We're going to go ahead and get started. We've got a full house here today, so everybody play nice. But it's good to have you all here today. And everybody out in the room as well that may be out there, too. We do have a full schedule today, so we'll get right to it here shortly. And we're going to start off with Commissioner Scott leading us in the invocation and Commissioner Nowicki in the pledge, please.
Good afternoon. Let us take a moment to pause. And center ourselves as we begin this meeting. We acknowledge the responsibility entrusted to this board to serve the people of Pinellas County with integrity, fairness, and wisdom. May we approach today's discussion with open minds and a shared commitment to the common good. Grant us the clarity to understand the issues before us, the courage to make thoughtful and sometimes difficult decisions, and the humility to listen to one another and to the voices of our community. Let respect guide our words. Cooperation shape our actions, and purpose direct our efforts. May all that we do here today contribute to the well-being, the safety, and the prosperity of the residents we serve. With gratitude for the opportunity to serve, let us proceed with this meeting.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Commissioner Scott.
All right.
We have a couple of proclamations today, and our first proclamation is for Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month. So I'm going to go through a few words about our organization that's here, Park Center for Disabilities. We're very proud of the work that they do in our community. Why don't you come on up? Why don't you come on up while I go through this? Park Center for Disabilities has been based in St. Petersburg for over seven decades, supporting Pinellas County residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Park Center for Disabilities was founded in 1953 and worked to pioneer a person-centered approach, which has made them a national exemplar in the field. We all know that no two people are the same, and Park's approach ensures that each person is respected, embraced for their uniqueness, and are valued by providing programs to empower, embrace independence, and to live life to its fullest. We would like to recognize the month of March as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and thank Park Center for Disabilities for their decades of work helping individuals with developmental disabilities feel regarded, worthy, and respected. Now, I would like to invite you all up, and you guys are here, so it's good to have you here today. And I want to introduce Brian Rothie, who's the Assistant Vice President of Quality and Government Relations, along with three residents, Lisa Stark. Wave your hand, Lisa. Nice to have all of you here today and to accept this proclamation on behalf and in recognition of Park's continued positive support for families and residents throughout Pinellas County. Even though it's going to say some of the same things again, but I think it's important that we recognize. This is a proclamation for the organization and for Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, and whereas the Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month is observed each March to promote understanding, inclusion, and respect for individuals and developmental disabilities and to recognize their meaningful contributions to communities, whereas more than 73 years, Park Center for Disabilities has been the cornerstone of St. Petersburg community, providing essential services, advocacy, and support to children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families. And whereas Park Center for Disabilities currently serves more than 900 children and adults each year, empowering individuals to reach their fullest potential, while strengthening families and the broader community. And whereas in March, Park Center for Disabilities proudly celebrates the grand opening of its Children's Services Center. And I hope you'll see a few things about that in a minute. That'd be great. Expanding access to critical early intervention services for children with disabilities as young as two months old. And whereas early intervention services plays a vital role in supporting developmental progress, enhancing long-term outcomes, and fostering independence and inclusion for children with developmental disabilities. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that the month of March 2026 be recognized as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in Pinellas County. Congratulations. Thank you. I'll give you a few words. Sure.
Thank you very much, Commissioner Eggers, and for the rest of the board here. Brian Rothy from Park Center for Disabilities. And it's a busy month for us, March's Developmental Disability Awareness Month, and so we're definitely celebrating that. And if you know Park and if you visited Park, you know that we like a reason to celebrate and to have a party. So that's exactly what we're doing. In addition to that, tomorrow we have the grand opening of our Children's Services Center. It's a big deal for us. It's been a vision, a dream for our organization for more than 10 years, and it's actually happening. At the Children's Services Center, we're going to be serving children with developmental disabilities as early as two months old up through five years old. And it's essentially a one-stop center for children and families. So they're able to come receive all of the therapies that are prescribed or that are needed in that one center, as well as education. So it gives them that head start that they need to prepare for school. State-of-the-art facility, much bigger physical therapy rooms, anything and everything that you can think of, and you're all invited. The actual ceremony starts at 5.30. Hope to see you there. And, you know, we often say at Park, it takes a village, and you're a part of that village. So I wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you for supporting us for well over 70 years, and in April we'll add another year to that. Also, I brought one of my, well, three of my friends with me that live with us at Park, and Lisa, Lisa Stark, would like to share a few words, if that's okay.
Hello, I'm Lisa Stark. Thank you for all for inviting me. And Brian, thank you for all you do for Park. I like to talk about Park. Park is a very open home for people that are disabilities to go out and do a lot of fun things. I was invited to stay up at Burkett. That's where my home is, and we also go out and do community things, but Park is a big place in my heart, and a lot of people are very thankful that people like me can go there for special disabilities and for different things that Park can do to provide different skills and different things for special handicap people like me that they can train you like math or English or whatever they want to train you, and then they go out and they do all different kind of community stuff for fun. But I just want to thank you all, and thank you, Brian, with all my heart. Love you.
So we give these coins out just as a special thank you for being here, but also for how you illuminated our room today, but also for all that you do at your community. So these are special coins from the county to you. And now if the commissioners will come on up, we'll get a picture with everybody. We'll put you right in the middle.
Mr. Chairman, may I say something real quick before they leave?
Yeah, hold on, you all.
I serve on the board with our club and Louise Graham, and Louise Graham was started by an African-American woman who had a child with disabilities and wanted to make sure that they were able to receive services to support them in becoming just as active and vibrant in the community as anyone else. We had to make a decision, and the decision was made that our club would no longer manage the Louise Graham development. That really was near and dear to me, and I had to figure out a way to deal with my emotions on that. But PAR stepped up, and so our residents are now with PAR. And receiving the same services, if not a better quality, being able to have the trainings and things where they can have gainful employment, and all of that. And so I wanted to publicly say to you, and please share this with your administration, that we are thankful and grateful, because residents that have disabilities can be just as vibrant, just as active, just as dedicated, and just as committed to the work that they do as anyone else who may not have that disability. So I wanted to say thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me to say thank you.
Okay, now we get to celebrate a bunch of surveyors. I'm excited about that. I actually took one surveying class in college, and that was, I can't remember the technology they had way back then, but it's a lot different than it. Welcome back, Chris. It's good to have you in the room. All right, I would like to ask Jared Phillips, who is a field survey section manager, and Steve Burnett, professional surveyor and mapper, both with Pinellas County, to come on up. Johnny Bielen, he's president of the Tampa Bay chapter of the Florida Surveying and Mapping Society, come on up. Alex Parnes, Pasco County Surveyor, and Margie Soto, production program manager with Pinellas-Pasco County Surveying and Mapping, to come on up as well. All right, good, good, and they will be accepting these proclamations. We have three of them. I'm going to kind of read one, one or two or three. If you want to say something from each of the groups, that's fine, and then we'll take pictures with each of you, okay? Surveyors and mappers are counted among the founding leaders of our country, and we're instrumental in the formation of the layout of property boundaries in the United States, which have provided our citizens the enjoyment of property ownership. Presidents of the, excuse me, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and other former presidents of the United States served their fellow colonists as surveyors. The citizens of Pinellas County recognize the valuable contribution of the surveying and mapping profession to history, development, and quality of life in Florida and the United States of America and make important decisions based on the knowledge and expertise of licensed surveyors and mappers. The Florida Surveying and Mapping Society's Tampa Bay chapter has many, many active Florida licensed professional surveyors and mappers, and there are 30 Florida licensed surveying and mapping businesses located in Pinellas County. The surveying and mapping profession requires special education, training, knowledge of mathematics, the related physical and applied science, and the requirements of law for evidence. Commissioner Latbala, you hear all that required by surveyors? Surveyors and mappers are uniquely qualified and licensed to determine and describe land and water boundaries for the management of natural resources and protection of private and public property rights. And the continued advancement and instrumentation have required the surveyor and mapper not only to be able to understand and implement the methods of the past, but also to learn and employ modern technology in finding solutions to meet the challenges of the future. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that the week of March 15th to the 21st, which was last week, so we'll make it next week, will be recognized as Florida Surveyors and Mappers Week. Congratulations to all of you. The phone is going to say a few words if you would like. Over here.
Yeah, I just want to say thank you all for taking the time to recognize us today. We do a lot of work, usually under the radar, but every day we're working to help build and maintain the infrastructure that we all rely on, so it's nice to get recognized, and thank you very much.
Thank you, everybody, board members, Mr. Chairman, thank you. I am the Pasco County Surveyor. I just wanted to say, I'll be real brief, it's a very old profession. I always like to say it's the second oldest profession. So you go all the way back to, that's correct, you know, the rope stretchers back in ancient Egypt, you know. So we're a very old profession, and as Mr. Chairman said, three out of the four faces on Mount Rushmore, former presidents of the United States, we're all surveyors. So I just want to say that as government surveyors, we are held to a little bit of a higher standard. So I appreciate you guys recognizing your Pinellas County Surveying and Mapping Division in your group. These guys work hard and do our profession honorable. So thank you very much.
All right. Come on up.
All right.
We are going to get into Citizens to be Heard. We have a few here today. Not as many as are represented in the room, but we'll look forward to hearing from them. First, we'll hear from Lois E.N.L. from East Lake Library, please. All right, Lois. Now remember, you only have three minutes.
I talk fast. I thought everybody was here today for me. I'm very impressed. Good afternoon, Chairman, Commissioners, and County staff. I'm Lois E.N.L., Director of East Lake Community Library, and I stand before you today with a heart full of gratitude as I prepare to turn the final page on a 27-year career serving the residents of Pinellas County. When I first started at Palm Harbor Library in 1999, our libraries looked very different. We were just beginning to navigate the digital age, and the idea of a library as a community center was still a vision we were working on to define. Today, I can say with certainty that we have achieved that vision, and it wouldn't have been possible without the steady hand and support of all of you on this board. Over nearly three decades, I have seen this board recognize that libraries are the backbone of a strong community. Whether it is through the critical funding provided by the Penny for Pinellas Initiative for our building expansions or the MSTU special projects grants that allowed us to innovate, you have consistently invested in our growth. Because of your support, we aren't just a building full of books. We are a safe, vibrant community center where neighbors from all walks of life come to connect. I have watched our programs evolve from traditional story times to innovative programs like tech help, adult field trips, author visits, genealogy assistance, and so much more. We have become a place where a child gets their first library card, where a senior learns to bridge the digital divide, and where local families find a sense of belonging in our unincorporated areas. We have provided services such as passports, fingerprinting, and a food pantry for those in need. These aren't just statistics. These are the lived experiences of Pinellas residents. You helped us build a space that truly reflects the spirit of the communities we serve. As I step into retirement at the end of this week, I leave Eastlake Community Library in a position of strength with an outstanding successor in Anne-Marie Nuremberger as the new director and the staff dedicated to our library's mission. I want to thank you, commissioners and the county administration, for being true partners in this community and in this journey. It has been the honor of my life to serve this county for 27 years. I'm not easily surprised at my age, but what was overwhelming was the Commissioner Eggers' presentation to me at our Fix-A-Meeting this past week with the proclamation for my years of service. I will cherish this always. Thank you for believing in the power of libraries, and thank you for the opportunity to have been a part of this wild ride. I look forward to visiting our libraries in the future, this time as a patron with a very well-used library card. I'm sorry. I'm very emotional. I want to thank you all. I consider you all my friends, and I appreciate all that you have done for Eastlake, for Palm Harbor, for libraries in general. I just want to introduce Anne-Marie so that you can put a face to a name, and believe me, she is coming in with a very strong resume, and I am sure that you will be as good to her as you were to me. So, thank you.
I won't talk too long because I know we have a packed agenda. I'm looking forward to working with you all and continuing on the amazing work that Lois has done for the past 27 years. I can't promise I'll stay 27 years, but thank you all for your support and continued support of libraries in Pinellas County.
Thank you. Congratulations, Lois. Congratulations, Anne-Marie. Okay. Ron Walker, please, and then David Ballard-Gettis, Jr.
Ron Walker, 7100 Olmerton Road. Another month has passed, guys, and you have failed to protect your citizens. You have failed to provide law that will protect whistleblowers. All of you on the stump without shooting your mouth off, I'm against fraud. I'm going to expose fraud. I'm against this fraud. And yet, you won't avail yourself the most powerful tool available to a municipality. That is a false claims ordinance. And you don't have to do a lot of work. It doesn't cost you anything to pass it. It doesn't cost you anything to use it. And the beneficiary, when it is used, is you. And yet, you refuse, or you haven't got the time, to pass a false claims ordinance. And there's not a lot of work involved. Copy Broward Counties. Broward County copied Dade County. Dade County copied the Florida statute. The Florida statute copied the federal statute. And the Ninth Circuit just expanded the scope of false claims laws. Guys, last July 25th, I gave each of you a copy of Broward County and Dade County's false claims ordinance with a cover letter extroling the virtues of the law. It won't cost you anything to do it. And you're the beneficiary. It's like you have a cut and you don't want to put a bandage on it. You've got a $4.3 billion budget. And the seven of you naively believe no one's stealing from you. We had a theft of the people's fees in the collection of recyclables in Clearwater. No whistleblower came forward to tell it. Millions of dollars stolen from the people. We got $50 million worth of overspending in St. Petersburg for unnecessary expenditures. No one came forward to expose it. We got a guy named Leo Nivovic who lived here in Clearwater and stole $100 million. But he was very comfortable living in the civic atmosphere that you provide. Guys, get Broward County's false claims ordinance and pass it. It won't cost you anything. It won't cost you anything to use it. And when it is used, you benefit. It ain't rocket science, guys. Pass a false claims ordinance to protect the people you represent. It's easy. Thank you for your time, guys.
Hi, good afternoon. David Ballard Geddes, Jr. I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. The tax base of this country has been a king's ransom. Never before in the history of the world has a government had so much money from with which to live, work, and play from. Legislation has been systematically skimming the icing off the cake for their own individual wealth and personal gains, slowly eating us out of our subsistence, as written in the Declaration of Independence, simultaneously sucking the life out of society, desecrating the resources of the earth itself. Legislation does not intend on doing things correctly. There is too much money in doing things as they please, being drunk on political waywardness, pretentiousness, and racketeering in illegitimacy. All of my life, the construction on U.S. 19 has been done in half measures. The development on U.S. 19 has been used as a longstanding financial bleed, causing traffic congestion and is a tremendous waste of gasoline as the residents are gridlocked in traffic. Also, the overwhelming congestion on alternate 19 and the designing of surveillance corridors, creating a traffic conundrum, is inconsistent with sovereign and sound legislation, fortifying 20-minute cities, using roundabouts for enforcement purposes. For the future intent of toll-charging the residents or impugning the residents for one purpose or another is to indirectly and roundly attack the unsuspecting civilian population and is unwarranted in its legislative design. Thank you.
All right. Next up, William Schwett, and he's going to have 10 minutes to speak. If Michael Alavanja is here, please raise your hand. Jerry Alavanja here. Okay.
Robert Brockman. I'm sorry, Robert. There is an A there. It was my fault. Sorry.
And then I guess, is it?
I don't know how to pronounce the last one. Can you send you? Schwett? Okay. Okay. All right. Come on up. You have 10 minutes.
Good afternoon, commissioners, and thank you for your time. My name is Willie Schuette. I live at 1439 Shipwatch Drive. And I want to right now have everybody from Shipwatch community please stand up and if we can recognize them. We are here as a group for a situation called the adjacent of the McKay Creek site. Okay. For clarity, McKay Creek site is located just before the Walsingham Bridge along the intercoastal waterway, directly adjacent to Shipwatch Yacht and Tennis Club. This is important because this is not an industrial corridor. This is a dense waterfront residential community. I also want to begin to say, we are not here to oppose infrastructure. We understand how important these systems are to the county and to the broader community. And when the hurricanes hit, we supported the use of this site for emergency operations. It wasn't easy. There was disruptions, Chris. There was extreme noise, rodents, dust. But we understood it was necessary during the emergency. What we're today asking is simple. If this site is going to continue to be used over time, then the community deserves clear boundaries, transparency, and protections. What's in front of you is not a single project. It's a sequence of uses. This property started here from 2020, and I will email this to all of you, a complete empty site.
The next phase was setting up. There's an overhead there if you'd like to. There we go. Oh, terrific. Nope, right there.
