thank you for that. Welcome, everybody. Glad you're here today to participate in Pinellas County government. Staff, good to see everybody here as well. We will get started. Commissioner Flowers is going to lead us in the invocation, and then Commissioner Scheer is going to lead us in the pledge. To the creator of all mankind, we give you thanks, praise, and honor for being able to assemble ourselves together on today. We thank you for safe traveling, grace, and arrival's mercy for those who are still on their way. Serve as your protection and your guidance for them. We ask that you bless the men and women who are serving in the United States military, those who are abroad and those who are at home. We know that their sacrifice is great, and we acknowledge what they have done and what they will do in order to protect those of us that live in the United States of America. We ask for a special prayer and protection for those that are serving on a state and federal level. Whether we agree or disagree, they do not deserve the hatred, the vitriol, and the attacks. We also ask likewise protection for those of us that are here serving as county commissioners, school board members, and council members on a local level. We ask that you continue to give us clarity of mind and singleness of heart such that the decisions that we are making are for the betterment of our entire community. We are grateful that you loved us even before we knew ourselves, and we are grateful that we have a heart and desire to serve the community. We ask a special blessing for our families whom sometimes we miss out on so many things that are important to them because we are doing the work for a greater good. But we know that you understand that you love all, that you see all, and that you are the one who sits high and looks low. We ask that you oversee this meeting on today. We ask that all of the information that is brought before us be brought with intentionality, and that decisions that are made are made in the best interest of Pinellas County. These and all of the blessings we ask in your name, irrespective of what religion you are, irrespective of whom you serve, we ask that you acknowledge the Creator on today. These and all of the blessings we ask in your name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we have a few proclamations. Before I get to that, I wanted a motion and a second to allow Commissioner Scott to participate. A motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. And I see you're out in California. Not. No. Good to have you participating today. I also wanted to say thank you to Corporal Clyde Thornton, Deputy Mike Winnick, Deputy Tom Manley, and Deputy Jeff Atkinson, all from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, all here to just to be here with us and to make sure things are done orderly. That includes us. So thank you for being here and all that you do for us every single day. Okay. I'm going to go up front and do the four proclamations. All right. Well, the last meeting in May, obviously, there's a lot going on. We don't have another meeting until the middle of June. But we always celebrate, if that's the right word, we acknowledge, we honor those who served, those who were killed in action, those who served. Memorial Day celebration is always a somber, a somber weekend, somber Monday, whenever they have those celebrations, and we have them all over the county. So today, we offer up our own proclamation, and I'm going to ask Ms. Tiffany Downs, President of Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Gold Star Mothers to come forward, Jean Uffalassi, who's the Vice President of Gulf Coast Chapter of American Gold Star Mothers, and Ms. Toni Gross, the Center for Development and Civic Engagement and Founder of the Gold Star Awareness, if they'll come up, please. Since the late 19th century, each year in May, Americans pause to observe Memorial Day, a special day and national holiday since 1971, set aside to remember with dignity and admiration those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation. Throughout our nation's history, our brave men and women of the military have stepped forward to protect our country. We recognize the Gold Star Mothers, Gold Star Families, Gulf Coast Chapter, who are mothers with sons and daughters who have perished while serving in the military or who are missing in action. American Gold Star Mothers' mission is to provide fellowship and strength while keeping loved ones' memories alive by working to assist veterans, their families, and the community. Today, we honor and remember Sergeant Nicholas Nick A. Flowers. His memory and sacrifice will not be forgotten. A local who attended Palm Harbor University High School worked at a local recruiting office during his junior and senior year in high school, getting ready to deploy. After his graduation in 2003, Nick immediately deployed to Fort Jackson and went into specialty training. We are truly grateful for his service, his ultimate sacrifice, and the hardships his loved ones continue to endure in his absence. On this day, we honor and never forget Nick's service and sacrifice among many, many, many others in the defense of our great nation. We remember all of those who have donned our nation's uniforms and their families for the magnitude of sacrifices made protecting our freedoms. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that May 25th be recognized as Memorial Day in Pinellas County. And with that, would the ladies have a few words to say? That would be great. This will be... I've been here a couple times before, and I just want to say before I get started that 11 years ago, Pinellas County, the Board of County Commissioners, Chairman Welsh back then, and Chairman Maroney, I believe, worked with me and another Gold Star Mother to do... to establish the Fallen Soldiers' Battlefield Cross down at the War Memorial Park near Bay Pines. So, if you would like to go see it, it's a beautiful, beautiful memorial that this... Pinellas County created for the Gold Star families. So, we're going to be talking about, briefly, the Memorial Day symbols. When a man or woman enters our armed forces, a blue star service flag can be displayed by his or her family. This service flag contains a blue star, which represents hope and pride. The red border signifies the blood given by many of our warriors in defense of freedom, both at home and on foreign soil. The field of white stands for the purity of spirit, the price of peace that only a warrior can truly know. When a warrior gives his last full measure of devotion in the defense of this nation, the star of his blue star service flag is covered with a gold star. The gold star represents courage and the supreme sacrifice given to the cause of liberty and freedom. The family of a fallen service member will often place this gold star flag in the front window of their home as a sign of honor and sacrifice. We would like to say our son's names because a hero remembered never dies. Would you like to start? And I wanted to also say that there is a very famous saying that a soldier could possibly die twice. Once, at his passing, and second, if his name is not mentioned or remembered. So, it is very important for us to keep our son's memory alive. My son was Sergeant Nicholas Allen Flowers, and he lost his life April 5th, 2018. My son is Staff Sergeant Patrick Dolphin, United States Marine Corps, and he lost his life on July 31st, 2011 in Afghanistan. This is for my other son who served in the Navy. My son is United States Army Corporal Frank R. Gross. He is Oldsmar's only known fallen hero. Frank died while serving in Afghanistan from roadside bomb July the 16th, 2011. So, thank you for joining us today to observe Memorial Day on Monday. Remember these three soldiers and Marine Corps, right, as you go to observe Memorial Day on Monday. So, just take a moment at three o'clock, and say a prayer, and then enjoy the rest of your day with the family. That's what it's all about, family time. Thank you. Okay, and thank you ladies for being here, and thank you for your son's ultimate sacrifice, and our prayers are with you and your families. Second proclamation today is for National Safe Boating Week. I'd like to call Betsy Scott, Commander of the Clearwater Flotilla 11-1, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, and immediate past flotilla Commander Karen Miller. Come on up, and the rest of those good-looking folks. For over 100 million, for over 100 million Americans, boating continues to be a popular recreational activity. People are taking to the water and enjoying time together, boating, sailing, paddling, and fishing. During National Safe Boating Week, the U.S. Coast Guard, along with federal, state, and local safe boating partners, encourages all boaters to explore and enjoy America's beautiful waters responsibly. Safe boating begins with preparation. The Coast Guard estimates that human error accounts for most boating accidents, and life jackets could prevent nearly 75 percent of those fatalities. Engaging in basic boating safety procedures can help ensure that boaters on coastal, inland, and offshore waters stay safe throughout the season. National Safe Boating Week is observed to highlight important life-saving tips for recreational boaters, helping them have a safer, more fun experience out on the water year-round. On average, 650 people die each year in boating-related accidents in the U.S., 75 percent are caused by drowning. The vast majority of these accidents are caused by human error, poor judgment, and not by the boat, equipment, or environmental factors. A significant number of boaters who lose their lives drowning each year would be alive today had they worn their life jackets. Year-round efforts should be made to promote continued boat safety. The National Safe Boating Campaign brings direct awareness in May as a reminder to always practice safe boating habits by the use of life jackets at all times while on the water. And now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that May 16 to the 22nd, 2026, be recognized as National Safe Boating Week, certainly here in Pinellas County. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you all. On behalf of my shipmates here, on behalf of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 11-1, we thank you all for this very important official recognition today. We are considered America's volunteer guardians. We all do all this for free, so moments like this is one of our paydays when we get this recognition. We spent hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of hours promoting recreational boat safety, marine life education, and vessel safety checks to keep people safe on the water. As mentioned in this proclamation, the number one thing you can do is always wear your life jackets. The majority of accidents are preventable. If we can prevent the accidents, we can prevent the injuries and prevent the fatalities. Eighty-seven percent of all boating fatalities did not have a life jacket. Please don't let optimum bias make you a statistic, and please always wear your life jacket. If you would like a vessel safety check, go online. Hit a button. We'll send someone out to your vessel. If you'd like to take a boating safety course, go online. Register for one of our boating safety courses. Myself and many up here are the experienced instructors. And if you'd like to be one of us, HR is standing in line. We can hook you up with him later. Okay. But we thank you very much for this recognition. It is very near and dear to our hearts to keep the community safe when they're out enjoying recreational boating. Thank you. Now we get to celebrate some of our own employees that do so much great work around this county. So our next proclamation is for National Public Works Week. And so from our Public Works Department, I'd like to invite Joey Chanes. He's the Environmental Compliance Manager. Up, Maxine Moore, Flood Plains Specialist. William Redding, Arborist II. Michael Jones, Stormwater Crew Chief II. Tiffany Spillone, Construction Engineer Inspector 1. Irina Richeya, Data Analyst. Annette Zarrouki, come on over here folks. Survey and Mapping Support Specialist, Lou Canely, Business Intelligent Analyst, Darby Bryant, Transportation Coordinator, Nick Papadopoulos, Signal Timing Engineering Specialist 2, and last but not least, our Public Works Director, Kelly Levy. Public Works professionals focus on infrastructure, the natural environment, and services that are vital importance to sustainable and resilient communities, and to the public health, quality of life, and well-being of the people of Pinellas County. These critical services could not be provided without the dedicated efforts of public works professionals, who are engineers, scientists, managers, and employees at all levels of government and the private sector, who are responsible for rebuilding, improving, and protecting our nation's transportation, stormwater, coastal potable water, and solid waste systems, and other structures and facilities essential for our citizens. It is the public interest for the citizens, civic leaders, and children in Pinellas County to gain knowledge, it is in that, to gain knowledge of and to maintain a progressive interest and understanding of the importance of public works and public work programs in their respective communities. The 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week, sponsored by the American Public Works Association. And now, therefore, be a proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners, that the week of May 17th through the 23rd, 2026, be recognized as National Public Works Week, right here in Pinellas County. Many thanks to all of you for the dedication and hard work, not only on your jobs, but other things that you get involved with, certainly over the last two years, amazing workers. So, appreciate everything, and if we can all give them a round of applause, I'd appreciate it. Well, you know me. I love my team. They're absolutely fantastic. We've got everybody here from the folks who care for our trees and our floodplains and our water quality. It's Michael. He is operating stormwater equipment, keeping things running. We've got arena, crunching data. We've got survey. We've got data. Luke here saved. This is going to be for my budget presentation, but he saved us like $140,000 this year, so I'm going to talk about that. Darby and Nick and our transportation group. So, I'm super, super proud of this team and the other 500 behind them back at the offices. So, thank you so much for honoring us today. They're a special, special group of people. Our final proclamation is for Code Enforcement Officers Appreciation Week proclamation, and I'd like to invite up Kevin McAndrew, who's the Director of Building and Development Review Services, Jude Reason, who's the Division Manager and Housing Official, Keith Vargas, Operations Manager, Shana Patrick, South County Supervisor, Carrie McDermott, Central County Supervisor, Eric Jewett, excuse me, North County Supervisor, Angela Dunn, Office Manager, Diane DeVall, Magistrate Officer, and Jamie Padgett, Contractor Licensing Investigator. Code Enforcement Officers provide for the safety, health, and welfare of the citizens in the unincorporated areas of Pinellas County through the enforcement of building, contractor licensing, zoning, housing, short-term rentals, fire safety, environmental, and other codes and ordinances. Code Enforcement Officers are responsible for protecting and improving neighborhoods and the quality of lives of the residents in the communities of Pinellas County every day. Assisted by support and code administrative staff, they strive to provide the highest degree of professionalism and quality, quality customer service to the public for the betterment of the community. Code Enforcement Officers are dedicated, well-trained, and highly responsible individuals who take their jobs very seriously and are proud of their department and the local government within which they serve. The Florida Association of Code Enforcement has declared the first week of June be set aside by local government to honor and recognize their Code Enforcement Officers. And now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners that June 1 to June 5 of 2026 be recognized as Code Enforcement Officers Appreciation Week. And like I said to the other folks, many thanks for all of the work you do every day. Certainly the last few years, the last couple of years have been especially tough. So thank you for the bottom of all of our hearts for that work. And now, Kevin, if you'll come on up first and foremost. Thank you very much for having us today. I really appreciate it. Often this job can be a little thankless and not everyone really gets to see the value of what we do. So we as a team collectively really appreciate everything that you've done for us and support over the past, especially a couple of years with all the challenges we've faced. I've selected, I've specifically selected this team to come up today and be a part of this. This is our leadership team. They are often spending most of their time trying to assist their staff, train their staff and get their staff recognition. And often they don't, they don't receive it. So I wanted to make sure that they were able to join us today. Code Enforcement obviously is a very challenging job, especially here in Pinellas County. We have to navigate the entire county in between 24 separate municipalities. Our responsibility is nearly one-third of the county and nearly one-third of the population. So it's a big job. And these guys do it very well. They are 100% dedicated to the health, safety, and welfare of all the citizens of the county. And again, we just really appreciate this recognition. They do a fantastic job for us, and I want to thank them as well. Thank you. Yeah, for I go, I go. Okay. So from Memorial Day to National Safe Voting Week, to National Public Works Week, to Code Enforcement Officers Appreciation Week, I think we've got a lot of, a lot of things to be thankful for here in Pinellas County, for sure. Okay. We're going to go to citizens to be heard. And, Commissioner, we have one, in one instance, a person's going to be speaking for five others. So I'll let you know when that one comes up, and they'll get to 10 minutes. All right. First up, David Ballard Geddes, Jr. Good afternoon, Board. David Ballard Geddes, Jr. I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. If you were to take our current government, dissolve it, and put it in your own back pocket, how would you go about doing that? Based on the Declaration of Independence, you would first declare legislation to be pretentious. You would puppet out our current political structure and use this government as a medium. Then slowly, you would sell this government prudently to this government, dissolving this government, our current puppeted government, in a long train of usurpations as written in the Declaration of Independence, selling it in a 30-year fee simple title transfer, reflective of statute 380.08, piece by piece, dissolving our current government. For example, the county would sell parts of itself downtown, for example, to a third-party private developer, an LLC that they themselves might have a quid pro quo financial arrangement with at a later date and time. Or the city of St. Petersburg would sell parts of itself to the Lealman development and allow such third-party privatized development to formulate its own tax levy against the residents as based on statute 180.08. As the county dissolves its strongholds, self-liquidating itself in statute 163.01, it's simultaneously giving rise to insurrecting a privatized form of political power, reflective of statute 403.60, article 4, section H, based on statute 218.415, section 16F, birthing a third-party form of political power as transferred in Pinellas County Home Rule Charter section 2.04Q. In effect, the people in government are selling the property of government to themselves and their constituents, usurping the reins of government in a quid pro quo arrangement, privatizing government, and hoping for a new birth of freedom as individual privatized despotic jurisdictions as assumed under the 14th Amendment, a government of tricksters, by the tricksters, recognized as unwarranted. Again, in the Declaration of Independence, all of it is defined as artificial in statute 373.019, section 15. Thank you. All right. Next up will be Greg Gardner. He wants 10 minutes. So is John Welch in the room? Catherine Camo? Thank you. Joanne Marino and Yvonne Bayo? Yes. Okay. Come on up. My name is Greg Gardner. I am a commission candidate for City of Largo, seat 1. I'm going to share two stories today out of a total of 60. This is a set of light on how Largo treats our most vulnerable as it relates to the CRD area. Thank you, Joanne, Catherine, Lisa, Evan, and John for your attendance. This first one is City of Largo v. Marie Adams, case 21-002338. At the age of 72, Marie Adams buries her husband of 50 years and buries her only child eight months later. Stricken with grief and depression, Marie decides to sell everything and leave Jonestown, Pennsylvania. Marie's last journey would be Largo, Florida, where she planned to live out her remaining years with her only grandson and three great-grandchildren. Marie bought a beautiful four-bedroom home, sight unseen in Largo, 610 4th Avenue Northwest. Marie puts 35% down and takes out a large mortgage. She had two Social Security incomes, approximately $2,800 per month. Within four short months after moving in, the grandson Keith Adams befriends a serial felon drug dealer named Jimmy Girard, who lives only two blocks away. Keith Adams was a habitual misdemeanor offender most of his life and an amputee from a farm accident when he was five years old. It was a lawnmower accident. Keith worked odd jobs and managed to support three children. Within two months, Jimmy Girard, his girlfriend Elizabeth C., and his sister Christine Hepperly move into the Adams home and take over. Jimmy uses the Adams home as his stash house, while Elizabeth and Christine go to work swindling Miss Adams over her entire bank account, about $70,000. Within 12 months, Marie Adams becomes holed up in her bedroom. The power and water get cut off for non-payment. Largo PD makes several attempts to intercept, but Miss Adams angrily repels all PD efforts. This is classic Stockholm syndrome, stage three dementia, and mental rumination. Largo solves this problem by manufacturing a code violation, then waits until the daily code fine reaches $16,000, then forecloses on Marie Adams' constitutional homestead. Marie Adams had no clue, not at all, not one bit. It was also peak COVID, and the date was December 2020. Keith Adams gets picked up on a control