We'll go ahead and get started. First of all, I wanted to welcome everybody to the meeting today, staff and residents and folks who are here for presentations. And we'll go ahead and get started. We'll start, first of all, Commissioner Peters will be attending the meeting virtually, so I just need a motion and a second to get. Three motions and three seconds, Commissioner Peters. Apparently, they want you to join us, so all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Commissioner Peters, you're welcome. Thank you. Good to have you on board this morning. Commissioner, excuse me, Chair? Yes? Could you state? The maker of the motion was Commissioner Latvala, and Commissioner Scott was a second. I have no idea of which three of each, but we're going to pick those. Okay. I'll also take the opportunity to thank Deputy Mike Winnick, Deputy Kevin McSweeney, and Deputy Jeff Atkinson for taking care of us today. As always, I appreciate your being here and taking care of us. And we will start with the invocation led by Commissioner Flowers, and then Commissioner Scheer will do the pledge. Those that are able, if you could stand, please. Dear Father, we are just so thankful for being in your presence on today, for giving us the direction, the heart, and the mind to make decisions on behalf of the residents of Pinellas County. Today, though, we want to change our focus, and we want to pray for those who are unable to pray for themselves. We want to pray for those who are sick and shut in, who are not able to pray individually. We pray for them collectively. For those who are ailing within their bodies, no matter what the illness, we say a prayer of healing for them this morning. For those who may be experiencing financial hardships, we pray for a special blessing for them. Because we truly understand that in these days it is most difficult, but we know that you've already said in your word that you will give us everything that we need to include the desires of our heart. We pray for those who have mental illness. We ask that they know that coming into the comfort of your fold will give them the security and the safety that they need to hear and feel. We pray for the families of those who have selected to serve in elected office. It is not easy being an elected official, nor is it easy being a family member. But we ask that you continue to give them grace and that you continue to show them mercy and give them peace. For the staff here in Pinellas County, we are thankful to have them at our disposal so that they are carrying out not only the will of this board, but the will of the people. We ask safe traveling grace and mercy for Barry. We ask that you bring him back safe and sound. We ask especially a prayer for the men and women who serve, both in the military as well as local law enforcement. Every day they are putting their lives on the line, and sometimes they do not receive the accolades that they deserve. But this prayer today acknowledges to them that we are safer within our communities because of their sacrifice. For the firefighters, EMTs, and anyone else who falls under the first responder category, we are thankful for them because they have shown this community that they are willing to go above and beyond so that we are safe. But more importantly, Lord, we are just thankful that we are here in your presence. It could have been that our eyes did not open to see another beautiful day that you have provided, but you counted it so. And we thank you for that. We ask that we continue to serve with your guidance, with your heart, and with your temperament. That all those that love Jesus Christ, that worship, no matter what the denomination, let every heart say amen. Amen. Of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it is one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice. Thank you, Commissioner. That was beautiful. Appreciate that. Okay. Okay. Okay. This morning, we have a couple of presentations and awards, if you will. First, Black History Month proclamation, and then we'll follow that up with our Tampa Bay Community Water Wise Awards for a family that has done some amazing work. So first, we'll start with Black History Month. And I'm just going to say a few words, and then I'll invite the team up, and we'll read the proclamation to you then. So you wouldn't know, you wouldn't have known, that located between the city limits of Safety Harbor and Clearwater, tucked away in the middle of a residential neighborhood, was a three-quarter acre cemetery site dating back to 1896. Without the tireless efforts of some, the area would have gone unrecognized. Today, because of all the hard work, I'm looking at you all over there, because of all the hard work, the cemetery is now called Whispering Souls African American Cemetery. It has been historically marked, and going forward, will be known for its important part of black history in Pinellas County. So as we recognize Black History Month and its significance to us, we also recognize the importance of Whispering Souls African American Cemetery to that history. The Board of County Commissioners would like to honor and thank Jacqueline Hayes, president of the Board for Whispering Souls African American Cemetery, and the volunteers, and the volunteers who made further efforts to bring the cemetery back to life, to ensure that the preservation and history continues on. Without the continued efforts of those who have hard labored and worked tirelessly to enlighten, bring dignity, and continue the preservation efforts of this cemetery, it would have gone unknown and undone. Thankfully, last year, the cemetery was bestowed a historic marker, acknowledging the great importance the cemetery plays in black history and its values as a landmark in Pinellas County. And thank you to Chair Scott, then Chair Scott, for the efforts of bringing that marker to the cemetery. Jacqueline, we are honored to have you here today to accept the Black History Month proclamation on behalf of Whispering Souls Cemetery. So if you'll come forward, and your team will come forward as well, that would be great. I am looking for the list of names that I made sure they were here. Now, of course, do you think I have the names in front of me? So what we're going to do, we're going to, if you'll just say your name for me and come down here, I'd just like to make sure that you all are recognized for the work. Say it again? So, Laura Kepner, Shirley Brown, Scott Long, Tammy Smith, Atlantic Kids, and Jacqueline Hayes. So, I'm going to read the proclamation, present it to you, and then give you a few minutes before it's okay? Whereas Black History Month is an opportunity to commemorate and celebrate the historical and present-day contributions of black Americans, and whereas Black History Month originated as Negro History Week during the month of February in 1926, when noted historian Dr. Carter Woodson launched to extend and deepen the study of African-American history, to not only recognize great men in history, but to celebrate the contributions of an entire race, and whereas Africans and black Americans have contributed much to the wealth and prosperity this country currently enjoys, and whereas black American contributions are essential to American history, and it is important to understand as we take the time to celebrate the immeasurable impacts made by those who have risen above injustice and enriched our society, and whereas the members of Whispering Souls African-American Cemetery, Inc., as well as volunteers, work tirelessly in restoring this historical sacred ground, which in 2025 was honored with the historical marker, to commemorate the historical significance and presence in Pinellas County, and we pause to applaud their efforts with gratitude in uplifting black history in Pinellas County. Whereas Pinellas County will continue to support efforts of inclusivity, combating racism, recognizing the contributions of black Americans to our county, state, and nation, while ensuring that all citizens are treated with respect, equality, and dignity. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that February 2026 be recognized as Black History Month. A few things I would like to say. What an honor. I think about black history. We've always celebrated black history throughout the country, and now we're bringing black history to Pinellas County, Florida. It's so, so amazing. So very amazing. I'd like to say some thanks. I'd like to start out by thanking Matt Spohr. Now, Matt Spohr, we go back to our Safety Harbor days. Matt Spohr, he was the first government official that we met with when we were getting ourselves together in 2017, and Matt Spohr said, let's work together and let's get this cemetery cleaned up. Okay. I'd like to thank Commissioner Eggers, who is not only a wonderful man, but he's one of our supporters. He helped us clean up whispering souls. I mean, actually clean up. So much so that we didn't recognize him in a suit. Like, are you sure that's him? That's him. I mean, he got down and dirty and did the work. I'd like to recognize my board, nothing without my people. Scott Long, Laura Kepner, Shirley Brown, Tammy Smith, Glenn Atkins. Glenn actually came up with the name of Whispering Souls African American Cemetery, formerly known as the Safety Harbor Colored Cemetery. I'd like to thank Tom Schofield from the Historic Preservation Board, who we met in 2018. And he said, get yourself together, come back, and we'll get you a marker. I'm like, oh, okay, what is that? He said, just get yourself together and come back. So he honored that in 2025, and we got our historic marker. I'd like to thank Tom Almonte for guiding us through the county and how we can access funding to help us, you know, take care of Whispering Souls. I'd like to thank Commissioner Brian Scott for doing such a great job emceeing our historic preservation ceremony. I mean, he didn't know it was going to be as big and wild as it was, because we were thankful for our historical marker, but we had also had a $100,000 memorial recently installed, and