes, they said yes, but are they the best organization to do that? I, myself, have left the MFA. I'm a nonprofit consultant. I work with a lot of our countries or world's global charities. I work with Doctors Out Borders. I work with Save the Children. I'm used to people saying that nonprofits can be run by someone else, that that work can be done by someone else. But when you look at whether the skill set's needed, is that the right skill set that's sitting at Visit St. Pete Clearwater? No. They do something else that's really great. Creative Panelists has experts that do what they do as well. Also, as someone that works with millions of dollars of investments for nonprofits to serve a greater need, it's not a best practice to pull an investment without monitoring and measuring, doing what Margaret Murray has suggested, which is establishing the KPIs and monitoring it to make sure that everyone's on the same path moving forward. So, I support that. I support revisiting the defunding and really thinking about what are the key performance indicators you're trying to establish. Is it a feeling or is it quantitative? Qualitative. Thank you. Thank you. Ora Fraze. And thank you for this time. My name is Ora Fraze. I'm a lifelong resident, born and raised here in the St. Pete area. My family has lived here for going back about 100 years now. So, I've been able to see this city change in my lifetime, and particularly from 2011 onwards, partly part of Creative Panelists' endeavors in creating a more close-knit community, I've seen this area change and grow for the better. I am now a business owner. I plan on opening a business this fall. I am a homeowner as of last August, and do not make me regret my decision to put roots down in this area for what could now become an unraveling of what a beautiful community this area has slowly become. I've traveled around the world, and there is many people that are envious of us in our community here. I am proud to call myself a lifelong resident of this area, and I hope that I can continue to do so as time goes on. I look at where funding has gone in the city briefly, and the small amount of percentage of funding that has gone to the arts has, as you've heard tonight, created a tapestry of experiences that make us a beacon for tourism and other activities other than just our beaches. Yes, they are wonderful, but there is so much more that this area can be and will become with this funding. I implore you to continue to fund this organization that you have established and allow this community to grow and continue to thrive in the way it has been and I've been able to witness in my lifetime. Thank you for this time, and I really implore you to reassess your decisions on defunding Creative Pinellas. Thank you. All right, Commissioner Latvallo, that concludes public comment. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. We got you, Mr. Chair. a minute. But, you know, there were some things that were said, some things where it felt like Creative Pinellas was taking credit for things that I don't really believe they should take credit for. One of the things that was mentioned was the mural festival. That's sponsored by the Visit St. Pete Clearwater folks, the folks that was said earlier they didn't have the experience to know how to do those things. Well, they know how to put on a mural festival that I've never been to. I'm not an arts person. I probably should get more culture and arts in my life. My wife's working on that. But, you know, the mural festival is a success. Visit St. Pete Clearwater puts that on. I'm really glad that we had a speaker from the Dolly here tonight because that reminds me that we have dedicated tens of millions of dollars to the arts, including to the Dolly. We have not too long ago we dedicated several million to the Chihuly and other museums around Pinellas County. The arts have a very important component. to Pinellas County. So we're not defunding the arts. But what this proposal does is it lets the folks who have, despite back-to-back hurricanes, folks that know how to break tourism records because Visit St. Pete Clearwater continues to break records this year with tourism. And a little bit later, I want you to do a breakdown in what their funding is because some of the funding that they receive has to go towards a tourism element, TDC funds. And so I want you to talk about that in a little bit. But, you know, and I do appreciate all of the folks that are here. That is very impressive. But I will remind my colleagues that there are many more folks that have reached out to us and have demanded that we reduce their property taxes. And I support that as long as we keep and we don't affect those folks in the room that are wearing the green uniforms. I have said for the past few years that I do not support cutting the sheriff's budget. I'm open to anything else but that. One other thing that I will mention, and I know this from firsthand experience, is that any time you have an issue, it's going to be the number one priority for somebody. Whether it's, and I talked about this earlier, whether it's parks, whether it's libraries, whether it's the arts, whether it's tourism, whether it's public safety, so forth. And that's a good thing. And, you know, people should have, you know, their priorities. And, you know, it's our job as elected county commissioners to make those decisions. And I mean no disrespect to Barry. I mean no disrespect to Chris Rose, our budget chief. But it's not up to unelected bureaucrats to make those decisions. It's up to us to make those decisions. And y'all do very good, y'all are very good unelected bureaucrats. But at the end of the day, it's up to us to make those decisions. And, you know, from time to time, we face tough decisions. But I always judge those decisions based on the most memorable meeting I ever had in elected office. And that happened on February 21st, 2018. And that was with a group of students. And I remember the 15-year-old girl's face very vividly. She's now 22, 23 years old. And in that meeting with her classmate, she told me what I could do to myself. And she used very colorful language. And it was certainly not the first time. It certainly wasn't the last time that somebody ever told me that I could do that to myself. But what made that meeting more remarkable and stuck out in my mind was it was a week after she saw her classmate get shot right in front of her at Parkland High School. She was a Parkland High School student. And so I judge any decision that we make that could be even remotely controversial by meeting kids, meeting parents, meeting teachers who literally saw their friends, who kissed their kids and whose spouses died that day. And who they, you know, kissed their kids goodbye, never saw them again. And, yeah, this is, you know, tough decisions to some. You know, baseball stadiums may be tough decisions to some. But at the end of the day, this, and I mean no disrespect to the people sitting behind me or people in the other room, but this really is not life, like it's not life or death. Arts will still be here. Pinellas County will still thrive. The sun will still shine. And people will still come and go to our art galleries. People will still go to our museums. And we will still thrive as a county. And so with that, I would like to make a motion to approve the budget amendment that includes the health plan breakdown benefits and the creative Pinellas budget amendment that was mentioned earlier. That sets our mills at 4.5423. I appreciate that, but I've got to read something first. Oh. State legislators put language in law we have to read. Well, do we have any other? Let's do some comment. Yeah, I do. Go ahead, Dave. Okay, so I have some notes here, and I just, you know, this really isn't necessarily about choices. It's not really about priorities in terms of public safety versus anything else. I mean, that's certainly fully funded in our budget to the tune, probably over 45% of our budget. So there's no question that that's a priority. This is $156,000 of property taxes that amounts to very, very little commitment that we made as a commission. Again, not this commission, but other commissions to residents of this community. I appreciate the scrutiny around this table. Trust me. I've been here a few years, and I've not had the same kind of scrutiny on budget items that we have now. And it's awesome to have, and you all are to be commended. And the new folks have brought good ideas to the table for consideration. But I will say this. I mean, as important as it is, it is also important how we deal with the issue. It is not just simply to cut. It is to how do you unravel something that has become part of the community. And as I said the other day, I am not an artist. I am not the best spokesperson. The people that were here tonight were good spokespeople for the art community and shed some light on things for me. I don't know what that vision is going to look like for me going forward. I don't know if Visit St. Pete, the organization, has the talent to do that. They have their talents to market this area. We have the budget to provide for the historical museum or the museums in St. Petersburg. But who is going to do the work? Who is going to provide the expertise to do it? And what is our vision for that? What do we want out of it? What do we want to get done as far as the arts in our community? And I think that is a question we have to ask. Is it the group that we have in place now? Is it Visit St. Pete Clearwater? Is it some other model? I think that is a conversation that we need to have. And if that is the appetite for the commission, I have no problem with that. I would like to dive into it myself so I could firm that up. And just reminding everybody, again, we are not getting rid of the