Okay. Thank you. That's what the site looked like in 2020. After that site, this became the next one. This was the extension of a timeline for a current project that's up there. Then came the hurricanes. We had this in our backyard. You can see it leaning up to the fences, crossing the fences. We had three stories tall of debris, three stories, one spark, and we're all burning. It didn't matter. But we decided that, hey, we're going to help the county. That's our job. That's what we want to do. So now the problem is we currently have a project that's in there. Effectively, there's another project coming, which is an injection well layered on top of this. So effectively, it's going to be four continuous years of project activity in a residential community. From a planning and governance perspective, this is no longer a defined project. It's an ongoing use of land without a clearly defined boundary and timeline or end state. And this is where the concern begins. Let me put this in perspective. There's over 500 residential units directly adjacent to this site, approximately 800 to 1,100 residents, over $175 million of residential property value, located just before the Walsingham Bridge, directly on the intercoastal waterway within one mile of the gulf. Ship watch sits directly on the intercoastal waterway. This is a waterfront residential community where people live specifically for the environment, the views, and the quality of life. This is not an industrial zone. This is a high-density waterfront residential community, and the experience over the past two years has been significant. Ongoing truck traffic and heavy equipment, extended construction presence, and at times, dust and noise that is simply unbearable. This is not theatrical. This is a daily, daily reality for our residents. The issue is not whether infrastructure is necessary. The issue is a cumulative impact with defined limits. Residents have now experienced more than two years, two years continuous disruption, a timeline extension on the current project that was not clearly communicated, and the possibility of the future reuse of this site. From an oversight standpoint, there are three concerns. First, no defined end state. Second, incremental expansion. Third, precedent. If you do this here, you can do this anywhere in the county to any county residents. And this is where I'd briefly like to reference something. This is the organizational chart. Well, I can put it here, I guess. This is the org board. All of you are familiar with it. Overhead, please. Thank you. As all of you see.
There you go.
Citizens are on the top because ultimately, the county exists to serve the residents. Right now, residents are experiencing ongoing disruption, conflicting communication, and uncertainty about future use. This is not about stopping infrastructure. It's about aligning decisions with the residents at the top of this structure. The good news is this can be addressed without stopping the current project. Number one, define and restrict site use. Limit this site to completion of the current project. Use it only for state-declared emergencies. And reconsider additional long-term infrastructure, such as the injection well, at this residential adjacent location. Number two, no ongoing staging or dump activity. We refer to it as the dump. Might not what be, but when you get dumped on for two years, we call it the dump. Our current project is complete. No continued staging. No stockpiling. No operational expansion adjacent to residential property. This should be to stable and predictable use. Number three, formulize the timeline. Confirm the completion date. Currently, the county website on the current project has a completion date of June 2026. Communication from Mr. Burton, our county administrator. Is Mr. Burton here by chance? Thank you, Mr. Burton. Indicates it's moved out to December of 2026. I found this out two days ago. Residents deserve clarity and consistency. If timelines change, those changes should require public notification, commissioner review, and resident communication. Number four, define this injection well operating standards. If this injection well, which will push this to four continuous years of disruption in a residential communion, we want noise limits, hours of operation, dust control standards, monitoring and transparency. Monitoring and transparency is what I've been doing. I've been doing the monitoring. I've been making calls to the county. I've been talking to people. I'm the only one being active with this. And as I went by the site, there are currently cameras there that were used during the hurricane cleanup operation. However, during the current mobile home project, these cameras are not being utilized for monitoring or transparency. Residents are simply asking for consistency. If cameras were appropriate for emergency oversight, they should also be used to monitor ongoing construction and operational activity impacting the residential community. Minimal impact should be measurable, visible, and enforceable. Number five, clarify future use and planning intent. This is where we're getting the most confusion. Mr. Burton communicated that there are no currently planned projects in the vacant parcel near Shipwatch in the Capital Improvement Program. I don't know what that is. I don't know how many programs. However, Susan Gable Caning, Stormwater and Vegetation Division, indicated this site could potentially be used again. Wells are proposed across the site. Additional stockpiling or construction may occur. These are conflicting signals. Residents are asking for this. Has this site been evaluated or designed or designated for the future in staging, operational use, emergency use, utility expansion, state-mandated compliance projects? Residents have been attempting to gain this information through public records requests and are struggling to get clear answers. This uncertainty is what creates concern. We support the community when it mattered most. We were there. We took a brunt of it. We're now asking the county to support the residents who live next to this site. This is not just any residential area. This is a waterfront community on the intercoastal waterways just before the Walsingham Bridge, one of the defining areas of Pinellas County. This is not about stopping progress. It's defining it, containing it, and managing it responsibly in a residential community. Because right now the residents don't see a clearly defined plan. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments. And, boy, you couldn't have hit that spot on in 10 minutes to the second. You did that perfect. I had two, it says. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate your being here. And all of you for being here. We will look into it. That's all I can tell you today. Thanks. Rabbi Michael Torrup, please. We can get together. Can we get together and talk about this? Excuse me. What? Did you want to speak with him or after him? Okay. I'll call you up in just one minute.
Good afternoon, and thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and commissioners and all the staff. We appreciate the opportunity to speak before you today. I speak on behalf of Fast Faith and Action for Strength together, and there are some 50 of us who are here gathered to be here in solidarity. We are a coalition of over 40 faith communities, representing some 40,000 citizens of Pinellas County, who pursue justice in our community, following the unifying calling of our different religious faiths, knowing that it is possible to create partnerships for change that bring more equity and opportunity to the lives of those who live here. That is what Care About Me, the single-access pathway to behavioral health and substance abuse services that the county launched in the spring of 2024 does. It creates equal opportunity for children, teens, families, and adults to get the help they so desperately need. We salute the leadership of commissioners like Kathleen Peters, who was instrumental when Care About Me was being developed, and the support of others of you, such as Commissioner Eggers, and many others who served at that time. It took courage to be in partnership with Fast, as we advocated as early as 2019, and gratefully with the support and help of the county administrator, Barry Burton, to move in this direction. It took courage to do the hard work of studying the problem and devising a workable solution. It took courage to allocate the money to fund Care About Me when it was launched. We are approaching a crossroads. Soon you will be challenged again to decide about the future of Care About Me. Soon you will be challenged to decide if the county will sustain the current funding level so that we can tell the success stories of those who have gotten appointments within days and sometimes even hours of calling Care About Me. Soon you will be asked, have we done enough to market this fine service to the public? Have we been effective in getting the word out? I say no, we have not. People simply do not know. Not enough school personnel are aware of this resource. Care About Me is underutilized because we took too long to shout from the rooftops about what we've got here. This is a time when, again, we need leadership and courage, when justice demands that we stand strong and demand that those running Care About Me for the county do a better job with the money we are paying them to publicize and market these services, when justice demands that we continue with funding at the current level to give Care About Me the chance it deserves to be fully successful in meeting the mental health and addiction crisis that exists all around us. Let's do this. Let us make what is possible a reality. Thank you.
Thank you, Rabbi. Is Marty here? Marty, okay, you're next up, please.
Good afternoon. My name is Marty Brinsko, 452 72nd Avenue, St. Pete Beach, Florida. I'm a member of FAST and also of Holy Family Catholic Church, a member congregation. As a retired middle school teacher of 44 years, I am so distressed at the crisis that's happening for our youth in Pinellas County. When I heard in our research that 25% of Pinellas County youth, according to the Juvenile Welfare Board who know what they're talking about, had contemplated or even planned to take their own lives, that crushed me. As a person who believes in youth and cares about youth and knows how valuable they are to us, that was terrible. Compounding that was the knowledge that there's the possibility of the Care About Me, which is a marvelous program for those who have used it and can verify that. The possibility that Care About Me could be partially or completely defunded was a horrible thought. I've spoken to two professionals in mental health that I know well, one for over 30 years and one for 20. The 30-year mental health professional had never heard of Care About Me, and she deals primarily with adults. The other deals primarily with adolescents, and those folks are rare to come by, and she had not heard about Care About Me. That just says to me, we need to do a much better job of letting people know that we have a good resource. We have to fund it at its current levels, because the need is there. And then we have to get the word out. Right now, as far as I can tell, outside of a billboard and a bus wrap, since May of 2024, when Care About Me was rolled out, the only people who have publicized this service very well are FAST member congregations. We've got it in our bulletins, on our bulletin boards. We talk about it to our people. We need to do more. We need you to do more. I know you can. I know you believe in the program, because you backed it. You put money into it. Let's make it work for the county. Thank you.
Thank you. Anna Ehrlich.
Good afternoon. My name's Anna Ehrlich, and I'm a resident of Seminole, a member of FAST, and a member of the Oakhurst United Methodist Church. As we were told by county staff, this service, Care About Me, was designed to help 1,000 residents per month find and get the care they needed. And that capacity was based on a needs assessment that was conducted around 2020. We were thrilled when this program was launched in 2024. We have members from our congregations who have used it and found it to be very helpful. But in a follow-up meeting with staff just last month, we learned that the program is being underutilized, not because it isn't needed, but because people do not know it exists. We know the program had a soft launch of sorts because the staff were concerned about it being at capacity. But unfortunately, the program never ended up getting the promotion it needed to ever get fully off the ground. We know that a marketing firm was hired towards the end of last year to help boost engagement, but we are concerned that people still don't know about it. We have polled schools, social workers, counselors, therapists in our own circles, even some fellow clergy from neighboring congregations who could use this service in pastoral care visits, but they have not heard about it. One of the social workers we've spoken to, a social worker at St. Petersburg High School, has heard about it and uses it. She says every day she refers a student to it to help find and get the care they needed. And she said that Care About Me is working exactly as you all intended it to work. These students are finding and getting the care needed. So word does need to get out. We are gravely concerned about this service not reaching the people who need it. You have all built an amazing service, a vital resource that is as needed in our county. You all should be commended for that. We just want to make sure that it is maintained and that it gets to the people who need it most. Thank you.
Kristen Gieselin. Kristen, I am sure I didn't say your last name correctly. Thank you.
I'm Kristen Gieselin, and I'm here today with FAST and with the Unitarian Universalists of Clearwater. I'm a long-term time resident of Clearwater. My parents moved here in 1965, and I've been a homeowner in Clearwater not far from here for 22 years. I also was, I'm proud to say, dedicated my career to human services. And I've worked in many of the agencies where the people would be found that would be making the referrals to care about me. I worked for WorkNet back in the day. Now that's career choice, family service centers, family resources, Head Start, early Head Start. I started my career at PAR, Adolescent Residential Center. And I can speak from the side of the person who's in the trenches, the person who's dealing with more need than they can ever meet on a daily basis. When you're that social worker, when you're that direct referral person, you need something like Care About Me. Because there just aren't enough hours in the day to verify that there is a place every time you refer someone to an agency that should have a place. You just cannot do it. And I feel very grateful to have the opportunity to speak from this point of view. Because, you know, after 30 years of working in these agencies, you know, it may look like it's easy to just start a program and put it out there. But I will tell you, it is not. I worked in startups. I worked in a very big startup with family resources. And we hired a social marketing company to help us get the word out. And even so, the very first year of the grant, we did not meet our benchmarks. People have to get used to, when you're in the trenches and you're working hard, you're not always, you don't always have time to even find out what the new resources are. And I really think that the marketing firm that's, you know, been hired and is now, you know, receiving remuneration from, you know, our tax base, needs to target the agencies and organizations where the referrals would come from. And support people like me who are in the trenches and being able to access Care About Me. And as soon as that happens, I guarantee you every 1,000 of those openings will be filled. Because when you target the people in the public schools, the teachers, the counselors, the family case managers that are in Head Start, the family, the case managers that are in your career source, you know, when you target those people and give them the resources they need to refer their clients to this resource, it will be completely filled. Thank you.
Thank you.
Appreciate all of you being here today. Thank you for your interest on a very important subject matter for all of us. So thank you very much. Mark Bunker, please. Next up. And then Brooks Gibbs and then Kelly Meyer.
Hello. I'm Mark Bunker. And I have been standing up to Scientology now for close to 30 years. And I moved here to Clearwater in 2000 to take them on in their own backyard. At that point, there was a referendum question on the ballot. The people of Clearwater were supposed to vote yes or no to having an outside developer. The city would lease him the entire downtown for a dollar a year for 99 years. Right before that vote happened, the then St. Petersburg Times published an article in which there was a poll. And 66% of the people said, even if it was done, it would only benefit Scientology. And a troubling 100% of the people said, even if it's developed, we won't come downtown. And that's still a problem today. People are afraid to come downtown because of the presence of Scientology. Well, from 2020 to 24, I served on the Clearwater City Council. And we had another referendum question come up. And because I've been known for decades now speaking out about Scientology abuses, part of my job was to tell the people of Clearwater, Scientology has no connection to this. Made a series of videos. I would go to the meetings where Mayor Hibbard would discuss it. And I would chase down anyone who had worries about Scientology. And that referendum question passed. So while I was on the council, we took some major steps to revitalize our downtown after years of it being dead. We reopened Coachman Park in a beautiful new expansion, put up the Sound Amphitheater, which has been incredibly successful. When there's a concert, there's thousands of people who are in our downtown. Problem is, when there's not a concert, the streets are still pretty empty. We also found a developer to put up apartments on the old City Hall Bluff property. And he's building 400 apartments now with ground floor retail. And we made sure it was apartments instead of condos because we didn't want people buying them up and then just coming here two weeks a year. We wanted people living, working, and playing downtown. We also are putting up a boutique hotel and a beer garden. And again, there's retail that Scientology will not control.
Okay, thank you. Appreciate your comments. Brooks Gibbs. Brooks Gibbs. Did they give you the card with multiple people on the back?
Yes.
Can we use that one? Actually, they did, and I didn't see it. Okay. So I'm glad you said something. So you want 10 minutes? I won't use that, but yes, sir. Mark Walker here.
Janice Bessler.
Christina Carley. Sandy and Sandra Weber. Do I see a Sandra Weber? Okay. All right. Go ahead, sir.
Yeah.
Brooks Gibbs. Clearwater resident. 1204 Alameda Avenue.
If you want good sourdough bread, my wife makes the best. Come on over. And I make good sweet tea. Happy to host you.
