First of all, I wanted to welcome everybody to the meeting today, and we've got a few visitors here this afternoon. We look forward to hearing from some of you. Sheriff's deputies, I don't have my sheet here to recognize you, so I'm sure I'll get that before the meeting is over so I can properly do that. And we will start with the invocation with Reverend Bob Fortner to come forward. Please go ahead. Come on up. And if everybody will stand, and Commissioner Scott, if you'll do the pledge. Let us begin with prayer. As we pray today, we pray the greatest prayer of all. Thank you, God. Thank you, God, for this beautiful home in Ellis County. Thank you for all the staff, all the laborers, all the managers who help keep it such a beautiful place to live. Thank you for our officers and our first responders who keep us safe. And thank you, especially, Lord, for the people in this room who provide the leadership to not only keep Pinellas County a beautiful place, but make sure it stays that way for generations. We ask that you give them guidance and direction that they may make the best decisions for the highest and greatest good of the citizens of this wonderful county. This we pray in your holy, sacred name. Amen. Well, that's why we're celebrating. Happy birthday, anyway. All right. We are first and foremost going to celebrate our President's Day proclamation. And, again, Reverend Fortner, Bob Fortner, is doing double duty today. He did the invocation, as we asked. And I'm just going to ask him to come up and join me at the podium again. Sorry, I should have taught you before you sat down. I have a few things I'm going to say, then I'll present. Reverend Fortner's ministerial history spans over a quarter of a century. He was the president of the Palm Harbor Historical Society and has volunteered at the Palm Harbor Museum since its inception in 1998. His interest in history started in school and continued as a hobby. With Bob's mother-in-law, Myrtle Scherer Betts' history of being born and raised on Caledese Island, along with the assistance of his wife, Terry, Bob learned a lot about local history here in Pinellas County. He became involved and is still a member of several historical societies in Dunedin, Clearwater, Ozona, as he continues to pursue his hobby of history. He has presented historical programs to the Pinellas Historical Commission and numerous local organizations. The reverend proudly served with and has influenced by the late and former County Commissioner Sally Parks. Bob carries on with his interest in history and keeps his motto forefront. In order to preserve the past and protect the future, we who care must be present. That's a tongue twister for me. Please help and thank Robert Fortner, Bob Fortner, as we present him with this year's president's proclamation. And I'm going to go ahead and read that for you. So if people can welcome him, that would be great. Thank you, Commissioner. All right. Whereas President's Day is known as U.S. Federal Holiday, recognized the third Monday each February to honor the legacy, leadership, and service of the presidents of the United States, beginning with George Washington, on this year, 2026, we recognize the day of February 16, 2026. And whereas the day is to honor and recognize the founding president of the United States and presidents thereafter, including and specifically our sitting president, Donald J. Trump, for the work to uphold the principles of the United States Constitution, our democracy, the rule of law, and mostly the leadership that is mindful of and dedicated to the citizens of this United States of America. And whereas presidents throughout history have continued to guide the United States of America through many challenging times, both in good and bad times economically, through worldwide conflicts and wars, and yet through it all, we have endured and learned. And whereas the observance of this day allows all of us to reflect on our history of accomplishments, shortcomings of past leaders, and to learn and work to inspire civic duty and responsibility in all citizens now and in the future. And whereas the Pinellas Board of County Commissioners encourages all citizens to embrace the occasion, to learn more about the country's history, to participate in acts of service, and to reflect on how fortunate and blessed we are living in this United States of America. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Board of County Commissioners that Monday, February 16, be recognized as President's Day, 2026. Well, thank you, Commissioners, for this, and I am honored to accept it on behalf of the Palm Harbor Historical Society, the members, the donors, the board, the many, many volunteers who have kept the lights on and kept the doors open for 28 years now at the Hartley House up at Belcher and Krulow Road, where many people have come through the door to learn about history and to celebrate that history, specifically North Pinellas County history. But we also have some national implications that occur there. We've had 60 Minutes contact us and the University of Florida, all looking for resources that we have in our archives. So we're very proud, and I hope you're proud of your North Pinellas Palm Harbor Museum. We had a President's Day celebration there Saturday. It was great to have a, you know, a lot of times museums are quiet places, not when you have family fun days. When you have 40 or 50 children running around, it's really a lot of fun and very exciting. And we did have an election. It was close and highly contested, but puppies won out just barely over kitties. Well, speaking of close and contested elections, probably none was more contested or closer than that of our 19th President, Luther B. Hayes. And the reason I bring him up is because we had his descendants at the museum just yesterday because they were receiving from the Palm Harbor Historic Society a box of memorabilia that belonged to Luther B. Hayes, Luther B. Hayes' son. So they are taking those up to the Luther B. Hayes Library, which, by the way, was the very first presidential library, followed later by the Federal Presidential Library Act. Luther B. Hayes was known for his libraries because he believed that the key to democracy was an informed citizenship. So we are very proud to be able to keep the tradition of history and learning about history and celebrating this great country and this wonderful, beautiful Pinellas County in which we live. And I thank all of you for all you do to support that. Thank you and God bless you. Our second proclamation is for National Engineers Week. And I'd like to ask staff from Public Works and Utilities to join me up here and if they'll come on up, Public Works and from their Utility Department, come on up. Engineering Week is dedicated to increasing interest and understanding in engineering and technology careers to ensure successful future engineering workforce. Engineers serve their communities using scientific and technical knowledge and skills and innovation to maintain or improve a high quality of life for all residents of Florida. They also encourage our young students to realize the power of science, technology, engineering, and math in their daily lives. Engineers continue to stimulate and develop professional concepts among their peers through education and excellence in practice. Additionally, engineering helps to drive our economy, protect our environment, improve our public safety, and our quality of life. The knowledge and skills of the engineering practice are critical to meeting the challenges of the 21st century. I'm going to go ahead, if you don't mind, just let me see if I'm not meeting. Yes, I think for the most part that was the contents of the proclamation. So, now therefore be it proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that the week of February 15th to the 21st, 2026, be recognized as National Engineers Week. And I'm going to say some names if you'll raise your hand as I say it. Is it Thierry Koo? Terry? Sorry. Terry Koo. Ivan Dimitrov. Okay, thank you. Jeff Thompson, Traffic Operations. Those folks were from Public Works. Gosh, you know, I should have gotten these all fixed at the beginning. Ray Dusef. How do you say your first name? Thank you. And Craig Osmansky. Good. And these folks were from our, they're engineers from our utilities department and clearly both very active, interactive with residents in our community. So, would either, any of you like to come forward and just say a couple of words? Anybody on behalf? Come on. Just real quick. I just want to thank everyone for coming up, I mean, for being here and recognizing all the work that we do around the county. It's not the most glamorous, you know, we only get called out when things go wrong. So, it's nice to have a day where we're recognized, all the work that goes right. You know, you don't always see it because, you know, it's business as usual when it goes right. That's all. Again, thank you. Thank you, everyone. All right. Well, and it's not anybody that can be engineering. I mean, you can go to school for engineering like I did, but all of my college roommates would tell me, please let us know which ones I designed so they could stay off of it. So, it is not an easy profession. I grant you that, but it's been wonderful for me. It applies to so many areas of careers. So, I just commend you all for your chosen profession. I'm glad you're having me here today. I have one for the public works department. One for the one-up site. Okay. We're going to move on to our citizens to be heard. The first speaker, Richard Gossetti, will be up, and he'll have 10 minutes. I just need a waving of the hand as I call your name because he's going to speak. There's four people he's speaking for, so he will get 10 minutes on the clock. Got it. Merwin Crane. Okay. Rich Marklager. Okay. David D'Angelo. And Julie Tyler. All right. Thank you all for being here. And, Richard, you are up. You have 10 minutes. Good afternoon. My name is Richard Gossetti. My address is 10399 67th Avenue North, Lot 131, Seminole, Florida. I am a resident of the Edgewater Pines Mobile Home Park. I come before you today to seek your understanding, input, and assistance in trying to resolve the substantial damage determinations made by the floodplain administrator and the special magistrate. Not only for myself, but also for Merwin Crane, Unit 81, Marjorie Bischoff, Unit 41, and Doug Galt, Unit 127, along with other residents. We have done our best to present the damages and true cost of repairs to the SD determinations website. After many, many attempts to satisfy their demands, we were told to file an appeal to the special magistrate. After the appeal, we were still determined to be substantially damaged. Throughout the entire process, we feel there was an extreme lack of help or direction from the departments handling the determinations. The part-time residents have been at a distinct disadvantage for two reasons. One, all of the information provided was directed to full-time residents only. Two, working remotely via computer, text, and email with the administration was extremely difficult. Are we not all taxpaying citizens who deserve the same amount of guidance throughout the process? I would like to make a reference to an email written by Fran Dembski, a resident in our park, to Commissioner Brian Scott on April 24, 2025. Specifically, Item 5 on his office's response, I quote, Our administrator and our commissioners have been committed to a robust after-action process since the day after Hurricane Helene. We have been in a continual state of debriefing and refining our service delivery, our communications, and our process. This included taking critical looks at our contractors and partnerships. There will be many lessons learned from these hurricanes, and the learning will continue for multiple years. We agree with you handling information correctly from the beginning and throughout the process is essential in refining our process. These are some of the problems we dealt with with trying to comply with the substantial damage determinations. Hurricane Helene occurred on September 26, 2024. I received a letter dated February 21, 2025, a full five months after the hurricane. After the storms, everyone began and completed the repairs to their mobiles prior to receiving this notice, not knowing that your rules existed and would be held against us. Two, there were inconsistent assessments. We were not informed by your departments that a cost breakdown existed created by Pinellas County, which we had to conform with. We found out from neighbors and then found out later that the cost breakdown changed, not once, but three or four times. How can someone dispute the items on a cost breakdown if they are constantly changing? Three, inconsistent inclusion of Hurricane Milton damages to the cost breakdown. Some owners did not have any costs added to their breakdown list. Others did have repairs for Milton added to their breakdown list. Four, I found it impossible to access the appeal account. Merwin Crane could not access the portal at all. Five, no assistance given after the magistrate's denial. The report states that you have a right to file a lawsuit in circuit court. We went to the courthouse to take this step to gather more information, but no one was able to give us assistance in this matter. Just another example of poor communication and inconsistent concern for the elderly. Six, in my case, I applied to FEMA for assistance. They provided funds to repair the damages. Currently, I am $1,329 above 49% rule. I do have disputes to make it less than 49%, but they weren't accepted with no explanation or help. Now I have to tear down the home I spent 13 years improving. A real injustice. Seven, in Merwin Crane's case, he is 65% of being non-substantial. He is submitting his report of damages separately that details costs to easily bring him down under the 49%. Again, a real injustice. In Margie Bischoff's case, she is 63% of non-substantial. Eighth, one resident just recently showed me an email they received, dated May 16, 2025, which stated that the flood plan administration is now accepting paid invoices by licensed contractors that include an itemized scope of work with an affidavit from the owner that work was performed in place of R.S. means data from Kevin McAndrews. Why wasn't everyone informed of this change? Nine, we never received a written copy of our file prior to the magistrate's appeal. We, in fact, were never informed to expect it, not by phone, text, email, or mail. What we are seeking is a reasonable opportunity to present our documentation to the flood plan administrator and or special magistrate using the information in our file. We also would like to have an inspector from the county come to visit our units to see how well they are repaired and maintained. In conclusion, we are fighting for our homes. The process has been arduous and emotionally disruptive, especially because we are elderly. We lack computer skills. If mistakes were made, and we believe there were mistakes made by us and the administrators of this process and its ever-changing computations, we would appreciate the Board of Commissioners to intercede and give us an opportunity to represent our cases, give us a chance to save our homes without going to court. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to your reply. First of all, thank you for your letter, and we all have copies of that. And I'll just start with a comment or two first. So sorry that you're welcome to go ahead and sit down. You don't need to stand up there. Sorry that you all have experienced the difficulty to begin with. Sorry that you've had some communication issues. I'm just trying to be as general as I can without getting into each specific case because each specific case is different and unique. Because first and foremost, it is your home, and it is an emotional time. So we certainly empathize with that. I'm just going to ask somebody from staff to just briefly, briefly speak to the process that these folks are talking about, just so others who might be watching can understand where they are in the process and what avenues they have, number one. And number two, let them know briefly who's in the lobby that might be of some assistance to them. So if somebody from staff could come forward and speak to those two things, I would appreciate it. So while Andrew's coming up, you know, I want to address the process. The process, obviously, they're being pegged as county rules, but in fact they're FEMA rules. And we set up a process, an appeal process, that actually wasn't required. We tried to do that to where it was convenient. We set up special magistrates, had them trained through our Board of Appeal process under Convert. That way they have trained a place to go and be able to present evidence. So you have your floodplain administrator that then goes to an appeal body. There you have that. So we've tried to set up multiple layers to make it more convenient. I can't imagine going through that as a resident. It is very complicated. It was complicated for staff also. But I would turn it over to them to try to address some of the concerns that were directly raised. But the intent was very clear to try to give residents a day in court without going to circuit court. All right. Please go ahead and introduce yourself. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Andrew Nielsen. I am the deputy director for building development review services. Up on the volume or get closer there so folks can hear you. That works for Kevin. Yes. Can you hear me now? Go ahead. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Andrew Nielsen. I am deputy director of BDRS. I am a licensed building official as well as a certified floodplain manager, many other licenses. And I just wanted to state those qualifications because I have sat in on some of these special magistrate hearings. And the magistrate does give every opportunity that they can as far as continuances, any additional information that they have. They can have 10 days to submit that so that they can be heard again. And I heard, but it's all reviewed, and it will be reviewed by Pinellas County and the special magistrate before the magistrate gives a decision. Once the magistrate delivers a decision, then they have the right to appeal at the circuit court level. And to my knowledge, we have had some that have wanted to go that route, but we have not had any that have pursued that route at this time. Explain what we have out in the hallway. We do have available resources as far as the people's first funds they can go. And if they're a full-time resident, give them any information they have and see if they can qualify for that, as well as any after-the-fact permitting or any questions they have on the process for substantial damage or substantial improvement, we do have resources in the hall for them. So we've set up staff from BDRS that can answer any questions regarding this. So if there's clarifications or anything about the things that were raised through the comments, staff can clarify any of those. Separately, the DR funds. And so there's potential for applications for that. Again, we've— Explain what the funds are you're talking about. So that's the $113 million that we received from the federal government. A piece of—813? What did I say? 113? I was wondering where the other 700 went. Well, we sent a million by Christmas, so I don't think we've spent that much. So we were sent— We have $813 million to provide, and the board's goal and direction was to provide that to people impacted by the floods. And so that is our Pinellas First program. Some of those programs directly go to recovery funds, rebuilding, and for substantially damaged process. They can assist with whether that is something you wish to apply for. They can explain the parameters of the program, specifically to the questions that were raised regarding the appeal process, documentation. Staff's available. They can go through that in the hallway that can answer any detailed questions as part of that process. So you have one question? Okay. That's a good question. That's enough. Thank you. One—the question is, most of the funds that we're expending right now are for full-time residence primary homes. There are some funds being set aside that we're going to be looking at later, and I'm wondering what that is, and, you know— Yeah, I don't—it's a great question. I don't know the answer to that. If Matt does, he can certainly speak to it. But you're right. They are targeted to homesteaded properties. Right. Go ahead. Matthew Spohr, Assistant County Administrator. They—per HUD, they are homesteaded properties and can only be used for homesteaded properties. There's some money in the strategic—I believe you're talking about the $10 million in the strategic relocation. No, we have seven—we had about $600-some million that is set aside for these programs. And there was some money that we were setting aside separately for, you know, the down-the-road process that might be available for different uses. So I just want to make sure— Are the housing funds that are strictly for homesteaded properties? That's correct, yes. And those are for HUD guidelines. Say it again? The homesteaded—the housing programs are for homesteaded property owners only. And that's HUD guidelines, not ours. That's correct. And so the funds that we've talked about setting aside for later, that has nothing to do with possibilities of non-homestead properties. That's correct. That's what he's saying. Is that correct? That is correct. It could help with strategic relocation of properties and floodplains. There's a lot it can do. But this specific situation, no. It would not help. So for folks who have this as a second home and not their primary home, there is no relief in the $813 million. And it really—their only outlet, then, is the process that they're going through to try to preserve their home. And I really want staff—staff can go through that. And, Commissioners, you've been through this many times over the past couple of years. Unfortunately, we have to use FEMA-approved guidelines to make that substantial damage determination. And so it doesn't matter that you've got it done for less. It is what the—and so maybe you can speak to that on a high level. And that's just for time's sake. I was trying to keep it high level. As far as the valuation of these mobile homes, you can either get a private appraisal, which then goes through the private appraiser that we have that reviews them to make sure that they all meet the necessary requirements of FEMA guidelines for an actual cash value appraisal. They can utilize that. Or if it is a unit that does have a value through Pinellas County property appraisers, we can utilize that. So they must—the cost to repairs cannot exceed 49% of the actual cash value or the depreciated market value through Pinellas County property appraisers' office. And unfortunately, that's what we seem to be running into most often with the mobile homes. It's just the valuation. To repair them, the materials far exceed the valuation of the mobile home. Yeah, the valuation on the denominator side and then the cost. Correct. Because a lot of folks—and we—I took, you know, your department went out and visited one of the mobile home parks, and we sat with six property owners. And two or three, actually, there was some additional information that was provided that perhaps might open a path to reconsideration. Two or three, there's not much you could have done with. So each one, again, to the point that I was raising earlier, is specific to a person, and it really can't be generalized. Right. The frustrating part is a lot of the folks were making repairs, and they were doing it much cheaper than they were being assessed by this model, which absolutely drives me crazy. You know, the government would be telling people that they must use an elevated cost for determination. That's been the one thing that's bugged me a lot. And the valuation of their property, you know, clearly. And, Commissioner, again, staff's in the hall, so if there's anything that can be done to that, I mean, Andrew and staff will be out there. And staff will be out there, they can meet with them, and they can discuss it with them. Folks, I am, again, so sorry for what you've been going through personally, but also the frustrations that you have. There are some folks out there that might be able to assist you with any additional questions. And thank you for being here today. Appreciate it. Andrew, you'll go out with him. Thank you, Andrew. Appreciate it. Okay. Ron Walker, please. Ron Walker, 7100 Homerton Road. Guys, we need a false claims ordinance in this county. The reason we need a false claims ordinance is because fraud is rift north to south. Let me educidate. We've got the corrupt leaders of Clearwater charging $3.80 to their constituents to recycle. They're recycled. We're throwing it in the dump. Had we a false claims ordinance in place when that theft was going down, one of those waste management truck drivers might have come forward and told us about it. Let me continue. We got a dude who was living in Clearwater doing business in St. Pete under a business called the Center for Special Needs. He was very comfortable in the political atmosphere you guys create. He stole $120 million. It gets worse. We had the fraud in St. Pete, $50 million worth of feather bedding. No one got caught. If we'd had a false claims ordinance in place, someone may have come forward and caught it when only $5 million had been stolen. And now the Super Bowl of Fraud Opportunities is available. They're going to redevelop the ballpark, $20 million. The same folks in St. Pete that stole the $50 million are now going to have a crack at $2 billion because we don't have a false claims ordinance. Last July 25, I gave each of you a copy of Broward County and Dade County's false claims ordinance asking you to pass it. Now, I know you didn't read it because you're probably afraid of the big words, but that ordinance copies Dade County. Dade County copies the Florida statute. The Florida statute copies the federal statute. The federal statute started with Madison, Jefferson, and Lincoln. And if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for Pinellas County. Copy Broward County's false claims ordinance. It won't cost you anything. You won't have to work hard. Once it's in place, it will be a deterrent or fraud. Thank you for your time, but pass a false claims ordinance. David Ballard. Can we meet? David Ballard Geddes, Jr. Hi. Good afternoon. David Ballard Geddes, Jr. I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. House Bill 479, Senate Bill 718, decommissions the county government and replaces it with an interlocal agreement invoking statute 163.01. As implied, the bill serves as an acquisition notice to the county interlocally transferring county function and powers as recognized in Pinellas County Home Rule Charter Section 2.04Q, aiding an internal foreign entity dissolving, liquidating the county while simultaneously shape-shifting local municipal governments into individual watershed jurisdictions usurping the reins of government as constitutionally gerrymandered under the 14th Amendment. Using a quid pro quo agreement with the water district, the bill internally manifests and insurrects an internal foreign legal entity giving rise to water despots wholly intent on adjudicating against the civilian population, intending on holding, acquiring, selling, and disposing of our property claiming their right to claim eminent domain against the residents with all powers and privileges materialized under Chapter 159 of the Florida statutes without giving notice to the homeowner in their backbiting infrastructure schemes as constitutionally formulated and methodically contrived. This internal foreign legal entity is being granted the right to issue bonds on behalf of itself in statute 218.415, Section 16F, assessing taxes of any kind whatsoever to finance their administrative levies, user fees, and contrived annual inspection charges, yet rebelliously themselves, they are exempt from their laws, ordinances, and their rules. And they are not required to pay any taxes whatsoever while methodically taking everything we own, obliging us to their contrived indebtedness, stating that their profits are at all times free from taxation, as we ourselves are reduced in our personhood as a tax burden, as this foreign internal entity is placing us in bondage for the purpose of undertaking our rights to life in the 14th amendment. House Bill 479, Senate Bill 718 decommissions our current government, grants, insurrects, aids, and abeds a political usurpation in government, assisting a foreign invasion against us. Thanks, thank you. Thanks, Dave. Okay, Greg Pound. Greg Pound, Largo, Florida. I want to talk about what's going on with these Epstein files. This here is the Dela Cruz children, Pinellas County, where these children were put with people in high positions in this county, and they were molested for years. And they put a gag order on the case, paid them off a million dollars apiece, and you can't find nothing out. I went to the attorney, talked to him. He couldn't talk to me. This is when I started with the AFAM, American Family Association, here in Pinellas County, defending our families. And this perverted corruption that's going on in this county is totally out of control. And it started at the leadership. The whole goal is when they took my daughter, after exposing all this corruption in this county and the pedophiles that are running this county, like Bernie McCabe, city councilman John Bryant, they were adopting little children, and then they were using them for sex while they had the little children. And the only way we found it, and this stuff is all documented. It's in the newspaper. You can read it. Read about John Bryant, Bernie McCabe, the children they adopted. These weren't their children. You took my little daughter from Hannah, my little daughter from me, and stuck her in a daycare in a family, and the guy was molesting her. And then the sheriff's department gives her $2,000 and signs a release form so he won't be prosecuted for molesting her. Can you imagine that, $2,000? And so my pursuit has been exposing the child molestation on what's going on in Pinellas County, and I've been hunted and hounded by your system, by your judicial system, the corruption now. You got me in court being rear-ended in the back end of a car on my way to the courthouse to expose the child molestation ring that's being run in this county. I interviewed little children who would tell you on the camera I put on YouTube that you can't find anymore, telling you what they did to them, telling them about being strapped to beds and burnt with spoons, taking hot spoons and burning them and using them for sex. And this stuff, and these are the children on video telling you this. It was recorded. I mean, it's right there in your face. I couldn't get nothing done. And it gives the names of the people in the sheriff's department, in the courthouse on 49th Street. And this is what we have. And then we have them pushing for limited liability and sovereign immunity for people who are doing these things. You can read this stuff. I mean, this is what they've got. So they voted for it and got it through Tallahassee. It says Pinellas County gets okay to market their gay tourism. This county is the capital of corruption for child molestation. That's why we've got the suicide rate, the drug problems we have. This is why this county has the problems. It says Largo. It says Largo. This is the Largo leader. It says child porn charges hit former cops. Okay, so what happens, it doesn't matter who you are. I mean, what you do, it matters who you are. When you have people in high positions, this is a part of their initiation. And just look at the Epstein stuff. It's so overloading and so powerful. But we have it in this county. This county is called Penis County up in Tallahassee. We have a major problem, and they need to be prosecuted. And it's all going to come out. You're not going to get rid of me here in this county. Thank you. That way I didn't have to get here from Latvala. You're going to hear the voice of the. So we had a motion from Commissioner Nowicki and a second from Commissioner Peters. Anybody want to pull anything? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, motion passes unanimously. We'll move on to. Let me get to. Thank you. Item 17. All right. Item 17. This is a purchase authorization with ADB, Safe Gates America, and Allen Enterprises for runway and taxiway lighting fixtures and equipment. It's through Stonewell, which is a government cooperative bidding process. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki, second by Commissioner Latvala, and Commissioner Scott, do you have a question? I do. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Barry, does this have anything to do with the Pappy lights? Have they already been fixed? I'm going to let Mark come up and explain that. I've heard about them, and I don't know if this does that or not. I didn't hear the Pappy lights. It's the secondary runway lights, and one former commissioner is very interested in that. Good afternoon. Mark Sprague, Interim Airport Director. The Pappy light lights stands for Precision Airport Approach Path Indicators. They are owned by the Federal Aviation Administrator, and the airport cannot touch them because they have a certification process to them. They were going to come out, and then the government shut down, so happened. So we are actively trying to get them back on schedule, back on priority, and what we are indicating is we're in the schedule at least for the next couple months. But they have to drive from Miami in order for them to fix them, but we are pursuing actively for them to fix them. Do they just fly from Miami rather than drive? I don't care how they get to the St. P. Clearwater National Airport. They can take the train, and it's just, yeah, we want them fixed. But everything else to that runway is operational. All right. Thanks. My pleasure. Thank you, Commissioner Scott. Anybody else? Okay, we'll go ahead and pull up the board, and that motion passes unanimously. Moving on to number 18. It's a first amendment to an interlocal agreement with Florida Department of Health and the Health Care for the Homeless Program. So this is moving money around within the particular funds. This is to where they can subcontract directly for behavioral health services. It has no fiscal impact. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions? Okay. We'll pull up the board, please. Okay. I'm a yes. I don't know why it's not going, but there we go. Thank you. That motion passes unanimously. Number 19. Program recommendation from the Public Safety Coordinating Council for the application to the Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substantive Use Reinvestment Grant Program. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions? Yes, Commissioner Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is there any matching required from the county? I'll have Karen come up and address that. I don't know the answer to your question. Good afternoon, Karen. Hi. Good afternoon. Karen Yatchim, Human Services Director. There's no requirement for matching from the county because we're not the applicant this year. In years past, we had been, but this year it's going to be PERC that's doing the applicants straight away. So they will have matching requirements. Sure. Thank you. Any other questions? Pull up the board, please. That is unanimous. Let's move on to number 20. Let me get the title of this down. The fiscal year 2026, Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development Grant Application. Okay, so this is for the redesign of Eastlake Road from Curlew up to Trinity. The grant request is for a little over $7.9 million for 80% of the design cost, required matches, just less than $2 million, and that would be available from the pending for penalty. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions on that? And this is just the grant application process. The grant application, trying to get more money in for the project, obviously. And, again, if you could just say one brief explanation about doing the entire design, even if we choose only to do parts of it in terms of construction. Somebody from the engineering department. Tom's here, but he'll probably go on for an hour because, I mean, this is, it's a big project, but, you know, we've talked about this. There are definitely interim solutions, but we need to understand what the ultimate design is. And I think that then we can then talk about intersections, bridges, and specifically one of the things I'm going to talk to him after this meeting about is interconnecting the lights and getting the maximum throughput of the existing. But they may need to do some improvements at some of the intersections before they do that. So those are some of the technical pieces that we want to fit in. We understand that East Lake Road's a long way off for a widening, but we look forward to getting a design where we can talk about things that can be done sooner rather than, you know, a decade later. But, and Tom, I'll get to you in just a second. So essentially, we can't do anything to improve physically unless we take it outside of the project until we get the design completed. In some ways. And I'll let Tom speak to that because they're already moving on bridges. They're already off on doing design work on certain aspects, but not everything. So why don't we let Tom speak to it? Good afternoon. Tom Washburn, Transportation Division Director for Public Works. So yes, the overall project is basically from the Pasco County line south to Tampa Road. That's what this build grant is for. It'll take care of the completing the PD&E study and then the design of the overall project. We do have interim projects. Several are currently underway. Several are in design. We've talked about what we're doing at Tarpon Woods. We presented that to the public last summer where we're going to utilize existing pavement out there to carry three through lanes northbound through the intersection. We're going to make some signalization improvements to hopefully improve flow by redirecting some of the pedestrian traffic that crosses East Lake Road to get to and from the Pinellas Trail. So we do think that'll have a positive improvement. There are five bridges to the south as part of this project. We're in design for the bridges that cross Brooker Creek, which is just south of Chestnut Park. Those will be the ultimate configuration for a six-lane section. So as we get that done and get the bridges across Tampa Road completed, prior to the overall project, we'll actually be able to carry three through lanes northbound all the way up through Tarpon Woods. So we do think that'll be a pretty significant project and a significant improvement prior to the major design of all the intersections. To the north, we've got the intersection of Keystone Road and East Lake Road currently under design. That will take care of the study that we did for the fire station to the east, so to provide better emergency access through that intersection during response times. We're also extending the eastbound left turn lanes as far as possible, adding a third eastbound left turn lane and adding a third northbound through lane to accommodate that, all within what we anticipate to be the ultimate footprint. So trying to minimize any rework that has to be done once we get to that ultimate design. I'm happy to talk about some of the ATMS and technology items that we're doing, if you want me to, Barry, or we can handle that at a separate time. Well, yeah, I mean, you've got time. I mean, we're at a commission meeting, but he's here. And, you know, if you've ever, you go down, you drive Almerton, and you notice it's a lot better. And that's the part of the $18 million that you guys put forward and what they've been implementing in some of these design things. So maybe you can just talk about that and what's really possible as interim solutions out on East Lake even. Absolutely. So we are in the process of doing our FY26 retiming plans overall. We've been submitting our quarterly reports to you. One of those corridors this year is East Lake Road from Trinity down to Boot Ranch. So this is the area that we're talking about where we've got the most congestion. We've had great success with our retiming projects. That is going to include something a little bit unique that we'll bring to you when we do our ATMS update, but it's flush patterns for the morning and afternoon peak period. We've talked about that a little bit. Right now we carry a lot of – we carry four-minute cycles along East Lake Road, so very long cycle lengths. The majority of that does go to north-south traffic. What we're talking about with these flush patterns, especially during the morning and afternoon peak periods, is providing a little bit more time, sacrificing the side streets a little bit. But we think that's important, you know, in terms of progression during congested periods. We expect we're going to have more success in the afternoon peak period. In the morning, the challenge that we have is the schools that we have up in the north part of the county. We've got a middle school. We've got a high school. We've got two elementary schools. Their arrival times coincide with the morning peak period, so if we were to sacrifice the side streets very much during that time period, we'd really be backing up traffic onto the school sites, which we don't want. So there's a balancing act that we're working out there. That's part of that, and that's all scheduled to be implemented by the end of April of this year, so not too much farther down the road. We're also at the same time, that's when we implement and install our IVA equipment at all the intersections, so it's a much better detection system. It goes through its machine learning and starts providing some analytics from a safety standpoint, so if there's conflicts that we're not noticing or that we're not aware of, this system helps to pick that up and helps us to address those type of issues as well. That's also scheduled to be installed within the next four weeks. That's good stuff. That's good stuff. I appreciate it. Yeah, and the designs that we're doing now for these other projects that you mentioned, are they in the overall design, which will pull out those costs that we're doing ahead of time, or is it these costs here do not include all that? The costs as part of this grant application do not include what we're currently doing. This is for completing the PD&E study and then for the overall design. We are trying to minimize any rework that has to be done with these projects that we currently have. I appreciate all the work you guys do. Thank you for that brief update. Are there any questions from the commission while he's here? Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay. You need a motion, right? We have... Sir, we have... No, we don't. We already had it. Okay. Thank you. If you can pull up the board, please. That's unanimous. We'll move on to number 21. This is purchase authorization with All-American Concrete, Gator Grading, and with Roland LLC for rehabilitation for storm sewers. These are... Each agreement is... The four agreements not to exceed $2.6 million, which is $650,000 per. And I said that wrong because I missed QRC also. Got a motion by Commissioner Peters. Second. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions? Can I pull up the board, please? That's unanimous. Is that all only in Largo? This is for... Well, Jeremy's here. So... Storm sewers... Oh, no. It's utilizing City of Largo's contract. So they jumped onto their contract, but it's for miscellaneous sites. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And that was unanimous. And this is Kelly. Number 22, please. Purchase authorization with interliner solutions for trenchless pipeline rehabilitation services. Jumping on a Houston contract, but $2.5 million through 2029. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions on item 22? Vote the board, please. That vote was unanimous approval. Number 23. And this is purchase authorization with Bayside Dredging for Outfall Maintenance Services, a City of Tampa contract. I had a motion... What's that? Chair, I just had a quick question on that. Yeah, motion for approval by Peters and Commissioner Peters, a second by Commissioner Nowicki. Commissioner Sheer, you had a question? I just found it strange that it's the scope and pricing per City of Tampa's agreement. I didn't understand... So we look for contracts that have been recently bid and so we can get competitive contracts and that way we can move quicker, obviously, without having to go through a whole another RFP process, notice, et cetera, and stuff. So we, it's an option that we have if they're, and people jump on our contracts all the time and utilize that and we make them to where people can jump on those and utilize that competitive pricing. It's been done through a competitive selection process. Good to know. Thank you. Unanimous approval. On to number 24, please. An increase in extension to the contract with Charter Communications. This is for BTS for all of their Ethernet and wide area network stuff. Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions on item 24? Vote the board, please. That's a unanimous approval. Number 25. The issuance of one new certificate of public convenience for Stratus Transportation. They completed all the necessary requirements. Thank you. Approval by Commissioner Peters, second for Commissioner Nowicki. Assume no questions. All in favor? Oh, vote the board. That's a unanimous approval. Under item number 26, I sent around our confidential folder. I see it's ended up over there with hopefully the last commissioner. This is sort of a timing issue, so we didn't send this around previously. We do need to ask the board to take action on this, so what I'm asking is the board to approve the recommendation as set forth in the confidential memo that I did send around. Again, this is a timing issue. This is a little bit different than what you usually see, but this is a case involved in arbitration. We have not gotten the decision yet. We will by Friday, and we only have 20 days to act after that, so we cannot bring this back to the commission, so we're asking that you delegate the decision-making authority on that. Mr. Peters, second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions? Oh, bring it up to the board, please. Thank you. And that's a unanimous approval. Anything else? No reports today. County Administrator. Barry. Well, just two items, Commissioners. Series one, we're in the middle of our employee forums, so as you know, we try to at least annually really get out and have open forums with our employees to hear directly from them, concerns, issues that they're having. We hold those in two series. One with our line employees, our classified and non-manageral employees, and then separately with our managerial employees. We also do employee engagement surveys, and so we take the collective information of what's contained in the surveys and the information I hear directly from our employees and try to use that to improve our work environment, and we've heard everything from boots allowances and things like that to general working conditions, and so we try to use that to improve, but we're in the middle of those. Those take, when you have 20-some hundred employees, it takes a long time to do that, so we're in the middle of that, we'll complete those here in March, and so that's one of the processes we're in the middle of. The second thing is, I think, you know, I think the Commissioners would agree we had a really good strategic planning process. You put all your ideas up on the board, so we have a lot of information to digest, the idea being the next steps. We'll digest that down based upon the information you provided, and we'll bring that back here for a work session that may be a longer day where we spend time in saying, here's what we heard are your priorities, here are the things you want us to reverse on and focus attention on over the next year, and then you can debate those, decide those, and give staff direction for the update to our strategic plan, and that will occur likely end of March, but maybe end of April, depending upon as we get that information together, so more to come on that, but that's kind of the next steps in that process, and that concludes my report. That