arts in this proposal. I get that. But remember what the national community, we had a community survey not too long ago. And it was clear that there was five findings in there. I mean, there is a whole lot of information. But one of those findings was the importance of the arts and culture to a community. It came from our visitors. It came from our residents alike. And that was as compared to other communities around the country. And it was compared to communities that are like-sized communities in this region of the country. And all I'm saying is that there was a clear message that the arts are important. And it's not just about buildings. It's not just about facilities. It's not just about that. It's about, I think, a few people said it tonight. You know, I look back through these notes, and connections was one of them. How important connections are between the community, between the businesses and the artists, between the schools and the artists. Connections was prevalent throughout a lot of the comments. That doesn't come from a budget of dollars that we give to a museum. It doesn't come from those kinds of things. So, again, I think we need to decide what we want out of that group, out of our art representative. Remember, a long time ago, the county did their own stuff. And they decided that wasn't the way to go. We need to put it out and let an independent group do this. So we're now thinking about coming full circle to let a group that does such great work, worldwide great work in marketing this area, dive into being how they do the arts. And, again, I wouldn't be the one that would think that we would be going down that road at this point. I just think we have a lot to talk about. I mean, again, if we're talking about how to relieve the pressure on the budget, I would say that if we tell Barry, find $156,000 in the budget, and I know you don't like when we do that, Commissioner Latvala, he could find it in a heartbeat. It can be found in the budget. This thing that we're talking about is really a vision for the community. It's our vision, but the community vision about what we want this group to be. So I'm not going to go into this anymore. I just think we ought to take a pause. If you want to talk about rolling back 15%, 10% of the budget this year, whatever, but let's make a commitment to reaffirming the vision of the arts that we have for this community and what this community has for itself and make it a part of what we have going forward. I just think it's a little quick, a little knee-jerk, and the knee-jerk reaction is doge telling us how to run our lives down here, and we're all in that. We're all about getting more scrutiny and tax dollars. We're all about getting more tax dollars scrutiny for sure, but it's our community. It's what we do with it, and I just think we need to have that conversation going forward, and that's my comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you so much to everybody who came out tonight to share your opinions, to share your ideas and your concerns, and thank you to the over 244 individuals that sent emails who also shared their ideas and concerns. I have a son named Joshua who is an artist. He went to Gibbs High School and was a part of their art institute, and to this very day, he still draws, and he paints on canvas, oil paints, you guys. And so I guess I have a different affinity for art and the creation of art because I saw what it did for him, someone who didn't necessarily express themselves in a way that others do, but he could express himself through art. Many of you who spoke tonight, I've had relationships with you over the years as a city council member, as a school board member, and thank you so very much to the school board staff, Pinellas County School Board staff that was here to talk about the importance of art, even as it relates to the youth in our community. It is a way of escape for some people, and art is in many different forms and variations, and I think that's what makes Pinellas County unique like so many other communities is because you find that niche and you expand on it and you grow from it. And yes, art has become one of, not the only, but one of the major attractions for people coming to visit our community. When they come, they may come for a vacation on the beach, but as a result of that, they look at what else is going on around in the community and then they go visit those. How do I know that? Very involved and supportive of the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, which is in the heart of Midtown in St. Pete, and individuals that sign in when they come to visit the museum, they say where they're from. And so there are people who come from all over, but they're coming for one thing, and as a result of seeing that one thing, they migrate into the Warehouse Arts District, which took up space that used to be the old soft water laundry factory, where my father had a gas station right across the street. So I'm very familiar and knowledgeable with the arts. I will say that I think some of the concerns or comments that have been raised related to the budget, what's being paid from what, I could see where those questions are, because we have, as a commission, looked at could we use these TDC dollars to pay for certain things that we want to pay for, and we're told that we can't because of the statutes that govern the way that those dollars are spent. So I understand the questions and concerns, and what are we getting for the dollar value that we shell out? I asked Chris, Mr. Rose, I'm sorry, if he would share with me what that additional 0.011 would be in having our millage rate at 5.5434, and it was $607,400,900. So that's what the general fund amount would be, correct? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, Commissioner, and the difference is the $156,000. Okay, so that's what it would be to our budget, which isn't very much. I can't say it's $0.15 per person, per family, but that's what it would be. So it is very nominal. When you look at the overall budget that the county has, whether you're looking at the entire general fund or you're looking at all of the, you add in all of the additional MSTUs that we put into play, along with the revenue we get from departments that garner some of their own financial resources. What I would ask, and I know we have to go through our thing, but I will support, I would like to support the continuation of the existence of Creative Pinellas. I would like for us to look at the millage rate of 5.5434, because it is not that far off from where we are currently. If that should happen, because my dad always says, if you have a problem, you need to also share a solution. So if that should happen, I would like to see within the negotiations of that contract, clear language that delineates what the funding from the county is to cover. And then however the reporting goes, whether it's annual reporting or quarterly reporting or whatnot, to report out just what those dollars are being paid for and to actually show that funding you're getting from these other funding streams or grants that you receive, this is what that covers, and this is how we're paying for creative Pinellas salaries, health benefits, or whatever you're doing for staff. What I think that does is show additional transparency to the community as it relates to the fairness and the equity that we are showing by telling other entities, you don't qualify for these dollars because you don't have heads and beds. Because that's what we've said. Even to my beloved Woodson Museum, the difficulty with the Woodson is because of the heads and beds piece, because of the way that it operates. And so I can't go along with that for them and not hold creative Pinellas at the same accountability. So I would like to see that. And then structuring out the different components that you have, whether it's spoken word, whether it's art installations, murals fall under that, to have all of that reported out so that when we are seeing it, and that's if this happens, when we are seeing it, then we clearly see where the taxpayer dollars are going. Lastly, I would like to say that I do know that all of us have talked about giving some relief to the residents in Pinellas County because we had, some people forget we had Debbie, then we had Helene and then Milton. We were still trying to fix things from Debbie when those other two hurricanes came. And yes, Commissioner Peters talked tonight about restaurants and things that are still suffering. We still have people who aren't in their homes. We have homes that have been demolished all the way down to the studs. And we have people that have moved out because it was just overwhelming and it was too much. So I do support us looking at ways to help people with property tax. My comment and my solution on that is have the state of Florida look at a different formula for how they calculate property tax because we could lower our millage rates here and we could continue to do that. We've done that a few years and we've been able to give relief to the taxpayers and they've been thankful for that. But if we really want to take a strong, hard look and chunk at it, we need to look at how those property taxes, the formula that's used to calculate those so that the property tax appraiser and the tax collector's office can address that. So that's a whole other conversation. I know for a whole other day that's just something that I've really been toying with and the numbers based on how you calculate the property taxes for individuals. We all know that if you've lived in your home for over 30 years, you're paying far less than somebody that will buy the home. Same size of your home, same square footage, and they're paying three times as much in property tax. So something's wrong with the formula