Welcome to a meeting of your Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners.

Representing District One, Harry Cohen.

Representing District Two, Ken Hagen.

Representing District Three, Gwen Myers.

Representing District Four, Christine Miller.

Representing District Five, Donna Cameron Cepeda.

Representing District Six, Chris Bowles.

Representing District 7, Joshua Wolstall.

The County Administrator is Bonnie Wise.

The County Attorney is Julia Mandel.

Time is set aside at the beginning of each meeting for citizens to speak on any issue.

So we have time for everyone.

Speakers are asked to limit their comments to three minutes.

Today's meeting is brought to you with closed captioning by Hillsborough Television.

Good morning, and welcome to the February eighteenth, two thousand twenty-six regularly scheduled board meeting of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners.

Father, I ask you that you continue to bless all of our projects from infrastructure, housing, transportation, social services, health care, that we continue to help all of our citizens in this county.

In your holy name I pray.

Amen.

Please read this memo into the record.

Mr.

Kyle Robinson, President of the Florida Strawberry Festival.

And I'd also like to acknowledge Addison Pope, who couldn't be here with us today.

She's feeling a little under the weather.

They um gave me some words to say that would talked about the deep sorry, Mr.

Kilton, I missed you on my page.

Come on up.

This is our mayor, Mr.

Kilton, come on up.

Um they gave me some words to say, and um they were sort of detailed of what the festival is, and I'll be able to read those as part of the proclamation.

But what I want to do instead is talk about my favorite moment that happens every year when the festival.

It's the very first day on opening day.

Um everyone stands at the main gate, including Mr.

and Mrs.

Barrett.

I should stay on script.

This is why they tell me to stand on come on up, Mr.

and Mr.

Barry.

Um my goodness.

This is why I don't do this, Mr.

Kilton, you're always on us.

We're gonna have them come up.

She got them both.

Everybody squeeze in.

Watch this, too, by the way.

It's always dangerous right here.

Come on in.

All right.

I'm gonna start over.

Here we go.

So I'm gonna tell you all about my favorite moment that happens at the festival every year, and that's the opening day.

And I have to kind of set the stage for you because volunteers have been working quite literally all year.

They start immediately following when the festival ends and they work all year.

And this festival is to honor agriculture, it's to honor our farmers, our ranchers.

We have everything from steer shows, pig shows, plant shows.

It's truly a remarkable event that happens, but it's every day leading up to it.

And so my favorite moment is when we get ready to open the gates.

What people don't know is that this is probably the most prayed over festival in the country.

And our community, this group of vendors and volunteers and um employees, our beautiful queen in court, they come together and they pray over every visitor that's gonna come there, that they would be blessed and treasured and have a safe and incredible experience.

There's truly nothing about it.

Kyle knows I think I've been there every year.

It's a moment, it literally moves me to tears almost every time to think of how a community can come together and it's truly to serve others and to have an incredible um experience and to honor um all that is agriculture in our county.

So it is my absolute incredible pleasure um to uh give this proclamation to the 91st Florida Strawberry Festival, um, and it is with a complete and incredible pride that I do so.

Um it reads whereas Plant City is the winter strawberry capital of the world, with about 13,000 acres grown annually by members of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association, and whereas since 1930, the Florida Strawberry Festival has united the community by bringing together people to honor farmers and celebrate the bountiful strawberry harvest, a 1.1 billion dollar industry in Hillsborough County alone.

And whereas each year the Florida Strawberry Festival draws, entertains, and enlightens over 600,000 local residents and visitors from around the world, introducing them to plant city, agriculture, arts, businesses, horticulture, and the industry, and whereas the Florida Strawberry Festival has long been recognized as the number one fair of festival or festival in Florida, as well as one of the top 35 events in North America, a true destination where people enjoy some of the world's top entertainment, educational exhibits, friendly competitions and attractions, and whereas the Florida Strawberry Festival Board of Directors, Festival Chair, Miss Pam Warnock, who also couldn't be with us this morning, President Kyle Robinson, and many local volunteers and civic or organizations devote countless hours to success of this premier event.

And whereas 2026, Florida Strawberry Festival Queen Layla Rothman, first made Marley Mueller, court member Cadence Cape, court member Addison Griffin, and court member Addison Pope serve as the festival's goodwill ambassadors.

And whereas this year's theme, still growing, beautifully describes the festival and community, and each year drawing more visitors, adding rides, attractions, agriculture and livestock shows, and expanding the production of strawberries that make plant city special.

And whereas the 91st Florida Strawberry Festival features such headline entertainment as Forrest Frank, Alabama, Riley Green, Dirk Spendley, Ty Myers, Lone Star, and many more, in addition to the very big wheels celebrating America's 250th anniversary, and the neighborhood village dedicated to homemade and handcrafted items made by locals.

Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Board of County Commissioners of Hillsborough County, Florida, does hereby declare February 26th through March 8th, 2026, as Florida Strawberry Festival Days in Hillsborough County, and encourages everyone to celebrate the festival's rich heritage, the strawberry harvest that greatly contributes to the community, region, and state, and hopes that everyone has a grand time at Barrie Fest 26, awarded this 18th day of February, 2026.

Congratulations to all of you associated with the festival for your hard work and dedication.

You make us very proud.

And our beautiful Queen, Layla Rothman, would like to say a few words.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you so much for having me.

It's such an honor to serve in this role alongside my court members.

It's already been such a blast.

This is just a dream come true.

Our festival is truly a family, and it's all about serving, and that will be our number one goal is to impact each and every single person who walks inside those gates.

And we are just so happy to be here.

And we're counting down the days till those 11 days, and we hope to see all of you guys there.

Thank you so much.

And then I wanted to recognize Mr.

Kyle Robinson, the president of the Florida Strawberry Festival to say a couple words.

Thank you, Queen Layla, and um thank you, Commissioner Miller, and thanks to each of the commissioners for taking this brief moment to recognize our Queen in Court and the Florida Strawberry Festival.

I can tell you that this is a remarkable, remarkable group of young ladies who uh not only will represent the Florida Strawberry Festival well, but represent Plant City and Hildeburg County well.

As Commissioner Miller mentioned, um, our theme this year is still growing.

We put a lot of thought and effort into coming up with a theme that really captures what's going on in our community and our county and our festival.

And and I don't have to tell anyone uh on on this commission or or our citizens that Hillsburg County is still growing, plant city is still growing, and the Florida Strawberry Festival continues to break attendance records.

Um so I we do want to recognize that uh despite uh our growth in this community, uh the strawberry industry is alive and well.

1.1 billion dollar economic impact uh to our community, and and we should we should never forget how important our our strawberry growers are, particularly in a time uh of hardship and freeze this year that they've experienced.

But they're resilient and they will uh they'll bounce back and and we'll have a good strawberry harvest.

And um, and that's what the strawberry festival is all about supporting agriculture, supporting our youth and agriculture in the strawberry industry.

And so thank you for taking this brief moment to uh to recognize our court uh and the strawberry festival, and we hope to see you uh at the Florida Strawberry Festival this year.

Thank you.

Sorry, well, good uh morning, Mr.

Chair, uh Commissioners, Madam Administrator.

It's uh so great to be with you today.

I'm Nate Kilton, mayor of the great city of Plant City.

I always like to say it's always a great day in Plant City.

Doesn't mean it's always easy, but it's always a great day, and especially now this time of year with the Florida Strawberry Festival.

You heard a little bit this morning about the economic impact from it, and that's critically important.

Over 650,000 visitors in 11 days.

It's huge for our community.

But it's way more than just a festival, it's about what it does for our community.

And uh, these young women behind me are a great example.

The Florida Strawberry Festival was about building future leaders for our community.

Um these young women competed hard, not in a beauty contest, but in a leadership contest, right?

You can see how poised they are, how professional, how disciplined, so very mature at their young age.

And I like to remind people that our U.S.

Senator Ashley Moody was a former Strawberry Festival queen.

Uh, just like their hard work and dedication, the young men and women that show animals and points at this at the Strawberry Festival, the the lessons that they learn over time, the same type of discipline and leadership.

Our former mayor Rick Lott, he was uh the winner of a grand champion steer when he was in high school, and he'll tell you that it changed his life.

So uh through that, our young people are uh through the purchase of their livestock and plants, it's over a million and a half dollars a year that comes in from our community to support them.

So, really big difference in and having an impact on the youth and young people in Plant City, but it's not just that, it's all year round because the Florida Strawberry Festival is a nonprofit organization, so they're very, very generous with the money that's that they earn through this program.

They put it out into other organizations like the United Food Bank, and and it just spreads throughout Plant City.

And another great example is how we come together is a special Smiles Day.

It's the first Friday of the event, where over the past few years we've recognized that there are folks in our community that are sensitive to light and sounds and those types of things.

So we have the park open just for them, and it's helped sponsored by the Plant City Rotary Club, so civic organizations coming and working together.

So all these things, uh over 2,000 volunteers.

Some people they take time off from work to come out and support it.

So we have such civic pride in Point City and in this event, and I just wanted to share with everybody some of the intangibles that are in my mind way more important than just the economic impact.

So we look forward to seeing you all out there to uh uh on the the 26th to March 8th, and uh just wanted to make sure you all know how awesome we are in Point City.

Thank you.

I'm sure you can tell we're very proud to be from Plant City.

Um, I want to say thank you all for taking the time out of your very busy schedules to be here, uh, Mr.

Mayor and Mr.

President, Queen of Court.

I appreciate you all very much.

Thank you for bringing the goodies um to the commission today.

Um, what I'd like to do is also thank Mr.

and Mrs.

Barry for being here, and if you would oblige us, we're going to take a few pictures.

Um, Miss Kilfill come up, we'll take some pictures.

Go back here.

Where did um oh there she's there?

I didn't see where you were looking.

Let's watch this because this is the we're gonna come back this way.

All right, thank you.

Uh Commissioner Miller.

Uh Bonnie, you want to review the change of the agenda?

Uh thank you.

Good morning, Commissioners.

We have one item for board consideration pursuant to rule 13 of the rules of order by Commissioner Miller.

It's item F3.

This is to request the county attorney's office to process a resolution in compliance with Florida statutes to expand the geographical area of the county seat beyond the limits of the city of Tampa.

We have two items that have been deferred to March 4th.

The first one is A9, which is the Hillsborough County Film and Digital Media Incentive Award Agreement, and the other is A10, which is the first modification agreement to an existing contract with J and M materials of Riverview.

We have one correction to the agenda.

It's item A eight.

This is to adopt a resolution authorizing the placement of signs in Hillsborough County rights of way for March 2nd through March 16th, should be 2026 for the Tampa Bay Builders Association's 2026 parade of homes.

We have several items for time certain.

The first one is item G2, which is at 945.

G2 is related to items B1 and B2.

This is to receive a report on the county's CDBG DR program.

Item B1, related to items B2 and G2.

Also at 945, is to approve the proposed CDBG DR single family housing program.

And item B2, also at 945 related to items B1 and G2, is to approve an initial list of seven infrastructure projects to be funded by the county's U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD CDBG DR grant award.

Item D1 at 10 o'clock is to conduct a public hearing to accept comments on the updated list of real property inventory appropriate for affordable housing.

1145 is a recess for lunch.

Those are the changes to the agenda.

Second motion, Commissioner Myers and Commissioner Wolstool, please record your vote and changes the agenda.

Motion carried six to zero.

All right, the board are going to the public comment portion agenda, and the board welcomes comments from the citizens about any issue or concern or your opinions are valued in terms of providing a valuable input to board members.

However, it is requested at the same time you address the board.

Comments are not made directly at uh staff or the board members, but rather the issues.

Uh, we set aside 45 minutes for public comment this morning.