was quick. Thank you. All right. We'll move into the County Commission comments, suggestions, et cetera, and we'll start with Commissioner Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We'll see. Since our last get-together, we had, I think, another good positive follow-up phone call with the Army Corps last week on our ongoing easement discussions. There's still a continued positive attitude from the Corps, and we are hopeful that we can nudge this across the finish line here, and hopefully in the next few months. And Commissioner Scheer and Flowers and I will be in D.C. next week, and when we're touring the Pentagon, hoping that we'll have a chance to stop by Mr. Boyd's office and just say hello with him, and we look forward to our next follow-up meeting. And then next week, we will be meeting with two of the beach communities on suggesting a customary use ordinance for the beaches that they could consider adopting. that would satisfy the Corps' requirements for public access. So more to come on that, but very, very positive development. We had a PSTA Executive Committee meeting where we discussed the strategic plan going through 2030. Forward Pinellas meeting as well, and that was kind of followed last Friday by the Tampa Bay, the TMA meeting at the Tampa Expressway Authority, where Commissioner Scheer and Flowers and Eggers and myself, and I think Commissioner Nuwake virtually. And that was, I think, an important symbolic meeting. While that group doesn't have any real actual authority, but they did vote to recommend an apportionment governance structure to bring forward as a recommendation to the three MPOs and three boards and county commissions in the city of Tampa for a merged MPO. So more to come on that, but I thought it was some really, really good discussion there. And they've actually advanced a, you know, a potential government governance structure that could move forward. Had my first golf consortium meeting, so that was good. Of course, we had a strategic planning meeting. I thought we had a lot of really good discussion there, and I really appreciate everybody's participation there. Last night gave a county update at the, or actually, I did a county update at the Largo Republican Club last night and won about two weeks ago to the Clearwater Republican Club. A week ago, this past Saturday, was with Commissioner Eggers when we cut the ribbon at Raymond Neary Community Park in Wellman and shared some welcoming remarks at the Wellman Honey and Arts Festival, which is always a good time. Attended the Beach Renourishment Celebration, kind of that final throwing bucket of sand with, I think, pretty much all of us were there, so that was a lot of fun. I got sand in my shoes, I'm sure we all did. And immediately following that, I joined the pro-development team at the groundbreaking of a new condominium complex and rental project in TI, and Commissioner Peters was there with me. Saturday, February 7th, I participated in the Best Damn Race 10K in Safety Harbor. Always a lot of fun. They have a lot of great events up there. And then I want to thank Deputy Manley this morning for giving me a tour of the historic courthouse. First time I've really ever spent any time in that building, since we're going to have to make some decisions on that, on the future of that. I wanted to just spend a little time and walk through it and get to understand that building there. And, you know, my initial takeaway is it is a beautiful, historic, old courthouse, and the predominant word there being old, and with leaking windows and a lot of other ongoing maintenance issues, I think that could potentially be a money pit for us in the future if we wanted to keep it exactly as is. So I'd be very curious to see what adaptive reuse kind of looks like and what sort of ideas and thoughts come out of that for what we can preserve and just sort of what that looks like going forward. But with that, that concludes my report. Thank you. Commissioner Scott? Commissioner Nowicki? No new reports at this time, Chair. Thank you. Commissioner Peters? Well, Commissioner Scott shared most of mine, so I will just move on to one last thing. I want to congratulate Commissioner Rainflowers for the 2026 Make Your Mark Award that she received in Tallahassee last, was it two weeks ago? And I knew Mayor Marks. He was a wonderful, wonderful man. And I think it was a very well-deserved award based on what it's about. So congratulations and kudos. I tried to get there to surprise you, but my flight was too soon, and I couldn't get the Uber in time. So I plan on surprising you. I plan on surprising you, but I just couldn't do it. Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you, Commissioner Peters. Commissioner Scheer. Chair? I wanted to let you know that I totally enjoyed going to the beach renourishment, and I'm doing everything I can to let everybody know that our beaches are up and they're beautiful, and I'm proud of the work that the county staff did to get them done in such a record time. So we need to tell everybody we can to get out there and enjoy the beaches and spend a little money because the beach communities need it. On February 11th, I went to the ARC Innovation Showcase with Commissioner Eggers and Commissioner Flowers, and I enjoy going to that. If you haven't been to their showcase, it's good. Get a look at the startups that are occurring there, get an idea of what could happen in our community in the future. I really think they're on to something the way they're incubating business ideas there and supporting them. So that was great. And there were investors from all over the country there, Chicago and Boston, just to hear what we can go basically drive down the street to hear about. So that was great. On the 12th, I attended the Orlando Health opening, grand opening, for their new Florida Cancer Specialist Facility in St. Petersburg. Commissioner Nick Nowicki was there to represent us as well. It was good to see that. That was a major investment from Orlando Health, and I was happy to see them get open. On the 13th, I did also attend the TMA. That was my first time. I went there as a member of the Ford Pinellas, and we're going to have that coming up for a discussion. I don't want to bother you with my thoughts right now, but I think it would probably be one of the most important decisions we ever make on this board is how we're going to, whether or not we're going to have this merger or not. So please study it and be ready to consider it, all the ramifications. Last Friday, I also got to present a recovery check to one of our citizens on the beach at Reddington Shores, and she was so happy to get a check. It was a nice-sized check. She lost everything in the storms. Her business that she worked at lost everything in the storms. I'm just so happy that we have this program going. We need to tell more people about it so they'll take advantage of it. Also, in honor of Engineering Week, there is a problem in Pinellas County, and it's going on, and it's not our problem. We didn't create it, but I just wanted you to know that the Elevate Florida program the state started encouraged a lot of people to get busy engineering houses to be raised. They have a lot of prime contractors out there with subcontractors out there, and they haven't been reimbursed by the state for the money they've spent to design all these houses. There's like 700, 800 contracts that haven't been paid in eight months, so there's a lot of people out there that are hurting because they can't get paid by the primary contractors. So my plan is to let our state legislature know that we need to fund that. I mean, it was a program that was started by the state. I know they're not being funded by the federal government, but they got their name on it, so maybe they could help them out a little bit. So I just wanted you to know that that was there, and there's people out there not getting paid. And they're engineers, and it's their week, right? Anyway, that's pretty much my report. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Flowers. Well, thank you. It would have been a very nice surprise to have looked out and have seen one of my colleagues up in Tallahassee for that honor. But thank you so very much for making the attempt to come. I really appreciate it. I had a good time, but I had to hop on the plane and get on back. I had an opportunity to attend the Legacy Awards Dinner. It is an honor that is put on every year by the IMA out of St. Petersburg, Florida, with Reverend J.C. Pritchett heading up the IMA. The persons that were honored this year is Dr. Kenneth Bryant, one of the first African-American physicians who specifically targeted men and prostate cancer issues, started a nonprofit, really trying to encourage men to have their PSA checked and whatnot early so that they could detect early. He has since retired, but he is still volunteering in the community. So he's enjoying life but still helping people out. Jeff Baker was one of the other honorees. Reverend Pritchett made sure to tell everyone this has nothing to do with the political part of what Duke Energy is doing. This has all to do with how he as an individual has supported things in the community even beyond his employment with Duke Energy. And the other young lady who I had a chance to meet, her name is Mary Corbett. She is the only and the first African-American violinist with the St. Pete Orchestra, with the Florida Orchestra. I'm sorry, with the Florida Orchestra. She played background for Whitney Houston when Whitney Houston sung the national anthem prior to the Super Bowl. And so one of the things that she's doing is encouraging young individuals who play any type of string instrument to try out for the Florida Orchestra so that hopefully the legacy can continue. So she was just very eloquent, and I didn't know that about her. I didn't know her, so it gave me a wonderful opportunity to get a chance to meet her. Of course, we celebrated President's Day on Monday, so that's a real important day, I think, for the leadership of our country. If you are not busy and you so desire, feel free to stop by Greater Mount Zion Ammy Church. We're celebrating Ash Wednesday on tomorrow at 6 o'clock. So if you would like to come by, the service only lasts about an hour, but it's just to acknowledge Ash Wednesday. Some of you may be attending the State of the City address that's going to be at the Palladium for the City of St. Petersburg. I'm going to kind of hear what it is that this next phase of opportunities will occur in the City of St. Petersburg. So I'm looking forward to hearing that. And then on Thursday, I just love this program. Adam Ross now has taken over the license plate artwork. I missed it last year because I was out of town, but when I was on the school board especially, I went every year because those kids are really competitive one to another for their artwork because their artwork ends up on license plates. And then they put them in the different offices, Adam Ross offices all over the county. So if you have a chance, it starts at 6 o'clock p.m. tomorrow evening at Largo High School. It's really a nice event if you have a chance to go by and check them out. I had our Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council meeting where I chaired my first official meeting as chair. We're just really looking at some of the targeted projects that we will focus on for the upcoming year. So it was a really good meeting. And then talking about some of the funding that was put on hold when there was a government shutdown, but now those dollars have been released for some resilience and sustainability projects. And I think you all have heard me share before about how the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council partners with the University of South Florida, Ecker College, and other notable institutes, especially when it comes to red tide issues and concerns or anything that is environmental that encompasses the water. We are redoing our Phoenix project. So if you've had a chance to look at the initial Phoenix project, it showed what would happen to our county if, in fact, a Cat 5 was a direct hit. This is an update of that using the data from Helene and Milton and then taking it a step further. So I look forward to sharing that with you all once we've completed that updated project. I'll be leaving on the 20th, so I'll be in the cold weather with my colleagues. But I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the tour at the Pentagon, but I'm also looking forward to being able to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. So I know that will be a very solemn and somber moment, but I am really looking forward to that. Also looking forward to some of the legislation that we hope to encourage our federal government to address a lot of the problems that occur here in Florida, also occurring all over the nation. It just works better when there are many voices coming together that are addressing the same issues and concerns. And I'm sure when we get back, we'll give a report after we thaw out upon our return. That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Flowers. Vice Chair Lett-Bowler. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So after our strategic planning meeting and after today, I came up with an idea that we can all get behind. We have an incoming chair of FAC next year, and that's going to be a big deal because she's going to bring home the bacon to Pinellas County. But after that, we're going to need somebody else to get behind, and I will be the first to volunteer to get behind a future candidacy for Chris Scheer to be the second VP at a future FAC conference. And I will pass out his brochures to – and the buttons because you've got to have buttons at the FAC conference. You're not going, right? I mean, maybe not – if it's not this year, we need to get prepared for next year. So you've got to be on all the FAC committees and all that kind of stuff. You've got to work it. You've got to work it. But I'm going to be the first to sign up to be the head volunteer. But I was proud to attend the groundbreaking of the Fairfield Avenue Apartments in St. Pete, and I was joined with Commissioner Flowers. We spent $12.4 million from the penny for Pinellas on that project. It's 264 units, 99-year land lease, and it's a restriction on all of these homes to keep them affordable. It's a great project in St. Pete, and it was a great attendance. I attended the Tampa Bay Downs 100th anniversary race this past weekend. And along with Commissioner Flowers, tomorrow night I will be presenting at the kids' tax collector kids' tag art award ceremony. And my awardee is an elementary school student in my district, so I'm looking forward to that. I don't want to say what school it is in case they happen to be watching, which I doubt they are, because outside of our family, nobody watches this. Oh, and this weekend on Saturday is the ribbon-cutting for the new Bernie McCabe 2nd District Court of Appeals Courthouse. This Thursday we have a JWB meeting, and on Friday we're interviewing the three candidates for the CEO position to be the next CEO of JWB. And some of you all have reached out to me to express your preference in the next CEO, and so far it's been unanimous in your preference. If you have not spoken to me and you wish to express your preference, please do so before Friday, because that will be an important decision that we will be making. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Welcome. Thank you, Chris. So, I've got a few things to go over, just things I've been kind of gone to, but also just have some, maybe some policy discussion at the end on a few items. So, just as a heads up, we have Blue Jay opening ceremonies on Saturday noon, 1 o'clock timeframe, so hopefully some of you are getting a chance to at least get up there for the game, if nothing else. I know there's opening ceremonies for the Phillies on Sunday. As well, looking forward to being a part of those two opening ceremonies. Had a chance to meet, the Allegiant Airlines representatives came in town, so we had a chance to at least chat a little bit about what's going on in their merge, not merger, but purchase of another airline, and just talk a little bit in general about the relationship and that kind of thing. So, overall, very happy with the airport operation. So, it was a good meeting. Through the Palm Harbor Chamber, had a chance to go to the Fresh Monkey Ribbon Cutting. So, they really, they do a lot of protein shakes and healthy foods, right next to Crunch Fitness. New owner, just so excited about the business. And every time you get a chance to see a new business off the ground, it's kind of neat to go to those. Somebody mentioned the Rainier Park ribbon cutting, which was just amazing. Somebody said, I think, the first park that we've actually opened, I guess, in 20 years here in Pinellas County, which is kind of cool to have one. Obviously, we take care of a lot of parks, but a brand new one. And his wife, Laura Neary, was there as well, along with her son, daughter-in-law, and then her daughter and son-in-law. So, the family was there to experience the moment of the park being opened up. And a lot of the work that, obviously, Ray did for years there. So, it just was a really nice event. We've talked about the beach renourishment. It was really nice to be there. And also, kind of, with that good news that we're starting to hear from the Army Corps, we brought that one in for a landing ourselves, because, obviously, it's important for us, but also to see that we're at least moving a little bit in the right direction. So, it's all positive, and we'll keep our fingers crossed on that. Was that Olea groundbreaking off of 66th Street? It's a new affordable workforce housing, 40, 60, and 80% AMI, located behind some other apartments that are marked and surrounded by residential community, nestled right there in the middle of Pinellas County, where a lot of jobs are available, a lot of transit opportunities to get to the jobs are available. So, really neat. The developer was there, and it was a good groundbreaking ceremony. They'll have their ribbon cutting in the months to come. Commissioner Scheer mentioned the Innovation Showcase at ARC. I know that Commissioner Flowers was there, Commissioner Scheer, myself. Just really, there was a lot of energy in the room. The investors that were there, the six business owners that presented, a ReliaQuest CEO that, you know, started that business, you know, gosh, I don't know how many years ago. Not that long, but he's up to like a $4 billion business that he has, and he's just been off the charts. But he was really pleasant to talk to, and a humble guy that talked about, you know, good stuff. And it was just really a good, really good session. Really appreciated the strategic planning workshop. I think we basically boiled it down to just conversation that we got to talk with each other about, and give staff some prioritized direction, and so that was good. The TMA meeting, we did have the three representatives there. I kind of tagged along just so that I could, you know, hear firsthand. I've been involved in it for so long, and like the discussion, we have a lot of conversation going on, and we keep making little steps forward, and again, each step is important. And we talked about how to support small cities in the three-county area. And there was three models that they offered up, and at the end of it, I think they agreed to support each county taking care of their own small cities in their own way. We certainly do here in Pinellas County. But I thought that was a good step forward. And again, more conversations to come. So that was good. Just you mentioned the Bernie McCabe Courthouse grand opening. I appreciate that. Did we get notice on the Bayside Bridge site ceremony yet? Have we pinned that we haven't? David? I think it's coming up. Did we send that down, the Bayside Bridge ceremony? Yes. Okay. So we'll get that information. Okay. Great. Okay. Great. Great. Say that again? Okay. Okay. All right. Super. And then I'm going to get a chance to go to tour HEP, you know, the Homeless Empowerment Project in Clearwater, a great organization. But I want to go there and see how they're doing, what changes have been made there over the years. They just do incredible work. And they cater to a lot of different folks, including vets who have struggled to get their own place. So really, really good operation. I'm looking forward to that tour as well. Wow. So just on some, just on some, maybe some policy discussions or direction. I had a chance to meet with a gold star mom. And let me find my notes here. Yeah. Her name is Tiffany Downs. And I also met with a gold star mom, Tony Gross, who lost her son. And they, she had the, the, the, the bridge to Oldsmar, I guess the state and the county approved that renaming that bridge after Tony Gross's son, Corporal Gross. Um, and, um, anyway, we met to talk about, uh, Sergeant Nichols Flowers, who he was in the army intelligence end of the business, but he, uh, he died, uh, after serving, um, in theater many different times, but he, he passed away. Um, and so she was talking about considering, uh, a section from Tampa road to, um, Curlue on County road one and, uh, renaming that piece after her son. Um, I said that I would talk to the commission. I felt there would be support. I talked with, um, our public works group to make sure that we had a spot on it. Each end of that area, one of the intersections to, to give the proper, um, notification. If you will, uh, for that renaming. So I just wanted to make sure I told them that I would just run it by the commission just to kind of give me a, you know, we're going to look into it kind of thing. I wanted to make sure that, you know, that there's no issues with our parks folks, with our public works folks and all of that. But, um, I just kind of need some nodding heads that say it's okay to look into it. Um, I'll bring it back obviously when we make any of those decisions, but I, I didn't want to spend a lot of time going through the process. If I didn't have that support. So Barry, did you have something? Yeah. If you can submit, we've got that policy. If we can submit that, we'll, we'll then do that review. Yeah. Um, and you'll have the details. Yeah, that's what, that's what I'm talking about. But I want to make sure we were okay. There's general consensus. We were okay. Um, at the same time, both of them said that there seems to be a, a growing sentiment in different counties, um, Pasco counties doing it. Um, and we talked a little bit about a, a, um, a gold star memorial itself for goals. It's basically for gold star families that, uh, obviously have the, you know, their, their son or daughter has died in action or, or not just in theater or just died while serving. Um, and so, uh, they become gold star moms or gold star families and the gold star moms just are just amazing group of people. Um, so we were just talking about that. And I said, I'm sure there would be some interest in looking at that. Um, not sure where that fits best. It might fit best at Crest Lake park. And that's a city of Clearwater thing. And, you know, so we're, we were just talking through that. Um, and so again, I, I, you know, we have that policy, the same thing. We, we did, we did the purple heart park location down next to Bay Pines and one of our parks down there. So I just wanted to, again, get a nod that it's okay for me to kind of look into that. Um, and I'll of course, bring it back, you know, go through the staff process and making sure that that's something that we would be interested in considering. Okay. Appreciate, appreciate that. Um, so, and, uh, I mentioned the opening day policy, you know, going for the city. You know, going for the, the, uh, you know, opening day at the Blue Jay stadium and down at the Philly stadium. Um, and staff is just, I asked them to send out the event baseball ticket, um, policy that we have here. Just cause I had some questions that I just kind of get confused sometimes. And so I really appreciate, uh, Amanda and your office jewel for bringing a refresher. Um, cause we did, you did this for four years ago, I think, but it's always good to get a refresher on that. Just to help us kind of navigate what we need to do to, uh, to make sure we stay, uh, within the line, so to speak. So I appreciate that. Um, the first responder recognition event that, uh, the John Maroney foundation supports each year is going to be, we kind of just decided. They're still working through a lot of things, but June 13th, um, at Ruth Eckert hall. So there'll be a save the date cards going out and all of that. Uh, but that's kind of being floated out. And so we'll, we'll, we'll keep everybody, uh, updated on that as we, as we move along. Uh, just a brief report on the health and human services board. I've talked to the chair of that group. I'm going to talk to two more school board members. Um, but it seems to be moving towards a, we're going to have the next meeting and that will be the focus of the discussion of the board members to determine the future of that group. Um, talk to a lot of, uh, the, the, the folks on the administrative side, they're involved with the group and seem to have the same kind of feeling that the commissioners here felt. Um, that's probably a time to kind of move in a different direction on that board. Um, but, but again, I still got a couple more meetings, but I just wanted to let you know that that seems to be the direction we're heading. So, um, just, just a brief update. Um, do we have a sense yet of how many folks are going to the fat conference this year? Anybody know yet? Yeah. Yeah. I know. Obviously you're going, you're going. Okay. I'm not sure. Okay. Not sure. Okay. You probably. Okay. Well, that's great. I mean, I, and I, I just wanted to piggyback on some of the comments that were made about commissioner flowers and we're just so proud of her and all the prime seating. Yeah. Yeah. We right up front. Right. In addition to the money she's bringing back to the county. I just, that's just, anyway, we're very proud of you, commissioner flowers. And, uh, looking forward to that. So, uh, yeah. Yeah. Yep. Um, there are two things that the incoming president gets to do. If I said this already, please forgive me. I can't remember. One is, um, there's a scholarship opportunity for, um, youth. Um, one of the caveats has been that, um, the information goes out to the employees of that county and it's their children that can apply for the scholarship. The scholarship is $2,500. Um, what I requested that they add is that we have the YAC committee and I explained to them that we have a number of students who very well inclined academically, et cetera. And I would not like want to leave them out of the opportunity if they wanted to submit. So legal, uh, with fact is just checking to make sure it's good. So we don't get, you know, blow back from anyone else. But I wanted to make sure that our YAC participants could qualify to apply. Um, if one of our YACs or whoever is selected, um, that pays for their entrance into the banquet and their parents. So they, if they bring to parents or guardians or whatever, we just can't pay for the hotel stay, but we do cover all of the other expenses. So just wanted to share that. So, um, I did receive the application. I made a few little changes. We're waiting for that final decision. And once that comes out, then it'll be released and I can share it with staff here and they could share it with our employees. The other, um, excuse me. Oh, no, no, no, no. Go ahead. I forgot it was supposed to be two things and I forgot the other one. I know I'm getting old. Well, while you remember that, I wanted to wish our attorney a belated happy birthday. Happy birthday. Since you got mine early, happy belated birthday. Well, I tell you, I forgot the second thing and they both were related to that. Okay. It'll come back to me. If, if you don't mind at the end of our night, if it comes back to me, I'll write it down. Okay. That's fine. But I knew it was two announcements I needed to make. I wanted to make to you guys. I just have one more thing, but go ahead. Go ahead. Okay. Um, so I'm bring up a topic. Um, you know, not, not to, not to be uncomfortable about anything, but, um, it's, it's regarding a letter that, um, uh, our, our, our administrator, Barry Burton, uh, penned yesterday afternoon. We each got it, um, addressed to one of our colleagues, um, and, and some concerns about, uh, uh, not, uh, not following policy here and, uh, protocol. Um, it's pretty straightforward what policies we have and protocol we have to make sure that we, that we listen to each other and that we respect each other and that we abide by not only the charter, but also by our own kind of, um, of code of discussion. Um, not trying to make a big point of the, the permissions that I got earlier from you all, but I did want to move on those two items and I wanted to make sure that I had your support. I don't like to use a lot of staff time, uh, without that. Um, and I don't want to just go off on my own on something that may not be received well. So I appreciate that. Um, and so that letter was sent, um, yesterday. Um, and it does bring up some concerns. Um, it talks a little bit about, um, a process that we go through when we take items here, uh, for vote on policy or contracts. Or anything else that we as a commission make those decisions and that, um, the activities that our commissioners are doing shouldn't go against those actions. Um, there, there are many times, there's many opportunities right here when we deliberate to, to have that debate, to have those conversations, but to, um, uh, to circumvent that and to put potentially put out, not only put at risk, the contract, but, uh, of the relationship, the confusions that it might have caused. Um, but also just essentially to go against the will of this board. And it did bother me a little bit and it did concern me. Um, I would have basically put this in our workshop at the first meeting in, in, uh, March, but we'd only have one meeting in March and it's towards the end of March. And I didn't really want to wait that long. Um, I'm not necessarily looking for action today, but I just wanted to make sure that everybody here. This one was directed and I'm just going to be, it's public record now, uh, to, uh, to Commissioner Nowicki for some activities, uh, with, um, Allegiant while traveling in, uh, Las Vegas or Nevada at their corporate headquarters. And some concerns that have been expressed by the county administrator, but also by the organization, uh, the Allegiant folks. And so, um, I, I, again, I think it's, since it's, since it's addressed to Commissioner Nowicki, I'm not, I'm not saying you have anything to speak to today. Um, we definitely, uh, can have further discussion about this at our workshop in March. I think it's a better, kind of better environment to have that conversation. Um, but I also think it's important topic not to let go another day or certainly not another four weeks where there might be some confusion as to what policy is. And what we do here as a commission, we do a lot of work individually, but when you start talking on behalf of the commission and you start talking against what the commission has voted for, it becomes a problem. So I will leave it at that. Um, I do think we need to have further discussion at the workshop, but I, if there's anybody here who wants to speak to it, they can. Commissioner Nowicki, if you would like to be. Yeah, I mean, I'll just say a lot of the facts and the letter were wrong. And I mean, I didn't negotiate, bind, engage, or obligate the county in any regard. Um, and I simply operated my own personal fact finding, um, to shape policy under the count, under the county charter, similar to how I meet with many businesses. So, um, I didn't engage, negotiate, bind the county to anything. Uh, they invited me to go out there when they came into town months ago to said, hey, if you're ever in Vegas, give us a call. And so I already had a trip to go out to Vegas to see a concert. So I reached out to them and they said, come on down. I said, thanks. Met with them, told them what was going on. I explained my own personal viewpoint. And I said, if you guys have any questions, you know, feel free to reach out to the county. But, and that was it. Um, uh, and I, and again, I think that