Board of County Commissioners 2 p.m. Regular Meeting & 6 p.m. Public Hearing 4-21-26 — Transcript

Let's take a step down. St. It's time. Heat. Heat. N. together. Stick Heat. Heat. N. St. N. It's good to have uh so many folks here today and staff all also welcome to you guys. Uh not that you had any place else to be but good to have you here. Um today we have a number of presentations and awards. Um Commissioner Peters will lead us in the uh an invocation. Uh Commissioner um Scott will do the pledge. And before we start that, I just need a motion and a second to allow Commissioner Flowers and Commissioner Shear to attend virtually. >> Second. >> Got a motion. Second. >> Did you get that? >> Um, all in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries unanimously. So, they'll they're up there. They are. They've both checked in. Welcome. I'm really impressed, uh, Commissioner Shear, that you've joined us today from across the pond. Um, and so good to have you here. And so, Commissioner Peters, if you can lead us in the invocation, that would be wonderful. >> Okay. Well, we'll just uh stand and get some exercise. >> Find it. >> I did. >> Okay. Heavenly Father support and good for all citizens. May we put the interest of others above our own. May we act with love for the common good. And may we be good neighbors recognizing your image in every person here. Amen. >> Amen. >> 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. This afternoon, we have a couple of uh proclamations to extend and then a presentation uh from Tampa International Airport. So, we'll start with Neighborly Senior Care, the 60th anniversary. Excited to have them in the room. So, if David Lamaka, the executive director, could come on up. Jeremy Bailey here, come on up. Brooke Miranda. Brooke, come on up. Jenny White and Anita Siller, tell me how I misspelled mispronounced that one. >> Siler. Excuse me, Anita. So, I got everybody. You do. Okay, great. Thank you for being here tonight. And as we know, neighborly services touches all of our lives in many, many different ways. Um, I'm going to uh go over a proclamation here. Give you a moment to say a few words and um and then we'll take some pictures with the commission. Um, Naval Senior Care Network was founded in 1966 with a mission to impro improve health, wellness, and independent living for individuals and families in Penllis County. And for 60 years, Neighborly has served as a champion for seniors, dedicated to improving the lives of older adults in need of home and community-based services. And if anybody's ever had a chance to use them for one of their loved ones, you know how important they are. Neighborly provides essential programs including meals on wheels, adult day pro, daycare programs, senior dining, transportation services, enabling older adults to age with dignity, safety, and connection in their homes and communities. And over the past six decades, Neighborly has delivered 36 million meals. So, I kind of did some math and if I didn't mess this up, it was that's 6 million in a decade. Per decade. 600,000 per year and over 1,500 a week to people in our community. Unbelievable. Over the past six decades, they've done that. They've also done they provided 11.7 million transportation trips. They've served 11.8 8 million adult daycare hours and mobilized one and a half volunteer hours in support of Penllis County seniors. And this is volunteer month, by the way. We're going to have some folks to recognize here in a little bit, but volunteers are the key for your organization, as they are for many. Neighborly's enduring commitment has strengthened families, reduced isolation, improved health outcomes, and preserved independence for generations of older residents. April 2026 marks Neighborly Senior Care Network's 60th anniversary, celebrating a legacy of service and community impact throughout Penllis County and is commended is commended doesn't seem enough, but it really is commended for the six decades of extraordinary service to all seniors. And now therefore, be it proclaimed by the Penllis County Board of County Commissioners that April 2026 be recognized as Neighborly Senior Care Network's 60th anniversary. I want to thank you for the continued and unwavering service to our residents, to the seniors in Penelis County. Thank you. So just it is 60 years and it's been a wonderful 60 years. I've not been here for all of them. Um none of us have. But um we are grateful that we are now a senior provider. We are seniors ourselves. Our organization uh we are a big part. We serve all of Penllis County from from from Tarpon Springs all the way to South St. Pete and everywhere in everywhere in the middle. And we had over a thousand volunteers during a year uh work with us. uh we could never deliver the number of meals that we've done. Uh we've had a great relationship with the county and the county commissioners. Uh we look forward to doing more years of that. Um I have two board members um uh that joined us today. Uh Jeremy Bailey that's with us and Brooke Miranda. Two of our board members who are again also part of that volunteer team that make sure we get done what we need to. Um, and I have two, uh, a chief financial officer who's been with us for the longest period of time, Jenny White, and Anita Frankhouser, um, who has runs our nutrition programs and runs the one, we have a line item with the county for, uh, home delivered meals that we're able to provide every year. Uh, so we look forward to future work with the county. Uh, thank you for recognizing us, Commissioner. Uh, we appreciate it. Okay. One of the many amazing groups in our county. So, thank you. Thank you all. Um, now we're going to talk about National Volunteer Week. We just talked about a few right there. We're going to recognize a few from a few different organizations, but I'd like to invite a few people up here. Uh, Ireina Carowillac is manager of employee services and Penelis County volunteer services. Michael Pizzy, Penelis County Parks volunteer coordinator to join me up here along with some volunteers that may be here today. Lorraine Lorraine Wart, Steve and Margaret Santangelo, Roxanne and David Brussus, Bill Daughterer, Ray Pointer, Marjgerie Tenture, and Michael Drake. I hope I didn't mess people's names up, but I may have. anybody that I what a good looking group and thank you personally. I didn't hear that part. >> You're a politician. >> That was a good one, too. Uh but thank you for for all that you guys do. U you heard the last group and we couldn't do it without the volunteers. We can't do it without you guys either. So, I'm going to read a few things here. Um during uh National Volunteer Week, we celebrate the spirit of compassion and generos generosity that drives us to care for others. Volunteering one's time and talent and resources has been an integral part of our American heritage since the early days of our nation and is essential that we continue this tradition of giving and sharing to preserve and improve the quality of life for all citizens in our communities. Volunteers affect real change in our neighborhoods, community, and county by investing their time, energy, skills, and developing innovative approaches to address many of the concerns and needs of our community. Individuals and communities are at the center of social change, discovering their power to make a difference. It is increasingly more evident that our nation's greatest resource is its people. 