The Laker/Lutz News

Serving Pasco since 1981/Serving Lutz since 1964

B.C. Manion

Honors bestowed to those stepping up in Ian’s aftermath

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As Hurricane Ian headed toward Florida, elected leaders and government officials across Tampa Bay braced for what was predicted as a possible ‘worst-case scenario’ for the region.

Instead, Hurricane Ian veered south, making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Sept. 28, as the deadliest hurricane to strike Florida since the 1935 Labor Day hurricane.

Footage from national and local television coverage revealed the destructive forces of Hurricane Ian, as it traveled through areas including Fort Myers, Sanibel Island, Cape Coral and other places to the south of the Tampa Bay region, and then headed across the state of Florida, before entering the Atlantic Ocean and making another landfall in South Carolina.

Pasco County didn’t emerge entirely unscathed from Hurricane Ian, but the damages were relatively minor compared to communities to the south of the Tampa Bay region that were devastated by the Category 4 hurricane. As soon as they were able, first responders from Pasco County, as well as private citizens, sprang into action to help those who didn’t escape Ian’s wrath. (File)

News footage showed heroic actions, and search and rescue teams going house to house looking for survivors.

The coverage also captured the human emotion of people being rescued, and others dealing with the loss of their homes and businesses.

Floodwaters spilled into houses. High winds sheared off roofs.

Boats were stacked up in marinas, or tossed blocks away. Roads turned into rivers. Cars and trucks floated down streets. Trees toppled. The power was out, water systems weren’t working and pumping stations were damaged.

But, as soon as they could get there, Pasco County emergency responders and private citizens went to the hurricane-ravaged areas, to help.

The Pasco County Commission took a few minutes out of its Dec. 6 meeting to express appreciation for those leaving their families here, to help others suffering in Ian’s aftermath.

One resolution cast a spotlight on the Pasco Sheriff’s Office Deployable Emergency Response Team for its search and rescue efforts in Lee County.

Another resolution highlighted the donations collected and delivered, as well as the volunteer work done by members of Rotary District 6950, Pasco residents, Maus Nissan and Big Storm Brewery.

A third resolution recognized Pasco Fire/Rescue first responders, and a fourth resolution highlighted the efforts of employees in the county’s emergency management division.

The sheriff’s Deployable Emergency Response Team deployed canines and drones to help people who were trapped under debris and damaged structures.

“As everybody knows, that storm was focused here, first,” Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco told the county board. “We got the call from Gov. DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott, everybody saying, ‘What do you need?”

“Other sheriffs were calling, ‘As soon as that makes landfall, we’re there.’

“And then, within a matter of hours, it shifted.

“I want to thank our deputies who went down there — the women and men who went down there — their families were here.”

“The Rotaries, the businesses, everybody who went down there to support our members — that is so heartwarming. That, to them, means so much,” Nocco said.

If Ian hadn’t turned, the story would have been much different, the sheriff and others said.

“If that storm would have hit us, everything west of (U.S.) 19 would have been rocked.

“When you see sand piled up above your head and you see the water,” Nocco said. “The amount of water that came in, it was unbelievable.”

Pasco organizations, businesses and residents also stepped forward to help.

Rotary District 6950 organized a collection drive, with its 49 clubs delivering donations to Mau Nissan, which opened its Bay area locations to accept the donations.

The Rotary district delivered supplies to the sheriff’s Deployable Emergency Response Teams stationed in both Fort Myers and Bonita Springs, and also raised $85,000 for additional hurricane relief efforts in Lee County.

The volunteers filled four 26-foot box trucks with collected donations and delivered them to the residents of Lee County.

Big Storm Brewery also opened its doors to collect donations and supplies to take to Lee County residents.

Private citizens also helped, including a group including Alison Crumbley, a member of the Pasco County School Board.

The group delivered supplies to the area to help people in need. They knocked on doors to see how they could help.

In the midst of their efforts, the U-Haul stocked with items to help Ian victims broke down and it took seven hours to get back on the road, Crumbley said.

Commissioner Kathryn Starkey told the helpers how impressed she was by their efforts.

“What I heard what you guys did, I was just floored,” Starkey said.

Crumbley responded: “We’re humbled. We’re just Florida folks who saw other Florida folks really hurt. It could have been us, and it looked like it was going to be.”

Pasco County Fire/Rescue sent several teams down to help in the aftermath and several employees from the county’s emergency management division also went to help.

