Daily Loaf

Photo left: Citizen opposition / Photo right: Rainmen Horner & Marchetti

By George Niemann
PoHo contributor, R-LAND, UCAN & Amendment 4 activist
Views expressed are my own & might not be shared by the organizations of which I am a member

A rezoning request from a developer in Valrico that is moving quickly through the process begs the question above. If you want to understand why Hillsborough currently suffers from a plethora of overdevelopment with no supporting infrastructure, take a look at this local case to see what happens when a developer wants to build something the community is dead set against. It sheds light on how a local community struggles to achieve self determination in a system that, more often than not, overrides what the citizens want for what a developer needs.

On Monday November 16, 2009 a request for a change in zoning was officially presented to Steve Luce, Hillsborough County’s Zoning Hearing Master.

The parcel is 19.2 acres and until recently was a working citrus grove. The owner is Dr. Gregory Henderson, an internist that specializes in eye surgery, as well as, land development, land speculation, and helicopter pads. It’s currently zoned as 1 acre residential but, as we all know, there’s a lot more profit in building higher density and/or mixed-use commercial, so Dr. Henderson has decided that this strictly residential section of Valrico needs a strip mall. In anticipation of problems with community acceptance, he hires two land development experts to pull off the “sting” (please put on some Scott Joplin piano music while you read the next part of this story). They are skid-greasers Vin Marchetti and Mike Horner. Vin and Mike are the crème de la crème for approval of horrible projects, each in their own right, but team the two together and they are invincible. Marchetti is well connected with some members of the county commission and they bend over backwards to give him every accommodation, so the owner of this property joins a long list of developers that want to improve their odds of passage by bringing in these heavy hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

By George Niemann
PoHo contributor
Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners:
It appears likely that you are going to ask us to approve a 1% sales tax increase in November of 2010 to fund a long range multi-modal transportation package which is highlighting the introduction of light rail to the Tampa Bay region.

At Wednesday’s Regular BOCC meeting it was revealed that, although the referendum’s top billing will be “light rail”, only 37% of the proposed tax will end up going toward an inter-city light rail system. The balance will go toward other forms of transportation, as well as road improvements that are long overdue.

The big question is this – are you going to give voters all of the hard facts surrounding this proposed referendum? And will you incorporate this into your referendum campaign? I know that it will be tempting to take the soundbite approach without providing detail because, as you know, the devil is in the details. Considering that a good portion of this tax would be used to fix infrastructure problems that were created by approving sprawl, how do we know that you’ve learned your lesson? Or that you won’t come back to us 10 years from now and say we need an additional 1% on top of the first 1% because we couldn’t help ourselves from approving more sprawl without getting the money for the infrastructure?

Read the rest of this entry »

You probably already know that growth does not pay for itself and taxpayers are left holding the bill for things like roads, fire safety and parks despite what politicians would like you to believe. Impact fees should be funding these things, yet they don’t even come close. In fact, according to a recent audit done by the Clerk of the Circuit Court’s office, they don’t even fund the program it takes to monitor them!

An audit to be presented to the Hillsborough County Commission on Wednesday had some disturbing findings including: (my thoughts are in red)

Observation 1: The BOCC has not been assured that the impact fees were spent as directed by ordinance 96-29. (WTF?)

Observation 2: The current impact fee assessment for transportation, right of way, parks, and fire networks may not be covering a reasonable percentage of the cost of growth within the County. (Ya think?)

Observation 3: The County’s Real Estate Dept does not charge a fee for their land appraisals. (Yet county staff suggests we should get an appraisal on Cone Ranch costing a fortune!)

Photo credit: .res @Flickr.com

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According to this article, many residents were surprised at the furlough days implemented because of the recent budget cuts down at the county. Hey, they have to pay for Commissioner White’s $500,000 sex trial and Pat Bean’s let’s give ourselves a raise award somehow, right? The additional upcoming furlough days are Jan 15th, April 2nd, June 18th and Sept 9th. (Sadly, none of those appear to be BOCC meeting days.)