699 volunteers contributed a total of 60,000 hours during 2025 with Penllis County Board of County Commissioners departments, saving taxpayers more than $2.1 million. The county commission, all my colleagues appreciate its volunteers and encourages citizens to become involved in their communities, neighborhoods, and local government. Um, I know another group I visited, a feast organization, a home food pantry up in Palm Harbor, and met three or four of them, and they all said they had at least five years of experience at that location. I thought, "Oh my gosh, that's a lot." And the more people I talked to, there was some with 15 years of of giving, some with 20 and 25. It's their passion and what they give of their time. They couldn't do it without them. So, again, thank you all for for what you do. So, let's give them all a hand, please. to say a few words. >> I just wanted to thank our volunteers who uh give endlessly hours. Uh we have somebody who's been here for over six thou 6,000 hours just herself. Um we have volunteers who've been here for 20 30 years. And then also I want to thank our site coordinators who keep uh their departments running and making sure that our volunteers experience is uh meaningful and impactful. I also would like to thank Krice Harmon from uh human resources who keeps um supporting our site coordinators and our volunteers. Um so I think we're going to take a photo. Does anybody want to say anything? >> They do the work. Anybody want to speak for the other volunteers? Take some pictures. He helps Okay. where two or more volunteers are gathered together, you have chatting and talking. So, that's good. I love that. Um, we're here today also now to hear from our Tampa International Airport, which obviously is one of the most amazing airports in the world and obviously one of our most incredible regional assets. I say regional on purpose because you really do represent not only the three major major counties, but beyond there, taking us to places all over the world. and your operation is impeccable. I know you're you've carried the banner from previous director, but it's good great to have you today. So, Michael Stevens, CEO of the airport, come on up. He's going to do a presentation for us and then when you're finished, we'll see if the commissioners have any questions and then we'll take to be here. >> Well, good afternoon everyone. uh to uh chairman Edgars, to the esteemed members of the commission, to uh esteemed uh county manager as well as uh county council. Good afternoon. My name is Michael Stevens. I have the honor and privilege of being uh the CEO of America's favorite airport, your airport, Tampa International. And I'm delighted to be here uh with you all today to give you an update on some of the things that are happening in your airport. And I'm intentional when I say it's your airport because while I uh and my fantastic team run it day in and day out, we do it for you all. It is indeed your airport. And some of the updates and improvements that you're going to see today that we're super excited to talk about is to continue to deliver worldclass uh service to you all. So what I'm going to share a little bit uh with you all today is how the airport is progressing primarily specifically with one of our marquee programs and that is airside D and I'll jump into a little bit uh more about that here. So as you all may know if you follow how many folks in here follow our social media account? Few hands, right? So if you've been listening to Phoebe you know it's >> we love Phoebe. >> Thank you so much commissioner. So, if you've been listening to Phoebe like the commissioner, hopefully many other folks in here, you know, we just celebrated our 55th uh anniversary at TPA and we are super excited to have been delivering stellar uh service both in terms of connectivity as well as a passenger experience over those 55 years and are going to continue to build on uh to that legacy. So, let's jump into it a little bit. Penllis County, as you know, is almost uh a quarter of the total TPA traffic. This year, we saw almost 25 uh million passengers traveling through the airport. And this past spring break uh has been one of our most incredible years. We had a projected traffic count of about 3.2 million passengers. 3.2 million passengers during the spring bake period, which is our busiest travel season. that goes about March 5th to April 13th. And I'm proud to say we had an incredibly smooth spring break, not withstanding some of the things that we've been seeing in the national news with uh TSA and our TSA partners uh during the partial government shutdown. They have continued to perform extraordinarily well for this community and showed up to the point where in a lot of communities we saw that wait times were almost 6 hours in certain places like Houston. The longest wait time at your airport was approximately 22 minutes even during our peak period of time. So we could not have done that without our TSA partners as well as this community really stepping up. Everything from Feeding Tampa Bay, United Way, Sun Coast, and other community partners who have been there to assist us and our employees to deliver extraordinary service. So now I want to talk to you about a couple of other things and this is really the big one that I want to jump into and it's airside D. This is an incredible program. This is our first new airside in over 20 years. And to give you a order of magnitude, this airside is going to have two brand new lounges. It's going to have a Delta lounge. It's going to have an international common use lounge. It's going to have brand new uh food and beverage options. It is going to be state-of-the-art with a customs facility. A lot of biometrics, things like that to really reduce the friction points in travel. Travel is already, as we know, can be a stressful event. And so, we're going to be working uh with this facility to reduce those friction points. To give you a rough order of magnitude and scope, this thing is going to be big. It's going to be big and it's going to be beautiful. For those of you who've flown out of Airside C, where Southwest primarily operates out of that's our our newest terminal that was done roughly 20 years ago, this is going to be double the size. So, 600,000 square feet in volume for this terminal. But I'm going to shut up talking about it and give you a little bit of a narrated view of what this thing is going to actually look like. So, I got a little video that I want to share. Maybe got one more click. So, this is coming into beautiful Tampa Bay. Imagine coming over all the beautiful things that Penllis County has to offer. And you see what makes this region so special. This is the sense and feel that we want people coming in to this international terminal and coming into the Tampa Bay region to experience. When you get to Tampa International Airport, everyone is used to a very smooth, easy experience from garage to gate. Airside D is going to take that to a whole different level. So, right now we're in the uh stages where we are about to go vertical. uh the elevator cores and things like that are already coming out of the ground and uh we are making extraordinary progress. So when you start to look at the volume and scope, you'll see that that's there to accommodate an experience that is unlike what you're experiencing now. You'll see some of the the new innovations, including glass jet bridges, so people can kind of see what the environment looks like. If