Board of County Commissioners on 2025-10-07 9:30 AM - Oct 07, 2025

Good morning, everybody. I would like to call the October 7th, 2025 meeting of the Penelope County Board of County Commissioners to order. And before we get going, I would like to start off by thanking the deputies that are keeping us safe today. Corporal Thornton, Deputy Manley, and Deputy Atkinson. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here today. Also, Commissioner Peters has a last-minute emergency come up this morning, so she may be late or may not be able to join us. So keep her in our thoughts. And also, our fellow Commissioner Latvala, please keep him in your thoughts and your prayers. He is, things are looking better for him, but he's still dealing with some pretty complicated health issues. However, he did ask for the Phillies game to be put on yesterday, so things are obviously looking up. But please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. So at this time, I would ask everyone to rise as Commissioner Wicke offers an invocation. And please remain standing for Commissioner Flowers to lead us in the play. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning with grateful and humble hearts. Thank you for the gift of this day and the opportunity to serve the people of Pinellas County. We recognize that all wisdom and authority ultimately come from you. Guide our hearts and our minds today. Help us set aside pride and self-interest. Lead with clarity, integrity, and a servant's heart. Today, we remember the tragic events of October 7th, two years ago. We pray for peace and for justice to prevail where evil is sought to destroy. As Scripture reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3, verse 8, there is a time for love and a time to hate and a time for war and a time for peace. We recognize that we are not only facing a physical battle in our world, but we are also engaged in spiritual warfare here at home, a battle between truth and deception, light and darkness. Lord, give us discernment to stand firm in these times, to pursue peace without compromising truth, and to remain steadfast in the spiritual fight before us. Lord, we lift up those who are sick and unable to be with us today. Whether they're a part of this board, our staff, or members of our community, we especially remember one of our own who recently had surgery and faced health issues. Surround them with your healing presence, strengthen their body, claim their spirit, and give wisdom and skill to their doctors. We pray that they feel our support not only by their loved ones, but by the entire community. Remind them that they are deeply valued and their contributions matter, and that they are not walking this journey alone. Bring peace to their families, comfort in moments of difficulty, and full restoration in the days ahead. October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time for fighters, support the survivors, and remember those we have lost. I personally remember my grandmother who passed away from breast cancer, and I know many carry similar memories of loved ones. Lord, bring peace to every family walking that difficult road right now, and strengthen those still in the fight. And the color purple reminds us to stand with survivors of domestic violence, to protect the vulnerable, and to work together with integrity without compromising truth. We also ask your blessing to serve our veterans, law enforcement, first responders, and all of those who served our community with courage and sacrifice. Protect them and their families, and keep us mindful of their daily service. And grant us grace to listen well, humility to admit we need your help, and all the courage to do what is right, even when it's not easy. Guide our work today that it serves the common good, and bring us honor to you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. We ask this through the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indisputable, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Commissioner Wicke. That was a very thoughtful invocation. So, we have a couple of proclamations and some awards this morning. First one is the National Community Planning Month proclamation. I would like to ask Greg Mims, the Director of Housing and Community Development, and his staff, Tom Schofield, Principal Planner, and Adam Shellhorn, GIS Application Specialist, to join me at the podium. He'll be accepting the National Community Planning Month proclamation. Change is constant and affects all cities, towns, suburbs, counties, boroughs, townships, rural areas, and other places. Community planning can help manage this change in a way that provides better choices for how people will work and live. Planning provides an opportunity for all residents to be involved in making choices that determine the future of their communities. Inclusive community planning efforts help advance county priorities, including health and safe communities, attainable housing, economic development, environmental quality, and resilience and adaptation. The full benefits of planning require public officials and citizens who understand, support, and demand excellence in planning and plan implementation. The month of October is designated as National Community Planning Month throughout the United States of America and its surrounding territories. The celebration of National Community Planning Month gives us the opportunity to publicly recognize the participation and dedication of the members of the Board of County Commissioners, the local planning agency, Board of Adjustments and Appeals, Historic Preservation Board, and other citizen planners who have contributed their time and expertise to the improvement of Pinellas County. We recognize the many valuable contributions made by professional community and regional planners of Pinellas County and extend our heartfelt thanks to the continued commitment to public service by these professionals. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that October 25th, October 2025, rather, be recognized as National Community Planning Month. Good morning, Commissioners. I'm Greg Mims. I'm the new Director of Housing and Community Development. On behalf of our planning team, we had to leave a couple in the office to help assist with the public. But we want to thank you for this recognition, and we'll promise you that we'll continue the good work. Thank you. Well, I'd like to invite the rest of the Board up, and we'll do some pictures. And now we have some awards to present, and we love awards. So today we have Pinellas County Fire Professionals of the Year Awards. Today we honor the recipients of the 2025 Pinellas County Fire Professionals of the Year Awards. The awards are given to those who go above and beyond the call of duty when providing professional fire service to the community and to the members of the fire service. I would like to play a video that gives you a brief description of the type of work that is performed by these individuals and why they were chosen to be this year's winners. Every day, Pinellas County Fire Professionals answer the call to protect lives and property. In 2025, we honor two extraordinary individuals, lead telecommunicator Richard Minshaw and Fire Marshal Robert S. Hill, Jr., as the Fire Professionals of the Year. For his professionalism, compassion, and unwavering calm, Richard Minshaw is honored as Emergency Fire Dispatcher of the Year. I try to just make it a clean slate every time I answer the phone. I leave the previous call there and then just take it as it is. I try to go into each call with an open mind. Richard's commitment to service extends beyond the job. Last year, he acted quickly after noticing a neighbor had collapsed while mowing the lawn. I realized that this was a 911 situation on my day off. So I proceeded to call 911 because I figured if somebody was a call, I could give the accurate location. I've got proper training. I now understand the questions that they're going to ask and try to give it in a level manner. Richard then proceeded with life-saving CPR until Seminole Fire Rescue arrived. It was a really fast response time and I really love our county for that. Because of the skills that I've learned while doing this industry, I was able to make a big impact there and was able to put hands on chest in the quickest time that we could. And I think partially due to those effects, you know, he's still alive and living his best life that he can right now. Fire Marshal Robert S. Hill Jr. is Pinellas County's 2025 Fire Professional of the Year. His dedication to safety, community, and service exemplify the highest standards of the fire service. When the firefighters go out, my job is to make sure that it's safe for them to go into the buildings, too. So when we look at it, it's basically I'm watching out for them and the firefighters are watching out for those individuals that have those buildings and making sure that they're safe, too. Robert's commitment to his community goes beyond inspections and sometimes beyond the typical uniform. I decided to wear a pink kilt and I purchased one of those, dyed my hair completely pink and put the kilt on, had a pink uniform top. And so I would do both of them. I would put those on and go out and collect money. People knew I'd be out and I would do my inspections in the pink kilt and they would donate the money to breast cancer. So it's just a way to make the money to give it to charity. Robert's passion for community service also inspired him to design a 9-11 memorial honoring fallen heroes. There are 343 bricks that are laying side by side, which represents the 343 firefighters that got killed that day. And then the rest of it's in herringbone, so you'll see the differences in the way it was put together. So there's a lot of meaning in it. From charitable outfit choices to a thoughtful remembrance, Fire Marshal Hill embodies initiative, leadership, and heart. The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners congratulate Richard Minshaw and Fire Marshal Robert S. Hill, Jr., the 2025 Fire Professionals of the Year. On behalf of the county, thank you to all of our fire professionals for your service. I don't see any pink kilts in the audience today, but at this time I would like to ask Ariel Alvarez, Director of Branch Operations with the Pinellas Federal Credit Union, to come forward and assist with the presentation of the awards. And also I'd like to call up Richard Minchel, Public Safety Telecommunicator Lead with the Regional 9-1-1. So Richard represents the very best of what it means to serve behind the headset. Since joining in 2019, he has consistently shown professionalism, composure, and compassion, both on the radio and with callers in their most critical moments. His commitment to excellence extends beyond call-taking as he mentors peers, upholds the mission, vision, and values of the communication center, and even providing life-saving care off-duty to a neighbor in cardiac arrest. Richard, you're not just a dispatcher. You're a leader, you're a teacher, and a steadfast voice of calm. And we thank you. We proudly recognize Richard Minchel as the 2025 Emergency Fire Dispatcher of the Year. We appreciate all your hard work, your dedicated service to the citizens of Pinellas County. Thank you for everything that you do. Of course, I just want to thank everybody. There you go. I just want to thank everybody. You know, I'm just a part of the whole system for EMS. As you can see, we have other people. Since our paramedics, the fire department, I'm just happy I was at the right place at the right time, and had the skill set to do what was needed. So thank you all, though, for thanking us. And it's great to know. Don't go anywhere. We're going to get some pictures. But it's just great to know when you call 911, there's somebody as professional and talented as you to pick up the phone. So thank you for everything you do. This time, I'd