“One thing we noticed is that the emergency management team, quite a few of them had lost their homes,” said Laura Wilcoxen, Pasco’s assistant director of emergency management.

“So, while they were serving their community, allowing us to come in, they trusted us and turned over their EOC (Emergency Operations Center) to us, to let Andrew Fossa (Pasco’s director of emergency management) and myself be the incident commander, and run their EOC for them, while they were able to take a break, to be able to take care of themselves and their home.”

The county’s team saw catastrophic damage, with watermarks that were 25-feet high, Wilcoxen said.

“If it came over here, everything west of (U.S.) 19 could have been lost,” she added.

County board members expressed appreciation for county staff members who helped out, particularly the first responders.

Commissioner Gary Bradford told them: “You guys are the tip of the spear. When duty calls, you go. I’m personally very proud of you.”

Published December 21, 2022

Pasco Schools to start a few minutes earlier after winter break

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Pasco County Schools is adjusting schedules again — planning to start the school day four minutes earlier each day, once students return to school for the second semester.

The district had planned some cushioning into its schedule, but lost four days due to Hurricane Ian and then lost another one because of Hurricane Nicole.

To make up for instructional time lost because of Hurricane Ian, the district already has scheduled two student makeup days. One will be on Jan. 3 and the other on Feb. 20.

It also has had to convert all of its second-semester Early Release Days into full student contact days.

But it didn’t have any other options left, when it came to making up for time lost because of Hurricane Nicole.

So, the district has decided to make up that time by starting a little bit earlier each day.

The Pasco County School Board approved the revised bell times as part of the board’s consent agenda at its Dec. 13 meeting.

Items on the consent agenda are voted on in a single action, without discussion.

Published December 21, 2022

Saddlebrook request to get extra public hearing

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The Pasco County Commission wants the community to have another chance to hear about proposed changes at Saddlebrook Resort, in Wesley Chapel, and to have the opportunity to weigh in on them.

The county board voted to continue the request to the public hearings portion of its Feb. 7  meeting, in Dade City.

Saddlebrook Resort includes a hotel, spa, tennis and golf complex. It also is home to Saddlebrook Tennis Academy, Saddlebrook Golf Academy, Saddlebrook Preparatory School and two 18-hole, Arnold-Palmer designed golf courses. Some big changes are being proposed to the resort and the Pasco County Commission wants to be sure that residents understand those plans before the issue is brought to the county board for a vote. (File)

In the interim, though, it directed its staff to arrange for the issue to go before the Pasco County Planning Commission for another hearing on Jan. 5, before returning to the county board in February for a vote on the request.

Both meetings will begin at 1:30 p.m., and be held in the board chambers at the Historic Pasco County Courthouse, at 37918 Meridian Ave., in downtown Dade City.

Jack Mariano, the newly elected chairman of the Pasco County Commission, urged his colleagues to send the issue to the planning board for a hearing, to ensure that the community has an opportunity to hear the proposed plans and to voice any concerns.

The applicant did hold community meetings within Saddlebrook, but those were organized by individual homeowner associations, said Barbara Wilhite, the applicant’s attorney.

Mariano said he wants anyone who is interested to be able to hear the same presentation and he wants that to happen before it reaches the board for a decision.

Based on documents in the planning board’s Sept. 22 agenda packet, the request calls for amending the county’s future land use map on about 420.5 acres on a site that is south of State Road 54, east of Service Road.

Saddlebrook has an existing master-planned unit development (MPUD), which has existing entitlements, development and infrastructure.

But a substantial modification has been requested to add acreage to the existing MPUD and to convert one existing golf course and the driving range into commercial/retail, multifamily, single-family, dorm rooms, clubhouse and restaurant uses, according to documents in the planning board’s Sept. 22 agenda packet.

Saddlebrook Resort includes a hotel, spa, tennis and golf complex that opened in 1981 and is home to Saddlebrook Tennis Academy, Saddlebrook Golf Academy, Saddlebrook Preparatory School and two 18-hole, Arnold-Palmer designed golf courses.

Saddlebrook currently contains a number of different uses including commercial/office, multi-family, single-family, recreational and hotel/convention center uses.

The proposed use calls for converting the area that is the golf driving range into the town center for Saddlebrook, the background materials say.

The request must gain approvals from the county board, to clear the way for the proposed project.

At the initial planning board meeting, the request had been included on the consent agenda — meaning it could be approved without discussion, but planning board member Jon Moody pulled the item for discussion.

