Pasco Commission Chooses Ron Oakley As Chair Over Kathryn Starkey

PASCO COUNTY, FL — During its reorganization meeting Tuesday, the majority of the Pasco County Board of County Commission elected Ron Oakley to serve as board chairman, despite a long-held tradition by the board to rotate the chairmanship, thus giving the position to Commissioner Kathryn Starkey.

Commissioner Jack Mariano, who joined the meeting virtually after testing positive for the coronavirus, nominated Starkey for the chairmanship but was outvoted by the rest of the commission.

Instead, the board voted to have Starkey serve as vice chair.

Starkey took offense to being passed over for the chairmanship.

“I don’t understand this slight," she said. "I just think this was disrespectful.”

The commission welcomed newly elected District 4 Commissioner Christina Fitzpatrick to the board. Fitzpatrick was elected in August to fill longtime Commissioner Mike Wells' seat. Wells was elected Pasco County property appraiser in the general election.

“As a decades-long Pasco County resident and business owner, I’m honored and blessed to have been given the opportunity to serve our citizens and to share their vision for the future,” said Fitzpatrick. “I’m excited to work with our departments and team members to address the needs of our community.”

Oakley, Starkey and Mariano were re-elected to their commission seats.

In other business, Mike Napier, administrator for the Florida Department of Health in Pasco County, told the board that the number of positive coronavirus cases in the county "is troubling," rising dramatically since September.

He said 16,544 people in the county have tested positive for the coronavirus.

"Something a little startling is 9.5 percent of those cases were reported in the last seven days," he said. "The line keeps going up in the number of positive cases, and now we're at a point where I know many are concerned."

He said the county went from eight to 10 positive cases a day in June and July to nearly 300 cases a day.

"In September we were looking at 29 cases a day. That was considered a very low case rate," Napier said, noting that the commission was even considering rescinding its mandatory mask ordinance at that time. "However, we've gone in the wrong direction. Now we're averaging 207 cases a day, which is considered a high case rate."

He said, Pasco County now has the highest positivity rate in the region and is in danger of maximizing its ability to test people for the virus.

"At this rate, we could double the number of positive cases from 16,000 to 32,000 in the next three months," he said. "That's startling."

As people get together during the holiday season, Napier recommends that the county continue to stress the importance of using facing coverings and social distancing.

County commission meetings are held every other Tuesday, alternating between the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey and the Historic Pasco County Courthouse in Dade City. All Pasco BCC meetings are live-streamed online and broadcast on Pasco TV.