Uh the chair will call on speakers uh in the order in which your name you've signed up on adjusting the board, please state your name.

Uh each person will be given three minutes.

Uh, this morning might be a record.

We only have three individuals that have signed up to speak.

Uh, first speaker is Denise Herndon, followed by Tom Cobert, and then Sergrit Doss.

Ms.

Herndon.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I'm Denise Herndon.

Somewhere in late 1999, 2000, a young mother came up to me and asked me my um side of the story that people were saying about me at Oakbridge Run condominiums.

And I says, if you want the truth, look in our records.

She goes, Well, where do I look?

And I told her exactly where I look because the financials don't tell you anything.

Now, here in Hillsborough County, HCA, Brandon Hospital has hacked medical records.

I saw that when I was respiratory therapist there, and now my medical records from HCA Brandon Hospital have been hacked into.

Hillsborough County can't do anything about that.

You can't do anything about all the phones that are nothing but a computer that are hacked into.

And apparently, you can't even do anything about a sheriff deputy falsifying a police report to have me Baker acting.

Or a body cam from 20.

The thing is 21 98624.

This was a drive-by shooting that I was a witness to.

The body cam is wrong, and everything's been changed on it.

So computers are controlling our lives.

Just since Shirley Hammond hit me on my bicycle in 2021.

I didn't know that it was her that had hit me.

I just saw a silhouette.

Just before she moved away from me, she walked out on her dock, and that was the silhouette I saw.

It's too late to do anything by that time.

Shirlene Hammond puts a whole new meaning to Munchhausen by proxy.

I know she's doing something to her husband Wayne Hammond, and she's hacked into my medical records.

She's got doctors that are falsified medical records, and none of this you guys can do anything about because you can't even do anything about the sheriff's department.

Oh, the result was it's a general offense, it doesn't matter.

Well, it matters to me, and the only reason I pulled that up was because I was the only one standing there.

There were no cars in that gas station at Lakewood in 60.

So eventually the truth will come out, and I will never give up.

Thank you, Ms.

Herndon.

Tom Cobert.

Morning, sir.

Mr.

Chairman, Commissioner, staff deputies.

My name is Tom Cobert.

Apollo Beach Republican Representative Michael Owens, former county commissioner, has proposed two bills to be placed on the ballot in November, which have been passed in the state house.

HB 4029 would increase the number of county commissioners from seven to nine.

The bill would create nine districts and eliminate the three countywide seats.

Representative Owens says this will improve representation because the commissioner lives in the district that they were elected to represent, which is already required.

Problem is that the number of commissioners that directly represent residents of the county would be lowered from four to one.

The more access voters have to their government, the better they trust the government to do the right thing.

The people of Hillsborough County have already let it be known.

They don't want this.

It would better serve the people of Hillsborough County if you added two more district seats.

Representative Susan Valdez says the multi-billion dollar budget requires executive level accountability.

I agree with that.

Elected school board members already do that with a comprehensive job search.

A partisan elected superintendent would be a politician who would be subject to donor and party influence.

This kind of pressure has already happened with the state demanding the county remove a book in 2023 titled This Book is Gay.

Doing something like this is unamerican.

The Nazis started out burning books.

Remember where that led.

There is not yet a companion bill in the state senate, so there is time to stop these bills from being on the ballot.

Voters expect elected officials to serve their interests, not their pursuit of power, not self-interest, and not the interest of their donors.

They want what is best for their families and their community.

Voters are angry, and the way they have been voting reflects that.

Politicians who are not paying attention will pay a price.

And Commissioner Bowles, I wish you well.

And fighting for your health.

Moffitt is the best there is.

And I'm sure when it's time to ring the bell, the fire department will bring you up.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Cobert.

Uh last speaker, uh, is there a surrogate DOS virtual?

Yes, sir, sir.

How are you doing?

Uh, Commissioner, this is your grad dog.

And I'm a veteran of the United States military.

And what's kind of interesting is I wanted to discuss my property that were stolen.

And I hope that you all the information was given to you all regarding my uh my exhibits are actually were given to you all.

And in those exhibits, what you're gonna see is a short dialogue during my criminal prosecution in Hillsborough County.

I didn't receive any uh discovery from the uh state attorney's office, despite what they may say.

I didn't receive any discovery.

What I got limited was essentially a big number take the standard.

They didn't actually have me paying what they claimed that I said uh they got me arrested for perjury and official proceedings.

What you're gonna see in your exhibit, and I want you to go to page uh two, is you're gonna see that there was some dialogue.

In fact, go to page three, some dialogue from a Mr.

William Shepherd, who I believe is probably still your property approved attorney.

So he was a part of it.

And in the you'll be quite clearly, I can get you a list of other properties he helped for a short time and then he is me.

And he's speaking to the detective Mike Victor, and he was also helped by uh John Patrick McDervey, who at the time was employed by the county uh sheriff.

And he said theoretically, I guess he would have had to own the property on the date he made the allegation he didn't own any property, a statement I never made.

He said I'll take the other property deed, although uh it says uh although I believe many of the deeds we did not pose show the property in his name because we've doubted that he legally owned the property in spite of the deed.

What we have here, which I believe happened to a lot of citizens, is they may have walked away from property.

That's what I didn't walk with my property.

You all on ceremonic pushed me out of the property uh with some armed sheriff that put me out of a property that was the actual property owner of.

And while you all stand around looking at each other, you should probably be looking it up.

It's pretty clear in the record that I was the owner of the property because the Hillsborough County Clerk of Court sold the property.

The property of person uh had a foreclosure auction and then try the deeds were transferred to me to quickly.

That's all on the record.

My bigger problem with it is that everybody in this county knows, even though the county was not uh actually drop the county as a name defendant, but the reality of the problem is is that everybody knows exactly what happened and how it happened, yet none of you all have done anything at all to investigate or do anything about it.

And to the rest of the citizens of Hillsborough County, I would highly suggest that you take the time to go back into the archives to see if you may not have walked away from a property that you otherwise may have been encountered to key.

That being said, shout out to the greatest institution of power learning in the city of Tampa, the University of Thomas Jefferson High School.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate your comments.

Uh, that closes public comment.

Can we have a motion to approve consent?

So moved.

Motion Commissioner Woolstool, second commissioner Myers, please record your vote on the consent agenda.

Motion carried six to zero.

Bonnie want to introduce first item.

Yes, and we still have some time before our time certain, so we can go to the regular agenda item B3.

This is to approve a an agreement, a modification agreement.

This is regarding the Gibson to the septic to sewer conversion project.

And Lisa Ray with water resources will present this item.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Thank you very much.

Um, I am asking for your approval on agenda item B3.

This is to approve the second modification to the construction manager at risk agreement with Rickman construction of floor uh the floor excuse me to authorize construction of work package B associated with the Gibson septic to sewer conversion, increasing the existing contract by just over 10 million dollars to a new total of 71 million one forty-eight, one forty-four and ninety-two cents.

This is GMP number two.

We are incorporating eight million dollars of budgeted funds in this year's CIP, as well as two million dollars that will be reimbursed to us as part of an EPA grant.

This increase in the budget will allow 39 additional homes to connect, three commercial properties, two mobile home parks with 12 units each, and bringing the total to just over a hundred homes.

The initial expense has mainly been in the construction of the required lift station for this project.

And with that, we ask for your approval.

Thank you, Commissioner Wilson.

Thank you, Ms.

Chair.

First, I want to apologize to Buddy Harwell.

He came to my office hours yesterday and mentioned an item about this project that I said I didn't think was on the agenda.

Um, but he had a lot of concerns that I didn't understand about this project, which is there some type of delay going on.

I I remember it being brought up in a workshop maybe a year, year and a half ago, and and he brought up that specific item.

He had an image of a slide that was presented stating the total cost of this um subject of sewer conversion.

So on this modification, just so I can and maybe you guys could reach out to him and get him the information he's looking for.

This isn't some other type of delay or funding shortfall that um okay.

So um I believe we have had a conversation with Buddy actually at Commissioner Myers town hall meeting just a couple of weeks ago.

Okay.

And um, so big picture back when this project was originally planned, it was at like 2019-2020.

Costs were very different.

So what we anticipated the total cost being was much lower than what we are really seeing.

We dedicated a significant amount of ARPA funding to this, over a hundred million dollars total between the Gibson Ton and the Rusk and Waimama areas.

Um we continue to pursue grant funding.

Now, last summer when we did our budget workshop, we have seen continued cost escalation in other projects as well.

Um we have a five funding priorities.

The first one being operation and maintenance of our existing system, which is what serves all of our existing customers.

Item two is repair and replacement of aging assets in our existing system.

Three are the new plants and the new systems that are necessary.

Four was the septic to sewer, and five was the low pressure septic system conversions.

So when we did our budget last year, because of the price increases in the ongoing one water project and other projects that hit the first three priorities.

We did not cancel, we deferred the rest of additional funding.

We had about 10 million per year factored in over the next five years.

We deferred it out farther into year six of the budget, um, year six, seven, eight, but so that we could get all of these projects fully completed underway and have a real handle on their costs before investing more money.

Additionally, any septic tanks that are added into our system increase flow to our existing plants.

So we have we have to expand the capacity at our existing plants before we can bring flows, additional flows in.

So it's kind of a two-prong thing, the budget part of it and this.

We do consider continue to look for grant funding, and we will move forward when we find that between now and when the budget kicks back in again.

I'll probably just have some more follow-up questions just because you know he's advocated aggressively for that area for a long time, and I don't want to leave him up creep.

So I'll move for approval, Mr.

Chair.

Second.

Okay, we're gonna motion to approve uh B3 by Commissioner Walsh will send Commissioner Myers.

Commissioner Myers.

Yeah, I'd just like to add I'd like to thank staff for attending the town hall meeting uh two weeks ago to address the same issue with the constituents in the Gibson area, and Buddy Howell was one of them.

So we'll continue to communicate with Buddy.

Thank you so much, Lisa.

Okay, we got a motion and second.

Please record your vote.

Motion carried six to zero.

Okay, next item.

Thank you.

The next item is item F1.

This is the board's appointment to Hillsborough Transit Authority, and Glenda will take you through this appointment.

Item F1A Good morning, Commissioners.

Today we have the Hillsborough Transit Authority Hart.

We have one vacant position.

Um this um appointment requires unincorporated residency, and all applicants' residency has been verified.

Um Commissioner Hagen, please choose one.

Number three, Commissioner Miller.

Six six.

Okay.

Commissioner Myers, three.

Commissioner Kmeron Cepeda.

Six.

Commissioner Bowles.

Six.

Commissioner Wolstall.

Six.

Okay.

Number six, Rondrico Smith.

All right, can we have a motion to confirm?

So moved.

Motion Commissioner Walsh, and Commissioner Myers, please record your vote.

Motion carries six to zero.

Okay, Bonnie.

Thank you.

Uh, the next item is Chair Hagen's item.

This is item F two regarding the naming of the wall of good government award lobby display in honor of Rich Reedy.

Uh thank you, Bonnie.

Board members will just just take a moment.

But I want to first of all want to thank John Mueller uh for his work on this item and for supplying the uh the backup.

Uh the outpouring of of kind words and condolences uh received in the aftermath of Rich Reedy's uh passing has been widespread.

Uh Republicans, Democrats, law enforcement, fire rescue, community leaders, business leaders have all ex uh expressed their remorse.

Uh Rich's impact and what he meant to our community uh simply cannot be underscored enough.

Uh since his passing, I've been considering the the best way to honor Rich uh for what he meant to Hillsborough County.

Uh Bonnie and uh her staff, they've been having plans um to create uh display in the lobby on a wall for our good government award winners.

In fact, I probably don't remember, but I announced that during last year's good government award uh presentation.

