i kind of waited till everybody was just getting quiet naturally so we didn't have to stop any conversations this morning uh good morning everybody come on in come on in we're starting the meeting it's all right how are you this morning yeah thank you yeah looks good actually some of the commissioners look rather dapper this morning and yeah county attorney uh coming up anyway we're here this morning to uh we have three items on the agenda pinellas recovers policy discussion census 2030 and agenda briefing and anything the commission wants to just chat about after that uh barry we'll go ahead and get started i'm not sure who's going to come up first but erica will probably kick it off and turn it over to bdo for an update good morning chair commissioners erica henry disaster recovery program manager for pinellas recovers and i'm here today with lori dayland of bdo government services as you know pinellas recovers recently celebrated its one year anniversary on october 20th and today we're here to provide you our year in review of our efforts that support recovery from the 2023 and 2024 hurricanes and we'll also be introducing our next series of programs geared towards economic development planning and infrastructure last fiscal year pinellas county expended 24.5 million dollars of our cdbgdr funding you'll see here that we represent 46 percent of the total funds drawn down by our neighbors uh neighboring counties and first time grantees we've received a total of over 11 000 applications for assistance which which speaks to the continued and ongoing need of recovery efforts in our community we've approved over 1400 applications thus far totaling an estimated 122 million dollars this this slide shows our total applications that have been received by program there are still approximately 3400 applications that are routing through our intake and eligibility processes and our fallout rates remain consistent with other cdbgdr programs of the 7500 applications that have already been closed the top reasons that are affecting eligibility include applicants withdrawing from our program if they do not meet the specific needs that applicants who are non-responsive or attempts to contact are not or not providing documentation other eligibility issues include income the residents not being their primary residence or those that are located outside of our service area outside of unincorporated pinellas county this slide highlights our accomplishments over the past fiscal year of our five open housing programs you'll see here that there are almost 300 applications that are currently assigned to general contractors for our rehabilitation and reconstruction programs and over six and 16 homes that have already been completed with construction our home buyer assistance program you'll see also continues to do well with over 120 applicants already moved into their homes and 50 that are still shopping for the home of their dreams as you are aware there was a miscalculation in our cdbgdr allocation by hud and as a result 126 million dollars will be reallocated to the city of saint pete we are actively working with both both hud and the city to make this transition as smooth as possible and in the next few months we will be coming before you again with our hud agreement that is reflective of this reallocation as well as an interlocal agreement with the city of saint petersburg it will also trigger a substantial amendment to our action plan which we will be discussing at that time as well this slide depicts a rough draft of the 126 million dollar reallocation that we'll be discussing at a later date and now i will turn it over to lori who will be explaining our upcoming programs for economic development infrastructure and planning thank you erica so as you may recall the action plan includes 138 excuse me 0.2 million for small business non-profit planning and infrastructure programs within infrastructure 53.4 million dollars is available for pinellas recovers projects and another 47.7 million is designated for joint projects with saint petersburg we're targeting to have the small business non-profit and planning initiatives kick off before the end of this year before developing these recommendations we gathered input from businesses and non-profit organizations county departments and cdbg disaster recovery subject matter experts the recommendations you'll see today reflect that local input along with the pinellas recovers action plan hud requirements and implementation considerations starting with small business the goal is to help eligible impacted businesses address remaining recovery needs stabilize their operations and support local employment and the broader economic recovery this is the approach we're recommending based on program requirements implementation considerations and the feedback that we received the proposed approach would begin with priority industries and focus funding on eligible unmet recovery needs a phased intake approach would also allow the county to evaluate demand before expanding to other eligible businesses for the non-profit program the focus is on helping eligible organizations repair storm damage facilities and continue providing essential services to the community where available and appropriate projects may also include mitigation improvements that reduce future risk and strengthen facility resilience there's two key elements to this slide that i'd like to highlight first the recommended approach would prioritize non-profits that provide essential community services helping direct funding towards projects with significant community benefit second is county-led construction oversight because these are federal construction projects they involve detailed procurement environmental review labor and compliance requirements under the recommended approach the county would oversee the construction process allowing non-profit recipients to remain focused on service delivery while helping maintain compliance consistency and appropriate stewardship of these public funds the planning and infrastructure programs are separate but they are designed to work together the planning effort will take a county-wide look at risks needs and priorities and help identify potential projects and mitigation strategies infrastructure funding will not be allocated by municipality instead the planning effort will help inform a county-wide process for selecting projects and funding the goal is to look at needs and opportunities county-wide and direct funding to projects that provide broad community benefit for the 53.4 million in pinellas recovers infrastructure funding the county-wide planning effort will help identify priorities and inform project selection any projects selected for funding must also meet hud eligibility requirements for the 47.7 million in joint projects the county will work with the city of st petersburg to identify projects that provide meaningful flood reduction benefits to both the city and the county thank you well all right thank you for the presentation um you know i keep hearing from people ease of the program it's a pain in the um dexterity of our bodies they can't get through when they get through they they're frustrated um we have 813 million less than 120 whatever we're giving to st petersburg we've spent how many did you say 40 24.5 million 24 million and you've had committed how much you've had you've committed through approvals how much 122 million okay okay yeah well again we're still yeah what 20 of the way in the first year and we have people that are being turned down left and right again hud eligibility correct we talked initially about having 30 of the funding at the towards the end of our project that would have more flexibility uh to use um again i don't i don't remember all the terms that you used to talk about it but to me that's the real stuff because there are people that did get affected but for some reason or another don't pass the technical smell test so let me let me talk a little bit about it because it's it's frustrating for you and it's more frustrating for our residents um but it's frustrating for staff too because you know we designed this program we actually set up bdo's contract to incentivize getting people through they only get paid when people get paid i mean their contract has everything built in to help people get through this process but it is incredibly complex because it is a hud driven requirement these are not pinellas county rules they're hud rules and so you know we've tried to design the program to be able to help people and i can't say to the intake person and i'm sure you know they can speak bdo can speak to it more but but it is an incredibly um what we were talking about at the end the 30 percent that means for people that where the limitation is income um eligibility and income are two different things we can't expand some of the programs to take in more people over on income and and we've asked that question when is the right time to go back and look at some of these programs so they can speak to that um but i but i i do did want to address the issue with the frustration for people every single time somebody writes in to you and you give that to staff erica her team and bdo we actually have an ombudsman that we've designed to get figure out what's going on and try to help them get through that process so we we hear each and every concern because each person is important and we want to make sure that we do everything we can to get them through so the takedown that's been one year one year anniversary um and i would have five year program right and i would have thought maybe i'm wrong and that's why i'm asking you all what does that takedown normally look like i mean are we talking two years in we know pretty much everybody that's applied for it yeah or is it like three years in four years and five years in we're actually going to go from 122 to 150. well and we're coming up on building houses now and that's where that's where the 122 that 122 million refers to that puts us up to what 150 160. it's a five-year program we have about 500 million eligible so you know we're getting into that range when we get into this construction and stuff you're going to see much larger numbers um as we kind of ramp up kind of like we do in the middle of the penny it takes us a few years and then you really see that but but they can they can speak to that but and you know we don't want to you know one thing i had caution staff on this presentation is i want to focus back on that individual because that's what matters and helping them get the money that they need to recover uh but we're doing so much better than the other programs are out there but that's not really a test because all that really matters is helping that person but speak to some of the points that were just raised so uh matt spore assistant county