you come through our customs facility, you'll see how it's going to be floor to to ceiling glass so you can really see the beauty of Tampa Bay. This is just showing you coming up the brand new express curves that hopefully many of you have used here that quickly gets you out to the airside D uh shuttles where you're now you're going out to on the air side. And here's where the magic starts to happen. You see a decompressed stress reduced wood area. You see these beautiful giant screens here up at the top. Those are going to be a key feature. And when you're at surface level, so you can see manity reach up into the ceiling. So anything that we want to display the beauty of this region, we have special events. If there's something going on over at Venus beaches and we need to activate that in conjunction with our CBB partners, we can do that. You can see the customs uh facility, excuse me, the lounge facility that is looking out over the whole. Another feature that you will see here saw very quickly, as I said, these glass jet bridges. So, you just really see out a lot of light, then you go right to a customer's facility. If you're coming in international, it's going to be state-ofthe-art biometrics, everything to ease the passenger experience. That way you can just grab your bag and continue. Baggage architecture is going to be one of those things that if you really need to recheck your bag, you can recheck it before you even go up the escalator to catch another flight if you're happen to be transferring uh within the country. So, this is going to be state-of-the-art new food and beverages that will be pushed out into the hold areas. That way, you don't have to do that look around to see if your plane is starting to board or any of that type of stuff. you'll be able to just uh enjoy your glass of wine or whatever and just watch from right there. And that's the night views as you see fade out. So, we're extraordinarily excited about uh what we have in the works uh for this community. We hope that this will illustrate to you how much Airside D is going to impact this region uh and that that growth is going to be linked directly to what happens over here in Penllis County. As I said, we have people that come from all over the world as we've been increasing our international flights to connect to our worldass beaches, to all the things that we have going on here in Penllis County. Not to mention, we have 10,000 workers that come to our campus each and every day. Many of them, thousands of them out of that 10,000 cross the bridge every day to get to Tampa International. So, we're excited to make this an extraordinarily uh functional facility along with a lot of the other things that we're doing at your airport to make it a better travel experience for your residents as well as for your businesses. So, with that, chairman, that concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions that you all have. >> Well, again, uh thank you for being here. That was great. It was wonderful seeing the the new airside that's coming. Um questions from the commissioners. Anybody? Yes. Oh. >> Well, first of all, congratulations on your marketing person. And if any of you are not following their marketing team, oh, you definitely have to follow their marketing team. I think it's the best I've ever seen ever. Um, and it's amazing and the humor is fabulous and I think you really change people's lives every day. Whoever your marketing person is is genius. Um but you know last time we had a tri county meeting at the airport um Joe was still there and he talked about the helports and different ways on which we were going to do transportation. Um are we not ready to have that conversation yet or or is that is that in the future still or not? >> That that's a great question commissioner. We are very much uh ready to start uh having some of those developed conversations. As you know, we're having a conversation right now around uh regional NPO, which is going to be instrumental to uh a lot of our regional connectivity efforts. Uh Tampa International has always leaned in heavily on uh how we connect this region more effectively. I have a long background in uh surface transportation as well as uh air transportation including starting my career as an air traffic controller. So connectivity is very important. To answer your question even more succinctly, we are looking at being the epicenter of EV tall, which essentially, for all of those who don't know, is flying cars. These things are coming uh very quickly. And what we are looking to do is potentially recreate the first commercial flight that happened from St. Petersburg with Tony Janice over to Tampa, but this time using EV Talk. So, we're very excited about that. And then last but not least, as I talked about, we have a volume of people that come across all of our bridges from Penllis to Hillsboro and back and forth. We have to lean into how do we connect this region on a number of modalities. That is something in uh my role that I'm leaning into uh very heavily right now. >> Okay. So, since you want to be the first one and we're going to go from Hillsboro to or Tampa to St. Pete, uh I know St. Pete is looking at the receiving end. Are we working with the county or any other entities for the rece where they're going to land, where they're going to come into? >> Some of that work is happening right now. We meet with the uh folks at FDOT. So, just to kind of take it up uh to the macro level right now FAA has just uh essentially said that about six states are going to be at the forefront of developing this technology, how it works, roots, all those types of things. out of those six or so states, Florida is going to be at the epicenter of of that, if not at the tip of the spear. And as it relates to Florida, I believe this I4 corridor between Orlando and Tampa is where a lot of the leadership and magic is going to happen. So, we have been talking extensively right here in this region about how to connect some of our uh airports, for example, Peter O'Ne that's on Davis Island to Albert Whitt, right? That is a great uh great opportunity for us. It's a straight line of sight uh type of point of departure. There's lots of volume. So that's probably going to be one of our first connective points uh here in the region and we are absolutely talking about >> so that's going to go from Tampa airport to Davis Island to >> more than likely that EV tall demo when we start right now we've been mapping it coming from Peter Knight which is one of our general aviation airports to Albert Whitt eventually we will have more multi-modal facilities that have EV tall for example we are looking at and talking to FDOT about the possibility of that westshore place where the double tree used to be and having a multimotal facility there that will have EV tall incorporated into it as well. >> Okay, that's exciting. Thank you. Appreciate. >> Exciting times. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. This is Commissioner Flowers. I had my hand up. >> I was just calling on you. Uh, Commissioner, go ahead. So, the the guys here for my car from the tow truck people, so I'm not going to be able to um ask my questions, but um just want to say really quickly, thank you so much for your presentation on today. Um I had a chance to briefly meet you. Um I was introduced to you by Bitra uh when there was a community conversation over the airport. Um but um I would love to have my aid, give your office a call, um just so maybe I can come over um you know, tour the airport. I'm a Southwest girl, so I always fly Southwest. I think all the pilots know me now. Um and I love coming over there flying out of Southwest, but I'd love to be able to do that um with you in the future only because I got a flat tire and the guy's here to see about my vehicle and I'm going to have to run. But thank you so much. This was a wonderful um presentation. And Commissioner Peters, like you, I've received all of their social media. I especially like the one just recently where they said, "Ask us a question, any question, and we'll try to answer it." So, that's grave to be able to put that out there. But, thank you so much, Commissioner. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> You're welcome. Um, Commissioner Edgars, I'm just going to turn my camera off. I'm coming back. I just got to uh, you know, do whatever I need to do with this man so he can fix my tire. >> Okay. Thank you, Commissioner Flowers, for those uh very kind words. At any time you or any other members of the commission would like a tour, we'd be happy to make that happen for you all. >> Commissioner Scott, >> thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Michael. Good to see you again. Thank you so much for being here today. And I agree with you. TPA is the best airport in the country if you if you ask me. Exciting to see the expansion plans with Airside that you guys have. And I would just like everybody to just reflect for a moment. If we didn't have TPA, if PI and we love PI, but if if St. Pete Clearwater International Airport was our international airport because at one point it was prior to 1970 that was all we had. So just think about the changes that happened in this region since TPA has come about. So that just gives you some perspective on the economic engine that TPA is. So I just leave everybody with that thought. So thank you very much for being here. >> Thank you, Commissioner Scott. We appreciate those. >> Anybody else? Again, thank you, Michael, for being here. Appreciate your uh your presentation. It was great. Uh it looks like Commissioner Shear, did you put your hand up? >> I did. >> Yeah, I have. >> Thank you. >> You have one. >> Uh yes. Uh Michael, I I just wanted to say uh you know, I love the plans. It looks beautiful. Believe it or not, I'm over here right now selling Tampa Bay Sunshine, St. Pete, Clear Water, uh over in the UK. And we talk so highly of the airport and how smooth it is and how easy it is to get here uh get get there from here which is strange to say but yeah and uh so um yeah it's just awesome and the people here uh have heard about it and the reputation of the airport is phenomenal even over here in the UK. So thank you for that. I did have a question for you. Uh I I have heard a rumor but I'm not sure if this is true. Is this the last expansion for the uh for the air size? Is this it this are we is this all you have this the last one? >> Uh well first of all thank you commissioner Sher for those uh kind remarks. Keep uh singing the praises of this region over there in your airport. So we appreciate that always. Um as far as your last question is this the last expansion of the airport? Not necessarily. what we believe that airside D will get us to where we are now roughly 25 26 million passengers to nearly 37 million passengers. So we're going to experience a growth of about 10 million more passengers over the next 10 years and we believe that this will help accommodate our growth after that. We do have the capacity to build out further if we need to but uh that will at least get us down range pretty far. >> Oh, thank you. Is that it? >> That is it. >> Okay. Commissioner Valor, please. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um 70 is an important number today and uh it'll be part of my new business. U but there are a couple of us uh that uh we're not here in 1970. Um and so I've only known of TIA um and PI. Um, but I will say that um it is a stellar airport and um I have flown it flown into it and out of it since the 1980s and just seeing the transformation uh in recent years has been remarkable. and uh seeing the number of our residents that use it. Um you know, to uh Commissioner Scott's point, uh if y'all weren't here, um I'm not sure what we would do. So, thank you very much for for everything that uh TIA provides for our residents >> and really our region. >> Thank you for those kind words, Commissioner. We we really appreciate it. And as I said, it's a absolute team effort. It's not just the, you know, the 700 PL plus HCA employees and the 10,000 that work on the campus. It's you all. It is your citizens. It is uh all of the folks that really make it such a spectacular place. Uh it it is really one of those things that it is an honor to kind of get that feedback from the community and try to figure out how to incrementally make it better. So, we appreciate that. And as I said, at any time if any of you all want to have a up close and personal behind the-scenes tour, we'll be happy to accommodate that. So, thank you again. >> Any uh any new non-stop flights to Europe on the horizon? >> You know what? State secret there, chair. No, I'm joking. >> Uh we are we are really working hard. In fact, we have a trip that's going to be over in Dublin uh coming up here next month. And uh so we are looking at a lot of different uh locations, not only in Europe, but also Latin America, as many of you know. We uh just uh announced service to Costa Rica. Uh we now have jet service coming up to Nassau, Bahamas as well. So we have a lot of great new opportunities. Now, uh I know many of you have talked about Paris and other places. So, you're preaching to the preacher on that. So, we're going to try to make that happen if we can, but uh we are aggressive on our air service uh to to get us flights and connectivity. >> Okay. One one last question. >> I'll take your time. >> Oh, thank you, Chairman. Since you brought up, you know, direct flights to Italy. Um you know, I would be in favor of that. If that's a motion, I would second it. Um but, um doesn't CVB can we sponsor like new routes um like help offset the cost to airlines for new routes? So we work with our CVBS as you all know uh particularly over here as well as throughout the region for marketing uh new flight opportunities. So what Commissioner Sher is doing for example over in London anytime we have folks out here singing the praises of this Tampa Bay region and what we have to offer that helps us go and tell the story. So, not too long ago, last uh June, we were over in Hong Kong for this conference called World Roots, which is like speed dating for airlines and airports. And the more that people know about this region, whether it's with uh CVB, marketing, activations, any of those types of things, it helps us tell the story. Um, and that has always been a great partnership that we've had uh with Visit St. Pete, Clearwater, the the whole team is amazing. >> Yeah, I mean, the airport is is phenomenal. I think one time I tracked like 17 minutes from parking to getting through security to my gate all in all in checking a bag all in 17 minutes. So, it's definitely impressive. And then one last quick thing, um, with all the work you're doing, I would assume you guys have like a master development plan. >> We do. Okay. >> So, we have a master plan that goes out, it generally is long range, so it goes out 20 plus years. So, when I talk about what we're going to look like uh in the next 10 years, the master plan is already out ahead of that. Uh and that's how we've been really successful staying ahead of the power curve in and long range planning. Um so it's been uh again it's been one of those team efforts. The data we get back from CVBS, the data we get back from the EDC's, all those things help drive those decisions. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> And go ahead, chairman. >> Go ahead, Michael. >> Uh no, no. I I was just uh >> Okay. We're just going to before you get off there, we're going to come up and take a picture with you and then we'll let you go. >> Absolutely. I just wanted to uh just point out I think that was Commissioner Flowers. You were asking about social media, right? >> At at one point you were talking about >> Peters. I'm sorry. Um Commissioner Peters. So I got to give a shout out to the person that's responsible and she's standing or sitting right back there, Veronica uh Centron. She heads our marketing, communications, and strategy function. And her team is responsible for our social media output. And we have a lot of fun with it. I think we have now probably close to 700,000 people on our different platforms and even though it's a lot of fun, it helps us get the message out. So Phoebe is her responsibility. So anything you got to say, it's >> all right. Let's go on. >> Great job. Veronica, come on up and join us for the picture. Okay. And before we get to uh citizen input, I I wanted to make sure that we uh thanked Corporal Clyde Thornton, Deputy Mike Winnick, and Deputy Kevin Mcweeny uh for being here today and taking care of us. I appreciate that um every single time you're here. So, thank you. Um okay, we just have a couple of uh folks to be heard from today. David Ballard Gettis Jr., please. Hi, good afternoon, commissioners. David Ballard Gettis Jr. I live on Georgia Avenue in Palm Harbor. With all the deliberate mismanagement of the water supply, never in the history of the world has a civilization abused its water resource so completely, so absurdly, so foolishly as we have done to ourselves under the misguidance in our government. Today we are facing a modified stage three water crisis as self-evident. I ask, did anybody foresee us as being in such a lifethreatening predicament as based on the 14th amendment? Or is our predicated predicament a preostured purposeful legislative objective? Instead of protecting and conserving our water supply, instead of deploying a waterless incinerating toilet program as referenced in statute 381.0065, which would reduce toilet byproducts from entering our water supply, which would reduce overall water consumption. Legislation intends to capitalize on the water and use reclaimed water as a portable water supply. Quantifying it, adding reclaimed water directly into the portable water supply coupled with the simultaneous injection of reclaimed water directly into the groundwater supply affecting destabilizing the integrity of our aquafer. What could possibly go wrong with the science of injecting treated reclaimed water, waste water into the groundwater supply or drinking reclaimed water for that fact? And even more so, has ever anybody ever questioned why Walt Disney chose the headwaters of the Everglades to build his carnival? Is Walt Disney coveting the viable water supply, the remaining water supply that we have remaining in this state underneath his carnival, prejuditially capturing the water to the heatarters to the Everglades, attempting to establish his powers in the state over that remaining water supply? Is legislation being directed by a bunch of carnese and gypsies and thieves? Is our government a carnival by day while secretly burning the place to the ground by night? Carnival always does have a way of making fun of our hindsight now, doesn't it? Thank you, >> John Fansteel. John, you'll have three minutes. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman and Commissioners. Actually, I'm talking about water, too, but from a slightly different angle. The question is regarding our drought. Are there simple, no cost solutions that could cut water use right now that are being overlooked? Here's one. First, give people a clear financial incentive to conserve real dollar savings they can see on every bill. How? cut the base rate for water in half. It's now 8,000 gallons per billing period. That's way more than two to three u households with two to three people need. There's no incentive at all, zero, to save water in u in Penelis County now with this kind of billing. And the same thing can be done for reclaimed water. The it's now 36,000 gallons. If you if you use less than that, you don't get anything. I cut my water off for almost two months in the winter time and still pay the same. There ought to be financial incentives for people conserving water. Second thing is all we have to do is show people easy ways, no cost ways to conserve water. This actually works. In New York City in 1965, just through these easy conservation meas measures, they save 230 million gallons of water a day. This is not is pretty substantial. It's a whole lot different than just not serving 8 ounces of water at a restaurant. But today, unfortunately, our agencies, if you go on their websites, they'll be talking about eco toilets and high efficiency uh washing machines and things like that. But most people aren't going to be putting them in. Renters certainly aren't going to be paying for that. There are things we can do right now immediately. I produced a number of short videos showing people how starting today at no cost they can start saving many hundreds of gallons per week uh individually. Um, I will send an email to you with links to those to see if you like them and if you want to forward them to uh if there's any managers that are actively caring about water conservation at um PLC or TBW or SwiftMUD, uh then perhaps they can introduce those or similar ones on their website. And there's a third step. It's probably the simplest and easiest, but I'll just put that I won't take up your time with it today. I'll put that in the email. something that can save masses of amounts of water. Again, no cost. Just no reason it wasn't done 20 years ago. So, uh, no cost changes with immediate impact. Thank you for your time listening to me and for your leadership. >> John, thank you for being here. Thanks for your suggestions. Appreciate it. We'll send them on to our utilities folks. Thank you, >> Katherine Sullivan. Good afternoon. Thank you. My name is Katherine Sullivan and I live on Shore Boulevard in Gulfport. And I think that we've all experienced difficulties with the permitting system over the past year and a half, not just recovering from storms, but for our everyday lives. So, I spent a lot of time researching a good practical solution and I found one. The solution is affordable. It works alongside our current permitting system without disruption and it can s significantly accelerate non-technical permit reviews. What I need is someone to talk to about it. If someone could contact me with the right person to talk to about this, my telephone number is 727-2622644. Again, 7272622644. Thank you very much for your time. >> Did you get that number? >> She got it. You got it. You got it. Okay. Thank you, Greg Pound. Greg Pound Largo, Florida with saving families 7@gmail.com. Do you know the number one thing destroying our country is what the Bible calls the sin of