Uh what you I'm sure do not know is that the concept of a good government award display uh to promptly highlight those uh past and present who received this award uh was Rich's vision and passion.

Uh unbeknownst to me, in fact, he was working on this with John Moeller uh for many many months before his passing.

Um and I just want to uh is just John here or is John is that is that uh is that accurate?

Um so in consultation uh with Bonnie and with John, uh I thought it would be appropriate uh to name the wall uh in honor of Rich and to have a separate plaque highlighting uh what he meant um to Hillsborough County.

And I think display in the backup um looks extremely nice and and first class.

So uh what I would like to do is to pass the gavel uh to the vice chair and just make a motion that we approve the dedication of a display space in the county center lobby to honor and recognize the recipients of the Ellsworth G.

Simmons Good Government Award in honor of Rich Reedy, uh former commissioner aide for district two.

Second excellent.

Umers.

Um thank you, madam chair.

Um to Chair Hagen.

Uh, yesterday I had the privilege to go up to the 26th floor back in my days when I was an employee here.

We did the same thing for Robert Umston Anonal, I think is how pronounced his last name.

We named the conference center on 26th floor at an employee same dedication, compassion, serving the people of our county coming in, and so I support wholeheartedly naming uh a wall after Rich Reedy.

No, I I I appreciate that, and I was frankly unaware of that, but uh you know, really gave it a lot of thought on what's the best way, and obviously the the award already has a name, but since this concept of a display, because he felt very strongly that um those of us that have been uh recognized for their achievements should be prominently displayed down on the first floor so people can see it.

And so I thought it was a I thought it was a good idea, and then I made sure Bonnie uh concurred, and so that's why we went in this direction.

So um very much appreciate board members' support.

Excellent.

Well, I'm a huge fan of the idea too, Mr.

Chair.

Um seeing no one else in the queue.

We have um a motion by Chair Hagen, a second by Commissioner Myers.

Please record your vote on F2 motion carried six to zero.

Thank you, board members.

Okay, Bonnie.

All righty.

The next item is item F three.

Commissioner Miller, this is your item regarding expanding the geographical area of the county seat.

Commissioner Miller.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Chair.

Um, this item is simply about bringing governance back to all of the residents of Hillsborough County.

Um shortly after we voted to move the sheriff's headquarters to a new location that checked all the boxes meeting the safety needs for our county.

Um, this archaic rule was brought to my attention.

Um I recently had some more time to dig in a little deeper on the matter.

And um, so here's a little history lesson for those that may be listening.

Um, the city of Tampa is currently the county seat of Hillsborough and was established as such in 1834, concurrent with the creation of Hillsborough County itself.

Since then, our county has grown significantly with more than one million residents living outside the county seat.

What this request does is move the county seat beyond this the limits of the city of Tampa to include the entire geographical area of the county.

We currently have many county and constitutional facilities located outside the Tampa City limits, and while these facilities are legally authorized to be outside of the city of Tampa, expanding the current city county seat allows the inclusion of these facilities within the county seat.

This is an administrative and legal alignment, not a construction project or a relocation.

There's no new expenses, no impacts.

Ultimately, we'd be modernizing an old designation to reflect the way Hillsborough County serves its residents today.

Florida statute section 13812 provides us a process to get this done with proper notice in two public hearings.

With that, my formal motion is to request the county attorney's office to process a resolution in compliance with Florida Statute Section 138.12 to expand the geographical area of the county seat beyond the limits of the city of Tampa so that the county seat will encompass the entire boundary of Hillsborough County.

In addition, the county attorney's office is to provide the required statutory public notice and the two public hearings.

Don't see anyone in the queue, please.

Uh Commissioner Myers.

Thank you.

Madam Vice Chair, when you say expand it in the boundaries of the city of Tampa, what do you mean by that for this?

So the sheriff has an office in Ebo City.

Right.

So legal explained to me that they're all operating within the confines of the law.

So you can move a headquarters, so for example, we're moving the sheriff's office outside of the boundary of the city of Limit, the city of Tampa.

Um, as long as they have an office within the city, they're operating within it.

It's simply out of abundance of caution um to just be able to adequately serve the more than one million residents that live outside of the city limits.

I guess a question, I might have to go to uh uh legal counsel.

Does that conflict with TPD?

Yeah, uh sorry about that.

I was having a technical problem.

This when you say would it conflict with TPD, do you mean I guess when I police department when we say expand when we have our chair sorry, we have our sheriff do they come over?

Are we just talking about namesake as location for um Chef Chad office to be in Hillsborough in the city within the city of Tampa?

The provision of the law which would allow the expansion, we have no effect on any of the jurisdictional requirements.

This is simply just to expand it to include other parts of Hillsborough County that are not the city of Tampa.

This wouldn't create any legal problem.

It also doesn't correct any legal problem.

It's really in name and just context only.

But then stab verified that when we did the growth they did for the move for the growth financial, we didn't find a problem.

There is no problem with the move of growth financial, uh move the sheriff's office to grow financial, it's not a violation of the constitution of any statutory requirements.

It's not a violation of the Constitution of any statutory requirements.

This that was absolutely done and is being done in compliance with the law.

Okay.

Thank you.

And that was a a great deal for the sheriff and for the county.

And it's it's my understanding.

Um again, there are no jurisdictional changes.

I think it's just an abundance of caution just to do it.

It's not going to have any real uh change, and I guess it was pretty archaic.

I don't know, it was a statute or policy and go back to the 1800s.

But Commissioner Bowles.

I was just gonna say this this was inserted in the Constitution before Florida is even a state.

It was from the 1800s.

I think uh we could probably update some of our laws to reflect modern uh with the city of Tampa was all that was here.

It's probably not a bad idea to kind of do something that reflects what's going on in today's society, not almost 200 years ago.

Commissioner Wilson.

Thank you.

I just wanted to briefly point out that in the state of Florida, um, sheriffs actually have full constitutional authority, anyways.

They can arrest anywhere, even in municipalities, unlike in some other states, there is no jurisdictional boundary within their county, they have full rights to do whatever they want in bounds with the law, um, enforcing it in their own county.

So it doesn't matter where they're at.

Thank you.

We got a motion um by Commissioner Miller, second by who's the second commissioner Wistel.

Commissioner Wilson, please accord your vote.

Motion carried six to zero.

Okay, Mark.

Thank you.

Well, by the time I call um the next item, that will be 945.

How about that?

So we have three items that are related.

Their first one is the staff report, item G2.

And then after that, you'll hear item B1 and B2.

These are all related to the county C D B G DR program.

And so with that, I'm gonna ask Rob Hendrickson, Josh Pilati, and Audrey Ziegler to come to the podium.

But I will note that these are the three who are here today to speak, but there are many, many um staff and our consultants who have been working on this for quite some time.

So, with that item G2.

How about that?

945.

Good morning, uh Commissioners.

Robert Hendrickson, management and budget, and the CDBG DR uh program manager.

I have Audrey Ziegler, who is our social services director and housing lead, and Josh Bellotti from Public Works, who's spearheading our infrastructure efforts.

Today we have really three um three segments for status overview to tell tell all of you what we've been up to, and to also describe and obtain your approval and support to proceed with a single family housing program and a public comment period related to an action plan amendment that will give us flexibility across all of our housing programs to best meet the needs of our residents.

There's a third bullet missing, I'll talk to, which is to also have you understand and approve proceeding with seven initial infrastructure projects under this grant.

About a year ago, we were notified of an award of just north of 709 million dollars allocated by virtue of our action plan efforts across the categories and subcategories you see before you that really dictate where we spend these funds.

As a reminder, um we are embarking on a process that ends in about five and a half years.

These projects and programs need to be completed in funds expended by May 15th, 2031.

It is a reimbursement-based grant, so we don't get the funds up front.

We get reimbursed as we go.

And an important reminder is that 70 percent of our funds in this grant must be shown to benefit low-to-market income individual individuals.

To put this in context, all those numbers sort of boiled up into the most important components.

Over half the grant, 355 million is dedicated to infrastructure projects that you will see in stages from the county and from our partner cities.

We have three assistance programs covering housing, public services, and economic development.

We will centrally run and administer in GAN in partnership with our cities on critical activities like communications and outreach, five million towards planning studies that are eligible for use by the cities in the county, and then we have an administrative bucket of 35 million that we use uh really to support the entire program.

So progress in priorities last year really was about two things making sure we did everything with HUD to get to the point of having a grant agreement, including an action plan that came before you and that you approved and then HUD subsequently approved, but also the second item last year that was critical was securing strategic implementation consultant support.

But also the second item last year that was critical was securing strategic implementation consultant support.

Just a month ago, you approved our agreements with uh BDO, formerly Horn and Ernst and Young to assist us.

I can tell you since that moment, we have been mobilizing as rapidly and responsibly as possible, doing a whole range of activities with a real focus on getting projects and programs to you so we can start working on those and getting those benefits out to the community across a number of other areas, compliance, reporting a system of record.

There's a lot going on, and I'm just letting you know that.

Um last year was more about intermittent updates.

You're going to see us quite a bit this year, giving you a lot more detailed updates as the team is mobilized.

So today initiates significant uh engagement with all of you.

It is my pledge that you will be proactively and regularly communicated to about these programs and projects.

We will be bringing to you these projects and programs, basically, I would suspect about every board meeting between now and late summer, including projects from the cities.

Advance and as requested briefings with materials shared early.

As you saw with this uh board meeting, there's a lot to it.

So we have this, but we also had all the backups and then status updates every quarter.

Before I um hand off to Audrey and then Josh, and then take your questions.

I need to do a round of thanks.

Thanks to all of you for your support over the last year to county administration for their guidance and the resources to do this properly, to the cities with whom we've been partnering regularly and will continue to do so as we lock in our sub-recipient agreements and mobilize with them.

To uh the county attorney's office, there's a lot of legal stuff with the grant, and they've been amazing.

Uh our partners, BDO and Ernst and Young have integrated immediately with our team.

Your decision to break that into two pieces was a blessing for us because it's allowed us to move more quickly, and they have really just jumped in and done a lot of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

And then last but not least, we have a small dedicated county team and others out in the departments, and I have to tell you they are the best of the best.

I am so honored and privileged to work with them, and they make this hard work a lot of fun.

With that, I'm going to hand it over to Audrey.

I just need to move my slide, Rob.

Here we go.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Audrey Ziegler, Social Services Department Director, and I'm also uh the lead for the housing program for the C D BGDR grant.

Today I'm very excited to share with you all of the work that we've accomplished since about mid-December.

So I honestly can't believe it myself, but rolling it up into these slides so that Commissioner Hagen can have a quick view.

Um, I'll talk fast, but um, I think you'll be impressed with all that we've done in a very short time.

So I won't cover too much on this slide, but this highlights the 211 million dollars, a little over 211 million that are dedicated to the single family repair and replacement program.

And there's also funding dedicated to multifamily replacement, multifamily repair, and special population.

And I think Rob covered this.

Um, so I'll just I'll just keep it moving.

Who will qualify for these programs?

So under the single family housing program, this is intended for our homeowners in a single family home.

It will include mobile homes as well as manufactured homes.

They must have been owner-occupied at the time of the impact of the storm.

They had to have owned the property and they have to be owner-occupied and own the property at the time of application for this grant.

Household income will be up to 80 percent AMI, and with the uh action plan amendment, this will allow us as funding permits to expand eligibility criteria up to 120 percent AMI.

The chart simply is just a reference to see what that looks like in terms of annual income.

So a household of four up to 80 percent.

AMI is about eighty-three thousand dollars a year.