I want to thank you guys for your service. First time I've ever been in front of the county. And so it's a real honor. I appreciate everything that you do. Over the past nine months, our team at Save the Garden knocked on thousands of doors and had thousands of conversations with local residents. I think it was the largest citizen initiative in the history of Clearwater. Might be the county. I don't know. But it was a job. And it was a great privilege, actually. I loved it. And to say the least, we are in touch with Clearwater. We've had the most conversations than I think anybody ever. And we're all volunteers. And so I can tell you clearly that the vast majority of Clearwater voters, they grieve the loss of downtown. And talking with residents feels like walking through the stages of grief. The first being denial. Occasionally, you'll find someone who says, oh, there's nothing wrong with downtown. They just pass it on, you know, Court Street on the way to the beach. And, you know, they don't see anything. They don't hear anything. They don't want to talk about it. They're just in denial. Others are angry. We have lots of those. They remember the energy and the life that used to fill the streets. And then there are those who are stuck in the bargaining stage where it's like they're hoping that cooperating with the dominating institution downtown will eventually lead to a renaissance like the activation of Cleveland Street. And that's sort of like a mirage that you can never quite get to. But it's always dangled out there like a carrot. And so they stay stuck in bargaining. I see our city council struggling in that in that way. And I do feel for them. But, of course, decades of experience kind of demonstrates that you shouldn't stay in that. But the vast majority of residents, I think, have settled into something more concerning. It's like a quiet, civic depression. And this is disheartening. People, they've disengaged with downtown Clearwater. They've lost hope that anything will change. There's a groan. And it kind of gets on you, you know, when you're around people talking. It's a weight that you start to carry. I would call it like a secondhand victimization. Like somehow just being around the negative stories and the heartache and the loss, it really does weigh on you. But there are three steps that therapists say out of this grief trap. You know, it could really take you down. But the first thing that therapists will say is you've got to accept it. Acceptance is a great tool. It means that you're not going to fight reality. If you try to fight reality, you'll go crazy. You'll struggle. In fact, mental health could be defined adjusting well to harsh realities. That's how you know someone is mentally healthy. They can just accept it and adjust well to it. And I think acceptance is where we're on the cusp of it. We can accept the old version of downtown is gone. And there's nothing we can do about it. There's no persuasion. There's no deal. The monopoly is set. And the institution has to just decide when they feel like it. And that's just, it is what it is. But then that goes to a next step out of grief. And that's memorializing. It's what we do at the final stage of grief where you say, you know what? It was great. There were some good times. The Cleveland Parade. Boy, I have pictures of those, you know. And I love, you know, going to Woolworths. When I was a kid, I hear stories from all these people we knocked on their doors. And so our team has actually captured video stories of great memories of downtown, loving Clearwater. And we're working with the Historical Society, the African-American Foundation in Clearwater. And we're curating these. We're doing research. We're also working with the CRA to establish, like, memorial sort of kiosks, if you will, that can tell the story of old downtown. I think that's a way you help heal a city, is accept the loss, memorialize the good times that were there. And then the final stage of healing is where you guys come in and why I'm just so thrilled to be talking to you right now. And it's building new downtown. You guys are our last hope. The county buildings that you have held on to all these years, that is our last hope. Of giving Clearwater citizens something that is theirs for them to enjoy for future generations. You know, as we've walked hundreds of streets, knocked on hundreds of homes, my son, who is 18, he shadows us. And here's me talking to residents. And on his own, he created a newdowntown.org, which is a website that he tried to cast a vision of what new downtown could be. He went to the Pinellas County property appraiser. He learned all the buildings that are owned by the county, because it's hard to find out which one you guys are going to dispose of. But it's all right. He's a little sleuth, and he learned about them. I was so proud of him. I said, what are you doing? He says, I have vision for this, and I just want to put it out there. And so he told me he emailed you guys a link to his website, newdowntown.org. But that's not why I'm here. I think I'm just sharing a glimpse that the young people are excited, and they don't have the baggage of the past. They're just stoked at this opportunity for vibrancy. They already enjoy the beach. Imagine his idea is like a gondola from the beach back to the mainland. He says that would be an attraction to pull everybody. But whatever. Read it at newdowntown.org. But I was a little, I had a sort of emotional roller coaster in your last work session, because it sounded like no vision from the city council was given to you, except maybe identification of properties that could be assembled in time. I didn't hear any really vision from the county. I think this may have been one of the few times you've talked about it in the sunshine. So maybe you've talked about it in other places, and I just don't know about it. I did get the sense that you were hoping that a developer would provide the vision. And I'm not in that world. I would imagine that a developer cares about cost efficiency, about profitability. He or she may not live here, love clear water, care about the identity of the city, et cetera. And so it kind of felt like a missed opportunity to me that the county would not take time to create a vision and some basic benchmarks of what we'd like to see. Green space, green space, transportation, from the bus to the edge of the water, to the sound, to the beach, and all this real great, I would love to hear that. And then all my sadness was dissipated when I heard the letter written by Mr. Chris Latvilla, who wasn't there presently, but he sent a letter, and it was read by you, sir. And I was just so excited because in that letter, it really did have what I think the citizens want. He talked about a once-in-a-generation responsibility, not opportunity, but like a responsibility that the county has. It's a stewardship, and that's right. Who else is in the seat of decision but you? It's a great responsibility and opportunity. Also, the importance of community engagement. That got me really excited because that's all I've been doing for nine months as a volunteer, talking to thousands of people. And I was excited that the concept of a meeting or a town hall or something would be established so that people could hear and be taken along the vision. You're dealing with people in grief who have sort of citywide trauma, and it's important to keep them along the journey, open, transparent, and getting feedback. And I appreciated that from Chris Latvilla as well. And he also offered a creative solution to ensure activation through a lease option instead of a sale. And at that point, I took out my hanky and started to wave it because I was just as happy as possible. I mean, I was just so excited because, you know, in the game of Monopoly, the goal is to seize all the property. And if you look at all the public available property in the DTCRA, downtown community redevelopment area, it's 95% owned and controlled by one institution and their parishioner LLCs. That's 95%. There's only four landlords, essentially, in downtown Clearwater, the county, the city, Scientology, and Kathy. That's the one on the 500 block. That's mainly the only ones that are available. And she's not selling for, well, maybe for $50 million, she told me she would. But be that as it may, you're our last hope. And I want to just ask you several things in closing. Please don't sell the land. Please lease it. Please design a public-private partnership, also known as a P3, with a developer to ensure that the land stays publicly owned and guaranteed to be activated. It's the only way to guarantee activation because the others will just pay the fees and not care. Number two, make a true effort to engage the public. We'd be happy to host that. We'll have hundreds of people there. We'll televise it. We'll broadcast it. It'll be on the news. We'll help you get the word out. Finally, choose a developer that loves Clearwater. And finally, delay the declaration of surplus till after April 2nd discussion when all of you are present to discuss. I'm praying for courage so it can squash the apathy you might be feeling. I'm praying for your confidence in case you feel inadequate. You're in the seat for such a time as this. You are adequate. We believe in you, and our kids are counting on you. God bless you guys. Thank you.
All right. Kelly Meyer.
Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in front of you today. Thank you to all of you. My name is Kelly Meyer, and next year marks 20 years that I've been a Pinellas County resident, specifically the city of Clearwater. And my family loves our community. As you have heard, there has been recent controversy in Clearwater regarding a proposed sale of a public right-of-way to an institution that owns over 75% of downtown Clearwater. And one year ago, our small group of citizens embarked on an engagement effort to bring the public's concerns to our city leadership to express our desires to have input on what happens to our downtown. Recently, we submitted over 8,000 voter signatures to our city clerk, asking that voters be the ones who approve whether our downtown public right-of-ways are vacated, including Oak that I drove on today to be here. While we press on toward our goal, I wanted to share some information that we have learned in the last several months. One, the vast majority of the public is not aware of the upcoming property negotiations that will forever impact Clearwater and Pinellas. Two, we have spoken with thousands of Pinellas County and Clearwater residents from Tarpon Springs all the way to St. Pete. They love Clearwater and are deeply heartbroken by the takeover that has happened in Clearwater over the last 50 years. Three, based on your work session discussion last week, I'm convinced that this commission is open to hearing vision from our Clearwater leaders and citizens. I can state with confidence that you likely understand the difficult economic situation in downtown. And four, I ask that you please not vote on whether to declare these properties surplus today. As you discussed last week, please allow all stakeholders time and please bring this back up for discussion no sooner than April 2nd. This is a once-in-a-lifetime decision for the future of downtown Clearwater. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. That was all the cards that I have and all the comments from the public. Before everybody gets away, Deputy Winnick, Deputy McSweeney, and Deputy Manley, they're the three deputies that take care of us, make sure that we're all safe. Thank you for being here. Thank you for what you do for us every day. Okay, we're going to move on to our consent agenda. We have items 4 through 23. Does anybody want to pull any of the items? Motion. A motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Latvala. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to the regular agenda. Item 24, Barry.
You've got to watch, Commissioner Scott. My mic is without a battery. Oh. They're trying to quiet me. Okay, item number 23, or I'm sorry, item 24. So first, this item is a public transportation grant, Florida Department of Transportation. Again, adding more money towards the terminal improvements. And while I'm at it, I'd like to congratulate Mark Sprague on his appointment as the new director.
Very nice. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions by staff on item 24, or by commissioners on item 24? Pull up the voting card, please. We got them all. Passes unanimously. Thank you. I'll move on to item 25.
Item 25 is the guaranteed maximum price for the North County Service Centers discussed last Thursday.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Any questions? Barry, the only question I had was the discussion that we had at the meeting regarding the funding of it and the options that would be available. Are we just making the decision on the contract price, or are we also making a decision on the funding?
Okay. So we're moving forward with this contract. Now, you know, the issue, if you want to push to bonds, we would have to kind of redo that. And I'm looking over to Chris because after we approve the contract, we would have to bring back an inducement resolution in order to be able to capture that. And so we could discuss that at a work session if you want. So we have the opportunity to do that. We'd have to move to be able to take a path where it gives you that option.
I understand. And I understand you're just kind of pausing for a little bit. From my perspective, we're tight on penny money to begin with, number one, which is a separate item for discussion. And bonding, I mean, we've always talked about these intergenerational projects that span four, maybe four or five generations. You know, who knows how long these buildings will last. And that would be a perfect candidate for it. I understand the planning behind it and where the money's tentatively coming from. I'd just like to be able to see what that looks like. I mean, before we go down that path of exploring bonding, what does it mean to us?
I'll bring back to the next work session some data on what that would cost you, an annual debt service. And then, you know, again, if the commission wants to do that, then we would prepare an inducement resolution to be able to capture that cost later.
You can bring that back on April 2nd? Sure.
That's easy to give you a cost. Now, the follow-on piece will be the inducement resolution. Now, I'm looking back to them because the question is, after we pass a contract, can we do that or not? And so, you know, Don and Chris, I see, their wheels are working there. So, the question is, do you have to have an inducement resolution prior to the passage of the contract or before you spend money? I think it's before you spend money. So, as long as it's before you spend money, we would have time to do an inducement resolution that would give you the ability to bond later. Am I correct on that?
Commissioners, yes. Don Kroll from your county attorney's office. Yes, the inducement resolution, you can even go two months back, but you have to have the inducement resolution in place. As far as the contract, I have not gone into the details of this particular contract and the time of this because I didn't expect, frankly, this to come up today. But I can look at this for whether or not the timing of the contract and the guaranteed maximum price holds. Obviously, pricing fluctuates over time, so you may have issues with that if you...
If you have, but if you have two months to go back, you have plenty of time to do an inducement resolution. So, the answer is, passing this contract does not prohibit you from bonding it if you so choose to do that.
And I think it's just, it's a pretty clear... If we get somebody from the bonding, we get somebody from bonding, and you know something about it yourself, Chris, to just show us the trade-off, that's all I'm asking for. You know, it may be at the end of the day that we just stick with what the plan is, and that's use penny money. But I think it's... We'll add that.
We've got a nice full agenda. We'll just add one more thing to it for April the 2nd. How about that?
That's fine with me. No, I mean, it's a simple conversation, and it's a board decision. Obviously, the trade-off is that you have capital money that we planned on. This would add to our ongoing operating costs, and that's a trade-off. It's pretty straightforward. Let us look at what that would cost us on today's bond market and annual costs. It's not that difficult. So, we can bring that to you for the April 2nd, and we'll have that on the agenda.
All right. That's the only question. We had a motion and a second already, and bring up the voting card, please. Okay. Thank you. I was looking down. I didn't see it. It passed unanimously. Thank you. All right. Moving on to number 26.
Number 26 is the award a bid for the Palm Harbor Recreation Center.
Questions? Anybody? Okay. Bring up the voting card, please. Passes unanimously. Number 27.
This item is the county-owned properties, and as discussed last Thursday, we request this be postponed to the April 7th agenda.
Any questions before we do that? Do we need a formal motion for that, Jewel? Okay. Do I have a motion? Okay. Motion by Commissioner Nowicki. Second by Commissioner Peters. Bring up the voting card, please. Okay. That passes unanimously. On to number 28.
So, as Brian discussed last Thursday, the Competitive Arts Tourism Grant Program Funding Agreement with Creative Pinellas.
Please be, Chair. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Commissioner Scheer.
Yes. Thank you, Chair. Some of our members not here last week, so I just wanted to reiterate my small problem with this program is not the program itself. I like the idea of the program, and to make it happen, I think it's a good, but I have a problem with the contract. I've been a general contractor for over 30 years, and I've been a contractor for 30 years because my father taught me not to prepay for services, and this is a prepayment of $500,000 to create a Pinellas. We don't have a total plan in place. We don't know how they're going to spend the money, and if we're unsatisfied with the work, we have to ask for our money back. At the workshop, I asked for a payment plan rather than just write a check for $500,000. Now, I'm not sure why that is a problem or an issue, but I just don't like the idea of paying in advance. Now, a lot of people think I'm overly cautious, but I would like to remind everybody here that, and some of our members here are on PSTA, PSTA just recently wrote a prepayment check to a firm on a $500,000 contract of $172,000. The check cleared, and they have disappeared, so it happens. And so I don't prepay with my money, and I can't approve this contract the way it's written. I'm very – do you have any comments?
Brian, come on up. Well, Brian worked on this, so I'll let Brian answer that question correctly. Go ahead, Commissioner Flowers, do you have a comment?
If you all want, Brian, let's be first before my comment. Okay. No, wait.
Just hold on a minute.
Yeah. Sure.
Brian, go ahead.
Brian Loak, Visit St. Pete Clearwater. I would just add there are some clawback provisions that are incorporated into the agreement that were negotiated. At the end of the day, I think that we would not – money that is not spent or – the award, the grants won't be given out for some period of time, so most of the costs would be administrative that would be used, and we could not claw those back. But there are certain provisions that the county attorney's office has put in there for any unused, unspent money. That's really all I can add.
Commissioner Flowers. Thank you, Mr. Chair. To Commissioner Chris Scheer, probably if this had been another situation, I would have agreed with you, which probably is rare on this one. But the reason that I don't is a few things. Number one, if you recall, this commission voted to change the way that it does business when it came to awarding for the arts. And in doing so, it removed – and I'm going to say lead agency. It removed creative from being the lead agency where they would have the ability to commence projects with various people. The way that I am envisioning or viewing this based on the presentations for us and what's in writing, they essentially are like an arm of the tourism division now because they are, along with the Clearwater Division, and I'm sorry, the other name of it has just kind of went out of my brain. But they're working as a team with our Tourist and Development Council in order to be the conduit by which entities would apply for dollars, up to $50,000 for their art projects. In doing so, they really don't have the funds to be able to pay those contracts out and then wait on reimbursement because actually now they're doing it on behalf of Pinellas County. So essentially, they are like a subcontractor to Pinellas County, and that is why I support doing it the way that we are doing because that's what they are. Now, you know, you're a contractor, right? Sometimes contractors want a certain amount of money up front before they get to work. And I, on my own business, so typically when I'm doing a contract, I request up to 50% of the cost of whatever service I'm providing up front. That way, if somebody skips town or whatever happens, I'm at least getting my funds for cost for service, and then the other would be whatever my amount that I would gain on top of that. So I'm just sharing a different perspective. If it was something different, if it was that the structure was set up the way that it was before and this was occurring, I would probably have a problem with it. But because of the way that it is set up now and they essentially are working under and are an arm of the TDC, that is why I feel a little bit more comfortable with the way that it's been structured. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Any other comments?
You know, I think Chris has a good point. And I'm not sure if it were 50% instead of 500, they got 250 for a period of time. I mean, I would be okay with even letting Brian work out a payment plan that would work, that it wouldn't stifle him. But I don't think there's anything wrong with being cautionary. I know you said there's clawbacks, and I'm trying to read them, but right away at midterm, you'd have to be getting reimbursed. You'd have to get money back. And so, you know, I guess that's where your rub is, Chris. But Commissioner Scheer, I'm assuming that's where your rub is, that even at midterm, they'll already have to be reimbursing what they already cost.
Clawback means we have to ask for the money back.
Right. And so that's what, midterm would be six months in?
Not for the initial agreement, because the initial agreement will take effect after this is signed and will end at the end of this year. So I can't do the math that quick in my head. What, nine months? Okay.
So nine months. So in four months, if in four months they don't reach their goal, they have to reimburse us?
So here's what's going to happen is $100,000 of this is for administrating the program. And so that money will be used as they put together this program, put together the call for grants, do the evaluation, the meetings with the potential grantees. But $400,000 of this is going to be awarded for the grants. So that's not going to occur until, and we haven't set up the schedule yet, but you're looking at late summer, I'm guessing, approximately. So we'd already be there by the time that we even started thinking about tapping into 80% of these funds.
But then the following year, that's not the case. So why not figure out a payment plan? Because if you're not going to have, if the administrative work isn't going to be done for four to five, well, four months before they're going to start initiating grants, why do they have to have that $400,000? Why can't that $400,000 be working for us? And then when they're ready to execute the grants, they get the money. So I don't see why we couldn't do a payment plan like Commissioner Scheer is suggesting,
and then that be adjusted next year for whatever the administration period is going to. They can have the administrative money, but then let that grant money work for us before you start sending it out. Why let it work for them and not work for us? I think that's what I was hearing Commissioner Scheer say. And so that's kind of my questions. And why could we do that? Is that not a possibility?
The simple answer is we could certainly go back, and I don't foresee an issue with doing that. I guess I would just hope that we had clear direction to how we leave here today and what we add to the agreement before we send it back to them to be signed and then countersign.
I don't have a problem with approving the budget for the project and having the budget and being ready to go, and I don't need making sure the money is available for Brian to distribute when he sees that the program is what it's supposed to be. I just have a problem actually writing the check to an organization for $500,000. I hope they do a good job.
So am I hearing you making a motion to amend?
I want to hear from other people. Yeah, let's listen. Okay. I'd like to hear from other commissioners. Just clarifying.