also the city of Clearwater had installed a fence. So we used that as an opportunity to thank everyone, every government official that had their hands in the restoration of Whispering Souls. I was asked to speak a little bit about our struggles and our achievements. Now, interesting, we haven't had a lot of struggles. Once Lou Claudio brought the cemetery to me, and we decided we were going to clean it up, we didn't struggle, we didn't fight. The community gathered together, and people of all races, creeds, colors, social economic backgrounds decided that we as a unit were going to save this African-American cemetery, once again called the Safety Harbor Colored Cemetery. We claimed it, and we decided that there needed to be a change. So collective as a community, we got it done. Now, in the beginning, we got a lot of press. We were always on the news, but then after a while, we stopped getting press, because our story was too perfect. Nobody wanted to hear about a community of people coming together and saving an African-American cemetery. We were, someone said we were too hallmarky, but nobody was falling in love, you know? Everybody's coming together, and we're going to do this. And we did it. So we just said we just quietly did our thing. We didn't fight. We fought with no one. Matt said, you don't have to fight City Hall. We can work together. Okay, then that's what we're going to do. And we are a perfect example of people coming together to right a wrong. That's the most important thing, to right this wrong. And the first question Matt Spohr asked me when we had a meeting at City Hall in Safety Harbor, he said, where did you find these people? How did you bring these people together? I said, most of them I didn't even know. The word went out, and they came, and then they kept coming. And for all different reasons, I have grandparents buried there and other family members, but it was just basically to right the wrong. So I want to focus on our achievements because there's been so many. We're a nonprofit organization. We started in 2017. We're a nonprofit organization. We have legal ownership of Whisper and Souls. For years, we were just like we had these squatter's rights. We were changing the name and doing all these things and had no legal paperwork. Everyone assumed that we had, but we got that taken care of, and we were able to apply for grants as a result of becoming a nonprofit. Like I said, our fence was donated by the city of Clearwater, and we have a $100,000 memorial out there with all the names of all the interred that are buried there, which is amazing, which helped bring the black community together. I mean, in the beginning, they were very non-trusting of me because I was an outsider, black Yankee with black Yankee ways, looking and dressing funny. I don't know what you're going to do out here. But once we started moving and grooving and cleaning up our cemetery, the community started to fall in line when they can see their relative's name on this beautiful memorial. And so we're so proud of that. We were able to fund the memorial through a grant from the state of Florida, $100,000. We got $50,000 from the state of Florida, and then Sillin Abbey graciously matched the amount, so we got our memorial. We lost most of our trees during the last storm, but the city of Safety Harbor graciously donated mature and young trees, so we were able to build more trees to make it beautiful. And then recently, we were awarded a great grant from the county, Pinellas County, so now we're going to have an irrigation system. So the blessings just keep coming and coming and coming for Whispering Souls. I just want everyone to know that we are feeling truly blessed this Black History Day, and we are feeling truly honored. Thank you very much. Jacqueline, again, thank you and your team. Really appreciate that. Obviously, the story was a community coming together, United, Safety Harbor, Clearwater, the county, working together, so great program. Our second presentation is Tampa Bay Community Water Wise Programs. And as we all know, that water is a precious resource, and so we encourage and try to encourage folks to take care of their lawns in a responsible way. So the Community Wise Water Program was started in 1998 to recognize property owners who are leading the way in outdoor water conservation. The winning landscapes each year are excellent examples of Florida-friendly landscaping practices at work. This annual awards program is sponsored by Tampa Bay Water, a board that Commissioner Peters and I sit on this year. as well as people from the county, Hillsborough County, Pasco County, and the three largest cities in each of those counties. This annual award program is sponsored by Tampa Bay Water, the University of Florida IFAS, Pinellas County Extensions, Florida-Friendly Landscaping Program. This year, we are recognizing a winner in the single-family residential category. The 2025 Community Wise Awards in the residential category is presented to Michelle Burt and David Culp of Tierra Verde, and I'd like to ask them both if they would come forward and the Florida-Friendly Landscaping Team with our extension to join me up here for some film that will be presented on the screen as I continue to talk with the film going on. So please come on up. There we go. Michelle and David have been transforming their landscape since 2020. Their goal was to create a landscape that is attractive and low in maintenance. Are you going to be running the tape in the back, or am I supposed to? Yes? Okay, you're running it. All right. That is attractive and low in maintenance while protecting the environment. The landscape was altered from declining turf grass to a lush and subtropical landscape using plants that fit the site condition. The backyard includes many fruits producing as well as a pollinator attracting plants. As well as a pollinator attracting plants. Over time, the plants identified as non-native invasive were removed and replaced with numerous native plants. Most plants are drought and salt tolerant and withstood the five-foot storm surge in 2024, which is just amazing. Michelle and David replaced high-volume irrigation with micro-irrigation throughout the landscape, reducing water use significantly. A rain sensor was installed to avoid unneeded irrigation cycles while also collecting rainwater for hand watering to further offset water use. This landscape serves as a model for how to create an attractive and enjoyable garden which protects our water resource and provides for wildlife. On behalf of the residents of Pinellas County and this commission, I would like to thank Michelle and David for their great accomplishments in transforming their landscape to a water-wise landscape. So, congratulations. Well, I want to, first of all, I want to thank Tampa Bay Water and Pinellas County and the extension, particularly Doris and Melissa. And really, the WaterWise Award has increased our awareness of and knowledge of conserving water and kind of goes along with the original idea of creating sanctuary in our own backyard. So, again, thank you very much. Would you like to add? Commissioners, come on up. Yourself? Here? Nope. Here? Here? I would like to introduce myself. I'm Doris Heitzman. I'm the Florida Fendi Landscaping Program Manager. And I have the honor to run that program together with Melissa West, my coworker. The Tampa Bay Water provides this really great opportunity to reach out into the community to find all these great examples of water-wise landscapes. I also want to give a shout-out to Pinellas County Communications. Specifically, where is he? Is he here? John Karkit. He promoted the water-wise program like crazy this year. So, we had the most, out of all three counties, we had 35 applications. And the fun part was, the first yard we visited, the first landscape, was Michelle's and David's. And so, we went on for two months to visit all the yards and judge the yards. And it turned out, this was the winner. So, I commend the two, again, for all the great work they do. In addition, they stick out in their neighborhood in a good way. They are a role model for doing things differently and doing them right. Having a yard that is drought-tolerant, looks attractive, and is low in maintenance. That is really the goal and what we are looking for. So, thank you, Michelle and David. Thank you very much. All right. Appreciate both of you for being here today and to the extension program for the work that you all are doing as well. All right. We're going to go on to Citizens to be Heard this morning. We have just a few and we'll start with Chris Peterson. Is Chris Peterson here, please? Chris, yep, right up there and you have three minutes, Chris. Thank you very much. Commissioners, good morning. My name is Chris Peterson for Fortify Financial. We are a PACE provider under the Florida PACE Funding Agency or the FPFA. As you all know, there's been an ongoing issue with the FPFA and several of the counties and tax collectors throughout the state of Florida. I wanted to give you a brief update. For those of you that don't recall, PACE is a way to finance critical improvements such as roofs, impact windows and doors and HVAC systems and you pay it back on your tax roll. In October of 2022, there was a court ruling that allowed the FPFA to operate statewide. During that time, we received over 1,000 inquiries from residents of Pinellas County looking to utilize our financing. We ended up doing about 170-plus assessments before the counties and the tax collector pushed back on us. They said, we don't want this. We believe home rule is the way to do this. So we did stop and we did then go to Tallahassee and fight for SB 770. Myself included, worked with then-President Pasodomo to get SB 770 passed, which was a host of consumer protections and codified home rule. However, the counties and tax collectors continued to press the issue. They asked for a rehearing. That was unsuccessful. Then they appealed that. That, too, was unsuccessful. And then they asked to go to the Supreme Court