We estimate serving about a 1,000 households, and we've received that number from BDO, our consultants, and their um experience working with this grant, working with disasters, but we'll be monitoring that and bring back to you as Rob mentioned, multiple reports on number of applications, number of approvals, number, amount of funding being expended on each household and whatnot.

As far as eligibility goes, that's pretty much the criteria, but I want to let you know that we are safeguarding these funds.

We will be making sure that we verify identification, we verify home ownership.

We are removing any duplication.

So if someone received FUD um HUD funding, that we will be removing that portion from any of their award benefits, same with loans, same with insurance reimbursements.

So we're we're working very diligently to make sure that this program is administered safely, and for those that qualify.

There are three categories of assistance.

First is reimbursement.

This is where residents have all had damage.

It will be verified damage with an inspector.

They meet the other eligibility requirements.

They will be reimbursed directly, anywhere from 10,000 as our minimum, up to $50,000 in repairs, and this is for repairs that they've already accomplished themselves.

The work had to be permitted, and the house has to be habitable.

For the repair category, each eligible household will be assisted with up to 150,000 in repairs, and that is actual construction.

For the reconstruction and replacement, each eligible homeowner would be eligible for up to 350,000 to replace or reconstruct their home.

And we have different effective dates or target dates.

Repair in August, and we'll get back to you on what the reconstruction date looks like based on our applications.

Here's a timeline to show you all that we've been up to.

BDO has secured office space that will they will be opening an intake and support center where we'll have case managers, assist residents who complete their application.

This also includes a dedicated call center.

That that is already being accomplished as we speak.

Soon they'll be onboarding training and hiring staff to staff the call center as well as the intake center.

The system is being in development now so that the application portals ready and effective in place for May 1st.

We were able to preview that recently.

However, that's the time that the public will start seeing the communication and the outreach and engagement, but that is already underway with our county communications.

The last um bar here in dark blue, this just to highlight that we're in the 30-day public comment period as well as the 45-day HUD HUD approval process.

Okay, here's a little bit about what I just spoke of.

There is going to be an in-person intake support center.

The location's already been identified and support and secured.

That's at 1029 East Hillsborough Avenue.

And excuse me, we will be open Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 once we open May 1st, and we are anticipating after hours and weekend availability.

Same with the call center.

This phone number has already been secured and will be on all of our material.

However, that phone number is not live yet.

So I just encourage you if you get complaints that people are trying to call us, we won't be answering the phone just yet.

That'll be a little bit closer to the May launch date.

Again, Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 after hours and weekends.

And the last box shows something that I'm very excited about, which is offering the availability for residents to apply at our county community resource centers.

This is where the community already comes for assistance, so they'll be able to have that additional support at those locations throughout Hillsburg County that they're already used to coming into.

Here's a little bit about the communications and outreach approach that I mentioned earlier.

As you'll see, we're already engaged with communications, digital media, community events were already scheduled for some town hall meetings, lots of digital outreach, traditional media flyers, public service announcement, mailers, door-to-door canvassing, referral coordination with nonprofits, with housing counselors, community organizations, and then we'll be doing a lot of targeted outreach with the FEMA database, anybody who has applied for FEMO.

Hopefully, we'll have access to that, the National Flood Insurance Protection Program, any loans.

So we're going to be also targeting those households that we know received funding.

It may not have been enough to complete the work or have that funding that we can use to supplement to finish the work for them.

Today is uh one of the agenda items that Rob will ask your vote for, and that is to request approval to proceed with an action plan amendment that provides flexibility for our single family housing program, but this also includes flexibility to include the action plan amendments for our multifamily and special population program.

And we were we are planning on coming back to you with a detail similar that we just did with single family.

The details will come to you March 4th, but we're asking for your vote today on those changes simply to avoid having an additional 30-day public comment and an additional up to 45 days HUD review.

I am going to turn it over to Josh Bilotti, and as Rob mentioned, we will all three be available for questions after.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Good morning.

Uh as Rob mentioned in the intro, uh, included in these agenda items for the board's approval is an initial group of projects proposed for the infrastructure category.

And so this group of projects that are included today is the first of several phases, and we'll continue to bring additional projects forth as they're vetted for eligibility and compliance.

This phase one group has undergone a selection and evaluation process by our staff along with the county's grant consultant.

In identifying and vetting this initial selected group of projects, we look for several things.

Stormwater improvements with meaningful community impact.

Projects where we've already made significant progress in the development and design so that they would be ready to move quickest into the construction procurement.

And third, compliance with HUD requirements, including meeting national objectives such as LMI.

The vetting process that we've been undertaking along with the grant consultant is looking at disaster eligibility as well as compliance with HUD.

For disaster eligibility, the projects can be tied back to the disaster in two ways.

Either as a direct tie back, meaning the project is repairing specific infrastructure that was directly damaged during the disaster, or as an indirect tie back, meaning the project improved systems that were overwhelmed and areas that flooded during the disaster.

For example, the flood focus areas identified in the Black and Beach study.

Most of our infrastructure projects have an indirect tieback.

Additionally, we're evaluating the project's compliance with HUD's national objectives.

These include low and moderate income or LMI areas, which is the primary basis for compliance.

Urgent need is another national objective that can potentially be used in rare cases to meet the requirements.

You'll see that most of our infrastructure projects utilize LMI for compliance.

You all have this information in your backup materials, so I won't go into too much uh detail on the specific projects, but these next few slides briefly summarize each project's scope, the community benefit, and HUD compliance.

For example, this project on Bill Jackson Road will help reduce repetitive flooding and is in an area with an LMI percentage of 84.1.

This next project uh in Sefner Mango will improve drainage in an area that experiences flooding near the Eastgate mobile estates, which were impacted by the disaster, and also meets HUD's LMI target.

The next project is drainage improvements in North Forest Hills.

And this area along North Ola Avenue is one that has been impacted by flooding and also has an LMI percentage that meets the HUD criteria.

The next project that we have is in the university area.

Again, more drainage system improvements to reduce local flooding.

And this area also has an LMI that's above the HUD target HUD target.

And the last drainage improvement project that we have is in Valrico along Front Street, where the project includes new stormwater infrastructure to reduce flooding and is also in an LMI area.

This next project is in an area that suffered devastating impacts from Hurricane Milton, the Shangri-La neighborhood.

And so while this is not in an LMI area, we believe that it meets the urgent need national objective based on the severity of the impacts to the community and the vulnerability of this closed basin lake.

This project will construct a permanent pump station that will help to reduce flooding.

And finally, this last project actually encompasses 25 stormwater pipe replacement projects, which are spread out across the county.

Replacement of these pipes or culverts will help to improve drainage and reduce roadway flooding.

And these projects are all located within LMI areas.

So I'll just close by saying that these projects identified will all have a meaningful benefit to the community.

And while this is a relatively small list for the overall grant effort, this is just the beginning of the board engagement on this, and we have already been working on the next phases of projects to bring before you.

The vetting for eligibility and compliance is a process, but our staff and the grant consultants team have formed a good partnership, and we are making solid progress.

So much more to come.

Thank you.

Thanks, Josh.

Appreciate the uh the collective presentation and all of the hard work that you guys have been putting in on this.

I know it's been um been a bit challenging at times.

Uh go to board discussion.

Commissioner Willston.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Ms.

Ms.

Ziegler, you never really come to the board, but I'll so I'll take the opportunity to tell you that I think it's that was by design.

I think it takes a I think it takes a very special person, though, to be in your role.

And um I'll I'll point out why I think that um a couple weeks ago it turned out that somebody took pictures of me during the storm that I didn't know were taken.

Um, and I I've never um really talked about that area because really it was your department and um Biladi's and Director Trammell's departments that um were out at this apartment in full force.

I mean it was an absolute disaster zone.

I'm not gonna name the um the apartment because I don't want to dock someone because what I saw was I felt like was slumlord activity going on, and there was a a complete disregard for all of the disabled people that were living there, the veteran disabled people that were living there.

I was just I was very thankful for staff being out there in full force, they were door knocking everybody, they were working um with Salvation Army, and we we ended up um preventing hundreds of people from being displaced out of the county.

Um FEMA and Salvation Army were able to get a temporary you you probably know which um apartment I'm talking about.

It was it was really bad.

And the the reason that I brought that up is that I saw that there was some um money in there for replacement of multifamily, which I've been anxious about from the very beginning in this money, and it's specifically about because I I don't want to reward I I'm sure that's not the only apartment that operates like that, unfortunately.

And so I wonder what kind of protocols you might be able to have to make sure that on these multifamily projects, if we're going to fix um, and I understand that there's gonna be a need for some of that.

If we're gonna repair some of these, how are we gonna make sure that the apartment owner isn't benefiting and then the people that would would or should have been there aren't displaced somehow, that they're gonna get guaranteed some type.

Like if we do this, you're not gonna displace your current residents.

Is there anything we can do?

There is, and I'd like BDO to respond to that because there are some protections involved.

We're on we're designing this program now as we speak, but I can tell you we're looking for a competitive process for the multifamily projects with a notice of funding, and so there will be a scoring opportunity, and we can embed different things into that criteria that we're looking for, such as some of the things that you're set that you're mentioning.

But I would like them to speak to the relocation part that's um that's built in for renters.

Okay.

Thank you, ma'am.

Uh thank you, Commissioner Scott Keller with BDO.

Uh appreciate that that uh that comment very much.

And I think when taking that to heart when we help work with the county to design the scoring criteria, I think one following the Uniform Relocation Act is one aspect of it, but also setting either a right to return or a the concept of taking the existing uh you know, the history of that developer or whoever that grantee could be in the future, uh, what they've done in the community, how their properties are, do you have code enforcement issues there?

I think all those pieces can go into the to the uh rubric on the scoring sheets.

And I think also that what the county has been able to do, what your staff has been able to do is work closely with your housing authority here, actually.

So the uh the housing authority, you have a a uh incredible uh amount of talent in that housing authority when it comes to development.

I think in working with those local grantees and local um uh pro housing providers will be a really good way to you know kind of ensure your concerns are are taken care of.

Okay.

But I do I do agree with you, Commissioner, and we want to make sure that residents are not displaced unnecessarily and have habitable housing.

Okay, thank you.

Um my second question, and then I only have this will be quick, and then my third one, um, the county attorney might want to have up the cone of silence policy for when I get there.

Um you said that the decision and products that um should help the LMI communities, right?

The low to moderate income areas.

My my question is is let's say there is an apartment that just I don't have an idea in place in my mind on this, but let's say there's an apartment they got hit by six feet of water, but the fix for preventing that from happening to them again is technically away from them, and maybe in your geographical boundaries that says that that's not a low to moderate income area, but the benefit is to prevent the low to moderate income apartment from being flooded.

Would you be able to rate that to say, hey, this is an improvement for that, or is it some arbitrary geographical boundary that would just say, well, it it doesn't meet the standard now.

So this is where I'm grateful to have the Ernst and Young team supporting us because I'm glad you split.

But you know what I'm saying, right?

Absolutely.

Because it could be a reality of of where water tables are, that geographically the improvement needs to be fixed to some stormwater thing outside of that area.

So we were trying to look at every possible avenue to tie um needed projects into the requirements of the grant, and that's that's why we're we're utilizing this team to work with us to help do that.

Great.

Can someone just elaborate quickly on even a yes or a no?

So from an engineering perspective, we are looking at the basins and how the drainage patterns are affecting it, and then um from an LMI perspective.

And if you could just state your name also.

Oh, and I apologize, I'm Caravan at N.

Okay.

Call us about the UI.

Um, and then for the we do look at the service area to understand if it's not just that one apartment, it is the service area that we're looking at to understand the LMI percent.

Okay, great.

Okay.

Um my last question is um some of um you might remember Commissioner Bowles Miller, you you would not remember this.