administrator um so this these are the active programs right here and we know uh based off our numbers that uh we know which programs are more successful than others right now um the home the homeowner reimbursement especially since you made the changes for condo owners um is is more successful than we thought it would be and the home buyer assistance so those two programs are we might have to actually add money to those programs okay the disaster relief payments the local landlords those have not taken off like we thought they would to to barry's point the homeowner rehab and recon is just starting to take off so i think you said 16 homes or 13 homes completed it's just starting to take off now we're a year in it's a six-year program so we're a year in and work and we committed 122 million in grants right now um the number will actually go down the 126 million plus that 47.3 million so the the hud reallocation because that 47.3 has to be for an infrastructure project that is both county and city funded so that has to come off so we're going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 687 is going to be our new number so um so you're gonna if we can send out to you what's what they call the s curve and and in the hud world it's how the funding happens and we are we are above our monthly marks for spending through the six-year program so we can kind of show you those trends um in a separate uh document but um we understand the frustration we try to work with the applicants we're trying to get them across the finish line but to your point about when are we going to open up or do other programs when we come back for the reallocation within the next couple months hud just responded last night that they're fine with the agreement so we're going to be getting on your schedule within the next few months we can look at where some money has to be moved even within these programs forget about the reallocation we may need more money in some programs that um that are taking off and then we may need to look at opening up eligibility but remember we have to meet the requirement of the lmi so we have to meet that 70 percent requirement so we got to keep track of that number as well so before we open it up to higher income individuals we need to make sure we're hitting that mark so we're going to do all that analysis when we bring back the reallocation we can show you those numbers and that that's either going to be in december or january so under homeowner rehab and recon how many it says 455 have been approved how many have actually been funded the number that have been funded on that i'm sorry if you could skip one we have 455 approved applications 286 of which are committed grant agreements and the remaining are routing for signature and full execution by the applicant co-applicant and the county we have over 300 homes that are currently assigned to general contractors and our pay point is not until final inspection so again back to the question how many how many are in that number the dollars that have been allocated that go back to that other page and there's 455 that have been approved or yeah i'm just trying to get a feeling for how many of that 490 million has actually been spent versus the number that have been approved so that we have a have a good feel for well we have 455 that's going to take up the bulk of our money well then that that's like that's you know that makes me feel like we're on the right path i don't have i know when you get all those yeah it will be 90 million that's what these numbers are so these numbers are that 90 million is it estimated right there okay actually well it's higher than that today as of as of october 13th yeah yeah so yeah all right okay we're seeing uh commissioner flowers thank you mr chair so um i attended the announcement from the city of st petersburg for um the additional 126 million which wasn't our fault that was a geo coding error on um behalf of hud so i'm glad that we'll be working on a joint project of about 47 million to take care of some um stormwater sewer concerns that affect both of us um i have to just share what um commissioner edgar said the phone calls and the emails that i receive from people who are eligible it seems like um and maybe some individuals aren't talking to others within your um your wheelhouse um persons have sent us they've uploaded copies of their documents that they have submitted and then are being told by a staff member that they need those same documents again um it is frustrating to us but it does give the appearance as though we don't have our stuff together um and i think we need to do a better job at that um i've also gotten concerns and complaints and it could be because people are frustrated that what they're hearing may not necessarily be the tone that the person is utilizing on the phone but um concerns of how they're spoken to and how they're talked to when they are just simply trying to find out just what do i need what is it that you're saying you don't have here's what i turned in this is the person or case manager that's assigned to me the owner shouldn't be on the resident if they have all their documents and they're saying that they turn them in and they have copies or what have you the owners then should be on the caseworker where is the paperwork um and so i think we need to do a much better job of that um i would hope that it will be uh mr spore no later than december when you all can come to us and let us know how you would like to reallocate some of those dollars minus the 126 because i really don't want to go into a new year and we we're still grappling with this i know we have six years or so to spend down these dollars but then these hurricanes occurred in 2024 i know we didn't get the final allocation and all of that from the federal government we just kind of worked through the logistics of this end of 2025 beginning of this year i get that but residents don't get that they don't want to hear that they don't want to hear that um i will tell you i have really been pushing and sharing the home buyer assistance for persons who were residing in a rental this is a great opportunity for them to become homeowners so i will tell you i have really been pushing that program um when i've gone out and people have asked me about this um but i really would like to see us and and don't get me wrong i'm grateful for what we're doing it is a yeoman's task we're playing catch up and you know but still it doesn't help the persons who have been waiting for support and assistance um i will tell you also that um i have been sharing with individuals the difference between this program and whatever they're getting from their insurance company so just to let you know that i don't always say to you guys i also ask a number of questions before you know i reach out and i send stuff to matt all the time can you please you know get with them on this and then let me know the outcome so that i'm circling back and and you know if it's on the onus of the homeowner or the landlord or whatever then i can share that and when it's on us i can share that as well so i do appreciate um the responses i have been getting back because i have been getting responses back when i have shared concerns of residents i don't put it in cats i just go straight to matt and say hey fix this and get back with me on how it's being done so um i would like to i mean that may be pushing staff before the holidays but personally just for me i would love to see that back um before uh the first of the year if possible um so that we're starting you know we're continuing smoothly and we're starting our year off yeah understood thank you commissioner we we will get it back as soon as possible we do have some um advertisement requirements per hud before you can approve it so we have to make sure we we follow those rules too so well the secretary of hud was down here bless his heart yeah so so we like late last night after hours we received um confirmation from hud and during this meeting i received confirmation from the city of saint pete so we have final agreements as of today so we'll start to schedule the advertisement and we'll get on your calendar as soon as possible thank you and if if like i said secretary was here i appreciate that because he came in person to have those dialogues and conversations i also do want to give a public shout out to congresswoman kathy castor and congresswoman luna because they were also instrumental when it was there was no mechanism or caveat for this flip of the 126 but they worked um with uh the secretary for hud and their staff to kind of move this along and make it happen so i want to publicly thank them as well because um you know they they stayed on it for both of us for both saint pete and the county so and i'm here to help in any way that i can so if it's any information i'm missing or if it's something i'm misunderstanding about the programs which i carry those little um the powerpoint presentation that where we finalize the different programs so that when i'm speaking to people i'm talking from that if it's anything that i need to know or changes or or whatever please you know reach out to me i'm i'm ready to be educated i'm not somebody who knows it all um it's so many moving parts and moving pieces um so i think that's a great point i mean if you guys think that there's a again we've gotten a lot of information over time not like you guys have gotten but maybe you could uh arm us with a a package that that we can kind of take on the road so to speak so we can maybe open it up and and share some information i think that's i think that's a great idea so back to the question about the 90 million i i guess i really wasn't asking it the correct way the the the passageway or the pathway if you will of these houses has gotten approved at different levels every month so i'm just trying to get a sense of are we coming down the curve are we going up the curve and so that 455 is what's approved but in the in the pipeline we have another 455 i mean again and all the stuff that you just said you may have told us this but kind of get a sense of where that program is heading after you know these um so do you have the s curve do you do you have that up um we might be able to show you something here hold on um in terms well yeah well well so it's it's our projections but we've been hitting them every month and we've been increasing so um the the number of approved applications is in grant agreements is going up month over month um and so are you i mean yeah i don't know you're gonna show that but i mean i can speak to it as well so uh danny permar video service as well so in the back can you turn on the um projector please is this a touch thing no we'll see if they turn it on let's see if they can zoom in they can zoom can we yeah can you can you zoom in in the back oh hold on hold