here in Florida. And that ruling came in on December 17, 2025, and that did uphold the lower court ruling, which specifically states that the tax collectors need to collect these assessments as part of their ministerial duties. Unfortunately, several of the counties have continued to fight this at a great cost to the taxpayers and, frankly, detriment to your property owners. And my colleague, Chris Nard, will get into that in a little bit deeper. But, you know, a couple of things I wanted to touch on. One is that just because the Supreme Court ruled that those assessments were legally originated does not mean that we get to operate here statewide anymore. Like, that's been solved legislatively. SB 770 is very clear that we need to come to the county and get an ILA in order to operate. So, if Pinellas County does not want to offer Pace financing, then that's absolutely fine. We're not going to be anywhere near here. No problem. However, that doesn't mean that those assessments that we originated during that time weren't valid because they are. And that was upheld. So, I know that there's nothing that necessarily the commission can do. I wanted to make sure that you understood where we were coming from and why this, you know, the counties and the tax collectors continue to spend taxpayer dollars fighting something that has been decided three times now. So, again, I'm here for questions. I can follow up with some of the paperwork and the documents that kind of support my comments. But that is, that's all I had to say today. So, thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it. Thank you. Chris Nard. Oh, I should have paid more attention when my associates spoke. I'm Chris Nard. I'm the president of Fortify Financial. And I just wanted to elaborate on a couple of things Chris said. this dispute has gone on for almost three years now and has cost Fortify, the FPFA, the other people that write with the FPFA, millions of dollars. I can show the legal bills for all this. And it's been a huge disruption for everybody. And I'm afraid what gets lost in this is the disruption for the people in Pinellas County who borrowed this money to hurricane-harden their homes. So as Chris mentioned, we did about 173 assessments in Pinellas County. Now those are all valid liens on the property. But the tax collector didn't put them on the tax roll. So they get billed directly. But only about half of those people pay. The other 50% haven't paid and they are now two years behind on these assessments. And if these things don't get on the tax roll by March 31st, these people could go three years behind. So again, remember the 173 is just fortified. There are several other people that write with the FPFA through this process. What's going to happen is those people are going to go to refinance and they haven't paid on these assessments for several years. They're not going to be able to refinance unless they can get those liens removed from the property. The people that get PACE assessments frequently have moderate FICO scores so they may have difficulty refinancing to begin with let alone burdening them with the assessments that they haven't paid. We really think that we should work hard to get this resolved so these people don't continue to fall further behind on these liens that are recorded on the property. And I think continuing to fight this, they may not realize that they owe the money because it's not on the tax roll. And then for half the people that do pay, I think it's a little bit of an odd message that this continues to be fine even though these people signed up for the hurricane hardening improvement to be financed on their property taxes. So we're here, I mean there's always a lot of confusion about what a PACE assessment is. I'd be more than happy to sit down with anybody and go through what these files look like, what people do, what they got for the improvements. We've only ever had four complaints and that was when we withdrew from the county and people couldn't get the assessments they thought they were going to get closed. So I think we've had very good experience. So again, three years is a long time. There's been a lot of court decisions through that. You guys may have other reasons why you continue to fight this. It has a real negative impact on a lot of homeowners in Pinellas. Thank you. Thank you. David Ballard Geddes Jr. I'm not quite so sure I understand what he was talking about but that seemed pretty serious in regards to charging the residents. David Ballard Geddes Jr. I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. Growing up in the area I witnessed tremendous environmental devastation upon the ecosystem through unforthrightful politics and their developers clear-cutting the land in total disrespect of the indigenous tree canopy completely lacking concern for the established plant life paving over animal habitat contaminating the lakes and the rivers over pumping the aquifer and replacing the groundwater with temporarily treated sewage wastewater injecting treated wastewater directly into the groundwater supply circumstantially cutting costs prior to development I witnessed fire as a way of clearing the land preceding large-scale HOA and deed restricted housing projects burning everything in existence replacing the landscape with genetically modified grass equipping every home with the sprinkler system designed to waste water watering the perfidiousness of nothing that puts food on our tables destroying our cypress wetlands for cypress mulch reducing our god-given wetlands to thistles coupled with lawn pesticides and lawn fertilizers I've seen lakes completely drained relocated and replaced elsewhere creating an imbalance in the ecostructure as the government grants its developers mitigation credits systematically eviscerating everything so as to create its own dominion based on waste and desecration as legislation plays god rather than following the natural balance created by almighty god the biggest code enforcement infraction of all has been the systematic desecration committed by the government and its development practices desecrating the graces of god's grace creating a political imbalance in the cycle of life upon which to manifest the importance of its unsovereign overreach and roundly giving rise to its de facto lawmaking and its built up code enforcement regulations when in fact the falsehoods of your body in government is the biggest violation of code in all time thank you thank you david ls tucker good morning commissioners everyone my name is lj tucker 303 scarlet blvd osmar florida i'm the owner of tucker enterprise services it's a tree service based out of osmar i've been servicing the tampa bay area over the past 25 years i'm happy to see that we're making progress in changing the tree code from what i've seen at the last meeting that's just a part of a bigger problem with the tree code and that second part i got a handout because i know i'm not going to be able to get through this in this three minutes so the overview is where i see the biggest problem being a certified arborist it took years of practice studying and we have to do cus to continue because things change the problem with pinellas county i love this county i was born and raised here the problem is we don't have certified arborist they call them environmental specialists there's no training they just so when i talk and i try to talk to somebody they won't meet us on property to do any evaluations they have a clipboard that just checks in a box and the problem with the way your code is not having certified arborist to represent the tree industry which is the industry standard being the ISA certified arborist you guys get backlogged and you sub this work out to surveyors i've met surveyors on a job site more than i met a county official to talk about a tree and so when i send an email and i want to talk to somebody we're talking two different languages because they don't have the proper training i love getting manicures and panicures guess what you have to have training in a certificate to do hands and feet but we're sending employees out to evaluate trees that's a problem because they're doing an evaluation based on a motion one of your biggest taxpayers in penellas county's crown it's taken i got called in as a certified arborist to do evaluation of the tree that got denied by the county so i called the inspector told her what was going on she said and i quote you don't have jurisdiction over commercial property i said i understand i just i'm just letting you know before i get what i'm gonna go and evaluate the tree so i come back with my findings and they basically started an attack on crown now check this this has been going on for seven or eight months they just last week emailed crown and asked them to resubmit a permit i have the email thread and everything since this started in june of 25 this hazardous tree that i evaluate is still standing and they're getting complaints from their neighbors because if this tree fails their property will be affected if you could leave that right with the late young lady there i appreciate it there's seven folders with the same exact thing for each one perfect thank you for your time you guys be blessed greg pound greg pound largo florida i just want to bring to your attention some so it's been it's the old the old same old thing here this i filed this motion it's called emergency plaintiff's response to defendants abusive process a motion for relief from this um pro stat prosaise status um sanctions and unpaid medical bills so this year i filed thinking that this judgment final judgment was of seventeen thousand dollars for was on my behalf in a car accident that was in where someone smashed in the back of my car progressive insurance company come to find out it's a judgment against me and you know once you see the corruption that's done when you have judges working with the attorneys for progressive insurance company and not even and using first name bases with the judge to me it's and this and this has been this isn't