by, but undercover Largo PD ultimately gets five years in prison. The grandkids go into foster care. Marie is left alone. Marie forgets to pay the mortgage and is six months in arrears. Still clueless. Just prior to throwing Miss Adams to the curb, one of the grandkids sneaks back into grandma's house, and Largo PD finds the child hiding and throws Marie in jail for child abuse. Marie Adams is picked up by the niece, Lorraine Brubaker, who lives in Cape Coral. Marie can take only with her what she can carry. While the final outcome was the best for Marie Adams, Jimmy, Elizabeth, and Christine never, ever face charges. Jimmy is privileged because of his Albanian drug connections and his aunt's DA connections. Attorney Jody Rubai and Miss Brubaker will give you honest testimony. Largo PD and Largo will not. Foreclosure attorney is Matt Widener. The second case is same. It's the same thing. It's the same CRD area. This next case is a 71-year-old man named Don Bourgeois. City of Largo versus DJB Reynolds LLC. Case 21-003065. This case is racketeering and scheming to defraud on elders on an unimaginable level. Don Bourgeois bought 570 Clearwater Lago Road North, just a couple blocks away from Marie Adams and Jimmy Girard, as a retirement income project and to care for his 88-year-old mother. The property is in the original CRD area. Don removes all the drug dealers and starts rebuilding the entire eight-apartment complex. Units get renovated and new tenants move in. In 2015, Bourgeois gets written up for code violations. All major violations get resolved in six months. Largo waits six years. Then in 2021, Largo claims that the owner did nothing to correct the code violations. Without prior notice, Largo decides to foreclose on Bourgeois' property, claiming Don did nothing and owes the city $550,000 in code fines. Largo denies Bourgeois any ability to cure the outstanding minor violations and to seek fine forgiveness like everyone else gets. Bourgeois hires attorney Ben Hillard. Hillard has denied every element of procedural due process. No interrogatories, no depositions, no fact-finding. Classic kangaroo court process. Two years and $80,000 in legal bills. City attorney Matt Widener lies to the courts and says the building is a health health and safety hazard. Judge Bramberger approves the foreclosure. Bourgeois puts up a $50,000 stay bond to prevent foreclosure and seeks appeal. During the appeals timeline, Largo makes Bourgeois believe he can save his property if he does more repairs, completely unrelated to the original code violations. Bourgeois dumps another $100,000 into the property plus $35,000 attorney fees to appease the city. The appeals court rules in favor of the city and says, quote, Bourgeois had 30 days to appeal back in 2015. Florida statute 162.11. Too bad, so sad, you sad sad. The appeals court then further states that the fines are not excessive. Largo forecloses without offering Bourgeois any resolution. This property sells for only $99,000 at the auction block. Mayor Woody Brown is upset his windfall did not materialize. So the city sues Bourgeois for $450,000 deficiency, thinking Bourgeois owned another Marco Island property in this same name, DJB Reynolds LLC. Hillard proves there was no deficiency because the property has a value no less than $900,000. Largo failed to protect its lien judgment by not placing a minimum bid at the auction but refuses to look at its own stupidity. Largo hastily decides to keep Bourgeois' $50,000 stay bond with the help of corrupt Judge Ramsberger. Bourgeois, now 74, lost his entire life savings of $1.3 million over a sick joke. And I mean it. And I brought him into the county commission to write a plea. No one cared. The appeals court was rock solid up until Largo got into the code for profit racket. I'm going to come back and I'm going to share two more cases just as bad in the next commission meeting with my friends. This time these two cases will make you sick. The sheriffs get involved and they intervene on my behalf. You will see humanity an unimaginable intervention that'll literally make you float on a cloud. Incredible what they did. And they actually shut down this racket. My plea to you, don't give city a damn dime until the monsters, there's nine left, are removed from city hall. Each one playing a hand in this scheme to defraud. I can tell you right now, I am built to fight monsters because I am a monster. But I am the good kind. I fight bad monsters. Commissioner Nowicki, thank you for what you did at the library. The library, you're awesome. The library is a symptom of a greater problem. And your courage, your fortitude to do right is appreciated by a lot of people. The city is toxic and sick. And it's got failed leadership. And yes, Woody Brown, this is him. He came up here and he cried. A person, Woody Brown's not capable of empathy. Because this assault is times 60. I am the 60th person. He's going after my rental property. Not a good idea. He just plugs forward. And I can't say enough. I can't wait to share the story what these guys did because you will fall over. I want to say thank you for your time. And see you in two weeks. Kelly Lynn. Kelly Lynn. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Kelly Lynn. I am here today to make the commission aware of cruel and extreme things happening in Pinellas County and our family courts by certain judges. Ma'am, hold on. What is the noise? I believe the original, the previous speaker left his phone. I think that's his timer. Are we good? You want to start over, please? Thank you. Sorry about that. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Kelly Lynn. And I am here today to make the commission aware of cruel and extreme things happening in Pinellas County and our family courts by certain judges. I understand that you cannot overturn court rulings. And I am not asking you to intervene in a judicial decision. I am here because I believe my family experienced serious failures in a process that should protect children and families. And I want citizens to be aware of how important their votes in the August 18th election is to Pinellas County in voting out Judge Elizabeth Jack and voting in Excelis Garcia. I believe that actions occurring during my case before Judge Elizabeth Jack represented extreme abuse of discretion and deprived my family of fundamental fairness and due process. There are numerous examples of abuse of discretion in my case. But one example is my son, who's now 10, was born with a heart condition and underwent open heart surgery. And I was the parent that took him to his appointments. The cardiologist said he needs to be seen if he experiences chest pain. So on April 23rd, 25th, the school called and said my son was experiencing chest pain and appeared tired at 1030 in the morning. Therefore, I took my son to all children's to be seen. The next day, Judge Jack allowed a secret hearing with a party to the action where she gave her personal cell number and removed my parental rights of medical decision making without warrant or reason, without due process, then to seal the records where I had to fight to get them unsealed. I further contend that records and proceedings were sealed in a manner that prevented transparency and prevented me from understanding what had occurred in my own case. Due process requires notice and meaningful opportunity to be heard. A parent cannot defend against information that they cannot see. I believe inappropriate direct channels of communication existed, including the sharing of, you know, the personal cell number with a party connected to proceedings, creating serious concerns regarding impartiality and fairness. Within a week, Judge Jack wrongly suspended my time sharing without any evidence of harm, neglect or abuse. And then later, she took away all contact claiming that I told my son I loved him too much. That's actually in the documents. My son and I are close and share a healthy, loving relationship. We haven't seen her spoken to each other in well over a year now. This has caused us both pain and harm. Prior to Judge Jack's rulings, my son attended the same school from kindergarten through completion of third grade last May, where he was in a gifted program and on the honor roll. After her rulings of having his mother and the parent he was closest with wrongly ripped from his life, my son was placed on accelerating doses of Prozac, was behaving like a child in trouble and destabilizing, and he has partaken in self-harming behaviors, unable to attend regular school, and many other horrible things of a child clearly acting out. Thanks, Kelly. Thank you. Marco Notoriani, your name, and you'll have three minutes, please. Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Marco Notoriani, and I'm a proud Italian and American dual citizen. Sixteen years ago, I came to this country for my graduate studies. I immediately fell in love with America and chose to build my life and raise my family here, embracing three unliberal rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Today, I stand before you, commissioners, to expose Judge Jack's prejudices and biases against me. My children were taken from me twice through emergency ex-party orders signed by Judge Jack. Disorders were issues based solely on my ex-wife, unsupported allegations. There was never an evidence of abuse, none whatsoever. This complete lack of evidence was independently, independently confirmed by the guardian alitem, the children's therapist, and the parenting coordinator. All highly qualified professionals appointed by Judge Jack herself. Importantly, neither I nor my attorney had ever met these professionals before they conducted their evaluations. I have no criminal records. I'm a hardworking professional who undergoes continuous background checks because I also work with lots of federal national security agencies. Despite this, and despite the clear finding of her own court-appointed experts, Judge Jack chose to believe nothing but her says from my ex-wife. When the neutral professional provided testimony that did not align with her view, she simply terminate their involvement in the case. I was left with no choice but to file a detailed motion to recuse her. In that motion, I carefully documented her bias pattern, her illogical decisions, and her failure to follow the law. After reviewing the evidence of her prejudice, I successfully had Jack removed from my case. But the damage was already done. This process cost me over $200,000, and far worse, it traumatized my children. My children now need to see regularly a therapist because they live in constant fear of being removed again from my care for no reason. Judge Jack did not apply the law. Instead, she imposed her personal opinion and displayed a disturbing need for power and control. A judge who repeatedly ignores evidence, silenced neutral professionals, issues unfunded emergency orders, and causes serious harm to children is simply not fit to sit on the bench. Our families and our children deserve better. I really hope Judge Jack will not be re-elected and will have Oxalas Garcia elected. They deserve, our families and children, they deserve judges who uphold the law with fairness, impartiality, and not personal bias. God bless America, and God bless you. Thank you, Marco. Alan Tripp, state your name, and you'll have three minutes. My name is Alan Tripp. Can I begin? Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Alan Curtis Tripp. I am a Pinellas County father and a clinical mental health counseling graduate student, and I have never harmed my daughter mentally or physically, and I have no criminal history or violent history. For over two years, my daughter Abigail, who turns seven next month, has been kept from me by orders from Judge Elizabeth Marshall Jack in the Sixth Judicial Circuit. In that time, Abigail has missed two birthdays, two Father's Days, a 50th anniversary of my parents, family weddings, and several court-approved visits with me. I recently requested therapy for her about five times, six times, seven times continually. Every request was denied or ignored. Before this, prior judges found me to be a healthy, stable, fit parent. I had primary daily custody of Abigail for four years. Under Judge Jack, that changed dramatically. Multiple professionals, Dr. Keating, Sherry Linger, Michelle Donnelly, and Rachel Coleman, testified that I was mentally fit, with no addictions and no dangerous behavior. Yet the court labeled me as unstable, a substance abuser, and angry, despite every evaluation showing otherwise. In December 23rd of 2025, the order called my speech bizarre. The visitation supervisor mocked my Christian faith in the cross necklace I gave my daughter. This raises serious concerns about my religious, and it raises serious concerns about religious and disability discrimination related to my ADHD. The court also ignored nine months of clean visitation reports, excused other parties' no-shows that I had to pay for, and disregarded community letters of support. On April 13th, 2026, I filed a motion to attend a family gathering with my daughter on April 18th. The court did not rule before the date passed. Afterwards, an unsigned order denied my motion as moot and closed the case, even though my appeal is still active. This is especially troubling because Judge Jack admitted on the record after a disqualification motion in 2024 that she should not have done that. And I quote her on that regarding a similar case closure. Now she is doing it again. This case has come at an inexcusable cost. My daughter lives 10 minutes away from me, but she's been separated from me, her grandparents, who had to mortgage their house in order to fund our legal fight just to be in Abigail's life. This shows you their sacrifice. I want to speak for just 10 more seconds if I can. My daughter deserves better, and I want to encourage all of you here today in Penn and Ellis County that every child deserves their father and their mother, too, that are fit. Thank you. And I just want to say thank you very much for hearing me and realizing that there's serious families across the board that are here today that have the same problems. Thank you very much. Archie Call. Well, after hearing everybody else speak before me, what I'm bringing before you seems inconsequential, quite frankly. Introduce yourself, please. Yes, my name is Archie Call. Good afternoon, commissioners. I'm a Clearwater Beach resident for more than a decade, a condo owner who cannot install a home charger, and a father of a special needs child. Back on March 5th, the board voted to decommission approximately 14 parks, including the parking, the one right around the corner here. It's about 28 EV stations. The reasoning behind that was financial. At the end of the day, I found three private public partnership companies I'd like for you guys to reconsider before they get decommissioned on the 21st. There's also decommissioning expense for each one of those, and I've actually found a company that would be more than willing to do a public-private partnership with a good reputation, doing it with other cities and states across Florida and South Carolina. So, I'm just, Dr. Flowers responded to my email. I know you have transportation. I just think it'd be going backwards. We used that station living on the beach there regularly, but there's stations, you know, up and down, you know, all of the Pinellas County parks, including the one literally that I'm parked at while I'm talking to you today. So, I saw the strategic plan for year 25 through 30. There's four or five points on that plan. I also saw a doctor emailed you guys who sits on a committee. So, I think, you know, I just ask that you guys look for a 60 to 90-day extension, pause decommissioning these, and explore the public-private options that I've found and others. That's all I'm here to ask for today. Thank you. Justin Heller. You guys actually should all have a copy of this. My name is Justin Heller. Excuse me. So, who here knows someone that wakes up and says, I wish my rent were higher? No one. Higher rents and higher consumer costs are exactly what happens when essential industries like towing are pushed to the breaking point. Unfortunately, Commissioners, you have all been bad stewards to our industry. We help keep apartment communities, HOAs, rental properties compliant with fair housing laws. We remove unauthorized vehicles tied to lease violations, abandoned cars, criminal activity, fire code violations, and code enforcement issues that can expose property owners and, ultimately, their residents to major costs and lawsuits. We help protect Pinellas County residents from unsafe communities, illegal activity, rising housing costs caused by compliance failures. When a stolen vehicle is dumped in a neighborhood, we handle it. When a property faces violations or lawsuits, we help prevent that. We are not a luxury service. We are a part of this county's public safety infrastructure. For years, our industry has been treated like an afterthought. Some of you may remember, I was back before you in 2019 asking for help. Since then, I've attended every roundtable, every consumer compliance discussion, every meeting where we were told solutions were coming. But after years of discussions, promises, and recommendations, meaningful relief still has not happened. Last week alone, my company had a $15,000 fuel bill for one week. Insurance premiums in this industry have increased 30 to 50 percent. Equipment costs are up. Labor costs are up. Every operational expense has increased dramatically. Yet, towing companies in Pinellas are expected to wait years for rate adjustments, while every industry adapts to inflation in real time. If food costs rise, restaurants adjust prices. If construction costs rise, contractors adjust pricing. Towing companies are forced to fight through years of bureaucracy just to survive. That is not sustainable. Small operators are already shutting down because they cannot absorb the rising costs, regulatory scrutiny, legal exposure, and constant delays any longer. The consequence will not just hurt towing companies. It's going to hurt consumers. Longer response times, fewer available operators, reduced service coverage, more strain on law enforcement, property managers, and ultimately, Pinellas County residents. During the pandemic, towing professionals were classified as essential workers because society depends on us functioning. Our employees are Pinellas County residents, too. They deserve raises, homes, and futures, just like workers in every other industry. We're not asking for special treatment. We are asking for fair treatment. I'm asking this commission to stop delaying, stop ignoring our recommendations, and finally support our small businesses. Thank you, Justin. Maroon Johnson, Jr. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Marston Johnson, Jr. My residence is 545 52nd Street South in St. Petersburg. I stand before you today disappointed and in disbelief that, once again, we're here discussing the same issues that we've been discussing with the board since 2017. I'm not only a constituent in Pinellas County, but I'm a former owner of two family-owned business, two family-owned towing companies, Elvis Towing and Transport and No-Tow Motorcycle Towing, serving in this county since 1976. Like many of the towers in this room, we've operated for 24 hours, seven days a week, through hurricanes, holidays, even COVID as essential workers. Yet, by the end of 2024, we were forced to close both of our companies. The issues we are discussing today play a major role in the outcome. I've also stood before this board for years representing the towing industry as the first vice president and now the president for the Professional Wrecker Operators of Florida, the state towing association since 1977. The towing industry is part of the public safety infrastructure in this county. We clear crashes for law enforcement, remove disabled and abandoned vehicles and vessels, assist motorists, and force parking for our businesses and residential communities, and respond day and night, 24-7. We are the automotive and marine garbologists for Pinellas County, handling the problems that nobody else wants to deal with. But unlike many essential services, we are not government-funded or subsidized. We're privately owned small businesses carrying massive operations costs while being heavily regulated. Since 2017, the towing industry has acted in good faith. We have attended every meeting and provided every document requested and supplied detailed information on truck costs, insurance increases, maintenance expenses, fuel labor, and rate comparison for counties throughout the state of Florida. We have done everything that was asked of us to help make this process that much simpler and transparent. Yet after years, we have been told rates were being reviewed, rates were being addressed, and the relief was coming. But nothing meaningfully happened while our costs continue to rise. At this point, this stops being a delayed and becomes a failure on stewardship. Pinellas County has not been a good steward to the towing industry that serves it. Meanwhile, our industry continues to evolve. Thank you. Johnny Wicks. Johnny Wicks. How are we doing today? My name is Johnny Wicks, and I'm the founder and CEO of We Expose Monsters Media Group. I'm speaking today under my First Amendment rights regarding matters of public importance affecting children, families, disabled citizens, and constitutional protections in Pinellas County. These children are innocent. Their voices matter. Their families matter. Family court proceedings are civil proceedings, not criminal prosecutions. Yet many families report prolonged separation from their children, financial devastation, homelessness, crushing debt, and procedural barriers they believe deny meaningful due process. No proceeding affecting fundamental rights should occur without due process of law. With everything already publicly documented in this county involving oversight failures, vulnerable individuals, and declining public confidence, these concerns should not be ignored. Taxpayers are funding these systems while many families believe they are simultaneously losing access to their children, homes, finances, and constitutional protections. Some families are becoming homeless. Homeless. Some are living out of their vehicles. Some disabled citizens cannot realistically navigate these systems at all. We are not asking for favoritism. We are asking for transparency, accountability, meaningful access to justice and protection of innocent children and vulnerable families. History judges government by how they protect the vulnerable. I judge governments by how big of pieces of shit they are. And you, my friends, are pieces of shit. Thank you for your time. Jessica Saxton. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Jessica Saxton. I'm a civil rights advocate and litigator. Out of all 25 or so of you sitting in here, I've only seen one person that has shown complete respect to the citizens and the constituents that are speaking, and it's this gentleman right here. And I appreciate that, sir. And I see that. We have a big issue here in Pinellas County, and for the last couple of months, we, meaning a citizen-led investigation group, has been collecting evidence and data by way of open source intelligence on your judges, your sheriff's department. Many of the individuals that spoke today actually have nothing to do with us, but after this meeting, they will. And they'll be turning over the evidence that they have, and we'll be collecting that. And you can laugh if you want, but it's not going to stop us from continuing to collect the data. Our families are being destroyed, and as a matter of fact, we have several judges that are purposefully, in my opinion, destroying these families. Judge Labruzzo, Pollock, Ellis, Circus, Burgess, Campbell, Judge Jack, of course, Matthew, and Judge Gross, who is retired. Ladies and gentlemen, just because a judge retires doesn't mean that they get to run off into the sunset when they have deprived citizens of their rights that are secured and protected by the Constitution, and every person in this state is under federal law, whether you like it or not. There's two laws in particular that I would like to draw to your attention today, and that is 18 U.S.C. 241 and 242. 242 is the deprivation of rights under the color of law. 241 is the conspiracy to deprive of rights. You all, as the commissioners, you continue to pay individuals such as your sheriff's department who will aid and abed in the kidnapping, unlawful kidnapping of children by way of CPS. You send a sheriff out with CPS to aid and abed in an unlawful kidnapping of a child through a system that is a deprivation of rights, that is conspiracy to deprive of rights. And then if you look at under 18 U.S.C. 241, in the event that kidnapping occurs, where there is a deprivation of rights, there are three punishments. One is fines, one is prison, and the other is capital. It's the capital punishment for that crime. I would like to encourage all of you to study these statutes, learn, and understand that you are under the federal law, whether you like it or not. And please do your due diligence, do your duty, and ma'am, you can continue to laugh, but you will be receiving a notice of liability in the very near future. Thank you so much. Skylar Stevens. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Skylar Stevens. 8.3 out of every 100 children are moved from their home by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Department. That's the number that was reported publicly by the Tampa Times in 2021. I wonder what that is today. I'm here to raise serious concerns today regarding procedural fairness, economic barriers to justice, and declining public confidence within family court proceedings affecting Pinellas County families. The Pinellas County taxpayers, they help fund those courthouse facilities. They fund all the infrastructure, all the administrative operations, the security, the public court access systems. Because of that public investment, concerns surrounding transparency, and meaningful access to justice are matters of legitimate public concern. I now have documentations of multiple publicly filed family court proceedings involving allegations of repeated motions for judicial disqualifications, barriers to appellate review, excessive transcript and record preparation costs, reliance on subjective impressions rather than objective evidence. These procedural irregularities and severe restrictions on these families believe were unsupported by sufficient evidence. Article 1, Section 21 of the Florida Constitution states that the court shall be open to every person for redress of an injury. Yet many working-class families believe they cannot meaningfully access that. This is affecting their parental rights and family integrities. Regardless of anyone's position on individual cases, the public confidence suffers when citizens believe that the judicial proceedings are financially inaccessible, the oversight systems lack transparency, or meaningful review is unattainable for ordinary families. I ask this commission to acknowledge the growing public concern regarding family court, transparency, and the access to justice issues. Communicate these concerns to the appropriate state legislative oversight bodies. This issue is larger than any one litigant, one judge, or one case. We need public confidence in this system. If I can see this from 800 miles away, you should be able to see it where you work. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Aaron Wather. Good afternoon. My name is Aaron Watkins. I'm the president of A1 Recovery. We have three locations here in Pinellas County. I am here today asking the board to become better stewards to the towing industry. For years, our industry has felt ignored, over-regulated, and treated like an inconvenience instead of a necessary public safety partner. This commission has been a bad steward to our industry and is starting to affect consumers. Rotation towers are the companies responding at all hours of the night to major accidents, disabled vehicles, roadway hazards, DUI crashes, fatalities, emergency situations that law enforcement depends on us to handle quickly and professionally. When traffic is backed up on US-19 or I-275, we are the ones clearing the roadway to your constituents can get to work, get home, and to their families, or get to a hospital safely. We are not asking for favors. We are asking for fairness. Our operational costs have skyrocketed. Fuel, insurance, equipment, labor, compliance costs, everything has increased dramatically over the last several years. Insurance alone has increased 30 to 50 percent for many operators. Yet, while every other industry adjusts pricing with inflation, towing companies are forced into years of waiting, hearings, delays, bureaucracy, just to request a reasonable rate adjustment. That is not good stewardship of an essential industry, and the consequences are already showing. Smaller operators are closing their doors. Experienced drivers are leaving the industry. Companies are struggling to maintain staffing and equipment while continuing to meet the demands of law enforcement and the public. If this continues, consumers will feel it. Longer wait times, fewer available trucks, slower roadway clearance, reduced coverage during emergencies. Essential industries cannot survive if they are not continuously constrained while costs rise around them. We need this commission to recognize towing as the public safety partner it is, stop delaying necessary action, and start being better stewards to the small businesses that help keep Pinellas County moving every single day. Thank you. Michael Roberts. Hi, everyone. I didn't expect to be up here today. I actually came here to support a lot of other people here who have been abused by Judge Elizabeth Jack. I don't know if any of you guys have gone through any divorces and felt like you weren't being treated fair, but you need to look into this woman. You truly do. And if you don't, shame on you. My name is Michael Roberts. My complaint arises from an entry of final judgment and dissolution of marriage from Judge Elizabeth Jack, which started in April of 2022, still continues today, and on December 12th of 2024, and I want to give you my case number, case number 22-003672-FD, and related injunction cases, preceding cases number 24-001959FD. I'm the former owner of Fresco's Waterfront Bistro, downtown St. Pete. I started it in 2003 and owned it until 2014. I also am the founder of the Winnolly House Bed and Breakfast on the Water downtown St. Petersburg, which I opened in 1997 through 2006. Currently, I am a health care executive. I'm a veteran advocate. I am a crisis geriatric care manager and the owner of Florida's Choice Healthcare. I serve communities and veterans and patients throughout Pinellas County. And I stand in front of you today because I believe that the public deserves to understand the devastating human consequences that can occur when a judge like Elizabeth Jack, family court judge in Pinellas County proceedings, loses sight of evidentiary discipline, due process, and balance. And this is not about revenge on Judge Jack. It is to get her off the bench. This notice is about holding her accountable, transparency, and protecting future families from suffering the same destruction my family experienced inside the Pinellas County family court system under Elizabeth Jack. And why I'm speaking to you publicly against Judge Jack is for more than four years, my family has lived through repeated Department of Children family investigations, seven of them. And then I had 19 investigations from the police department. This is not just me and my children, 19 of them. Um, we had injunction proceedings, forensic interviews, uh, the, the, you had guardian ad litems that weren't certified that were trying to tell my family what to do, which I had removed. I can't believe that that three minutes is up. I just want you to look at my case and I want you to take into careful consideration who you allow on the bench to destroy families. I was in jail twice for wishing my son happy birthday with his little brother. My two little boys have been separated, biological brothers separated by Judge Jack. And I just won my injunction. I just won my appeal. This is what's wrong. Greg Pound, Largo, Florida. I'd like everyone to see this poster if you can get it up for me. I'll see you as soon as you can so I can get this done. Um, what we have in this county, is it, is it here? Am I, is there a reason why it's not? Okay. Here we are. This is Robert Guattari, Scott Swoop, and Rice, and Greg Pound. These are three attorneys. Robert Guattari is an attorney. He illegally comes to this debate for sheriff in his uniform, according to our Florida election laws. Here he comes in uniform. And so, and nothing's done. So what we have is a massive problem. Now I want to read this to you. It says, in 1949, in 1949, the branch, the judicial, okay, here we go. In 1949, Florida Bar was unified and became part of the Supreme Court. It made every state member, lawyer, a person belonging to the judicial branch of government. Article 2, verse 5 says, no person belonging to one branch shall exercise power in any of the other two branches. So Robert Guattari was Jim Coulter's attorney. Now I've dealt with this 20 years of this child molestation stuff you guys have been doing to people in Pinellas County. One other of the folder here I want up so people can see it. This one here you need to look at. This is what this Robert Guattari is bringing into our county. He wants to bring in the military to take over the sheriff's department. And these guys have been trained, these guys have been trained to kill people. And it says the Constitution, the basic principle of the Constitution is against using our military. It says using citizens for civil law enforcement is what they use, not the military. And so he's got this poster going out all over trying to recruit the military into our sheriff's department. So what we've got is we've got a system in this county where they've been raping families for over 20 years. This is why I ran for sheriff. This is my second election when I ran against Jim Coulter. He had me beat up, thrown in jail, all this stuff just for exposing. All these families are just hundreds of families. I had 96 videos on YouTube. You can't find one of them now of people telling you what they did to them, their children, and their families. And you guys are new, but the county commissioners, all you guys, you need to get Robert Guattieri out of office. The guy's not supposed to be there. He's an attorney. No matter what AI says, it's illegal for him in the state of Florida to be the sheriff. So what we've got is a major problem with corruption and using our families, destroying our families. We have a suicide epidemic in this county right now. Men over 50 years old, white males, are killing themselves at an epidemic proportion, and they don't know how to stop it. Then two months ago, you had the – in this county only, Pinellas County, out of the state of Florida. Then you have children. The last two meetings two months ago, you had all these young people. Thanks, Greg. Suicide. Thank you. Highest drug rate. Thank you. Thank you. And just want everybody to know, thank you for coming today and giving us your comments on this. Sounds like horrible stories that you've got behind you. No, and I just want to make sure that you understand that this body doesn't govern anything that you all are asking to be done. I wanted the attorney – hold on. Hold on. I wanted the attorney to weigh in on it and just to make sure that your expectations are where they need to be before you leave. That's all. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair. You are correct. This body has no authority over the judges whatsoever. That would be the Judicial Qualifications Commission. I will say I heard somebody suggest that you all appointed one of the judges referenced here today. This body has no authority to appoint judges, county judges, circuit judges, any level. Appointments for judicial positions are all done by the governor through a judicial nominating process that involves quite a few people other than the governor, but the governor gets that ultimate decision. The things that you've heard about today are appropriately addressed through the court system, not here in the county commission chambers. I will make reference that your participation guidelines prohibit political campaigning, which, in my opinion, extends to vote against this person. And it's not just the judges that we've heard today. Some other folks showed up for some city positions talking about running for office. That is wholly inappropriate to take place here in this forum. It violates your rules of participation. The clapping, the yelling, also violates your rules of participation, as do any defamatory comments made about any person. I will add, for the record, judges are unable to defend themselves because they may not speak about cases before them, and they may not even do it when they are campaigning. At least one of the judges mentioned here today is campaigning. I will leave it at that answer. What was the group that you said that they can direct their complaints to? Judicial Qualifications Commission. Okay. All right. Thank you. And thank you all for being here today. I appreciate it. Go ahead, Commissioner Peters. So I want to talk about the towers. And I've talked to Barry about it, and I'm sure Barry has a comment about it. And I might want to wait and hear what he has to say. But since I got here in 2019, we've kicked the can down the road. And at only one time, I believe, we gave them something and said, and next year we'll give you something else. And then that next year came, and we didn't do it, and we didn't do it, and we didn't do it. And towers are first responders. Historically, before the fire department took over cutting people out of the cars, the toers were the first responders that cut people out of cars. And if we lose those tours, and I personally know of two, well, three towing businesses small that went out of business because they simply can't afford it. We gave every one of our first responders, we gave our paramedics money, we gave our police officers money, we, our EMS folks, we have given them money. But these first responders, and they are, have not, I feel what they said when they said we weren't good stewards, I have to agree. And when it comes to apartment buildings, what they wrote in here, and I won't go over all of it because I have very long notes about this, but everything they wrote in here is true. And they're preventing crime, and they're preventing homelessness, people living in cars, in apartment building parking lots, and all kinds of other things. They are an important part of our infrastructure, and I think we, I talked to Barry, we had a minimum, give them the other things they need if you want to wait on that lawsuit that seems to be holding this up, which I disagree with. It is state law, Barry knows my position on this. I don't know why we think we can just decide that we don't like state law and not give them what the state has said they should be able to get. So I think at a minimum, we should give them all of the increases that we talked about. We should give them the fuel surcharge, and we shouldn't wait. And that's just my, and you've heard it already before, so this is not new. He and I have gone through this, but I feel really passionate about this because since I got here since 2019, we have kicked this can down the road far too long, and they deserve better. And they shouldn't be losing their businesses because we have not kept up for them like we've kept up for others. So I'm hoping that there's agreement on this commission, and we finally will bring them where they need to be. Thank you. Did you have any comments, or you guys? Well, for the commission, we briefed you one-on-one, and we talked individually to you about the situation. Obviously, you have a body of fees, and there's different types of fees that go to, and the reason this belongs over in consumer protection is because it goes to our residents. It goes to our visitors that are towed. So the question is, what's a fair and reasonable rate for that? So you had fees that we were looking at that we were willing to bring forward when there was a state law change that added an additional $250 fee to that. It was done at the state level. It wasn't done at us, but we looked at that as a body of a collective fees that are paid by the consumer. And so at that point, we said, let's wait and see how this plays out in Hillsborough County, which is where it resides. So it's on appeal right now. I think when staff briefed you, we said, let's wait for the appeal. That was before we saw the increase in gas prices. I mean, to be – I'm sure that, along with everything else, has an impact. But, you know, again, that $250 fee is paid by, you know, our residents. It's paid by our visitors. We've seen letters coming in from people that, you know, have their car taken, and it was $500 later before they got their car out, you know. And so the question is, what's reasonable? It's up to this body. If you want us to look at it and advance it and bring something forward while we're waiting on the appeal, we can do that. Our staff recommendation was to wait and address it all at once. If you want to bifurcate the issues, if you give us direction, we'd be happy to look at it. But that's kind of where we're at at this point. Just to add, there's only one other county. There's only two counties in the entire state that are holding back $250. We're not holding that back. We're charging it. No, we're taking our fees and deducting it as your proposal. No, we're just not advancing the increases. We're not advancing. Yes, I know it. But we're the only ones. There's two in the entire state. So 65 other counties are not holding back. They're not holding their fees back. And you're waiting on a lawsuit, which I, in only one current county, not three, not five, only one. So we're the only two that are doing this because we don't like the state law, which I don't think that's up to us. I think the state chose to do that. The state chose to do that. But, you know, fuel surge charge, as a minimum, we should not be holding back and making them wait. And when you don't pay them and they're struggling to make men eat meat, then sometimes you get bad actors. And so I just – we have kicked this can down the road for so many years, and it's just not okay. And that's my opinion, and I hope you all agree, and I hope we can give them some resolution really soon and not kick this can down the road waiting for another lawsuit. And, again, I think you said and what Barry said, corrected a couple of things, so I want to make sure that we get all the facts out again so we can take a look at this. Barry, when do we have another workshop? July. Let's see. Is it, like, the 10th or something like that? The first work session, July 16. Not July, June. June, we have our budget information sessions. Nothing before that commission meeting. We don't have a workshop. We have no additional workshops until July the 16th, and then starting in April we get back on schedule. So, at the very least, then we can put it on the agenda for that commission meeting in June to revisit, to look at it. I mean, that's when we can make – For the July workshop, is that what you're asking? For the July 16th? No, let's talk about the June. We don't have a workshop for June. No, I'm talking about the meeting. Oh, the commission meeting? Yeah. Oh, I see. For the commission meeting, you have a June 16th board commissioner meeting. Is there any issues, Jewel, with getting it on there that quickly? No, that you can have the work session at any time as far as advancing an ordinance. No, there's no commission meeting. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Well, if it's an ordinance, we have to have enough time to – Yeah, if you're talking about an ordinance, there's a lot more that goes into that because we have to advertise, we have to have staff recommendation and review that. If you're asking that we have a discussion with the commission, we can do that at that meeting. When's the first time we can bring it for action? I need to get direction from the commission on what you want to do. And, Mr. Chair – If it's the earliest we can bring it forward to the commission, if we brought it to the commission meeting on the 16th of this month, or June, excuse me, to discuss when – Okay, then we would have to advertise and prepare an ordinance for a future meeting. An ordinance has to be legally advertised for 10 days, and I'm talking with our clerk here, the times once those advertisements 21 days in advance, which includes the 10-day notice period. So we would need at least three weeks to make sure we got the ad done, in addition to getting an ordinance drafted and, you know, the proper notices to post. So that could happen July or August? Yeah, it'd be – August? It'd be probably early August. I would suspect – you all only have one meeting in July, I believe. We do. Which just slows things down just a little bit. I know that you have an awful lot of budget sessions coming up here soon. And certainly if we're going to go forward, we want to make sure that we do it right and comply with the process. That's why we're talking about it. I – honestly, I think August is more realistic. So August meeting, and we have – we make that decision in the June meeting when we have our discussion. That'll be enough time to do something by – the first meeting in August. I will double-check and look at some timelines, but I would think so. If you – well, I – so are you – I guess I need some direction on what you want. Are you wanting us to bring the – some of the rate ideas back to you for consideration for discussion purposes at the June meeting? Is that what you're requesting? I want to have discussion about whether or not there's interest in this body to accelerate and do something as soon as possible to address some of the concerns that have been discussed today. If that's what the majority of the body is asking for. That's what I wanted to know, and I'll ask the rest here. Okay. So not to worry. Yes, Commissioner Flowers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. If I recall, when I first got on the commission, there was a great conversation, and I thought we did something by way of increasing what it was that we were paying the tow truck drivers, because I know they – and the reason I remember that so is because I had made a comment. None of them came to talk to me, and this is my first rodeo on the commission, and I'm learning, you know, just what we do and how we do it. So that's why I just remember it was, like, the first set of meetings that we had when I came on board. I don't mind communicating about this. I think I mentioned this when we kind of brought it up before. I don't mind talking about an increase in fuel costs. The county has an increase in fuel costs. You know, everybody does, unfortunately. My concern was when I was looking at all of those, what I felt were overlapping administrative costs because if you're charging an administrative fee, you have one person that's towing, he's doing the towing, you're charging an administrative fee, and you're giving that person credit for the admin fee, and you're also doing an administrative fee for the person who's working in the office the next day. So I just had a concern about some of the overlapping. So if we are, this is for me, I'll go back and look through my notes, you know, but if we are going to have a discussion, I just want to know, are we only talking primarily about the fuel cost piece, and then we'll take up some of the other parts later? Or is it that you're desiring that we look at all of it and make a decision or share what we would like to see going forward? So I just want to be clear so I can, you know, read up and become as educated as possible. Yeah, I would imagine if people want to discuss it, that everything's on the tape. Okay. So, and, you know, just for clarity, that's, we did raise them in 2023, okay, so it hasn't been since 2017, all right, just, and so they did get a rate increase. Many of the other counties don't charge the administrative fees, so it's really hard to get an apples to apples, okay, that $250 administrative fee. So you've got to look at the, that's the reason we're trying to look at the body of the impact to the consumer. And so if you want us, we'll bring all the fees forward and have a discussion about that. Anybody else want to weigh in? I'll add something. In 2023, we did that, we only gave them a partial and said if you, next year we'll do it more, and the next year never happened. And then next year they got the $250 administrative fee. But we never followed through on, what we said we would do, is my point, is we said the next year come back and we're going to make it right, we'll get you where you're supposed to be to keep you whole. And then a law changed, so we took away what we promised, is my point. But what I would say is wait until July, and right now gas is so high, and if you're doing diesel, it's got to be over $7 now, maybe $8 almost now for diesel. That at a minimum, while they wait until August, we institute a fuel surcharge right away, which shouldn't take anything more than consensus, and then have the conversation about where you want to go with the rest of it. But at a minimum, I mean, I know what I just filled up in my husband's Wagoneer. Holy cow. And it's not diesel. And diesel used to be cheaper, and it's not anymore. And so, really, $150,000, what, a $15,000 gas bill one week, their insurance bills are outrageous. It's just so, so that's, I would like at a minimum to give them at least a fuel surcharge, but make sure that we make a decision and not kick this game down the road any longer. I got you. I got you. Commissioner Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do recall that we, in 2023, that we updated the rates then. And I do recall that Commissioner Peters is correct, that we were going to revisit it, and we never did. But that $250 administration fee then did kick in as well. I would like to look at this as more of a holistic view than try to play whack-a-mole. I do understand the price of fuel. Believe me, I understand the price of fuel probably better than they do. So, I'm certainly not opposed to that, to visiting that aspect of it. But I would like to visit the rate structure as a whole and just try to make sure that we address it in a comprehensive way. So, we're not here, we're not back here having the same conversation in another 18 or 20 months. Thank you, Commissioner Scott. And again, I think there's a lot of apples and apples to make sure that when we're comparing, at the end of the day, it's what residents are having to pay here, Hillsborough, you know, the other counties. So, we just make sure that we bring all that in. Do we have enough people that want to bring that complete discussion back? One, two, Commissioner Scott, three, four, okay. So, we'll bring back the entire commission, look at it holistically for conversation at the June 16th meeting. So, we're bringing for a discussion June 16th. We then, based on the commission's direction, we'll prepare an ordinance for it as soon as we can get on after that. Okay. Got it. Is that? That's good. That's not what they said. What's that? If I can add something that I think could potentially make this process just a little bit easier, I'm advised by my attorney that's watching this meeting, the rates can be changed via resolution. The ordinance provides for the rates to be able to be changed by resolution, which does not carry with it the 10-day notice period, the 21 days to get it to the times. If you wanted to bifurcate a broader discussion with perhaps an immediate surcharge or something, you could do that by resolution. Now, the base rates are in your ordinance, but we can change it with a resolution, which is a lot easier. I just want to emphasize that. If you were to do that and go on and have a broader discussion, I'd recommend that if you do provide something by resolution, you put it into the ordinance in the long run, but I wanted to throw that out there since I got that information. It would allow you to address the rates more quickly. So what Joel's talking about is we can put a resolution on with the discussion at the June meeting. If you choose to do something with it, then that gives you the ability to act on that resolution, and it would be effective immediately if you choose to do that. Yes. Commissioner Nowicki. Yeah. I mean, I think with the rates of gas being so high, but I don't know if there's a way in that resolution, like if you have to get your car towed by the police because you were in an accident, maybe you don't have to pay that charge versus if you illegally parked in a handicapped spot. You know, I don't think we should penalize somebody that was in an accident and they get their car towed because they can't drive it, you know, to charge them more versus somebody that parked. Well, if they have insurance, and I'm just throwing this out. If they have auto insurance for the towing, and usually the insurance company will say, where are we towing this? Hopefully they say to their home or whatever, not to the tow yard. So that may cover it that way. But that is a very good point. That's a very good thought. That drives up insurance costs. I hadn't. Well, look, we can. Yeah. I don't know how the issue with, and I'm sure they can answer that question, but I don't know how the issue is with the police toast. I'm sure Doug does, though, and we'll put all that together in the packet. And we'll get you information ahead of the June meeting. Yeah, perfect. And then that way you can see that. Okay. All right. No fuel in advance. We're not looking like everybody else, county's getting fuel surcharged. Everybody's getting fuel surcharged. Can we offer at least the fuel, which was in the proposal anyways, can we at least offer the fuel surcharge until we make that decision? Because it was in the proposal anyways. At this meeting? You're asking today? Yeah, can we? I don't know the answer to that. I would move that we at least at a minimum. Hold on. One second. Jewel. We need to have a resolution to vote on. The rates are set by ordinance. The ordinance allows it to be done by resolution. So we really need to follow that process. So no, because you don't have a resolution drafted today. And I would not recommend that we try to very quickly put one together. Okay. So in June we can do that. Thank you. We'll have one prepared for the June meeting. And then based on our discussion, we'll carefully guide what we can put in the resolution and pass at that meeting. Yes. We'll have a resolution on, I don't know what we'll put on. We'll probably just put on the base rates that we have right now. And then that way, if you choose to amend any or all of them, we can move. You can do that right now. Okay. Any other comments, questions before we move on? Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Peters and everybody else who weighed in on it. Thank you, gentlemen, for being here today. Appreciate it. Okay. Moving on to the consent agenda. Is there anything that anybody wants to pull? Motion by Commissioner Nowicki. Second by Commissioner Peters. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Motion carries unanimously on to item 17. Item 17 is a project application for the Federal Aviation Administration. This is for $4.9 million. That would go towards infrastructure investment. That's the grant. And it would go towards pre-design and construction activity for future terminal improvement projects. It's simply a grant. Any questions? Staff. Commissioner Nowicki makes a motion. Do we have a second? Commissioner Peters on the second. Yes. I just wanted to make sure, since there's a match component to this, that it's actually going to get built, like we're paying to design something that's actually going to get built, because I noticed there was a big $93 million to-be-determined funding gap in that. So I just wanted to make sure that we're still using some resident money from the airport, that we're still, this is actually going to get built, even though we have a big $93 million to-be-determined pot of money, that we don't know how it's going to be funded per the application. So it's going to be July or August, as Mark has briefed you previously, that we're looking at modifications to the airport terminal project. That is closely tied with his financials, which is closely tied with his discussion, ongoing discussions with Allegiant Airline, other carriers, but obviously Allegiant being the primary. And so those passenger facility charges would be part of that financial model. And so when he presents those, and those modified design concepts, he'll also have a financial plan, and he'll also have rates that will support the future improvements. Okay. And that's when, Barry? Probably July, so that means August, just because, you know, he's got to get all that done. Okay. All right. Anything else? That's it. Thank you. Okay. So we had a motion and a second. Any other questions? Pull up the board, please? Yes. That motion carries unanimously. Number 18, please. Item 18 is a reimbursement payment to U.S. Department of Treasury, Durstberg. This is from the COVID Emergency Rental Assistance Program back many, many years ago. And so this was a monitoring letter. This is a payment we have to pay in compliance with some fraudulent applications. We're taking appropriate law enforcement and vendor-directed activity towards them. But in the meantime, we have to pay this reimbursement. And these are the ones that, Barry, because it seemed like when all of the conversations were going on, there was a lot of fraud cases you did catch. Yeah, so if you were, for those that were here, when we got money in through rental assistance housing and, you know, just like some of the other funds we get, we want to move it out. When you move it quickly, you hire contractors to be able to staff up. They have an obligation to review, to approve, and then it goes through our disbursement process. In that particular case, they did not catch several. Those have been turned over to law enforcement. We also are looking at the contract with the contractor and determining if there's any action that can occur that way. It was 148 that the county caught before they got out and only 11 that slipped through. And those, and yes, and again, we, you know, it's, you know, Ken Burke always says, you know, I appreciate trying to move government quicker, but if you move too quick, mistakes are made. You know, these, no question, mistakes were made. We should have had a better audit process to be able to, before disbursements. But when you do that, hindsight's 20-20. I mean, the numbers were pretty staggering. 32,000 were applied. 7,900 were completed and reviewed. 5,600 were approved. 11 cases we missed. But to your point, 148 we did catch for savings of about 3 million. So, I mean, sounds like overall. Oh, you hate to make any disbursement back, but overall, yes, I think you're correct. That it was a successful program at a time that was critical and documentation was hard. Any questions, Commissioner? Not a question, just a comment to the viewing audience. This is also why staff with HORN is so meticulous in what they're asking for when they look for documentation, because when they have all that documentation, it helps the person that's asking for support. But, you know, it helps them so that they know that when they're getting the funds, it's appropriate. I know some people get upset when we don't move as fast as they would like for us to move sometimes. But let me say this. Today I was at a luncheon that I was invited to, and I had a gentleman, I won't say his name, he said, are there going to be any fireworks today? I said, what do you mean? He said, because I'm watching the meeting. So, yes, they watch our meeting. And I assured him, we don't ever have fireworks. We work well together. And I'm sure he was just kidding. You know what? This is my friend. Any other questions or comments? Motion by Commissioner Wickey. Second by Commissioner Peters. Pull up the board, please. Yes. Motion carries unanimously. On to number 19. Item 19. This is our city and county opioid abatement funding. This is the city and county funds, and primarily funds the Pinellas Matters Program. I will approve. Second. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Any comments or questions? Pull up the board, please. I mean, yes, Mr. Chairman. Okay. One more. Oh, there we go. Motion carries unanimously. Number 20. On the same thing, on the opioid, this is the regional funds. These funds are with the opioid abatement funding advisory board. They're working through the procurement process, and recommendations will be coming at a later date. Regarding the use of the funds. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Any questions, comments? Pull up the board, please. I mean, yes, Mr. Chairman. Motion carries unanimously. Number 21. This is the renewal of the Behavioral Health Receiving System Plan and the Behavioral Health Transportation Plan to support and facilitate access to Behavioral Health Receiving Facilities for mental health and substance use. Motion by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Flowers. Any comments, questions? Bring up the board, please. I mean, yes, Mr. Chairman. Okay. Motion carries unanimously. Number 22. This is the renewal and extension of Signature Authority and Certificate of Participation for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program countywide. So it's a renewal. They divide up the funds. Second by Commissioner Peters. Second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions, comments? Pull up the board, please. I mean, yes. Motion carries unanimously. Number 23. It's a resolution dedicating a county-owned parcel of land at the intersection of North Mullen Booth and Copper Cove Drive in Clearwater is public right-of-way. I don't know. That's the way Clearwater people met. What did he say? I said it quick because I couldn't pronounce it. There's a famous Kapok tree in Clearwater. So what did he say? Dave used to probably go there for... I just said it quickly that way. I pointed at the tree, you know. I said Kapok. Thank you for that correction, Vice Chair. That's where old people used to go to eat. All right. So wrong. There was a motion. Was that a second? That was a second. Motion and a second. Any comments, questions other than that, whatever that was? Bring up the card, please. I mean, yes, Mr. Chairman. Motion carries unanimously. Number 24. You want to remove item 24? Yep. We're delaying that, and we'll bring that back. There's a couple more meetings needed. Item 25. This resolution, submit the Resources and Ecosystem Sustainability Tourism Opportunity and Revived Economics of the Coastal Act. So this is the Gulf Coast funding, and they're amending it for the four projects that are listed in your packet. I have a motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Nowicki. Any questions or comments? Just for my own, do we need a motion to delay that other vote on the previous item, or is that just able to be tabled unilaterally? Okay. I didn't know. Thanks. Nope. We got it. So we had a motion and a second. Any comments or questions on number 25? Nope. Bring up the board, please. I'm a yes, Mr. Chairman. Motion carries unanimously. Number 26. This is a tougher hearing for the Hartford Apartments and Saratoga Apartments. The outlines are listed within your packet. We got it. Anybody want to make a motion, please? I'll make a motion. Motion by Commissioner Lett-Valla, second by Commissioner Scott. Any comments, questions? All right. Bring up the board, please. I'm a yes. Motion carries unanimously. Number 27. Again, this is a resolution approving the Teflon hearing. This one is for the Sky Isles Apartments. Motion by Commissioner Peters. And a second by? I'll second. Second by Commissioner Scott. Any other comments, questions? Bring up the board, please. And I'm a yes. Missing one. Two. Oh, mine is a little. Here is Commissioner Flowers. The motion carries unanimously. Number 28. I can speak to item number 28. This is a resolution that the county commission is required by statute to do anytime redistricting occurs within the state of Florida. When redistricting occurs, the supervisors of elections throughout the state will adjust their precinct lines to help adjust to make, you know, those new districts work. Again, this is really kind of a ministerial action for the Board of County Commissioners to pass a resolution approving those new precinct lines, which the supervisor has. There's backup documentation showing her request made to you on this. I always work with the supervisor to facilitate their agenda items, so I told them I would be happy to address it with you all today. So I am requesting that you all approve the resolution. Any questions, comments? Bring up the board, please. I'm a yes, Mr. Chairman. Motion carries unanimously. Number 29. Under item number 29, I'm requesting authority to file a lawsuit in the referenced case. This would be against a contractor that did some damages to some county facilities. Commissioner Nowicki. Second by Commissioner Peters. Bring up the board, please. Tell me yes. Motion carries unanimously. Number 30. And let me restate, that was actually a breach of contract claim. We've had a few contractor lawsuits come on here recently because of damages to facilities. This is actually a breach of contract claim. I have no reports, but let me just very quickly mention just Commissioner Nowicki's question about the item that we pulled. What you all might be used to hearing us, or what the attorneys, you might be used to hearing the attorneys advise you, when we have public hearings that require a legal notice that we pay for, we specifically continue to date certain for items like that so that we don't have to incur the cost of re-advertising. For items like what you see on your normal agenda, those can be pulled pretty routinely. And that is it for me today. Thank you. Barry. Two items. So before our next County Commission meeting, you're going to begin your Budget Information Session meetings with all of the various departments, constitutional officers. This year is going to be a very, very tight and tough year. I'll give you one just to kind of set the stage for what we're going to be discussing. The entire projected increase of property tax under our current structure is going to be less than, way less than, what the Sheriff is even requesting to keep the lights on, without any additional personnel, just contracts and increases and keeping the deputies. So we're going to have decisions to make, and we're going to bring a balanced budget, but it's not going to be without everybody tightening their belt. I can assure you the departments report to you have submitted a flat budget, which means they ate cost and found efficiencies to be able to live within that flat budget, and you'll be able to see those outlined. Our constitutional officers and appointing authorities have been great stewards of our taxpayer money and have kept their requests down to a minimum. But there are things like, you know, BTS, we have major systems, and they have maintenance contracts, and they go up, you know, and our health care costs are going up. And so we've got a lot of big decisions coming up. When you see the packets come before you before the first day, you'll, I want to put it in context for you as you begin to read them, so it's not a surprise. So that's just a heads up on what we're facing. We'll get there. We've always worked together, and I talk, and I mean this sincerely, all of our constitutional officers, appointing authorities, sheriff, everybody. They come together, and they work together, and we figure it out. But this year's going to be tighter, and so we're going to have to really work together and think outside the box to be able to get there. The last item that I had is, you know, Dan Eggleston, he is retiring. He's in our communications department. He's behind the scenes back here, but this is the, he's retiring at the end of this month. And Dan came to us in 2002, had a background in news, and here he is 24 years later. He's directed county-produced programs like Inside Pinellas, Aging on the Suncoast. You've seen him at all of our public events. I said something at our employee picnic, and, you know, but again, he's back in the control room. Him and Pete work to make these presentations, make all this happen here for you, along with a lot of others. So today's his last board meeting, and we wanted to recognize him for all of his years and his contributions to the county, and just wish him the very best in his well-earned retirement. That concludes my report. That's it. All right. Let's move on to item 32, which is appointments and reappointments to emergency medical services medical control board. Yeah, it is. There's no ballots for that item. It's item 35, Blaine. We're coming back to later on. So do we have a roster for these? Not for item 32. For item 33, I have ballot. But for item 32, either a voice vote or a vote on the board would suffice. I have a motion by Commissioner Lett-Vallis, second by Commissioner Peters. Bring that up, please. I mean, yes. It's okay, Blaine. Motion carries unanimously. Rather safe than sorry. Motion carries unanimously. Number 33 is the appointment to the St. Pete Community Redevelopment. And we have a ballot going around. Mr. Chairman, do I have an opportunity to vote on this since I'm not there? Mr. Chairman, yes, you do. Absolutely. I'm going to collect them all first and then I'll just say who I want. Okay. So for Allah Adam, I think I'm saying it right. It says that that person was not, we were not able to. It was kind of. It said that. They were and they worked. It says that they were unable to determine. Residency. Yeah. If they are located or has a business or whatever in the CRA. And they also applied no to being Pinellas County resident, but stayed at five years length of time as resident. That should, in my opinion, that should be a no as it relates to eligibility because you don't live in the CRA. And you either, you should know, you either are or aren't. No, I got a yes on mine. It says eligible yes. Allah Adam, the first one. Allah Adam, the first one. Yeah. Yeah. That should be a no because, you know, you know you eat where you live. I was confused on that one. Yeah. I just wanted, I wanted to maybe see what you all thought about correcting the record on that. And it should be eligibility no based on our criteria. I'm sorry. So we're basically going to put a check mark in the not qualified. That's what I did. Yes. I just wanted to share that. Please. Okay. So now. Everybody submitted yet. I only have more. Simple directions for young people. Sometimes. Right. Word classes. I circled the two that suggested. Let me know when you have all of them and then we'll let Commissioner Scott weigh in. Well, do you want him to maybe email his sense? No, I'm just saying because we didn't announce ours out loud. I didn't know if he wanted. He laughing. Well. I didn't know if he wanted to. He could be the typewriter. Okay. We have them all? Okay. Go ahead. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I would like to vote for Gisela Hackman and Mako Seymour. Did you get that? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right. Okay. So, new campus design options. I think I'm going to jump over our stuff. Oh, okay. So, get ready. All right. Well, Blaine's ready. So, okay. He's going to bring up our team. Blaine sounded excited about coming forward. Well, here, commissioners, you've made a lot of decisions today. You don't have to make a decision here. We need your input and ideas. So, the team has been beginning to bring this project together, and you saw we sent out in advance of the meeting some ideas and thoughts. With that alternative, we're to blame, but we need to kind of get a feel from the commission if there is one. We took it to the appointing authorities, and we had 20 people and 20 different ideas. So, that's how that went. Thank you, Barry. Good afternoon, everyone. Yes, we've got Christine Bishop-Johnson and Jonathan Ray from HOK. We also have Robert Shaw from Crawford Cook, CVRE, in the audience with us, our owner's representative. And they're going to show you some exterior concepts today, and I'll turn it over to them. Thank you so much for the time today. We are going to go through, as Barry and Blaine have mentioned, four different concepts, and really, this is design progress. What we're trying to accomplish today is walking through, explaining those concepts, and if there's something that's jumping out at you, we want to get opinions. We want to see how you're reacting to these. These concepts all have the same materials palette, all four of them that Jonathan's going to take you through, and they're all based on amassing and siting that has been approved for the location. So, with that, I'll... All right. All right. Thank you. So, as mentioned, we have four design concepts. All of these are taking into account the sun path and shading. We're starting to look at some of this in a little bit more detail. You'll see in some of the schemes a little bit more than others that we're starting to incorporate sun shading. We do want to make sure that we have a prominent facade facing Olmerton and a secondary facade facing ICO. We want to make sure that this is a clear location for visitors to the site. Once they arrive, that they know that they are there. And then we want to make sure that there is clear wayfinding once you've gotten on the site, where the entrance is, and then once you get into the building. So, with those basic ideas in mind, we have these four ideas. We have the projected colonnade, the recessed colonnade, what we're calling the picture frame, and the expressive screen. So, the projected colonnade is much more of your traditional courthouse typology. On the left there, you can see the prominent colonnade facing Olmerton. It's much more in traditional, and it's massing in scale. Question real quick. Hold on. It looks like your projected colonnade is different from that one. Am I missing something, or is that just a different view? We have the four views that we're going to go through here in a little bit more detail as an overall shot, and then I was zooming up on those so you can see them a little more clearly. I was looking at the green in mine, you know, the green, whatever that extension is, being different than that squared. This is an updated presentation. Oh. Oh, there you go. I knew that. I didn't. Because it's an iterative design process, this is the progress. I just flew in yesterday from a trip, so I missed that part, a little detail. Sorry, Chair. I sent that out last night. So, as part of our governance process that Barry had mentioned, we went to the executive committee, went to the appointing authorities, and we got some initial feedback on certain parts of that. So, we went ahead and modified that slightly, some of those exterior concepts, before we brought it to you. So, that's what you received last night and what you're seeing today. Okay. Sorry about that. Maybe a few slight differences between them, but as Blaine mentioned, it is an iterative process, trying to refine it more to what the county is looking for. So, on this particular scheme, you see the prominent facade for the courthouse on the left-hand side and the admin building on the right-hand side. So, the left-hand side is going to be along Olmerton Road, and then the right-hand side would be entering the complex along Icot, just to orient you. And then, in between the knuckle of the L is a large atrium space, what we're envisioning currently as a four-story atrium space. This particular scheme, we put a potential logo or a seal on the building as part of its identification, and then the piece that is closest to us is the actual chambers itself. It's separated from the building so that it can have its own structural column and structural system so that it ends up being a column-free space. So, right along the front here, this would be, in all of the schemes you're going to see, this would be the county commission chamber. And the reason Jonathan was saying that's separated is that allows for a separate structural system that gives you that column-free space. It allows us to have a higher ceiling in that larger volume space and gives more flexibility for the rest of a general office structural grid for the administration wing of the building. The rationale behind the four stories of open atrium. So, the four-story connector piece right there, it's not purely open atrium. That would be a circulation space between the two wings of the building. There is a potential popping through of an atrium element, but it's mainly that's your circulation core. That's also a space for additional amenities, waiting areas for both the admin wing of the building as well as the justice wing. And all four of them have that? That's correct. Correct. I'll look around, make sure I'm at question. Go ahead. So, here's a view again from that same corner, just more elevated. You have Olmerton on the left, Icot on the right. You can start to see the overall size of the campus and the other buildings. The development services building is the building in the upper right, and then the five-floor parking garage is on the left there. In between, as you may remember from our previous presentation, is a courtyard that is a protected courtyard for the building. This is a view from that protected courtyard. The facades of this here still have a formality to them, but not quite as much formality. And you can see that there is a low entrance piece at the corner, making it clear where you enter into the building through the security vestibule. So, you've gotten, you've straightened out both of those corners on the back. That is correct. On both sides of the L. Correct. You can also see in this view the secure parking on the left for the commissioners and secure parking on the right-hand side of the building for judicial. Again, the same basic view, but this much more ground level. We've, the landscaping is a significant part of this overall project, but we want to have a separate meeting on that to discuss that in a little bit more detail. So, we've left it out here so you can see the building more prominently. Yep. Can you go back to the secure parking, please? So, when you say to our right, you're saying our right over here. So, to your right, or, so that is the commissioner parking right there. Okay. And so, the other side is for judicial. Okay. And here's my question. So, that other part, is that the five-story guest parking? The parking garage is right here. Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay. So, here's my question. For the, and I'm just going on the little lines you have, for the judge parking over here. Will that be completely enclosed? Because the way you have the lines, it's kind of like it's open. So, right now, that is shown as just a walled-in secure parking area. It does not have a cover. That is a discussion point for the future, but that would add additional costs to both of those secure parking areas. I'm not trying to raise the cost. I'm just thinking about security. You have judges entering in an open space, going in a building where the public can park, not saying anybody would do anything. But that would be the potential site for someone to want to do something, because you have open access to them. And, Commissioner, we have the, we have the sheriff's office as part of our team, as part of our team, reviewing all of these different iterations. All right, I'm just saying, Cole. Yeah. That's a, that's a fair point. And because of that consideration, we are talking through screening elements on this space of the parking garage that is looking on to that area and having close conversations with the sheriff's department on, on site layout, as well as building design. Okay. Okay. Just asking. Thank you. So the front and the front, the front, the, the, the buildings facing the roads and the, and the, the facades facing the courtyard. Um, aside from the feature that you made on the judges or the judicial side, that are they pretty much the same look? I mean, are we in, in, between all four options? Um, yeah. I mean, are we looking at kind of a very bold statement on the South side facing Almerton and more of an open glass, looks like open glass area on the. Generally that, that would be an accurate statement. And we're trying to be, have much more of a formal, uh, facade facing Almerton, conveying the importance of the judicial, uh, and, uh, a little less so on the courtyard side. And lots of sun protection on the South and the East side. Correct. Uh, and that is, that is something that we've started investigating, but we're still working on it. You know, we live here in Florida. We all know that sun's brutal, especially late in the afternoon. Commissioner Lott-Vallet needs a lot of air conditioning, so make sure we provide that. Okay. Go ahead. All right. And then this would be, uh, as you're approaching the building, the entrance feature as you, uh, enter up into the secure vestibule. So this vestibule right here is the security entrance point. A lot of times what we do is pull that outside of the footprint of the building, and that helps from another risk mitigation standpoint. If there was anything to happen within that vestibule, you're isolating that space outside of the footprint of the rest of the building. Anybody entering the building? Anybody, either building, will go through that security. That is correct. We are talking about a staff bypass lane at that entrance right now. There will be secure staff entrance points at other locations, but all general public are going through that point and would be screened. All right. Option two, we're calling the recessed colonnade. Again, it has the formality of a colonnade, but rather than being a separate, uh, element, uh, um, separated from the building, it's integrated more into it. We're treating both the facade facing Olmerton and the facade facing, uh, ICOT in a similar manner here. You can see, again, we have that organizing element, um, the atrium space, um, uh, in the, in the center there. And we've treated this facade with a little bit more glass, a little bit more openness on the side facing Olmerton. Again, the chambers is the, uh, area closest to you. Again, nobody wanted a crooked commission. Um, that was, um, generally seen as unfavorable. Correct. Unfavorable. Okay. Commissioner Lett-Bowell. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When, uh, y'all go over these, can you compare the price differences and where they rank with each other? Because I'm going to be supportive of whatever the cheapest option is, as long as it doesn't crumble. So we don't have costs at this point. Um, this is part of it, though, developing the concepts and the massing of the building. Um, I will say that, um, as you can see, it's mostly concrete and glass. That is within our budget that we have put forth, and that's why you don't see a lot of other materials. So, you know, we are very interested in your responses to these. These are not, like, your four choices to pick one. It's what do you like about them. But I think a commonality for all of them are the types of materials we're being used, which is within our budget. So all four options will be within the budget? Yes, sir. Okay. Um, I, yes, sir, that's, that's correct. You know, the projected colonnade would cost a little bit more. That's a little bit more material outside the building envelope than perhaps a recessed colonnade, for instance. But we don't have all the details on that. We're just really interested in, in your general feedback. Chair? Commissioner Shearer? Yes, thank you. Um, before we get to the other elevations, um, I just wondering where you're getting your input on what the elevation is supposed to be at. Commissioner Nowicki and I both have suggested several times that our judicial and our administration should have a neoclassical Greek Western civilization look to it. And these elevations, to me, look eerily similar to the building that we're trying to escape from. And I'm just wondering why can we, well, they're the same color. They're the same window sizes. I mean, just, I'd like to see some columns and some gables and, you know, that those, those vestibules, whatever you're calling them, that they could be columns and we could have a nice gable on top. And, you know, is there a government center? I'm just, I'm sorry. I just don't know why we can't have at least one elevation. It looks like, I mean, I haven't heard anybody else give input on an elevation, but these are a little stoic to me and a little bleak. And I think that we could, I guess we need to hear from the commissioner and we can go back and look at those. Yeah, no, no, I mean, this is the reason we're having this conversation and this really is the first time we've had that. These are traditional government type functions, you know, buildings that have been built. If you want to go to something like that, we could come up with ideas. There is a significant cost associated with that and we'd have to figure that out. Well, you know, just because it's a column, you're looking at a column doesn't mean the column's made out of Italy from, a marble from Italy. It could be made from concrete right here in Plant City and it could be put up and you won't notice it's not made from marble. So I'm just looking at these elevations and I'm just thinking, I was hoping to see something that at least looked like a, I've been to a lot of government buildings in Washington and places like that and they don't look anything like this. So I will say, sir, that's something that we could explore if the commission and the county administration team would like to pursue that path. But classical architecture has a different proportion than the massings of these buildings. Expressing classical architecture in a campus of this magnitude is going to be a large undertaking. It would change the overall mass and aesthetic of having separate wings of the functionality of the building. It's more than just classical architecture. True to its form is more than just dressing the box and adding columns to it, but it's about the proportionality of the structure. So it's something that we could definitely look at, but true classical architecture would have both that balance of form as well as the facade. Okay. I respectfully disagree. I think you could dress up to the outside to look classical if you wanted to and leave the boxes the way they are. Understood. So just in a, what's classical to you? What would, I mean, he said classical. What does that mean? Neoclassical. There's a difference. Well, so a little story right now. I am leading a project as well as this one that just had to go through the White House approval process for the executive order on making federal civic buildings beautiful, which requires following a contextual approach. It lists different classical architecture elements, not just neoclassical, as being appropriate to meet the intent of the executive order. I've been going through that process for a year on a much smaller courthouse building in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I'd be happy to share that press release with you that's coming out in June so you can see what my interpretation of classical architecture is. But in that context, it's an Art Deco-inspired courthouse, and it is purely a courthouse. It does not have county administration functions joined with it, and it's not of this magnitude on a campus. But I'd be happy to share that executive order as well to see what the federal government says classical architecture is and how that's interpreted in federal architecture. Well, that'd be great to just have a peek at it. I mean, not that, you know, I mean, I kind of liked what I saw. I mean, I'm not really into whatever you just said. But I'd like to see what it looks like just to say, oh, you're opening my mind to new and better and more modern-looking facilities. But, again, I think this makes a statement, and it's bold on the judicial side, and I think it's got a great campus look to it. And, you know, just something about not being, I'm not even sure what the right word is, but too much flair in a government facility that we want our taxpayers to not only see a bottom line that's inexpensive, but the one that kind of looks and presents a, you know, kind of a simple, plain, solid, you know, one that's going to be here for the ages kind of thing. Because sometimes, you know, different styles go through processes over time, and they come in and out of style. And anyway, so much for my, I didn't go into architecture, so, you know, listening to what you guys have to say means a lot. So if we could see that, that'd be great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What is the life expectancy of the new building? This building would easily last for 50 years. Precast concrete is a tried-and-true material, particularly here in Florida with the rain and the sun. The curtain wall system is something that would need little maintenance for a number of years. Eventually, it is going to need maintenance like all window systems would, but these are buildings that are intended to last for 50-plus years. So we could theoretically get 70 years out of it and do like an Eggers, like an Eggers-type building, Eggers Lifetime. Yeah. Don't worry about that question. Before I get to you, Commissioner, let me just get Commissioner Scott while I see his hand up there. I tend to always miss that. So, Commissioner Scott. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A lot of good comments going around here. I mean, my – we are building something here that's going to last. I mean, to me, this is like 60-plus years. I mean, we've been in our existing buildings for, what, 62 or 63 years. So, to me, this is a 60-plus-year endeavor. And when I first looked at this, what stood out to me is it looks very eerily similar to the architecture at the Florida Capitol building, which, to me, is one of the uglier government buildings I think I've ever seen. And I'm not saying that I think this is terribly ugly or anything, but it's kind of stoic. So, I want to go through all of the options here and just sort of understand all of the different tradeoffs that each different design comes with. But at the end of the day, I may want to see something with a little more pizzazz or a little more life to it, just if nothing else, just for comparison purpose. And I understand, I totally agree with Commissioner Montbello that cost is really going to be the driving factor in all of this. But I would like to just see, you know, go through the rest of these options here. But I am thinking I'm going to want to see something a little bit different, just to open my mind up a little bit, because this looks very much like an old, stodgy government building, in my opinion. Thank you. Commissioner Flowers. So, neoclassical design is a combination of Greek and Roman architecture. You're looking at columns, think Florida Supreme Court building in Tallahassee, think the New Appeals Court building in downtown St. Pete, that's neoclassical. They do have forms that you can make, like when people freshen up the front of their houses and they may add columns to their front porch, and so it kind of spoofs it up a little bit. There are forms that you can do for construction development that gives the illusion, but that's not really what it is. So, that's what you're talking about. Right. I'm sorry, you know, I like clothes, fashion, et cetera, so that's number one. Number two, I have to admit, that building does look a lot like the building across the street. The cost of concrete now runs you about $175, $200 a yard. The cost of glass, in some cases, depending on how big that window is, can really run you into quite a bit of money. However, it does serve its purposes when you're talking about warming of a building, especially in the wintertime. So, I see the attributes there. The garage area that you have, and I know we're going to see some other pictures, but when you're going to Orlando and you're on I-4 on the left-hand side, there's a real nice garage like that, but they're using the growth of some real nice green plants on the outside, so it's serving its purpose, but it gives the illusion that it's not necessarily just a concrete garage. So, something like that just kind of beautifies it, you know, instead of just concrete. And we are still looking at options of how to screen that garage, how to break up some of that massing. We do have to balance that against things like maintenance cost, certainly. I know the parking garage you're talking about. It's a very nice-looking parking garage. It doesn't really look like a parking garage, but there's also a lot of maintenance associated with maintaining that. The only other comment I have is, I'm like some of my colleagues, I want to look at costs because we know that we're going to be dealing with a few things. Our wonderful administrator just told us that we're going to be taking in less money than what one department is even asking for. So, we're going to have to find a way to make up the difference for the cost of construction. And I know we have some other things going on, but I also want to look at energy efficiency because that's another way that we can save money. So, I'm going to continue to look at your designs and things. And I'm sorry if I got off kilter, but I just wanted to share that before we got too far going. But it does look a lot like the building across the street on this side, on this side, where you have the seal, the state seal. And as a matter of fact, this side looks more like our judicial center on 49th Street right now, to me. I'm not saying I spend a lot of time out there, by the way. But I want to say thank you, though. Thank you for sharing these visions. I appreciate you. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I guess I just, was that the Disney Springs garage that has the planters, the green? It is, yeah, I think that's the one. That is nice. Tight budget, though. We'll see. But, yeah, no, I just agree with, you know, Commissioner Scheer. I mean, this is, you know, I know I said I didn't want to see, like, a lot of glass. It kind of looks like a modern monstrosity a little bit, and that was kind of a concern I had when you all came here. And I said a lot of your previous designs of other buildings, I mean, it all looks the same and no classical feel to it. But, yeah, don't need to echo on, but thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Largo opened their new City Hall today. And one thing I noticed, and this is a serious question, and it's not necessarily about me because my diet is limited at the moment. But one thing that I noticed in the press release about their new City Hall is that there's, like, three or four restaurants in it. Is there any plan for our new center, our new government center, to have, like, commercial options for restaurants or other commercial opportunities that we can use to make some money? And to the current design, no. We would have to increase the footprint and, obviously, the cost. Actually, we see this center helping the other restaurants and commercial establishments out in the ICOT Center that have struggled. With, you know, something that Commissioner Peters has mentioned a few times, is that something that we can look at? Because it doesn't necessarily have to be a restaurant, but it could be, like, a barber shop or, you know, a shoe shiner or, like, you know, anything like that. I'm sorry? Yeah, like a coffee shop or whatever. Well, we are looking at, like, a coffee kiosk, you know, in that space. We're looking at the apron. That has donuts. We've struggled. Just so you know, we've struggled with these grab-and-gos. So even out of 49th Street, 49th Street, we used to have, you know, a restaurant there. And there you have a lot of traffic. And we had to go to a grab-and-go type thing where it's pre-stocked with fresh foods because they couldn't make it go. They go out of business. Same thing, you know, in our – what we used to have in a little restaurant there, it's really, really tough to make them go. So increasing the footprint, we would never recoup our costs. It would be a drain on us if – and we actually think – But even with a couple hundred employees that are there – Well, we'll have 1,000, and it still would be very, very difficult to make it go. You know, it's really – think about what we have at 49th Street and how many people you have going through there. And there you have a lot more. Well, they have a – This is a very small court. Cafeteria there, don't they? No, not anymore. We had to convert – When I had jury duty there, I remember a cafeteria. Yeah, we had to convert it to a grab-and-go because they couldn't make it go. And remember, this courtroom is not the same as 49th Street at all. This is a lot lower volume, a lot more stuff that's done electronically in filings. And so, you know, it's not going to have the same foot traffic. It would be very, very difficult. Commissioner, excuse me, your microphone. I'm sorry. Prefab walls aid in completing your construction development much sooner, especially when there are certain weather concerns. So I need to give you another kudos on that. Mr. Brown, I would love to have more options for employees. I really would. We've just – we've been through these several – over the last, you know, eight years, and we've had to modify what we've actually done within our facilities because of the lack of somebody having the ability to run it. They go out of business. How about those? We need to have a meeting with Chick-fil-A because those people are geniuses when it comes to logistics and set up a little Chick-fil-A kiosk. How about a place for where you can bring the trucks in and have – That's actually a good idea. And we do bring a food truck in, you know, here. We do bring a food truck in up here, and that would be a possibility. Did you say food trucks? Yeah. So there's definitely opportunities to bring in food trucks. That's programming that – tell us you want spaces for food trucks. We will look at that in the plaza area, definitely. And we're planning for that currently. But just to speak on the volume, the volume of traffic on the court side of this building is about 30,000 less people through the x-ray and magnetometer per year than you get at CJC. So just if that helps you from a standpoint of what options you have there versus the traffic that you'll have here. Okay. Well, on option number one, whatever group got together and took away the flare of that corner on both sides and squared it off, that was the one flare piece that we had. So let's go on to – let's go – let's get through these other options and still throws questions in as we go. So this is option two from the courtyard side and down again at ground level. You can start to see there are some sun shading elements on that curtain wall that we're still investigating on how the best shape to provide shading so that we can provide the energy efficiency that was mentioned earlier. Is this the recessed one? This is the recessed colonnade, correct. Okay. That's probably changing too, hasn't it? Yes. And then this would be the security vestibule walking up to this one. Again, a contiguous covered canopy from the parking garage all the way to the entrance of the building. All right. Then one – the third one we're calling picture frame. Again, this has a similar facade facing Icott and Olmerton and has the same basic massing as the other previous design shown. So a judicial wing on the left and the admin building on the right. The overall view of the campus. Then the similar vocabulary on the inside facing the courtyard. And again, the view down below and the entrance vestibule itself. So what is interesting about this concept is that that picture frame element that you see that's kind of projecting out of the face of the building, that also serves as part of that covered walk coming from the parking garage. So having some of those covered elements that we will have integrated into the plaza and the walk from the parking garage being part of the architecture of the building. Yes. And then again, that picture frame starts to shade the walls, providing sun shading and energy reduction. And then expressive screen. So taking the typical typology colonnade that you see traditionally and envisioning that in a more contemporary way with a different materiality with a metal screening system. So again, this is your view from the corner of Icott and Olmerton. And you can see we have the same proportionality as a traditional colonnade, but in a much more contemporary vocabulary. That same vocabulary then gets repeated on the admin building. The overall view of the campus. And then the inside face facing the courtyard. And then down below. And then there's a close-up vision of what the entrance would look like. So here's the four options. Just so you are aware, we have done a variety of entrance studies on what that entrance could be like. Does it have more glass, less glass? What does the roof element do to protect people as they're queuing up to enter the building? And then we also have a series of studies. We're looking at the chamber. All the ones you just saw were fairly straightforward. We are looking at ones where it's sliding planes, curve at the front. Maybe it does have some sort of a glass element to it. Clear story up high. Currently, we're looking at not having windows for both security reasons and AV control. And then the materiality. This is something we still want to explore with the county as far as the colors, shading, materiality of each of the elements. With that, I'll go back to the floor option in case there's additional comments. What are you all envisioning? Or is it your group do the landscape architecture as well? Yes, it's all part of our... What is that going to look like from the roads? I mean, because obviously right now that is a very plain Jane building, but not having any landscape architecture doesn't help. So what's your thoughts on that? So we do have landscape concepts. We're still working on a few of those. The facing the Olmerton, part of what landscaping is going to need to do is be able to provide car crash. It's another layer of security. So looking at how the natural environment along Olmerton and ICOT can detract from security concerns, like someone driving up into the building. The landscape in the central protected plaza area, that's a large space. That's about two and a half acres. So that's something that we're still having working groups on to come up with additional ideas. And then along the far side of the parking garage, next to the neighboring community, we're looking at layers of trees as well as stormwater berms to help with that area. Correct. And then on the north side of the campus, it connects up to the Pinellas County Trail. And we're looking at some landscaping there to help integrate in with the trail project that's currently planned. Walkway area for employees to walk around at lunchtime or throughout the campus? Correct. So that is part of the overall landscape design so that there will be some sort of a circuit. We can provide signage along the way so everybody knows exactly how far they've walked on the various footpaths. Those exercise islands or some of the commissioners? Certainly can. Yeah. Okay. I guess what I've always been thinking all along is typically a colonnade has some columns. You want to say that again? Colonnades typically have columns and I don't see any columns and the whole thing confuses. I couldn't figure out what you were calling a colonnade earlier. Well, it doesn't, I mean, that first one had some columns on, somewhat columns. Yeah. Yeah, just thinking. No? No. And I did have a question on the interior. You talked about the four-story atrium. What's the projected size of that? I had some ideas on that. Is it like five, is there four plate? Do we know how big though? It is, it's roughly 25 feet wide. I don't know the length off the top of my head, but it's something less than 100 feet. Something that we're continuing to study right now. But as we mentioned, that is the main circulation hub between the two wings. Between the two. So I just wanted to throw this out there because I've really been given this layout a lot of time. And rather than having just a square box that you walk into, if we could get some kind of architectural feature. Rather than a big atrium in the middle, maybe we could do a small, we could do a, do a, I'm sorry, I lost my track of thought here. You could do a small rotunda. And when you walk up to the building, there would be an arc instead of a square. And it would be a rotunda. And when you walk in, the rotunda could be a few stories. And it would have upper levels that would connect the judicial to the administrative, where you walk around kind of like up in the Tallahassee, the state capital. And then inside the rotunda, which could be small. I don't want to spend a ton of money on it, but we could have an open ceiling at the top. Maybe we could get our artists in town to put some artwork, maybe some kind of sculpture in the middle. Draw your eyes to the top of the, no, I'm serious. We should have, this is a government building. People who just took money from. No, I'm not, we can, at the top, the top of it, the rotunda could have a painted history of Pinellas County. And inside, we could have portraits of leaders from Pinellas County from years past, leaders that fought for our independence from Hillsborough County. I mean, we really ought to think about how we could dress up the atrium area and make it look like a rotunda. And it would fit. It would fit with the. I think there's a couple of good ideas of that. I agree. I like it. Something more than just a walk in here security and then go, you're this way or that way. I mean, just a little. Well, maybe a way of making a statement other than the, all of the exterior stuff. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm not, I mean, I don't think it necessarily just has to be a block office, but I'm not in favor of having a really nice office. Because by nature, government buildings should not be nice because of what we're, and whose money we're spending to use to build it. And so, you know, if people from St. Pete or Largo, Clearwater, Tarpon Springs are traveling there and they see that we're, you know, in a nice decorative, you know, county center that we just spent a couple hundred million dollars building. You know, there should not be a grand entrance that they're walking into with, you know, stuff hanging from the walls and a big rotunda and stuff like that. Because they're not going to be very happy that that's what their money was just spent on. And so I don't think that it should be anything overly fancy. You know, I think, and I won't mention any cities, you know, by name, but there are cities in North County that they're not in my district, but, you know, they spend a lot on city halls and they're very decorative and they're very nice. But, you know, what did they get out of them? And the answer is not much because they should not be in Taj Mahal's. And so I would be very wary with how nice we make our new offices. And I spent time in the, spent a lot of time in the Florida Capitol. And I think that was built in like the 70s. And in the 70s, it was very nice, you know, and I'm sure that, you know, the government buildings in Washington are very nice. But, you know, we shouldn't really compare, you know, our offices to either Tallahassee or Washington because they're a completely different branch of government. And like, for instance, in Tallahassee, there's like fountains with dolphin, you know, sculptures and things like that. And there's, you know, very grand paintings in the house chambers. And those paintings were painted by a guy that lives in Pinellas County. And his name is Christopher Still. And so maybe we could have some, you know, Pinellas County artists, you know, paint stuff for us. But I don't think that we, you know, need to spend extra money just making it more nice. I mean, I think, you know, those options are fine. And whichever one's the cheapest will be the one that I support. I actually agree with you, Commissioner. I just, what, the space is already there. We're already included. I was just thinking of a different architectural style, not increasing the costs or. I think you're, like, the part about Pinellas history, I think the part about Pinellas history, I think, is a good one. Because maybe we could ask somebody like a Christopher Still, you know, or a Pinellas artist to, you know, do something like that, that, you know, like captures the, you know, some history of Pinellas County. You just have to go to Heritage Village to see some of that history. And then you could, how you could. Right. And see how the people in 1976 dressed. Yeah. Christopher Steele's painting. Yeah. I have one of his, it's not a painting, it's a print, but I have one in my office, my County Commission office, that's beautiful. And come by, next time you're up there, come by and I'll show it to you. It's a Ruth Eckert Hall. Quick question on, so we have buildings, the alternatives that we have there. What would you say three or four general things that could, that we could do to, I don't even want to say liven it up, but talk about materiality, materials being used, landscaping, and how we introduce, how we introduce energy efficiencies. Things that we could add to it that would just make a, what would otherwise be an ordinary looking building, maybe have a little bit more, what kinds of things would you look at? So certainly landscape is one of them. Landscape is a significant part of this project. As Christine mentioned earlier, there's a two and a half acre plaza in between all of the buildings. That's certainly going to be an area of engagement and it's going to be part of the overall composition. The sun shading is certainly something that can add an element to the building to liven it up, make it look a lot less of a office building that you're seeing typically around downtown Clearwater. The chambers, we did have some options that were, to use your term, more lively. We can continue to explore that and see, you know, see what other options resonate better with you than what we've shown thus far. There are a number of things that we can do to this and we're happy to do all of those. I think somebody mentioned, you know, types of walls that you build, whether it's concrete, whether it, do you mix in some other material that makes it look a little bit more than just a concrete? Right. There's opportunities to mix in metal panels with the precast. All of these options have some component of glazing precast on metal panel. We can look at different color variations of precast and metal panel and how that is articulated on the different facades. We can look at different options for that central, you know, tower in the corner there that's uniting both wings of the building and how that's expressed. I think hearing, hearing all of this is really great feedback and, you know, there's two things that, has two primary facades. It's how your constituents see it along Olmerton and Icot, what you view it from the car, and then how you're viewing it when you're walking from the parking garage. So being really cognizant of, you have two opportunities to give a first impression to this building, so to speak. And that inner courtyard side, from our discussions internally and with the county admin team, we were trying to be as open and welcoming as possible. Like, how do you illustrate permanence of government, trust in your government, that there's fairness from the judiciary standpoint? How can you utilize the facade elements as a wayfinding factor? As you're walking from that parking garage, do you start to see glimpses of what's happening behind the building on that front face on the inside that's going to point you in the right direction? So it's not, oh, my gosh, where do I go now that I'm here? This is overwhelming, because a lot of components of people coming to the building on the one wing are coming here once, maybe twice a year, whereas, you know, your staff is coming here every day. So how do we take all of that into account? But all of this feedback is great, and if there's additional comments, we would love to hear. Commissioner Scott. Oh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, first of all, I just want to thank you both for coming up, really, are some pretty good designs and overall ideas. And I don't want us to come off as being, like, overly critical here, because a lot of work has really gone into this. And I want to highlight a couple of things that I really do like about the designs. I like the overall campus layout. I think that Courtyard gives us a lot of opportunities to dress this up. I think it's kind of difficult to just sort of look at these on paper without any context of the surrounding area with it to really formulate strong opinions one way or the other. I like some of the designs better than others. I like the glass. I think the glass gives it a bit of a modern look to it, so long as we don't have to deal with the type of glass issues that we're dealing with in our current building. You know, if I had to live with one of these four options, I'm