Moody doesn’t believe that large-scale projects should be included on the consent agenda.

He also expressed concerns about the county’s public notice requirements for such requests.

“My particular concern in Saddlebrook is that a great number of the property owners, adjacent to the golf course, to which this comp plan amendment applies, live out of state, many of them live out of country, so they didn’t see the sign posted,” Moody said during the planning board meeting.

Mariano said the planning board needs to take up the issue again because “I don’t feel that the planning commission got a good hearing,” he said.

Wilhite said her client had a series of public hearings and has been listening.

“We have been making changes,” she said.

But Mariano said: “The Planning Commission, I feel, needs to hear a complete presentation.”

“I think it should be all at once, everybody hearing the same thing,” he said.

Mariano said he knows that Saddlebrook residents want more communication.

“They feel that their voices weren’t heard from the get-go,” Mariano said.

Wilhite responded: “We have been making changes. We have been listening,” she said. “I’m very confident that the things that my client is doing, that we’ll have a lot of buy-in, actually, as we go forward.”

Published December 14, 2022

Union rep says Pasco needs to ask itself: Why are firefighters leaving?

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The two new members of the Pasco County Commission had barely warmed up their seats on the board before hearing about the increasing number of the county’s firefighters that are resigning.

“In the year 2022 alone, we’ve had 49 resignations, and that number will undoubtedly grow before the end of the year,” Dixon Phillips, the District 3 representative of IAFF (International Association of Fire Fighters) Local 4420, told the board during the public comment portion of the Dec. 6 meeting.

“You must ask yourselves: Why are firefighters leaving? The answer to that is simple. Quality of life.

“Pasco’s firefighters work 208 hours more per year than almost all of our neighboring fire departments.

“If you march that number out over a 30-year career, that means a firefighter that works in Hillsborough County will work on a truck 2.3 years less than a firefighter that works on a truck in Pasco,” Phillips added.

Pay is a concern, too, he said.

This badge represents Pasco/Fire Rescue. (File)

“Starting in April 2023, that same firefighter, on average, will be paid 20% more than firefighters in Pasco,” Phillips said.

He also listed a number of other issues.

“Pasco County firefighters have not had a health screening or physical since 2018, even though the bargaining agreement stated that physicals were to begin in 2021.

“Pasco County firefighters have not had a physical agility test since 2016.

“This county denies job-related cancer claims, but does nothing to ensure that our firefighters are healthy and in good physical condition.

“We scratch our head and wonder why we lose 20% of our new hire class before they even step in the door.

“How are we supposed to retain or recruit, when the No. 1 international publication in our field, Firehouse Magazine, writes a story about Pasco County commissioners approving up to $85,000 (in legal fees) to fight a state-mandated $25,000 firefighter-related cancer claim?

“Would you work for a business that did that to their employees?” he asked county board members.

The resignations of firefighters comes at a time when the county’s emergency response calls are on the rise, Phillips said.

“According to the state fire marshal’s office, in 2021, out of all the fire departments in the state of Florida, Pasco County Fire Rescue ran the third most EMS calls in the state.

“This is no surprise because Pasco County Fire Rescue saw a 16% increase in total call volume that year, and those numbers continue to rise in 2022.

“With that in mind, our local (Local 4420) anxiously awaits the opening of Fire Rescue Station 9, which is scheduled later this month.

“However, Station 17, which broke ground on June 10, 2021, is not projected to be completed, until the earliest, August 2023.

“We need stations to be built faster.

“Trucks like rescue 223 and 226, to be put on the road faster,” he said.

Phillips’ appearance before the board is just the latest in a series of such appearances by representatives for the county’s fire/rescue crews, who have experienced a sizable increase in emergency response calls, as a result of the county’s rapid growth.

Fire/Rescue personnel have urged the county board to increase resources to enable them to trim emergency response times.

The county’s voters have approved bonds to pay for new fire stations to be built, and the county board has approved budget increases for Fire/Rescue equipment and personnel. But there has been a lag time between those approvals and the availability of additional resources for emergency responders.

Published December 14, 2022

Pasco scores 555 manufacturing jobs

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The Pasco County Commission has approved an incentive agreement with Gary Plastic Packaging Corp., in a deal expected to result in 555 new manufacturing jobs.

The board unanimously approved a total of $983,000 in incentives during its Dec. 6 meeting.