new for me because you know i've been exposing the corruption here in this county for over 20 years okay you've got 50 50 million dollars now saint pete fraud racketeering on your county stealing all the money you got money laundering going on and this is my mother my mother-in-law has been been the comptroller for what 35 years okay she died of the covid along with bernie mccabe the child molester the guy who was adopting children like everyone else in the county at the top positions adopting children using them for sex and getting paid for it come on see i mean it goes right down city councilman john bryant all of them just and this goes on and on it's corruption has always been since the beginning of time since the top down not the bottom up the police that's why i ran for sheriff you brought three attorneys out to run against me which made me a shoe-in candidate i won by default and the reason i was running was to clean up the corruption in the county okay that's what needs to be cleaned up it's out of control and once you have an attorney as your sheriff in pinellas county this is a problem his wife's attorney he's an attorney okay i filed all this all the stuff that's going on with your chief judge your new chief judge nothing's being done okay to go ahead and have someone smash into my car total my car out blow my neck and back out leave me with thousands of doctors doctors doctor bills all kinds of problems and issues and then you're going to find me and so this is this is what is called abusive process look up the legal term abusive process that's why this that's why the plastic surgeon killed his attorney read that case study that case out it's a high-profile case now in pinellas county read the case and see what they did to this plastic surgeon to steal his money okay and and it's called abusive process and it goes on and on we're out of controlling corruption in this county we got a major problem it needs to be cleaned up okay do we have um giancarlo planzo on online yes sir we do mr planzo can you please raise your virtual hand we'll go ahead and unmute you when you're unmuted please state your name and address you have three minutes good morning commissioners how are you morning can you hear me okay go ahead okay thank you sir hey my name is john claudio planzo i'm a resident in palm harbor florida forgive me guys i don't know if this is the right forum to engage this conversation but i'm here today to speak on the sutherland bayou boat ramp um just as a you know i i would like to get involved with the city to help this project along you know i i don't know what the i don't know what the barriers are to help this boat ramp get to the caliber that seminal boat ramp is and and float boat ramp is um you know what's how how can i help how can i get involved what are the barriers i would love to lead the community uh if it be it fundraising community involvement ideas help the planning departments of the of the of the county uh forgive me i just don't know where to start and i'd like to help well thank you for for reaching out we have um paul cossey in our in our uh parks and and um and lands group and we also have a park and uh park and lands uh committee of residents so there's a couple ways to get involved but uh um if you want i think you probably should reach out to um paul cossey at the county and and give him your thoughts and what you'd like to do and see how he can you know how you can plug in to be effective and and get things accomplished thank you and i'm sorry commissioner how do i how do you spell his last name c-o-z-z-i-e okay thank you guys i appreciate it and thank you for calling in thank you very much for the opportunity to be heard i appreciate it god you really enjoy that don't you one meeting away um all right amended by uh amendment by resolution supplementing the fiscal 2026 budget recognizing unanticipated fund balance and adjusting revenue for requesting departments it's a carry forward amendment jill mr chair the the public hearing was properly advertised and an affidavit publication has also 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 uh does anybody want a presentation yes um i i think it'd be appropriate there's just some really big numbers here for anybody public that's watching i think it would be sounds good good we'll bring chris rose up thank you chris commissioners chris rose office of management and budget so there there are two amendments before you number four and number five number four is the carry forward amendment on the operating side it is uh items that we anticipated would be spent in 25 we budgeted them we uh and we projected that they would get spent and they just didn't get spent so the liability carries forward into 26 so we need to carry forward the the funding to represent it there are no personnel costs it's just operating costs that are in there uh and then the capital side is just a true up of projects same kind of thing so so um any questions for chris okay thank you chris appreciate it thank you might as well stay close by just in case we need to do the same in the next item okay do i have a motion please so moved motion by commissioner scott second by commissioner flowers uh pull up the board please and i mean yes oh sorry about that commissioner uh that is a unanimous vote thank you and we'll move on to item number five thank you mr chair agenda item number five is an amendment by resolution supplementing the fiscal year 2026 budget recognizing unanticipated revenue and realigning appropriations for requesting departments and funds the public hearing is properly advertised in an affidavit of publication has been received for filing no correspondence has been received by the clerk and it matters properly before the board to be heard thank you chris come on up and give us a summary like we did on the first one the first one was purely carry forward from projects that are still in play from yes sir items that weren't spent last year that's correct this was number four number five is a little more by choice but um again it is a budget amendment that i just lost my document forgive me um that bdrs is the first one and it is recognizing um no i have the wrong document in front of me again my apologies i hit it while i stepped up here and took it off the screen so bdrs is the first one we have two items for bdrs and i am going off of memory while i'm still trying to pull this up um that's coming up for me thank you commissioner i can maybe start go ahead joe if while he's looking it up um so the this budget amendment is all related to unanticipated unplanned revenues um so each item and chris can delineate those but basically we're realigning um the departmental budgets and the funds relative to revenues that when we when you approve the budget in september were unanticipated so they're all about getting more money but putting it in the right place you got it i'll work off of paper so commissioners uh bdrs has two items in here and uh the first one is the outside agencies that we use to do inspections and plans review and so permits are up so we have to staff up to get it with the outside agencies we don't put that in the budget because we don't want to anticipate that that will happen so we're adding it to the budget in this amendment the second one is with contractor licensing it is closing out two items that have been there since before i was budget director and it's just a paper transaction we're just essentially putting the money in and putting it right back in the general fund after that we're recognizing a number of different grants in uh ses in emergency management and a couple of other places human services so just recognizing grant money the final one is cpm and we're putting forward uh some money to do an abstract on each of the uh leases that we have out there and those leases are just something we hadn't anticipated but we want to make sure that we go through every single lease so that we don't leave any money on the table and then some money towards reserves and that's it any questions for chris yes go ahead uh thank you chair um i guess i you know just kind of looking through this so maybe i glossed over it before but there's a 43 000 for health care for homeless health care uh is that for our center uh that's a grant that we did not anticipate that is coming in so we're just recognizing that grant and spending it okay thank you any other questions do i have a motion so moved commissioner scott on the motion commissioner flowers on the second please pull up the voting card when i may yes mr chair thank you commissioner peters and that's unanimous uh i appreciate that we'll move on to consent agenda items six through eight does anybody want to pull any for conversation yeah i just had a quick uh comment on seven on number seven yep okay go ahead and make your comment if unless you want to get into it i would approve the others and then take this up separately there's just one staff question okay go ahead um so um thank you chair um so just to be clear you know that accepting this grant does not pre-commit the board to any future vision zero implementation especially physical measures like fencing and concrete barrier walls along the shoulder working through the grant does not commit pinellas county to any future um capital or operating expenditures related to implementing recommendations or other findings that could come from um this work over the next four years it is possible um and you can see in the materials we do refer to demonstration projects um but those would be delineated as a result of the grant uh activities over over time and that any shoulder it would come back to the board for approval assuming it's within your uh there could be operational expenses related to um within our match or related to the grant funding execution that would not rise to the level of board approval um but would have to have supplement supplemental approval uh in order to do so depends on how much money it is you mean for new for newly identified for newly identified projects correct