I don't believe you were here, but a number of years ago, we brought an improvement to the cone of silence policy, and that was because we we made a major vote on something, and then I could only because of this policy find out about information that probably would have changed my mind on my decision after the fact because we were restricted to talking to them after the board members take a vote.

Um, which my arguments were that that kind of violates people's constitutional right to um solicit their government officials and their their first amendment rights.

Um in the cone of silence policy, it says that um it doesn't apply to sole source, but that in the event that it's not sole source effectively, that there shall be a notice of intent, and that five days after the notice of intent, the cone of silence ends so that we can discuss the options that are on the table.

Hey, in the rating process, did you find things that questions specifically that you felt like should have been asked that weren't asked?

Um, especially since this is the county's first time in this process.

Now I wasn't even able to speak to BDO before I was basically forced to um vote on basically the largest injection of funding directly, one-time funding that the county's ever seen.

And we're about to do that again, even though today I'm making multiple votes on the single family housing program that we're putting forward.

Um I have not been able to get a clear answer on when the cone of silence ends for the single family bid that went out, which I found out has already been vetted and scored for those three applicants that are moving forward, and that is because there's no notice of intent that's going to be issued, evidently, which is going to arbitrarily keep the cone of silence on until I'm again forced to vote on this very major project that I don't want to miss anything on or make the wrong decisions.

Now, my question for the county attorney is that the cone of silence policy says that this all applies for two kickers.

The the end of the cone of silence ends at the moment of the notice of intent five days after, or on the cancellation.

My question is is that since there is no plan to do a notice of intent, does the cone of silence even apply in this situation?

So building anticipation.

Yeah, I I am.

Um I am aware of the the nature of the notice of intent with the cone of silence and how the provision was changed in your procurement manual.

What I do not know sitting here is how that would impact those types of procurements that don't go through that process.

So I would need to look into that and and determine whether or not one, the cone of silence would even be applicable, or secondarily, whether or not if that is the desire of this board and uh to proceed forward with a revision to ensure that that kind of silence would also end at the appropriate moment in time that we'd have to determine would be in line with the notice of intent um concept.

So that I can't answer today, but I can go ahead and look into how this was impacted by those issues.

Well, when is when is the item coming back?

So we would need an answer today so that we can def decide whether or not this is applicable because technically I can't I don't even feel comfortable leaving these three items on the table without potentially bringing a motion because I want to talk to the vendors.

I don't I've never heard of two of them.

Well, the best I can offer you for at this exact moment is to see if I believe Sam Hamilton is in the audience for him to take a quick look and uh opine on that particular issue.

Well, Mr.

Chair, there's three items I believe today that discuss the single family home project, so perhaps staff could get us an answer before um the close of that third one to I can decide whether or not I need to make a motion on the issue.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bowles.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh somewhat along the same line.

Um I ask you to come up again.

On slide 10, I believe it was, it talked about the uh reimbursements, the process for that, or you had three, you know, reimbursement, 10 to 50,000 dollars on repairs that have been completed by home or I just literally thought of this moment because I would have asked the gentleman behind you.

Oh man.

Yeah, so but and I don't necessarily have you you have an answer for it, but if we could certainly talk about um as you're working through your protocols, is it possible to make sure that uh to the extent that we can that people aren't double dipping?

Absolutely.

Because if if there's an opportunity for somebody to get $50,000 twice on a home, and it doesn't mean that they're not in correct that they didn't have damage exceeding that amount, but where their ability to I'll call it double dip in there and grab it twice, and they got it from somewhere else and are getting it from here, you know, to the extent that we can vet uh other reimbursement avenues that we make sure that they're not doing that, not because again, they may not necessarily need it, but others need it as well.

Commissioner, we had the same conversation with our county administrator and and walked her through that and the safeguarding of the funding, and no funding will go out without first being vetted to ensure eligibility, and also ensure that there was no other payer that we can subtract from the overall benefit.

Right.

Okay, great.

That that sounds fantastic.

And probably one of you two in the back there.

Whoever wants to come up.

Uh the 70-30 split.

Come on up, Rob.

Uh with the 70-30 split, we have 70 percent that has to go to LMI.

You described that, then we also have 30 percent that goes to it's not bound by that restriction.

So you can we can use it anywhere.

Um so presumably we could use the other 30 percent for the the area that Commissioner Wistel is um referring to.

If right, we look at we look at LMI, we look at urgent need.

Um are those two the same thing, or are they out of the same bucket?

Let's call it.

I I mean there are two ways to allow for something to be compliant, Commissioner.

Um and we do have we do have that 30 percent you mentioned, um, which is good to have because there are times and there are places in the in the county that you know have suffered impacts, but potentially aren't a high LMI percentage.

The one caveat to that is, and this is both HUD recommended and sort of as you look at other counties that have done this.

Everyone recommends starting with trying to get your LMI percentages as high as possible.

Some even say shoot for 80 because you may end up at 70.

Right.

So we start there, but we don't lose sight of the fact there are other needs in the community, and at the appropriate time um we will address those and have those projects and and really the projects we're talking about infrastructure come through this process in the in the same way.

So, and the 70-30 percent split again.

We'll just use those numbers.

Numbers are you know can be manipulated in certain ways.

I'm not saying that anybody is manipulating, but it's just a matter of factoring, right?

So when we talk about 70 percent, is it 70 percent of 709 million, or is it 70 percent minus the administrative cost, all the all the other little things down at the bottom?

So we have 35 million, five million, seven and a half million, fifteen million, all that is that removed and then at 70 percent, or is it 70 percent of the total block?

Because it's kind of like those don't apply to across the board to everybody, so it's kind of like off the top, like kind of the school board tax thing with CIT, you know, comes off the top and then everything else comes in.

So is this the same way?

I believe it's for all of it, but you mentioned something that I need to get you an answer on, which is administration, which isn't the type of thing that is clearly tied to a particular activity.

Um maybe I could default to some of my experts behind me.

Is that correct?

See some heads nodding back there.

Yeah, I got that right.

So um so administration is a bit of a different, you know, that that that color of that money is a little bit different than the rest.

Uh but the other, you know, everything else is really programs for the most part programs and in projects that are landing, you know, somewhere to help someone.

Okay, yeah, because you know, 70 percent of 70, 700 million versus 70 percent of 650.

There's right.

There's a few million dollars in it that maybe could go to other projects that are useful out there.

Okay.

So and and just to add a couple comments to that and your prior comment, Commissioner.

One of one of our um one of the things we're building is a system of record that actually calcul keeps a calculation of the LMI percentage, so we can set expectations with you and with our other stakeholders and make sure we're making wise choices as we start to get to points where there's less money to obligate, so we have to keep a close eye on that.

And going to your prior point um about duplicating benefits, we actually have a comprehensive duplication of benefits policy and a fraud waste and abuse policy.

Both of those were required by HUD for us to even get the grant agreement signed.

So that is a an essential compliance um item that will be implemented by BDL on housing, and then Ernest and Young has a program-wide strategic compliance role as another layer of safety.

So I just wanted to add that to what Audrey said.

The thing with the the single family resident, we're talking about homeowners, not like companies that own and rent correctly.

Homeowners, homeowners.

Owner occupied, yes.

Owner occupied and have homesteaded.

Not like is this second homes as well, or is this all homesteaded homes?

It's primary primary households that were owned at the time of damages being incurred during the storm by the same person or people or family were helping.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you, sir.

Certainly.

Commissioner Myers.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just have a couple of questions.

First, I'd like to thank uh staff for your overview of both all three presentations.

Uh one, um Audrey, when you mentioned about um after hours and weekends, when you all come back, could you tell us the time frame for after hours and what weekends will look like?

Yes, so that we can share that with the public.

Also, I'm reading all the material.

I didn't see in one of my beef has been here.

Would we post signage on all of our infrastructure projects?

Um I need to make sure with 700 a million dollars, we need to let the public know how these funds are being used.

So, Rob, would you make sure uh you and Josh that um we have signage on all of our projects so the public wouldn't know how these projects are being funded?

Most certainly, Commissioner, you know, we we heard this group say we do a lot of good work, but we don't always take ample credit for the good work we do.

So in line with that, we'll have signage, and we're in the process of actually launching a separate county website dedicated to this grant in DR effort, linked to our main website, and part of that website will have an in my neighborhood function by which people can um geospatially find projects, see what the benefits will be before and after photos.

We're putting a lot of emphasis on that on that um those features for the reasons you say, Commissioner, and and selfishly I've instructed the consultants to make our DR website the best in the state.

And I appreciate the website, but I also want the drivers when they drive up near the project, they'll be able to see it as well.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Um then the last thing, and Josh, we had a conversation I want to say last week, in regarding, I know in 2023 when we had all the three major hurricanes, Haleen Milton, and Debbie, um, from the study.

Now, Progress Village and Claire Mill Windsor Park have all three have been flooding areas since I've been here on the board.

Maybe when we come back, I'd like for us to make sure we look at those areas and see we can we can find immediate dollars to deal with those areas so we won't have flooding again this year, perhaps if we have a hurricane.

Okay.

Absolutely.

Yes.

And then the last Josh and you and I talked about 78th Street and Temper Terrace, but I want to put it on the record uh that I know that you're looking into that area so that we can use CDBGDR funding.

Uh and that brings up where the 30 percent might be able to look at that area for temperature.

Thank you all so much.

And a couple couple points, and I'll ask Julia for uh a comment.

Since Commissioner Myers mentioned Temple Terrace.

I know I've had this conversation with Rob and with Tom.

I know they have some uh challenges meeting the income threshold and a lot of their area, but please continue to work with them to see what projects can potentially qualify.

I know simply using the population approach that we that we typically do.

Um it's not a whole lot of money, and they just have some challenges, so please keep working with them.

And then Rob, since you mentioned signage, please make sure the signs are bigger than and better than the ones that tip typically the county puts up.

They're tiny, you can't read anything.

We might as well not even put these signs up.

So let's let's do a better job of those signs, please.

I've said that publicly many times.

Um Julia, did you want to have an update?

Um, I believe Scott Stromer can address the issue that Commissioner Wastel has brought up.

Good morning, Scott Stromer for Gibbons Services.

Yeah, after every selection committee, those those results are posted, usually within a couple days of the uh committee meetings, and then the cono silence would end if it's not protested.

So if we don't get any challenges that it ends right there.

So is it ended?

Yes.

Okay, because we're not challenging.

So that's great news.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Mr.

Stromer.

Chairman.

Sorry.

Okay.

Sure.

What's the length of period of time for a protest period?

I'm just curious.

I mean, if we start talking consultant protest afterwards.

So no, once once once the protest periods end.

So once we advertise the notice of intent for five business days, five is five full business days.

If we don't get a protest, then the cone of silence ends.

If we do get one, it is extended until that protest is resolved.

Okay.

Okay, with Commissioner Myers.

To mention since we have both partners here, BDO and uh Ernst and Young's, I'm gonna ask if you'll give every consideration with working with minorities uh with you all projects.

Thank you so much.

Okay, we need uh three motions here.

First one is just to receive the county's CDB.

So moved second program report motion, Commissioner Willstill, second Commissioner Myers, please record your vote.

Motion carried six to zero.

The second one is to approve the CDBG single family housing program.

So moved.

Motion Commissioner Willstill sent Commissioner Myers, please record your vote.

Motion carried six and zero.

And the third is the approve the seven infrastructure projects.

So moved.

Motion Commissioner Wilson.

Send Commissioner Myers, please record your vote.

Motion carried six to zero.

Okay, Bonnie.

Thank you.

And I really like to thank the board and the entire team.

Um having the responsibility for 709 million dollars is something we take very seriously, and we promise to be transparent and keep you all updated accordingly.