Commissioner Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Okay. So I didn't realize we were just writing a check for $500,000. I thought this was going to be kind of a pay. As they needed the money, then we were going to distribute that. So if you want to do an amendment, friendly amendment to that, I would accept that. I was just a secondary.
Yeah, I was going to accept it too. So, but I would, I agree.
I don't think we should just write a check and then hope for the best.
Would you have a comment?
Yeah. I mean, I would agree with what my colleagues are saying. Maybe like a 12 month draw, you know, break out the hundred grand over 12 months. And, you know, to give clear direction to staff could be a suggestion for you, Commissioner Scheer. But then I guess I also had a question, like, what about the office space? Are they, you know, like that was vacated. Are they going back in the office space or?
I don't know what their office plans are, but this item does not impact where they're operating out of.
Okay.
I just want to make, just hold on one second, Mark, hold on. I just want to make a comment as well. We've all made some comments. And again, we're talking about a limited amount of funds for a creative process that has no certainty. And if we don't have specific criteria for them to follow, and I don't know how you do that in this, in that industry, other than the $100,000 for administrative costs, those can be spread out yearly or whatever by groups. But this is a process that we better have a real good sense of what we want. And they better know what we want, because this is not something that's just concocted. You can talk to our marketing people that we just had for our organization that we no longer have for the Visit St. Pete Clearwater. We had a change in what we wanted. It takes time. And that's a multimillion-dollar contract. And that creative process happens throughout the year. We don't know what the end product is going to look like. I mean, we liked a lot of it and most of it, and then we changed our mind. And we have another group in there that we're fronting money for them to do work, and we'll see what kind of work that they do for us. And at the end of that year, if they don't like it, it's not like, well, we have a contract that says we can terminate. We don't like the work that you did. We're going to make changes. But to then say we're going to go back and claw back money on a creative process that we don't have criteria for, I'm uncomfortable with that. So if you guys have criteria specifically for that clawback provision, then let's iron that out today because that's not fair to an organization. It has been with us, oh, by the way, for over a decade doing work for the county. We just didn't like the structure of that. I get it. So we changed that. But as far as trust to do work and the quality of the work, that's never been the issue. But I think we do need to be fair and provide specific criteria if that's what we're going to do. That's all I'm saying. Margaret, do you want to go up? Please make comment.
Chair, now that you've said that, that changes what I was going to ask of Margaret. So if that is the case and if you would like to see specific criteria, then I don't think we should approve this today at all. And so I guess my question then would be to Brian, what would be the hindrance, if any, if we did not approve this today and we just delayed it to give them time? Because I think to try to work out criteria right now here on the fly would not be the professional way to do it. I think that there should be a little time for between Brian and the three entities that we'll be working through to have them work out the criteria because we could throw something out here, but it not be a good measure. You know what I'm saying?
I don't disagree. I think it's subjective versus objective. All I'm saying is if we're going to do that, I think we need to have those parameters.
Yeah, so I don't have the, that's what I'm saying, that's what I was saying. I don't have the question of her anymore because you've kind of answered the question and then my suggestion. Well, I'd like to hear comments on it. Go ahead. Oh, okay.
Margaret, go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much. I'm Margaret Murray from Creative Pinellas. I want to let you know that the work we have done on this, the criteria is already laid out. And when you say criteria, are you referring specifically to what sorts of organizations and artists would receive funding from Visit St. Pete Clearwater?
I'm not, I'm comfortable with moving forward on the deal. So I'm saying if somebody wants to claw back, there has to be reasons for that. And I think the clearer we are about what those reasons might be, the more fair it is going into it. That's all I'm saying. And I just don't know what that would be. I don't know what that looks like.
And we did quite a bit of work in developing this contract on that very specific clause. And we talked about the, first of all, the eligibility for people to apply for it. So we're already self-selecting for success. And then the milestones that we have built into our granting process. So we're ready to roll this out on April 1st. We had expected, we had anticipated that we would launch this grant program on April 1st. And it would run through May 31st. That would give us enough time to convene our panel, read all of the applicants' proposals, grade those, and make sure that everyone, they have attended their information sessions so that they know what's expected of them. And we have built in milestones that artists and organizations have to meet so that we're aware that all of these projects are kept on track. And we're able to see, there's one instance I can remember where an artist fell ill and was not able to complete a project. But we were able to catch it in time because of these milestones that we've set in place. If we want to do this, this is an October, November, December project. It takes a while for artists to create the work. So really, ideally, if we could get this approved and started in the spring, that would be perfect under, you know, these conditions.
Any questions or comments? So, and they're really for Brian. And so I'm not in favor of pushing this back because they only have a nine-month window. So I think that I just, like I said, if you gave them the $100,000, that's enough for you to get started, right? Yes. And that's enough for you to move forward and get everything in motion. And then two, three months later, when you're ready to award the grants, then we give you the rest of the money and you award that out. And you have milestones. So I assume you're giving them 50% up front or whatever the milestones you have set on how you're going to allocate that grant money is in there. So I guess the way I was reading it is you give them the $100,000 to get started. And then when they're ready to issue the grants, that's when that money gets released to be issued. And that then works on the contract and what the contract stipulates. And I don't know if that's what Commissioner Shear had in mind, but that's what I had in mind. And that way it doesn't hold up this process because you already have a short window because you don't have 12 months.
Right. Yes, correct. And I just do want to stress that to create something like this, the artists will need to be paid up front. You know, we're looking at pretty lofty projects that will drive tourists to the destination. So these arts organizations and artists and for-profit arts organizations are going to need that seed money to get these projects going.
Okay. But you've got that in those contracts. So I guess my thought is on the $500,000, if you got the $100,000 to get that going, and then so many months later when you're ready to execute, then you get the rest of the money to execute. And does that seem like that would be a hindrance for you to manage the project?
It doesn't seem like a hindrance for us to manage the project, but that does mean I want to make sure that any artists we contract with are confident that they will receive funding. I have confidence in the county commission. Yeah. But that is something we talked about. And that there's not a significant delay. So if our grant period ends May 31st, if that's when we would be requesting funds, that could be another 60 days, which would bring us to June, July 31st.
So that's a question for Brian on execution. Is it 60 days? Barry, Brian?
That's probably pretty accurate, Chris. Yes, about a 60-day pay timeline.
So if you were going to award them in, what is this, almost April, April, if you were going to award them in June, it would take us 60 days to get them their money?
From the time we have an invoice, by the time it's reviewed. So if they wanted to launch it in June, they wouldn't be able to receive the money until August? I mean, there's ways we could kind of cut that down, but yes. I mean, it is at least a 30-day pay.
So I see that as a problematic problem for this year. I don't know that it's a problematic problem for next year, because this year is nine months, next year is 12 months. So if the maker of the motion has an amendment to his amendment, then?
My amendment would be that we prepay $100,000 for the administration, and then we authorize Brian Lowak to distribute the remainder of the budget upon approval of the programs that Creative Pinellas puts forward. And then it would be up to Brian to release the rest of the money. And that would make sure that we just didn't write somebody a check for $500,000. And we don't have to approve it. He would.
So just real quick, so the clawback. No clawback. There's no clawback. No clawback. Okay, I'm just trying, yeah, because I want to make sure I'm understanding, like, if the products that are delivered by the artists aren't acceptable in our eyes, we go back for the money. We're not doing that. No, we're not doing that. I think at the end of the year, when we see the work that's been done and the work they've done in overseeing the work, we'll have a pretty good sense about whether we want to do it again next year, right? Right. To me, that's the real, the proof is in how they deliver, not only on the administration of it, but also the work that these artists are creating. Right. Yeah.
So I just wanted some oversight on what's being approved, and the clawback is already in the contract. I don't want a clawback. I want Brian to be happy with what the program is, and then he can authorize the distribution of the rest of the funds. He'll have it.
They're going to ask for some prepaid money to get the artists going, right? Is that what I'm saying? So they need some seed money. The administration. The 100,000 they're talking about.
Mike, please. Administrative stuff.
I'm talking on the other 400.
Okay. I'm sorry, because when you said administrative, that's why I was. I'm sorry. Yeah, I meant the 400 that's going to the artists. Yes. Okay. I just want to. And the programs.
Some of that's going to be seed money that needs to be up front, and then you pay as you kind of, I don't know, quarterly installments. I don't know how you do it with, I mean, I don't know the industry, so.
We have moved to Ward. We believe in the professionalism of our artists in Pinellas County. We have moved in the past two years toward if someone receives an award from us, we fully fund it.
And that's the decision that you'd be making on our behalf, and at the end of the year, hopefully it all works out just like you planned it in the way you're professional. Okay. I'm comfortable with that as long as, and you want Brian to have the say-so, and when that money goes.
Yes. I just don't see a reason to write, here's your $500,000 to come back. You know, I want Brian to at least. There'll be $100,000 now and $400,000 when they ask.
Correct. Yeah.
Yeah. Oh, sorry.
No, that's okay. Just clarification for the record, because, and I know we didn't mean it that way, but just for the viewing public, we keep saying $100,000 to Creative Pinellas. It's $75,000 to Creative Pinellas. St. Pete Arts Alliance, $15,000, and Clearwater Arts Alliance, $10,000. I don't want someone who's listening to think that Creative Pinellas got $100,000. It's broken out by percentages for the administrative costs for the program, and then the decisions as it relates to who's awarded for events or artistry or whatever will be made by a combination of the three of your entities.
So, Creative Pinellas is the administrator of the grant. We will sub-grant to St. Pete and Clearwater Arts Alliance, and we convene a panel of artists, arts professionals, and tourism professionals. Those will be the people on our grant panel, people who we're not on the grant panel, so neither will be representatives from Clearwater Arts Alliance or St. Pete Arts Alliance. We keep that separate.
I wasn't saying you were on the panel. I was just talking about the way that the administrative funds have been structured.
Yes. Yes, that percentage is correct.
I have one more comment. So, and Brian, you know, it doesn't have to be when you award them. It could be when you're scoring them and you know you're ready to award them in so many weeks, so you don't have that delay. So, you know, if the discretion is on Brian on when to release that money, so it doesn't have to be that 60-day wait. Once you've got all the applications and you start scoring and going through that process, you can already request the money because you're going to have a general idea of what the total is. So that way you avoid that 60-day problem, and it still kind of keeps it in a payment method like Commissioner Scheer recommended, and I don't see that's a good way to avoid that 60-day delay problem because this year in particular that could be an issue. So as long as you're on it, your staff is on it, and they're ready, once you start scoring, you receive everything, then you put in the request for the money, and if it's a 60-day process, that's not going to be long after you're ready to sign contracts. So that shouldn't be too much of a delay, I don't think.
Yeah, and the work began back in October, but after today, the work will continue in earnest, and we're going to be, you know, joined at the hip as we work on this. So we'll get to the drawing board tonight and start putting that on a calendar and making sure we work backwards to not have a delay.
Okay. Has everybody had their say? All right. Thank you.
Thank you, everyone.
Can we approve it?
So are we in posture on the amendment?
I need a motion to amend it.
Okay.
And I second that amendment. And should I ask what the motion is or just?
The motion was to authorize the $500,000 to allow Brian to prepay $100,000 for administrative services and to distribute remainder upon approval of the programs that Creative Pinellas approves. So he would have the authorization.
And, again, we're not talking clawback because we're not going to judge the final product, whether it's acceptable or not. We'll just look at the overall program, how it was, and we can make that decision for next year.
Now, there are clawback provisions in here. Jewel, are those clawback provisions staying in there? Because that has to do with those contracts, right?
I would suggest that we leave them in there. If we don't need them, we obviously – it's always better to be safe than sorry. Okay. And I always suggest as part of this process, it's always disfavored for us lawyers to rewrite contracts on the fly like this. But I would recommend that, you know, based upon the direction that you give the authority to the administrator and attorney to work out the final language for the contract. Okay. That's perfect. Perfect.
Bring up the voting card, please. Move on. Number 29.
Fiscal year 2026, elite event funding recommendations for the St. Pete Powerboat Grand Prix.
By Commissioner Peters. Second. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions or comments about these dollars? No. All right. Bring up the voting card. Motion passes unanimously. Number 30.
Item 30 is revisions to the elite event funding program guidelines for fiscal year 2027. We did send out a memo clarifying issues regarding state law.
Second by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 32.
Affordable housing program for Skyway Flats, $6 million for land acquisition, 174 multifamily apartments.
Did I say 32, 31? 31. 31. Just a real quick question. I was just looking at the two, 31 and 32. They just happened to pop up at the same day. And one's about $436,000 a unit. That's the bigger one. And the smaller one's $285,000 a unit. I was just wondering, thoughts, comments, why there's such a discrepancy and which one's closer to the norm.
Well, and Bruce, he's already up there. He was there and I was looking back at him. Then I will be quiet and let him answer that. I think I know the answer to this one, but go ahead, Bruce.
Good afternoon, Commissioner Bruce Bussey, Housing and Community Development. Basically, they're two very different construction projects. The project that we're looking at now, Skyway Flats, is a five-story building, structural concrete, parking garages. The state of Florida, as I understand, and implemented some new stormwater requirements, which are also increasing costs. So that project, compared to the 35-unit, single-story project in Clearwater, are just kind of night and day in terms of the construction costs and style of construction.
These are kind of in line with what we've seen?
You know, Skyway Flats, total construction cost per unit is at the high end. It seems like every project we bring to you over the next, each six months, the construction costs do climb. But it is similar to some of the other projects we've seen that are multi-story, reinforced concrete, units over parking.
And this is the guarantee of how many years on the?
This one will be permanently affordable. The $6 million will go for the land acquisition, meaning that the HFA will acquire it, lease it back to the developer, and so it will be in the county's assets of affordable land for perpetuity.
I think what you are saying, Commissioners, is we see very different construction costs on some of these. The reality is that this one is small county dollars that had they been coming to us for penny dollars, we probably wouldn't have been able to afford it without these other funding sources because of that construction cost.
This project was successful at the state level of receiving live-local dollars that were added to the sale financing, so that was one of the big additional funding sources that they have in addition to HFA bonds and tax credits. So this one is also an HFA bond issuance, which you'll see as number 47 later this afternoon.
Any questions?
How much is St. Pete giving them?
St. Pete is not providing funding for this project. That was one of our initial concerns and kind of why I bring up the sale funding from the state of Florida. The city is waiving certain development fees and providing incentives along those lines, but they are not providing direct funding. A lot of times we try to split the funding between the city and the county. In this instance, where the county funding is going for the land acquisition and the county will be the land owner, it didn't really make sense to split that money between city and county when the county will be acquiring the land.
So for Skyway Lofts 1 and 2, I think for Skyway Lofts 1, we paid for the land. It was like $700,000. But we didn't split the cost with the city, right?
Correct. When the county's purchased land, it's always been the full acquisition price.
I was just wondering because I didn't see, when I was looking at the backup documents, I didn't see where the city of St. Pete did anything.
Yeah, that's a little unusual, and the city is to the point where they're funding out of some of their resources. And in this case, I think the state's resources kind of filled that gap.
Any other questions? Motion by Commissioner Scott. Second by Commissioner Peters. Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. 6-0.
Number 32. This is an affordable housing program for 35-unit multifamily for a homeless empowerment program. We discussed this last Thursday. Specialized units.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion passes unanimously. 6-0. Number 33.
Letter of Agreement, Authorizing Crime Stoppers Trust Fund for 26-29.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions? Bring up the voting card, please. Voting on this one. He's a yes. That motion carries unanimously. Number 34.
34 is an extension of increasing the upset limit to continue services with Amazon online marketplace for various county needs.
Motion by Commissioner Peters.
It's on an as-needed basis.
It's on an as-needed basis.
Peters. No, I mean, there's nothing wrong with them.
I'm just sitting on that. You know, it's on strategy. Yeah. Listen, I get back to this day, so.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Did you second that? All right. Any questions? We're going to get slap happy. Bring up the voting card, please.
I'm sorry. Who was the second?
About that? Not yet. She's working on it. We can do a voice vote. Okay, here we go. Here we go. Thank you. That motion carries unanimously on to number 35.
This is a donation agreement to accept two parcels on Lake Seminole for increases our access for stormwater management.
Motion by Commissioner Scott. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions on item 35? Pull up the card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 36.
This is a 2026 surface transportation block grant application for Eastlake Road. So the grant request is for $71 million with a proposed county match of just over $70 million. We will not receive this amount of money, but it is the application. And what if you do? It'll be a good discussion to have.