or something should be changed with the formula. So that is where I am. I understand the importance. I realize what Creative Pinellas was asked to do and you did it. I do understand the concern when it comes to how the dollars from the county, from the TDC and the CVB are being used, because really it's for heads and beds and how are you helping to generate tourism within our county. So you need to be able to show that. You know, you need to be able to show that. So I know we're not at that point yet, but I would ask for consideration, if you would, for the 4.5434 that would add Creative Pinellas back into the budget with all of those caveats. And I'm happy to repeat them again if need be, but with all of those caveats. And then that would also give us time to, as Commissioner Edgar said, to really look at the whole structure of how we're funding the arts and whether or not we, in fact, want to go in a different direction or bolster where we are right now. You know, I don't know how that will look, but it will certainly give us time to have a more definitive conversation about it to make a decision that would be, in my opinion, somewhat lasting and then would also give the organization time to assess what it needs to do and how it needs to do it in order to remain viable. So that if it doesn't continue the next year, you already know six months out or so, you got to start looking for money from somewhere else. And then the other last, last thing I'm going to say is thank you so much to those, because I talked about it earlier today. A lot of people were thinking that the county was just pulling all money from all art, and that was it, and that wasn't the case. So for those of you who got up and spoke specifically to what was the case, I appreciate that, because it's kind of hard to reel it back in once persons start getting the wrong idea. It's not the Pinellas County, or not that we've said we don't support the arts. It's just how do we support it, and then how do we fund it? That's really what the issue was. It wasn't to do away with art in its entirety or remove it from the definition of what Pinellas County has become. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Chair. So, you know, I understand how important the arts are, and Margaret's done a, you know, in the two years, she's really worked and worked to try to, because we just moved it over to TDC recently. But I can tell you what she's, you know, even before her, they worked even with drug court and the people that were using art for drug court, and they had a gallery, and it was amazing. And for those people to have their art in a gallery, it was life-changing for them. And so they've done some really, really great things. So I get what I, and again, like my son, they talked about the school thing. My son won an award, and all of a sudden he loved art, and he has a mural in St. Petersburg that's there. So, you know, I get art. I get it all. I know the importance of it. And I can tell you, as an avid traveler, when I travel, I don't necessarily go to the museums. I go to the small art galleries, and I always buy art no matter where I travel to. And so I know I'm not unique in that. When travelers come here, sure, they want to see the deli. They want to see some of the wonderful museums we have. But I also know that they want to see the small art shops just like I do when I travel abroad. So all that said, I guess I have questions because this came so quick and suddenly. And I'm going to give this caveat because you guys have had great ideas, right? Chris Shearer had some really great ideas, but they came very late in the process. And so they just didn't get the time to vet them out, right? And I think they're great ideas. And I think that a lot of that stuff is going to be some of the first stuff we look at next year. And this one came really quickly, and I understand the history. So I don't have as much trouble with this one because I understand the history. But I have questions. So if you could just clarify me because I started earlier. So the grants are going to stay, right? The grant process, is that going to stay? So my proposal was to increase the funding to $500,000, which right now the grant funding, according to their budget, this year was $104,000. And next year was proposed at $169,000. Or visit St. Pete Clearwater to create an arts and cultural tourism grant program that any art agency could apply for. Okay. Okay, so we're going to increase funding. And a lot of people that spoke talked about the grants and how the grants helped them, you know, and even make businesses out of that. That grant kind of led to a real great success. So what I'm hearing is we're going to keep the grant program, which is what a lot of people spoke very highly about, and expand the funding for that. Correct. So, you know, they definitely can't say we're taking away arts. It's an organization now that we're not funding, and they can apply for those grants to help sustain their organization, correct? So whether those grants would go to fund artists directly, okay? I question whether that's even an allowable use of TDC dollars. I mean, I, you know, there were a lot of very passionate speakers today who said that the grants changed their lives, but that's not tourism. So I don't know that it would be for that. Probably not. They would, you know, we would have to get with Brian and his team to, you know, I don't have a breadcrumb trail of what exactly that program is going to look like. But that's really for Brian and his team to figure that piece of it out. So what I would say is in the future that we have more time to vet this stuff so it's clear when we make those decisions. So, you know, I know the history. I know kind of how it's gone. But in the future, it's the last minute. This is right there. And it was just kind of, I would just in the future would appreciate these brilliant ideas with a little more time to discuss and vet and all that. So we know if we're going to make a decision, we know exactly how it's going to go. And when someone calls me and says, I can't believe you defunded that, I can explain clearly our decision and exactly what it's going to look like, right? And so that's what I would just ask for in the future is that we do things with a little more time. Because I think you had great ideas too, and it was just a lot, and the timing was not so great. So, and I came up with an idea just the other day that we have not looked at, and I talked to Barry about it today, and I said, I'm not bringing it up now. It's something we have not looked at. And I think next year when he starts on the budget, it's one of the first things we need to talk about in a workshop. But I certainly wasn't going to bring it up now because I think it's too late in the process. So that's just my thought. However we end up going, I support your idea because I understand the history. But I do would like in the future all of us to consider more time to come up with these ideas when you want to get rid of something that we vetted out a little, hashed out just a little bit more than we have on this one. Thank you, Chair. I want to say, first of all, that proposing change, I have become acutely aware this week. Because it can be nerve-wracking, and it can get people upset because they don't understand why you're making the proposals, and it can backlash. So I appreciate you looking into this. I didn't look into it. I looked into other areas of the budget, and that can be dangerous as well. And so I appreciate your leadership on that. Now, from what I understand, what you're proposing is not cutting funding to the arts. It's changing the delivery system to make it more efficient and to make it more, well, it's going to be towards the intent of what the TDT taxes are for, which is for tourism. It's not generating tourism, but that doesn't mean it's not going to go to the arts. It's still going to be there for the arts. And I believe that what you're proposing cuts out the middleman, makes the system more efficient, and over the long run, that will provide more funding for the arts than less, because we're not spending money on overhead. We're not spending money on office space. So I just wanted you to know that, you know, that's the way I see your proposal. I've studied the proposal. I don't need more time to think about it. I don't think I'm being knee-jerky. I was kind of in tune to what I was looking at earlier. So I'm in favor of what you're proposing, but that doesn't mean I'm actually in favor of the millage rate, because I'd like to make changes to the millage rate proposal. But on that one, you got me. You'll ask me to have an opportunity to talk about that. So we're not there yet. No, I know we're not there. Commissioner Latvala spooked me by saying he's ready to. Almost at that point. So anyway, I'm good with your proposals, because I think it will be better for the art community. There will be more dollars available for them in the future. I just have a real quick question. Have we checked with, I know there's a, on Juul's staff, there's a, one of your lawyers is on TDC. Have we asked about using the TDC funds for local artists, and if that's an allowable expense? I have not. So we have a lawyer who's not on the TDC, works with and provides legal support, just to be clear. And my understanding, and perhaps the budget people could explain it better, my understanding when Creative Pinellas was originally funded, you are all familiar with the 60-40 split. And so the 40% is capital, correct me if I'm wrong, Creative Pinellas is funded out of the 60% side. It goes to funding the Convention and Visitors Bureau, funding promotions, funding what I would call the soft costs. So, and I think your budget people could speak a little bit more directly, but it really