or or projects within the grant scope itself that you know might involve expenditures within the grant um above a certain level correct that would come back that's correct but so in theory that we staff or somebody could close a shoulder of the road in this grant and in the future without board approval i'm gonna have i'm gonna ask kelly to come up um she has much better working familiarity this is really intended to be more study and more analysis than it is to be execution but it does refer to demonstration projects and i think that's the commissioner's question kelly yeah kelly hammerley the public works director um so what a what a barrier might include is something just like what you have out front of the courthouse it's like those bollards with the chain and what you're trying to discourage is what used to happen at that location before those were put in is people just bolting across the street to get to the courthouse and getting hit and so that's the type of demonstration barrier that this is one thing that one option that might come out of the grant but also that includes um rrfbs the you know flashing the crosswalks um and those types of more passive pedestrian um safety measures trying to get people to cross where there's where where it's safe at intersections at you know where we have um you know safe crossings and we're trying to encourage people not to bolt across roads which is unfortunately what is happening along a lot of our corridors um the other the other piece of this is um you know like the iva technologies that we have that detect pedestrian activities um so that we can report that out to law enforcement that happened um last spring training um we have the iva technology on drew street and it was detecting detecting pedestrians just crossing the road to go to spring training in a very dangerous part of drew street we were able to get that data over to clearwater pd so that they could come out and start addressing that um activity so people aren't getting hurt thank you yeah i just i just wanted to make sure that you know this wouldn't you know it's a multi-year study obviously but so like approving this today which you know i'm supporting moving forward with i just don't want to make sure it you know five years from now this we're going to look at this study and say we're going to permanently close a shoulder down on 62nd avenue and that's not coming because that's mostly where the study is is kind of looking at east to westbound of like the middle of the county not you know downtown clearwater or the phillies it's not there it's you know kind of willman you know largo area more of where it's at so i just want to make sure that if a shoulder were to be closed in three years four years permanently any permanent shoulder closing would still have to come back to the board for approval i i'm not even sure that's in the scope of what we're looking at these are very small improvements to try to uh improve safety but i don't i mean that a road closure i mean border closure well well just again we can't put anything in the clear zone like a like build a wall in the clear zone that a car could run into that's we're not allowed to do that by law so um so that you know would i mean if it were a major capital improvement we would have to go through design permitting we'd have to go out to bid bring it back here and you guys would bless it but i just wanted to be open and honest that some of these improvements like um the rrfbs and and some of these like bollard type things where we're saying don't cross here cross at the rfb that that type of of thing happens all the time we install those types of safety measures um at in in school districts um we get requests all the time from around the community to create safer crossings okay i feel satisfied moving forward just not a permanent you know if there's a fence i think this study is going to identify a lot of projects perhaps long term that will come back to us at some point but also some some examples along the way that they want to implement and not wait and those will be smaller type projects that have been identified here just from a public safety standpoint and that's really what the study is all about correct public safety that we all agreed to supply ask for this grant was it last year it was actually in 2023 wow and it was you guys already actually approved it um and obviously you know the administration changed they wanted to revisit the grant and they approved it again so thank you any other questions while we're here yes considering that pinealas county is not only one of the deadliest places in the state to be a bicyclist or a pedestrian but also the country so i totally support this and we make a motion that we approve the consent agenda a motion by commissioner scott second by commissioner nowicki and i guess commissioner scott with your biking and running all over the county you might be a good sample of what you you see every day right absolutely so thank you appreciate that okay we have a motion a second any other questions comments if you bring up the board oh bring up the board on six through eight we already had a motion on that right we have sir we have a motion and a second on six through eight we can have a voice vote for that it's consent agenda okay all in favor aye aye any opposed thank you commissioner peters uh that is unanimous support we will move on to our regular agenda item number nine morning board um item number nine is the first amendment to our 2020 interlocal agreement um which is among pinealas county and all but i think three of our cities relative to the national pollutant discharge elimination system uh which we call npdes uh that which is um related to water quality monitoring and the assessment program that we are required to do under federal regulation um and as i uh as you'll see in in the backup this would extend the original agreement um to december 31st of 2030 um we've been doing that in five-year increments uh because we have to update we have to update those permits thank you joe intervals any questions for joe move uh motion by commissioner scott second by commissioner nowicki please bring up the board for both enemy yes mr chair thank you commissioner peters and that's unanimous and that's unanimous we'll move on to item 10 item number 10 is a resolution dedicating uh parcel that we own in saint petersburg we are housekeeping uh we've built a sidewalk we acquired the property built a sidewalk we want to dedicate it uh and identify it as right of way as opposed to a fee owned simple property thank you motion by commissioner nowicki second by commissioner flowers any questions bring up the board please nummy yes mr chair thank you commissioner peters and that's unanimous move on to number 11 number 11 is the interlocal agreement with the city of pinellas park for transmission treatment and disposal of wastewater for the city's wastewater service area we have a long-standing agreement with the city of pinellas park to accept their sewage basically um to treat and dispose of it and they pay all costs the city pays and their rate payers pay all costs that the county incurs including administrative costs um the anticipated revenue for the first year uh should you approve this is 12.5 million um that utilities fund receives in order to perform the service on their behalf okay thank you motion by commissioner flower second by commissioner scott any questions for jill question no okay i'll bring up the board please nummy yes mr chair thank you commissioner peters and that's unanimous uh move on to county attorney reports i have nothing mr chair no county attorney reports county administrator reports commission i just take a moment to to remind you that um we did move our uh strategic meeting with our strategic planning meeting with you to next thursday the 12th um and so we're going to be uh prepared for that and ready to hear your great ideas and all the things that um we'd like to focus on for the coming year just a little reminder uh we'll be down at the uh at the extension offices pcr admin in the magnolia room and starting at 9 30 9 30 yes at the magnolia room down at the uh i have nothing else okay thank you all right we are at the commission comments um and items that need to be brought up and we'll start with commissioner shear thank you chair um first just real quickly there's an opening on the feather sound community uh services district um i would appreciate it if you would consider sean williams to be a nominee uh and approve him for that position i've met with sean he's an architect long-time resident of heather sound and i took some time to talk to him about perfect his ideas for feather sound i think he'd be great fit so we have a motion by commissioner shear did you have a move okay then yours was just general discussion commissioner flowers on the motion commissioner latvall on the second all in favor thank you opposed motion carries chris continue okay uh on january 20th i uh attended the seminal fire rescue department uh monthly meeting uh and i filled in for our esteemed uh chief who was not feeling well and i was able to present our proclamation of the antoine and damon uh day of november the 24th uh antoine scott and dame and dennis uh saved a family of five from a burning house and it was good to go to make that presentation i think uh it was well received and it was good to spend time with the seminal fire rescue department thank you for being there i really appreciate it i couldn't be there for obvious reasons but thank you for it was great thank you for sending me um on the 21st of january i intended the with the commissioner scott the 40th year celebration of the palm harbor community services agency known as fixa that was a great event i got to spend some time with the board members erica erica and john and uh i i just think that fixa is a great example of what a cr can do for a community so i was happy to be there for them uh and then on the 23rd i uh i uh spent some time with matt spore and his staff our staff over at the 