NEW PORT RICHEY — Pasco County commissioners haven’t landed on a plan to make their meetings more accessible to working residents, but, as Commissioner Seth Weightman put it, at least they’re airborne.
Commissioners spent an hour Sept. 22 discussing whether to change when and where they meet, considering everything from earlier start times to evening land-use hearings and a third monthly meeting at a more centrally located site.
No decision was made, with commissioners agreeing to take another look in December.
“I don’t think the plane’s landed, but we’re flying,” Weightman said.
The discussion was the result of Weightman’s request earlier this summer to examine whether the county’s current schedule — regular meetings at 10 a.m., with public hearings at 1:30 p.m. — makes it unnecessarily difficult for residents with jobs and families to participate.
“We hear folks all the time, ‘Hey, I wish I could come to the meeting, but you start at 10 o’clock in the morning,’” Weightman said. “This whole exercise is about finding the best way to balance due process and access for folks.”
Weightman’s push was inspired back in May, when he attended a Saint Leo Town Commission meeting concerning a contentious land-use fight. An overflow crowd of roughly 200 attended, many forced to peer through windows from outside. Weightman wondered if that same kind of accessibility, energy and crowd could be replicated at Pasco’s Board of County Commissioners meeting if the schedule was more accommodating.
County staff studied meeting schedules in six surrounding counties and returned with five possibilities, including starting at 9 a.m., moving some public meetings to after 5 p.m., adding a third monthly meeting devoted to land-use matters (which typically draw the largest number of residents) or having one of Pasco’s two monthly meetings extend into the evening.
Residents paid by the hour may lose three or four hours of wages, or even an entire day’s pay, just to appear before their elected officials, Weightman said.
“It shouldn’t cost people money to have to come here and speak to us,” he added. “I think even an evening conversation is important.”
Chairman Jack Mariano made a similar argument, saying daytime hearings can favor residents with more flexible schedules.
“The middle class and the poor, they’re going to have a tough time making those meetings,” Mariano said.
He favored 6 p.m. hearings for significant land-use matters, saying having residents in the room can also give commissioners additional leverage when negotiating with developers.
“When developers feel pressure, they react, and we’re taking that away not only from citizens, but from us to get the best development we can,” Mariano said.
But finding a better time isn’t simple.
Commissioner Kathryn Starkey said she didn’t want residents, or commissioners, traveling across Pasco after dark, particularly on State Road 52.
“It’s terrifying when I drive home in the dark on that road,” she said, while noting that Pasco already offers virtual participation.
Commissioner Ron Oakley also favored keeping the current setup, perhaps with a 9:30 a.m. start. He said previous night meetings could stretch past midnight and argued the county’s practice of alternating meetings between East and West Pasco saves residents from long trips across the county.
Another complication raised: money.
Evening meetings would require overtime that isn’t currently budgeted, Clerk Nikki Alvarez-Sowles said. She was told that previous night meetings sometimes lasted until 1 or 2 a.m., leaving staff to return to work just hours later.
“It got rough,” she said.
Commissioner Lisa Yeager liked the idea of a third meeting devoted to land-use issues at the county’s centrally located utilities building, but suggested trying it first as a pilot program.
“Let’s see what our what our numbers are,” she said. “We could do it for six months, a year, whatever. … I would just say only land-use items because that’s what really people are concerned about.”
For now, commissioners agreed to better publicize an option residents already have: attending meetings virtually. They also discussed way to better organize and present emails from residents who can’t attend.
But Weightman cautioned against viewing technology as a substitute for having residents in the room.
“Emails get lost in outer space,” Weightman said. “To have somebody physically take their time and show up and care brings so much more value into the decisions that we all have to make. … There’s no comparison there.”
Staff will return in December with a narrower set of options, along with estimates for overtime, technology and potential locations.