comes out of the promotion side. So not a lot of the rigid, and it has to, because you all know that every time you say, can we use TDT for this, I tell you no, unless it's on the specific list of allowable uses. This is not on the specific list of allowable uses, but this is on your 60% side, which is for basically funding up the CVB, promotions, and things of that nature. And when we looked at it back then, from that perspective, I think the promotional aspect and the use of that side is what is used to fund Creative Pinellas, not the capital side. I just wanted to follow up on that, because my understanding in hearing some of the conversation, and I don't really know either, and I'd like to find out, but there's other sources of income that they have received, some of which is being used for what we're talking about. So it wasn't necessarily TDT funds. There were other funds that they were designating as salary. But again, I don't want to be the spokesperson, but I think that's something that, to your point about are we doing things the right way or not, I don't know. And I think that's something that would be, I think that's what I heard earlier, that there wouldn't be that conflict. That's why I asked for that specific reporting mechanism for the transparency. Well, and to Commissioner Flowers' point, that she was making with, like, the Woodson Museum, if I'm not sure how many heads and beds Creative Pinellas can really take credit for. Yeah, they, you can make the argument that they're good for Pinellas County, that there's a Pinellas County component to it, but if they're being funded through our tourism dollars, what tourism benefit is there? It can't be measured right now. Right. The Woodson Museum has a Pinellas County benefit. So, you know, I'm not sure that we should be really treating these folks different than we would treat the Woodson Museum or another entity that's specific to Pinellas County. Well, let me, let's remember, it was Chihuly, right, that came, that wanted some of our funds, and they had to use a different process, which is the process that I was told the Woodson would have to use because of the Woodson fell under the threshold for heads and beds. We have, it's a different grant process. Yes, so it was a different process for that because, and I'll give an example, when they have the museum crawl, I mean the, yeah, the museum crawl, which is simply people can go to different museums from the beaches, North County, all the way over, whatever. While those people did not come specifically to Pinellas County to go to the Woodson, the Woodson is a part of the museum crawl. The way that the Woodson can count those heads and beds for people who stay in the hotels is, from what I just said, they sign that registry that shows they're from Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, wherever they're from, and that they're staying at whatever hotel they're staying at. So that's how the Woodson's capturing people who are coming here for the arts may not be specifically to come see the Woodson, but they're coming here as a part of what has been advertised when it comes to the museum setting. That's why I was saying, if I get support for creative staying in, there should be that transparent process where you could see. It is difficult. Other than large museums like the History Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Dali, it is so hard to have people come to your community only for that. So it's just difficult to be able to count those as heads and beds. Just further explaining that part on that. I think when we're talking about all this, and we look at next, you know, if you were to look at next year in a workshop, the work that is being talked about in the cultural plan, some of which we may not want, some of which we may want, if we want what's in there, it's going to have to be done by somebody. You know, I liked when we, you know, the county commission decided we didn't want to, our person on our floor to do boards and committees anymore. And we was like, oh, good, we don't have to do that. It's like, well, somebody's still doing it. And it's still, it's still the same pot of money from maybe a different floor. So I don't, I don't know how much of what we're talking about, because that's when I get back to the vision of what we want us to be doing. I don't know if we have the horses to do it. And if we do have the horses to do it, is it what we want it to, you know, what do we want to do with it? And that's all I was saying. It's like, I think there's still work to be done. I mean, I feel like we're going to be unfolding the whole next year on what we want, how do we want it done, where is it going to get done? And by the time the year's over, we'll be kind of where we want to be. And we might say, well, we had a group that was doing it, or we might not. I mean, I just think there's still a lot of work that we're unfolding. To your point, Commissioner Peters, there's a lot of stuff that just got kind of thrown out there. And we're talking about $160,000 of property tax money. We're talking about the other being TDT money, some of which is, I'm guessing all of which, is on the 60% side. Anyway, lots to think about. That's all I was saying. All right. Are we ready to make some progress here? All right. Now that we have heard all public comment from citizens, I will entertain a motion to amend the tentative budget as we discussed on August 28th at last week's work section on the budget, and as therefore recommended by the county administrator in the memo that was sent out yesterday on September 3rd. These changes are a plan drawdown from the health benefit fund for tax relief, the discontinuation of funding for Creative Pinellas, the funding of one-time money for the ERP system, and something we haven't discussed yet, but is necessary, a formulaic budgetary change for the tax collector that is offset by other fees. These changes, total reductions of $1,856,000 and an increase of $423,500 that is offset by new revenues. The county-wide general fund millage rate is reduced to 4.5423 mills. This is a 2.2% increase over the aggregate rollback rate of 6.0265. May I have a motion to amend the budget? Are we making a motion to talk specifically about Visit St. Pete Clearwater, excuse me, Creative Pinellas being in or not? Not. Because, okay, so if we're going to vote that way and then vote on the overall budget, because this piece of the budget is just like this much of the budget. I might support the overall budget. I'm not going to support the decision to keep Creative Pinellas or let it go away. So I just want there to be a distinction here for the record. That's, yeah, we're voting on the proposed budget that does not include the one that we talked about at our last work session on August 28th that draws down the insurance, does not fund Creative Pinellas and funds the ERP system. So that's what we're talking about now. But then we're going to go and, you know, we don't, you don't have to vote yes at the Illinois City. We don't want to. Mr. Chairman. And then we'll go to whether or not we want to make any other changes beyond that. Correct. This is to amend the budget for the changes that the chairman outlined. Right. Okay. So this is on the motion to amend the budget. Right. So yes or no. And then a later vote, we'll see, are there any other changes? That's the next vote. And then we'll vote on the budget. And then you'll vote on the overall budget. All right. I want to make sure there's a distinction between the two. Okay. I have a motion from Commissioner Latvalo. A second from, from Commissioner Peters. Are we doing a voice vote on this one, Madam Clerk? Or are we? Okay. All right. If we could pull up the voting, please. I put it away. Hold on. My thing didn't come up. I'm voting no. Okay. I'm voting no. Okay. So passes five to two. Okay. Now that we have heard all public comment from citizens and amended the tentative budget, does any member of the board recommend any other changes to these tentative millage rates or tentative budget? Mr. Chair, that is where you can bring up your points. Yes. Thank you, Chair. Just for context, five months ago, I started digging deep into the budget. My goal was a complete rollback. And I'll be brief. I know it's late. And I have figured out that's not going to happen. But I just want to point out, we are only $5,958,000 away from a 50% rollback, one half of a full rollback. That sounds like a lot, but last week I proposed $26.8 million in very, very reasonable reductions, hiring freezes, downsizing, reserve reductions. The proposals I made would not require layoffs. It would not affect the sheriff's office, EMS, or critical services. The reductions would not affect our core responsibilities like roads, water, sewer. The proposals would have easily allowed for a full rollback, which I understand is not going to happen. So tonight, though, I would like to say that I would be very willing to a 50% rollback. For me personally, I'd like to do that. And I'm confident, because that's only $5.9 million, I'm very confident that our county administrator is extremely confident, can figure out how to take some of the proposals I made that were $26 million, pair them down to like $5 or $6 million, and work within a 50% rollback. And so I would like to make a motion for a 50% rollback and a millage rate of 4.5049 total. I second that. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Do we have any... Commissioner Latvall, and then we'll go to... Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My question is, where is that money coming from? The proposals that I made at the workshop, I believe that Barry can go through those proposals and make those adjustments to the budget on hiring freezes. We have... You know, we could have hiring freezes in the departments that identified, and we currently have 321 fully funded vacant county positions that people could either transfer to or be folded into their departments, some departments, where we could make the departments a little smaller, they could move into a different department. But I believe that he could get it done, just as Dave Eggers, Commissioner Eggers alluded to, I think you could do it. Well, I don't want to talk about the vote we just had, and I'm trying to find your email and remember what was in it. But the... Date of the email is August 27th. The date of the email is August 27th. I remember we talked about the Office of Human Rights, and there was agreement that we were going to keep it, but we were going to look at it, and I believe hold a work session. Is that correct, Barry? That's correct. So we're holding a work session about the Office of Human Rights. There were hiring freezes that you suggested and eliminating positions, two of which I remember were in the permitting office. Would you be... And my question is for Barry, not for you, since now we're instructing Barry that he has to slash the budget. Barry, would you be eliminating... With this proposal, would you be eliminating positions in the permitting office? Under the proposal Commissioner Shear had, he did target the BDRS at a 10% reduction, 12 positions. Those positions are unfilled at this time, so that we would not be eliminating... Well, I'm asking... Well, I understand. Since now we're instructing Barry to do the job, and we're not... Since he now has to cut the budget, and we're not showing him where to cut, I'm asking Barry this question. Barry, would your recommendation be including cutting the permitting, the BDRS? No, I would not recommend the cutting vacant positions. Those positions, first off, you always have 10% vacancy. And you go through a cycle, you'll have 10% next year. In a large workforce, you always have about a 10% vacancy. You have that here, you have that in the Sheriff's office, you have that anywhere in a large workforce. But if we're instructing you to cut $5 million out of the budget, would you be cutting positions in BDRS during hurricane season? I would have to. Okay. We just dealt with short-term rental or short-term rental issue. We actually had somebody speak earlier today about that issue. I mean, it's one of the hottest of hot butt issues in Pinellas County. My question to you, Barry, is would you be cutting positions in code enforcement while dealing with short-term rents? Yes. Would you be telling the Sheriff that he would need to cut more of his budget? I mean, that would be a direction from us, but I would need to go to all the departments, including constitutionals, to come up with those type of reductions. Okay. So basically, we're not just eliminating positions that don't exist. We're eliminating positions in permitting and code enforcement. We're eliminating positions that we need to function. Correct. If I can respond just a little bit in detail, because we're talking generalities, let's talk about some of the positions that are vacant. I have mechanics that's very hard to fill. So we outsource stuff when we don't have enough mechanics. We have HVAC and electrical technicians over in facilities. We're running massive amounts of overtime as a direct result. These are HVAC guys in the jail. If they have to perform those functions, or we outsource the work because we can't hire the technicians in those positions, those are vacancy positions. A lot of the 300 positions are grant funded. These are 911 technicians. It's our EMS trainers that train all of our fire and EMS personnel. It's 13 parks positions. Down in Fort DeSoto, a lot of those, some of them were lifeguards, which we can't hire, but it's also park rangers. We just are trying to put to where we have a park ranger in each park. 50 positions are in public works, which includes people that fix our sidewalks, fix our roads, inspect our bridges, our engineers. They're very hard to fill for our engineers and our project coordinators for all the capital projects that we ask them to do. That's 50 positions. 44 of them are in utilities, 22 in BDRS. 59 are in the clerk's office. Some of them are paid for by fees. So of the 300 positions identified, 59 are in the clerk's office. A lot of them are not general fund. 17 positions were in the property appraiser's office, SOE, and the tax collector. So I did not recommend any of the... So what do you recommend, Chris? I recommended this memo that I sent you last week and we went over in the book. And we talked about it and some of it we took, some of it we didn't take. Well, I made a motion, you can vote against the motion. But my point is... My point is... My point is that... And I appreciate you putting in the work. This is a... And I'm speaking. I'm speaking. My point is that I appreciate you doing the work. Anybody can make a motion, oh, I support a... I propose a full rollback. That doesn't mean that if Brian does a motion for a full rollback or Dave does a motion for a full rollback, that doesn't mean that they're more conservative than you are. And, you know, we had this discussion and now you're going to rehash it. One thing that I would just encourage you to realize is that you're not the first conservative that was ever elected to put down this county commission. And you're my buddy and you're doing a fantastic job and I appreciate the homework that you put in. Some of your proposals we took, we just accepted one of them. But that doesn't mean that we're going to start slashing vacant positions during hurricane season. I mean, that's not something that I would support. And I'm not sure that my colleagues would support it either. Mr. Flowers. I shared when we had our last meeting and perhaps I have a different perspective because I've worked in the human resource side where you, as I stated, you will never probably have a business that will not have vacancies because you have people that retire, you have people that get promoted, you have people that move laterally, you want to make sure that when you're interviewing individuals that you are hiring the best person because it costs anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000, rough estimates, to bring a new person on board. That's orientation, that's the 90-day probationary period, getting them set up, everything that you need to do to get that person on board. So it's expensive to get an employee on board. So when you have consistent turnover because you are not being thoughtful or mindful when you are interviewing and hiring, then you will continue to have vacancies because that person's not going to work out. I also shared that, and I won't, I will never support a complete rollback and I will never support zero-based budgeting, even though no one said zero-based. I will not do that because too many times in business, I own my own business as well, you will have circumstances and situations arise where your costs are going to increase, your expenses increase, and you need to be able to account for that. As much how I run my household, I've got to put aside a certain amount of dollars because anything could happen and I need to be able to pay for and account for that. If I don't have it, then I got to go figure out where I'm going to get it or I've got to wait until I can make the ends meet. We just got approved for our CDBGDR grant. I understand that we're going to have someone over that and we're going to bring people on board, but there are also pieces of the CDBGDR that have to occur by our staff. If we don't have the staff to do it, we're still going to fall behind the eight ball because we're not pushing those services out there. And those dollars help people who are still being hindered by the hurricanes. Commissioner Latvala, thank you so very much. I think you were very mindful when you talked about the positions relative to permitting, the positions relative to our emergency management department, and certainly the positions relative to BTS. So I'm not going to do that, nor would I say I want to cut $5 million and then, Barry, you go find the $5 million. If we would do that, if someone would suggest that, then you need to be line-by-line specific. I understand that for my newer colleagues, this is the first budgetary process. So, you know, there are questions that you have and maybe a process. Commissioner Peter said it best when she said, you know, next time, let's maybe look at these things a little sooner in the process so that they can be worked out as we go through the process. But again, I just account that to the fact that this is your first time going through a budgetary process. And so I understand probably, you know, you provided it to us when you could get it to us in your thought process. Unfortunately, for me, that just is not good timing. So I'm not going to support a full rollback. I'm not going to suggest that Barry go try to find $5 million somewhere and pick and peel. So I don't think he's saying it just to be arbitrary. If you're going to cut $5 million, that means everybody feels the pain, including constitutionals, not just administration. And I think if that happens, you're going to have all them lined up in here fighting for, you know, and I agree, they will be fighting for what they need. Everybody came in flat as Barry asked. There were only a few decision packages. I believe the definitions behind why we needed those decision packages was clear, which is why I'm supporting them. Salaries 3% increase. We need our employees. I think they've done a yeoman's job and living here in Pinellas County where it's not cheap to live. I think they're doing the work they deserve that pay increase. So I'm not going to support the request for the rollback. And I really wish we had kept