oftentimes we're invited to different functions, different events, different locations. Um, certainly we take trips to different places to have those conversations. And we are basically ambassadors at that point for this county and for each, and for this board. But it's very specific to then the, the, the things that were written in here were very specific to, uh, policies that we made in a contract that we approved for a parking garage at the airport. And, and, and I know that you had some concerns while we were, you voiced them here about the location and that's fine. That's what we're, it's what we're all about, but we've taken a vote and we made the decision to move forward with the plan as proposed. Um, and making sure that our partner has, has, has got some comfort that their needs are going to be met because they, you know, we have a, we have a, we have a parking issue at the county. So, uh, at the airport. So what this said was a lot different than what you're saying. In other words, there was some comments about, you know, if you have a, you know, I, I disagreed and I think you should, you know, if you have some issues and you want to take exception, please feel free to move forward in that direction. It was a little bit more specific to encouraging a different, a different framework than what we as a commission had decided on. And that's, I think that speaks to the specificity. I don't, I haven't, I'm not getting into the whole thing here, but it's extremely important that we have those battles right here. And if, you know, and if we want to send commissioner Scott, the chairman last year, before we vote and we agree to send him to Vegas with the administration, to talk through some issues and the airport director, that's something that we would decide because then they're representing and he would be representing us. And I think that's an important distinction as well. So just, again, it's the cautionary statement that, um, these are, these are important contracts. Now, when we have a great relationship, one of the things I was concerned about was this new purchase of a, of an airplane and what that meant. And they, you know, they were very comfortable telling me that they are so committed to this airport and what we do here. And they love the operation. They really get along with the director, uh, just an upbeat conversation. Um, and so there might've been some confusion on, on the trip, but they were fine. They, they understood that what we were doing and why we chose what we did. Uh, but again, very important that we not go against that policy that we've set here. That's just a, yeah, no, I mean, I, I, well, when we make policy, I'm saying, but it is in the charter too. Correct. Go ahead. Yeah. I mean, I, I, you know, I understand what you're saying, but you know, again, the facts of the letter were wrong. Um, and like you meet with the Phillies, like you meet with, you know, Sunstar, any other business. I mean, there was no binding or anything obligation. And I simply went there in my own personal capacity after they invited me to come out. So, well, you know, you can't bind us anybody by yourself. So that's not, there's not a binding thing for the trip. It's more, and there was no staff involvement either. So, um, but again, again, I think sometimes, and, and there, you know, again, I don't want to get too deep into this today. Uh, we'll, I think it, I think it does warrant some discussion, at least on some general points and maybe not specifically to this, but, you know, who you take with you to these meetings is also a big deal. It's also, it's, it's important that we, that you understand that piece of it as well. Um, and you're, you know, again, we have responsibilities. We made a vote. We, we decided what was the, what was best for that relationship. Um, and you know, and again, I hear what you're saying. So, uh, I appreciate that. Barry, did you have any? Mr. Chair. Oh, Commissioner. So, um, I've been friends with the Allegiant lobbyist for like 12 years. I, he's a good guy. Um, he's invited me to tour their place in Vegas before, both when I was in the legislature and now as a county commissioner. Um, and he's made comments before, you know, Hey, if you're ever in Vegas, let us know, we'd love to see you. So, um, I've never taken them up on that because I've only been to Vegas one time. And when I was there, I didn't really want to have a, a meeting with Allegiant, no offense to those good folks. And so, um, you know, I don't know the, other than what was in the letter, I don't know the specifics of, you know, the meeting, but. You know, it's not out of the, if they invited me there before, it's not out of the question for them to invite somebody else. And so I don't think that's out of the ordinary. And I think that we should take commissioner and the wiki's word, you know, for it that they, you know, may have invited them, um, or told them at least, you know, to reach out if he was ever in Vegas. And so, you know, that's one part. And I, I do think, you know, to a certain extent, um, and I don't know all of the specifics, um, but I think in certain respects, um, part of it should be between him and Barry. And, and, um, um, you know, I don't want, you know, one of my colleagues to speak, you know, for the commission, but I don't, I wasn't there. So I don't know exactly what happened. Um, you know, but if a commissioner has a, a disagreement with the administrator or vice versa, you know, in some respects, it should be between the two of them, you know, and, and I'm not sure that, um, you know, we need to have a, you know, separate meeting to, you know, air out all that kind of stuff. Um, you know, but I do agree that we don't need to, you know, we need to have one voice, you know, after a vote was taken. But I'm not sure that, no offense to Commissioner Nowicki. I'm not sure that Commissioner Nowicki would have the power to stop a parking garage that we already voted for. And so I don't know if that was, was his intent. Well, and again, I think being an ambassador from here to go anywhere is something that we all have done. So that's not, I don't think. And it's not out of the question to, to talk to a business. I mean, that's part of our jobs. Um, and so, you know, I, um, you know, that, that part, you know, um, you know, we're allowed to talk to businesses, you know, and, and we're allowed to, um, express our opinion to businesses. So that part is not, um, you know, not, not unusual. None of that's, that's, I totally agree with you. And that's not what I'm saying either. I mean, we're going to go economic development group has a trip to, you know, a foreign country to talk to businesses about maybe looking at coming this way. We're not making commitments on anything. Right. And, and I'll, and I'll tell you in allegiance case, you know, they express concerns to me, um, you know, months ago that were, um, contrary to, you know, things that, um, were probably the will of the board. And I shared them with Barry and with Blaine and, and they were addressed. And then I think we found out and they probably talked to everybody cause they were, you know, significant issues at the airport. Um, you know, so, I mean, their allegiance is a valued, you know, member of, of the community and a valued, you know, asset at the airport. Um, you know, so, you know, they're not going anywhere in that respect. Well, but you know, if they have, you know, issues, they should tell us so we can, you know, handle them. And to the extent that the conversation, the letter that was written and the issues that, uh, our commissioner has with those, that that's purely between the two of them to get that, that clarification, if you will. But this is, you know, the topic of what's been brought up here. Um, perhaps then at some point, we need to have the conversation, not specific to this, because maybe that conversation can, that, that understanding can be cleared up when they have the conversation. But there are some, there are some policy things here that we have to make sure that we're all on the same page on. And I think that's open to a conversation, not necessarily specifically about this letter, but it does bring up some of that, uh, some of that as well. Um, we, you know, again, we, we have, we get, they call us all the time, people, different organizations and ask us, they have issues or problems with what's going on and they want to air things out. Well, I don't, I don't move on that myself. I get staff involved just like you did. You got very involved in an issue that they might've had and we work it through staff and it comes back here for conversation or decisions or discussions. If that's what's been done, then commissioner to wiki, that's, that's there. You're right in line with all the things that we normally do. So I would, I would strongly suggest that we, that you, the two of you at least get together to talk about this because it clearly, clearly it's an issue. So yeah. And I have a meeting Thursday, you know, I reached out to Barry earlier today. He didn't call me back, but I gave him a call and I talked with Joel. And so we have a meeting together Thursday at 10 AM with Joel and Barry and myself. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Um, anybody else have a comment? Nope. I remember what my other thing was. Okay. So, so I, I, I do have a, I do have a comment and I was actually going to sit back and not say anything, but this isn't the first time that there's been a, um, an inference where the charter was ignored. And this is strictly the charter. And I think it's not the second time that the charter was ignored. Um, and so I think one time, two times, but a third time, then it's a habit. And so if this board decides, and if when Barry and Joel are done in the conversation, then, you know, maybe, maybe there, maybe something should done. Maybe a third party should look into it and see if there is a pattern here of not adhering to the charter. I mean, Barry wrote stuff specifically in violation of the charter. And back when he first came on board, there were violations of the charter. So if there's violations of the charter, but it's not the first time and it's not the second time, then I think either a serious conversation has to be done. Or if there's claims that he never violated the charter, then it's only right that a third party investigate it. And that way, if he didn't violate the charter, his name is cleared. He's exonerated and there's no more issue. If in fact, he did violate the charter, then, then, then, then there's a decision about what would be done next. But just the hearsay and the talk back and forth. And if in fact, there is a violation of the charter one, two or three times, and if there isn't, then he should be able to have his name cleared on every single instance. And so that's just, that's just my thought on that. You know, he deserves to have his right, his name cleared, you know, but through a third party that has no bias. And so it's something to consider and something to think about. Yeah. And I, and I would say the bias part, I don't think anybody here has bias. I mean, I think we're pretty. No, but there could be implied. And so a third party would, and that's not uncommon. Yeah. Um, that CEOs or CFOs, if something happens, they bring in a third party to investigate it. And that way it's, it's outside. Jewel, that's common. Is that not a common practice? It's something that, I mean, I, I, I read in the newspaper, you know, here locally, some, um, um, when there's like employee employment issues or, you know, other things that seem to cross the line. Um, I know, I think it was like heart maybe over in Tampa hired at typically a law firm to look into stuff like this, but it's, you know, it's something that you do to get the unbiased look at things. And like you said, it's either like there's a problem or there's not. And, um, but it's, it's something that happens with some frequency, uh, when there's a compelling issue. Well, again, there are some, you know, there's, there can be when you're, when you're new to this job. I mean, when you're starting into it, there's a lot of things that you have to try to understand. Uh, I remember the previous county administrator, um, didn't want us talking to any staff people. And if they did, he had to be in the room. So when we hired Barry, one of my questions to Barry was, do you mind if I talk to, you know, the directors and above? And he said, yeah, no problem with that. Just don't give them direction. So, and that was important. Um, so every county administrator is a little different, having enough confidence to allow us to have conversation with people at a high enough level so that there there's not a intimidation factor at that point. They're just professionals doing the best work for the county. And I think that that's something that, you know, sometimes you don't, you don't understand that, that, that role that we play and that, you know, intervening at other levels. You know, I, for instance, I talked with Tom Washburn a lot, talked to Kelly prior that said, that's fine. You can talk to Tom Washburn and have that conversation going, you know, going on. So that, I think that's the, that's the norm. But, you know, again, I just think sometimes there's misunderstanding of things as well. And I'm not going to get into any of that. So, um, so I just wanted to bring that up today because I do think it's an important letter. I am glad you reached out to Barry to have that conversation. I think that's great. Um, make sure that there's no confusions here because, um, you know, again, we're just trying to do the work of our, of our, of our, for our residents. So, um, did you have anything, uh, Brian? I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um, I, I agree with what, with what Kathleen said. Is that if there's, you know, there's nothing to see, there's nothing to see here and let's, and let's find that out. Um, but the letter does concern me. Um, uh, you know, if any member of this, of this body tries to unring a bell that a decision that we've already made or tries to take away our voice and limit options going forward, that's a big concern for me. And I don't know that that's what, that that's what occurred here, but, but, you know, the letter is it's, it's a concern for me and I would like to get to the bottom of it one, one way or the other. And I'm, I'm glad that there's going to be some discussion and meetings here. And, um, you know, I would like to one way or another that this kind of gets brought to a conclusion. Yeah. So certainly some clarification, if there's any changes, I, you know, there can be another letter written that, that clarifies any misunderstandings. But, uh, because I, I'm like the rest of you, there's, you know, we want to make sure that, that, that our commissioner, our colleague is treated fairly and right. And at the same time, the, the things that were in the, that were in the letter were concerning. And I think I'm, I'm glad you guys are taking that step to have that conversation. Um, and just keep, keep us posted at this point. We won't, we won't work it in unless we think there's a necessity. We won't work it into the workshop next time. Um, but I, you know, I'm going to reserve the right to do to change that if we need to. Um, again, you, we just got to make sure that we're doing things. So are you in consensus that nothing be done? Is that what I'm hearing you say, but I don't know that that's what everybody agrees. Well, no, I'm, I want them to have the conversation first. Okay. You can, but I would also like that conversation to include the other episodes. And I get when you're new, that's different. I get that those ones in the beginning, when you're new, um, you know, you get your hand slapped and you learn and you read the charter, you know what the charter says. You should know what the charter says. It's our, it's our law. Um, but I think, you know, I think that if one time, like I said, one time slap your hand two times, you know, first time, shame on us, second time, shame on you. But third time, I think, I think, you know, so we can talk about it after they meet. I hope they come to a resolution. I hope this never comes up again, but I