Is that a motion? Okay, motion by Commissioner Scott. Second? Okay, sorry. Commissioner Peters is a second. Any questions? Pull up the card, please. Missing one. There we go. Motion carries unanimously. Number 37.
Agreement and Sergei Kovic transfer for requests for Ozark services. Therefore, the purchase of voluntary cleanup tax credits. This has to do with the brokered sale for various properties. Kelly, if you have any specific agreements, Kelly's here. Because I don't really understand this.
You may have any questions on 37. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Bring up the voting card, please. Good. Motion carries unanimously. Number 38.
This is construction change order number one with Can-R. This is for 71st Street North. This is part of the American Rescue Plan funds.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions on number 38? Yes. Commissioner Flowers.
I guess this would be 37 and 38 since they're both at the same company. We have funds remaining to cover the change order?
Yeah, these are all budget projects.
Hmm?
Yes.
Okay.
Any other questions? Pull up the card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 38.
That's a change order number one with Fort Whitney and Wolford Road intersection. And it outlines in your packet the reasons for the change order.
Motion, please. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions on 38? Bring up the card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 39.
Emergency Watershed Protection Program forms. So these are the forms.
Oh, 40.
Sorry.
I was off one.
These are the forms for this program, and this covers funding for the various creeks throughout the county. You can see the grant funds later. We'll bring back program agreements for those grant funds. These are the forms necessary to be able to access the grant funds.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions on number 40? Bring up the card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 41.
Fourth amendment to an agreement with Jacobs Engineering. These are for the Engineering Design Services for Joe's Creek.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions on the number 41? Bring up the card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 42.
This is a local agency program agreement with Florida Department of Transportation for Construction Engineering Inspection Service for the Denine Causeway. These are repairs from the hurricanes.
Could somebody maybe talk a little bit on the project other than repairs to the bridge? Kelly's on her way up. I want to make sure I...
Kelly Hammerlevy, Public Works Director. So back when Hurricane Helene damaged the south side of the causeway, we sustained about $1.3, $1.4 million worth of damage. So because of the different pathways you have to go through for repairs, this one had to go through the Federal Highway Administration, which then the agreement had to go through, then was then routed through the Department of Transportation to us. So it's taken an extended period of time. But this is, you know, the emails that you've been getting, complaints about not getting the repairs done. This is the agreement that we needed in order to get that work done.
This will open up that area west of the large bridge up to, and that's not all the way to the bathroom facilities, but close.
Yes. So it's a county section. Yeah, where the bathrooms are, that's the city.
And are we still talking about having a one direction like we're doing on the north?
Yes. And we will incorporate that into the work that we're doing.
Thank you, Kelly. Okay. Did I hear a motion from Commissioner Peters? Second. Second from Commissioner Latvala, our Vice Chair Latvala. All in favor? Oh, bring up the card. Sorry. It carries unanimously. Number 43.
This is an agreement we have with Duke, and they're relocating in a transformer, which requires us to redo the agreement associated with that.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. You had a question?
I do. It just, do we know, when does Duke interrupt our power? Do we have backup?
Yeah. So, here we go. Linda, you're going to come up? All right. I assume that they don't interrupt our power. No, no, no. It's actually, we get a benefit by using power at the right time. And that's what they do.
Good afternoon, Commissioners. Linda Benoit, Financial Services Director for Utilities. We have recently installed additional backup power and electrical connections at our DUN facility. So, we are backed up. And so, it is then to our advantage to have the interruptible power rate. It is about 40% less expensive than the regular power rate for an industrial facility. So, and we can afford to be interruptible because we have immediate on-demand generator backup.
Thank you, Commissioner Scott. Any other questions? Okay. Bring up the card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 44.
The change order number two with QRC for our annual water and reclaimed water repairs and extensions for work order contracts.
I have a motion. Make a motion, but I have a question. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Scott. Do I have a second? Second by Commissioner Wicke. Commissioner Scott.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, we're increasing the agreement by $5 million. I'm just curious, how much of the, have we used all of the initial $5,750,000 of initial approved on that?
Good afternoon, Commissioner. We have used almost all of it. We needed the agreement to span the entire period. And because of the hurricanes, we used through it so much faster. We used $5 million of the $5.7 million in fiscal 25 alone doing all of those repairs. And so, looking ahead and wanting to have contract availability to continue to do the work, we got in front of that and we put this contract amendment together now so that we could continue to deliver services and repairs.
And where is that, where's that funds coming from? I'm sorry.
It's a sewer, water and sewer funds. Water and sewer? Oh, well, yeah.
Water and sewer funds, both operating and capital.
The combination of the two for the $5 million?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, it's water and reclaim, so.
And these are regularly budgeted funds, sir.
Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Bring up the voting card, please. One more. Yep. Motion carries unanimously. Number 45.
45 is a tougher hearing for multifamily housing revenue bonds for housing project in Largo, $19 million.
Motion to approve by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Bring up the voting card. More. Oh, me. Yeah. It's so good to have you back. Motion carries unanimously. Number 47.
Number 46 is a tougher hearing for multifamily housing revenue bonds. This is for Bay Point Tower, $15.7 million.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions on 47? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 40. Oh, number 47. Thank you.
Somebody's got to get me. Same thing, except this is Skyway Flats, $21 million.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Lett-Valla. Any other questions? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 48.
And this is a tougher hearing for the Housing Finance Authority for Wingate Apartments, $25 million.
Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions on number 48? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Moving to County Attorney, number 49.
Under item number 49, this is a confidential mailer that I spoke with each of you personally about. I am recommending that you approve staff's recommendation on this item.
Motion by Commissioner Nowicki. Second by Commissioner Scheer. Any questions? I guess we've all had them answered. Please bring up the voting card. Motion carries unanimously. Number 50.
Under item number 50, I'm requesting authority to file suit. In the matter that is referenced, this will be a cross-claim against Cigna Health and Life Insurance.
Did I hear Commissioner Flowers on the motion? Commissioner Nowicki on the second? Did I hear that or no? She was humming. Oh, well then let's go back. Commissioner Nowicki on the motion. Is the hummer seconding? Thank you. Okay. Any questions on number 50? Bring up the card, please. One missing. Oh, got it. Motion passes unanimously. Number 51.
Under item 51, this is a request for the reference law firm, Banker Lopez, to engage in dual representation with the county and other clients. As I mentioned last week, this is not an item that we normally will bring to you all, but in this particular situation, I do not have any issues requesting that you waive their conflict.
Motion by Commissioner Scott. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Bring up the card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 52.
Under item 52, I'm requesting the board ratify the initiation of litigation in a case that was previously authorized by the chair. This was an emergency matter relating to a neglectfully treated animal.
Motion by Commissioner Scott. Second by Commissioner Peters. Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 53.
53 is another confidential item that I discussed with each of you. I am requesting that you approve staff's recommendation on this matter.
Motion by Commissioner Lett-Vallick. Second by Commissioner Peters. Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 54.
Another confidential item that I spoke with each of you about. I am requesting that you approve staff's recommendation on this matter.
Motion by Commissioner Lett-Vallick. Second by Commissioner Nowicki on 54. 53 is still up. Thank you. One more. Motion carries unanimously. Number 55. I have no reports today. No other reports. Okay. Number 56, county administrator report.
So for my county administrator report today, I've asked Bruce to come up and outline our affordable housing program, where we're at. And the decision really for you is that based upon the amount spent and the amount of applications we have in, the recommendation is to close the program to new any applications at this time. Staff will then evaluate the submitted applications and make recommendations to the board to commit the balance of the penny funds available. If something changes, we can always open it back up. In other words, none of the programs move to fruition. But to have people apply when there's no funds available, I think, doesn't serve us well. So with that, I'll turn it over to Bruce to kind of outline where we're at with our penny program.
Good afternoon again, commissioners. What I handed out is basically a simple two-page update on a pretty complex program. We're nearing a very important milestone, as County Administrator Burton pointed out, since starting the program back in 2020. We've now committed, with the board's approval today of Skyway Flats, $91.2 million to 18 multifamily affordable housing development projects. All these projects are in various states. The second page of your handout lists each of the projects, how much money has been spent, if they're completed, under construction, what their status is. But I just want to point out a couple key numbers. When these projects are completed, it will have produced 3,164 new housing units. 2,227 of those will be restricted affordable units at various income levels. So in a broad snapshot, that's kind of where we are today. Up until recently, we'd had a projection of a total of $99.8 million for the 10-year set aside for this program. Unfortunately, that's been a little bit reduced recently. And so now our new amount is $94.1 million. So when we take that into consideration, that leaves a balance of approximately $2.9 million to date that has not been committed. We've got quite a few more applications in the pipeline that significantly exceed that amount. We're working on two project recommendations that you'll probably see in the next two months that would fully commit those dollars. So with that, I'd just like to highlight a couple of other numbers on the spreadsheet. As you recall, the Penny for Pinellas, Penny 4 set aside was for workforce housing and economic development. And so I think one of the really important numbers to look at is the $862 million that has been leveraged by the Penny Program. So those $862 million come from a wide variety of sources, everything from private equity to state funding and other financing that generates economic development activity in the county for building these workforce and affordable housing projects. A lot of times we talk about the subsidy per unit. When we updated this chart, we looked at all the affordable units, all the set asides, and we divided the amount of money that the county has invested in these projects. And it basically comes out to just under $41,000 per unit. Those units will be available for the next 30 to 100 years. Each project has a little bit of a different lifespan in terms of the affordability requirements. But a lot of these projects were land acquisitions, which puts that land into the county's inventory as an asset and long-term affordable housing. So I know it's been kind of a long meeting, and you've got an evening, so I'll leave it at that. And if you have any questions about the statistics, the numbers of the projects, I'd be happy to answer with that.
Are we getting a sense of the revenues being generated by these apartments that we're building, like property taxes and that kind of thing?
I don't have that data. That's something we could research. That's one situation we've been kind of looking at in terms of forecasting the potential impacts of the Live Local Act, if some of those were to be taken off the tax rule. And one of the reasons, the board's decided to opt out of the Live Local taxes. So that's an analysis we could do, but I don't have that data currently.
Any questions? Yeah. Yeah, Commissioner Peters.
So I know if we vote to end this today, you've been having IT problems with people uploading their program, because I know someone tried to submit yesterday and could not. There were a bunch of errors, and IT said they were working on it. So is that on our end or their end?
Yesterday's issue I think may have been with our neighborly software provider, but I believe we've got that resolved. It hasn't been a problem.
Okay, so had that not occurred, that person I know that was applying yesterday would be on this list? This list is projects that the board has committed funding to,
and so that's a completely separate list in terms of how many applications we have and requests. Those are, and I think I did summarize that in a bullet point, that at the time of the writing we had eight applications that were submitted requesting $37.4 million. There are several other applications that we've talked about, potential applicants, that could apply, and that's why we want to make that decision so that people aren't spending time or energy getting ready to apply for a program that's quickly.
So the one I'm thinking about, and I know you know of it, I think is really close to, like, being shovel-ready, and so I hate to discount them because we had a program error. You know what I mean? So I would like that if they can get that in tomorrow to be able to count on, if you were going to stop it to not include them because of a program error, because they were trying to be timely and get it done because they knew we were running low on funds. And I like the value of it because it's one in North County, and we have done a ton in South County and not a lot in North County. And I just would like them not to be disqualified because of an IT error that they had no control over.
Yeah, and in our outreach plan, kind of anticipating should the board agree to do this, we would plan on reaching out to anybody who started an application and giving them a time frame to go ahead and complete that application. At the same time, let them know what the status of the program is, and so that way we do gather all the applications that are in process, give them a reasonable deadline to complete those, and then should additional funds become available.
I think one thing to clarify, Commissioner, is that they're already working with entities where that will commit the remaining funds. So the people that have applied, there's not going to be funds for them anyway. Unless those projects don't go forward, they've been working with them for an extended period of time, and they're getting ready to bring those funding recommendations to you. So, Bruce, I know you know who I'm talking about.
Are they included in what he's talking about or not? They are not.
No, when we spoke a few weeks ago, I followed up with that developer, and they're well aware of our application process, and they started the process yesterday.
Okay, okay. I still would like, because of a project error, I mean, they would have been in the pipeline, and I just think if it's an IT error, they shouldn't be excluded out of that pipeline. And even if they're at the bottom of the list, they're still on the list.
Mike, please.
That we might be able to, if we want to allocate more funds for this, we're not going to accept any more applications.
Well, whether you accept the application from yesterday or not, I think we've got other applications in that unless projects fall through, we're not going to have funding for them. That's going to be the challenge. You've got $37 million a project request, and you've got $2.5 million of funds. So, yeah, unless the penny estimate changes. But right now, you know, as we had to reduce it down because of the change in state law last year.
Any other questions?
If there's consensus, I think we can just hold any submitted applications or if there's consensus from the board, if there's directions. And not accept any further applications. That's fine.
What about the ones I was just referring to? If there was an IT problem on our end, I don't think they should be penalized and not be included. So I think that that group that tried to do it yesterday and couldn't do it yesterday should not be disqualified out of this.
Yeah, and, you know, the application is open today. I believe that IT issue was resolved yesterday. I'll check on the status of that. We'll make sure that they complete their application.
So it's any applications received after today.
Okay. Yeah, I was just going to say maybe you want to give it a date, time certain, which would be like tomorrow. Sounds good. Tomorrow?
Is that okay with everybody? Fine. Tomorrow? All right. No new applications starting tomorrow. Okay. So we're rushing right now, I guess. Although there's no funding, even for the ones that get in. That's one project, guys. There's no penny funding. They're dealing with two right now, really closer, that they said may scarf all that up anyway.
And I would just add that there are some other resources. We do have some home federal funds, and so we aren't saying no to any applications. We just want to make sure that everybody's aware there are no penny funds. So those federal funds have a lot of different restrictions in terms of location and those set aside. So we'll still be working with applicants. We'll be reaching out to anybody who's applied previously or interested to make sure that we can utilize the other resources that are available. It's just we're to the point with penny that...
Maybe you can explain that to us another time. I'd be happy to. Yeah. Any other comments or questions? Gary, do you have anything else?
Yeah, just the remainder of my report. One, just a reminder for Commissioner. So next Thursday, okay, April 2nd, we're going to have surface water management. So I think when I reviewed it, it was 50-some slides from Kelly. So it's going to be... It's a long presentation, but this is what you asked for, for us to really go through our stormwater and the various things that are impacting our residents. So that one's going to be an extent... So Kelly's bringing how many?
How many slides? 50-some slides when I reviewed it yesterday.
So we're going to have lunch and maybe dinner. Okay. So just be ready. We will also have the county properties we're going to be talking about, the Phillies, and the North Branch bonding piece. So pretty full agenda coming up next Thursday.
Sounds like a plan. I'm sure all seven of us will be there till the end. That's all I have. Okay. Thank you. All right. Number 57.
The board has selected Teresa Sullivan and Dean Jarvis.
Appointments to the Pinellas County Housing, excuse me, Finance Authority, Housing Finance Authority. All right. We'll let you go ahead and start tabulating that one. Thank you. And we'll get...
Thank you, Chair. In February, I was able to go to the NACO Conference in Washington. I was able to go to the NACO Conference in Washington in February. I enjoyed that very much. My takeaway, my biggest takeaway was I attended a symposium on data centers. We might want to look at our development ordinances to see if we're ready for a data center. Personally, I don't think they're going to be targeting our area because we're so close to, you know, hurricanes are not good for data centers. But for those of you that serve on Tampa Bay water, Hillsborough, Eastern Hillsborough might be, and you might want to,
Tampa Bay water might want to look at the water usage of data centers because it's substantial.