creative Pinellas. I'm going to cry on the drive home, but I would have to go with the amended millage that was presented to us this evening that actually passed a minute ago. And if I could just make a call. Commissioner Peters, go ahead. Like I said, I think you've done great work and I love the work, but what I'm understanding is those vacant positions aren't really vacant if we have to contract somebody. So the money's still being spent to contract with somebody to do the work or paying overtime to contract with somebody to do the work. So it's like, it says that they're vacant, but they really aren't vacant that money's being spent. Is that correct, Barry? Am I understanding you correctly? Certainly not on all of them, but the positions are needed. Okay. And so, you know, a park ranger, you know, they may pay overtime to cover certainly in HVAC technicians and things like that. But the positions are needed. Like one of the proposals was HR. Well, you heard Ken Burke when he talked about the ERP. We actually have to staff up for the implementation. We're running dual systems. So that's helpful. And so, you know, and where I'm coming from too is that we've done this lower the millage rate three times, now four times. And when you do that four times in five years, you are finding so many efficiencies because we're taking a lot away and we're asking staff to stay flat and stay flat when we have inflation just rising and rising. We had it rising and rising and the staff stayed flat. And so I think we've done an outstanding job and I caution that if we did so much slashing and we did have an emergency, we couldn't handle it. We wouldn't have the ability to handle it. And we have at least one city in the county that's having to do a roll forward rate because the property values went down so low. And so just to raise the amount of money they made last year, they have to raise their millage to raise the same amount of money. And I really didn't think we'd see another roll forward rate unless we had a recession. And yet this hurricane has put some people in a roll forward rate. So I know my house, my value of my house went down. And so even though we're not going back as far because of the declined value in properties from the houses that got damaged, it's not the same thing. It's not like my assessed value last year was higher than my assessed value is this year because of the damage I took. So some people are actually not, they're getting a bigger break because of that damage, right, that lower assessment. But I believe it's Treasure Island has to do a roll forward rate just to get the same amount of money. And so I think this year because of the hurricane damage, it's not even apples to apples anymore compared from last year to this year or the year before to this year because that changes how much we can collect across the board for the houses that get damaged. So it's a little different. And, you know, the one thing I wanted to look at and I'm not now and if Barry had to find $5 million, I would have asked him to go on my suggestion is we've never looked at the MSTUs that the unincorporated people pay. We've only looked at the general fund that the whole county pays but we've never looked at those MSTUs and so those unincorporated areas just like a city are paying a tax and we expect those cities to roll back some a little bit, right, every year but we haven't rolled back our MSTU on our unincorporated people. So, but if we do that we're still going to be taking away people that we don't know we don't know where it would be going from and so I want to know if we're going to have to find $5 million I want to know where it's coming from but the one thing I don't want to do is just make a skeleton staff that if we had another emergency we couldn't manage it and that frightens me a lot. So, and because we've done this four times in five years it's harder to find that $5 million because we've been doing this consistently you know over the last five years so it's hard to find those dollars to do a quick give me five more million you know I was quite impressed that he found what he found this year I was really impressed that he found what he found this year and I think next year if we're going to look I want to look at the MSTUs and those unincorporated areas because they've not had any relief and so but I wasn't going to bring that up here because I don't think we've had enough time to look at it and say okay well if we're going to take it what are we going to take it from and when you do get your presentation on Terverde you're going to love this how they presented it to when you see that you're going to love it it was really really done well and and our staff are just doing an incredible job and we watched them do during that emergency we watched them do they're like supermen they did incredible work and didn't get time off for months months they didn't get time off and so I think at this point if we devastated their staff I just don't think we can do it and so I wouldn't support that motion in a second I know we have a motion in a second on the floor I can't support it unless we know exactly where it's coming from and my recommendations is next year we look at those MSTUs and see where we can come up with stuff but I'm concerned about just eliminating staff when we're paying overtime to cover those vacant positions or we're contracting with someone to cover those vacant positions if we don't have that money to do that then we're in trouble and we get a backlog and the one thing I know is more than ever this year I've heard the citizens say they want they do not want higher taxes I've heard it very loud but what I've also heard is they still want the same service I can use Terra Verde as an example they don't want they are very loud they don't want those taxes raised but they not only want the same service they want enhanced services so as much as the people are saying I want my taxes low they're also saying but don't cut my services and I've heard that just as loud as I've heard the tax thing so I just think we don't decimate the departments and have no ability to even maintain the services we're already having and so that's my concern and what I would like to see us do is vote for one of the proposed millets that are in our presentation and then next year really dive in and say okay if in fact we find technology we can get rid of some of those can we lower some of that stuff in the MSCU and give our unincorporated people a break because they haven't gotten one where some cities rolled their millage rate back but MSCU wasn't and so I think that's to me that's where I want to start next year but if we decimate it this year and next year we can't there's no way we could give them a return and say oh but we're going to lower our millage rate again next year too if we decimate our departments then we can't next year either and my goal is to do it next year as well and pray we don't have another natural disaster and have our property values go down even more and be like Treasure Island where we have to do a roll forward rate just to raise the same amount of money so I have concerns about that and I would not support that I guess we'll continue with the conversation you know I mean I think again the time of the night and I don't mean literally the time of the night but we're I think we talked a lot about different issues that have come up during the year and I think we need to start identifying those and setting them aside in a back burner issue like you know some of the things that come up and just say we're going to deal with that in a workshop or two or three and maybe we need to expect longer workshops than 12 o'clock maybe go to 2 o'clock 2.30 on some of the stuff because some of this stuff is this deep diving stuff takes time but but what happens is is that we don't put it there to kindly remind us that every workshop here's our list of back burner issues that we need to talk about before the last week in August and the budget so I think that would help because I know they come up you know Commissioner Scheer might have an idea I might have an idea Commissioner Letval let's just make sure that we put it aside so we don't lose sight of it in the middle of a crazy schedules that we've got but I I'm not yeah I just I'm not sure where that money is going to come from I don't know at this time if we've got places to get it and frankly I think the comments that Commissioner Letval talked about I am really concerned about our EMS group I'm really concerned about our BDRS group I'm really concerned about folk and there's a lot of other folks that have worked during the storms but I'm talking about their day-to-day job I mean they're overwhelmed now one of the things that I brought up before and I again I want to put it on the back burner issue because I want to talk about it next year where we're not in the throes of a budget approval is looking at a structured increase in salaries that vary depending on where you are in the salary scale I still haven't gotten the breakdown on where the salaries are in each level 110 to 120 120 to 130 what are the salaries how many people do we have in those I don't care where they are put the departments down here let's find out what we've got because a 3% increase on somebody that's making $150,000 is $4,500 if you're making 50 about 50 thousand it's only $1,500 and they need more dollars than the folks that are making the big money so I just think it's a conversation to have and it's not unique it happens in many places where you have a you have a different set of increases but and again I'm not saying that that's the way to go but we need to look at it because when we're trying to find money and I don't even know what kind of money we're talking about because I've not gotten