sure I could do that. I'm not really sure which one that would be. I need some more time to just digest this and understand a little better of just what I like about the individual designs, what I don't like about the individual designs. And it's also kind of hard to do that without understanding what the costs are between the four different options we have here. And I think what I'm hearing from myself and my colleagues as well is that we'd like to just see some more context and maybe some ways of dressing it up just a little bit differently just to understand what some of those options and cost factors might be. Sure. Thank you. Commissioner Peters. You know, if I had to pick one, I would go with the colonnade because that, to me, was more classical. I don't know if you can dress up, you know, the tops or not. I don't even know the terms because that's not my world. But I do like the columns in the front. I do like the glass. The picture frame just reminds me of what we're leaving. The other ones just remind me too much of what we're leaving, where the columns put a little bit of classical to it. So I do like that colonnade idea. If you were going to put anything of, like, to dress it up at the – because a lot of the pictures that the commissioner sent over and that I was Googling still had flat roofs. They just had – gables, I guess they're called, whatever they are. They just had some dressing up at the top or something like that. A heavier cornice. I don't think we need to build a Taj Mahal. I don't think we need something elaborate and exorbitant. But I do think it should be classic. And I think the columns can help us get the classic look of it, especially since it's judicial, without it looking like what we are leaving. And the last two, the picture frame and the – well, even the recess colonnades. Because you get the columns, but yet when you get to those windows and you just have, like, metal across those windows, I didn't like that either. And, no, and I would not want – I love glass, love the look of glass. But the problems that we have with the windows over there, I would not want to burden any future generation commission to have to deal with what's going on over in that building. Hopefully 70 years or 60 years. Hopefully we're a little better. But that's my thought. I do like the classicness of the columns. And because of the way you did the windows on the recess columns, don't love that. If the windows were different on the recess column because it's cheaper, it's not going out of the building, it's in the building, maybe I just don't like that metal on the glass like that. I don't think – I don't like that. But I do like that column, so thank you. Yeah, I think that – I kind of like that column too. But I do think on materials, landscaping, color of all of it, different colors – and I don't mean wild colors, but different colors – might have a different look and present a little bit – whether it's a little bit warmer within the context of a government building or a little bit more statement with some of those pillars that we're seeing. I think there's a number of things we could look at in those arenas, like dress it up, really make it special, and yet still give that sense of it's our government building. It isn't a Taj Mahal. If I could, Chair, glass would be an important part of this design. You know, we're going from over a half a million square feet down to 300,350 or so, and so we're going into smaller spaces. And we've learned a lot in talking with each of the stakeholders and spending time with them that going into a smaller space, you need to – there needs to be some tradeoffs. And daylight, the literature and our designers say, help to offset that. As a matter of fact, we're putting the folks in workstations near the windows. We're not blocking the windows with offices. And then the light will spill into the area. So, in whatever form it is, glass will be important for the employees to be able to see actual daylight. And, Commissioners, I think when you – they're working on that courtyard, so I heard loud and clear, you know, you need to see some of those other elements to be able to really contextualize how it looks overall. And they're working on that. They do have different concepts down for that promenade. And they're, again, with the landscaping and stuff, really makes a really nice entrance. And they have – again, just like this, they have different ideas on how to do that. We've – they're just now finishing up working on the programming space with all of our different departments and constitutional officers and how much space we need. And so they're just now starting to draw. So this is early look. It's first look. Getting your feedback. They can take that. They can continue to refine this, and we can bring it back to you, you know, at a future meeting to get – to continue to try to get the look and feel, you know, that we want. And then we can start pricing it out and see what we can afford. So. Any closing thoughts? Okay. There you go. Hopefully, we'll see some of those additional features in and around the building. So, thank you. All right. I'm going to go back to Commission's comments. Mr. Chair. May I announce for item 33 who the board selected for the ballot vote? The board selected Gisela Hackman with five votes and Adam Halbleib with four votes, with Michael Seymour receiving two votes, and Nicholas Weston receiving three votes. Great. Thank you. Halbleib. Okay. Commissioner Shearer, do you have any comments? Commit. You got a pass? Yeah. Just anything that – yeah. On March 7th, I went to the Salvation Army's Hope Breakfast. It was their first annual breakfast. They do – the Salvation Army houses a lot of orphans and they have – and foster kids. And they have a problem is when they turn 18, they lose funding, even though they're still in high school. It's tough. So they were trying to raise money for new housing for young adults who are 18 years old but still probably in high school. So that was a great thing. I'm glad I got to go to that. I also went to the Duke Energy Regional Growth and Economic Outlook Forum, Jable Circuit. That was very informative. On May 7th, I visited Piper Fire with a local employer, hundreds of employees, and I met with the owner just to chit-chat about how business is. And he just happens to be also the commissioner in the city of Largo, Commissioner Johnson. So I'm always happy to see a business owner who actually goes out to serve the public in our capacity, which I really appreciate. On Monday, the 11th, I met with a Zoom call with our representative, Jacques, just to touch base with him on property taxes where Tallahassee is on that, on beach funding, hoping that we keep that in the EEP, make sure we get our beach funding. And we also discussed the MPO merger, proposed merger at length. So it was just a good update, and I appreciated his time. And on the 14th, I attended Wright Connections, which was a forum for candidates for various offices in Pinellas County. And it was at the New Zoo Bar on 49th Street, and it was great. Commissioner Nowicki was there. So it was a really good restaurant. And then on the 15th, as a member of the Early Learning Coalition, I visited the Pinellas Central Elementary School, met with Principal Abby, also with Pinellas County School Board Member Laura Hine. And we talked about the interactions between the Early Learning Coalition and our public schools. And so that was a great Friday afternoon, seeing the kids. So I very much enjoyed it. And those were my activities, sir. Thank you, Commissioner Shearer. Commissioner Scott? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, great news that we've got a ribbon-cutting or a ceremonial signing with the Army Corps next Friday. So that is really, really exciting news. That absolutely made my week. Since our last meeting, the Health and Human Services Leadership Board met, and we voted to disband it. So there was a conversation that took place at that meeting as to whether there was any benefit or any interest in maybe once a year getting together the boards of the JWB, the school board, and the county commission together to talk about any common issues or strategies or goals or concerns that we were having. So I just thought I would just bring that up to see if there was any interest in that. Nothing we have to make a decision on today, but I just kind of put that out there for some thought. So we had our first PSTA budget workshop. We also, I think Commissioner Shearer mentioned our four Pinellas meeting last week. We voted. It's a non-binding vote because ultimately the three county commissions along with the city of Tampa will have to vote on this. But the apportionment structure for a merged MPO. I also attended the UF-IFAS extension summit along with Commissioner Nowicki about two weeks ago. And also last Wednesday attended the 36th annual Pinellas County Fallen Officers Memorial, which is always a solemn event and puts into perspective how grateful we should be for every law enforcement officer who gave their life to keep our community safe. Superintendent Kevin Hendrick from Pinellas County Schools gave a very touching keynote remarks. And thank you to the sheriff's office for always hosting that event. And I don't know if you saw the announcement this morning from Jason to visit St. Pete Clearwater, but Allegiant Airlines just announced two new direct flights starting this fall, one to Columbia, Missouri, and one to Philadelphia. So that should both help us with keeping our TDC collections up. And this week I'm down in Fort Lauderdale with Visit St. Pete Clearwater attending the IPW, International Power All Travel Trade Show, which is always a great event. And the Visit St. Pete Clearwater staff is working very hard with appointments all day, every day. And that is all I have, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Commissioner Scott. And thanks for weighing in today as well. Appreciate your time and commitment. Commissioner Flowers. Yes, sir. Just want to say super kudos to Pinellas County for winning an award at the Resiliency and Sustainability Conference. We had two team members come up to receive the award, and they even kept it from me because I didn't know we were getting one. So when they handed it to me to present, you know, I was like, what? So anyway, but congratulations to Pinellas County for receiving an award for what we're doing with our water quality. Jill Silverboard came up and served on a panel representing Barry with the county administrators. And a lot of people said they really liked that panel discussion. It was engaging. They were talking about some creative ideas. And so I want to say thank you so much. You represented Pinellas County. Well, even though I was the moderator, I didn't take it easy on you. I'm excited for Area Agency on Aging, Pinellas and Pasco. It looks like we will have the funds that we need in order to build a senior affordable housing apartment complex in Pasco County. So that is moving forward, and I'm super, super excited about that. I also want to say congratulations to all of the graduates. Tropicana Field is going to be packed with Pinellas County Schools graduations. So congratulations to all of those who have graduated and those who have made their plans for the future and those who are still considering your plans for the future. Again, congratulations to each and every one of you. We had a forward Pinellas board meeting. That was a spirited conversation, as always, but just really talking about how we move forward with the MPO merger. We came to a conclusion as it relates to the representation on that committee. And I understand because I have, you know, strong reservations when it appears as though things are not leveled on the playing field. But we did take a vote to allocate a certain number of representatives based on being Hillsboro, Pinellas, and Pasco County. And so the next phase will be drafting out some guiding principles that will help guide that process. All of us heard very clear from the state legislature we needed to get moving on something. But I also appreciate for what Pinellas is trying to take its time to make sure that whatever moves forward is something that we can be proud of and we can work together to help grow our region because it's all about regionalization. Thank you so much, Commissioner Peters, for the invitation. The Exchange Club honored its Officer of the Year this afternoon, morning afternoon, and so I had a chance to attend that today. It was very well attended, but I just love the comments that were given for even all of the officers who did not win Officer of the Year but were in the nomination process because they all put their lives on the line. So thank you, Commissioner Peters, for that invitation. I really appreciate it. And I enjoyed sitting with the group of individuals who I didn't know but got a chance to know. During that conversation, during that seating, a conversation came up. I'm just putting it out for thought and possibly future conversation. So we are down to, what, like $250,000, I think, if that, in our Penny for Pinellas money, which says that we did a good job because we spent over $94 million. I think we have six, maybe seven projects in the queue. Of course, we can't give them what it is they're asking for, but, hey, you know, whoever gets the $250 to run it out, run it out. Of course, you know, there will be a referendum on the ballot to vote for the penny up or down for the future. I hope it passes because I think we've been good stewards and we've done what we said we were going to do with those funds. Having said that, of course, a number of people who are on that list that won't get funded from the penny are trying to come up with some creative ideas and creative ways that maybe we can look at some funding options. One of them, and I'm just sharing, was to maybe consider something that the city of St. Petersburg did. We already have our plan and our outline for the funds that we got for storm recovery, and it does include the purchase of a first-time homebuyer, a first-time homebuyer program. So the request for consideration is if we don't have enough individuals who are interested or fall into that category, a first-time homebuyer, if we may consider amending our plan so that those funds could be used towards an affordable housing project. It is not something that was in our original plan. It would require a request to amend the plan, so that would have Horn to come back in and help us with addressing that with HUD. But it is something that HUD does approve because they've done it for other communities. So I want to throw that out for just thought, not asking for action today, but just for thought, to think about it and see whether or not you all would be interested in moving forward in that direction. I want to say thank you to everybody who's gearing up to go to the Florida Association of Counties meeting next month. Things are moving faster than I thought, but I will share with you guys again, if you're interested in serving on a committee, please let me know so I can make sure I'll point you to the committee that you desire to serve on. I'll send you that list. Is that for elderly affairs? I send him a list of all of the committees to allow him to choose which one he would like to serve on. Yes, I sure will. So I'll send that out again to everybody. Please let me know because I'll be meeting with Ginger and Davin to make those appointments so that you'll get your letters and get the dates of meeting. The committees meet through Zoom, so that's really good for preparation. And then, of course, the two legislative meetings that we have. The first one, just putting it out there for everybody. The second one where we actually vote on our legislative agenda. So if you could get that to me, I would greatly appreciate it. And that is all that I have. I have more, but I'm going to stop because I know we want to get moving. Yes, sir. Thank you. All right. Commissioner Nowicki. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I attended or visited three facilities of WestCare in St. Pete. So the Mustard Seed-In and two other like rehabilitation and people getting back on their feet from homelessness in St. Pete. So WestCare of Florida is doing a great job and partially funded by county dollars. So, you know, they're doing good work. I also toured the community dental clinic in Clearwater. So it was good to see they've been around for a long time and good to see, you know, they do dentures for folks that don't have dental insurance for like $400. So it's really good to see, you know, the work and patients in the clinic, you know, that have a smile, that, you know, have had such a hard life. But, you know, just getting the ability to have a smile really can really help somebody get back on their feet. And so they do great work. I spoke at the St. Petersburg Republican Club last week and the Republican Club of Greater Largo yesterday. I also attended the Right Connections with Commissioner Scheer. I met with Michael Gelazo with PERC. And so we had a good conversation, you know, good work that they're doing in the community. Also attended the ELC Board of Directors meeting where Commissioner Scheer and I presented the proclamation to them that everybody signed on and they were really excited about. And they're also doing their first fundraiser to help offset the cost of, you know, the taxpayer in January of 27. So, you know, we'll get the details for that to everybody here. I also attended a neighborhood town hall in St. Pete at the Sunshine Center, which was going over the proposals for Tropicana Field. And the general consensus was a lot of people want to see jobs, you know, in that, you know, corridor. So excited to see what the mayor and city council pick going forward. I attended the Pinellas Federated Republican Women's Club honoring police and firefighters last week. And with that, that pretty much wraps up everything I've been doing. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Commissioner Flowers, is there a date yet for the legislative conference? Conference for a fact. Okay. Okay. Um, for my report, um, I attended, along with our chair, the, uh, Clearwater Police, uh, Department and Clearwater FOP, uh, Police Memorial, where they remembered and honored, uh, Patrolman Ronald J. Mahoney, Patrolman, uh, John F. Passer, Patrolman Peter M. Price, and Patrolman Harry L. Conyers, Jr., uh, four, uh, police officers who have, uh, died or been killed in the line of duty, uh, over the years. Um, which that's always a very somber, um, uh, event. Um, I also attended the, uh, Little Free Library Grand Reopening, uh, in Madera Beach. Um, several years ago, I attended the, uh, I think it was maybe 2020 or 2021, where I attended the, uh, grand opening of it, uh, and it was destroyed during, uh, the hurricanes, um, but, uh, congratulations to Judith Ann and Ramsey McLaughlin, who, um, it's really their brainchild, and it's, uh, opportunity, uh, for, uh, people in Madera Beach to access free books, and it's set up right in front of their home, and, uh, really people from all around, not only Madera Beach, but all around the beaches, uh, come and, uh, take books and give books, uh, at their free little, uh, library. So, congratulations to them, and it was wonderful to be a part of, along with, um, former Mayor, uh, Hendrick, uh, and, uh, also, uh, School Board Member Caprice Edmond. Uh, yesterday, I attended the SBC Applied Mental Health Certificate for First Responders Graduation Ceremony. So, congratulations to Carlos Brito, uh, Jacob Walzer, and all of their graduates. Uh, that, that is a, uh, great program that SBC, uh, puts on, where first responders, uh, from all different agencies, uh, can, uh, gain this very important, uh, certification and experience on dealing with, uh, mental health, uh, issues, not only in the community, but also within their own agencies, uh, and, and their partners and, and, um, and colleagues. Uh, had a meeting with our, and speaking of, uh, our law enforcement heroes, I had a meeting with our Sheriff to the North, uh, Chris Nocko, uh, that was very productive. And, um, and lastly, we have a very important date coming up in a couple weeks, uh, on June 2nd that I've mentioned a time or two. And on that note, Mr. Chairman, uh, do you know, and I'm not a Beatles fan, but there might be some Beatles fans in the room, what year Paul McCartney and John Lennon first met? No idea. Uh, the answer is 1957. Um, I, I learned that, uh, the other day. That's good. So I don't know the significance of that year. I don't know either. That's why I didn't know. But I don't know. Maybe you would know that. So it made me think of you when I saw that. You're so thoughtful. Thank you. Appreciate that. Commissioner Peters, be nice, please. Oh, I'm always nice. I know you are. Um, I just want to announce the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is their Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection is going to hold a meeting, uh, to discuss the draft of the updated management plan for Pinellas County and Bogosiega Bay Aquatic Preserves. The meeting will be taking place on Tuesday, June 9th from 6 to 730. All persons are welcome to attend. Unfortunately, I don't have the location, but it will be posted on our website. Um, but it is Tuesday, June 9th. Um, I also had planned to attend the Policeman of the Year event, um, today. And unfortunately, I wasn't able to. Oh, I do have the address. The address of that meeting will be, um, 610 South Fort Harrison. So there you go. Um, I did, uh, I'm sorry I missed the Policeman of the Year. I go to that event every year. I sponsor it every year. And, and it is always such a great event. And when you hear the heroic things that these officers do, it's just, it's wonderful. I highly recommend if you have never been that, that you go. Kiwanis has been sponsoring that for decades. And it's just a really, really great event. Um, I also toured Westcare. I, um, I've toured it before, but it was nice to see how, uh, it's different with the new CEO since the first time I toured it. Um, first time home buyer, Renee, when you brought that up, Commissioner, uh, good idea. I would also love for us to consider somebody who lived in Pinellas County, who maybe lived in St. Petersburg, but wants to move out of St. Petersburg because the taxes are too high and be the first time home buyer. They can't apply for the county one because they lived in St. Petersburg, but they want to move to unincorporated. So they're not eligible. Even though they lived in the county when it happened, they didn't own their renting. And I think if they're moving into the 23 cities or into the unincorporated area, they should be considered and not disqualified. Just my opinion, something