on oh gosh well maybe we did it at the same time sorry all right i'll let them all right yeah okay go ahead so so what we're looking at here uh yeah danny permar video services uh director for the the housing programs here so um what we are looking at when we're talking about the s curve to your point of when when are we going to start seeing the funding you know go out the door so we have 300 assigned to general contractors right now so a year from now all 300 of those would be complete with construction all that 120 million committed fully to um you know drawn down from hud additionally we are seeing on average 60 grant agreements assigned per week 80 qc completed per uh week as well um so we're seeing an increase right now kind of a hockey stick so to speak of we're on the up ramp of getting assignments out the door getting contractors really going out in the field so we would see that 120 million plus an additional 40 gc's assigned per you know every two weeks so we're going up and up um you know kind of on a weekly basis here we're kind of hitting that peak of that s curve of showing we're spending so this s curve is actually showing all our all our projects in total of showing like where should we be in a five-year term with our whole spending and we are tracking on a weekly on a monthly basis that we are you know on track or above so you can see when we compared it to the other first-time grantees how far out pinellas county actually is in comparison to other neighboring counties again not wanting to compare to the others but we are on the up there yeah thank you for that last comment yeah i appreciate the perspective of others but it's nice to know that we have a good pipeline that's being filled as we go along i mean this is obviously something that it's one of those things where you tell people that we have money for them to take care of things that they've had problems with and then it seems difficult to get it to them and so it's almost you know anyway um okay any other questions commissioner peters yeah so i know i see the little note that you want to get businesses going by the end of the year um and i'm hoping that you can launch that swiftly and that we're already promoting it because businesses don't know this and so many business and it's been two years and many of them haven't even been able to survive we've i think we've waited too long to launch the business portion of this personally i think this should have been launched at least six months ago and i know you got a lot going on a lot in the air but there's businesses that weren't able to hang on and and uh and that's a tragedy so um if you're launching this by the end of the year you need to give people a heads up so they can get prepared and so it's almost november now so if you plan on doing this before the end of the year i certainly hope this can be promoted well so that businesses know um and i'm not sure i was reading ahead on how you plan on doing it it was pretty vague to me i haven't kind of figured out what your plan is but i can tell you there's many beach communities businesses that didn't make it they didn't make it they tried to hang out and tried to survive and this just took too long to save their businesses so um if they went out of business are they eligible to get recouped anything i don't know about that and i'm gonna let ryan speak here in a minute um we we were we're waiting to present this before we start that launch but we're meeting with the big c next week and we're and we we will we will be launching these programs before the end of the calendar year and we have met with we have met with some um local uh businesses and business groups so that there there is some awareness but there's not broad awareness so we will work on that but let me have ryan before you go i didn't mean to start on just that i do want to congratulate your staff and and ryan you guys have done an outstanding i mean really an outstanding job and what i can tell you is when the people reach out to us they're not saying that staff are rude you know they might be frustrated or not understanding but we are not getting that message we are getting the message that you guys are helping them along and and and actually we've had a lot of thank you so i just want to get i should have started with that but um but your your team is really doing a good job and i'm really impressed and the gcs that i talked to are just thrilled to be working with us so um but i am worried about the businesses so if we can get that launch sooner than later it would make me much happier and on that point how how is your team doing what's the what's the uh original team look like and what does the team look like today um how are you guys doing and and keeping your people you know well i'll let ryan address the question and also his team our team we started with five four we started with four we have seven internal county staff um and and we've only lost one yeah one during that last year so and and we replaced that individual so um so our team is small but mighty but um they're doing a great job county staff i'll let ryan address the the question about the business kind of roll out and then also his team chair uh chair commissioners ryan flannery bdo program director um i'll start with the the question about the staffing we have 40 staff members right now working on the bdo side that was i think the design was always to kind of make it heavy on our side so we can reduce the administrative burden on and financial burden on the county with respect to admin which is i think also why the county chose to use only half of your administrative costs so we are we are fully staffed we are growing as needed and adapting as needed but we are hitting a very good stride and we're very comfortable with where we are right now and that's indicative of i think the the increase in pipeline that we're seeing to the original agreement that was done with you is still working your business model absolutely okay absolutely yeah make sure that all the incentives are there to do everything nothing has changed what barry mentioned in the beginning which is that you guys are getting imbersed by the work that you do and the thank you yes appreciate it and one last yeah go ahead um i think you're doing an outstanding job and you did have a slide on how much farther ahead we are than uh other counties and cities and um and i have to commend you on that you're the one that has the experience we made the right choice on choosing you and uh thank you for bringing all your expertise to us thank you for those kind words i very much appreciate it we all do uh the video side uh with respect to small businesses uh this program i uh we are we are we are launching rapidly um there are a lot of decisions that have to go into this in terms of how we utilize what is a relatively small amount which with we know there's a lot of unmet needs so um to answer your specific question regarding businesses that have gone out of business generally yes we're finalizing program policies and procedures but generally yes we believe that if a business was in business at the time they've since gone out of business they can come in and apply for funding they will have to put to you know put forth a business plan they'll have to show us that they're actually viable um with respect to being able to launch and and create at least one job depending on the funding amount that's a big part of this program is creating jobs um and so to answer your question yes um yeah commissioner flowers that is very good to hear um because some of the business especially st pete beach area and up the coast um smaller businesses um just couldn't hold it together you know it was too much of a lapse um in time my question is for your contractors um did you say that and maybe i heard you wrong did you say that they're not paid until they've completed whatever the project is whether it's rehab or or are they paid in stages do they receive draws or you're speaking to our general contractors that yes it's doing the work for the resident correct they get paid when the project is completed so we do a progress inspection at 50 percent and then a hundred percent once that home is shown to have been constructed to our standards and meets in particular meets the expectations of the applicant the homeowner we will then make that payment to the general but then it also has a certificate of office it's it has to have a c of o it has to have all permits yes everything is done and everything at that point in time is determined to have met all uh all building uh compliance requirements are you finding that there are some gc's that may be having difficulty yeah financially completing the projects and waiting on payment number one and number two do we have any that maybe you're seeing significant red tags when it comes to their their work product which may be slowing down or hindering um the timeline by which that particular project could be completed for them to move on um as of right now and danny correct me if i'm correct if i'm wrong but i don't believe the the answer is no to both of those um the way that we structure the way that we procure these general contractors having um having the necessary capital to be able to carry the cost is is important we evaluate that um up front they have to demonstrate that capacity to us in order to be selected as a contractor so we're dealing with you know well well financed general contractors who have been doing this for a while in many different places oftentimes and so they have demonstrated that ability i have not seen any construction quality issues yet we do uh every single um we again we have two inspections we do at the 50 100 we also the general contractor scorecard where we keep track of any issues that arise if there are issues we deal with them we have a team of construction management professionals on the bdo side who oversee and manage the general contractors and if you do not perform you do not get more assignments we structure our contracts and our procurement in a way that gives us very very broad flexibility with respect to how we assign these projects out if you perform for us you get more houses and you get more work to do and if you don't you get less okay thank you mr chair yeah that's a that's an unusual contracting industry remember remind me remind me when i do some home improvements who to come get help from so i get make sure i can pay them at the very end and no no phased payments so um but that's great no i appreciate that that's those are both uh commissioner peters commissioner flowers great questions because i think it's really important that we have the those folks you know plugged in tuned in and they're doing their job and there's no issue with availability of contractors that's that would be a whole nother bottleneck so anyway anybody