the totals on each of those categories and what it means to your you know your 5 million or your 3 million or maybe it's only 50,000 or I again it's just there's an awful lot of things and I think we're not going to get to all of them this year obviously but I don't want to lose sight of them early in the year so that all of a sudden we get into the budget process in January we get our retreat then we go the staff start working on it we have those of our hearings in June and that's a lot of work but then we look for some time off you know for to get a break in July and then we're back we're back almost where we are again so it's not an easy process to go through I think we need to tackle it earlier rather than later well thank you commissioner and thank you for your comments as well you know I don't believe that I proposed anything last Thursday that was draconian in nature I thought it was very reasonable and what I was to ask you for tonight was about 20% of what I originally proposed less than 20% so that this is what I'm going to keep coming back to if this motion goes down which apparently it will and that's fine I give it a shot I just wanted 20% of what I really was after thank you chair and thank you commissioner shear for all your hard work and you know Rieckio you know some of like commissioner Peters was saying MSTUs I mean I've been saying that you know from the beginning of the process I mean just you know the library cooperative alone was revenue in 2025 was 8.9 million though their tentative budget is 10.1 million so if you just kept their millage you rolled back their millage alone to what their revenue was in 2025 you're saving a million dollars right there forward Pinellas has over a million dollars in reserves for a regional MPO that is never going to happen if you reduce their millage rate to obliterate that reserves for the regional MPO there's over another million dollars if you did a 2% pay raise versus a 3% pay raise that's another million dollars right there so I mean that's three million dollars right there that doesn't affect a single job and is what people had last year and to Commissioner Shear's point you know for some of these positions that where their staff are vacancies I mean God forbid a storm hit us today those positions would still be empty and we still wouldn't have the people to do that work so I mean we can always rehire people and create the positions after the fact you know so I appreciate Commissioner Shear bringing that up that you know these are vacant positions right now so if a storm hit today those positions would still be empty and nobody could do the work and they were a lot of them and you know planning and permitting were empty during the storm last year so it's not like work wouldn't get done work has been getting done and I agree with you know Commissioner Eggers point of the timing process you know we have these you know budget workshops for a week and then we go on break for a month and then don't meet and talk about it until the middle you know of August and so you lose a month and a half of all of that of the MSTUs and budget departments coming in and all of that knowledge you it just wipes out and then we can't actually make a motion or decision on anything because we're in workshops and we're not having actual meetings to really make a decision of where we want to go as a group and as a commission and so the process was you know frustrating for me you know so you know I'm in dues and subscriptions you know 10% cut was also in Commissioner Shear's email which was 225 which we didn't really talk about in the workshop you know so I mean you have over three million dollars I mean right there so I mean I think there's a way to get to five million so I mean I support you know Commissioner Shear's motion if he's still leaving it on the table but you know I'll leave it up to him so thank you well we have we have a motion in a second and it's we need to it's almost 10 o'clock and we still got a lot of stuff to do and I appreciate all the comments they are all really really really good they really are we've got a lot to talk about for next year's budget I mean or the 27th budget when we get into that we're gonna I think we're gonna have some really really good interesting discussion next year now I want to call a vote for the motion that we have on the table so that was for Commissioner Shear's suggestion to roll back 50 percent 50 percent rollback right the 50 percent rollback so we could open up the voting for that I don't have a thingy but I'm a no-y okay for whatever reason it's not well but I'm a no we're missing one who are we missing me I'm a no I can't I thought it was trying to find it a year or no no okay all right so motion fails five to two okay yes good good conversation everybody all right so now that we have received all public comment the board must now consider the resolutions to set the tentative millage rates and tentative budgets as stated earlier we will adopt the tentative millage rates and tentative budgets in the following sections number one BCC countywide and number two dependent special districts and MSTUs the resolutions adopting the millage and budgets for the dependent special districts and MSTUs require a unit unanimous vote if a unanimous vote is not received or the dependent special districts and MSTUs we will need to adopt each separately I will now ask communication to display schedule A as amended that will be referenced during the readings and vote and ask the county administrator to proceed with the readings well that's large and in charge there as far as print okay I lost my place thank you mr chairman I will announce each resolution separately for the board's action per floor statutes the board will vote on the tentative millages first and then on the tentative budget for each taxing authority we will start with consideration of the countywide millage rates and budgets which include a the Pinellas County general fund with a tentative millage levy of 4.5423 and the countywide or the county levy for health department fund with a tentative millage of .0713 for the Pinellas County general fund and the county levy for the health fund I recommend adoption of the tentative millages as outlined on schedule A as amended which is in your handout and being displayed as was previously posted to the county's website may I have a motion to adopt the tentative millages move approval I have a motion by commissioner flowers a second by commissioner Peters and we pull up the voting please I'm a yes passes unanimously I recommend adoption out of the tentative budgets may have a motion adopt the tentative budgets I have a motion by commission Peter second by commissioner flowers hold the voting please okay pass unanimously thank you we will now consider the tentative millage rates and the tentative budgets of dependent special districts and MSTUs I recommend adoption of the tentative millage rates for the dependent special districts and MSTUs as detailed on schedule a as amended which is in your paper handout being displayed and was previously posted to the county's website I have a motion to adopt the tentative millages second I have a motion by commissioner Peter second by commissioner flowers can we pull up the voting please okay we have six to one okay motion passes all right mr. crow so since we that was not unanimous we may have to since it's not unanimous make it we have to make a detour here one by one though okay yeah yeah this was my first year on the board yeah that's what I'm saying yeah all right so all right don help me out here well I just wanted to let you know because there was not a unanimous vote received we need to shift to the alternative alternative script yep and I'm moving there and which you want to start with with the dependent special districts yeah madam well madam clerk if you want to start with uh the statement about the public hearing being held and I believe it's already actually you've already said that I've got it which box am I going to you don't you're going to page six of the alternative script page six okay under the uh okay emergency medical services authority that's correct so I break so this is the emergency medical services authority I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 0.8050 which reflects a 4.18 increase over the rollback rate of 0.7727 we have a motion to adopt the tentative millage rate okay motion by commissioner flowers second by commissioner peters he can we can open up the voting please okay pass unanimously I recommend adoption of the tentative budget we have a motion to adopt the tentative budget motion by commissioner peters second by commissioner flowers can we open up the voting please okay pass unanimously this next is the pinellas planning council I recommend adoption of the tentative millage um levy of 0.017 0.0175 which reflects an 8.85 percent decrease over the rollback rate of 0.0192 can I have a motion second okay motion by commissioner flower second by commissioner eggers can we open up the voting please okay pass unanimously I recommend adoption of the tentative budget second motion by commissioner flower second by commissioner eggers can we open up the voting please pass unanimously next is the unincorporated area mstu I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 2.0857 which reflects a 5.14 percent increase over the rollback rate of 1.9838 I have a motion to adopt lieutenant millage approval motion by commissioner eggers second by commissioner flowers can we open up the voting please pass unanimously I recommend adoption of the tentative budget motion by commissioner flowers we have a second you're doing great starting to get a little sloth out here it was a second by commissioner peters okay can we open up the voting please motion passes