to consider. Um, I also attended, uh, fire ops. I didn't participate this time. I've done it in the past, but it was great to see, uh, just how they're doing some new technology. I got to see since I was there, uh, the, the cameras, they can go in to find somebody that might be still alive in a fire. Uh, the new technology is very cool. We didn't have that technology last time I did fire ops. If you haven't done it, I recommend you do it. Uh, we had our, our four Pinellas, um, special act meeting, uh, commissioner Shear and I were both at it. Um, we're still moving forward on, on what that's going to look like, but I, I didn't, we're not there yet on, uh, what the new Pinellas planning council might look like. So we're, so we're working on it. Um, Tampa Bay, uh, water. We, we got the budget presentation and we're moving forward with on that. Uh, and also, um, the progress on the South Hillsboro pipeline. That's all going good. Uh, we're praying for some more water. The reservoir is kind of low, but, um, we're projecting that in June. We finally get our rainy season started and they project that our reservoir should be full by the time, uh, fall comes when we, uh, end our rainy season. And so, um, I also attended the NAMI walk. That's another event I go to every year. NAMI has grown that walk really huge. And, and that makes me really happy because that means the stigma is loosening up on mental illness. Um, NAMI is a great organization to help, uh, give resources to family members that have a family member who are suffering from mental illness, but it helps them learn triggers and, and coping mechanisms and all kinds of things. They also do a lot of training for peer counseling and, uh, for counseling to be really, really, truly effective. Uh, peer counseling is a very effective tool, just like, um, um, officer, uh, Brito, uh, just graduated from the one for, you know, that mental health clinic. Um, it's, it's kind of similar when, when you can have someone who's walked in your shoes, be the one you're talking to, it makes a huge difference. And so, uh, NAMI does a lot of training for peers. So someone who, a recovering addict or somebody who is schizophrenia or some other mental illness, but they manage their illness real well would be a great, uh, counselor for someone to use because they've walked in their shoes. Um, and so they are growing huge. They're doing a great job. Um, I also went to the downtown partnership awards night at the Cordova Inn. That was their first time they had an event there, but they weren't officially open yet. And it was up on the rooftop. Great place. Fabulous place. They took an old historic hotel and made it bigger, but didn't take away the historic look of the building. And they did an amazing job. What a great place. Great place for events. And, um, really neat place. I'm glad I went. And that's, that's all I got. Thank you. All right, I'll try to get through this quickly, but, uh, I did want to say I went to, uh, tour the Park Center for Disabilities with Michelle Detweiler. It was just, you know, amazing and ran into the three, three residents who came here to, to receive the awards. And, um, I, I'd given them a coin when they were here and they came up and said, we love our coin. Thank you so much. It meant so much that your commission gave us the coin. So I just thought that was pretty cool. But they're doing some amazing work and got to really, uh, see some of the new developments, um, that, that, that they're going through. So anyway, that was, that was great. The National Day of Prayer with the Pinellas ladies, uh, at the Mission Baptist Church in Ridgecrest. Um, really, really good. I'm glad I got that invitation and I was able to go. You all asked me to look into, let's not do the health and human services leadership board. And, um, uh, I think somebody already mentioned that Commissioner Scott already mentioned that we, they did vote to stop that, uh, function. Um, I think really what it came down to is this, this community can just reach across all aisles really quickly if we need to bring together any kind of conversation on any issue that we might think about. Um, so I think that was very comfortable letting this go. Um, and see, we'll see how things develop there on that, on that annual meeting. But that was kind of the concept. We can come up with something that we can all kind of get our hands around. We can bring some people together pretty quickly. So anyway, um, I also attended that Clearwater Police Annual Fallen Officer Memorial. Thank you for mentioning the names again. That was, uh, really always, you know, when somebody gets together, the families were there, um, remembering and still dealing with. And, um, some pretty incredible officers, um, and, um, anyway, um, had a really nice, uh, business, economic development, business trip to Ireland. Uh, first time I had been across the pond, actually, and, um, and, um, and landing, landing there. Uh, what an incredible country, um, and the work that they do. They're very closely aligned with, um, how we do business here. Um, they're just an amazing, uh, amazing city. They've got a chance to tour the countryside a little bit. Um, spent a lot of time. Our economic development people were amazing. They were doing some really heavy lifting, meeting with some businesses that, um, that want to come here. But also encouraging us to come there, because they've become the only English-speaking country in the EU. And so it becomes a nice platform into, into that, uh, business market. So really good, good experience. Great, great time. Got to spend some time with Mayor Rector and, um, a group of about 20 people that were dedicated to that global, that global marketing, uh, global, uh, marketing for this area. So really, really good stuff. Um, don't forget the John Maroney Foundation meeting, or the celebration, um, on June 13th at 6 o'clock at Ruth Eckerd Hall. There's one seat left at the table. Um, Memorial Day ceremonies, as I mentioned, all over the place. I'm going to be at Old City of Oldsmar. I know Curlue Hills has one, and many others do as well. Um, Tri-County business, uh, Tri-County meeting's still on for June 5th, right, Barry? 9.30 at the airport. Um, and so that will be another opportunity to kind of get together to talk about things that are on all of our minds. Um, and then would second Commissioner Lauer's comment about congratulating our graduates and, um, those that are choosing college or those that are choosing to take some time off or those that are choosing to go into, uh, a technical school. It's just a good time for graduates to figure out what that next step in their life is going to be. So congratulations to all of them. Um, and that's all I have. Uh, is there anything else? Mr. Chair, there's two items on, um, item 34 that need a vote. The first one is the bulk proclamation approval, and then the second would be the amendment number two. And, Mr. Chair, if I could offer up on the amendment, uh, number two, which relates to the beach nourishment issue, there's a Scrivener's error. It's just a dollar sign that we need to insert that the Army Corps asked us to. So when you get to that, I would just like for whoever makes a motion to include the minor Scrivener's error that the Army Corps asked us to fix. Okay. So, so, so I, I'm, what, what, what are we missing? Come on. The first item is the bulk proclamation approval. Oh, okay. Thank you. Um, thank you. Second. Any comments, questions? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Scrivener's error. Second. Um, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? All right. Uh, this meeting is adjourned. We'll see everybody back at six. My name is Ms. Conpermar, and I am a senior. Uh, where are you, uh, and I know this answer, um, but just for the record, where are you going next year? The University of Florida. Sorry. Largo High School. Go Packers. Yes, go Packers. My name is Karina Grishanko, and I am a sophomore at St. Petersburg Collegiate High School. My name is Shana Graff. I'm a sophomore at Palm Harbor University. My name is Madison Sider, and I'm a junior at Palm Harbor University. Today, we'll be giving our presentation to talk about all the achievements that we've done throughout the year at Youth Advisory Committee. My name is Musconpermar, the chair. We also have Daniel Cramp, the vice chair, and Karina Grishanko is our secretary. And we also had a wonderful logo that was made this year on our shirts, working towards a better Pinellas by Shana Graff. So thank you for that. To begin, I'm going to talk about how our typical YAC meetings usually look. We went through an agenda that accomplished the needs for the committee of that month. And the meetings are run by the leadership council, and they often contained and went over the following. First, we started talking about our old business that needed to be followed up on, or actions that needed to be taken in between meetings. And then our new business to take care of our goals that we hoped to accomplish during that meeting. And our meetings typically ended with a group discussion on what could possibly be done in the future or in our next meetings, what we wanted to implement. So we started off with about 38 original members and an average attendance of 25 members throughout the year. So like I said, when we ended off in our group discussions, one thing that we went over in one of our discussions was the attendance, because we did see a little bit of a decline in our attendance throughout each month. And we wanted to increase that for the upcoming YAC year. And so we thought about some consequences that would be there when people started meeting, missing more and more meetings, and some things that we could implement to increase our attendance and maintain it throughout the year, throughout the YAC year. Now we'll take a look at some of the tours that we did throughout the year. The tours that the Youth Advisory Committee went on this year include the St. Petersburg Clearwater Airport, the Waste to Energy Facility, the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative Office, presentation at the Juvenile Welfare Board, and a tour at the Pinellas County Jail. We had an amazing opportunity to meet some of the firefighter crew that were on duty at the St. Petersburg Clearwater Airport tour, and we got a great presentation at our Pinellas Public Library Cooperative Tour. This year, YAC's long-term project was to form subcommittees that explored an issue in Pinellas County and searched for a solution either through a presentation or an active hands-on project. We decided on long-term projects with group discussions. And some issues that were brought up were food insecurity and youth literacy. We also had a committee for our end-of-year celebration, and the chair was Emma Carpenter. For our food insecurity sub-chair, some of the background that we had that led us to our project was around 13% of Pinellas County struggles with food insecurity, 21% live in food deserts, and 1 in 10 residents experiences regularly. So this is a huge problem in Pinellas County that we wanted to put our efforts into. A little bit more about our project. We collected donations and created care packages. We are still actively collecting donations with around 100 items collected at the moment. We are making care packages for organizations such as Hope Villages and Feast. And in the future, we plan to collect donations and create care packages prior to people needing it so that we have those things to provide to them when the need is there. We also plan on making resource lists accessible in more locations. And we plan on expanding collections to include more than just non-perishable food items, such as cleaning supplies, hygiene items, and fresh foods. For youth literacy, we began our year by researching the topic of education in the United States and found that there's a large deficit in children's reading in the United States. In our high schools and previous years, we have found a decline in youth literacy in our peers. And there's about 40% of students across the nation that cannot read at the basic level. According to the Juvenile Welfare Board in 2024, only 62% of Pinellas third grade students are reading at their level. Taking this into consideration, we created a plan for a table at the Lisa Nelson Elementary School Exploration Night, where we had collected over 70 worksheets completed, and we had about 70% participation from the students that were at the event. In the future, we hope to implement volunteer opportunities for high school students to provide tutoring to help students expand their learning with difficulties. Groups can be targeted to specific subjects and difficulties to make it easier and more organized for the children and the volunteers. For additional support, we can have help from the Juvenile Welfare Board and the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative. Not only will this provide the students an opportunity for a better education, but it gives the volunteers an opportunity to volunteer and be a part of their community. Now I'll hand it off to Muskan to talk about the end-of-the-year celebration. Unfortunately, our president for the end-of-the-year celebration was not able to make it today, but she did an amazing job planning our end-of-the-year celebration for this year in order to have a bunch of activities and also give back to the community while celebrating our accomplishments. So in order to do so, she created an online survey to determine the activity that we all wanted, so we all got together and kind of decided that as a group and the date that worked best for everyone. So we decided to go to Sand Key Park on April 26th, and we did a beach cleanup. And we all know Florida weather. Of course it's going to rain, so of course it started raining. But we managed to do a lot and clean up a lot of the beach, surprisingly. And then we also had pizza as lunch, and we played a lot of games and icebreakers as the last time, and the seniors also got their cords before they left. So it was really amazing, and it was truly a great way to celebrate all of our accomplishments that we've done throughout the year. Looking forward, YAC looks ahead to continue influencing the youth population in this county, and we want to get a lot more of youth voices to talk about the problems that we have in our county. YAC is a resourceful opportunity dedicated to educating the future of Pinellas County and seeks to better the county by exploring different struggles within the community and taking action within active subcommittees. At the beginning of the year, the subcommittees were picked by us, so it was a great way to have youth voice represented in YAC. And moving forward, YAC would like to focus more on having members actively working in different areas of the community. And to end off, YAC would like to thank Commissioner Laval, Commissioner Nowicki, Tyler, Jeff, J.P., Leslie, Emily, and all the other commissioners for their support in everything they do, and thank you for having us present in this meeting today. Thank you. That was pretty awesome. A great year. So on the, like, recruiting for next year, new folks to come on, any ideas, any thoughts that, you know, to help us reach out to more students to talk about your opportunities and what you guys got out of it? I would say just, you know, a lot of us have a lot of friends at our school that are still in high school, so I did talk to a lot of my friends and convince them to join YAC for next year because it is truly an amazing opportunity and an amazing thing to contribute towards. And I would say just talking to a lot of people and spreading what YAC actually is so people not only understand it but want to participate in and join this club. Any thoughts what the drop-off was, what, we lost a couple early on? I think a lot of people just have busy schedules with work and everything, so I think sometimes it might be a little hard to make it to every single one of the meetings, but we definitely do want to try and maintain our attendance throughout the year as YAC goes on for next year. Thank you. Yes, of course. Commissioner, do you have any? Yeah, it was great, you know, being the youngest commissioner on there. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Nowicki. So it was good to be, you know, with you all and see you guys mature and learn more throughout the year and just sitting here thinking about it, I mean, it just came to me. I mean, I'd be happy to, you know, do like a $1,000 scholarship, you know, if we want to talk about like recruitment more, like to say, hey, maybe if we do $1,000 that's like peer-based, you know, from YAC they would vote on like one member every year to, you know, get $1,000 towards a college, books or something like that, you know, that may help with increased participation. I mean, that's not a lot of, you know, so I don't know if you all think that would help with getting classes. Yeah, I think that's an amazing idea. Yeah. So. I know a lot of people, a lot of seniors need the scholarship. Well, I think maybe if you, like, they could vote amongst themselves, you know, to see who would want to, yeah. So I don't know, but yeah, just came to me. So, yeah, strike while the iron's hot. But, but no. One thing that I was very proud of this year and that really came out of one of the first meetings we had in the fall was when they talked about what they wanted their project to be about this year and they came up with literacy and, which was an important thing with me when I was in the legislature and I was the education chair. And I, I'm not sure if I told them this at the time, but 80% of high school dropouts weren't reading it on grade level in the third grade. And, and y'all mentioned some statistics during your presentation. And, uh, I'm not sure if you were there, not, um, Commissioner Nowicki, but just, you know, the, the issues that they talked about during that meeting of things that they wanted to, to focus on. And, um, you know, I've, this has either been my second or third year of, of, uh, overseeing YAC. And, um, I don't want to put down any other years, but, uh, y'all were the best one. Um, you know, just by the, the intellect that y'all have, um, with, um, the community and the depth of knowledge that you have, um, you know, for the future. And, um, you know, uh, I'm very proud that you're a Gator. Um, I'm a new Gator. Um, and, um, and, and, and I was just very proud for it from that meeting and I'm sorry that I didn't, I was one of the drop-offs this year. I, I only went to maybe half of the days, uh, had a good excuse. Um, but, but I was just very proud to hear y'all talk about different issues, you know, cause usually it's, you know, the big issues of the day, like gun, gun control and, you know, the environment and things like that. But, but they talked about very specific issues. They had issues specific to Pinellas County. Um, it was almost like a couple of them may have watched our meetings. Um, you know, there were some Dave Eggers and, you know, future Dave Eggers in that room. So it was great. And I think those, uh, all three of those topics, I mean, they're, you can go around and talk to just about anybody and they're being affected by one of those topics or somebody certainly that they know. So, um, and he doesn't say that to every group that this is the best group. So, so, so you should take that as a real compliment. Um, but thank you for your, for your involvement. Uh, thank you for your leadership. Um, and any thoughts and ideas you all have as to how to, how to market YAC as an opportunity that's that, I guess it can be kind of cool. Is it, I mean, it probably isn't cool in a high school sense, but I still think it's kind of cool what you guys can accomplish and do for the community and pretty cool stuff. So thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Well, thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you. Don't go anywhere. Don't go anywhere. We got to take a picture real quick. Drop off. Drop off. All right. Moving on to item 37, please. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Agenda item number 37 is case number ZON 2602. This is a request by Shirley Bragdon for a zoning change from RA residential agriculture to RR rural residential on approximately 2.50 acres located at 2941 Abbey Lake Road in unincorporated Clearwater. 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 is nothing but the truth. Signify by saying I do. 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. Thank you. I don't have any cards for this one, number 37. Any questions or comments from the commission? Move approval from Commissioner Peters. Second from Commissioner Flowers. Bring up the voting card, please. I mean, yes, Mr. Chairman. That motion carries unanimously. Thank you. Number 38. Agenda item number 38 is a petition of Southeast Combined Services, LLC, doing business at Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park, incorporated to vacate a portion of Sylvan Abbey Road, County Road number 193, declared to be a public road in Board of County Commissioner Minutes, Book 5, page 503, filed on February 2, 1926, being 60 feet in width lying north of Sunset Point Road, and two right-of-way parcels adjacent to Sylvan Abbey Road in Official Records, Book 1697, page 84, in Section 529-16, Pinellas County, Florida. The public hearing was properly advertised, and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. A letter of no objection has been received by the clerk from the appropriate parties. All interested parties have been notified as to the date of the public hearing, and no correspondence has been received by the clerk. The matter is properly before the board to be heard. Thank you. I have one speaker, if necessary. So, any questions or comments by the board? Motion by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Nowicki. No comments, no questions. All right. Pull up the card, please. Yes, Mr. Chairman. That vote is unanimous. Moving on to number 39. Agenda item number 39 is an amendment by resolution supplementing the fiscal year 2026 budget recognizing unanticipated fund balance and unanticipated revenue, realigning appropriations for requesting departments, and realigning reserves for requesting departments and funds. The public hearing is properly advertised, and an affidavit of publication has been received for filing. No correspondence has been received by the clerk and the mayor is properly before the board to be heard. Thank you. Motion to approve by Commissioner Peters, second by Commissioner Flowers. Any comments, questions? Pull up the card, please. Let me ask, Mr. Chairman. One more. There we are. Motion carries unanimously. Anything before we adjourn? Okay. This meeting is adjourned.