anybody else okay well thank you thank you all appreciate you appreciate the update keep up the good work thank you okay moving on to census 2030 good morning good morning commissioners good morning commissioners my name is smithambari i work as a principal planner with housing and community development today i'll be giving you a brief presentation on census 2030 as you know uh census 2030 is still more than three and a half years away however before the actual account happens in 2030 there are a couple of steps that happened before that so before we get into any of that that we wanted to give you a broad overview of the process and timeline for census talk a little bit about what we have done in the past and then bring up our recommendations of how we could proceed for 2030 so thank you for taking our time for this uh the decennial census as you all know this is our 10-year population estimates uh population count the 10-year population count impacts a number of things like the federal and state reapportionment state and local redistricting federal and state funding allocation and local decision making related to emergency management infrastructure utilities etc because this impacts so many different functions the participation of the local government in the census count is extremely important to improve the accuracy of the count as well as to increase participation in the census so how do we do that we do that by using two things one is public outreach which is specifically tailored to increase awareness about the census and also to increase participation encourage people to participate and then the second thing is luca which is the local update of census addresses luca is a process which is provided by the census bureau it is an opportunity for the local governments to review the census address list which census uses for the actual count so we get to review the list and provide any uh suggestions in terms of corrections that need to be done prior to the actual census so the luca and the public outreach together they help us in improving the accuracy of the accounts and to make sure that no one gets missed out in the census so this is a general timeline for the 2030 census 2027 2029 is when we would we would be working on the luca so this is when census provides us information about the luca they provide access to the training for luca so they use a specialized software for the address review so we would get training on that this is a time when we would review the address files and provide our comments to census and once we provided the comments census takes a few months to review that and then come back with the corrected file and then we get 60 days to review that and either appeal or confirm so the luca process happens in 2027 2029 2029 2030 is when we do the public outreach efforts the actual count happens in 2030 and then once the census is completed the actual counts are done the data from the census is used for creating the redistricting data which is released one year after the census in 2031 and then two years from the census the decennial census data is released to everyone so this is the overall timeline for census this is a process that we had followed for the 2010-2020 census housing and community development led the process for luca so we reviewed the address files for unincorporated pinless county and 17 of our municipalities for public outreach the county had set up the complete count committee um this committee was chaired by the chair of the board of county commissioners and this committee established the public outreach strategy which was used for the 2010 and 2020 census communications department and housing and community development helped with the public outreach and the staff from housing and community development acted as a liaison between the complete count committee and the census bureau these are our recommendations for the 2030 census these are a little different from what we've done in the past um so for the luca process just like we had done in the past we are recommending the housing housing community development would act as a project lead for the luca process we would complete the review of the address files for unincorporated millers county and the process that we follow and the steps that we take we'll be sharing that with all the municipalities for the public outreach part communications would work with census bureau and the board to define what the public outreach would look like housing and community development staff would provide support for the outreach as well as the community coordinators would help reach out to all the stakeholders within their community groups so this is the process for 2030 that we are recommending this is a little different from what we had done in the past the intent for today's presentation was to give you an overview of the timeline and the process for census um let you know what we had done in the past and then uh get your comments on the recommendations that we have uh presented today so thank you so much for giving us time that brings me to the end of my presentation okay um so thank you appreciate that just generally how many citizens do we um uh get in in our country each year roughly is there a a rough number of citizenship that are granted each year um do we have a feel for that at all i mean um commissioner you meant citizenship or you're talking about the census counts i'm talking about citizenship i do not have an answer to that but i can find out well again my quote my guess my assumption was it was citizenship that would lead to census but maybe i'm i'm wrong on that so what what are we driving at with census citizenship and those who are here legally that aren't citizens as well that that they get included in the in the count as well so as of now the way census is done it is every resident in a united states that that includes everyone okay so and and that's that that effort is ongoing from an educational standpoint and um making sure that folks understand the importance of it and the reason you you brought up some points early on about um redistricting and all of that which of course is immersed in political stuff but that aside it talks about redistricting which means to me voting so that's what redistricting usually leads to why they redistrict you know to move the districts around so when you obtain citizen data data those who are citizens are part of that data and those who are residents but not citizens are also a part of that data that yes no um based on how census is done today yes it's a total count of all the residents in the united states but i understand what you're saying yeah i'm just trying to get a feel for like what what kind of issues that we've that we run into during the census taking um i don't think i'm the best person to answer those questions regarding how the census is done uh from our from um our participation in the census is limited to the luca review uh which is just reviewing the addresses in pinless county just for our jurisdiction so if we uh participate it's a voluntary thing but if we participate in the luca process and all that we'd be checking is that if whether we have all the residential addresses in pinless county are listed on that address so that we don't miss that all right i appreciate it i i'm not trying to get political about it i'm just trying to understand the encouragement and the incentive for all non-residents to participate to me that's a big gap about where we are like everybody in this room may be a citizen no problem filling out the forms and re you know doing all that you need to do but there's a group of folks who live here who may not even understand what this is for and what it means and therefore what what are they exposing themselves to so we're just trying to get a feel for that that commissioner i think you know for clarification we're trying to define what our role is in in the census so she mentioned how we've done in the past and in the past we created a countywide uh complete count committee um and so that group worked on consolidating municipalities we've kind of decentralized that now and there may be changes from and that'll be directed by the census on what they're wanting how they're collecting that but that's going to be directed by them we're trying to form our role and and doing that education based upon the direction provided by the census okay and that census will do by state by county by municipality yes so um as we get into 2027 we'll have more information from census as to how to proceed so that would include the information for luca as well as the public outreach so between now and then if something changes in the way the census is done then the public outreach information that we receive from census would reflect that okay okay and the complete count committee that we had in the past was also a recommendation it was a best practice recommended by the census back then and that could also change with any changes done to the process of the census from the census bureau the recommendations for best practices could also change understand thank you thank you sorry to ask some of those questions i'm just trying to understand it a little better commissioner flowers thank you mr chair um from our previous census then commissioner welch actually assigned me to the committee and i served on that committee and we met at saint p college epicenter and we talked a lot about what the questions you're asking um for individuals even who are citizens why are they not completing the sentences when they receive the uh notification in the mail and then when staff actually came down from dc and we're going door to door people wouldn't answer their doors well um some of the documents that were created that we use for advertising and communicating and whatnot it was really distressed this has no determination on your uh temporary assistance to needed family benefits because a lot of families have it in their mind that it could impede their ability to receive those benefits we had seniors who thought it was going to impede their social security of course we had persons who uh some were in transition with working visas and things like that they were not coming to the door and they were not answering um and so it was just we tried to find ways to communicate to those groups where we saw there was resistance to let them know the population count is what helps determine the amount of dollars you get from the federal government for these programs they don't and and so we what we just created you know explaining this is what helps your child if they're in public school you know just trying to connect the dots for those pieces but i enjoyed serving on that committee and hearing that i'm writing that down so yeah i enjoyed serving on that committee um and when we got together we did the work you know and then the the items