like to invite my fellow commissioners up for some photos. Next, I would like to call up Fire Marshal Robert Bob Hill with the Pinellas Suncoast Fire Rescue. Come on up, Bob. I do want to see you in that pink kilt here sometime. All right. Bob has exemplified service and leadership in every part of his role. Drawing on his law enforcement background, he serves as fire investigator with professionalism and fairness while going far beyond his assigned duties. From leading the community emergency response team and supporting a charitable foundation to ensuring logistics run smoothly during disasters, Bob shows that no task is too small when it comes to serving his department and his community. His willingness to step in, whether staying overnight on fire watch or taking on behind-the-scenes roles, reflects his deep commitment to readiness, to service, and to this Pinellas County community. Therefore, we proudly recognize Fire Marshal Bob Hill as the 2025 Fire Professional of the Year. Again, thank you for everything you do for the citizens of Pinellas County. Your hard work and dedication are just tremendous. Thank you so much. I'd like to thank the commission for this great honor. It's not very often that I feel that I deserve things. And this is something that came along that was very unexpected. And I got an email one night that said that I had won this award from the chief. And I showed it to my wife. And she said, I think they made a mistake. And actually, it didn't. But I do want to say thank you to everyone. And it is a great honor to serve this community. Thank you. And if we come up with some pictures. Next, we have citizens to be heard. First person we have is Scott Kileser. Kileser? Please come up to the podium, sir. You have three minutes. Good morning. Good morning, Chair. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Scott Chelsen. I'm a disabled veteran, a homeowner, and a victim of fraud, part of a vulnerable population that these systems here in Pinellas County are meant to protect. I moved to Pinellas County because of its reputation for safety, accountability, and community. But as a resident now living through fraud firsthand, I can say we still have a long way to go if we truly want to meet those expectations and protect the people who call this county home. Today, I want to introduce two, maybe three, specific action items this commission can take to strengthen fraud prevention and restore trust. First, I'm going to ask that we extend the video retention from our facilities from 90 days to at least 120 and potentially 180 days. Right now, after 90 days, vulnerable video evidence is deleted, even when it could hold key information for an ongoing investigation. These time frames aren't required by law. There are local policy choices, and they can be changed. Here's a real-world example. A fraudulent notice of commencement is filed on a homeowner's property. Day one. Work begins under forged paperwork. On day 90, just before footage at 4.29, 4.30 is deleted. The contractor files a lien. Weeks later, the homeowner discovers their signature was forged. But this video is now gone, so the sheriff's office can't access it, and the clerk of court's office didn't capture ID from the filer. That resident is left fighting to clear their title while taxpayer-funded investigations chase what a single video could have confirmed. And our sheriff's office doesn't have internal forensic document experts, so when evidence disappears, they must rely on resources like FDLE, adding time, cost, and delay. That's why keeping evidence longer up front protects residents, protects investigators, and saves money. A single fraud case can cost $40,000 to $70,000, while extending storage costs only a couple thousand dollars, maybe $10,000 at most. That's prevention that pays for itself. Second, I'm asking the Pinellas County Commission to look into creating a fraud prevention task force. After the last major storm, we saw a surge of new contractors flood into the market, and with that, a surge in fraud. Millions of dollars were lost, and yet outreach and protections lag behind. Meanwhile, business owners who play by the rules, who pull permits, pay fees, and operate in good faith, are being undercut by those who exploit the system. And homeowners are being exploited, their identity stolen, and their property titles clouded. A fraud prevention task force would unite the sheriff's office, the clerk of courts, property appraiser, the contracting licensing board, the county attorney's office, consumer protection, building services, and community representatives like myself, a veteran, senior homeowner, and small business owner. Fraud crosses departments, but victims experience it as one broken system. I can tell you from firsthand experience, chasing down fraud is a very tiresome task, and I'm glad to have the energy to do so. A task force would connect the dots, coordinate investigations, and close these gaps before more people are harmed. And third, I would ask that this commission recommends that the clerk's office do a better job of marketing when it comes to the fraud prevention alert system. I understand the clerk is a separate constitutional office, but I also know you all play in the same sandbox when it comes to protecting the people in this county. Collaboration matters, and this could be the first official task of the new fraud prevention task force. In closing, I know the time's up. These are simple, cost-effective, and achievable actions. They help restore safety, trust, and accountability. Thank you, Scott. And I believe if we are not preventing fraud, we are enabling fraud. Fraud doesn't wait for a budget cycle. So thank you for your time and leadership. Next, we have David Ballard-Gettis, Jr. Good morning, commissioners, for the record. David Ballard-Gettis, Jr., I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. Florida Supreme Court case 96332 ratifying the reclaimed water bonds states that for a flat rate, reclaimed water is available for non-restricted amounts, that non-potable reclaimed water is immune and exempt from watering restrictions. Yet defective in the case, statute 403.064 legislates that reclaimed water is to be used for indoor use, for direct potable reuse in drinking water, and that reclaimed water is to be metered for actual volume used. As regulated, statute 40360, Article 4, Section H, subjects us to a jurisdiction of a foreign nation reflective of statute 218.415, Section 16F, allowing this foreign occupation to contrive mortgage revenue certificates against our homes in statute 180.08, tapping the title to our homes in Pinellas County Ordinance 97103, Section 126509, taking both our personal and our real property, again, in statute 15303, Section 5, claiming eminent domain over everything in that which we labor. Carpetbagging us, the reclaimed water variance application clearly states that the applicant literally owes their health, their safety, and their religion. Imagine that as we're not immune from breathing airborne particulates transmitted through our sprinkler system. Statute 15320 claims that they're just doing their thing. In this case, I find everything to be entirely defective. Article 5, Section 3B2 of the Florida Constitution does not pridefully compact water or reclaimed water with other types of utilities, nor does it include ad hoc third-party contrived facility bond levies or dictates as seen in statute 163.3167. In particular, the availability fee is a withhold of essential vital water supply. The ready-to-serve zone is not for service. In total disrespect of religion, the occupational charge removes our utility wholesale water supply and rate. The facility availability fee denies our access to our essential life-giving water and reduces our vital water access into being that of a privilege. The facility availability fee, in reality, is a direct third-party bond levy against our personhood, placing Christianity in bondage as deduced in the 14th Amendment and is a violation of Home Rule Charter Section 2.02E, Florida Constitution, Article 1, Section 3, and the First Amendment. Thank you. Thank you, David. Next, we have Greg Pound. Greg Pound, Largo, Florida. I just, back on the issue of our families and what's going on. You know, it's really amazing. If we don't get back to building families and understanding how this thing works, you know our young people without fathers are causing all this problem with this Antifa stuff and this lawlessness that we have out of control. It's because they don't have fathers. When we have a court system built on making money off destroying families, and you men that have been married and divorced, in your hearts, the Bible says, same with the women, your hearts become hard. You become hard-hearted. Now, in the Scripture, it says, Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh, our Creator. And when you look at that word man, the nouns in the Bible in the Hellenistic Greek has, there's three genders. There's male, female, and neuter. So whenever you see the word man, it's not talking about us men. It's talking about people, we as a people. And when it says, People shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. Christ said in John 6, 63, He said, It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. So what happens is that we were created as spiritual beings, and that's why it says you must be born again. You have to be born of the Holy Spirit. Because we're dead. When we sin, we die. Okay, something happened, man died. He didn't die physically, he died spiritually. So once we're born again, what feeds our spirit is the word of God. I tell people, listen, you can read that Bible, you don't even have to understand it. Just read it, and it will feed your spirit. It's just like, and so that's how we grow. The way we grow, and there's a battle. After you're born again, there's a battle between the flesh and the spirit, the sin nature and the good. You know, when I was a kid, we used to have cartoons, we'd have a demon on one side and an angel on the other speaking in your ear. Well, this is what we deal with every day. In our minds, we have this battle going on between good and evil. And the Bible says there's a way that seems right to man, but the end thereof ends in death and destruction. If we lean on our understanding and our own thinking, our narcissism, the flesh, when Christ called Simon Peter, he said to him, he said, this is the first pope. So he called him, he said, get behind me, Satan. This is what Christ said to Peter. He said, because your mind isn't on the things of Yahweh God, but your mind on the things of this world. And so that's what happens. Once we get caught up, you're going to leave everything. When you die, you're leaving everything you've done here, and you're going to stand before the creator and give account what you've done. We have to die. Every one of us has to die because of sin. The wages of sin is death. You're not getting out of it, but you better be prepared for it, because when it comes on you, you're going to pay for everything you've done. It says every idle word we're going to give account of that comes out of our mouths. And so that's why I want to encourage you folks, we need to get this Bible reinstated. We need our Ten Commandments back in our government. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pound. And then next we have Mike Atarp. I apologize if I didn't get the last name correct. Morning. Morning. Hi. I'd like to say a little bit about some of the police and stuff here, okay? You people have way too many cops here. Corruption here is getting to be really bad. They lie and they falsify a lot of these reports all the time to make money, and they need the money to keep them going. So the more cops you put on, the more they've got to lie and falsify stuff. And it's getting to the point of ridiculousness all over the place here in Pinellas County. To give you an example, a while back, I had an alleged accident. There was no accident. The cop lied and he falsified it, claiming that I hit him. And it was no accident because he was trying to help his buddy because his buddy couldn't afford the insurance rates going up because he's bing something and I'm with his car. I don't know what to tell you. This is getting to the point of utter ridiculousness. Get rid of a lot of these cops. You don't need this money. You want them for some reason. I don't know why. But you seem to feel here. You also are forced to write up more laws now for them to write you up on. You understand? Because you've now got to make more money. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, before we go to consent agenda, I got ahead of myself and we have one more proclamation to do. I failed to turn the next page in my podium book. So now we have a proclamation for Fire Prevention Week. So Craig Hare, thank you for joining us. Craig is the Director of EMS and Fire Administration. He will be accepting the Fire Prevention Week proclamation. And Ellis County is committed to ensuring the safety of all those living and visiting in our community. And we have over 15 million visitors that come here every year. Fires continue to pose a significant risk to lives and property and demand proactive prevention efforts. Fire Prevention Week, observed annually, serves as a crucial reminder of the importance of fire safety. The 2025 Fire Prevention Week theme is Charge into Fire Safety. Lithium-ion batteries in your home because understanding and safely handling lithium-ion batteries is critical to preventing home fires, as we all learned during last year's hurricanes. Pinellas County, individuals, families, businesses, and organizations play a very important role in promoting fire safety through awareness, preparedness, and safe practices. We express our gratitude to our local firefighters and emergency personnel and recognize their unwavering commitment to safeguarding our community. Let us use this week to appreciate their service and demonstrate our support for all of their hard work. Therefore, we are proclaimed that the week of October 5th through October 11th, 2025, be recognized as Fire Prevention Week. Craig, thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it very much. Good morning, Commissioners. It's an honor to accept this on behalf of all of our fire chiefs and all of our firefighter paramedics and EMTs. And we know that they do a great job every day out there keeping us all safe. So just thank you for all of your continued support. And you're here today. All right. All right. Now we're going to move on to our public hearing items. So we'll move on to item number five. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Agenda item number five is case number CW25-04. This is a proposal by the city of Treasure Island to amend the countywide plan map from residential medium to recreation open space regarding .256 acre, more or less, located at the northeast corner of 112th Avenue A and 13th Street East. The public hearing is properly advertised, and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk, and the matter is probably before the board to be heard. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Eckers, seconded by Commissioner Flowers. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, if we could pull up the voting, please. A. Passed unanimously. Thank you. We'll move on to item number seven. Agenda item number six is case number CW25-05. This is a proposal by the city of Largo to amend the countywide plan map from public, semi-public, to retail and services regarding 13.92 acres, more or less, located at 201 Highland Avenue North. The public hearing was properly advertised. An affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk, and the matter is properly before the board to be heard. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Okay. We have a motion by Commissioner Eckers, seconded by Commissioner Flowers. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, if we could open up the voting. Passes unanimously. And now we'll move on to number seven. Agenda item number seven is case number CW25-06. This is a proposal by Pinellas County to amend the countywide plan map from residential low medium to public, semi-public, regarding four acres, more or less, located at 2261 Tampa Road in unincorporated Palm Harbor. The public hearing was properly advertised. An affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk, and the matter is properly before the board to be heard. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Will of the board? Motion by Commissioner Flowers, seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, if we could open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Okay. Moving on to item number eight. Agenda item number eight is case number CW25-07. This is a proposal by Pinellas County to amend the countywide plan map from office to retail and services regarding 1.16 acres, more or less, located at 2551 Tarpon Woods Boulevard in unincorporated Eastlake. The public hearing was properly advertised. An affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk, and the matter is properly before the board to be heard. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Eggers. Was that a second by Commissioner Scheer? Any discussion? Hearing none, if we could open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Thank you. That concludes our public hearing, and now we'll move on to consent agenda, items nine through 16. Is there any member of the board that would like to pull any items? Okay. Motion by Commissioner Eggers, seconded by Commissioner Scheer. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Passes unanimously. So now moving on to item number 17. Item number 17 is a 10th amendment to the purchase authorization with genuine parts, NAPA auto parts. This spends about $2 million annually to support our fleet. Motion by Commissioner Flowers, seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. Is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. We could open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item number 18. This is an interlocal agreement with Pinellas County Sheriff's Office for Law Enforcement Services at St. Peter, Petersburg, Clearwater International Airport. Motion by Commissioner Eggers. Seconded by Commissioner Nowicki. Mr. Chair. Yes. I just wanted to publicly acknowledge the tremendous and professional quality of work that the officers do at the airport. I've been out there a number of times, either touring, visiting. I know Commissioner Eggers always goes for the flights for our veterans. But I have never seen an operation run more smoothly. And they make themselves available to the tourists that are coming in. The airport is extremely busy Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And so, just super kudos publicly to the officers that are out there. Well, thank you for that, Commissioner Flowers. Okay. Any further discussion? Okay. If we can open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item number 19. This is the first amendment to an agreement with ACOM Technical Services. This is for construction, engineering, and inspection services in our construction group. Okay. Move approval. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Wicke. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item number 20. This is the third amendment to an agreement with Johnson Controls for HVAC and related services. This is going from a services contract to a services and repair. We just combined it under a huge source wealth nationwide contract. And expenditures are normal. Are we saving any money? Yeah. Are we getting it at this time? Favorable pricing is the reason. Okay. Move approval. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Wicke. Any further discussion? Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Item number 21. Capital Project Funding Agreement with the Board of Trustees of St. Petersburg College for the renovations of Palladium Theater for $2.5 million. This is from our CBB Tourism Development Funds. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Wicke. Any further discussion? Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item number 22. This resolution and Fourth Amendment to adjoiner to an interlocal agreement approving an issuance of not to exceed $30 million of solid waste disposal revenue bonds by the Florida Department of Finance Corporation. This is similar to a TEFL bond where Waste Pro is using the state finance corporation for three facilities in Clearwater and in Tarpon Springs. Motion by Commissioner Wicke. Motion by Commissioner Wicke. Second by Commissioner Flowers. And I did have one public speaker on agenda item 22, Kate Stangle. Morning. Hi. My name is Kate Stangle. I'm with the law firm of Nelson Mullins, Riley, and Scarborough in Orlando. I represent the Florida Development Finance Corporation. I'm only here to answer any questions that you may have and also just to say thank you for our continued partnership. We've been able to serve a lot of projects, including Waste Pro, and we greatly appreciate your consideration of this item. Thank you. Thank you for being here this morning. Okay. Any discussion, questions, or anything? No? Okay. Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. And then Commissioner Peters is a yes. Okay. Passes unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to item 23. Item 23 is a renewal with the Public Defender's Office of the Sixth Judicial Circuit to support jail diversion, juvenile crossover, case management and therapy, information technology staff, and Pinellas County Mental Health Court. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Wicke. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. There we go. All right. Passed unanimously. Thank you. Moving on to item number 24. This resolution is authorized in the submittal of a public library construction grant application to the Florida Department of State Division of Library and Information Services for the Eastlake Community Library Expansion Project in the amount of $500,000. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Eggers. Any discussion? Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. Passed unanimously. Moving on to item number 25. That's a donation agreement with Suncoast Redevelopment. This is for property depicted in Exhibit A along the Cross Bayou Canal property. It's part of our Cross Bayou Canal project, capital improvement project, to stabilize the channel slopes and restore storage capacity. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Wicke. Is there any further discussion? That's right. All right. Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. Passed unanimously. Moving on to item number 26. This is a resilient Florida grant application with Florida Department of Environmental Protection for the Cross Bayou Canal improvements, phase one. The grant agreement provides a little over $12.9 million with a county match of the same amount. Motion by Commissioner Eggers. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. If we could open up the voting. Passed unanimously. Moving on to item 27. The second amendment to the purchase authorization with Precision Sidewalk Safety Corporation for sidewalk trip hazard prevention and maintenance along all of our sidewalks. Move approval. I have a question or a request. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second. Second by Commissioner Eggers. And question by Commissioner Flowers. Barry, at some point, can we maybe have an update on where we are with our sidewalk maintenance improvement? I know it's a revolving door kind of thing, but I also know we always get, I know I get calls about, you know, when are you going to repair the sidewalk? And I share with them, you know, we're consistently having a company to come out and, you know, make the repairs. But I didn't know if maybe in a workshop we could just have a date. We can certainly have Kelly give you. I will tell you that they basically have eliminated the backlog. Okay, that's great. So with certainty, they're responding timely and, you know, except for, like, getting a contract in place, they're up to speed. But I'll get your report. Not today, but, you know, at some point in that way we can just share that information with the public. They'll know where we are. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. Any further comments or discussion? Okay. Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item number 28. This is a ranking of firms in agreement with FCC Environmental Services for our waste energy facility operator. As you know, this was competitively bid, a ranking of the firms, and recommended FCC as the award. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Wicke. Can you have a question, Commissioner Wicke? Yeah, just, again, summary for people who might be watching. The amount of the contract is $320 million over 10 years, obviously a big contract. How does it compare to the one we have in place now, Barry? I'll let Paul come up and speak to it specifically. It's favorable. We've been having some upward pressures on the fees for the plant, so it'd just be nice to know how this would affect potential increases. Thank you, Paul. So, good morning, Commissioners. Paul Sacco, Director of Solid Waste. So, the existing contract, as you know, expired at the end of 2024. We entered into an extension with the incumbent, ReWorld, through December of 2025. There was several extensions. There was a six-month and two, three-month extensions. So, we're in the last of the three-month extension through the end of 2025. The reason for that, if you recall, we tried to renegotiate with ReWorld for approximately 18 months leading up to the end of the 2024 contract. At the time, our rates were in the $25 to $26 per ton processing fee rate. They provided notice that they couldn't extend their 10-year renewal option that they had because they didn't feel like they were making the money that they needed. So, that's why we were trying to renegotiate. We weren't able to reach a satisfactory term because they wanted to increase their rate to $38 per ton. So, in discussions with the county administrator and procurement, we decided we would go out on the street, which is the reason that we put an extension in the place for 2025 to allow us to do that. So, that's what we've done. We've gone through an RFP process. And when we've worked through and got to terms with FCC, that number, processing fee number, is at $34.25 down from the $38 that we're actually paying today. So, when you look at that at total dollars per year, on average, we process anywhere between $830 to probably $870,000, $880,000 tons per year. So, when you're looking at, you know, almost a $4 difference, you know, you're looking at over $3 million, you know, a year. So, over 10 years, it's a substantial savings that you're paying today. So, the fee that we had been paying was in the mid-20s, you're saying? It was in the mid-20s? It was like $25,000, $26,000, I think, if I recall. And re-world, for us to enter into that next renewal phase with them, that next 10-year phase, they wanted to increase that to $38,000, and we weren't willing to do that without testing the market. So, that's what we've done. And just your perspective on items that might be the biggest threat to cost increases at the plant. Just maybe a couple, three things that you have on your radar that, you know, are of concern to you. Most of them are probably outside the operator control. The things that we typically worry about would be any kind of change in legislation, you know, depending on the administration, EPA changes as far as stack emissions, things that would drive, you know, large increases in capital dollars to maintain our emissions control. You have variants, you know, with availability of materials. Some of the materials that we receive could come internationally, whether they're from our Stoker projects and things of that nature. You have chemicals you need to deal with. Chemicals are constantly up and down. They're commodities that are driven by the market. But most of those things are pass-through costs, you know, for the operator when you're looking at the commodity stuff. The pricing and whatnot, when we get into capital replacement, which is throughout the balance of the contract, there's always going to be the need to replace, you know, steam flow parts such as tubes and things of that nature. Those costs also go up and down, but those are bids specifically by project. And this contract allows the operator to have first right of refusal to provide that service for us, or we can go out and competitively bid those. So the capital projects associated with the plant going forward are held outside of the contract and separately funded in your CIP program. So you'll actually see that. We bring that forward, you know, every year, but we have a forecast that goes out several years because we understand what the forecasting is for the plant associated with that. And as far as the capacity for the waste that comes in and our ash and our – how are we doing on that front? I would say we're probably 90-plus capacity. If we have seen since the hurricanes of last year, our waste coming in is generally 25% to 30% month, you know, month over month as we look back year over year per month. So I would expect that that would continue on for probably the next two or three years because people are now receiving their permits and they're starting to go through their construction. So why I couldn't call this construction debris storm debris, it's really an outlet or, you know, an outcome of the storms that we have seen. So we're having to deal with increased, you know, materials as they're coming through. We do our best to separate that and make sure it either goes into the construction side of materials of our landfill and not into what we consider our Class 1 area, which is more of your, you know, municipal solid waste. And as always, we try to incinerate as much as we can going through the plant, but that puts pressure on the plant. But the plant, since your investment with the TRP that, you know, ended in 2022, extended the life of that plant and is operating, you know, from an availability standpoint, is operating as good as it did when it was brand new with that injection of funds. So, you know, the operator is responsible to keep the pressure on the plant without running it into the ground. There's certainly areas and opportunities to run that plant in an efficient manner at certain rates based on the heat values that come through. And they understand that, and they'll get the maximum that they can out of the plant when it's operational or up for operation every day. So I feel good about that. The whole thing is keeping pressure off the landfill. So keeping that plant operating at full song, you know, reduces the volume 90% of what's going into that landfill. So we'll do everything that we can to keep what's going and keep that plant running. And I think with FCC, you have a great operator coming in that would be able to do that for us. In the long term, how many years do we have for capacity? For the landfill? We look at it every year. We have been trending about 80 years. The last year when we had a spike down due to the influx of materials that we saw with the hurricane, that went down to 72 when you look at the report. But I would tell you it's a point in time. And we look at that over, you know, 30 or 50 years, that spike will be, you know, probably cut down to something that's more of like two or three years is I think the real number that would be that we've lost in that last year. But overall, you know, our vision is to keep zero waste of landfill by 2050. So everything that we continue to do is still marching to that number, which would still leave you 40 or 50 years after the fact by the time that we would get there. And I feel like we're on a good trajectory with that. And you feel this company is the one that can get that done for us? Absolutely. Thank you. Great questions, Commissioner Eggers, Commissioner Sharon. Paul, I just want to say thank you for saving us $3 million a year. I appreciate that very much, the hard work and negotiation and going back and forth. I did have one question on the transfer. You shut the plant down for a day. I mean, how do you make a smooth transfer? No, you know, the risk in the transfer is really the folks that are operating the plant. And I can't say enough about them. You know, RearWorld's, you know, a quality operator. The folks that have been running that plant, many of them have been through three or four of these transitions, back to the 90s, really. And when the new operator comes on, they'll bring their HR people on and they'll do their best to transfer and assume as much of those people as possible. So with that happening, it greatly reduces the risk of the transfer. They're going to be here with your approval today. We're going to bring FCC on site hard on November 1st to begin that transition. They'll be working with ReWorld to learn a little bit more about the plant, the people that are operating the plant. They'll learn more about the inventory. They're going to be ordering their materials, their heavy equipment, and things that they need to bring on site so they're ready to go January 1st. You know, there is an absolute cutoff and a deadline that the midnight New Year's Eve is when FCC will be the operator, but they'll be working with ReWorld and the county to make sure that that transition is as smooth as possible. Your existing contract provides for that transition for ReWorld, responsibility, and then FCC understands what their role is coming in and how they would like to position themselves post-transition. Any other questions, comments? All right. Hearing none. Thank you, Paul. Appreciate it. If we could open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Commissioner, now that you've voted, okay, so we don't have any issues about announcing beforehand, we do have FCC on site if you would like to meet the new operators. Oh, yeah, sure. And so we have Juan Gorty. If he would come up, he can introduce his team. Yeah, absolutely. Good afternoon. Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. I've been ahead of myself all morning. I'm Juan Gorty, president of FCC Environmental Services. I'm here with the senior waste to energy team. If you can stand up. So you have Luli Esker, that is the vice president of business development and government affairs. Ashley Cork, that is the vice president of the waste to energy business here in the U.S. And you have Victor Santamaria, that is the senior project manager for waste to energy here in the U.S. So, first of all, I would like to thank you, commissioners, county administrators, solid waste department staff, and the procurement team for the confidence placed in FCC Environmental Services. We are honored to have been selected through such a comprehensive and competitive process. FCC is committed to being a strong long-term partner to Pinellas County. We will work collaboratively to ensure this facility continues to serve as a critical part of the county's integrated solid waste system. Our focus is on safe, reliable, and efficient operations. We bring proven global experience with more than 50 years of experience in the waste to energy management and 14 installations around the world, combined with local expertise and investment in workforce development. We understand that this facility plays a vital role in reducing landfill dependence, generating renewable energy, and supporting sustainability goals. FCC will ensure continued environmental compliance, innovation, and transparency. We are eager to begin mobilization and transition efforts, as Paul mentioned before. FCC looks forward to delivering value to Pinellas County residents and to building a partnership rooted in accountability and results. Again, we appreciate the opportunity and look forward to the partnership ahead with you. Thank you for your time. Thank you for coming. All right. Item 29. Item number 29 is an award of the sole source agreement with Premier Magnesia LCC for the magnesium hydroxide and equipment services for utilities. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Eggers, second by Commissioner Flowers. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. Passes unanimously. Moving on to item number 30. It's the issuance of two new certificates of public convenience and necessity for non-wheelchair transport services. There was a question last Thursday. I believe the staff sent that to you through email. If you have additional questions, they're here to answer this. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Eggers, second by Commissioner Flowers. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, if we can open up the voting. Passes unanimously. County Attorney? No reports. No reports. All right. County Administrator. Three items. One, just a reminder that we have our first public information session on reclaim water tonight at SBC Seminole. That'll be the first of three meetings. A reminder that October 17th, over at the Tampa International, at the event center, we will have our tri-county meeting coming up. And then a final thing is just to, if you haven't noticed, Della Klug kind of secretly snuck out to her retirement. And I know she's watching because I know Della, but I couldn't let that go without saying a couple things publicly. Della's worked for the county for 25 years. But what I don't think everybody knows is behind-the-scenes effort that makes these meetings, makes our agendas, makes the contracts and everything go smoothly. It's because of the dedication to detail. The constant review to make sure that it's gone through the county attorneys, that everything is in order. She does it. She's done that for so long with such class, with such thoroughness. It really makes our assistant county administrators and myself better because of those efforts. It's that quiet, behind-the-scenes, diligent effort that makes things go so smoothly. What is also more, and I think really goes to the reason I wanted to say something, we have a lot of people that are technically good, but Della cares. She has cared about the community. She's cared about our employees. She's cared about this commission for all those years. The best story I had is when we were at the picnic, and one of our employees came up to Della and said, You're the one that bought our lunch. She was on her day off. She sees our public works people out at, like, Publix, and she just goes over and pays for it, okay? Nobody had to know. It wasn't for recognition. She did it because that's in her heart. That's the type of person she is. I am so glad her and Chris, you know, are on to that next phase in life and enjoying them. We stopped over, my wife and I stopped over to see them in Margaritaville just a couple weeks ago. And I just can't express the gratitude that I have for Della for the efforts that she gave for all those years, for the care in which she brought to her job. And I just wish her and Chris Godspeed and all the best. Great. Thank you. Yeah, just from a different perspective, I'll thank you for those comments. I think they're so on the mark. And since I've been here, just working with her from time to time, whether it's through Stacey in the office or whatever, she's just been so gracious and helpful and a true professional. We'll miss her. I know we've got some folks that are just going to admirably do their job just like she did. But we'll miss her and wish her all the very best, good health and enjoyment in her next phase of her life. So thank you, Della. Well said, Commissioner. All right. We'll move on to item 33, appointment reappointments to the Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council. Motion by Commissioner Rager, second by Commissioner Flowers. Any discussion? Before we go on to that, I have some, and it doesn't have to do with the vote necessarily, but, you know, I asked last time Thursday some questions about the EMS authority and how people are appointed. And I was surprised to see that there's an appointment for every one of our districts. And we've never appointed anybody. And so I would like to entertain some thoughts and changes in conversation about it. So that's not, I have to, I'm sorry, I wrote stuff down. It's been a tough, tough day. And I didn't want to go off my phone, but I'm going to have to if that's okay. So I'd like to see more input from us. So if the authority could, not the authority, but if the MSAC could advise us when those seats are open or the term is up, because they're two-year terms, to let us know, because we certainly can make recommendations for people that could be on that board. It still can get vetted by the committee that's vetting people. But I know I'm quite capable of picking somebody that would be very knowledgeable. I mean, I even have a son that's a paramedic and a firefighter. So I think we're all capable of selecting somebody that would be a good candidate to be on that committee. And so I would like to see, you know, a change if you all agree to something like that, because I really would like to encourage some folks that we know that want to be more involved. And I just think it would be, you know, and again, it's up to you. So secondly, related to definition of the MSAC selection committee and the bylaws, and I found the bylaws and the ordinances have conflicts. So on the selection committee, there are only two committees outlined in the bylaws, the executive committee and the EMS management committee. And I would encourage the MSAC to consider formalizing selection committee or nominating committee. But most importantly, where the bylaws conflict with the special act of our code of ordinances as to who should be serving as chair of the EMS advisory committee. In section 5426 of our code of ordinances, which mirrors the special act of the legislature, it states that the chairperson of the emergency medical service advisory council shall be an ex-official member of the authority without voting privileges. Well, we're the authority, but none of us are on that. And it states in the ordinance that it should be one of us that's the chair non-voting. So in section 4.1 of the MSAC bylaws, direct the council to select the chair from its membership. So that's where the conflict is. The policy says that the MSAC bylaws will direct the council to elect a chair, but yet our code of ordinance says it's one of us that's the chair. So what I would like to have is to get guidance from our county attorney's office on that. And should we find that the members of the EMS authority, which is us on the commission, should be the chair, that we determine who the chair would be. And I have served on the EMS committee in the past, I think for three years. It would be a privilege if you'd consider me, but if not, I'd be welcome to consider any of you. I don't know, Dave, if you were mayor, if you ever served on that, because the mayor's council elects four people. So that's how I was appointed to it while I was mayor for three years. So it's just something for us to consider. But if the attorney's office would take a look at it and get clarity on that, because I find that, you know, that it's in conflict, if we can get clarity on that. And then if we could have a say-so in the people that get nominated, and they can still get vetted, they can still go through the process. But I certainly can think of several people that I can recommend to apply, and I'm certain when they got vetted, they would be qualified. So those are my thoughts on that, and I didn't want to disrupt the vote on it, but it's something I think we ought to talk about and consider. Well, what Commissioner Peters just outlined is we've never really discussed that in the seven years that I've been here, and that is kind of the way it's always been done. And staff, that's it. It goes through them. Then it comes to you, yet it's selected out of your districts. That's completely different than the way we do in almost every other appointment, where the commissioner of that district, you know, has input into that. So it would require a change in the way we do that. We can certainly do that, but it makes sense. Why don't we look at both issues together and bring you back some recommendations regarding on both of those items. Okay. Jim looks like he's got something he wants to say back there. He's probably just nodding his head, but he can come up. He can speak for himself. Do you have something? Jim Fogarty, Bureau Director, Safety and Emergency Services. I'll remind the board that the citizen's appointment is tentatively scheduled for your next meeting. So if you've got a concern about the citizen appointment and you want us to change that before that, we would need to change the rules first. No, I think right now I'm concerned more about the district ones and that non-voting chairman position. Okay. So we'll bring the citizen appointee next month, but then we'll look to change that structure and we'll bring back something within a month for you to consider. Unless somebody thinks something different. No, Chair, with your permission, I just want to make sure that, you know, I agree with you. I would like the county attorney to look at these conflicts and see if we resolve them, and I think the county commission should, I would like to see a county commissioner serving on that. Hopefully you, but anyway, you're supposed to get in. I've already reached out to the person within our office that works with EMS. I worked with EMS a decade ago, so it's been some time ago, but we will certainly look into these issues and get back to you with what we find and what your options are. Thanks, Don. And on the citizen, you know, I say that, well, I'm good with it because I'm sure they've been vetted, but, you know, maybe we even ought to look at that because when we have citizen people, I just think it's odd that we were taken out of that, and I just think it's, I don't know when that happened, if this was when Bob LaSalle was here, and my guess would be this happened when Bob LaSalle was here, and he was trying to decimate all the fire departments and change EMS, so my intuition tells me it happened back then. I probably shouldn't have said that out loud, but I did. So I just, I'm just, whether it's citizen appointees and we can move forward, if you all agree to move forward on who they picked, but I think we ought to really look at where the conflicts are and bring some of that back to the commission. We'll do. Okay. Good point. That's how historic preservation works, is the chair is the commissioner, but it's ex officio. Yeah. I just want to thank you for bringing it forward. I think it's a great idea to look at, and I appreciate the deliberative approach to this because it is something that we've been doing for a lot of years, and that doesn't make it right. It just means that's what we've been doing, and to move forward today and perhaps probably the next appointment, but maybe in a workshop, kind of look through this. It wouldn't take long to take a look at it, but away from a commission meeting would be helpful and move on it as quickly as we can. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I mean, I agree with Commissioner Peters, and I mean, I'm happy moving at light speed. I mean, so if there was something faster, I'm also okay with holding off on these votes and the citizen appointment until we get further clarification. Maybe that would be good to hold off on the citizen appointment until we get this dealt with first. I think that would be more strategic. If they're a conflicting ordinance, I mean, I think that would be the most important thing to get resolved immediately. The current terms of the ones we're appointing now, it looks like they end October 2025, so it seems that there's some sense of urgency to do these today, I would think. Are they re-ups? Most of them are. Most of them are. Well, it's kind of half and half, I guess, appointments and re-appointments. Do the terms end of the end of the month? Does anybody know? I assume they do. I mean, would we have time to pause this until the next meeting? Would we be able to figure it out and change our ordinance? I don't know. Well, if it's an ordinance change, it's going to take a little bit of time. Okay, so if it's an ordinance change, but again, I'm going to let Jim and Matt speak to it. As a suggestion, these appointments are prescribed in the rules and regulations. The cities have an appointment. The mayors have an appointment. These positions are usually prescribed, the ambulance contractor, the college educational system. And so all of these appointments are those positions that I think the positions you're speaking of are the district citizen represent positions. Right. So, for instance, the city of Clearwater fire chief is always a rep. The city of St. Petersburg fire chief is always one of the reps. So these positions preserve the voting of that and the presence of having the ability to take action. It sounds like we should move forward with these here and then. Well, wait a second. Are these any of our district spots? No. These are not the district spots. Jim, these are all prescribed in the ordinance? Yes, this is correct. The ordinance describes a representative from the hospital system, osteopathic medical society. And so these names are folks that you would expect these names. Although when they change, for instance, the city of Clearwater new fire chief is putting Chief Tedesco in that position rather than Chief Pittman. So these are the names. The college usually forwards the name. The Pinellas County Sheriff forwards the name of the representative and the sheriff. And that's what these positions are. And then we don't have influence on those. So I think that's fine. Yeah. I would agree that we move forward with what we have. And that way we can take our time about making any changes. Right. And give it adequate time to go through the process. So, yeah. We have a motion and a second, I believe. The citizen representative for, you said in November? Is that when that one comes? I don't know. Jim, when is the citizen appointment coming? Well, it's anticipated to be at your next October meeting. It doesn't have to be there. The nomination board has met and they have a name, but we intentionally held that anticipating a discussion here. The next MSAC meeting itself is December 18th. They meet quarterly. So the citizen application process, like all boards, is advertised and there's a preference for citizens that are in the district. But I anticipate at the next October meeting or we can delay that. Yeah. And I think some deference to the process by approving today is important, but also maybe having that discussion about that position further. So maybe not bringing it back at the next meeting and having an opportunity to discuss that position as well. And we don't even know who that person is. I don't know who that person is. So it's not about the person. It's just about the process and about whether we want to be a part of that. So we'll hold that recommendation until we have the discussion about everything we just talked about today. So we can continue to keep that person, the current person in place? Currently there's a vacancy. Oh, it's a vacancy. There's a vacancy. All right. Thank you. That makes it perfect. The chair is a vacant or the citizen appointee? Citizen appointee. Citizen appointee. So we have a motion on it already? Yeah. We already have a motion in a second. Okay. All right. Everybody good? All right. If we could open up the voting. Okay. Commissioner Peters. Okay. There we go. All right. Pass it unanimously. All right. Now we are on to County Commission New Business. Why don't we start over here to the right with Commissioner Nowicki. Thank you, Chair. I recently attended a Tampa Bay Tech Young Emerging Leaders networking event at the James Museum. So that was exciting to hear from tech companies in our region that are making private sector better, working government contracts better to be more efficient and more transparent. I attended a Clearwater Republican Club meeting last week as well, talked with a lot of constituents and residents there, you know, talking about the People First program, and they're all excited to have that out and going. So that was exciting. Also, I had a meeting, which I'm going to be, you know, emailing the commission on. It was called Blitz AI. They got a purple logo. It's really cool. And they do permitting. And they work with, like, Austin, Texas, California, a lot of different municipalities to streamline the permitting process with building code. And it's not to eliminate anything, but to make, you know, maybe if someone's reviewing, you know, 10 site plans a day, they can do 15 now. And so it's a demonstration that I received. And once they finally send it to me, I'm going to, you know, share it with the board and, you know, our administrator. And maybe it's something, you know, we could look at implementing because of the cost. I mean, it was like $80,000. And it helps, you know, people to read more plan reviews a day. So I think anything to help us make us more efficient with that is beneficial. And I'll be sharing that with you upcoming. And other than that, you know, just working on a few things. And, you know, we'll be coming back in the near future with a few cool ideas. So thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Wicke. Commissioner Flock. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First of all, I want to say thank you to those who have already provided me with notification, if you are available, to help do postcards to veterans with the Salute to Veterans event sponsored by the Area Agency on Aging, Pinellas and Pasco. So for those of you that may not have responded or you're thinking about it, it's October 23rd, 1.30 p.m. at the AAAPP office. It's 9549 Cogar Boulevard. So even if you just come for 30 minutes or an hour, however many you can write, please consider that. The Florida Association of Accountants will be giving testimony again before the Select Committee on Property Tax on tomorrow morning. Those are always aired live. So if you're interested, you can tune in to the TV station for the state of Florida and be able to catch that. I don't have a time yet, so I do apologize. I apologize, but I'll get one for you. Along those same lines, if you haven't already but you desire to, please sign up for the Florida Association of Counties Legislative Conference. This is part two, and it's going to be at the Grand Hyatt over in Tampa, and it starts on November 19th. So if you are considering or need more information or perhaps you didn't get the notice, I'm happy to forward that to you. I attended the opening of the Barack Obama Library, previously known as the Maine Library, in St. Petersburg, Florida. On last Saturday, there was over 1,000 attendees. They have 72 computers that are available, quiet rooms. The children's section is phenomenal. The programming that they have there now is phenomenal. So I'm also excited for what we did today for Eastlake because I love reading, and it's really nice to have those types of places available for our residents. I presented before the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce's policy committee, budget. They wanted to hear about budget. They wanted to hear about property tax and all of that. So it was on all of those wonderful topics. But very grateful to have been in the presence of a number of business owners in the community. I attended the Beach Chambers Legislative Update, which was at the K-Lock Hotel on Olmerton Road there. It was really good to hear from Senator Ed Hooper, Senator Nick DeSigley, Representative Rayner. There was one more representative, and the name has just evaded my mind. But it was a very good session. A lot of talk about flooding, property insurance, home restoration, and things of that nature. So it was really, really good. One of the things that did come out of that was some of you have been involved in the conversation regarding the toxic odors that have been coming from the oil refinery plant in Child's Park. Our staff, Jill Silver Board and her group, have done a wonderful job in partnering. Universal South Florida have put out the sensors that can detect the levels of concentrate that may be in the air. However, we've not been able to come to a resolve, and the plant is growing. It started out with two towers. And I think when I passed there the other day, I counted six. It does the oil recovery, like when you have a restaurant or if you have a gas station and they have to pull that oil out. So when they are cooking it, I'm going to say cooking, recycling it, it is very strong. The area where it's located is on 43rd Street. I live on 3rd and 39th, and I can smell it as if I'm right across the street. Habitat for Humanity built some homes in that area. Some of those residents are considering selling and moving. It has caused respiratory issues with persons having to go to the hospital. It has really been an issue. They are grandfathered in, so let me say that. I don't want them to think that I just don't want them in business. They are grandfathered in. However, from the two towers they had when I first bought my home in 1993 to the towers that they have now that are super tall, it has really become an issue. Well, anyway, having said all of that, the delegation did agree to provide a letter to DEP. We're trying to get some type of relationship where we can figure out what is the happy medium because this is all residential. And then you have that plant there. So trying to figure that out. We've had conversations with the owner. They started out being amenable conversations, and now they're not so nice conversations. So I'm very thankful for our delegation for looking to help with that. I attended the Sand Key Civic Association meeting. I had a really good time meeting some new people. They have a Starlight Cruise event that's coming up. If you haven't received the flyer, I'm happy to share it with you. But it was really nice talking to Ray and Fred and, like I said, meeting new people out there. I attended the ribbon cutting for the opening of the St. Petersburg History Museum's Civil Rights in the Sunshine City. The event was co-hosted by the Inter-Ministerial Alliance, and so that was really good just looking at the history of the city of St. Pete as you toured through the museum. So if you get a chance, please go visit the display. I attended online NACO's Justice and Public Safety Committee meeting. Of course, with the shutdown and all of that, it's not too much going on. So we have another meeting coming up next month. Thank you to the National Council of Negro Women for the Mammal Link event that was held on last Saturday, Free Mammograms for Women. Right there on the spot, they read your results, and you got them either sent to you or if you have a primary care physician. I have a primary care, but they also sent them to me. I got them the same day. The results are read by a physician. They give you your results, and then if there is a need to follow up because some things aren't clear, they emphasize that in their correspondence back to you. Super kudos. We only had 35 people that pre-registered. Over 40 ladies showed up for their mammograms, so we are thankful for that. And if you didn't have insurance, they were also providing the mammograms. So that is the piece that was really important for me. I served on a panel at the