911 fire administration building get a try to get a better handle on our problems with uh accounts receivable and these prayer authorizations and the monies that are owed to the county uh for ambulance transfers so i get to do that and uh on the 27th uh and the 28th 29th i enjoyed spending time with you and commissioner scott uh in tallahassee uh thanks for letting me tag along i learned a lot watching your presentations with all the other uh state reps uh the secretary of the dot and our our uh that was just a good experience it's the first time i had a chance to go to tallahassee and uh lobby for our legislative priorities so that was good to do and uh that is my report thank you commissioner thank you mr chair um had a very have had a very busy last few weeks um first um i want to say thank you for the support of the national council of negro women's 40th annual scholarship activity and event it was um a wonderful event very well attended sold out as normal um i want to say thank you to the city of st petersburg for selecting me to be the grand marshal of the mlk day parade so that was a lot of fun it was cold but a lot of people came out and so it was a wonderful time and i know many others went to the festivities in north county so thank you for honoring that day um i also had the um beautiful pleasure of traveling to tallahassee with the florida association of counties for their legislative conference um as always the secretaries of the various departments did come and speak with us um i was quite impressed with the secretary for the department of veteran affairs who is retired military himself from the marines but he provided some additional information regarding services for veterans so what i will do is ask darlena just to send that to your offices so that way if you should happen to get calls from veterans and maybe they're looking for some additional support services and if it qualifies in one of the categories you'll be able to share that i was also um a little concerned about some of the changes that are going on through the department of business and professional regulations um because unfortunately we have people that like to make a living um off of being a fraud and so that just means that those uh businesses that are legitimate businesses have to jump through some additional hoops but i do have some information i want to share with you all in that regard and again i'll ask darlena to email that information to all of you i had the chance to give testimony before the ways and means committee regarding property tax i did not do any harm to pinellas county i assure you you can go watch it for yourself but basically what i said was you know we want to work with the legislators when it comes to property tax we think it needs to be thoughtful it needs to be mindful we need to look at all of the aspects of what um your homestead tax dollars go to versus any funding that may come from revenues that we get from our enterprise fund because that's different those are dollars that are generated from a service those aren't taxes that are based on property tax so just try to be up there as a person to educate our legislators i want to thank you for our delegation members that met with me um and some i caught running down the hallway um going between committee meetings so um i'm very thankful for having those opportunities and i have received a few phone calls just saying thank you for pinellas county um for the information that we've been putting out just to educate our residents um so that they can make a choice if and when that um proposal passes however it looks when it passes i attended my area agency on aging pinellas and pascal meeting we were very worried that the shutdown that occurred would interfere with some of the dollars that we provide to agencies that care for seniors um hopefully a decision a vote will happen today that uh will cease the shutdown so that it will have only lasted a couple of days three four days um for specific departments um but so far nothing has affected the area agency on aging funding um and congressman bill irakus i have to say thank you for his continued support of us um i think i've shared here before that we're also looking at constructing housing specifically for seniors in pascal county affordable housing um because it's a need up there and we were having difficulty finding space finding space we think we've been able to find um the appropriate space um to uh begin construction so i'll keep you guys up to a date on that and i want to publicly say thank you to the pascal county board of county commissioners uh for all that they've done to assist us um in that vein um i'm supposed to go to tallahassee this friday um i uh was nominated and will be presented with an award from the um law offices of sean pittman um for my work in advocacy um in different uh four different legislative uh issues before the legislature so um that award will be presented this friday at 11 i'm hopeful i can make it i don't mind telling y'all i'm tired from driving back and forth up and down the road i really am and i'm losing my voice um but it's all for good work it's all to represent the county and the constituents um i want to be there in person because for me that means a lot when you know you may not always agree with individuals but they set up the time to meet with you and they listen to what you have to say and you listen to what they have to say so it's a big deal for me um so pray my strength in the lord that i'm able to drive up there and and drive back um of course it's black history month and you all know what i do during black history month i wear african attire every day um and so every day that i come to a meeting or workshop i will be presenting um different attire and what i will do going forward if you all are interested i can just give you the historic meaning of the various patterns because all of the patterns have a meaning some kind of meaning so i'm excited i just i love every month every day of the year that i'm a lot but i just like that um i'll be going to uh the national association of counties um national legislative conference i'm not sure if anyone else is going okay uh in dc it's gonna be cold i'm hoping that the weather holds out for us um and um and i'm not sure were you able to sign up for the tour at the pentagon okay and are you coming to the laying of the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier okay so thank you so very much for that i appreciate that and and we are grateful for those opportunities um the work continues with uh forward pinellas when it comes to the merger i know i've had my one-on-one with wit others uh that uh also serve on that board may be having their one-on-one uh with whit blanton regarding um where we are with the mpo merger again a lot of conversations but i'd rather have the conversations up front and get it right than to rush it and get it wrong um and so i do appreciate the time that we're taking to do this um and i appreciate my colleagues who also serve on that board as well all of the comments and concerns that they've shared because they have been valid um but i think if we just continue to work together as a region like we've been doing that we will begin to see our communities um not only accelerate when it comes to economic development and coaching businesses to come here but also for the quality of life services that we want to give our residents last but not least um thank you kim burke for sending us our final report uh for the doze report um he said in his preface that pinellas didn't do so bad and after i read through it panellas didn't do so bad but what i think that shows is what we've been saying as a team all along we are good stewards of our dollars we are working on behalf of the residents of pinellas county we are listening to them and in areas where um we have needs we answer those and in the areas where we can cut back a little bit we answer that as well um and so thank you um to all of the departments that had to pull together all of that data um so that when they came here it was there and it was ready but that's what happens when you do your job and you do it well so thank you to my colleagues thank you to staff that's it yeah and that that issue that the indexing gas tax versus the three property taxes that we have in place we're trying to make it very clear to our legislators when we were up there that there is a cause and effect if you don't let us do what you do and preserve the capital that we have for our roads then we have to solve it in different ways and so our residents would immediately enjoy a a village rate reduction if we were able to do that so we were trying to make those connections whether it's educational or just a reminder but uh appreciate it so what's the history to your oh so this is um when slaves were moving from one destination to another trying to make make make it up north there were a number of ways that they were able to uh know the path some of them couldn't read or write of course but they could either use the stars to uh lead them north they could uh use river patterns that were braided in the women's hair um or they could certainly put in on their clothing stitching on their clothing the direction findings for going north so today today's pattern is r will be or is the direction findings for going north so the patterns go this way and if i stand up for my dress you'll see that the patterns continue to go down and so that was just a direction finder to make sure that they knew the direction of going north which was the path that others had taken safely thank you thank you very much mr chair um i attended my first tdc meeting um i toured uh baseball city in st pete uh i attended uh my final psta meeting and got a nice little uh plaque um and also uh i don't want to put them on the spot uh but i do have a very special constituent in the audience who has uh stayed for our entire meeting and that is carlos brito um and he's not just a constituent he's also a hero that many of y'all uh know he is a um