that were created for marketing and communicating to the public i thought from that i don't know if you guys have any left over or whatever but um that maybe you could share and let them see or just email it but i thought it was a real good way of trying to express and explain that to people so that they would fill it out because we were sharing with them this is how much money we got at the last census this is how much money less we received because persons did not complete that and it's like we're the government we're here to help people get a little bit nervous yeah but i i did i enjoyed it i like i said i was appointed by then commissioner ken welsh to serve on that committee and i i thought it was a very good way to handle it we gave them a budget back then we gave them a budget a couple hundred thousand dollars a year back then um so that was another consideration as part of this year's budget if we go to a decentralized fashion i think we can still accomplish the same thing working with our cities we take on unincorporated let them pitch in we'll figure that out but then they can participate both actively and financially commissioner sheer well uh thank you chair i was just going to ask uh questions about financing for this what what does it cost us to participate and do we get reimbursed by the feds for the the work that they're supposed to be doing i'll answer the last part first let's just know they won't um they'll have material from from the census bureau so you can speak to that but if i recall and i was here you know back in 18 you were here but we we set aside a couple hundred thousand dollars a year in budget uh to assist that complete count but we kind of took it on centrally as the county um in in doing that this what we're proposing here is that we partner with our cities uh to be able to to do that and let them take on part of that burden um but we'll have to figure that out it doesn't prevent staff as we get into this from coming back to you in a future budget and say and asking for funding but we'll kind of see where where we're at at that point um you know and we you know this is certainly not the year to do that no and one more quick is there a you say census is there a census office around here that we're in contact with on a yes so there's a regional office in atlanta so that's who we coordinate with okay but they also do satellites when they actually start the census 2030 excuse me commissioner your microphone oh i'm sorry they um actually have staff that come into the community and they figure out where they're going to house themselves but they do have bodies uh boots on the ground once the census starts bring them here interesting go ahead thank you and we're sure it's the same yeah commissioner regarding a question about the materials like barry said census provides those materials like some basic general materials with language in it and to encourage uh to increase awareness about the senses in the process however to make it more specific to pinless county then we there is work involved from our end to do that to create materials which are more catering to our needs so in our case having 24 cities take on their own responsibilities or trying to get them to do that versus a county taking on the responsibility i'm not sure if that's we're going to get better turnout or or less turnout i mean but and you know i would think that you know it would be really you know a clear water uh saint petersburg up in ellis park you know and us not that not every city yeah not some of the beach you know beach towns are not going to have the wherewithal to be able to help participate very much but so we'll have to figure that piece out you know and we can talk about that as it if it rolls out we have time and for and first maybe you don't know the answer to this but for citizenship within the country is it six months plus one day is does that determine like where your citizen like people who live in up north and here is that like six is it over six months uh that establishes that do you mean citizenship or residency like residency residency so the way they see it is that between january and this is from the past as i said yeah this could completely change for the new census so the way they count people if they are like for example we have snowbirds we have people who come here and they leave they look at the residency for the maximum number of days which resident have been residents have you been staying in between january and april so that's how they take the council they don't count one person twice right right but residents you know well let's let's hope that they don't wait right commissioner scott yeah thank you uh mr chairman uh just the thought that should amendment three pass that might put some more burden on the county because there may be some smaller municipalities that may not be able to participate in the way they otherwise would have yeah so just to we should probably have that in the back of our mind just another unfunded mandate that's all there you go um any other questions okay thank you appreciate it thank you so much bye-bye all right agenda briefing time okay um you've got a veteran state proclamation and a national animal shelter appreciation week proclamation you have various reports going down item 13 is award of contract of five firms for unmanned aerial services you can variety of different types of things that they use that for item number 14 receipt and file uh 15 receipt and file from the both of them from the housing finance authority chair chair well sorry chair commissioner newiki thank you sorry going back to number eight for the ford pinellas notice of public hearing proposed amendments to the countywide plan there's just a summary of the amendments and i know we're not voting on the amendments i think it's just to move it forward for public hearing but can we get what the actual amendments are versus just a summary of them joe do you have anything more from ford pinellas on that so she'll she'll contact ford pinellas and try to get you what it is that they're proposing okay is that what you're looking for yeah because it just gives like a summary and doesn't you know give the actual okay verbiage of the amendments yeah they just have um it looks like they do about two months at a time november november meeting october meeting in november and december so it's just two months okay so i'll i'll we'll contact them and see what they have well i'm sure they have they have some notification they have some sense of what's coming yeah okay but thank you yep we'll do that go ahead um item 16 interlocal agreement with the sheriff's office for law enforcement services at st pete clairwater international airport and what this does is they've asked for one they never included the relief factor in so you know training time when an officer's on vacation you have you know you have more than one officer so they never included relief time and then they asked for one additional officer um and so it includes the relief factor that in essence the sheriff was eating and it includes one additional position item 17 is the first amendment to the design and construction services for cns engineers again this is for the re-scoping of the terminal at the um at the airport mr chairman just a quick ferry on that last item there for the sheriff is that coming out of the airport fund or our general fund airport so enterprise enterprise okay thank you okay item 18 first amendment with manhattan construction uh this is for the construction manager at risk again re-scoping it based upon the modifications to the terminal improvements item 19 sell a surplus land over between belcher and garland circle so we're trying to clean up some of our properties and get them off our books item 20 is a home depot contract so it's ongoing maintenance supplies that we use from home depot it's a piggyback contract hey chair on that one uh barry um you know didn't we just vote on like contract back in june for this chris good morning commissioners chris rose office of management and budget um commissioner to be honest i'm gonna have to look back and and see what we've got i did not come prepared for something in june so i will come back with it yeah because i think um it was like a 400 and some odd thousand dollar contract um for home depot a year and now we're increasing it to 625 000 a year um and it never went out for bid here you know i grant you know went out for bid in arizona but um you know i'd like to know why we're increasing it from 480 a year to 625 a year and we already have contracts i think with like granger and fast no and other suppliers um so is it you know since this didn't go out for bid did we shop local other lows or you know shop against our other contracts we already have for similar supplies so we'll we'll get you an answer i mean uh if they're increasing the contract amount um for services and it should be based upon the past expenditures upcoming projects but doing a piggyback contract saves our residents money 100 you know you can't you can't go get a local lows contract you got to go off of a national bid uh to get their pricing and so piggybacking that just makes it a more efficient way of doing that because it is a competitive bid so and you don't typically do those locally like that but we can we'll certainly look and and get you some answers to that yes scott thank you uh thank you mr chairman yeah i just want to point out that this contract is used on an as-needed basis with no obligation to spend the full amount or spend any in any in any of the year and you know and commissioners you guys have pointed this out before and so i've pushed staffed to not just increase it based because we can um even though it's not tied to budget not to your point that you're only using it if you have money and there's a need so it doesn't obligate us to anything but i've tried to really push them to make sure it's tight with our past expenditures and what we actually have upcoming to where we're not just arbitrarily increasing contracts to give us flexibility so we'll continue to look at that but chris will look and get you an answer on this one yes sir item 21 is an amendment one to federally funded community development block grant mitigation um oh this is for the joe's creek restoration item 22's um resolution dedicated portion of county-owned land as public right-of-way this is over on the old landfill item 23 is an amendment one and renewal one with the pinellas county technical rescue teams this is with the city clearwater and we provide funding and uh through dave hair and safety and emergency services item 24 is an agreement with martin marietta for whatever jeremy would call that thio guard magnesium hydroxide and equipment services so obviously for utilities item 25 is resolution updating the 2026 utilities policy manual so