We have one regular agenda item still remaining.

It is item G1.

This is to receive a report from the economic development department regarding the Mosey property development.

I am so sorry, I missed our public hearing.

Yep.

Our time certain item G1.

Sorry.

Let's go back to that.

Uh public hearing regarding the updated list of real property inventory appropriate for affordable housing.

Brenda Brackens will take us through this public hearing.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Brenda Brackens, Affordable Housing Director.

We're here to present item D1, which is to conduct a public hearing to accept comments of the list of real property that is appropriate for affordable housing.

As you know, Florida statute states that the county shall prepare an inventory list that is appropriate for affordable housing, and we're required to bring this list to you every three years, but we um certainly can bring it to you for updates as needed.

Please note that three of the properties have been awarded to organizations through the RFP process.

Um those properties are Earlick Road, Town Center Boulevard, and Noll Pine Way.

At the direction of the board, we're requesting that two additional properties, Sheldon Road and Grey Pines be removed from the inventory list.

In addition to conducting the public hearing, we're re um hearing today.

We're also requesting that you approve a resolution to adopt the updated list and authorize the removal of properties that I just mentioned.

And lastly, close the public hearing period that began on February 4th.

This is a public hearing.

And thank you.

Uh this is a public hearing of five individuals signed up this morning.

Uh first one is Scott Gonzalez, virtual, followed by Denise Herndon and Lois Price.

Is Scott on the phone?

Yes, I am.

Good morning, sir.

Good morning.

Uh my name is Jock Gonzalez.

I'm the current president of the town and country park civic association.

Now it's my understanding that per your January 24th, 21st meeting.

Um recommended that the uh property at Sheldon Road of Water is the former water treatment plant, approximately 16 acres, uh, be removed from consideration for the affordable housing infill program.

And I'd like I'm here to tell you today that uh the board of the civic association supports that recommendation um with due consideration to the infill program.

Um if this board, the county commission is resolved to um increase rooftops and affordable housing options in our neighborhood, then I think you should start with the shopping center properties uh in our area, many built in the 1960s or later, before there were stormwater standards in county country.

There are dozens upon dozens of acres of uninterrupted asphalt and rooftops, um 99 percent um impervious, and you should encourage redevelopment to modern mixed use retail residential uh with modern stormwater standards.

Um that would significantly improve our economic and environmental resiliency.

Um I think you should use some of this community development block grant funds to encourage that.

Um for commercial property owners and the residents.

Um, some two years ago to the property in question.

The board of the County Country Park Civic Association voted unanimously to advocate for a park at this property, and that's what we would like to see happen.

We've um organized a coalition of neighborhood organizations to include Oaks Estate, Fountain View Escape, Pat Acres, 12 Oaks, Bay Crest Park, and Bayport.

Um, and we're still working on that.

Um, but what we would like to see here is uh green space preservation recreation, and if it improves um our stormwater capacity, that would be a bonus.

Um thank you very much.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate the comments.

Uh Denise Herndon.

Followed by Lois Price and Lori Jones Aluku.

Good morning.

Good morning again.

I'm Denise Herndon.

I bought my property on Gorntow Lake Road in 1999, and I had gone to my first town hall meeting when they were wanting to expand Gornto Lake Road south.

At that point, it dead ended just after the Sam's Club and at that time Buddy Freddy's.

Well, now that um one that you're wanting to remove on this um item is the um town center boulevard, which is uh supposedly a affordable housing is 77 units, 39 or one bedrooms, 26 or two bedrooms, two baths, 12 or three bedrooms, two baths.

That's minimum 144 parking spots.

There's not enough.

I was told and under the impression that this whole area was going to be a conservation area.

County still owns several plots of land on Gorntow Lake Road, south of 60, and I just checked um north of Town Center Boulevard.

What do you to my understanding?

This area is supposed to be drainage, and now with um this town in um country boulevard property that you're wanting to be removed, it's taking up a lot of land that was percolating water.

Um that just come up because there's a lot of properties, and one of them is near um Cinnamon Cove, which had some flooding issues.

Oak Bridge Run condominiums was my first owned property.

They've had flooding with just bad rains because they're the 12 to 14 inches below 56th Street in between Fowler and Fletcher.

These are not majority homesteaded properties, but some infrastructure needs to be done.

56th Street is a state street.

That's where I learned about the ordinance.

You can't interrupt the natural flow of water because 56th Street is a state road, you couldn't do anything.

And there was some storm stuff done, but not at Hook Bridge Run, who takes all the water flow from Fowler and Fletcher.

So you've got to do something.

I have nothing to do with Oak Bridge Run.

I don't even know if anybody's doing anything with it because everybody relies on the property manager, and they don't care about doing anything, they just care about getting their money unless somebody squawks.

But something needs to be done about all these properties.

I have um Lockheed Lane, it's considered Azure estate.

Thank you.

That you're wanting to do something with.

That's near Cinnamon Cove.

Lowest price.

Thank you.

Good morning.

I am Lois Price.

I'm sorry, just a second.

Sorry.

I'm a member of First United Church, which is a hope member congregation.

Last spring, a single mother reached out to our church.

She was living in her car with three young children, and she was working long hours at uh at minimum wage in a memory care unit.

Umelessness forced her to put on hold the work that she was doing towards a nursing degree.

After a tri-county search, she secured Section 8 housing finally in St.

Petersburg, and our church helped her to bridge her living expenses until she was stable.

That housing stability changed everything for her.

She now has completed her nursing degree.

She works full-time as a nurse.

Her children are doing much better, both physically and emotionally, including her seven-year-old who underwent cardiac surgery and is now back to school in a gifted program.

Affordable housing is not theoretically beneficial.

It is transformational for families like this.

Uh report.

It's exciting to hear about that.

My understanding, though, is that the project does not significantly increase the supply of affordable housing when it's compared to 2024 pre-hurricane stand on needs.

We still have a housing crisis.

But I'm here today primarily regarding the removal of the Sheldon Road parcel from the affordable housing inventory.

My understanding is that about $2 million of the affordable housing fund was used to acquire that property for low-income housing.

If the site is not suitable any longer, I do respect the need for sound land use decisions and fiscal decisions.

However, I respectfully ask if this parcel is removed, how will the county ensure that we do not lose affordable housing capacity?

Specifically, how will the two million dollars invested be preserved or redirected so those funds continue advancing affordable housing goals?

We need both responsible stewardship and sustained commitment.

Thousands of families in our community, like the family that I just described, depend on it.

Thank you so much for your time and your consideration.

Thank you, Ms.

Price.

Lori Jones Luku.

And our final speaker would be Sharon Streeter.

Good morning, Commissioners.

I am Laurie Jones Luku.

I'm a resident of Hillsborough County, and I'm back here again to talk about the issue of affordable housing.

It's having a negative impact on people's ability to find home homes and live comfortably in our community.

And I always love to share in a personal story.

So I live in the Pebble Creek community, and it's a beautiful neighborhood.

And usually I'm of course I'm accustomed to seeing that when I'm downtown.

He probably could only afford maybe his car.

I just, of course, I didn't pull over and have a conversation, but I know the struggles that families are having.

They're choosing between paying for their children to eat, and some parents are choosing not to pay their utilities to pay their bills.

But then right in my own backyard, I said, oh, well, this is in my face now, and I still can't forget that we have an affordable housing crisis in our community.

So that's why I'm here today.

And I understand that the Sheldon Road property is being removed from the affordable housing inventory list due to issues that make it unsuitable.

That's true.

But we also know that it was purchased with 2.1 million of the affordable housing funds.

And this is why we're here to ask that the 2.1 million be put back towards affordable housing.

Otherwise, your actions today are taking away funds that were committed towards low and very low-income families that desperately need affordable housing because people are struggling, and right now it's in our own backyards, even in the cozies of neighborhoods here in Tampa.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor, for your comments.

Last speaker, Sharon Streeter.

Good morning.

Good morning, Commissioners.

My name is Sharon Streeter, and I attend St.

James House of Prayer Episcopal Church, which is one of the 28 member congregations of Hope, the Hillsborough Organization for Progress and Equality.

I also am here today because our county, as you know, has an ongoing shortage of housing that's affordable.

I understand that five properties are being taken off the county's affordable housing list upon your decision today.

And one of these properties, as mentioned before, is that Sheldon Road property, which obviously has some problems to create housing on it.

But since the $2.1 million of the county's affordable housing fund was used to acquire it for affordable housing, and it is no longer going to be used for that purpose, as far as we know.

It makes sense to allocate at least the amount of money spent to purchase it to be used for affordable housing in the future, especially for the low and very low-income families who struggle the most.

And though most seem to be single family empty lots, um will excuse me.

Will you let us know if these properties have any active plans or an RFP process underway to develop housing on the properties still on the list?

This can help us understand better what work is occurring to meet the affordable housing needs.

One property of particular interest still on that list is 12701 North Florida Avenue.

Three years ago, the county also purchased this property with 1.9 million dollars of county's affordable housing fund.

This property is an ideal site for future development of housing that's affordable for working families with low and moderate incomes because it is 2.7 acres, which could do multifamily units.

It has an existing infrastructure, it is close to jobs, and importantly, it is already on a bus line.

When this property was up for sale, a church who wanted to develop affordable housing on it, though the county acquired it for housing.

Yet we're not aware of any action being taken.

So the county-owned properties and potential funding are strong tools to meet our needs.

If the county removes property, please ensure remaining properties, allocate monies previously spent on the Sheldon Road and others for affordable development to meet the housing needs and potentially this viable North Florida Avenue property.

Thank you very much for your time.

That closes the public comment uh period.

Uh Commissioner Wilson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I originally brought this up.

I just want to thank Mr.

Mueller, his department.

He worked a lot with me on this issue.

I I appreciate it.

Um, and for the town and country community, I know that Commissioner Cohen's also not here today, but I know that he was involved in supportive of this from the get-go.

These folks have been actually been reaching out to me before I was even elected about this about this piece of property.

So I will move for approval.

Thank you.

Okay, we've got a motion to update our inventory list uh reflecting the removal of those two properties by Commissioner Wolstall.

Second.

Second Commissioner uh Miller and Cameron Sabeta.

And I just want to say wholeheartedly support this.

I know there's been interest on both properties from the private sector to do some different uses, so fully support it.

Motion second, please accord your vote.

Yes.

I'm a yes as well.

Yes.

I'm a yes as well.

Yes.

Yes.

Motion carried six to zero.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Bonnie.

Thank you.

And now we can go to item G1.

This is to receive a report from economic development department regarding the MOSE property development.

Ron Barton will present this item.

Good morning, Commissioners.

Ron Barton, Assistant County Administrator.

Pleased to be with you today to give you an update on the MOSE redevelopment efforts.

First, I'd like to acknowledge we have some members of our private development team.

John Nertney, Frank Capitano, I think I saw Carlos at one time.

Carlos is still there.

And we're also joined by John Smith, President and CEO of Museum of Science and Innovation.

And I'm a good marketing plug there.

And of course, we see them as a significant partner as we redevelop the Mosey site.

So pleased to be with you.

I'm not going to introduce all the staff, tons of staff.

And we'll give them pats on the back as we bring this across the finish line eventually.

And Julia, thank you for your engagement.

So with that, I'll move forward.

As the title basically indicates, this is pre-development work.

We're not doing actual development of the Mosey site at this juncture.

These are things that we envisioned that were needed in order to move forward eventually with a development proposal.

So it is truly pre-development agreement.

And we uh broke that effort into two phases a 1A and a 1B.

Um, but very simply, it's to achieve the appropriate land use for the MOSI site for future development.

It's to rezone that property for the appropriate development, and it's to bring forward as we are today, a master development plan for the entire property.