think one of the best things to do that would be fair would be to have a third party look into it. And, and if he did nothing wrong, then that comes out and it's very clear. Um, and if he did do, did do something wrong on any one of those occasions, then, then it's different, but I, I don't know that I want to just push this away. No, I don't want to, I, what I want to do is let them have a conversation. I want to talk with Barry. And I would be interested, Barry, did Allegiant send you a letter or did, was it a phone call? They con they contacted us regarding the, I would, we would have not known about any of those issues had they not raised it to us. Right. So did they do it in writing or in a phone call? It was a phone call. These were specific, but we, if you want to go down that rabbit hole, we can. This is not the first time, um, you know, and to bring a somebody to promote from privatizing the airport was also a huge issue. This is not the first time that a lobbyist or a, somebody that looking to do business with the county has been approached with county staff from commissioner in the wiki. It's an ongoing issue. Um, we have competitive processes for a reason. And that's the reason I put it in writing. This needs to end. I think a third party is really, we should go. I mean, I really do. If it's more than now, it's, it sounds like it's more than three times. So, so if it's a behavior that has continued, then I think it needs to be a third party and look to see if truly we're wrong. I really do. I feel really strongly about it. Well, again, again, I, I would like to have that meet, let them have the meeting. I would like to talk to Barry and Jewel after the meeting. Cause I can do that. Um, and then I'll get back to everybody, uh, in a, in a, just a email that we're going to have some further discussion at the workshop in, in, in March. And then we can have that dialogue. Um, it's, it's, you know, that, that, that process is something that can be helpful to clarify issues. As you said, they're not the quote unquote unbiased, but I'd like to just see how the conversation goes and then bring that conversation back to maybe bring it back to a workshop and I'll let everybody know. And we'll have that conversation at the workshop. If you, you know, if somebody else wants to bring it up and we're not moving, you know, in a direction that people are happy with, but I think this is a big deal. It can be, it can be undermining to our, um, our employees here. Um, on, I'm not, that's not the, the, the issue of the letter. I'm just saying other things, um, that we have to be very careful. We have to be so careful. And it really is why there's that discussion with people below the director's level, because by definition, it's, it's a, it's a whole different thing. I would never go talk to folks below that level unless I got permission. It's just, um, it's just not, it's just not cool. So, um, all right. Yes. Uh huh. Go ahead. I'm not sure what, uh, when you talk about other episodes, are you talking about the time that I kind of went after? No, not talking about that at all. Oh, okay. No, I'm not talking about that at all. Um, I mean, you don't have to. Yeah. I don't, um, and, and it's just better. Cause I'm the, the two things that I brought up months ago, I'm, uh, I just wanted to bring up and say that I'm, uh, I spoke to commissioner in a wiki after that and I was satisfied, um, with, with his, uh, we had a good talk and I was satisfied with, um, with his answers to both of the things that I brought up. Um, but one thing I did want to mention, um, Mr. Chair, and I forgot to mention it, um, uh, earlier in my report is, and it's a kind of ends things on a somber note is today is the fifth anniversary of deputy Magley's, uh, death. He was the first, um, um, on duty death with the, uh, Pinellas, uh, sheriff's office. Yeah. And you did do that on social media and I really thanked you for doing that. Cause sometimes it's those days slip by and I really appreciate it. You're bringing that to our attention. Mr. Flowers. Yes, sir. The other thing I wanted to share was the incoming president also gets to, um, see what it is that they would like to do for the community. And so I wanted to focus in on, um, providing art supplies to nonprofit entities for our youth and for our seniors, because that gives them a lot to do like with, um, the meals on wheels program when they're at neighborly at some of the neighborly adult care facilities and for our youth when they are, um, at after school activities, it helps. So there will, um, there was a list that, um, we have put together requesting art supplies. Those art supplies are donated from the vendors that are in the expo hall is huge. Um, and so they could choose whichever ones they want to provide. And then, uh, book bags are, are given. So each, um, commissioner who attends or whomever, they can get a book bag and then they just go from under the vendor and the vendors put the art supplies in, they're stacked up. And then I, um, have to have them transported back here locally. So, um, once all of that is completed, I'll send out the information and for whoever may be available, I would love for you to attend with me to present those items to the different organizations that I'm selecting. So that was the other thing. I do remember. Me too. Okay. Yes. Commissioner Scott. One last thing on a much lighter note. Um, if, uh, I was curious if, if Renee would, would share for us the historical significance of her outfit. She shared it with me. Okay. Uh, what was it? Um, yeah. It was very important. It was about the rebirth. Yes. So if someone has a baby or someone takes in, um, a child, um, because something may have happened to the parents or whatever, just signifying new life and new birth. Thank you very much. He gets a C and he kind of passed the test. All right. Yeah. Well, I, again, thank you all for indulging that kind of conversation. It's never comfortable and it's never easy. We had the letter. We wanted, I didn't want to wait a month. I'm glad they're having conversation. That's where it should start. I'll talk to the two, um, county administrator, county attorney after that, and, uh, bring it back for further discussion. If it, if it seems like it would be a good idea for commissioner Nowicki or in for the rest of us. So, um, anybody, any other thoughts before we adjourn this part of the meeting? Okay. We're adjourned. We'll be back here at six o'clock for, um, additional, additional meeting. Thank you. Let's go ahead and get started with our public hearings. Part of the meeting before we get started. I wanted to make sure I thank corporal Thornton, deputy Manley and deputy Atkinson for looking out for us as they do every meeting. Uh, always rest assured that they've got our back. So thank you. Thank you. And your, and your, and your deputies. Um, okay. We are going first item 30. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Agenda item number 30 is case number CW 26 01. This is a proposal by Pinellas County to amend the countywide plan map from multimodal corridor to retail and services regarding point six zero acres, more or less located at two five zero zero 55th Avenue North. The public hearing was properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and the matters properly before the board to be heard. Okay. Um, does anybody have any questions or what is the will of the commission? You must see a motion by commissioner flowers for approval. Commissioner Peters on the second. Any questions? Okay. If I can pull up the board please for item. Thank you. Somebody's missing. Yep. Got it. Uh, that was unanimous, uh, support for that item. Uh, item 31. Agenda item number 31 is case number CW 26 02. This is a proposal by Pinellas County to amend the countywide plan map from public semi-public and preservation to residential rural and preservation regarding 4.02 acres more or less located at the southwest corner of Keystone road and Woodfield Boulevard. The public hearing was properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and the matter is properly before the board to be heard. Okay. Any comments, questions on the will of the board? Second. Uh, commissioner flowers on the motion commissioner Scott on the second. Uh, bring up the board please. And that's a unanimous support for item 31. We'll go from the countywide planning authority. We'll now be sitting as the board of county commissioners. Item 32, please. Agenda item number 32 is case number LDR 2503. This is the second of two public hearings to consider the adoption of an ordinance providing for the amendment of the Pinellas County land development code chapter 138 zoning related to definitions and a process for the review of reasonable accommodation and request for certified recovery residences use pursuant to Florida statute section 397.47. The public hearing was properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and it matters properly before the board to be heard. Thank you. Motion by commissioner Peters for approval and second by commissioner Scott. Any questions? Okay. Bring the, uh, no, no speakers for item 32. No. Bring up the card, please. Thank you. Thank you. That's a vote. A unanimous vote in support. Item 33. Uh, would like to see a presentation on that one, please. And the item number 33 is case number zero one 25 zero six. This is a request by Mabani LLC for a zoning change from RA residential agriculture to R2 single family residential on approximately 0.50 acre portion of a 2.56 acre parcel located at 620 County road one in Palm Harbor. Since this is a quasi judicial hearing, all those individuals who plan to speak on this item must be sworn in for those wishing to speak, whether you are attending in person or virtually, if able, please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm testimony you are about to give us the whole truth, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth signify by saying I do. The public hearing is properly advertised and affidavit of publication has been received for filing one petition with 10 signatures in opposition, 13 emails in opposition and one email of concern have been received by the clerk. And the matter is properly before the board to be heard. Thank you. Good evening. Commissioners, Michael Schoderbach with building development review services. This is a request for a zoning change on a portion of a property. A subject property is approximately 2.56 acres in size located at 620 County road one in Palm Harbor. And the request is to change the zoning on approximately half an acre portion of that property. It's currently zoned residential agriculture. And the request on that half an acre portion is to change to R2, which is single family residential. And the proposed use is one single family home. You can see the property here outlined in red and blue. The blue portion on the east side is the requested portion to be changed. The red would remain as residential agriculture. It's located again on the east side of County road one. Uh, it's between a curlew and in Tampa road. It's a remnant property. Uh, there you could see neighborhoods around it. There's multiple subdivisions that have gone up around it. And this property has remained never became part of a, a subdivision. A single family detached is the prominent development in the area with a mobile home park directly across county road one to the west. This is the future land use map designation. No change to it. It's residential low, which allows five units per acre. And that's the predominant land use on the surrounding single family detached residential neighborhoods to adjacent to the property. Uh, across the street is the reflects the mobile home park. And then there's a small little office area there that's in purple and the zoning. This is the request for the change. Again, it's residential agriculture right now, which is requires two acres in size for minimum size of the property. And the request is to go for that portion on the east side to R2, which R2 is a single family detached, uh, 7,500 square foot, minimum lot size, 70 by 80 lot size. And just a little different aerial overview. The property is, I mean, approximately a quarter acre in, in length. It's only 87 feet in width. Uh, it's a very long and, and narrow property. Uh, this is looking east at the subject property from county road one and some of the adjacent, uh, single family homes. And then this is looking south at, uh, the, the property is there in the, in the background. Uh, this is actually right of way. It's unimproved. It's called Wexford lane. Uh, if this amendment was approved, this would be the access point to that portion of the property. Again, the current RA zoning category, it allows for single family residential, uh, two acre minimum lot size, uh, also allows for ancillary agricultural activities. However, on this property with its narrow width, uh, agriculture to keeping animals on, on a property for farm animals requires a hundred foot separation distance from any adjacent residential uses. Uh, so this property with that narrow width, it's 87. And so you're looking at a little over 40 feet from a center to a lot line. And every, every place that I looked on this property was less than a hundred feet. So they would not be able to house any farm animals on this property. And maximum building height is 35 feet. And R2, uh, allows for single family residential lots. It's the same zoning that's adjacent to the property, 7,500 square foot minimum lot size. Get maximum building height of 35 feet. No change there. And, you know, purpose of the R2 zoning district provide for areas of single family residential development located where moderate density, single family uses are desirable. Staff recommends approval of this amendment. We find it's compatible with the surrounding single family neighborhood development. So single family detached home, uh, same uses that are adjacent to it. Uh, R2 zoning district, same zoning district. Again, no change to the future land use. So we find it consistent with the comprehensive plan and the future land use designation. This went to the LPA with a 7-0 approval. And again, staff recommends approval and I'll answer any questions that you have. Is there any questions for staff? Yes. Commissioner Scott. Oh, Commissioner Peters. Sorry. Uh, yeah. So is that four houses per acre then? How many houses? So the RL allows five units an acre. The 10, 10. Oh yeah. They could on this property as it sits right now with the land use would allow 13 units. However, currently the zoning would restrict that to one unit. Uh, with this change, they could get one unit on the R2 portion and one unit on the remaining RA portion. So we've got some emails here speaking about fraud and the LLC being signed by somebody who's deceased. Uh, and it's the county's responsible to make sure that there's nothing fraudulent or erroneous. Have we done that? Have we done our due diligence to make sure that there's nothing on this application that is not true? Correct. We have. Yes. You have. Okay. Okay. That's all I've got. Thank you. Commissioner Scott. Is there any, um, plan for what they intend to do with the rest of the property? Not, uh, provided any indication of what they intend to do with the applicant. You can ask them that question. So if I understood it correctly, they're basically would now allow two homes versus one. Correct. Yep. So thank you. What's the, um, anybody else? Uh, what's the width of that entire, you know, that narrow piece of land? What's the width of that? So it's, the, the small width is 87 feet wide by 12, 1,283 feet depth. Length of it? Yes. Yep. Um, so what kind of setbacks in this R2 do we have? R2, so you have setbacks, side setbacks are six, front is 20, sides are six, and rear is 10. Uh, and the access point for this would be that, that one little side street. Yeah. It's an unimproved right of way. They would have to improve it, uh, not to full county standards for a right of way. Cause it would only be used for one home. Um, but they would have to meet the requirements for, uh, fire access, which fire, uh, I spoke with, uh, Palm Harbor fire district where this is at, and they would require a 20 foot access drive paid. Because where