there are a variety of changes that are outlined within your packet item 26 is a termination of agreement with uh 3gis llc for fiber analysis services from bts and basically they they have this contract in they're recommending that we terminate it just because it's not necessary and with our tight budget they're eliminating that as one of their program reductions item 27 is a teffra hearing multi-family housing revenue bonds this is for a multi-family residential rental housing project on jr tower item 28 is a medicare advantage third party administrative services agreement with united health care for retirees and dependent benefit services under item number 29 this is a recommendation and a pre-suit demand that was made of the county i do have a confidential memo here this is a little bit different than something that you all would normally see so i'm hoping to get the opportunity to talk with each one of you for just a couple minutes about that case um as far as reports i'm not planning anybody any currently for next week but i do want to remind everybody we do have a meeting set for 1 p.m today uh it appears this meeting is going to conclude far in advance of that we cannot start the meeting scheduled for 1 p.m until 1 p.m because that is what it has been noticed for so just to make that clear i apologize we cannot start early so the fact that nobody else can be at the meeting except those of us who are here doesn't matter it does not matter because we are statutorily required to start the meeting here in the public forum go to the closed forum and then come back here to the public forum we have to do it at 1 p.m i apologize but there's there's no way around that i mean i i understand the rules are the rules it seems silly that all of us are the ones that are going to be there but uh anyway okay i agree i agree with you i mean if we were if we were actually going to give public input at a meeting i would get that but this is a shade meeting yes and and joe and we we figured that out last night because we had that separated and joe went out last night make sure we have lunch for you so you'll be sticking around so we can get but we were kind of scrambling because we had to disconnect there but uh um yeah you can't you can't start until then so we will have we'll just have all kinds of time to talk about any issues follow up things and just to give you all perspective um the shade meetings they're very highly driven by the statute we have to abide by it absolutely by the letter of the law the risk being that the transcript could become public prior to the conclusion of litigation that would expose the discussion and that's the whole point of the law if we don't comply with it 100 that's that's the downside so we're never going to advise that we do anything other than meet it the time i would argue that 99.9 percent has been covered and when we start the meeting is immaterial but that's that's not you know they didn't ask me my opinion the florida legislature does not well they certainly they're oftentimes wrong i will have a county administrator's report we have appointments to the tourist development council listed below appointments to the portable housing advisory committee and then county commission new business we have two items on there a handbook and the ldcs or whatever we call them automated license plate readers block cameras and we'll we'll circle back to that when we're finished with the public hearing portion of the various going through so um on your public hearings you've got a request from a zoning change from general commercial uh to single family residential um this is in palm harbor uh it was supported um 60 and no opposition appeared item 36 is a request for future uh land use map amendment from residential office uh to general commercial unincorporated clearwater um let me see which one i forget this one um again no one appeared in opposition no correspondence received unanimous uh recommendation from local planning agency item 37 this is a request from for a development agreement that limits the buildable area um from a maximum um improved surface ratio and requires conservation easement uh i guess that's on that same property yes okay oh this is for self-storage uh facility okay now i do remember it okay um then the la the next one is from residential low medium to residential uh office retail 3.2 acres and palm harbor um and the develop all this removes it from the coastal high hazard area and limits it to a certain portion of the property is that correct fine yes okay any questions on that i think michael's presenting that um the last one on the zoning is request for a zoning change from residential mobile home manufacturing to r4123 family residential oh and this is a companion to the other item okay this is the one that they talked to each of us apparently yeah i think so did you debrief yes everything else going on say it again it seems like you were the only one that was briefed not oh i was the only one briefed no sorry about that i guess i'm special i don't know why he i don't know why that is but well we have a presentation for anybody for the commission okay if you so desire it's pretty straight my assumption was that everybody else would have been too so anyway go ahead no i guess they didn't do you didn't do all you didn't do the commissioners did you no just a chair okay um and then the final one is amendment this is a budget realignment request you'll have a couple of these coming up here um and chris can go over those uh if you have any questions okay um back to um our part at the end of the meeting um and i know that we have a couple of specific items that we're gonna we're gonna talk about um and again just again this is my opinion and i'm not looking at any manual or handbook but um that this is a time also that people can just bring up topics that are on their mind it doesn't mean we're going to deal with it or we're going to vote on it or give consensus direction on anything but um commissioner latvall has something he just you know wants to get off his chest and wants to talk about and maybe get some that's okay too um i i don't want it to be so restrictive that we can't have you know open dialogue about anything if we're going to talk about something specifically that might want some direction and i think it's important that we do what we did which is put it on the agenda so folks know that we're going to have that conversation and we're going to give some consensus direction to take a vote at a commission meeting i mean that's kind of my thinking in general um but um i um i just i'm getting a couple of emails um regarding um um resident participation on tuesday um and i am going to um ask that people who come again they have first amendment rights for sure but that they be respectful um as they ask us to be respectful of of them it's a uh it's apparently from what i'm hearing is going to be some heated conversation about things that they may have no idea what they're talking about or they may be right on point on what they're talking about either way they have a right to come forward and talk to us about what's on their mind and they do it uh peacefully we have just to remind everybody out there we have three officers that are here at every meeting um and if the tone continues to escalate we'll have more people here um because every resident that comes here needs to feel right and safe and so i just just just starting to get a few little um quirks about something that is absolutely ridiculous to talk about and to to accelerate to a level of of anything other than general dialogue um and general dialogue is can be explicit opinions i'm not suggesting anything short of that um we that's what we're here for and you know yesterday i had the um privilege of meeting with one of the speakers at the last meeting um he was quite outspoken about constitutional rights um and um he came here and he spoke passionately and eloquently but respectfully and so i met with him we had a nice half hour 45 minute conversation and he has some requests that of me and or the sheriff and i said well we'll that's work in progress we'll see what how that goes but but my point being that he was here he was respectful and to me that's what this is all about an exchange of ideas and thoughts and so um anyway i'm not going to beat that one to death but uh please folks understand that the constitution is the constitution and it swings both ways it can't be selective um and so what we're here to do is to apply constitutional principles if you will to decisions that we make it's a basis of what we do here and our staff our attorney's office and our staff try to make sure that we're there um and on that particular case um at some point i would we're getting more questions i know i've had a few questions i'm assuming that when those questions get answered that they're copied to the rest of the commissioners because i think it's helpful to understand how we're all thinking and what questions we have um so i'm assuming that they're doing that and that if if we have additional questions and thoughts but at some point i just need to make sure that we're all aware of what options we have so i think that's going to be important too so we're having discussion we're having dialogue and all that but what does that mean so uh commissioner peters yes so this is a workshop and in a workshop we discuss the items on the agenda so can we have the discussion on the handbook so that and if christian latvall has something that he wants to discuss if we're voting on it i think the discussions should take place here and less discussions on on uh on the day of voting that's how we do everything else that's on the agenda i think the license plate readers we've probably done that to death we probably don't need to do that anymore but that would be up to this board um but uh i would like to have the conversation about what it is in the handbook i know he sent us a memo um but that's fine i think it's a great point i think it's a great point it's on there so i don't i don't know why we workshop this on tuesday since there's a workshop thanks yeah no problem uh commissioner latvalli yeah there wasn't anything i needed to bring forward um but i do want to add to say something that you mentioned um i don't think any citizen that comes here to petition their government uh has a constitutional duty to be respectful to us um you know the old adage sticks and stones may break our bones but words will never hurt us um you know i think as long as they're not using profanity or you know anything like that um you know they can say whatever they want to i mean we've had people uh literally tell us that we're going to go to hell before um so i mean that's part of the job that we signed up for um and you know people have attacked our families and uh verbally not physically um