fornication. You look at BPR, it started as they came out of Egypt. And the only way they could destroy Israel because they were slaves for 400 years and they were strong, was to send the women in to seduce the men. And that brought the nation under judgment and was going to destroy the nation. So we're dealing with the exact same thing today. On the 18th, they had a rave concert in Tampa, and we go out there and we pass gospel tracks out and try to minister to young people. And I took pictures of girls when I in all the sports I was in in school, we had what is called a jock strap. And in wrestling, we had to wear a cup in order to keep our protect our groin area. And so if I walked in here with a jock strap on and covering up my private parts in the front, but you can see my whole butt. And I took pictures and I forgot the pictures when I left the house to come here to show you people what's going on. The same thing down at the beach. The girls I talked to said they were being paid. Someone's marketing team is paying these young girls to walk up and down the beach all day totally butt naked. And there's tons of families there, young people, children, their families. It's so immoral and indecent. And if we don't lift up some kind of moral standard, the number one thing destroying our families, destroying our children is sex outside of marriage. That's the number one thing from Genesis and Revelations. all the surface problems from drugs, alcohol, divorce, broken families, the fentanyl ain't the problem. Drugs aren't the problem for young people. If you take them and you keep them, you give them a vision of building their family, getting through school, getting educated, getting married, having a family instead of passing out condoms and and stuff so they can't get pregnant. We're destroying ourselves. We're destroying our very selves as a people and as a nation. And when you read this Bible from here from from this right here, these are the five books of the Bible called the Torah from Genesis to Deuteronomy. This is the law that God's given to us. And you see the law system we have. You can you can stack all our the laws we have in Florida in a football field. They would be five feet high and cover the whole football field. That's how many laws we have in the state of Florida. So what we're doing is we're creating a system that's not working. And what we have to do is we have to get back to the word of God. It's real simple. It's not complicated. If we don't get back to this Bible, start reading it. We have a moral problem in the country. It's a moral problem. If we don't get back teaching our children to abstain from physical relations until marriage, we're destroying ourselves and our families. And the men, God's going to judge the men. Look up, just look up all the places in Bure. The judgment is bringing on the men and the families. So, I mean, I I don't want to have to have someone come in here with a jock strap on. So, I'll bring my pictures next time and I'll show you and you look at this and you tell me if this if this is right. You tell me. Someone needs to do something. >> Okay. Um, we are going to move on to the consent agenda. Unless anybody has anything to pull. Can I get a motion for approval? >> Commissioner Peters made the motion. Commissioner Noiki on the second. All in favor say I. >> Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously. Okay. On to item 15, Barry. >> Item 15 is a resolution designating the county administrator as the design for the head of public entity for compliance. Uh this is uh to uh oversee our web and mobility access issues. >> Questions? Okay. Motion by Commissioner Scott, second by Commissioner Nikki. >> Anybody have questions? >> No, I do not. Okay. Uh uh let's uh bring up the uh the v the board, please. >> I'm a yes vote, please. >> Okay. Motion carries unanimously. All right. Moving on to item 16, which um I think is a um an exciting day um in Penllis County, an exciting day in Clearwater. Exciting day for all of us here. Uh first of all, I wanted to welcome John Middleton who is zooming in. Um he's a managing partner and principal owner of the Phillies. I assume he is still on with us. >> We need to read the title. >> What's that? >> We need to read. Yeah, I'm gonna give this to Barry, right? Go ahead, Barry. >> I get to do it. >> What? No, go ahead, Barry. So, the item 16 is a term sheet for the redevelopment improvements to Bayare Park Stadium facility inclusives of Bayare Ballpark, Philly's complex, and the Carpenters Complex. Um, as you're aware, the term sheet by itself has no fiscal impact. Uh the fi this term sheet is used at for the parties in drafting certain final definitive project agreements which will include the capital funding agreement, lease use agreement, non-relocation agreement and the construction funds trust agreement. The capital contribution would be 85 million and is to come from the tourism development fund. So that is our bed tax money. No and not any advorum property taxes. The marketing commitment by the Phillies to the um county's tourism agency would be 850,000 annually beginning in 2026 with a 3% escalator beginning in 2032. Um that is before you for your consideration. >> Approval. >> We have a motion by Commissioner Lala, second by Commissioner Nikki. You have a question. >> I just a few comments Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. So, um, you know, as I've stated, uh, before at our at our work session when we talked about this topic, it's a core principle, fundamental principle of mine that on items like this, taxpayer dollars should always be the last in. So, I'm not going to be supportive of this because of that, that I think this deal is just too lopsided. I think it's too much public contribution. It's basically 64% public funds, 36% private funds, and I don't agree with that. I absolutely believe that we should be at the table with this. Um, and we should be supporting the Phillies. They've been a longtime great partner, but I just think that this is a lopsided deal. Uh, the conversation started with the county at $40 million and with sponsor sponsorship coming back to visit St. Patter 1.25 25 million and now we're at 85 million county contribution and 850,000 uh in sponsorship back to visit St. Pete Clearwater. In just the past two weeks, this deal's gotten worse because now the 3% escalator doesn't kick in until 2032 rather than 2028, which means that it's $1.8 million less coming back to visit St. Pete uh Clearwater. So, um, to put this in a little bit different perspective, over the 20 years, um, that this lease extension is proposed to be, there's roughly 16 spring training games a year. So, over 20 years, you're looking at what 320 320 games at a total public subsidy of $130 million. That's a subsidy per game of 400 over $46,000 or at an average attendance of 9,000 people per game, which is about what the Phillies had this year. That's a subsidy per ticket of over $45 per ticket. So to me, I just believe that that is excessive and the taxpayer dollar should always be the last dollars in Philly's longtime partner. We should absolutely be at the table, but for me, this is just too much. Um, I just feel we have to have a deal that respects taxpayers. I don't believe this does. So, I will not be supporting this. I'll probably be an island on my own and I'm fine with that, but I just want to just explain for the public to know the reason for my decision. >> Thank you for your comments, Commissioner Black Valor. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have great respect for my colleague and um when I call him a dear friend, I truly mean that. Um he is a dear friend. Um and he's a lot younger than our chairman. Um I will point that out as well. Um the um last year we dealt with another uh stadium uh issue that caused a lot of headaches for a lot of folks. Um, and I compare them because, you know, it's very difficult not to. And that uh deal um ended up when you tally everything together, it was over a billion dollars. Um, when you add the the county contribution, when you add the city contribution uh for St. Pete, when you add uh the land deal, when you add um you know other things that the city was uh city of St. Pete was throwing in and you know all that kind of stuff and I voted against that because the uh citizens and residents of the city of St. Pete I believe were getting hosed. uh when you look at that deal, the owner at that time could have sold the team and kept the land deal um and the development rights and all that kind of stuff. Um you know, one thing that Commissioner Edgars brought up back then was that he could have bought land at that year's value at already discounted uh value 20 years from now um and just made a fortune just based off the land. and um dealing with with those folks was an absolute headache. Just ask, you know, Don Kroll um or our um county administrator. And um you know, our our TDT funds, which is what we're using, is for tourism. And so when you look at this project or you look at um the the Blue Jays project from uh what was it 2017 2018 something like that. Um, all you have to do is go to Duneden um in February or March and see all of the um people from Canada or in Clearwater, go to Lenny's on a morning in March or uh and see all the people from Philadelphia or Delaware or New Jersey. um or go to a uh Phillies game in March and hear listen no offense but listen to their accents um and know that they're not from around here. Um and but if you carry it out even further um you can see that the data that we have that from January to June the number one tourist market in Penllis counties from the Philadelphia New Jersey area and right you know in line with them is New York City and so unquestionably they bring people here which is what we want and if the Phillies weren't here, those people would not be coming to Clearwater. They would be coming to wherever the Phillies have spring training because those um fans are uh fanatic. Um and and and they support their team. The the other thing that is unique is that after the hurricanes that we all sadly remember, there was one owner that wanted more money. And we all remember that. There was one owner that decided, hey, I'm going to scale back my proposal and wanted less and um you know because their organization cares about our community because they've been around since um Commissioner Edgars was a teenager back in the 40s. Um, and so and and the other thing that I that I want to add is that they're not just here for two months. They're also have one of the highest um attended minor league um teams in all of Florida, the Florida State League, and that's the Clearwater Threshers. And if you live uh anywhere in around Clearwater Deneden, just go on the neighborhood app on a random Saturday night and you'll have all sorts of messages about a shooting around Drew Street and then people will remind you that it's firework night. Um which is which is very popular. And so, you know, this project is is not just important for Clearwater, which which it is, but it's important for Penllis County because teams um you know, are being lured from, you know, other places in Florida and Arizona and and by nature, spring training uh projects are county projects. um and and just look at other places um um you know around Florida and you'll see that you know it's counties that fund these and so I think carrying on this um tradition to the 100redyear mark um is is something that's very special. So thank you >> thank you commissioner anybody anybody else u have any comments? I do. Um, Peters, >> you know, I think we ended up going up as well. At least the reason that, you know, one of the reasons that I was willing to go up was the city of Clearwater's request to not have more citizens of Clearwater having to pay tax. And this since it's tourist money and Clearwater is hands down the largest generator renovator for TDT dollars. So, there's no question about that. Um, and I do like the idea since by law we can build stadiums with this money that more money of that went to the stadium, the TDT dollars versus the city committing more to taxpayers having to pay more. So, so by us doing that and taking on more, it did save the city of Clearwater citizens um tax dollars. and and that was the mayor's argument and you know he had a good argument um because the citizens already paying quite a bit so not necessarily on the stadium but just day-to-day life cost of living has gone up significantly so so I do support this um I want to thank Don Croll because he has done an outstanding job two years in a row and um and I just want to applaud him I think he's done a great job um Barry too I I I know It's frustrating and and it was a long long haul, less less probably less stressful than the first um the first team we dealt with. But I also want to thank the Phillies. I want to thank uh Mr. Middleton um for the community support you have given this community for decades. I want to thank you and um Mr. Nichols and you know your whole team. I think you guys are great community partners and it's an honor and a privilege to to just know you and and partner with you. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else? Oh, Commissioner Flowers, excuse me. I I I see the hand. Go ahead. >> That's okay. I'm just patiently waiting. I get it. Um, first of all, I want to say thank you all for allowing me to appear through Zoom. I'm hopeful I can get everything situated to make it up there um for the second half of our meeting. Um the first thing that I would like to do is say thank you to Barry. Um I know I first started having conversations about this when I became a county commissioner and there were some things going on within the um ownership um that uh needed to to take precedence and as a result um you know the timing was kind of pushed off. Um I'm sorry that's the side road roadside people calling. Um but um I also uh met with the team uh leadership in my office and had a very uh good conversation and I think in my opinion a very pointed conversation um because whatever we do whether we can do it or should do it it needs to be in the best interest of our residents. Um I fully understand what uh Commissioner Scott is saying. Um and that's not the first time that you have you know um made that or come to that conclusion. Um so you are consistent when you are looking at the financial acumen of any uh deal that we're doing irrespective of who it is with. Um Mr. Middleton, thank you so much for the conversation you and I had excuse me the other day. Um, I appreciate your desire and attempt to um, make contact with me um, and to ask me if I had any questions or concerns. So, thank you for that reach out. I appreciate it. Um, but I am going to support a proposal. I will tell you initially I was a little disappointed because um, I thought we had come to an agreement for dollar value that was a lot less than where we are right now. Um, but