And so it could actually impact the amount of waters available in this area. So that's just for you specifically. On March 6th, I toured Shepherd's Village, which is an organization that provides housing for single mothers. And they actually have a nice thrift store there. So if you want to donate some clothes or some furniture, they like to resell them. And it goes to help the help with their program. They're a great group of people. On March 9th,
I chaired the Pinellas safety council again, and we're working hard to come up with solutions to solving recidivism problems. And also I'm also working on an idea. I got to try and provide some kind of county ID to people who are getting out of jail because they can't use the services that are available because they don't have an ID. So I'm trying to figure that one out. Working on that. We're all working on it. On March 19th, I met with everyone's favorite property appraiser, Mr. Twitty, just to see how the, our department and his departments and our county governments are all interfacing and working together. I learned a lot about his office that I didn't know. I learned that not only does he receive funding from county commission, but in the general fund, but also from school board and our city. So it was a good meeting. I think it was a good to meet with, with our, with him on March the 20th. I met with the members of fast. Many of them were here today. I got to meet with them and I look forward to seeing them again at their next, at their next function. And I, I want to work with them on making housing more affordable in Pinellas County. Also caring for others with the mental health, which they talked about today. And they're also very interested in water quality issues. So am I. So I hope to be able to work with them on March 21st. I supported the Tampa Bay Rowdies by going to their home opener in downtown St. Petersburg. It was a, it was a kick in the grass. I enjoyed it very much. So, and then on March 22nd, which is a Sunday, I was able to participate at Valspar as an honorary observer. I got to walk with a couple of the pros and you know, the, the Valspar is such a great asset and, and an event for Pinellas County. Tens of thousands of people come here for that event. They take up tens of thousands, 10,000 plus home hotel rooms and they spend tens of millions of dollars. So if you haven't been to Valspar later, you'll go next year. It was a whole bunch of fun. And I'm so glad it's a, an event that we sponsor. So that's my report. Thank you, Commissioner Chair. Mr. Flowers.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Excuse me. Thank you all so much for those who sent me well wishes while I was dealing with whatever that horrible bug was. I appreciate it. Commissioner Lottlala for checking on me as well, as well as Commissioner Dave Eggers. But area agency on aging, we have finally found some property in Pasco County where we have a potential contract that will be signed for 86 affordable units for seniors. So we are very hopeful that that goes through. I'm not going to say the name of the property or the person because we want to make sure that negotiations go through first and that we have a handle on that. So when we dig some dirt on that, even though I know that's Pasco County area agency on aging represents Pinellas and Pasco County. So hopefully some of you, if not all of you would desire to attend to help shovel dirt on that one. I want to say congratulations to all of the ladies who were honored by the Woodson Museum as first ladies. That was a wonderful event. And it just acknowledges women that are doing things. When it comes to community service and they were first in doing those things throughout the Pinellas County. Of course, I attended before Pinellas meeting. It was very interesting to me. I was very pleased with the long term strategic planning information that was provided to us as it relates to where they're going. We did receive an update as much of an update as we could get relative to moving forward with the MPO process. So I want to thank Whit Blanton and all of his team for that. The sad part was I attended a memorial service for a young man who was 18, just graduated from high school, Lakewood High School last year. His name was Cabredi Wheeler. He's the grandson of former city council member, Lisa Willow Bowman. His father was murdered some years ago, and that's what got her involved in government. But her grandson took his own life. And it was due to an issue that I'm not going to discuss here. But what I will say is you can never tell what a person is going through and or thinking, even though they may be smiling on the outside. And I think the coordinated access model program that we have has served its useful purpose. I agree and disagree with some of the comments that there's really no advertising and things like that, because I do come in contact with people who are very well aware of that program, both professional individuals who are licensed mental health clinicians as well as the lay people. But unfortunately, you can't always catch everybody. before they take their own lives. So I just want to acknowledge that and again extend sincere condolences to the Cabredi Wheeler family. I had my Office of Human Rights board meeting. It was a very good board meeting. We received quite a few updates. The director has been making some additional presentations throughout the community when it comes to exactly what service is provided. when addressing disabilities for persons who may have issues with their housing and the landlord may not be providing no services or having issues with wage payments. So it was a very good meeting. I was also voluntold as chairman again by county clerk Ken Burke. And as a result of him voluntolding me, I voluntold him for vice chair. So he is serving again as vice chair for the Office of Human Rights. I want to thank each and every one of you for meeting with Bettina and having conversations with her and letting her know what your thoughts are. And I know that Barry will be presenting the results of the, I don't want to say audit because it's not an audit, in-depth review of the Office for Human Rights. I know Barry will be bringing that information before the commission. And so we'll all have a chance to talk about that. And that information will also be presented to the board of the Office of Human Rights. So I want to thank you all for all of that. I hope that you, if you have not already done so, that you have provided your registration for the Florida Association of Counties June Conference. The main hotel is sold out. It's a big hotel, but I think there's another event that's going on there. Last year it was a volleyball tournament. But all the rooms are sold out. So if you're having difficulty finding lodging, please let me know so I can get with staff and we can see what's available in the surrounding areas. Also, there was a, I had a meeting rather with Reen Crawl from the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. We were just looking at mapping out our resiliency summit that will be coming up. Barry, I think you did. I think I asked you and you did respond to serving on the panel for that with county administrators?
Yes.
You did. Okay. So I would strongly encourage you to attend, even if you don't attend for all the days, to come and hear that panel discussion to talk about what we're doing throughout our region to assist each other. We are moving forward with doing part two of the presentation on the Phoenix project. So hopefully we'll have that out and that will show not just the previous hurricane effects, but utilizing the dialogue from both Helene and Milton and what that could mean in the future for surrounding communities. There was a literacy festival at the James Weldon Johnson Branch Library that is always a very good event to go to because reading is fundamental, so we want to hopefully continue to provide that so that children and families alike can enjoy it. All of us are aware of what's going on in Tallahassee. They will go back into session in April, so I will just continue to advocate for whatever it is that may be hanging out there from us, and I would encourage you to do the same. I would also encourage any of you, if you desire, I'll say it again, to serve on a committee with the Florida Association of Counties. Please let me know. I'll be getting with staff next week, making those committee assignments. So if you are interested, please send an e-mail to me. That's not a violation of the sunshine, so you can send an e-mail to me saying that you desire to serve on that committee. And, again, if you have anything that you would like for a committee, even if you're not serving on that committee, if you have a proposal or something you want us to look at, please get that information in as well so that we can go ahead and add it to the upcoming legislative agenda. And that is all that I have. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Commissioner Flowers, are we allowed to sign up our colleagues for some FAC committees?
If you give me their names, I'll put them on now.
All right. I might have a few committees for Commissioner Eggers to serve on. But I look forward to the FAC convention and your ascendancy to serve as president. That will be a treat in a couple months. I wanted to talk about the letter that Barry read on Thursday, and I thank you for reading that, and I apologize for not being here. And I wanted to clear up a couple things. I watched the meeting.
I watched the meeting.
The first thing is I was not talking about being the point person in dealing with developers. That's not, I don't believe that's the role of a single commissioner. That's more of a staff role. What I was talking about in serving as a point person or kind of taking the lead in is I believe, and I would like to have a couple town hall meetings in Clearwater during the month of April and really have given the citizens an opportunity to share what they would like to do with our county property and give them a voice. And so what I was volunteering to do was kind of lead that effort. And I don't believe that that in and of itself is a sunshine issue. So if we did partake in town hall meetings, I believe, am I correct, county attorney, that more than one of us could be at a town hall meeting?
It could certainly be problematic, and I know that many of you are familiar that when we do the, I think it's CNCN town hall, we advertise it as a sunshine meeting. That would be one way to overcome it. And if you're inviting the public there already, there really is not much trouble doing that. Communications has always hosted that in the past, and as long as we have the dates and times in advance, we can make that happen. Otherwise, I would recommend against there being two commissioners there or at least two commissioners speaking on behalf of the county.
Well, we, and where I got the idea from is we did, I remember last year we had the beach nourishment town hall meetings. That had a few county commissioners there.
Yeah.
And so that's kind of what I thought of the idea.
And I'm pretty sure we advertised that. And we would have to advertise it because I'd want to have people there.
And so that's kind of what I would like to have happen in April, if it's y'all's approval. Just to give our residents a say and kind of have an open mic night, that's kind of dangerous.
But, you know, just to give our citizens an opportunity to share what they want to see happen, you know, with our property and like kind of what their vision is. The other thing I wanted to talk about was there was some mention about adding applicants. And I don't think I was very clear in the way that I phrased it. And I was under the impression in my meetings, my one-on-one meetings, and when I was watching the meeting and looking at the presentation, I don't think that my one-on-one meeting was the same. Like, I think it may have changed, that it was going to be a committee-led effort and that a committee was going to kind of give us, like, do a ranking and things like that. And whenever I talked about adding applicants, I was talking about adding applicants at the beginning of the process when the committee was ranking people not at the end. So if there's, like, 20 applicants and this committee picks the top five and we as a board says, oh, well, the person that ranked, like, eighth was good, we want to add them, I was talking about at that time, not at the end, after the deadline, because I think it would be inappropriate to add somebody after the deadline. So I just wanted to clear that up as well. But I look forward to talking about it again during our April 2nd meeting, because I'm sure I'll have some more notes then. But on my idea to have a town hall meeting, can I go ahead and talk to our communication staff and give them work to do with regards to that?
So, commissioners, I was going to have, during our one-on-ones tomorrow and Thursday, I was going to talk to you about kind of this process. You can certainly, if you vote here, we'll certainly accommodate having that process. The question is, do you want to vet this out as a commission and have that discussion April 2nd? Based upon that direction, we can hold those types of meetings after that. And so that would be my recommendation to you, because we also have some internal thoughts about having a discussion with you about whether you want to have that then or after you see the proposals. Because there's two different ways that you can do that, or you can do both. I mean, there's nothing to limit the amount of public input you get on that. Because, you know, even from the proposal that, or the letter that you saw, you saw some very grand ideas that really, that's one of the reasons for doing a request for negotiation, to where we're not locked into this type of thing. It's a negotiation. And what that was envisioning was actually recreating the alignment with the roads and tucking the roads upon to the south side of the property and kind of revisioning that. We don't know what a developer is going to propose, because you've got a lot of different ideas. And so do you want to have that input early? Do you want to have those proposals that we kind of vet out and then get public input on that? So those are some of the things we wanted to talk to you about on the second.
Yeah, I mean, and we can talk about it then, but as somebody who's lived in Clearwater for almost 20 years and who's represented in various capacities the citizens of Clearwater for 12 years, I guess, like, it will be impossible to keep politics out of what we do. And like I said the other day, this will be one of the most political things that we do. And we just have to own that. And I think the more transparency and the more sunlight, the better. And so I would say get community involvement on the front end and not the back end, you know, because there's going to be – this is going to be one of those decisions that regardless of what we decide, people are not going to be happy. But I think if they – there's going to be some people that aren't going to be happy. But I think that if they feel like they had a say in it, they, you know, may be understanding.
Again, it's whatever you decide as a board, staff will certainly carry out. The one thing we were really wanting to see is what the market commands, and that's what we're going to see from a development proposal. Anybody can put pictures on a paper, but actually realizing that, capitalizing that project and then building it, you know, is different. And I think it's going to take both. It's going to take the vision of the community, you as elected officials, community input, to negotiate whatever that final product is. We were just kind of thinking to see that. But if you want to do that on the front end, we can do that. It's really – we'll take whatever direction you want us to go. I think we should get community feedback in the front.
I like the idea of both. I like the idea of both. And the truth is you can film it, and it can be accessible, and every person that's going to respond to that RFQ or whatever it is will have the opportunity, if they weren't there present, they can view it and watch it and see what the community thinks, you know, as part of whatever they're going to submit to us. And that way they have access to what the community is thinking prior, and then after I would take it back out to the community again. And I think Commissioner Latval is absolutely right about this, and it should be taken to the community on both – I think he's absolutely right on this one. I really do.
I'm sorry? How many meetings would you –
Let's do two. And it could be in the same week, like two nighttime meetings. And we can even do it in here. So we don't have to, you know, go rent a place. We can just do it here, and whichever – I mean, I'll be here, but whatever, you know, of my colleagues want to be here can be here. And if they don't, you know, if they can't make it, then that's fine too.
And we could – if it's aired, we could view it.
Right.
You could. So – but, you know, I completely agree with Commissioner Latval on transparency and community input. I mean, I look at Terra Verde and how angry they are that the developer never went to them in advance. Right. And that's a tiny little project. We're talking about a major, major project, and I think it should – I think the citizens were spot on today, and I think he's absolutely spot on as well.
My only thought is – and I don't have any problem getting community input. I would think that the city of Clearwater representatives might have been doing that all along at some point, understanding what their residents want downtown. And I'm going to bring it from the other perspective, which is I'm hoping that we get as much money as we possibly can to pay down on the bonds that we're going to get for our new center. Those are tax dollars. You talked about that earlier. We're going to have $200 million. I make that up on the price and $75 million to get rid of, and now you're down to $125 on bonding. And that amount is going to be a lot less than it would have been if we get the most that we can get from it. And I don't want a lot of impediments in that as I look at that perspective. Your perspective is, you know, the one on downtown Clearwater is extremely important. I live in the area. I'm very frustrated about the lack of balance of development in the downtown. I'm just not sure what our pieces are going to add to that. And that, I guess, to the point about we're getting these RFNs from the community, from those developments, the ones that are going to put money into something because it has a return possibility. I don't know what those particular developments would add to the downtown redevelopment. I mean, I'm open to listening to it. I don't have any problem listening to residents. But at the end of that month, and we've had two meetings, I've heard today, I heard the guy talk about, you know, putting leases on the property. You put leases on the property, then we get no money for bonding, you know, reduction. And to me, that's a huge deal, and it affects a lot of residents' tax dollars. Again, I don't have a problem listening. We can listen to two meetings and get all these different ideas from people who, I don't know that they're in the development business to make reality out of what they're talking about, but I think they have ideas and thoughts. The guy mentioned frustrations, generational frustrations that people have had with it. So maybe voicing that will help. I just don't know how, what we are going to provide. I don't want to give them a false sense of, oh, now that we've gotten your input, we're going to lease the land.
Can we include the city member-electeds or no?
I mean, if they want to come, they can. But I don't, I mean, the city council represents, and the mayor, who I love, he's a great guy, but the city council represents the same people I represent. And I think I am pretty in tune with the will of the voters in the city of Clearwater. And I'm not going to get into it here, but, you know, there are frustrations in the city of Clearwater. And otherwise, you know, there would not have been a group that I've been involved in politics for a long time, and Commissioner Flowers has and other people have. To be able to get 8,000 petitions, I think, twice, I think they've done it twice. That is not an easy task. To get somebody to sign their name on something is not an easy task. And I'm not talking about, you know, what that group is doing, because that's not anything to do with the county property. But there is, you know, discontent in the city of Clearwater. And, you know, I don't think we need the city council's permission to do what we feel is best for our residents. There are residents, too. And so, and I would remind you that this is our property. You know, the idea to hold back part of the, at least part of this property to lease was something that Commissioner Scher brought up a month or two ago. And when he brought that up, I thought it was a great idea. You know, because we maintain control of it, and we would make sure that what a developer says they're going to build, they're going to build. You know, I believe that there's other, and I'm not a lawyer, we have very brilliant lawyers that work in the county attorney's office. Just ask that the old Tampa Bay Rays lawyers, who they put in a pretzel, that, you know, there's different deeds restrictions and things that they can put on the property if we were to sell it. Where my understanding is that a developer would have to build what they say that they're going to build. And so, you know, I'm not as worried about some of that. I wouldn't necessarily be in favor of leasing a, you know, waterfront property that could be, you know, built for million-dollar condos that, you know, would be prime real estate. But there might be parts of the development that, you know, could be used for a lease. You know, that's what this whole request for negotiation and request for proposal will flesh out. But this, you know, I firmly believe, and I've talked to Barry about this numerous times, and we've probably talked about this for maybe two years, that, you know, this has a makings of really creating a totally new downtown for the city of Clearwater. And so, you know, this opportunity is not one that we could or should pass up. You know, this is a, you know, defining moment. So, you know, that's all I'll say about that.
So, Commissioner, if I could, I heard, I guess, consensus around some type of public meetings. Why don't I bring back a kind of a schedule, a draft schedule, and thoughts around that for the discussion on April 2nd. And if you, then we can have it all at that time, but we'll be prepared to act based upon the direction provided at the time. But we'll have a schedule and a draft to do it, to accomplish exactly what you said.
Barry, could you potentially reach out to CBRE and find out, like, and again, let's say we have 20 properties. Yeah. What, I mean, what their professional opinion is, is like, is it half of those properties that could really be combined with other properties to make an impactful difference? And we're going to discuss that. And some of these, hold on. Some of these, the thought about, you know, having somebody do something, you know, unique and consider the land lease, you know, versus a standalone property that's outside the critical area, but still might get a good return. I mean, we may end up with half the properties that might make a lot of sense to what you're talking about. And the other half, they're not going to make a darn bit of difference on the redevelopment of downtown. And maybe we can move, you know, I don't know, something, just a thought from them.
No, you're correct. And we actually have a chart that they're going to show you on April 2nd that talks exactly about that. The difference in the pros and the cons to leases versus sale, okay?