you know and so i think our citizens um you know shouldn't be censored at what they tell us uh if they don't like something that they did that we do that we vote on they have every right to tell us that um and so i don't think they should be censored in any way uh and so i support their a hundred percent i support their right their constitutional right to come and petition uh their government um and um and so i don't think we've ever censored anybody here no i know but i'm just saying like you know we don't need to preface it by telling them that they need to be respectful to us or anything like that you know it's just called it's just called human courtesy but i agree with you they have the right to they have the right to speak yeah i mean that's you know people in tallahassee used to do all sorts of crazy stuff um you know and respect and and we've had some we've had some interesting folks putting it mildly that come in and speak here um you know one day we should have open mic night and just invite whoever to to come talk to us and see you know have an entertaining time but i think that's what we have right open mic right but i mean it's it's part of government um so i'll just leave it leave it at no i appreciate your comment i clearly first amendment right gives them some latitude uh i'm just bringing a different you know perspective on how people uh might behave and you know you get more with honey than you do with vinegar i i found that the person that was here last time was extremely passionate and specific and he expressed everything he wanted to express in the way in the tone he wanted and i felt it was respectful and i i reached out to and he reached out and we decided to meet and it was it was really a good meeting i'm not saying anything on that so i won't mention the gentleman's name but there's a gentleman that lives in my district uh that has come a bunch of times before um and i heard you uh you had your door open one time and i heard you having a meeting with him um and i made sure to walk the other way um i mean you you you uh talk to have meetings with with anybody um so kudos to you on that well well whatever i just again i i appreciate your perspective on that and i totally agree with it people can come here and express how they how they want to express but um i guess i'm just appealing to their sense of uh of decency and humanity express so that we can understand what you're really looking for what you're looking to express and maybe uh we receive it even better than uh than otherwise uh we're each individuals yes we we do and have adopted decorum rules yeah um and so we do have some rules that we do adhere to um and there's nothing wrong with adhering to the rules um it doesn't stifle their constitutional you know their their constitutional rights or free speech or anything like that um but there are rules of decorum and what i would ask is and i liked when uh commissioner latvala had chaired the town hall instead of loud applause he did the sign language applause and i i think that's a great way to um still allow them to express their gratitude and emotion for the speakers without being disruptive and making the meeting go longer so um i think that would be a great strategy and recommendation for you to adopt but we do we do have rules of decorum and our officers know what they are and and uh and they're do a really good job so just and i think and i think for the most part our residents are are really pretty good when they come here so it's not like you know they're they're they're rude or anything else again these are just things that are being kicked up kicking around on on the internet and and you know what that means that i don't know what it means it could be everything you read on the internet yeah it's not it's not yeah that that's that's exactly right um okay let's go back to the issue of of talking about the items that we're on that you're asking to bring forward anything you want to add to those uh i mean no i mean i have nothing really to add i thought it was pretty straightforward it's one page um if there's someone has individual questions i'm happy to to answer them um but i mean i thought it was pretty straightforward there's no set policy for a elected commissioner to get something published on the agenda um and i don't think any of us have you know abused that privilege um and so i think that it should be clearly outlined how a commissioner could get something to be simply considered by this board to get it out ahead of time and again i think the the verbiage is considered right i mean the expectation of us taking a vote if it's the first time we see it is on the agenda versus like what we're doing today like we're talking at a workshop and we're trying to kind of answer some of those questions ahead of time so that when it comes to the meeting we can actually take a vote um yeah so i think the expectations that you might have this to keep that in mind too because you know obviously we're trying to make sure that you know yeah 100 and that's why you know i did it this way for transparency because this would allow us to discuss something in the workshop ahead of time because this would be on the agenda in our workshop so we would be able to discuss it so it's not going right into a vote in our meeting i think it's yeah i think it's great that we bring it on that agenda and it becomes part of our workshop so it makes total sense and then if the board doesn't want to move forward with it you know it's say hey there's not consensus to move this forward for a meeting and then boom it just dies if you will and it doesn't require staff to to do anything it says they may um if there's something like a scene and legal you know the county attorney could say hey this is illegal you know btw uh you know but there's no actual requirement for staff to do anything or any work and understanding because it's on the agenda doesn't mean we'll actually end up talking about it at the meeting because we might decide at the workshop nothing that we're interested in or correct yeah so so how is this different than when we're in a workshop and i've done it plenty before we say i want to hold a workshop on this subject i want to hold a workshop on this summit and this way it gives staff and the attorneys to do enough research and digging so i guess what i'm questioning is how is this different what is different you just want to be able to put something on the agenda that's noticed so it has to be noticed so they have at least enough time to notice it and then it's on our agenda for the workshop and then we vote on it and i what i guess i'm curious about is you want to throw something on the agenda and how is that different than me saying i want to discuss more in depth uh at our next workshop maybe uh how the businesses are going to get invited to do this cbdr i'm just using that as an example so how is that different than just saying in a workshop i want this at the next meeting to be discussed i mean that's kind of what we've done in the past and whatever we've requested to be on the meeting um as long as staff had enough time to look into it it was usually put on the next agenda so i'm not sure i'm understanding what the difference is yeah i think i really appreciate the attention to detail commissioner i think we maybe all have different ways of doing things for me i'm a visual owner i have adhd so when somebody says something you know it kind of i really need to look at it to process it to understand it research it um and not just on the fly having a conversation that's not how i operate best so i think it's a an opportunity for every elected commissioner to put something on a workshop to be discussed um and notice so we'd all have over almost two weeks ahead of time to hey that's a great idea you know incorporate let's expand on what you brought up in the meeting so it doesn't take away your ability to still do that but i don't operate best that way which there's nothing wrong with that you know you uh you know you do a great job at the way you operate and i operate a little bit differently um but it doesn't take away your ability to still do that this just gives people more time to read and look up and do their own so they're not blindsided so they're not broadsided so you know what's going on as long as you're not expecting staff to do any work on the issue before we have that discussion there's no requirement in there for staff to do anything that's the big difference because we don't want staff i don't want staff to to take these two items that are on the list and do research yeah until we say yep it's time to go do put it on the i agree if you want to change it to that i'm okay with that i interrupted you apologize so so and i appreciate your explanation and on the surface that sounds great what i want to hear from is from jewel and from barry to hear what their thoughts if they think it's as simple as what you and i are thinking or saying or not yeah it's our policy handbooks yeah i will offer up to the group i spoke with commissioner nowicki i guess maybe after the last meeting and just expressed what the chair has said that you know i don't want to have to see staff have to spend a lot of time working on something and then come to the group and find out you all don't want to advance it and i think that he's kind of recognized that in here and told me that was not the intent um i think this would clarify you know what what kind of is already your practice it's not specific in the policy or in your i forget what it's called the operating handbook i think um but i think if if as so long as there's time baked into the process for staff to take a look at the issue after you all as a collegial body decide you wish to move it forward um timing is going to vary depending on the issue some things we can research quickly others might take some time uh so i would ask you know from my perspective that you all maybe not have like a hard and fast timeline in here because some things we might be able to look at in a couple days and put it on the next agenda sometimes some things might take a month or so to review just depending on the the gravity of the issue and the complexity of it um so i guess those are the comments i would have to offer not not and that's what i was saying about um whatever commissioner put something on there the expectation is it will be only discussed by the commission and that staff has not at that point been given direction by this commission to do research on the topic we're just kind of going to have that conversation here i mean you can prepare yourself and and do whatever you need to do barry but yeah from my from my perspective i think we go ahead barry well i mean i've commissioner asked me what i think and so i'll tell you i think i think you're going to get into issues like with let's just take flock