The property is located in the Harrod Properties venture, at the North Pasco Corporate Center, according to David Engel, director of Pasco County’s Office of Economic Growth.

The Pasco County Commission, county staff, representatives of the Pasco Economic Development Council and from Gary Plastic Packaging Corp., celebrate an economic incentives deal expected to yield 555 new manufacturing jobs for Pasco County. At the center of the photo, Commission Chairman Jack Mariano holds a framed copy of the agreement, along with Richard Hellinger, president of Gary Plastic Packaging Corp. (Courtesy of Pasco Economic Development Council)

That project consists of two buildings, each being approximately 440,000 square feet, on 72 acres, off Softwind Lane, in Spring Hill.

One of the buildings, according to the developer’s website, has been completely leased, Engel said. Gary Plastics Packaging will occupy 279,000 square feet of industrial space in the other building.

“The property has been cleared and is under mass grading right now and construction is imminent,” Engel said.

He also noted that Gary Plastic is investing approximately $16 million in improvements such as manufacturing equipment, furniture, and other fixtures.

Harrod Properties is set to invest approximately $50 million in the building, land, and infrastructure, according to a Pasco Economic Development Council (Pasco EDC) news release.

Engel outlined the incentives package for Gary Plastic Packaging Corp., for the county board.

He said the economic deal essentially can be broken into three buckets. $552,000 for 184 new jobs; $306,206 for a high-impact bonus; and, $100,000 in training funds.

The agreement is a terrific investment for the county, Engel said.

“For every dollar the county provides, we’re getting back annually approximately $110. So, the rate of return is enormous to the community,” Engel said.

The deal came to the county through the Pasco EDC.

Tom Ryan, director of business development for the Pasco EDC, has been working for four years to secure it.

Ryan told the county board that he went to the Bronx to meet with Richard Hellinger, president of Gary Plastic.

“He was enamored with the idea of moving to Florida, he thought it was a great opportunity, but he was looking at two other states. So we had to make our case, and we made our case,” Ryan said.

The biggest issue was finding a suitable space, Ryan said.

Hellinger, the company president, told the county board that he’s “super excited about this opportunity to expand my operation into Pasco County, from New York.”

He expressed enthusiasm for the workforce training opportunities available in Pasco, through the county’s high schools, colleges and AmSkills.

Hellinger also provided some insights about his company, which was named for his father, Gary.

The company was founded in 1963, Hellinger said. It produces plastic packaging and plastic promotional items.

The plastic packaging is clear, hinged containers for the electronics industry and the medical industry, he said.

The vast majority of the company’s product now — 85% — is in the promotional space, he added.

The company’s customers include government, pharmaceutical, medical, gift, cosmetic, jewelry, hardware, automotive, food, drug, and discount chain accounts throughout the United States, according to its website.

Published December 14, 2022

Matter Brothers furniture store coming to Wesley Chapel area

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The Pasco County Commission has approved a rezoning that will clear the way for a Matter Brothers furniture store.

The project is slated to be located on the south side of State Road 54, about one-fourth mile west of Wesley Chapel Boulevard. It is between Cypress Creek Road and Wesley Chapel Boulevard.

The site is planned for development consisting of an 80,000-square-foot furniture store, 12,230-square-foot leather gallery store, and 23,800 square feet of retail/office land uses.

The project buildout is expected in 2025, according to materials in the county board’s agenda packet.

The rezoning was approved, without discussion, as part of the board’s consent agenda. That agenda allows a number of items to be approved in a single action, if no one has requested the item be pulled for discussion.

The furniture store is planned on a 9.4-acre site, which was previously zoned for agricultural and general commercial uses. The site is currently undeveloped.

The applicant has volunteered to record a deed restriction to the property, which addresses a number of issues such as environmental conservation and protection, flood damage prevention, site access, and others.

Published December 14, 2022

Pasco leaning toward requiring commercial fence permits

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The Pasco County Commission wants to improve the county’s appearance and one of the ways it wants to do that is by prohibiting chain-link fences that are visible from its collector or arterial roadways.

The code change, adopted by the county board at its Dec. 6 meeting, does allow an exception for properties being used for legitimate agricultural purposes.

Enforcing the chain-link prohibition is expected to prompt new commercial fencing regulations.

Commissioner Kathryn Starkey said a commercial fence permit process is needed to enable the county to enforce the new standard.