And we also will talk about it, and Don can speak specifically to it, about how to restrict it and make sure we get a development that we want at the end, which is what you want. You want activated space. I went back to Commissioner Scheer, you know, who had originally talked about that and brought those thoughts back to them. What is the intent? The intent is to make sure of the activation, you know, not to repeat, you know, what we've seen. And so it's pretty specific about structures and how we set that up. They're going to outline all of that in a chart format on April 2nd.
And it came up on Thursday about the different buildings that the city has, that they could theoretically, donate's not the word, but that they could give to a developer as part of this project.
They could, and what Commissioner Akers just said, there's a critical mass, obviously, of our buildings down here, both on this side of the street, that side of the street, and the following street that are like that critical mass. But out where the Swisher building is, utilities buildings, those are the outliers of the downtown properties, total of 22 acres. So, you know, we can differentiate those, but they'll be prepared to discuss them, and CBRE will be here to go through that. But to your point, if acceptable, we'll have a plan of how to have community input. We'll discuss it at that meeting, and then we can execute based upon the direction.
Yes, sir. Thank you. I have a couple more items. Sounds like a robust moral hat. No, no, I got it. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Go for it.
I mean, I'm just trying to be like you today and talk about that. I would just like to support your idea of having the meetings. I didn't need to, you know, if you're looking for, I definitely want to support your idea of having public meetings, because I think, I would like to hear what the citizens want downtown. I have not lived in Clearwater my whole, you know, 15 years, so I would like to know what would work and what not work, and that way it would help me judge the proposals that come in better. Well, you know, like that young man that wrote you the letter, and I believe you said it was your son, sir? So I would like to hear these ideas out. That would be great. He created the website. Yeah, so that's great. Just one thing, Chair, on the leasing idea, just because you lease something doesn't mean you're only going to get a few dollars every month. You can sell a 99-year lease and just discount the, and take the net present value of the cash flow. So you can get a big check on the property, but the point is control. And again, timing is everything. Right.
So we got a process that we're talking about over there on that process of bonding.
So that's all I was talking about. No, I understand. I just, I'm all in favor of the public meeting. I think leasing still could be a great thing in some spots. And we do have great attorneys, but I think leases are a good way to go on some of our parcels. So anyway, that was it.
So I also attended the Bayside Bridge renaming ceremony, which was a fantastic event. Thank you to staff for organizing that. The signs look beautiful. I attended the Sprouse Horizon Sports Park Grand Opening in Pinellas Park. And also, I wanted to take a moment to remember a friend of mine who sadly passed away this week, Mr. Ken Hamilton. Speaking of Clearwater, he is a, comes from a legendary family in Clearwater. And he is a, was a wonderful man. And he will be missed. So rest in peace, Mr. Hamilton. Thank you very much. Commissioner Scott.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And it seems like it's been a while. I was out of town for the last 10 days. I got back last night, so still probably a little bit jet lagged. But I can't remember if the last time we did this, if I talked about NACO and the visits with the Army Corps. And I think, I think I've already updated you all on that. But while I was away last week, there were some further meetings that, productive meetings that happened with, with the Army Corps. And we've made just really tremendous, tremendous, tremendous, tremendous progress. So, more to come on that. But I'm going to be sending a letter to Assistant Secretary Adam Tell, just thanking him for all of his hard work. Because they, they jumped on this. And they made this, they made this a priority. So we're working on finding a date where they can come down here. We can do kind of a ribbon-cutting thing and make a big deal about it. But we're, we're like, we're, we're almost there. We're almost there. So, more to come on that. But really, really good news about that. Let's see. Since last time we met, I did a code enforcement ride-along focused on short-term rentals. So we went around and visited a couple of the, of the problem properties and got a really good view of the dashboard that staff uses to track short-term rentals. Rentals and the, the software that they use to comb the internet. And they said there's like, I may get the number wrong, but it was like 72 different websites that short-term rentals can advertise on. And they, the software combs those websites for properties that are, that are in our area. So they can check to see if they're, if they're in the, registered, if they're in the registration process. So they're, they're really, this is really, really coming together. It's taken a little, a little bit of time to, to get the processes set up and get things moving. But they're really, really doing, doing a great job. And, and I've noticed that I don't get nearly as many complaints about them. And the ones I do tend to be the same problem children, you know, which will, I think, probably eventually get resolved. Because when, you know, while the neighbors often want an instant, an instant gratification of, you know, find them today, shut them down type thing. But, but code enforcement doesn't work like that, that way. There's a, there's a process. You want to make sure that something sticks. You have to, you have to follow the process, as Jules over here nodding, you know, from, from the, from the very first phone call to the last. To make sure that if something does have to go to court, that it is something that is, is truly enforceable. So, anyways, good news on that. And interesting, I was, on my trip, I was in Ireland and Scotland and just listening to the news over there. They're, you know, having housing problems like we all are. And they're having problems with short-term rentals too, where they're, a big chunk of their housing stock has just been bought up. And it's causing home prices to go up and, and shortages. And they're looking at, some of those governments over there are looking at ways of regulating the density, intensity of, of short-term rentals. So, it's not just us that is, that is facing this, this problem. Let's see. Attended the Kids Tag Arts Awards with Commissioner Eggers and Commissioner Wicke and I think Commissioner Latval and Commissioner Flowers was there as well. So, that was, that was kind of a lot, a lot of fun. Attended the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber Annual Dinner, Clearwater Sea Blues Festival, Firestone Grand Prix. Also attended the Clearwater for Youth Breakfast at the Ballpark Series with Commissioner Latval and I believe they're actually going to be here this evening for our, at the beginning of our public hearing. Got a really nice tour of Ruth Eckert Hall, kind of a backstage tour with CEO Susan Crockett. Very interesting to see sort of the behind-the-scenes view of what takes place to put a show together there. Attended the Bel Air Women's Republican Club where Senator Moody was the keynote speaker. Also went to, in Palm Harbor, visited with some, with some Girl Scouts that were selling cookies out in, in front of, I think it was Krabby Bills at Palm Harbor. And I gave them some VIP patches as they were learning about marketing, money management, and decision-making. And then, before I went out of town, I attended the Tarpon Springs City Commission meeting and presented our BCC proclamation to the family of Susan Harris Desiris-Reese, recognizing her life and her many contributions to the city of Tarpon Springs, specifically to the maritime community. She was a pioneering businesswoman who founded Pelican Point and Marine Boat Yard, owned and operated J. Reese Seafood and Tarpon Marine Ways. And she also became the beloved baker at Rusty Belly's Seafood Restaurant. So she was a very proud matriarch of a four-generation Tarpon Springs fishing family, and I was honored to present our proclamation to them and thank them for Susan's vision, commitment, and sense of community. Also did the Bel Air 5K run on Saturday, March 7th. They always do a nice, nice job there, a nice community event. And then this morning, I did a canine commissioner shoot. Here we go. Finn? All right. Out at a park out in Bel Air on the waterfront. Finn is a great, really nice dog. Finn's about an 8- or 9-year-old dog and is second time back at the shelter. And honestly, I don't know why, because this is a really, really sweet dog. And just a really nice disposition. And I think if somebody just wanted to spend a little bit of, invest a little bit of time with training and spend a little, and spend some quality time with this dog, they would have a great, great time. So if anybody's out there watching and is in the mood for a new furry friend, addition to your family, please go and check out Finn. It really, Finn is really, really a sweet dog.
So that's all I have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Appreciate that. Commissioner Nowicki.
Thank you, Chair. I'd like to give a shout-out to Jen Rainer in Animal Services. She's been working with a constituent of mine with alligators in their pond, and so coordinating with the Sheriff's Office. So I had a— Are you going to become an alligator? She could be. But she's doing a great job, and the few constituents that live on that pond and lake were, you know, extremely happy with how quickly Animal Services got out there. So just wanted to give her and her team a shout-out. Attended, you know, the Grand Prix and the Valspar, which we had last weekend, which was a great, great turnout at both events. Visit St. Pete Clearwater did an excellent job with their advertising. Saw it everywhere at Valspar, and I liked that Grand Prix, the corner that they had with Best Beaches in America. So another shout-out to visit St. Pete Clearwater for the excellent job they did with the Grand Prix and Valspar. I attended a Pinellas County Licensing Board meeting, attended the Early Learning Coalition Board of Directors meeting, and then I'm looking forward to next week the Danville Park ribbon cutting. So that's all I have, Chair. Thank you.
Appreciate it. Commissioner Peters.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I spoke at the Florida Economic Club, and they held it at Ferg's because the original location, the Grand Prix, was going on, and they couldn't get to it. So this is a cross-bay group for economic development, and they meet monthly, and they rotate from Pinellas to Hillsboro. They focus on issues with an economic impact, and we had a great conversation on local government responsibilities, and it was a really great group. I recommend you pop in on them every, you know, once a month because it's a really, really great group. I met with the Tera Verde residents and with Audrey Abels to hear the concerns, mostly about the development that's going on. Audrey's doing a, she's just doing a great job at increasing the county accessibility in the community. She's, I just have to, my hat's off to her. She does an amazing job. I want to congratulate Senator Roussan, a very impactful tenure in the Senate. His farewell was a couple weeks, was I think last week, and it was historic on how long it was, about two and a half hours, of his colleagues praising him, Republican and Democrats, congratulating on him his distinguished career, particularly on mental health and addiction, and I congratulate him as well. I attended the push-in of the new Tera Verde fire truck, and it's quite a vehicle, I've got to say. Ashley took a formal YAC student, Leah, to meet with various attorneys, so thank you, Jewel and Don, to meet with them, and also our public defender, Sarah Malo, and Ashley Ruha, and her team, and they took her to let her sit in on the mental health court, which was very moving for her. I also attended the Chili Brace cook-off with Pinnell's car, I judged that with Ricky Butler, Council Member Ricky Butler, and Councilwoman Patty Reed, and I'm also, I'll be in Lomond tomorrow at their exchange, I've got a full day of meetings. Also, I attended the Florida DEP estuary strategic planning meeting, and that looks like that didn't take as long as I thought it would. There were very few changes to the strategic plan. Also, we met with Pinellas Park regarding the stormwater management issues, and I know we're going to be talking about that in a workshop, but Pinellas Park is very eager to work collaboratively on conveyances and things like that, so I think there's an opportune moment for that workshop and what Kelly's going to do, but I think we need to motivate other cities to come together and work on the watershed and the stormwater issues and not let the boundaries prohibit effective stormwater management. So, I also toured Pinellas Park and went to their wonderful farm and some other things in Pinellas Park, and I visited the Sprawls Park, which is amazing and what an incredible asset to our community and for tourism. If you haven't been, if you didn't go to the ribbon cutting, I highly recommend you go and see it. It's just amazing. We did have a Ford Pinellas meeting. I also met with EMS, and there was no Tampa Bay water meeting, but if you haven't seen the news, there are new restrictions that have just come out. So, not only are we on the one-day watering, you can only wash your car on that one day, and when you go into a restaurant and you have to ask for water, you will not be automatically given a glass of water. So, we really do need to do conservation and be responsible and good examples on water conservation. I want to thank the Parks team and the Film Commission for very quickly allowing a film to be filmed at Heritage Village. It was a very short timeline and notice, and the Parks did a really great job at working that out, and the Film Commission did a really great job at working on making that all happen. So, kudos to them. They were done in a couple days, and I can't wait to see the movie when it's released. And that's about it. Thank you.
Thank you, Commissioner Peters. I was going to get into the Main Street discussion a little bit, but I'll do that another day. The fix-up presentation for Lois was really special. A lot of people were there kind of giving her a lot of kudos, which was really nice. Gave her a proclamation on all of your behalf. I also went to the Tag Art Awards, the Tax Collector's Awards. What I noticed about all of the award winners is that there's no names of our generation. There's no Dave's. There's no John's. There's no Chris's. I don't even think there was events. I mean, you're only like 20 years removed or 15 years removed. It's still just all different names. And so, I'm hoping, I guess, our names will recirculate in another couple decades or something. I don't know. Anyway, it's kind of interesting. Blue Jays' opening day and the Mayor's Challenge was really both two different events, really nice days, beautiful weather. Philly's opening day was not such beautiful weather, but still kind of a special day. And so, good thing. I think Dunedin's team won. So, I think Mayor Rector's already gone to a Dunedin City Commission and the Blue Jay outfit. That's what they do. You know, they do that back and forth. So, they have a little fun with that. Went out to Pi a couple weeks ago. Creative Pinellas had four or five artists out there. They were doing some artwork as kind of a way of when people come off the planes and are waiting to go and just see the kind of artwork that's within our county. I did a nice job. Starting right now, program, one organization, one student, one mentor down in St. Petersburg, really an amazing day. Some stories just blow you away where these folks start their lives and where they are today. One including spoke about she's a doctor, fully, she's gone through all of the stages of life and all the different levels of university and just amazing stories. And starting right now, really a great program, great group, put on good programs for individuals. So, took a tour of HEP with Barb Green and the CEO and the leadership group. It's always good to go there. You saw the veterans, the veterans focus that they do on dorms, permanent and temporary, and then the general public, temporary and permanent. A lot of programs there to help people get on their feet. It was really a good day touring that again. I just can't go there about once a year, once every two years, and just see the new things that they're doing there. Pinellas Citizens University kicked off a couple of weeks ago. They'll be graduating, I think, in mid to late April. Is that right? Does that sound right? I don't remember. Anyway, somewhere mid to late April. Went on Saturday morning at Hilton as sheriff's recognition of our Neighborhood Watch Program, our Neighborhood Watch Groups. A lot of big turnout. It was a good group out there and a lot of good activities going on. And I think a lot of people appreciated the recognitions. It was CNC and County Commission Forum in Eastlake. It was very good. It was a decent turnout. Barry and myself held the fort down and answered a few questions. We were there for about an hour, hour and 15 minutes. Got a little ticklish at the end, but it was a good night, a good meeting to have. And attended the Bayside Bridge renaming again. It was really, really moving. I was expecting a sign about this big, you know, but it had one of the big green signs up there, and it was really pretty cool. And both wives were there as well, and I think they were very touched by the entire presentation. Also went to the District Court of Appeals opening, the McCabe Courthouse down in St. Petersburg, and good turnout for that on a Saturday morning. Barry, on the Shipwatch group that was here today, have we got a strategy a little bit? Yeah, I'll talk to you about that.
We know the issue well. I've corresponded back and forth with them directly.
But I actually had Jill go out and trade cards with them. There's probably more communication we can do, you know, but let me talk with staff, and then we'll get back with you. I know they have. I know they have. And, you know, like, for instance, you know, the next thing is a deep well injection. You know, this has to do with reclaim. We have to do it for our surface water, and so we have to have a site to do that. We're going to use our property. It's not going to have noise after the construction. But, you know, and so the gentleman that I corresponded with was fine. But I think to their point, they want to know, like, you know, what's next. Obviously, any site in Pinellas County was used for a hurricane site. We do not have land available. And so I understand people's frustration about what's next, and they went through an extended period of time. But the reality is we're built out. And so we have to use the properties that we do have. But there's probably a better job that we can do. Let us talk with staff, and then we'll report back.
I appreciate that. And then the Maroney Foundation is having the law enforcement and first responder appreciation dinner on June 13th at Ruth Eckerd Hall. And we've typically bought a table for that commission table for about $1,750 this year. And the money, of course, goes to the organization who then disperses it to one of the group's selected entities. And this is the, actually, this is the 30th year of that group doing great work, great recognition work in our community. So I just want you guys, if you want to give some thought to that, that's fine. But I'd like to be able to get a table from our, you know, the sheriff's fund. You okay with it? Yeah. Everybody okay with that? All right, great. We'll do that. And then, let's see, at the short April 2nd meeting that we have, I'm going to be bringing the, just to get a head nod from you all, try to get some background information so that you all have it in front of you, to identify the County Road 1 between Tampa and Curlew as Sergeant Nicholas Flowers Road. Obviously, it's not, we're not changing the name of the road, we're overlaying his name on that section of road. That's where he grew up, that's where he lived. So I'll be bringing that to you at that meeting just to get your all's nodding so that we can bring it forward for something in a future meeting, sooner than later. Just a heads up.
Mr. Chair, just real quick, circling back to item 58 for the Housing Finance Authority, with five votes each, the board selected, Stephen B. Baumann and Robin Field.
Thank you, appreciate that. And I think that's it. We have a few minutes to get something to eat, and then we'll be back here at six. Anything else before we close? Okay, we're adjourned.
We're recessed.