And so those are those are the three uh primary objectives, lots of detailed analysis that we have to do through our consultants.

Uh you can see some of that here with wetlands analysis, environmental side assessment, traffic analysis, all these the nitty-gritty that can go into uh developing a master development plan, and frankly, will be needed as we move forward into the rezoning process, uh, which will take about 18 months.

Um, what I'd like to do today is just give you a midterm progress report on key milestones that we've met at this juncture and are bringing to closure.

As I said, phase 1A was a focus on bringing forward a master development plan, but also uh to move forward with land use um uh designation changes, in other words, a comp plan amendment to the land use change for the Mosey property.

Um, and so we'll go over that today.

Uh, one of those key milestones was a November filing uh with the planning commission uh for land use changes, which I have a map here in just a second, and the good news on that as I transition over to that graphic is the fact that the uh planning commission voted unanimously to approve both of our applications.

One was public use component, which I'll talk about here in just a second.

The other was the bulk of the private development, and so it was a milestone for us as we move forward to the city council.

Reminder this is in the city of Tampa, not unincorporated area, and so we'll be going through the city council uh for both land use and rezoning.

This graphic's a little busy, but over to the right there you'll see a blue section.

Uh one of the uh applications that we made was to basically true up the public use area.

Ironically, part of MOSI wasn't even included in the appropriate land use area for public use, so we had to true that up.

And then the bulk of the property is kind of that purplish uh area, and it's basically uh we applied for two things.

By the way, it's it's basically uh land use is industrial at this point, which none of us think is appropriate for uh matching with Fowler Avenue plan and others.

So on the private side, it was a UMU 60 urban mixed use 60 filing for the bulk of the property, and then with the uh planning commission staff's recommendation that southeast corner there uh lowered uh the land use density classification to a CMU 35 because it adjoined some neighborhoods to the east there, and we certainly were very amenable and it made sense.

So, good news is that's on its way.

Uh Planning Commission's uh voted unanimously on both and has made a recommendation to the city of Tampa to approve those, uh, so we'll launch into that.

The other key milestone is the development of a master plan for development, and what you see here is a basic bubble uh diagram.

We have refinements we'll certainly be making, but what you see here are basically the bones of a neighborhood.

And basically, we have the infrastructure components.

We start with Mosey and No Harm to the Mosey property.

We have an integration of the old Mosey West into what's called the new field house project, and you see that up in the upper right hand corner of your graphic.

And so we're working with TSA and their architect in terms of integrating the private development with the field house itself.

In fact, you'll see there in the top uh northeast corner a hotel facility that would be complementary to the field house uses that we'll have there.

Uh we also have the film studio and theater.

Wanted to make sure I said that uh for the commissioner, but you can see that use as well of the back side of the old Mosey West property.

Uh, and so we'll be continuing to evolve that plan as well.

It's a true mixed use development.

We're excited about it because there's been so much potential for USF from an economic development standpoint.

We've always cited three economic centers West Shore, downtown, and the university district.

We can almost add midtown at this point as well.

But the fact of the matter is we need traction.

It's always really been the university that's drive that economic change there.

So with this project, with the Fletcher Avenue District Project, McClaw, with Yangling's project, with the continued redevelopment of the mall, we really think they all are complementary in driving the economic center that we think the university can be.

So that's my pitch here related to it, and we think we're doing our small piece in doing that.

We believe this plan truly is a neighborhood in the sense that the uses will be retail, uh there'll be services, there'll be residential, there'll be office, there's going to be recreation, uh, and so we have uh and hospitality, two hotels that we show in here.

And then lastly, you can see in the bottom left-hand corner, uh, the board asked us to look at the merit of a privately developed ice facility.

Uh the good news is we checked one of the boxes associated with that inquiry.

Uh we think we found a good place for that facility, uh, should it um it pencil out, and uh we think it makes sense to spread the two venues.

We don't want the ice facility and the field house on one side of the property.

Uh it's gonna cause for ingress and egress issues, uh, things like that.

So we think it's uh spreading them on each side end of the property as a barbell makes a lot of sense, plus that feeds consumers and patrons into the northwest corner, which we see as a retail center.

So that's a that's a brief overview of where we are.

Um I'm gonna go through these quickly because I know we're at the end of the agenda almost.

Uh but these are just what ifs.

Uh no architecture's been done yet.

Uh the design standards haven't been established, but we know our aspirations, and our aspirations are for these kinds of spaces.

Uh, in the open spaces, uh public uh hotel facility, as I mentioned, we've had two programmed.

Um again, the streetscape interaction uh and the scale.

Uh we want to meet the requirement of scale, uh which is called for in the Foul Avenue Vision Plan.

Again, but don't not forgetting the patrons and the street level experience.

So we'll be aspiring for how we uh configure those uses.

Again, this is a this is an integration between the hotel and the field house.

And so there are public spaces that we want to activate in this area so that as patrons of the field house uh come out, there's this interface between the hotel and the field house itself.

Um again, I've mentioned to many of you here, but this this basically east-west driveway.

If you recall, we have power lines transmission, and we're still in discussions with TICO about options, but we have to also plan for existing conditions.

And so you'll see a meandering uh parkway system that carries you east to west, which we need access on both sides of this property.

Um residential as well, and an interface of that residential component to this driveway as well, it's important.

Um, and also the opportunity not just for office over retail, which we can have up in the northwest corner, but full office component.

And so, yeah, those are interchangeable uses as uh demand presents the opportunity we can take advantage of.

So, lastly, upcoming milestones, because we're moving on through the process.

Uh, in April will be the first public hearing with the city of Tampa on our land use.

Um, and then um in May or June of this year, we'll be filing for the rezoning with the city as well.

Uh, as I mentioned, uh planning commission already gave uh unanimous approval.

So we're marching on, uh, but this was a big milestone.

Uh the master development plan concept, uh, launching the land use and um building the details that we'll need to file rezoning shortly.

So I think the last thing I'd like to point out to you is subsequent to our uh engagement uh with our private sector partners, uh we learned late uh last year that the Patel group, who is mentioned in the proposal, um, was going to be a part of the Fletcher district development, the claw, and all parties felt at that point it was a conflict of interest to stay engaged on our side of it.

So the Patel folks are are not engaged any further.

I was assure you we're comfortable with our partners of Coulter and Alliant partners, which make up AKP uh Renaissance.

Um to remind you, this first phase, we're splitting the cost 50-50 of the entitlement process, um, and that's about 300,000 each.

So we're very comfortable with the entities being able to meet those obligations, and lastly, where the rubber meets the road is when we bring you a put uh development agreement, and that's where we'll be vetting all of our partners.

And to be honest with you, I hope we add more partners uh to the process because we want depth uh of delivery, and so we'll be uh bringing not only that development agreement that talks about value of the property, uh the takedown strategy, the obligations of the partners, the financial capability will be brought to you and divulged uh to your comfort level, or we won't move forward.

Uh so with that I answer any questions.

All right, thank you very much, Ron, for that uh presentation.

Uh board members, since I was the commissioner that first um brought this issue forward.

I want to make a couple of comments, then we'll open up the board discussion.

And a few minutes ago, we were having technical difficulties difficulties, and at that time, Commissioner uh Myers asked to speak.

So, although she's technically second in line, I'm gonna recognize her first since she requested it.

Um again, board members, this project is expected to be a two billion dollar development, and as such will be the county's largest economic development project ever, coupled with USF's on campus stadium and golf course redevelopment.

Uh, this transformative project will completely redefine uh USF campus and the surrounding area.

Ron, I want to thank you.

I want to thank John Moeller, Greg, Julia, um, for all your hard work on getting us to where we are today.

Uh gotta be honest, and that I was extremely critical of the previous conceptual site plans that were kind of kicked around because in my opinion, they certainly were not transformative and actually quite elementary.

Um, and I know our staff felt the same way.

So thank you for getting us to a place where uh we can present a conceptual site plan that is consistent with our vision and how we can maximize our development potential.

Um I want to say though, the current conceptual site plan is extremely impressive.

Um the illustrations you showed again it's similar to uh Water Street or Midtown, and really is is is awesome.

So I'm very pleased where we are now.

Uh in addition to the field house, a valuable part of the overall mixed use development is having an entertainment wing that's anchored by the existing Mosey Planetarium.

As Ron stated, we're adding a film studio, a black box theater that is essentially connected to the field house.

So in doing so, a sports entertainment wing will be created in that quadrant of the overall development.

Um my goal is, and I think the goal should be to try and have as close to a seamless opening of these amenities as possible.

So I think it'd be a good idea if our architect that we've already engaged on the field house could incorporate the design of these areas into their current scope.

So if we can just take a look at that, I think we might already be kicking around that idea.

That being said, I want to stress that we're driving this bus.

Now that's not necessarily a bad thing.

However, I don't want their pace to slow down our planning.

And I guess to be specific, if necessary, I want the county to take the lead on whether it's infrastructure, hotel, parking, whatever we need to do in order to avoid delays.

And this is not an attempt to relieve the developer at all of their responsibilities.

It's just to ensure that we stay on track.

And in order for that to happen, it's critical that we stay coordinated with our other partners, this the city and the state.

But just make sure that we're coordinating everything.

Um there's particularly with respect to transportation improvements to ensure that our new access points are aligned with the existing roads to maximize traffic flow and and access.

Just a couple quick points.

And Ron, I must have got this line from you because I haven't written down development agreement, is where rubber hits the road.

So I guess we're on the same page there.

Um now the goal for that is to have it back to the board in summer.

Yes, sir.

That's the goal.

Once we get the rezon zoning filed, we'll be moving into negotiating phase and trying to uh term sheet the development agreement.

And that's where their roles, our roles are specifically outlined.

That's correct.

Um I guess very encouraging planning commission unanimously approved the recommended the comp plan moving forward.

Um is it May or June?

I think is the goal for the to file the rezoning.

Is that it's um May, May June.

And there we have some technical analysis on transportation modeling, some things like that that we need to do.

But yeah, May June is our target.

And uh November, if uh knock on wood, November out to shoot.

Okay, that's that was my next question.

So great.

Um I do want to point out that I like the um the transition and density and buffers to protect the the neighbors on the east side.

And uh lastly, and I'm sure Commissioner Bowles will want to touch on this because this is his baby.

Um I love having the ice hockey rink incorporated into the plan.

Um however, it's my understanding that does not need to be determined now.

Um whatever reason that that does not happen.

I guess there's a conversion clause or something in the rezoning that allows it to go to office or multifamily.

Is that accurate?

You'll we'll be able to build into the rezoning a trade-off mechanism so that we can use a variety of uses in that location.

So we don't need to determine it right now, but um we'll have that flexibility through the zoning.

Okay.

Um, with that, I'll recognize Commissioner Myers, but I'll just say Commissioner Bowles, uh, good luck with that.

I want that to be a part of this facility, uh this project.

I think um it just raises the bar that much more if we can make it make that a reality.

So with that, uh, Commissioner Myers.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Everything on this massive plan really raises the bar.

I mean, it's it's another award-winning project that will be coming to Hillsburg County, and we need to make it happen real quickly, very quickly.

And Ron, you can get it done.

I I'm confident.

You and the team.

But one of the things I just want to bring to attention when we discussed this last time, I mentioned about the splash pad.

And so it's not on here, it needs to be included.

John, it needs to be included, yes.

But Ron, you get my draft uh staff.

Want to make sure the splash pad is included.

I'm not gonna come back and um some notes I had made.

Um, Commissioner Hagen, thank you so much for for the vision in bringing this um before us because we know the potential with Mosley and what now the new master plan would bring into this area, a district three, again, district three, but not so much a district three, but in the surrounding community of out in the USF area, you know, there's not that much out there for folks to do.