“If we don’t have a commercial fence permit requirement, how will people know what’s allowed and what’s not allowed?” she said. “I don’t want someone to come in and put in a chain-link fence and then have code go out and say, ‘You’re not allowed to do this.’ That’s just a nightmare for us. I want them to know ahead of time.

“If we’re going to have some fence rules, we need to be sure that we are catching these and have the ability to enforce it,” Starkey said.

County Attorney Jeffrey Steinsnyder recommended the board revise its ordinance and then let the permitting process catch up to that.

He said the revised section of the code should read: “Chain-link, welded wire or similar fences and gates visible from collector or arterial roadways, on the highway vision map and functional classifications map, shall be prohibited.”

In addition to adopting the revision relating to fences, the board adopted a number of other changes to the land development code. These include:

  • Requiring two shade trees at residential lots that are 6,000 square feet or smaller. One shade tree had been required. The change also allows a shade tree to be placed in the right of way fronting the lot.
  • Requiring applicants for comprehensive plan amendments to post, publish and mail notices of the request. The code had only required notices of applications for comprehensive plan amendments to be published, and in some cases, posted, but not mailed.
  • Allowing publication of requests to be made by posting to a newspaper of general circulation, or any other means. That change anticipates the implementation of a new state law that allows publication on a publicly available website, instead of requiring publication in a paper of general circulation.
  • Making it possible for some projects to be approved through a development agreement, a special exception, (or) a conditional use, instead of being required to go through a master-unit planned development zoning.

The code revisions also provide new definitions for what constitutes a family, a group living arrangement, and a residential treatment and care facility.

Those changes were prompted by a previous case involving what the county considered to be a residential treatment and care facility, but which the applicant argued fell under the county’s definition of a family.

The changes are meant to clarify when special permission is needed for a particular living situation within a single-family neighborhood.

The amendment defines group living arrangements as those including, but not limited to, convents, monasteries, fraternities, boarding homes, shelters for abused children, runaway shelters, and dormitories.

Group living arrangements do not include residential treatment and care facilities or independent living facilities.

The definition for residential treatment and care facility was modified as well, to reflect that these facilities employ the help of skilled and licensed practitioners.

Published December 14, 2022

Pasco County creates Public Safety Branch, names its leader

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The Pasco County Commission has approved a reorganization that establishes a new Public Safety Branch.

It will oversee the county’s department of corrections and its fire/rescue division.

The county assumed the operations of the county’s jail on Oct. 1, necessitating a reorganization to appoint a division to oversee corrections and fire/rescue.

The Pasco County Commission also confirmed the appointment of John J. Murphy to serve as assistant county administrator of the Public Safety Branch, at an annual $180,000 salary.

His official start date is Nov. 28.

County Administrator Mike Carballa said that Murphy was selected after a national search.

“We had a quite large pool of qualified candidates,” Carballa said, which was narrowed down to four finalists.

The finalists met with department directors, various stakeholders, the county’s executive leadership and Carballa.

Murphy has a mix of military and local government experience, Carballa noted. He also holds a master’s degree in public administration, with a concentration in criminal justice, from Marywood University.

Murphy also is a credentialed manager by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and serves on the ICMA’s Veterans Advisory Board, according to the agenda materials.

Importantly, Carballa said, “he shares our leadership philosophy here at the county.”

The county administrator said he’s confident that Murphy will do great things with the Public Safety Branch.

Murphy told the board: “It was a very thorough search. I got to meet a lot of staff. I think there was probably more than 25 (people) that were part of the process.”

He added: “I’m honored to be selected and join this team, and move the county forward, especially as you’re taking over a brand-new jail operation, that’s critical.

“I’ve met at least a half-a-dozen of the fire department’s leadership team and I look forward to working with them, as well,” Murphy said.

The Land O’ Lakes Detention Center previously was managed by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, but the operations shifted to Pasco County when the new fiscal year began Oct. 1.

In addressing the county board, Murphy said he’s looking forward to the new position and assured the board that the hiring process had been thorough, mentioning that he thinks he met with about 25 people.

 

Pasco’s ‘Ready Sites’ program is attracting companies

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Pasco County continues to attract manufacturers seeking a place to set up shop, and is heading into a new fiscal year that will show an increased focus on supporting workforce development efforts.

Those were some key take-aways in a report delivered by Bill Cronin, president and CEO of the Pasco Economic Development Council (EDC), to the Pasco County Commission.

Cronin briefed the board on results from the Pasco EDC’s work during the 2021-2022 fiscal year, which wrapped up recently.