Before we jump into the evening agenda, I know Commissioner Flowers has to bring something up that she forgot, and then I have to bring something up that I forgot, and then it'll take us about a minute to do. But Commissioner Flowers, you're up, please. Don't get yelled at.
Yeah, to my colleagues, I do apologize for, I'm trying to bring it up, and I can't bring it up. I apologize for being delayed in bringing this before you. Ms. Vandenberg, can you remember, because I can't find my email now with the, yeah. It is my appointment for the Parks and Recreation Board. Excuse me. And I do apologize. Oh, here we go. Thank you, thank you. I am asking that you approve my appointment to the Parks and Recreation Board. Mr. Andrew Roseman is the individual that I would like to appoint for the Parks and Conservation Resources Board. I have a motion, please.
Motion by Commissioner Nowicki, second by Commissioner Latvala. All in favor, say aye.
Aye.
Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, you're welcome. And the Florida Department of Environmental Protection asked me to make an appointment to the Tampa Bay Aquatic Preserve Advisory Committee, which I asked Commissioner Peters to do, and she went to a meeting last night. But I just need a motion and a second for that appointment. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you for that. And we will go to our first presentation tonight. We don't normally have presentations at night, but because we have folks that were in school, we have some that aren't even here because they've got games tonight. But we're going to turn this meeting over to Kevin Dunbar, Executive Director for the Clearwater for Youth, kind of come up and give us a little story about what's going on in the organization and about some of the special folks you have tonight to present to us.
Thank you, Chairman. Kevin Dunbar, Executive Director for Clearwater for Youth, CFY Pinellas. And as you say, we've got a bunch of, you said special, and we've got a bunch of special youth with us today as well as some of my board members. My board chair, Hoyt Hamilton, board member, Rick Vaughn, committee member. I can never remember this guy's name whenever I'm here. It'll come to me in a minute. Our program manager, Eric Harris. That's right, Calvin Harris. That's who this is. I always kind of forget. So thank you for hosting us today. This year was beyond our imagination of an exciting year for us. CFY awarded 57 post-secondary scholarships throughout Pinellas County. Thank you. So 16 different high schools are represented throughout the county receiving scholarships. We had a total of 25 high schools that actually submitted to us. Our program's pretty pure. We have what we call the, it is part of the Richard O. Jacobson post-second education program. And 15 of those scholarships were $10,000 scholarships. And we have a variety of donors that support that. 11 of them were $5,000 scholarships. In addition to that, we have a partnership with St. Petersburg College. And we awarded 18 scholarships that cover tuition fees and books for three years for a student to go get their associate's degree at our home college here in Pinellas County, SPC. And really ramped up this year, and it's the thing that I'm most proud of, is that we have a vocational trade program now. And we have a phenomenal partnership with P-TECH. If our students go to P-TECH, and after any financial aid, CFY and our donors are committed to covering all expenses for the student, not just their tuition, but their uniforms, their tools, anything that they need in order to be successful. And we've awarded 13 of those this year. So we really believe that it's really allowed us to impact. And, you know, those of you know, we've talked about this before here, we boast an endowment that's large enough that pays our operating costs. So our donors are directly funding these students, and we have multiple donors. One of the reasons we're able to do what we're doing with the vocational trade is Duke Energy just came on board as our largest corporate sponsor. And we're very pleased of that. 25% of our giving this year, we're going to give out about, by the way, that's about $407,000 in awards we did. We're going to do about another $900,000 in awards to make sure that every child can play a sport, their equipment is safe, they can travel to a tournament that they have qualified for on the national level, and also partnerships with communities and programs to do upgrades to their sports facilities to make sure. And then our third piece is what we do is with water safety, where we're working with Pinellas County Schools to take grades K through 2 to a community pool for two weeks during their PE classes and making sure that our children are water-safed. So you add all that up, and this year will be about $1.3 million we're going to distribute. I tell the chair all the time, I said, you've got to help me go out and raise $1.3 million also. But I appreciate Commissioner Scott and Commissioner Latvala for attending our breakfast this year. We have a partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies as well as the Toronto Blue Jays, and we do it as part of the Breakfast at the Ballpark Series. And they open up their doors to us, they provide breakfast, and we have the students, their parents, so it's really a pretty, this stuff is just as grassroots to me as you get in terms of making all this available. But I want to introduce you to our students who are really, really the heroes today. As the chairman said, we had 21 scheduled to be here today. I think we have 12 here. The other nine are playing a game tonight, and they're not able to be here, but I'll recognize them. So first of all, Raja Mills, she's going to be going to St. Petersburg College, and she has a 3.0 GPA, and the committee just found her work and her commitment to be exceptional, and so we're pleased to make sure that she can get her associate's degree from St. Petersburg College. Jordan, I was going to be right, Adams Allen is also going to St. Petersburg College. She has a 3.7 GPA, and then her goal after this is she wants to go to FAMU after this. So, yeah, so we're very excited to have her with us tonight. Jalen Johnson, there she is. She goes to, she's received one of our $5,000 scholarships, and she, have we decided where we're going yet, hon? Okay, so she's going SPC for two years. Next we have Jacob FAMU. Jacob is, it's kind of a special one. Commissioner LaValle, you'll enjoy this. Terry Bollea was very important in a lot of our lives in terms of his involvement, and through some of the beach property owners and the Hulk Hogan Foundation, we are pleased to award Jacob with a $10,000 scholarship as part of the Hulk Hogan Memorial Scholarship, keeping the Hulkster in our thoughts all the time. Yeah, say your prayers. Jacob, do we know where we're going yet? FAU. So, and why not with a 4.0 GPA, right? Next we have Rajon Waltney. Again, a $5,000 scholarship. And do we know where we're going to school, hon? Savannah College. And I don't know, and Ms. Silverboard knows me well. I mean, 4.28 GPA, Jill? That's not anything I ever knew about, was it? Yeah. Many of you know one of our big benefactors that really has stood behind, especially our education program, Mr. Bob McIntyre. He actually funded six scholarships this year through him. And one of them tonight is Logan Burke, who's receiving a $10,000 scholarship. Logan, 3.3 GPA. We know where we're going, Logan? Okay. And let's see here. Alexander Haley. Alexander is one of our vocational trade scholarship winners, so he'll be going to P-TECH. And so he'll be one of the first ones taking advantage of the new program that I just laid out. And just to kind of give you an idea, Alexander, what are we going to be doing at P-TECH? I mean, to me, that's the future. That's pretty cool.
Construction trade, yeah.
And then Jack Jericho. Again, Jack's another winner of a McIntyre Family Foundation. Also was going to be going to Pinellas Technical College. And what are we going to major in? To me, when you're hearing these stories, these kids are being set up for success. And this is our community in Pinellas County setting up these young people for success. Kelsey? Again, vocational trade would be going to Pinellas Technical College. Have you decided what you're going to be doing yet, hon? Culinary. And Erica? She will be going to SPC. And, again, these crazy GPAs, you know, 4.1. I don't know. Like I said, many of you know me, so you know that. I'm not that guy, right? But congratulations. And then I've got two late arrivals. Jalen Cantos is going to be going to SPC. She has a 3.6 GPA. Veterinary science, correct? Yep. And she's actually interned at a pet hospital. So, again, setting people up for success. And then Jonathan, really a late arrival. We found out three minutes ago he was going to be here. And Jonathan's a legacy. His sister received the award two years ago. Commissioners, when you heard the young lady speak at the breakfast, it was his sister. But he goes to Eastlake. He's got a $5,000 scholarship. He's going to be going to FSU. Just quickly, I'll take you through from Boca Siega. Amara Cabasa is a $5,000 scholarship winner. Millie Stout, $5,000 from Palm Harbor. Jessica Baker, another $5,000 from Palm Harbor. Robert Kopech, $10,000. And Sophia Hernandez-Flores is another $10,000 scholarship winner for us. From Hollins High School, Madeline Leonard is a $10,000 scholarship winner. And then Nathan Hancock is a vocational trade scholarship winner out of Eastlake. And finally, at the Richard O. Jacobson Technical High School in Seminole, Jasani Wilkins is a $10,000 scholarship winner. And Julia Oliver is an SPC scholarship winner. This is 21 students of our class of 2026. You're now the fourth jurisdiction that we've been to. We've been to Pinellas Park, Largo, Dunedin. And here, Thursday, we'll be in St. Petersburg. And then wrapping it up next Monday in Clearwater with all 57 kids. But I present you our class of 2026. Would love if I can indulge you to take a picture with us.
I'd love it. Congratulations to all of you. Great stories, great success, and just a really wonderful career ahead of you. Wish you all the very best. We'll take pictures.
He falls back tomorrow, bud. Yeah, it starts for real, doesn't it?
He, just for, just for the, just for the record, who slowed this meeting down? I appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. No, no, it's perfect. Just ask like that. That's perfect. Yeah, perfect. Hey, Dave. Hey, man. That's it? Three? Okay, thanks.
But at nighttime, I get a TPM. Okay. 12 hours. We'll get to have, like, a, if I ever get, like, cleared, I'm going to have, like, the food.
I know it's going to eat.
All right, let's go ahead and let's get this thing going. We are on to item 61.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Agenda item 61 is case number CW2603. This is a proposal by the City of Largo to amend the countywide plan map from public, semi-public to residential low-medium regarding .45 acre, more or less, located at 3470 Adrian Avenue. The public hearing is probably advertised in an affidavit. A publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk. The matter is probably before the board to be heard.
Thank you. Appreciate it. Are there any questions, any action that the commission would like to take? I don't have any cards for speaking. Second. Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Scott. Can you pull up the voting card, please? Okay. Motion passes unanimously. On to item 62.
Agenda item number 62 is a petition of Aaron Peterson to vacate the portion of the six-foot drainage and utility easement lying within the northwesterly six feet, less than northeasterly six feet thereof, of Lot 35, Greenbrier Unit 1, Platte Book 54, page 60, lying in Section 36, 1815, Pinellas County, Florida. 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 a firm testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Signify by saying, I do. The public hearing is properly advertised, and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk.
Thank you. Any questions, any action that the commission would like to take? Move approval. Motion by Commissioner Scott. Second by Commissioner Latvala. And it's also asking that with that motion that we adopt the attached resolution pursuant to Florida State Statute 177.101. I'm assuming that's okay with the maker in the second.
Yes.
Okay. Any final questions? Pull up the vote card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 63.
Agenda item number 63 is a petition of Bel Air Mobile homeowners incorporated to vacate that portion of George K. Foy Road, County Road No. 113, declared to be a public road in Board of County Commissioners, Minutes Book 18, pages 163 to 164. Filed on September 21, 1943, being 66 feet in width, lying south of the east-west center line of Section 103015, center line of 126th Avenue North, and north of the south line of the north half of the southwest quarter of Section 103015, Pinellas County, Florida. The public hearing is properly advertised in an affidavit. A 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. This says a staff recommendation for approval request is for the vacation. A staff recommends approval with the condition that Pinellas County has granted a new 15-foot-wide maintenance easement that runs through a portion of the vacation area, and if the petition is granted, Board of Commissioners ask to adopt the attached resolution pursuant to Florida State statute. Any questions by staff? We do have one speaker, Michael Dillon back. Is he here? Okay. Thank you. Any questions by anybody? Move approval from Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Flowers. Can you pull up the voting card, please? Motion carries unanimously. On to items 64 and 65. We'll read them together.
Thank you, sir. Agenda item number 64 is case number FLU 2506. This is a request for a future land use map amendment from commercial neighborhood and employment to commercial general and industrial general on approximately 1.87 acres located at 6201 150th Avenue North and 15097 63rd Street North in unincorporated Largo. And agenda item 65 is case number ZON 2504. This is a request by Vasantia LLC and Green Energy Transport LLC for a zoning change from C1 neighborhood commercial and E1 employment 1 to E2 employment 2 and I heavy industry. With an associated development agreement limiting the uses on the properties of solid waste transfer station, outdoor sales, and parking on approximately 1.87 acres located at 6201 150th Avenue North and 15097 63rd Street North in unincorporated Largo. 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 a firm testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Signify by saying I do. The public hearings were properly advertised and affidavits of publication have been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and the matters are properly before the board to be heard.
Thank you. Any questions from the beginning from anybody here? Staff, I guess you're prepared. Is the applicant, does the applicant here, do you have any presentation you want to make as well? Okay. I have the Craig Tarazki, Eric Cash, and John King. I assume that's you three. You guys are all okay to, if you need to speak, I'll bring it back. But I just want to hear what the commission has to say. Any thoughts, any decisions the commission wants to make? Do you want to hear a presentation or do you want to make a motion? Move approval by Commissioner Peters? Yeah, I'll second. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any questions? Please bring up the voting card. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, gentlemen.
And, Commissioner, if we could, we should be taking those up separately because the first one needs to pass, and if it doesn't, then the second one doesn't get voted on. So, I would recommend that be for 64 and that we take a subsequent vote.
Okay. Well, they were read together. That's why I was taking them together. And I apologize. That's, if we have a large hearing and a number of people to comment, it's, we read them together so that the hearing is done all at once. So, we want to do 64. But we should do two separate votes. Okay, motion to 64 for Commissioner Peters. Second. 64 or 65?
We have 64 already, sir.
Everybody. 65. Okay, 65. Thank you, Commissioner Peters. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Thank you. All right. I'll pull that up. Pull the card up. Thank you. That motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Jewel. Item number 66.
Agenda item number 66 is case number DES2601. This is a request for designation of the House of Seven Gables at Heritage Village as a landmark on a landmark site. The public hearing is properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. Two letters of support have been received by the clerk and the matter is properly before the board to be heard.
I got a motion. I don't know who won, but I'm going to go with Commissioner. Commissioner Flowers got the motion. Commissioner Peters got the second. Any thoughts, questions? Are you, are you, yes?
Just a quick comment on this item and also the next one. There will be a formal ceremony, 1130 a.m. at Heritage Village on Saturday, where we will be memorializing this. Yeah, I am actually giving a speech. So y'all should come. You're giving one, too? Yeah. You are, too?
Well, because you're not going to be there.
Well, there you go. So we're going to be, it's going to be the Brian and Christine. There we go.
Keep an eye on him, please.
Well, you know.
I agree with you. I agree. Okay. Any, any other comments? Bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Number 67, please.
Agenda item number 67 is case number DES-2602. This is a request for designation of the Plant Sumner House at Heritage Village to designate as a landmark on a landmark site. The public hearing is properly advertised and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. Two letters of support have been received by the clerk and the matter is properly before the board to be heard.
Move approval. Commissioner Scott on the motion and Commissioner Peters on the second. Any comments, questions? Bring up the card, please. Need one more. Okay. There you go. Motion carries unanimously. And Monica, if you would like to take a moment and say a couple words, you're welcome on both of those items, if you would like.
Monica Drake, Museum Manager for Heritage Village. Thank you for having me tonight, Commissioners. This is really a great milestone. It's bringing the very first two structures that were moved to Heritage Village kind of full circle, dedicated back in March 1976 and now being designated in their second period of significance, meeting 50 years at Heritage Village. So this is really an honor. I'm looking forward to the speeches. They're going to be great, I'm sure. And it's just a wonderful time to be celebrating our history here in Pinellas County. Of course, this is Heritage Village's 50th anniversary alongside the USA 250.
And if you're looking to see some of the programming that we're putting on currently, you can go to our website, which is heritagevillagefl.org.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Keep up the great work down there. See you Saturday.
And thank you again for working with the film crew. Thank you.
All right. Item 68.
Agenda item number 68 is a proposed ordinance for the reauthorization of the $0.9 fuel tax levy and imposition upon every gallon of motor fuel and diesel fuel sold in the county and taxed under the provisions of Chapter 206 Florida statutes.
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.
I move approval from Commissioner Flowers. Second from Commissioner Peters. Any comments, any wishes other than, okay, I'm hearing that in the excited motion in the second that we all feel similarly. I'll bring up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. Item 69.
Agenda item number 69 is a proposed ordinance amending Article 4, Chapter 62 of the Pinellas County Code of Ordinances entitled Fireworks. 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.
Motion by Commissioner Flowers. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. This is to get in line with state statutes, right? Okay. Pull up the voting card, please. Motion carries unanimously. All right. Well, we've come to an end. Any final things that want to be said before we...
I am just so impressed because I was asked earlier, what time you think? You said 7.15. Yeah. So, and it's 6.30. Well, we tried to be muzzled with the one next to me a little bit and it helps getting...
You know, because he's actually taken the meeting and lengthened it, so just for the record. All right. This meeting is adjourned.