unanimously thank you next is the public library services district I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 0.500 which reflects a 5.64 percent increase over the rollback rate of 0.4733 I have a motion to adopt the tentative millage that was that was motion by commissioner peters second by commissioner flowers okay open up the voting please okay okay passes six to one I recommend adoption of the tentative budget motion to adopt the tentative budget motion by commissioner peters second by commissioner eggers can we open up the voting please pass unanimously okay next next is the palm harbor community services district this will require five of seven votes a two-third majority at the final public hearing so I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 0.500 which reflects a 5.73 percent increase over the rollback rate of 0.4729 we have a motion okay motion by commissioner regular second by commissioner peters can we open up the voting please pass unanimously I recommend adoption of the tentative budget move approval okay motion by commissioner I think peters and second by commissioner i'll second open up the voting please wait on oh okay all right passes unanimously next is the feather sound community services district I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 0.70000 which reflects a 1.71 percent increase over the rollback rate of 0.6882 Barry did you do did you do the community services one palm harbor communities you did that one okay I thought we just did the library and we did the library and palm harbor did you want to did you want to change your vote okay did you want to change your vote on that one I'm not changing no no where are we now all right so we're on the feather sound other sound all right can I have a motion all right motion by commissioner wiki second by millage is it commissioner records okay all right can we open up voting damn I had to kill the momentum didn't I it's Dave start back up go back to public comment all right pass unanimously I recommend adoption of the tentative budget motion by commissioner flower second by commissioner wiki can we open up the voting please pass unanimously on the Eastlake library next is Eastlake library services district again at the final public hearing will require five to seven votes I reckon recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy 0.2500 which reflects a 4.87 percent increase over the rollback rate of 0.2384 motion by commissioner agger second by commissioner flowers can we open up the voting please pass unanimously I recommend adoption of the tentative budget okay motion by commissioner peter second by commissioner aggers can we open up voting please pass unanimously next is the Eastlake recreation services district same vote at the final I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 0.2500 which reflects a 4.87 percent increase over the rollback rate of 0.2384 motion motion by commissioner agger second by commissioner now wiki can we open up the voting please pass unanimously I recommend adoption of the tentative budget motion by commissioner agger second by commissioner agger second by commissioner flowers can we open up the voting please pass unanimously all right stay away chris greater greater seminole recreation mstu I recommend adoption of tentative millage late levy of 0.2500 which reflects a 5.89 percent increase over the rollback rate of 0.2361 0.2361 motion motion by commissioner peter second by commissioner wiki can we open up the voting please all right pass unanimously I recommend adoption of the tentative budget okay motion by commissioner peter second by commissioner flowers open up the voting please pass unanimously next is bettler bluffs fire district I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 1.3000 which reflects a 0.80 percent increase over the rollback rate of 1.2897 motion by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner wiki can we open up the voting please pass unanimously pass unanimously I recommend adoption of the tentative budget motion by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner wiki open up the voting please pass unanimously next is clearwater fire district I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 1.3700 which reflects a 6.82 percent decrease over the rollback rate of 1.4702 okay motion by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter second by commissioner peter all right there we go all right pass unanimously I have a motion, please. Motion by Commissioner Peters, seconded by Commissioner Flowers. Please open up the voting. Pass unanimously. I recommend adoption of the tentative budget. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki, seconded by Commissioner Flowers. If you could open up the voting, please. All right, pass unanimously on the Gandy Fire District. Gandy Fire District, this I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of .7800, which reflects a 9.72% decrease over the rollback rate of .8640. Motion by Commissioner Peters, seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. If we could open up the voting, please. Pass unanimously. I recommend adoption of the tentative budget. Motion by Commissioner Peters, seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. If we could open up the voting, please. Just put myself on tape and just hit repeat. All right, High Point Fire District. I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 2.3000, which reflects a 3.85% increase over the rollback rate of 2.2147. Motion by Commissioner Peters, seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. Open up the voting, please. Pass unanimously. I recommend adoption of the tentative budget. Motion by Commissioner Peters, seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. We can open up the voting, please. Pass unanimously. Next is Largo Fire District. I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 1.6200, which reflects a 5.70% decrease over the rollback rate of 1.7180. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki, seconded by Commissioner Peters, I think. Open up the voting, please. Passes unanimously. I recommend adoption of the tentative budget. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki. Seconded. Seconded by Commissioner Flowers. Open up the voting, please. Passes unanimously. I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 2.5700, which reflects a 7.26% increase over the rollback rate of 2.3961. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki, seconded by Commissioner Peters. Open up the voting, please. Passes unanimously. I recommend adoption of the tentative budget. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki, seconded by Commissioner Flowers. Open up the voting, please. Passes unanimously. Next, Safety Harbor Fire District. I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 1.2500, which reflects an 8.18% decrease over the rollback rate of 1.3613. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Seconded by Commissioner Eggers. Open up the voting, please. I recommend adoption of the tentative budget. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. Open up the voting, please. Hit your button. Passes unanimously. On to Seminole Fire District. I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 1.800, which reflects a 20.39% increase over the rollback rate of 1.951. 1.4951. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Peter, seconded by Commissioner Flowers. If we could open up the voting, please. The two. Okay. There we are. All right. Chair, wake up. Passes unanimously. I recommend adoption of the tentative budget. Seconded by Commissioner Peters. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. Open up the voting, please. Passes unanimously. South Pasadena Fire District. There you go. I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of .2900, which reflects a 1.16% decrease over the rollback rate of .2934. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki. Seconded by Commissioner Peters. Can you open up the voting? Okay. Passes unanimously. Recommended adoption of the tentative budget. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. Open up the voting, please. Passes unanimously. Texas Tarpet Springs Fire District. I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 2.0250, which reflects a 5.42% increase over the rollback rate of 1.9209. Motion by Commissioner Eggers. Seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. Open up the voting, please. Passes unanimously. I recommend adoption of the tentative budget. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki. Seconded by Commissioner Flowers. Open up the voting, please. Rene, are you asked? Are you asked? There we go. All right. Passes unanimously. And finally, Tierra Verde Fire District. I recommend adoption of the tentative millage levy of 1.5000, which reflects a 5.91% increase over the rollback rate of 1.4163. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki. Seconded by Commissioner Peters. Open up the voting, please. Okay. Passes unanimously. I recommend adoption of the tentative budget. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. If we can open up the voting, please. Passes unanimously. And now the moment we thought we would never get to. With that, unless the board members have any further comments, the first public hearing for the FY26 budget is now closed. Commissioners, please note that the county will advertise the budget summary and notice of tax increases in advance of the second public hearing in accordance with Florida statutes. This notice will be published in the Tampa Bay Times on September 14th. The second and final budget hearing will be on Thursday, September 18th at 6 p.m. With that, everybody, we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.