H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Hospital Inc., is proceeding on a plan to expand its work on a campus in Pasco County. The project is expected to generate 14,000 jobs over time, including positions for people who have not even been born yet. The campus also is expected to become a global magnet for life science and research companies. Pasco already is working on ways it can be ready to meet the workforce demand. (File)

Overall, Pasco’s business recruitment and development efforts are going well, based on Cronin’s presentation.

“Our goal was 14 wins this year. We got 11.

“But if you look at the numbers — what came with that — our goal for capital investment was $100 million. We ended up with $240 million of new capital investment in Pasco County, and over 1,200 jobs.

“When I look around the state at some of the other counties and how they did, we’re trending with some of the big counties in South Florida. And, it’s really because we’ve got the product, we’ve got the people and we’ve got great leadership here,” Cronin said.

“Manufacturing still tends to be one of our leading sectors because we are still one of the only places that has land, and people. That is rare in Florida,” Cronin said.

Cronin said that the Pasco EDC’s Ready Sites program puts the county in a competitive position for attracting companies.

That program involves assessing, evaluating and certifying large tracts to prepare them for industrial development.

The Pasco EDC then markets those sites nationally at trade shows and conferences, as well as on the economic development organization’s website (PascoEDC.com).

The strategy appears to be working.

“We’re still continuing to get great looks on Ready Sites. This has become one of the programs that now has gotten the attention of the surrounding counties because they don’t have land.

“A lot of them (Ready Sites) are now coming to you, with projects attached. So, it worked. We needed the (site-ready) product,” Cronin said.

That program is just one example of Pasco EDC’s arsenal of tools.

“We’re still out calling on companies. We’re still hitting events. We’re still working with our partners, like AmSkills and workforce training partners,” Cronin said.

Other activities include attending conferences locally, nationally and internationally to not only pitch Pasco as a place to do business, but to share information about Pasco EDC programs, too, Cronin said.

The private nonprofit organization receives financial support from both private investors and from taxpayer revenues, through programs supported by Penny for Pasco.

It works closely with Pasco County’s Office of Economic Growth.

During the past fiscal year, Pasco EDC had 91 private investors and brought in $715,000 in private funding to help cover economic development expenses, Cronin said.

The return on investment from public spending on economic development is 146 to 1, he added.

“So that means for each public dollar you give Pasco EDC to put in programs, the gross county product that comes out of that is 146 times the amount of public funds going in,” he explained.

Cronin also offered a statistical breakdown of the project pipeline, by industry:

  • Advanced manufacturing: Five wins, 34 active projects, 20 leads
  • Logistics and distribution: One success, 12 active projects, 25 leads
  • Life sciences and medical technology: One success, 13 active projects, six leads
  • High Technology: Two wins, 16 projects, nine leads
  • Business and professional services: Two successes, seven projects, one lead
  • Aerospace aviation and defense: Seven active projects, two leads

In marketing the county’s strengths, Cronin said his team Is partnering more frequently with the county’s tourism staff.

“Quality of place has become very important, post-COVID, so, you’ll see us doing more things together,” he said.

Pasco also is looking toward trade missions and foreign-direct investments, Cronin said, as international efforts are becoming more active as people begin traveling again.

For instance, Florida Avenue Brewing in Wesley Chapel received a scholarship to go on a trade mission with Enterprise Florida to Panama, Cronin said. “We hope they get some sales.”

Pasco County Commission Chairwoman Kathryn Starkey has a keen interest in international trade.

She told her board colleagues: “We’re talking about doing a Pasco International Day, and I’m thinking we’ll do something here at the board meeting in February. And then we’ll have an event the following Wednesday night with all of our international partners in the county.”

Cronin noted: “That will be business and culture, as well.”

The economic development leader also said he expects Pasco EDC’s efforts to continue strengthening in the area of helping employers meet their workforce needs.

“I think going forward for this next year, you’re going to see us really doubling down for emphasis on startups and emphasis on the talent pipeline.

The county still needs to come up with 14,000 jobs to work at Moffitt Cancer Center’s Pasco campus —some of whom haven’t even been born yet, Cronin said. “And, that’s just for the Moffitt piece of it.”

Published December 07, 2022

TV crime drama may emerge from local novelist’s book

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Leonard Territo — a retired criminology professor and textbook author — really never expected to write a novel, or contemplated the idea of his book possibly being turned into a television crime series.