Uh District Three, again, district three, but not so much a district three, but in the surrounding community of out in the USF area, you know, there's not that much out there for folks to do, and this would be a huge uplift for the community, and I certainly think Commissioner Hagan for having the vision to look at how we can renovate a facility that the county already owned.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Mars.

Commissioner Bowles.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh fantastic job, obviously.

The uh I would agree.

Uh the first renderings and some that I had heard weren't uh very impressive.

Um I like the idea of the buffers, the the the building in of the the wetlands, the you know, we have a lot of great opportunities to make this uh a live work and play area, and that's exactly what we need in that area.

Um, and of course, you know, I have a strong interest in, or I've at least taken a strong interest since I've uh been elected to board in the project, um, especially with my involvement with MOSE.

I sit on the board there.

Uh you know, my uh vision is to uh to certainly whatever is developed around her that can help bring forward a lot of um activation to the Timozi through STEM through um you know programs that we can have there.

Uh we certainly uh John the CEO John Smith has done a fantastic job of getting people in the doors here, kind of lifting it up out of where it was over the last uh five, ten years.

Um so certainly uh appreciate everything that you all have done that the developers done to listen to what we've been saying uh from a staff position and from this board that you know let's keep moving the bar, let's keep setting it higher.

We see what we've done in Water Street, that we, but we the this area have been able to do Water Street with Midtown, the West Shore where we're going on.

We have the potential.

And you know, one of the things I was thinking about the not too long ago was that you know, it was kind of an all hands on deck when we heard the rays may come here and buy HCC property, or not by, but you know, maybe get HCC property.

I'd like to see that same urgency when you know this is county property we own, not some billionaires or not some other person or the state that we're moving with such urgency to do that because we're setting timelines set by somebody who does no interest outside of personal gain.

Capitalist society, I'm down.

I get it.

But this is kind of you know played out for years by the new through no one's fault.

Um, and now we're here three years after November of 23 when the RRP was first put in.

And you know, I think that we have an obligation to one ourselves and you know the residents out there to do that.

So I I noticed in the uh in the um the presentation.

Are all those 1A action items pretty much done?

I mean, are there going to be anything that you see kind of holding this up?

And if so, you know, what do you think how what may trip wires, you know, the pitfalls that may come out of that?

I know there's probably maybe a couple, right?

We we've made great headway, you know.

Uh I've I've mentioned I think to each of you, you know, we had we went into the land use filing later than we wanted to, uh, but really it was the consensus to wait and see if the city would act on some overarching comp plan changes.

Um we kind of got to a point where we just had to go.

So things like that, obviously integrating the field house into the detail of the plan.

Um all of those have just you know, they have gentle effects on timing and work.

The biggest is transportation.

Yeah, and Commissioner Hagen mentioned it.

And so we've had pre-app meetings with the city and with DOT and which are precursors, right?

And then we'll go into not only data collection but modeling.

That one's the grind.

That's probably the biggest grind, and it'll go all the way up until we almost do our rezoning filing.

So that I mean that's the one that I think we're just gonna have to keep the eye on the ball.

Uh we have multiple parties.

We're not the only one that can call the make the call.

Uh DOT in the city obviously are integral.

Uh so that's the one to watch.

That's the one that we want to make sure it doesn't trip us up.

Are we able to use anything that USF did because they had to do a very similar DOT study for what they have going on there with the stadium?

I mean, this would seem to I don't want to say be some duplicative in some ways, but also I guess we wouldn't augment it, but would maybe add on to it.

I mean so it sounds like maybe some of the groundwork's been done or perhaps it's certainly I I would say this there are an additional development that impacts the road network.

And so it's going to happen almost simultaneous and so the key will be trying to do a holistic modeling not just us.

We don't own that but uh having that conversation particularly DOT and the count fletcher on a county road and so we're right in the mix on that Mike Williams is engaged as well.

So yeah it's it's a Rubik's Cube on what's going on what's gonna go on and then how do we how do we address a transportation network that uh is a benefit not a hindrance to the community.

Right right I think uh you know as things evolve obviously you know we continually have to readjust uh our plans because these nudges move you off course you know it doesn't take you much to do that um I did have a question and you mentioned it and I and I appreciate you mentioning it because it did uh you know this came up earlier about the the withdrawal of Patel and um just curious what are plans for a reassessment to confirm that financial capacity capitalization collateralization of is going to occur because you know I I mentioned to you earlier about a three legged stool you know uh you move a leg you can't sit on anymore and it doesn't mean that the the group is absolutely adequate I mean they've done fantastic projects uh alliant has done fantastic projects around area culture is obviously uh an international company you know multi-billion maybe trillion dollars but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're investing a trillion dollars right in capital over here to say we're gonna put that um and you know with the the possible issues that may come from you know where we're we will let something happen last year or mid year now affecting us now how do you see you know kind of wrapping that up is there is there a plan in action can we get some you know some financial information that that's not stale right and I say that because RF was done two years ago finances are done and there was a couple questions in there about uh that came from uh director stromer about you know capitalization and some debt owed and all that and they had some time frames so whether that was associated with Patel or not but the idea is that you know when that's changed so much in my opinion you take 33% out that spreads the cost across the other two and you know it doesn't take much for someone to to go you know where they can't have that make it a bankable project.

Right.

So can we get that information and I have a list of things that I'd like to see I won't go through the entire list.

Well please share them but with us yeah but I would like to share that with you in your office um and you know really just kind of because I am so I want this to happen this is our property this is where we can make tens of millions of dollars in revenue that in my opinion where we whether we build affordable housing we put infrastructure in our put firefighters in fire stations or police officers and deputies cars.

This is one way we can do operational costs not capital costs and these are long-term revenues that we can stream out so it's not about the person it's about the you know the process and I want to ensure that the process is solid that um that we bring real good ideas not just concepts we got solid partners that we can bring to the table that are going to make this successful outside of the ICE arena which I would love to have because we need at least four or five sheets around here we can go probably eight sheets you know if if we really wanted to do it um beyond that that whole property you mentioned it yourself Fletcher district rhythm uh you know the things that we have going on in that area are just gonna be you know synergistic uh they're all gonna act as catalyst for each other so I I'd really like to see um and feel comfortable that you know as we move forward that we can have that idea is that our our partners out in the audience uh and again who are solid uh you know corporate partners out there who have done some really magnificent jobs that we can count on them to carry that toward for us let me just say your questions and concerns are paramount um it doesn't do any good to think through the the theory of a development agreement if you don't have the ability to deliver and so um and look forward to getting with you again on details but it it's paramount for us because uh we can we can kind of walk through the elements of development process we can walk through partnerships we can begin to diagram the obligations of the parties uh but we got to make sure they could deliver the one thing I will say here is and I mentioned it earlier

Um it doesn't do any good to think through the the theory of a development agreement if you don't have the ability to deliver.

And so um and look forward to getting with you again on details, but it it's paramount for us because uh we can we can kind of walk through the elements of development process.

We can walk through partnerships, we can begin to diagram the obligations of the parties, uh, but we got to make sure they could deliver.

The one thing I will say here is and I mentioned it earlier.

You know, um knowing even when we started way back when on the RIP, um we expected this process to generate more interest and to bring more partners to the table.

Uh remember, a master developer doesn't necessarily develop every single piece of the property.

They're orchestrating the entire development of the land.

They may be the sole developer on something, they may partner with somebody, or there may be circumstances where it's a completely separate partner, but that relationship can be established.

So I think once you gotta remember we had a foul piece of property with the wrong land use and the wrong zoning.

Yeah, and um and and some problematic issues with property.

And so as we begin to dismiss those, other folks are gonna get off the sideline and be courted and be added.

So I I personally believe I'm certainly comfortable with the Alliance partners and and um our um our other partners, but um I think more are gonna be added to this table as we move forward, and we will be betting them financially with capitalization of that group.

Yeah, and what you're talking about is kind of maybe at some point maybe parceling out some of the so it could be like you guys just take care of whoever those guys or gals are, you know, they take care of that.

We got this part, we're doing this, we're doing this.

So phases it's it'll outside of the phases in the agreement, there'll be some phasing in of infrastructure and building of the uh absolutely this site's not going to be developed all at once.

And and so we're already beginning to visualize what are the likely phases and to Commissioner Hagen uh the chair's comments.

Um our development team sees phase one as that hotel attached to the uh fuel house and the residential just to the south of it.

So it's a it's an immediate chunk that can make an immediate impact.

Right.

Um and so they're anxious to talk about how to accelerate that as well.

So I just to his concerns a little bit on timing.

But thank you for your question.

Yes, sir.

Appreciate it.

Great comment, uh Commissioner Bowles.

Go on, Commissioner Wolstell.

Mine will be very brief.

Um, Mr.

Chair, I've supported you on this item since 2023 when you brought it up, supported it in 2024 when you add it to the CIT.

Um I've I've supported this area for density.

It's it's where this density belongs.

I was leaving my office hours down on um 19th Avenue in the Ruskin Sun City City area, and went over the overpass and just saw of these monolithic four-story solid wood apartments um that Commissioner Miller is certainly going to be blamed for, even though she had nothing to do with them, and they rightfully do not belong there.

Um this is I remember when I stepped in to fight for to protect the density in the University Mall area, I got an email saying, oh, now you like apartments.

Like, well, I like them in the right spot.

And um, this is where it belongs.

I was really happy, Mr.

Chair, to see that um travel volleyball um was in there.

I'll just say it again for the general public.

Uh one of my friends showed me their annual costs on it, and it's um you know, more than most people's annual salaries that they spend on their grandchildren.

I just couldn't, I'm still in disbelief that these kids um at that travel ball cost so much and in all of these sports.

So I'm I'm I don't really care, you know, about um some of the items.

I'm not sure that a splash pad can fit in there.

If it can, great, but splash pads come with annual maintenance costs as well, electricity, water, maintenance, um, so um right, city of task.

Yeah, set it to them.

Um, but um, you know, the ice ring thing, I wish you luck on finding um a vendor that can come in with the capital to do that.

I'm not so you know, the the concerns that were voiced, I think were valid concerns by um Commissioner Bowles is terms in terms of the financials.

I just don't really see that as my position up there.

You know, it's one of those things where if it goes south, well, Bonnie's in charge of personnel decisions, and that's our in her uncomfortable job to handle afterwards.

So I wish you all feel good.

I wish you all luck on the uh project though, and um I'll be receiving it.

I don't see anyone else.

I can Mr.

Chair, if you want to make the motion, I can move to receive the report.

Um you go.

Okay.

Well, as Commissioner Walsh will say that's uh uh a career decision here, Ron.

But uh we're we're having some IT challenges again, but I know Commissioner Miller want to speak, and then Commissioner Cameron Cepeda.

Thank you.

Um pedestrian safety is very important to me.

Um I bring it up all the time.

I just want to make sure that that's interrupted and that it's user-friendly.

Yes, I'd just like to say thank you for this report and all the team and everyone that you know was a part of this.

I know it was a lot, and um I'm really looking forward to seeing this to completion.

Thank you.

Excellent comments from everyone.

I'll I'll pass the gavel and just make a motion that we uh receive the report.

Yes.

No, just future discussion items.

I have one and uh staff I know already aware of it, but we have a situation um in Lake Maglin at Brentwood, a neighborhood where an individual essentially but just been a bad neighbor.

He bought a uh I guess retention palm from the county a couple years ago for a dollar, and he doesn't have any development rights, but he's already starting to put up little shacks around there, and I know staff knows it, but you can just report back as soon as possible on on our aggressive nature of of how we're holding the this individual's foot to the fire.

So just have them come back.

But I want to be aggressive and holding this guy accountable.

Um other feature issues.