hillsborough county sheriff's uh deputy who was injured in the line of duty a couple years ago and he's still recovering from his injuries but it is an honor uh to have him uh join us uh today thank you for being here carlos and even though he's a constituent i'm not sure that i'm a fan of him serving in hillsborough as opposed to pinellas so we may need to talk to the sheriff about that um and lastly on my report um i still thanks to our our chairman i still serve as our uh representative on jwb and uh we are in the process of interviewing three finalists uh for the ceo position um and those three finalists are mike mcurek kevin chapman and glenn gilzean all three are very capable uh individuals um and i am almost certain that uh y'all are allowed to discuss those uh folks with me uh since that's not anything that we're gonna i don't believe that that is breaking sunshine or anything like that we vote on the budget but uh actually you know voting on the for for who i vote for for ceo i don't believe is a sunshine issue if i am wrong uh are very capable county attorney will throw something at me so if you all have a preference in those three uh gentlemen uh please let me know thank you commissioner vice chair commissioner scott thank you mr chairman um so since the last time we met we had a historic preservation uh board meeting uh where the board approved a historic landmark designation for the house of seven gables and the plant sumner house i believe which both had were relocated to heritage village uh 50 years ago and they have to be in in one location for 50 years before you can apply for that designation uh so that will be coming to us uh here maybe at our next meeting for approval and there will be a ceremony heritage village i think on march 27 27th or 28th to kind of formalize that uh but just a little piece of history the house of seven gables was donated by don williams who was the father of karen seal former commissioner seal uh so just a little bit of history there so just kind of put that on your radar and on your calendars if you can uh if you can attend that had a really good meeting with uh ken grimes uh chief of pinella suncoast fire rescue just really the first time i i had met him very very down to earth very committed to looking for cost savings and just different ways of doing business and has a lot of private sector experience and you can tell he's really just trying to take that that experience and just try to you know establish a different kind of culture and different way of looking at things so that was a very very good meeting and i applaud all the efforts and work that he's doing commissioner i would second that i had the same meeting with him and just found him to be very refreshing yeah very refreshing just a different perspective on on everything i think a value added to the organization so thank you for that comment exactly um had a great great trip to tallahassee last week with commissioner sheer commissioner eggers uh barry and tristan and anita and um and i want to take thank tristan and anita for all the hard work they did behind the scenes i mean we got into everybody we needed to see they were informed they had they had good information for us and you can tell there's just a ton of preparation going on in the back end and every day and and tristan your weekly updates are like more information it's like it's incredible to get through all that at that information but i really appreciate you do that and we had just really good meetings as well um our first meeting was with f dot secretary purdue and uh and justin hall and we had really three really important uh subjects to talk to them about npo consolidation which they're totally in favor of uh dunny and causeway and then east east lake road and uh and there's a real good conversation to be had on dunny and causeway there there's there's a trade in the works there uh so so really encouraged on that one because we're never going to have a hundred million dollars to replace that bridge i mean we're just we just we're just not um and then uh some good conversation on east lake road as well and then probably one of the other i would say called better uh or more impactful meetings we had during the day was with senator broder who kind of gave us his perspective on property tax reform and we left that meeting i think with a with the understanding that okay they're really diving into this and they understand i mean he basically said we've looked at 70 different ideas and they're all terrible and so we're we're going with the one that has what we believe is the least unintended consequences so at least they've taken a deep dive into this in there and they're going to come up with something that hopefully is uh something that you know is impactful for the residents but also something that local governments can you know can live with um let's see of course tampa bay days is always uh always a good event um i attended the fix-up 40th year celebration along with uh commissioner eggers so it's hard to believe that's been around for 40 years that was a nice event and also last was it last sunday i went up to brooker creek and attended the annual meeting of the friends of brooker creek uh so hats off to all of their great volunteer hard work that they do up there uh for brooker creek this saturday is alum and hunting arts festival uh for all of you that uh you know will be maybe have stop by and say hello there it should be a good time hopefully the weather won't be too darn cold um and then i i appreciate lj tucker coming out here this morning and uh speaking about the certified arborist i'd like to just get a little information from staff on how that works out and then uh finally renee i love your outfits and i appreciate the little history lesson on that and uh please continue that so i really really enjoy it so i'll have mr chairman thank you commissioner scott commissioner newicki thank you chair uh last week i read to four different classes with the early learning coalition and their literacy week so i read the book what is america and at the end each class uh recited the pledge of allegiance so it was very exciting to see vpk kids already knowing the pledge of allegiance and their love for country i attended the state of the bay hosted by the sun coast tiger bay um you know the mayors did a did a good job talking you know about the area bruce rector as always did a the best job in my opinion um i attended a town hall in in wheelman uh with amy davis and you know hearing concerns that residents have kind of about a lot of transient people uh in wheelman um also talking about um you know that you know and the sheriff you know he he's been very responsive after the meeting talking with residents there that aren't happy with you know saying people are sleeping in the alleyways um you know a lot of drug use in the neighborhood um so you know hats off to the sheriff that you know after the meeting you know he's taking a very proactive approach um and making sure that you know the residents don't feel like you know prisoners in their own home that you know they can't even go outside um and and amy davis did a great job as well um i did a check presentation with a resident in saint pete um so again as a reminder you know uh you go to you know pinellas recover um to to apply for all the applications that we have open um so i'm excited to get that video up today um and i met with residents in tier verde yesterday with concerns over uh the new proposed you know boat slip and the median um so you know hopefully you know staff you know continues to work diligently for the that median issue in tier verde you know i know that tom tom's working hard on it um and you know gonna deliver um some good progress with that soon um and then i know on the 20th you know we kind of sent out an email and gave everybody a paper about our comprehensive plan you know so i just don't know if there's support for a workshop on our comprehensive plan you know we got two new commissioners here that you know and some commissioners on this board that didn't approve the last you know comprehensive plan so i just don't know if there's any appetite of this board to just have a workshop on our comprehensive plan just to kind of give us an overall view of it so thank you chair thank you um yeah i mean there's always appetite for me to talk about the comprehensive plan for pinellas county it's obviously extremely important uh though our though our brothers and sisters up in tallahassee seem to take it on their own to change things at their will but at least we should understand that that motion that that work we we in fact the last time we did it we had we we actually made a mistake up in north county and had to correct it but it takes about three months to correct it um i was out meeting with a resident who's going to be across the street from this project it got in from a one per two one house per two acres to one house per one acre um in that little four month period of time um they're working with they've got annex into the city of tarpon springs because that's what they have um so it's very important that we understand those motion those those differences and sometimes they're subtle like an adam bomb subtle they're really important so anytime we can have that discussion i think it's a good thing so um first of all i want to thank commissioner latvala for chairing last meeting um i told oh excuse me thank you commissioner nowicki commissioner peters i forgot you i apologize go ahead that's quite all right um i toured pinellas park with the city manager and with ricky butler one of their council members we looked at a lot of the storm drainage that is causing problems in pinellas county uh or in pinellas park along the bryan dairy corridor and so the storm water from clearwater largo and when dot made changes on bryan dairy have caused some real all that water all is concentrating into pinellas park and causing some issues so so we're going to see if we can't uh get a meeting with uh the county and the city and see if