it's located on that little street, it's kind of part of a, part of a, the other houses that are on that street. Yeah. The, the houses are all surrounding that, that property, this property, uh, all the properties on the south, the north and the east, their backyards all back up to this property. Right. Okay. But this has an, a normal access point on the street itself. Yes. To the, in other words, it's not County road one. Correct. If, if this went through and they split this property, that are two piece would be required to take access from that east side, from that right of way there in Wexford lane. How wide would the access street have to be to County road one? So to County road one, there's an existing curb cut for a driveway. If they built a house on County road one, uh, that they should be able to use that current driveway. That's there. If they were to build a house on that remaining portion, or if they were to build a house on it today, but no other houses. I mean, cause you're telling me right now that the way it's zoned, I mean, they could piecemeal this thing down, you know, so tell me, tell me, cause this is a neighborhood that has certain characteristics and any additions I think need to share those characteristics. So I'm just trying to make sure I understand what that what's left and what it could be. Yeah. In, in some background on this in 2021, we had a submittal to changes property to our five zoning, which is small lot infill. There was a development agreement with that. Um, it staff did not support that application. It went to the LPA, the LPA recommended denial and the application was withdrawn before it came in front of the commission at that time. Uh, so that property with it being only 87 feet in width, when you have like the R2 zoning, which is surrounding it, you have 70 foot is your lot width on that. That only leaves you 17 feet for an, uh, like would be a shared access and that does not meet our minimum size. So you could not get a, a road in there that would meet our requirements to subdivide this property into multiple units. Um, at that time in 2021, they were looking for 10 unit subdivision. Um, but it's the access would have been a one way in and one way out, one way in, and then one way out into county road one. Um, and even there, there was difficulties with trying to meet setbacks. They were asking in the development agreement for reduced setbacks on that because of the, uh, the narrowness of the property. Yeah. The roadway itself takes up a lot of that. Um, and then you have the front and rear. Um, so what this does by allowing this one house to be accessing that street, the, whatever the name of that street is, um, again, just becomes part of the community. A part of that road without any of that transmission of traffic behind in the middle of a neighborhood. Correct. Yes. It would just be one, one house, one additional house could be built. Um, okay. Um, any other questions, um, or staff? I do have a couple of folks that, uh, want to speak. Um, Ash for red for three minutes, Angela for it. It would be the other person, uh, on deck. For three minutes. Good evening. Can you hear me? My name is Ash Farid. Um, I'm the, uh, representative of the LLC. That was in my wife's name and she passed about a year ago. But all the legal documents has been done through the lawyer and the probate. So legally everything isn't clear. Uh, I'm not, uh, I'm here filling for, uh, uh, North side engineering who actually couldn't make it tonight. Um, we, uh, asked for the, uh, division to be able to build one single family home to meet the code, um, for, uh, one of my daughters. But I heard that there is some kind of, uh, restriction on the two acres, which I have no plans what to do with the two acres. Uh, it could be a single family home. It could be something else. I don't know because as far I'm concerned, I might put it out for sale. Uh, reading the staff recommendation, what I'm asking today is totally the opposite of the staff recommendation because what they needed is they need some variety. They needed homes. That's for young families, more affordable, something nice and unique and something can blend. And that's what we proposed when we applied for the 10 homes and ask for the R5, which we were advised by some of the county staff to wait till the R5 gets amendment, amended to the, uh, new code and apply for it. Uh, but apparently there was a rumor in the neighborhood that we're building some kind of, uh, government housing and, uh, things that totally, totally non-related to our project. And they were able to shut it down. So, uh, I would appreciate if, uh, for any collaboration this time so we can move forward. Thank you. I think most folks in the neighborhood, I mean, if I was, you know, your neighborhood, you want it to say somewhat the same characteristics. I think that's the concerns we're hearing about. So I didn't, it wasn't necessarily about any other issue. It's just keeping with the, you know, the nature of that neighborhood, which includes other streets that are certain widths with properties on both sides that have front set, front setbacks and the like. So just that's, that's the, that's the part that people are concerned about what could be there, not necessarily what does not change the characteristic. Say it again. The size of the house does not change the characteristic, the characteristic in the neighborhood. There's houses. That's two story. There's houses. That's a lot larger than others. So there is the variety and that's what the staff was welcoming. I understand. I'm just saying what the neighborhood is concerned about. That's all changes running back behind backyard. And things like that. So it's just a concern. That was the, and the things that I've heard. So I appreciate your, your thought. Thank you. Thank you for your help. Um, is, is another, is Angela here? Please. You're, you're up for three minutes. I just want to continue on what my dad was saying. Uh, earlier, the, the gentleman mentioned that this was originally zoned for 13 parcels. I believe he said, and the, the issues that happened a few years ago is what made him choose a different zoning to allow one house. Um, some things are not exactly adding up. We received a letter with all the staff recommendations and the original zoning is actually what fit it. Uh, exactly. So in fact, uh, by, by putting, um, half an acre at R2 and two acres as agriculture, and then telling, uh, like not allowing us to have animals on R2, on the agriculture is not exactly aligning with your vision, which I think we can, we can agree on. And so it looks like there was some sort of miscommunication because the original zoning was actually exactly what you were looking for, which was the 13 parcels. But we were actually looking for 10 so that it's not so dense like the street behind us, which I believe is Wexford. So I just want to, I just wanted to elaborate that I, we're not too sure exactly where the miscommunication had occurred from all the previous meetings, because in fact, uh, the, the goals of the county panels County goals and objectives, uh, don't necessarily align with what is going on right now. It actually aligns dead on to what was going on before. So the, the issues that, that were going on with the property were all, were all false, which, which you determined already, you guys proved that, that none of that was legit. So I just want to bring back up to attention. If there is a way since we're all here now that we can just, um, if it's possible to, to, to get it back to 10 parcels where it matches the, uh, economical plan that panels can already has for Wexford and all the surrounding neighborhoods that honestly makes more sense. That's not what the request is tonight. So, and, and quite frankly, that brings up a whole different issue as it, as it relates to what we're considering. What we're considering is one parcel accessing that, that one little kind of like a cul-de-sac, but little road, not County road one, but bringing in 10 parcels with 10 homes on a narrow lot behind houses that are lined up on streets of their own with normal setbacks from other properties. Might create a character issue with the neighborhood and you might have more problems with that. I'm not saying you would, I'm just saying that was part of the problem before a little, I'm not, I'm not arguing with what you're saying with the plans, but this is a particularly narrow piece of property. Right. It's not what we, if you had a normal dimension property, it might fit better as far as the, the neighbors are concerned. That's all I'm saying. This, your request now to access that one road is, seems reasonable, but you know. Okay. I understand. Thank you. Yeah. And sorry for your loss, by the way, from a year ago. Any other questions, comments? What is the will of the commission? I would move approval. Motion by commissioner Scott and a second by commissioner Peters. Any other thoughts, questions, comments? Bring up the board, please. Who? There we go. All right. That's a unanimous support for the one, one piece of one acre there or one lot. Excuse me. The 7,500 square foot rezoning. Okay. Move on to item 34. Agenda. Item number 34 is a proposal to update the Pinellas County Code Chapter 58, Environment, Article 16, Mangrove Trimming and Preservation. The public hearing was probably advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk in the matters properly before the board to be heard. Move approval. I just, before we voted, I couldn't help but notice that, you know, one of the things I like about our form of government is our citizens are allowed to appeal directly to the county commission. In certain instances, and we're eliminating one of those abilities right here. We shift the responsibility of appeals to a magistrate. We're taking that right away from our citizens to appeal to us, the seven members that are elected, and we're giving that authority to a magistrate, one person. I don't remember this coming up before. I should have mentioned it in a workshop or something. The first time I noticed it, is that something that we're doing? Is that something that we want to do? Yeah. That's a good question. And maybe staff could come forward and just maybe share just a thought what the philosophy is behind this particular use versus, you know, other things that might come up that we might have less, more concerns with. Kelly? Kelly Hammer-Levy, Public Works Director. Kelly Hammer-Levy, Public Works Director. So, normally, appeals are not really, they don't really typically come here. So, they can go to a variety. They might go to a board adjustment or to a special magistrate. So, when we updated the water navigation code about a year ago, that was something that we did as we shifted from the board of adjustment to a magistrate, it is a more technical matter. Because there are just so few of them, we were having some challenges, and frankly, it was creating some legal issues, and we ended up in court a few times over it. So a magistrate, one, it allows for a much simpler process for an applicant. It's faster. They can get through the process quicker. Plus, it also helps staff. We get a technical memo from a magistrate that tells us what we did right. If we did something wrong, they also tell us that as well. But it is just a clear process. It's more streamlined for the applicant. But typically, our processes are either to the BOAA or to a magistrate. And we should have brought this one together with the water and nav code. It was an oversight. So I don't even – I sat with sitting back here trying to think of the last time, and maybe Jewel can possibly ask me, can you remember anything ever coming before the – I can't. I can't on a mangrove application. Well, we did have some doc issues. Yes, docs, yeah, a long while ago. Yeah. And so we moved those to – those went – when the code was updated in – I can't remember. It went to the BOAA, and then we had several of the cases relitigated. So the BOAA cases were taken to court, and the court overturned the BOAA on a legal foundation. So we felt, you know, a magistrate is probably a better tool for that particular code because it's very technical, and it's just not something that happens all the time. It's a very rare occurrence. And like Jewel said, I don't – I cannot remember in my – I cannot remember in my career when we've had to use this. But we just wanted to clean up the code and make it consistent that all of these codes under Chapter 58 are going to a magistrate. So you're saying the BOAA doesn't have that ability to look at technical issues as cleanly or just because this is such a unique – It's because it's just – it doesn't happen. Like when you're – when we had DOC issues go before, again, it's like a once every couple of years. It's not like hearing setbacks and things that they deal with routinely on a day-to-day basis, and they're very good at that stuff. But it would get complicated, and we found that the civil courts were overturning the decisions. And it really created a frustrating pattern for our citizens who are trying to get through this process. So it's – it just allows us to streamline process. It's quicker for the applicants. They want to appeal something. We can get them to a magistrate faster than it coming here. So – And one thing I'll add in. To follow up, Kelly, the last time I remember there being a mangrove appeal, I was the attorney handling it. To give you an idea, it was probably at least 20 years ago. So the mangrove code, as she said, it's a little bit complicated to implement because we are a delegated program from the state. So it's not exactly like a lot of your other ordinances where we can just change the ordinance and do certain things as we would like. We're bound by an operating agreement that we have with the state of Florida, and your ordinance includes all of the things from the state statute. And then along the years since we've been delegated, which I think happened in 1996, we've tailored the code to make it in, you know, the county commission and prior commissioners' view more appropriate for Pinellas County. But this code is a little bit different than your DOC code or your – you know, many of your zoning code and things like that because it does have to abide by state law. You know, and Kelly's right. A lot of technical issues will come up and things that are unique and don't come up frequently. So it can be difficult, I think, for some of the boards and difficult for some of the courts. And we have had a tremendous amount of litigation in this area compared to years prior, and it is frustrating for residents when things get overturned. Those – up in Crystal Beach, we had some – were they DOC issues or were they mangrove issues or were they both? Huh? DOC? I can't think of any mangroves. I think there may have been a little bit of both going on in there. Well, it was DOC going through mangroves. Oftentimes when there's a DOC, there's mangrove issues, right? Okay. Yeah, they're kind of connected. Okay. Thank you, Kelly. Any other questions for Kelly? Yes. So is the – just the administrative updates on the trimming, is that what puts us in compliance with state? All we did was our – actually our county attorney's office went through the mangrove code and made sure it aligned with the current Florida statutes that we are implementing. So there was some cleanup to do, and that was – Okay, so that was mostly the administrative updates in Chapter 58? Yep. And then the mangrove trimming and preservation, it looks like. Okay, so that stuff we didn't have a choice in, that's state law, and we have to follow that. Correct. We're the delegate – we're delegated the state's program, and so we're following their call. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? I had a motion and a second. Thank you, Kelly. A motion and a second to bring up the board. And that motion carries unanimously. Yes. Okay. All right. We have finished all the items on the agenda. Is there anything that needs to be brought forward? Commission, questions, comments? Okay. We are adjourned. He'll be right back. All right. Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. We'll reply. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.