I also agree that um, anything that we can do to lessen the financial consideration from our residents, we should try to do, especially since um, we don't know what may happen with the state of Florida as it relates to our property tax concern. And while this is tourist development tax, um, anytime you're doing something within the entire county, it still affects county residents. So, um I am going to support it. I think um when Barry gave me a call and and chatted with me about um his rationale for the um adjustment and the valuation that we're giving as well as the uh escalator occurring a little bit later. Um plus the marketing that our community will get from this. Um and while we're doing well, I think um as it relates to coming back from the hurricanes, we still aren't 100% back. Um and so anything that we could do to really attract persons and make sure that they understand this is still uh one of if not the best place to come live, work and play, um then we should do that. So I will be a yes vote on today even though I am far away. And again just want to say thank you to everybody who had a part in this. Um it wasn't something that we, you know, thought about or discussed or came to a conclusion overnight. Um, it has been quite some time, but I look forward to uh seeing the the project completed. I look forward to the players being able to get out there and and um play some games and um our visitors as well as our residents enjoying baseball in North County. Thank you, Mr. Chair, for allowing me a few moments to speak. >> Thank you, Commissioner Flowers. Uh Commissioner Nikki, >> thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I appreciate everyone's thoughts and I would be supportive obviously of this moving forward today and you know I appreciate staff and Barry um you know kind of the thing coming to the compromise on the escalator because you know the Phillies were a great partner for so many years not having to pay part of the marketing or give us those advertising dollars but they still gave us those advertising dollars for several years. So, I think this is a the escalator in 2032 is a great compromise and and glad we were able to get that done and look forward to new spring training. When I was up in Philly actually uh last year, um you know, I went to a lot of different coffee shops and restaurants. I stopped in one restaurant, Middlechild, and uh there's somebody wearing a Philly shirt and I and everywhere I went in Philly that someone was wearing a hat or shirt. I asked every single person, "Do you know where their spring training is?" And this guy at Middleild restaurant said, "Bakee Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida." I went to another coffee shop, asked the same question. They said, "Oh, me and my fiance actually went there a couple years ago as used it as our vacation um to come to Clear Water for spring training games." So, I heard, you know, firsthand from multiple Philly residents that knew specifically and mentioned Clear Water, Florida, specifically Bayare Park as where the Phillies do spring training. So, I think it is a big impact. Um, you know, I'm obviously supportive of it and glad we're able to work out, you know, a fair deal and, uh, thankful for Philly's partnership on this. >> Thank you, Commissioner Noiki. >> Um, Commissioner Shear, did you have any comments? >> I sure did. U, you know, can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Good. Uh so yeah, just quickly, uh I appreciate uh Commissioner uh Scott's concerns as well, but I I did my math a little different. And you know, with the 380,000 plus visitors that come here every year from Pennsylvania, you know, if on average they're spending $400 a piece, uh, you know, uh, and they stay for two to three days, I I'm calculating a $350 to $500 million impact every year on a one-time investment of 85 million, which I I I as well did not want I did not think about going to 85 main until the idea was we were reducing the tax burden on our Clearwater residents. So I wanted to increase the uh the amount from the bed tax for a tax relief for the uh you know Clearwater residents. So anyway, I'm I'm going to be for this for those reasons. And also I really like the new advertising package. we got another 200,000 out of uh uh and uh economic value on advertising and that was very important to me as well. So that's where I am. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Shear. Um yeah, I I just wanted to just say a few words. First of all, to to go to the table in negotiations with a an organization uh like the Phillies um is a pleasure. Um it's been uh it's it's been tough. Uh Barry, I appreciate your position, your your role in all of this. It's never never easy when you have to go head-to-head on negotiations. So, thank you. You did your job well. Uh Don, you did a great job. Again, I appreciate that, Juel. Thank you for lending him to us uh for our second year u on this on this kind of thing. It's a big deal because you have to kind of see the forest for the trees and this is a this is a big deal for our county. I don't know what the ROI is. I've heard some numbers. Um whether it's property taxes, it's sales taxes, or it's bed taxes. If you're looking strictly at money, it doesn't take long to pay back that initial investment. Uh and again, I'm just talking numbers now, not the qualitative things that the Phillies do. Um public purpose for these funds are numerous. We've talked about that. the the 300 400,000 residents that come down here that provide, you know, property taxes, they provide the bed taxes, they allow us to do things not only for the community, but for, you know, our museums in in St. Petersburg and throughout the county, the kinds of things that we do. Um so again um first and foremost you have a good partner who at the ready when we were in a critical crisis here in Penllis County had a good attitude about helping our residents and working alongside of the citizen county to at least help alleviate some discomforts during those first couple of months. They didn't have to do that. They didn't have to give us the some of those. I'm not sure exactly about the number of marketing dollars from there was a gap in there that they they were not required to do. I understand that they did it anyway. Um it's just a different attitude from leadership and from management that I think is important important for our residents to understand. There are no property tax dollars from the county going to this deal. Again, make sure people understand that there are Clearwater property tax dollars going and I think some of the other commissioners mentioned I've mentioned it before. To the extent that we can minimize that, I think is incumbent upon this commission to do that. Um, but I just I really sincerely appreciate um uh John Middleton, uh John Nicholas Nichols and John Timberlick uh for all of what they've done for for us here uh throughout the process but over the years um and so um uh for a lot of reasons, qualitative and quantitative, I'm going to support this uh deal today um and look forward to many many more years of a good relationship um and it means a lot to our residents here in Clearwater, but it means a lot to all of us throughout the county. And so, um, with that said, um, I have, um, one speaker, um, a former mayor, um, George Criticus that would like to say a few a few words. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I am George Kredicus, a for