cameras you're going to put a resolution on we're not going to have time to look at where they are what they're doing what the policy research is on and you're going to have a push for a vote and we're not going to be able to advise you good or bad or indifferent because we're not going to have time to research it if you come and you bring in as you have done and say hey i'd like to talk about this and you talk about then the timeline to be able to have the information together you'd be in a better position to have better public policy i think rushing items and placing them on will put you in a position of having to take action so i would agree with it but if you agree with that i would i would make one modification to commissioner nowicki's proposed amendments to the handbook because we have deadlines for agendas that we require departments to hit for to go to the agenda coordinator it can't be a day before we're publishing agendas and getting numbering and everything like that so you know as much as i wouldn't like you to make a change to the handbook if you do i would i i just have one change that would align it with how our departments submit items for inclusion into the agenda so i think that's reasonable completely so you're talking a couple weeks ahead of time not just the week of right i mean yeah i mean we we hit numbering and once they number then we have to go back and republish etc and stuff so there's a whole process that goes through we have an executive leadership team where we go through all the agenda items prior to d and joe finalizing the agenda making amendments to a wording that's on the agenda and things like this we have deadlines so it's the same concept it's just a different timeline um so dependent upon what you decide on tuesday with this yeah yeah commissioner thank you chair yeah i mean i'm happy to you know make that subtle change but i think the whole point is that staff's not going to be reviewing it and spending the hours like researching and doing stuff until there's forward direction so i guess i would just be a little confused on why that time i don't think there's anything to be confused about i think it's it's just that's natural reaction that when we talk about something to start looking into it that's what they do it's what they do for us so we're telling them just because it's on there don't do research until we give you the green light that that it's it's something that we want to know more about and we'll bring it to a future meeting and we'll talk about that at the meeting that's what i'm talking about you know we'll bring it up at the meeting and say i think it's a great idea event let staff take a look at it and we'll bring it back when they're ready yeah i just don't want any staff to do any additional unneeded work before the board gave you know that clear direction so it's really important because again we're sending people off to do work needs to be this at least four of us that feel that way and so i just fear i guess that if it's you know executive team review and other people that that creates that undue burden of staff work but if that's the will of the board i'm happy to oblige with that so i i didn't interpret that as a burden i interpreted that just make sure i interpret it right that there's a process so that when you're doing the numbering and setting it all up you've got everything that's going to be on the agenda so you're not going back changing it renumbering right so is that what i was getting at is it right so it's not like they're doing extra work they would have to do extra work if we didn't adhere to their timeline is that correct that if we didn't adhere to this timeline then we'd be giving them extra work well i think it's immaterial we just like it in advance along with this timeline to be able to publish the agenda okay well that's kind of what i just said that's sort of yeah okay but but i would also add that as you pointed out we all do things differently and that does not preclude commissioner scott for instance coming forward and saying the way we've always done it not the way you're choosing to amend that i want to talk about this next meeting i wanted to talk about it on tuesday and maybe a little bit more detail and and then decide whether we want to give staff some direction that doesn't have to be in writing on the agenda to be able to be brought up yeah so that's just the way that you're choosing to do it because it shouldn't preclude us from doing any way we want to do it it says that on there that it can still be brought up yeah in a meeting i i didn't read recently your your your your pinned text so um yeah no and it wasn't he didn't bring it up i just said i used him as an example commissioner scott did you have it um yeah uh thank you mr chairman so to your point we all you know we all do things differently um in the four years that i've been here i think the process we have now works fine yeah i don't i don't from my perspective if something's broken you fix it i don't think what we have is broken that's just my personal opinion i think what we have now respects all the commissioners and anytime i've wanted to get something on the agenda i bring it up we talk about it we get consensus and we put it on the agenda so i think i think it works just fine for for the way that i operate it works fine for me and i think the the uh again i'm not going to put words in uh commissioner wickie's mouth he can certainly speak for himself but i think in some ways that it's his way of doing it but it's also a way to let residents know what we might be talking about not that that restricts us from from doing however we bring it up i mean it's just a heads up you know i had a lot of residents ask me to talk about this issue and i'm just what's on there to be talked about um that's all i think what's that you had lots of residents ask you to talk about this issue amendment to the handbook no no not not this one no i i i i'm going to try to keep myself awake long enough during the conversation so i don't think residents are good point good point but i'm talking about any other okay i was about to say exciting topic that you might bring forward um that's uh that might tweak the interest of residents um so anyway uh any other conversation about that and do we have four of us that don't mind uh bringing that forward for discussion on tuesday you're okay with it yeah i'm okay with it you're okay with it that's three of us we need one more person to be okay with it okay all right so we'll have a general discussion and nothing to do with we already got your input even though it wasn't asked for yet but thank you for taking a look at it it was asked for it was asked for here like that i want to hear what our residents say about the handbook yeah i'm excited about that feedback i mean i know dave over there is going to be reading the handbook this weekend and he'll come he'll come loaded for bear yeah the the issue of the timeline that's the piece that i wanted just and i know i didn't think there'd be opposition to that i mean um is to hit the timeline obviously my other my other comments were related to the process itself but if you're going to do it i would ask and we meet the timeline yeah okay anything else um on that any other topics that we want to you know chat about and keep staff sitting over here waiting on us to be finished um i don't like this waiting two hours i know we'll complain you know to the county attorney all right uh this this meeting is adjourned um and we'll reconvene the meeting at one o'clock and then go to a shade meeting okay thank you um we're going to get started back uh with our shade meeting um but before i do i didn't want to like forgot to to uh thank um our deputies um corporal clyde thornton deputy mike winnick and deputy tom manley for what they do every day to protect us here but to also protect the residents of pinellas county so thank you gentlemen for for being here and for doing that as usual i'll turn this part of the meeting uh over to our county attorney thank you mr chairman i have an announcement to make today about specific matters arising in and from the case of african people's education and defense fund inc versus pinellas county this case is in the united states district court for the middle district it is case number 823 cv 2395 tpbaas as stated last week in an open meeting of the county commission i desire advice concerning this litigation and i'm asking for a settlement negotiation or strategy session related to litigation expenditures to be held in private since this matter is strictly regulated by state law as set forth in section 286.011 subsection 8 florida statutes the entire session will be recorded by a certified court reporter whose notes shall be fully transcribed and filed with the clerk of board records this transcript will be made part of the public record upon the conclusion of litigation this meeting has been duly noticed for today thursday october 22nd 2026 at 1pm at this time i will turn it over to the chair to announce the commencement and estimated length of the attorney client session and the names of the persons attending at the conclusion of this session the public meeting here will be reopened any necessary public business as a result of the private meeting will be handled and the chair will announce the termination of the attorney client session mr chair i turn it over to you thank you in accordance with the county attorney's request for a closed attorney client session to discuss the currently pending litigation involving african americans education and defense fund as just described the the board will enter a closed session to discuss settlement negotiations and strategy relating to litigation expenditures the persons attending the closed client session will be myself chair dave eggers vice chair chris latvala commissioners renee flowers brian scott vince nowicki kathleen peters and chris shear county attorney jewel white chief assistant county attorney don kroll managing assistant county attorney christie donovan pemberton senior assistant county attorney jared kahn county administrator barry burton your outside counsel ann flanagan and daniel abbott and court reporter andrew mays of the executive reporting service this session is commencing in this public open meeting and is estimated to last one hour the entirety of the closed session will be transcribed by a certified court reporter that transcript will remain exempt from public records until the conclusion of the litigation at the conclusion of this closed session the public meeting will be reopened any necessary public business as a result of the private meeting will be handled and i will announce the termination of the attorney client session the public meeting at this point is now in recess and the private meeting will commence in studio b thank you