Enoch Davis Center for the carry-smart, open carry discussion. There were two officers from the City of St. Petersburg Police Department. I reached out to Sheriff Gualteri. He was out of town, but he did provide me with some additional information in conjunction to the op-ed letter that he wrote that clearly explained what it meant and what it didn't mean. It was well attended. I was very proud of the people that were there. They asked some very good questions, trying to get a hold of just what does this law mean, so much so that we will be hosting another panel discussion in another part of town, and hopefully we'll have more people to attend. On yesterday, I met with representatives who have provided an unsolicited proposal to the City of St. Petersburg regarding Tropicana Field, the Cathie Wood Innovation Group, Horace Construction, and others. I'm sure they'll be setting up meetings with you. I won't say any more other than I met with them, had a chance to ask a lot of questions. Their information has now been presented and been reported by the Tampa Bay Times and other news outlets, and so whatever next steps they take, certainly this is a City of St. Pete thing. I'm sure they'll probably come our way looking for something, but I did have a chance to meet with them, and I appreciated the time that they took with me. And I don't know if I told y'all, I'm a new grandmother. Her name is Sarai, S-A-R-A-I, which is an older version of Sarah, and her middle name is Renee, and she was born premature, weighing nine pounds and seven ounces. Yeah, and so I had the nerve to have her with me, not this past weekend, but the weekend before. So she stayed overnight, and that was a new thing for me because it's been a long time, but we had fun. But, yes, she is a ball of joy, and my son Joshua, it's his first child. And so congratulations, Joshua, and Cherish, and Sarai, Sarai Renee, and that concludes my report. First, I wanted to give a special thanks to my aide, Stacey O'Donnell, for keeping our office floating while I was on vacation for a week. I hadn't been on a vacation in a while and decided to take a little time, didn't miss a beat, and kept our residents' questions and issues dealt with. So, Stacey, thank you for that. It's a big relief when you have your aides doing the work that they do for us, so thank you. To your point about the business in the residential neighborhood, I keep thinking about that discussion that we always have about our industrial properties being at risk, not only at risk for other uses, but also for this very thing, where you're starting to integrate residential communities into our industrial area. And it really doesn't matter what business is there. It's opened up. So those are other reasons to be careful about those mixture of uses, and I just want to make sure that we continue to look at those changes at the state level and what those implications can be. So, just real quickly, don't have much this morning. Dunedin Ferry ribbon cutting is, I think, this Friday at 9 a.m. at the marina in Dunedin. So they'll be back in part of that circulation of ferries between Clearwater and Clearwater Beach and now Dunedin and others. So we have a tri-county meeting at the Aviation Authority Board in October. I guess that's, what, next week? 17th at 9.30, I think. So just wanted to let people know that that's where we'll be meeting, the Patsco County, Hillsborough County, and Pinellas County, getting together to talk about issues that we're all dealing with or issues that we want to deal with together. But it's really been a good thing to do. And, again, Barry, thank you for pushing that with the administrators on the other end and all of us with our individual contacts on those commissions. And just another shout-out to our friend Chris Latvala, who's going through some really tough times right now. And obviously his family, his dad and mom and family members, and obviously Bianca, his wife, are there at his side. Just a wonderful young man. And it's been nice to see a lot of the comments from the public coming forward about things that he's worked on for them in a very special, quiet, humble way. So I just really wanted to say thank you to Chris for all of that service, and we look forward to your coming back. Be patient as you recover. And we'll wait on you and hold your seat. Have a good couple days ahead. I know he's got a couple weeks at the hospital and beyond, but our prayers are with you, my friend. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Chair. On the 24th of September, I attended my first Pinellas legislative delegation meeting with the constituents of Pinellas County. I enjoyed that very much. Hearing the concerns of our residents as they spoke to our legislative delegation. And congratulations to Senator Nick DiSigli for becoming the chair of our delegation. I think that was great. Also, on the same day, I visited the city of Treasure Island. Senator Ashley Moody was there, and it was a good meeting. We got to talk about the recovery of Treasure Island, how it's coming, their need for a new police station and firehouse. And we got to hear some from the senator about her concerns about AM radios leaving cars because she feels it's very important for rescue efforts. A lot of people in Pinellas County had to get in their cars to hear the news and listen to it on AM radio. So anyway, that was a great thing. On the 25th of September, I went to the city of St. Petersburg's YMCA prayer breakfast, where my friend Lisa Vickers was honored with the 2025 Chester James Award for Community Leadership. It's a big award, and she and her family do a lot for our community, so thanks a lot, Lisa. I appreciate it. Also, on the 25th, I toured Eckert College. I consider that a hidden gem here in Pinellas County. It's a beautiful campus and a lot of great students there. And I was most pleased to spend a lot of time with the Eckert College search and rescue team. That is a great organization they have there. They teach their students search and rescue, EMS, and they actually work with our local law enforcement. You know, they go out on calls. It's not just a day boat. They actually are in the system. They get calls from 911, can you assist here, can you assist there. You know, when the Skyway Bridge fell, Eckert College Rescue was there. When the no-name storm hit, Eckert College Rescue was there. And Helene, and they're always there. So thanks to Eckert College for having that program because it's very valuable to our community. Let's see. On October 3rd, it was a busy day for me. I got to attend the Governor's Dedication of the Hulk Hogan Trail. How cool was that? So I'm really excited that the Hulk Hogan signs are going up all over town because he was such an asset to our community. And then also the same day, I toured the Clearwater Aquatic Center, and I met with David Lomack, who's the CEO of Neighborly. And I didn't even realize that, but they're basically the founders of Meals on Wheels. I had no idea, and their service and their outreach and their help for seniors and making sure they have a meal to eat each other day is heartwarming. They just do a great job. And then lastly, I got a call from one of our condominiums on the beach. They have some concerns. And so I visited with the Gulf Shores Condominium Association, just take some pictures of what their concerns are, and I'll be sharing that with Barry later. But I think it's important that as that project moves down the beaches that we're in tune with the concerns of the people that live on the beaches. So, and then, well, that would be it for the day. Oh, on new business, just real quickly, I noticed that we voted again on the car wash in Tarpon Woods. And I know that we have this process where we, where zoning changes or conditional uses come to us. We vote on it, goes back to, goes back to Fort Pinellas. They approve it, then it comes back to us for another approval. You know, I was just hoping that someday we could figure out a way just to be able to handle these things with one meeting and stop delaying developments once at a time. And I don't know how we could do that, Barry, but if we could actually figure out a way to save money. I know people don't like to hear, but time is money and wasting four months. There's a special act in place that's been in place for many years that creates the countywide planning authority. And that process is dictated by that special act, which is a state law that applies only here. So the answer to your question is, could that be changed? Yes, but it require an act of the state legislature to change that. So maybe we could put that on the agenda for the next. Well, actually, under a special act, that would have had to have been initiated earlier. You can't do it this year. Yeah. It would have to be teed up for next year. Okay. I'll explain. I'll explain. I've seen. I've been through the process, so I just wanted to. Well, I don't like the process because it takes too much time. But I understand there's another process to change the process, so I'd like to do that. And there's a process to even talk about changing the process. There's probably a process to talk about changing the process. Right. Right. It's a special process for special act changes. Yeah. Yes. I'm in favor of trying to change the process and then the second process. Commissioner Newig, do you have a comment? Thank you, Chair. Yeah, Commissioner Shearer, it's a great point you bring up. And Pinellas County is unique, along with just a handful of other counties, where the state took away the county commission's authority and gave it to Ford Pinellas for that. So I've talked with Tristan and several of our delegation members for the state to commission an OPOG study, I believe it's called, and have FDOT look at the efficiency of Ford Pinellas since that special act was created. So hopefully with our joint delegation for 2026, you know, if you're supportive and other members of this board and our state delegation, we can get a real study done by this commission, by the state, to look at the efficiency of Ford Pinellas. And then maybe they can revisit the special act, because that's just a local delegation that doesn't, and if none of the senators really oppose it, maybe we could get the authority back here at the board level instead of having to go to Ford Pinellas. So it's in the works, so from my end, at least. Good job. Mr. Eggers, do you have a comment? Just one comment. Yeah, we have, there's a, this is a, you know, it's a long process that somebody has to go through to get changes. And I've often thought, you know, on the other side of the equation, it's a really cumbersome communication process to the residents who might be being affected by the process. I've had many residents that, you know, will contact me and say, my God, I didn't even know what was going on. Meanwhile, the development community, whatever that is, has been moving through the staff in the process for that extended period of time. It could be three months, six months, nine months, a year. And by the time it gets to the point where our residents hear about it, it's, you know, it's like just around the corner. So, I mean, I think to your point about, you know, shortening the time frame is good, but at the same time, how do we get the message out to our residents even better to let them know things are coming up in their community? We see it all the time. And so I think it's great, I think it's great to have, have our applicants have a quicker process, but at the same time have our residents be notified because it's, it's a tight balance. It's a tough balance to keep all of that so that things aren't happening and you don't even realize it, you know. So, anyway, I think it's a great conversation to have. All right. Commissioner Peters. Thank you. And just FYI on Eckerd College, they created a mapping system that everybody uses now because it can determine if it's debris or a body or something, they can determine where to find it very quickly and effectively and efficiently. So they, they're a huge asset to the first response community. So just want to, and it's my alma mater, I'm where I went to college, so, so I'm really proud of Eckerd College. Anyways, and your baby is beautiful. Your grandbaby is beautiful. Thanks for sharing the video. So. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I, I did visit Vincent House. It'd been a while since I've been to Vincent House. If you have not been to Vincent House, I highly recommend you go. Vince, you too. If you have not been to Vincent House, I highly recommend you go. So, um, and then Matt, just so you know, they're going to be reaching out to you because they're hoping to get some resources. So, uh, but Vincent House is amazing resource, um, in this community. So it was good to visit with them. I also, um, attended the golf consortium meeting where they mostly talked about their budget. Um, and then this morning I had the privilege of welcoming 250 visitors in the child welfare system throughout the country at their symposium this morning at the Don Cesar. Um, great group. A lot of superheroes in there, saving and changing the lives of children. And then, um, I had something else, and I apologize. I do want to, um, congratulate Della on her retirement. And, Barry, you're absolutely right. She's, she's an amazing woman. And, and she was a great asset and credit to the county. Um, and, and we're going to miss her. We absolutely are going to miss her. And, uh, Kevin, you're here. I did say it Thursday to Barry. I think you have just done. We have great staff here. We, we have, all staff are great. But, but you have always just stepped up and done an incredible job, and I'm going to pray for you as you move on with the mobile home parks and, and everything that you're going to go through. But, but I, I, you know, I have sent you some, I have sent you some very difficult citizens, and, and you have just been incredible with every single one of them. And I just, you're a huge asset to the county, and we really appreciate you. And I needed to say that. Um, but I think that's all I have then. I second, I second your comment about, uh, our building department review director and his team. So, thank you. Great comments. It certainly hasn't been an easy year for that. And, and it's not over. So, thank you, Kevin. All right. Um, so I'll finish things off here. Um, so I've had, uh, been trying to meet, uh, individually with some members of our state legislative delegation. Uh, just over the past few weeks, just trying to get a sense of where they think this year's session may go and, and talk about, um, you know, what, what's kind of important to us, uh, going forward, including, you know, our local ability to index our local option, fuel tax to inflation. Um, you know, fees for, for electric vehicles, where they think property taxes are going to go. Um, if there's any, going to be any, moving any short-term rentals in the state, um, which the answer to that one is probably no. Um, but also just to put on their radar as well, that what the effects of HB 929 are, which I don't know if that was passed last year or the year before that, but basically that's a recommendation that, that fire goes to a six-day-a-month shift versus a 10-day-a-month shift. Um, and Pasco County's already done that, City of Tampa's already done that, just a matter of time before, you know, they're going to start falling like dominoes around us, I think. And when that happens, we're probably going to need additional 40 percent additional firefighters. Um, so that's going to be a huge impact to, to budgets. So, um, I put that on their, on their radar screen and, uh, suggested to Senator DeSiglie that maybe, um, OPAGA look at doing a study of what perhaps a consolidated fire EMS system might look like in Pinellas County or just some options of potentially looking at that. Because that's going to be, that's going to just show up one day at our doorstep, and we need to get ahead of that and get prepared for that, because that's going to be a huge budget, budget impact. So, uh, just to let you know that I've, I've been having those, those conversations. Uh, was, uh, fortunate enough to, um, attend, uh, Senator Moody's press conference in, in Treasure Island, uh, where she talked about the AM radio and public safety and a lot of other things. So that was a great opportunity to, um, to visit with her. Uh, and appreciate her bringing that up. I think it's a great idea, what she's talking about with the AM radio. I had the opportunity, opportunity to offer a few remarks at the Beaches Chamber board meeting a couple of weeks ago, and, and the clear message that came out of that was hospitality businesses are hurting, and, because there's a national slump in tourism right now. So keep, uh, have, visit St. Pete Clearwater, keep their foot on the gas and promoting the destination. Um, had the chance to attend the Clearwater for Youth Offshore National Viewing Party last week. That was a lot of fun. Um, attended the ribbon and floss cutting ceremony at the Clearwater, uh, Community Dental Clinic in Clearwater, which was really nice. So I went out there in April of, of this year, when it was just a construction site. And it's an amazing facility now. It really is state of the art. They've done just a fabulous, uh, job there. So I want to congratulate their board and their board chair, Bruce Livingston, and their team. Um, they've got a beautiful new building, and they're going to be helping, uh, uninsured adults all over Pinellas County get proper dental care. Um, just shout out to Dave Connor and the, uh, communications team for, uh, really doing everything they can to get the word out on the, uh, People's First Recovery programs that we're going to be rolling out here on the 20th. Uh, did a, uh, public, um, announcement that they're going to put on the website here. I think it did it, what, one day, one day last week. So they're doing a great job. Also attended Governor DeSantis' dedication of the Hogan Trail, um, last Friday morning. You know, I get there, and I'm like, what are we doing? So he was dedicating a trail. I'm like, the Pinellas Trail? I didn't know what trail was, but it's that section on, um, you know, that parallels, uh, the Clearwater Causeway. And they already had the signs out. I'm driving by there on my way to the Bel Air Women's Republican Club, and they're already unveiling the signs. I mean, would they just come out in the middle of the night and do this? I don't know. But it was amazing how quick they did that, and a great way to honor, uh, Hulk Hogan. And I did attend, uh, last Friday the Bel Air Women's Republican Club, uh, luncheon with Commissioner Nowicki and Commissioner Scheer, uh, where the governor was there. He was the keynote speaker, and, uh, had an opportunity to present the governor with the key to the county, uh, for all of his efforts to bring state resources to bear after last year's, uh, hurricane. So the state was, uh, came in here. Uh, they had, the state governor had our backs, and we really appreciate it, and the resident of Pinellas County owe him a big thank you and a debt of gratitude. So it was, uh, wonderful to be able to, uh, to do that. And, um, also, um, I, back in November, I, with, uh, partnered with, uh, with the sheriff's communication team. So shout out to Ricky Butler and our sheriff, our great sheriff, on a trail safety video. So I don't know if they've got the safety video queued up, um, but if they do, if they could play it, it'd be great. Um, it just, uh, there we go. There's a lot to love about living, working, and playing in Pinellas County. And one of my most favorite things is the Pinellas Trail. Hi, I'm Pinellas County Commissioner Brian Scott. My wife and I spend a lot of time on the trail. It's a great place to exercise, get some fresh air, even get from one part of the county to the other. But there's some basic rules you need to follow to keep yourself and other trail users safe. Whether you're walking or biking, stay single file, stay to the right, and pass to the left. And warn others before passing. Remember to always be alert, look, and listen for other trail users. If you need to take a break or pull over to the side, stay to the side and stay out of the way. And finally, always use safe speeds, especially in crowded areas of the trail. I'm Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. Generally, motorized vehicles are prohibited on the Pinellas Trail. There are some exceptions, though, for segways, electric wheelchairs, and electric bicycles. When it comes to electric bicycles, keep in mind, there are three classes of electric bicycles. And the one thing that they have in common is that they all have pedals. So, if you have a two-wheeled, unregistered vehicle without pedals, not only is it prohibited on the trail, but it's illegal on public roadways and sidewalks. As always, pay attention to signals and traffic control devices. When you come to a crossing, stop and cross cautiously. There are hundreds of these emergency assistance markers along the trail that have a unique location number. In an emergency, call 911. And if you don't know where you are, provide the number. If you have a safety concern or want to report a maintenance issue on the trail, call Pinellas County at 727-582-2100. Be courteous to others and help us help you stay safe on the trail. To learn more, go to pinellas.gov, and we'll see you on the trail. I see you passing those people. Oh, he got a ticket. She gave him a ticket. He's not even using motorized, and he's passing. That was good. I appreciate the sheriff and Ricky Butler and his communications team for taking the time to do that. So it was very, very nice of them. Brian, real quick, I think there's room for more of those. But just some of the bikes that kids are using a lot, going to school, and whether they're on the road or on the wrong sidewalk and just flying through. And sometimes they release the maximum speed thing on there. I don't know how they do that, but they do, and they're going faster. I think there's a real opportunity through our bicycle group, safety group, to put some things in schools to educate more of the kids using those motorized vehicles. It's a real issue, a real problem, and lots of hurt waiting to happen. The amount of emergency room visits relative to e-bikes and scooters is really going up, and those injuries can be pretty horrific because they're flying. I mean, I've seen them actually going down Indian Rocks Road, unregistered. I mean, they're basically electric motorcycles, and they're going 35 miles an hour. I mean, they're just going with traffic. I mean, it's nuts. It's like a vehicle without a pathway because it doesn't fit on the road. It doesn't fit on the trail the way they're doing it or the sidewalks, for that matter. Anyway, that's just something we need to be mindful of. But anyway, thank you. Great work. Thank you. And then lastly, it's my understanding we have a birthday girl in the room. His birthday, I think, is tomorrow. So all right. So happy birthday in advance. Thank you. All right. So we hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow. Yeah. Last year, you know, we had the hurricane. That's right. So I planned a party and all that stuff. Didn't get a chance to celebrate. Things are definitely looking up for this year. Well, this year, it's the 11th Episcopal District Conference for my church. And so I got voluntold. So I'll be at church tomorrow. All day tomorrow. But that's okay because he gives me more than I could ever give him. So I don't mind. Well, thank you. You're welcome. Yeah. I take gifts. Sure do. Contributions and donations. That's right. Legal ones, y'all. Legal ones. Thank y'all so much. I appreciate you. All right. Great. All right. Well, unless there's anything else, then we are adjourned.