there's something that we could do and work with clearwater and largo at the same time um so i think it's gonna be really uh interesting and if any of you want to take a look at that it's worth it pinellas park is doing some really amazing things if you haven't gone to see the the chris sprawls baseball facility that's being built out there it is incredible really incredible what an asset for pinellas county um the farm that the patty johnson farm is another incredible asset for pinellas county and so pinellas park is really rocking it they're doing some incredible things and it was a real pleasure to take the tour with the city manager and the council member um we also had a psta meeting um we're still working on purchasing a ferry which is um we've had a couple of hiccups with the one in san francisco we thought we were going to buy uh hopefully that'll get smoothed over and um tampa bay water uh we as the news has reported we put it in some more water restrictions because of the drought um and i think that's that's about it okay thank you commissioner peters appreciate it um all right i'll go ahead now i just want to again thank commissioner latvala for chairing the last meeting uh i'm figuring that any any meetings over two hours i'm going to turn it over to latvala to run um i get the short meetings i don't know what took you so long last time was it over over three hours for crying out loud uh but thank you sincerely i appreciate that and also thank you to russ kimball for helping me out on the tdc meeting that same that very next day um it was not fun being sick at all i couldn't even do what commissioner peters was doing i'm afraid even from that position i might have spread something in the room so i'm sorry i wasn't here but again thank you um i did want to say i wanted to second your comment commissioner scott to tristan and to anita barry burton yourself and chris and commissioner sheer um for uh the trip up to tallahassee uh with all of the people that we met with um maybe with the exception of dot but all fdot um we had the same messaging it was kind of like being consistent and and tristan was he teed that up for us and working so closely with anita uh their experience was you could just it was so evident um and they were so respected as we were walking the halls you could just tell we've got we've got a really good team in place and uh uh you're also your comment on the causeway was uh you know i know you made a quick call and along with uh commissioner cheney i think to the fdot right on the spot and they said that'd be something we were interested in we kind of reinforced that at our meeting and um you're right there's going to be some bartering going on about things that they want to give up in pinellas county but i think it's certainly worth exploring um that for sure and the comments that senator broder had i wanted to echo those as well because at least we came out of there feeling that there was a overlay of responsible discussion and a direction that we'd be going um so anyway um uh just before i get into a couple comments remember that our picture is here right at 1 15 on the at the next meeting uh 45 minutes early so hopefully everybody can be there hopefully we can take this picture for this year before the end of the year um i'm partially to blame we've had people missing we want everybody to be there obviously so we're going to try for the for the next meeting um uh we had uh just a few things oak senior community center ribbon cutting um i'm just saying a couple things probably that i could have said at the last meeting but i wasn't here really nice uh project uh affordable housing project uh down off of olmerton road and just great turnout the and from what i understood it was fully leased like two or three months into the construction of the project so when they had the ground well we had the the ribbon cutting for the for the opening that was fully leased um it was just great energy uh great partners on that um so i just well defined uh well executed and well you know really needed in fact there was a lady there that told her story uh loves her family but after four months of having to live with three kids four animals and you know it was like she needed her own place and she finally was able to find a place that she could afford and working and all of that so uh really uh good work um again i wanted to commend commissioner peters and commissioner scott and obviously our congressman luna for the little bit of improved outlook for the work with the army corps of engineers at the meeting last month i was able to attend uh with my mouth you know taped over so that i could sit there and listen and not interrupt or actually have two commissioners in the same room talking so commissioner scott you did a great job at that meeting uh very encouraged of course we got to get over the finish line still but they started the meeting and you all have reported it uh it was really a good meeting and uh you know optimistic um we had a canine photo shoot i think that probably was up last time but with commissioner let bala we got him around dogs which was just a great thing we don't have to use the fake dog anymore we can actually use a real animal he was he was you still have the fake dog yeah yeah yeah you did for a while it was my cough pillow but yeah well that's that's important when you're recovering but he was there at that saturday and right with the big blow up uh dog and he did he did he got right down the ground you saw some pictures he was he was great so contrary to his own anti you know animal he's really a pro animal person he loved being there with the animals so um just wanted to say thank you to uh to pastor bell uh and the city of dunedin for their mlk ceremony and their parade down uh some music uh and a program as well it was really good and congratulations for being grand marshal in st petersburg uh commissioner flowers um uh the tampa bay water i think i was going to mention the restrictions that's coming on the on the on the watering of our lawns but also that there was a legal issue update with polk county there's a lot going on it's kind of behind kind of a confidential meeting at this point and still trying to work through things two government entities going uh in a lawsuit hope county suing tampa bay water so that's kind of crazy so we're kind of working through that hopefully that'll be taken care of um was at the palm harbor library fundraiser celebrating the importance of art in the community it was a great event lots of people coming out they've probably been doing it for i don't know 10 20 years at least it's been a long time pride and raising an awareness and a good community event a lot of people came out on a friday night for that so commend uh the librarian matthew david and all of his team for pulling that together um and let's see just as a quick update um i am having conversations with um the superintendent of schools with the sheriff uh with mike mccurick over at jwb and the whole health and human services board uh future of that board um so i'm kind of going through all of those conversations um and uh probably will have a couple of conversations with school board members that are on that as well but everybody seems to be kind of um in lockstep that uh that probably don't need that board um what i'm very proud of this county whether it's the sheriff's department or our legal folks the school system the county commission if ever there's an issue that we need to address on an emergency basis it takes a phone call and we get a group of people together to deal with any of that uh issues um and so anyway that's that conversation is still ongoing and uh as soon as i know something definitive i'll i'll let you know probably we'll take some action at the next meeting whenever that is but we'll we'll be in touch before that just to kind of update you on that progress um i was going to talk a little bit about offshore drilling and all that i did not get the language that i wanted to see ahead of time so i could see what actually we'd be talking about uh it's something that this community you know from one end of the county to the other has supported over the years the offshore drilling off the off the coast of florida certainly uh it's been a no-brainer in the past we certainly have to protect our coastline but i you know we'll get into that discussion when we get that that information but again um that more to come on that so and then uh that is really all i had is uh anything else that i may have missed that you think of okay yes commissioner scott thank you mr chairman hey just a quick comment on the on the offshore drilling i think probably every um elected official in the state of florida probably got that probably got that email yeah um i'm a little concerned with aligning ourselves with that particular group but the um just um back in december 4th our entire congressional delegation got together and wrote a letter uh to president trump encourage encouraging uh him to not violate the moratorium on on banning on oil drilling in the gulf so i think we're in solid ground there to put something together i'm just a little concerned with that i i i shared that yeah yeah that's the one thing i i anyway i think we're i think we pretty well stand together i'm not saying everybody but pretty much everybody in the state elected officials glad to hear the congress people doing their thing and uh senators doing i'll send you the link to this yeah that'd be great and uh if there's that as well and i think something coming from us right as a group you know is appropriate yeah so so we'll take a look at that even if we if what we do is support the letter that was sent right i think that would be a statement enough but uh i might try to do that at the next meeting i'll let you all know that for sure um and try to get a copy of that letter so that we at least all see what we're talking about um anything else before we adjourn okay um don't forget the pictures next time 1 15 before the next next meeting and we are adjourned