But now, an agent working for the former Saint Leo University and University of South Florida (USF) professor, is pitching the series in Los Angeles and Canada.

“They shotgun this stuff out, to see who’s interested,” said Territo, who lives in Land O’ Lakes.

“I would say right now that the LA project looks more promising than Canada. Since the LA people now have asked her (his representative) to write a pilot and an eight-week series, they’re probably more serious,” he said. So, she is going to develop it and submit it.

Leonard Territo, a retired criminology professor and a textbook author, is waiting to see if ‘Ivory Tower Cop,’ a novel he co-authored with George Kirkham, becomes the basis for a TV crime series. (Courtesy of Leonard Territo)

The series is based on a novel called “Ivory Tower Cop,” co-authored by Territo and George Kirkham, another widely known retired criminology professor.

If it gets developed, it will be called “Roth,” based on the book’s main character. That’s because the title “Ivory Tower Cop” was considered to be too long, Territo said.

“Ivory Tower Cop” is a suspense thriller inspired by the true story of Kirkham’s experience of leaving academia to work as a street cop.

It’s also loosely based on a serial rapist whose crimes created terror in Omaha, Nebraska, said Territo, who first learned about that case by reading a story published in a Tampa newspaper.

Territo and Kirkham, who became friends after meeting at a criminology conference, decided to join forces to write the novel.

They traveled to Nebraska to interview the investigators involved in the Omaha serial rapist case.

Territo said working with Kirkham was the perfect collaboration.

“He’s the creative writer and I’m the technician,” he said.

Territo provided the technical details of the crime scene, while Kirkham brought it to life.

“It was a perfect combination. I had skills that he didn’t; he had skills that I didn’t,” he said.

It took about 15 years from the time the idea came up for the novel, to its actual publication.

Territo said the reason it took so long to publish is because they didn’t have an agent. Ultimately, Territo reached out to someone he knew at Carolina Academic Press to work out a deal for publication, which occurred in 2009.

Obviously, considerable time has passed since then — which was long before the George Floyd incident.

To give the potential television series a more contemporary feel, Territo said, “we decided to tack on additional layers to Ivory Tower Cop, for the TV version, not for the book.”

The new material involves a retired police chief who comes from Chicago to work in Miami, and when he arrives there’s a scandal brewing involving a coverup of the death of a young black man who died as a result of excessive force.

This crime thriller involves the pairing up of a Berkely educated professor and a street-smart detective pursuing a brutal serial rapist.

While waiting to see what happens with the TV crime series, Territo is collaborating on a nonfiction work called “Ted Bundy: The Invisible Monster.”

The book is based on murders that Bundy committed in Tallahassee.

Territo was chief deputy in the sheriff’s office there, where Bundy was arrested.

The Land O’ Lakes man said he was involved in some of the strategizing in the early stages of the investigation.

Before he became a professor, Territo worked for the Tampa Police Department (TPD), holding various roles, include the investigation of rape and robbery cases.

That front line experience provides greater insight regarding the impact of crime, than is attainable from reviewing cases involving criminal behavior, Territo said.

“When you work with these victims — the survivors of felonious assaults or rape cases — it is very, very different than looking at that as simply a cold statistic on a paper, or reading a report.

“(With a report) You don’t see the emotion in their face. You don’t hear the trembling in their voice. You don’t see the injury. It’s a whole different dimension,” he said.

His shift from law enforcement to academia was financially motivated, he said.

He found out he could double his salary by leaving his job at TPD to go to work for St. Petersburg Junior College, and he didn’t hesitate.

While working at the junior college, he became an adjunct at USF, and then joined the USF faculty. After retiring from USF, he was bored and was encouraged by friends at Saint Leo University to join the faculty there.

“About six or seven years ago, I was working at Saint Leo, and I was doing a lot of stuff on sex trafficking and had written a number of books on sex trafficking, and was teaching a course on sex trafficking,” he said.

The university was contacted by someone at The Hilton Foundation that was seeking a Catholic University that had faculty members who had academic expertise in human trafficking because they wanted to develop classes for nuns in five African countries who were dealing with people who had been trafficked.

“I collaborated with the Vatican in Rome,” Territo said, regarding the project. He recalled talking to an Irish woman who impressed him because of her keen awareness of the horrible things that happen to people who are trafficked.

After the initial grant, the program was expanded to 17 African countries, Territo said, but he was no longer involved at that point.

Published December 07, 2022