Taking a handful of furlough days due to budget cuts doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it might be hard for commissioners to explain in light of the costs associated with Kevin White’s sex trial and County Administrator raises-for-my-friends attempt and one for herself too!

More disturbing to me was learning via the Planning Commission’s website ( in my opinion, the only objective planning agency in town) that they are now closed every Friday due to the absolute slashing that the BOCC did to their already lean budget.  So while the BOCC is supposedly getting behind this rail referendum, that one would think should include land use planning, our Planning Commission is crippled, having to close its doors to the public one day a week. Way to go, Hillsborough. Don’t worry, I am sure the Sports Authority is doing just fine with this year’s budget.

Commissioners should be ashamed at this development and citizens should be outraged at the way they spent tax dollars this year. And the County wants us to approve taxing ourselves for rail? Better start cleaning up their own back yard, because I think there might be some government trust associated with approving new taxes and let’s face it, that is not this county’s strong point.

You would think that when an elected body is proposing the idea to citizens to approve taxing themselves for something they might never even use that they would want to put their best foot forward. We are in Hillsborough though so keep your expectations low. Very low.

The upcoming ballot referendum question is very important to those true rail supporters in the county and how it is worded along with what other goodies are sprinkled on it to entice voters to approve it is very important its passage. I suffered through enough TBARTA meetings while fighting the bypass/beltway/green swath of death (or as TBARTA named it a “freight rail corridor”) to have learned while listening to many presentations on rail referendums that they almost never pass the first time they are on the ballot. Don’t worry, Hillsborough is out to make sure we are no exception.

Photo credit: jeffmcneill @Flickr.com

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By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
The views expressed are my own, and not necessarily those of the organizations that I belong to

You may have read the report in Saturday’s Tampa Tribune about the Ethics Commission moving forward with a full investigation of County Administrator Pat Bean and County Attorney Renee Lee. As the one who filed these complaints, I can provide more details as to how it originally became a news story and why it’s so hard to go after officials that might be ethically challenged.

My complaint charges Bean and Lee with using the power of their positions in Hillsborough County government to corruptly gain a benefit for themselves that was inconsistent with the proper performance of their respective duties. In effect, they circumvented the approval process to give themselves a salary increase in 2007. They violated what the statute calls a misuse of public trust. But saying that a complaint has been filed is meaningless until the Ethics Commission determines that it is “legally sufficient” to proceed forward. Once legal sufficiency is satisfied and the commission feels that there is enough evidence to indicate a possible violation of statute, it then proceeds to a full investigation. And once it gets that far, it must go through the entire vetting process, including a probable cause hearing. So even though the Bean/Lee case has been in the news in the last couple weeks, the fact that the Ethics Commission has now agreed to investigate it is an important new milestone in this saga.

Ever wonder why you don’t often hear of ethics investigations? You’d think there would be a whole slew of them, considering how many state, county and local government workers and elected officials we have in Florida, right? The reason you don’t see the volume that you’d expect is that the complaint process is complicated and lengthy, as well as, very tricky for the filer. Many people give up on the process when they find out how tough it is to actually get a case investigated. In addition, the cases are confidential and the press is not given access to any information until the whole process has been completed. Typically, if a citizen tells the press that they filed ethics charges against an official, the press will not report it because they have no way of corroborating the facts.

The Bean and Lee cases, however, got into the news even before it was known whether or not the Ethics Commission would investigate the alleged charges.

Here’s what happened. Mike Deeson, the 10 Connects reporter, somehow obtained a copy of my complaint against Lee. With that in hand, 10 Connects TV decided to report on it. Deeson had called me to tell me it was going to be on the 6 o’clock news. I was dumbfounded as to how he could have gotten his hands on my complaint. The Ethics Commission keeps the matter confidential but does send copies to the defendants, which in this case would have gone to the County Center. My guess is that he must have a “mole” in the County Attorney’s office…a county employee that hates the County Attorney enough to leak the evidence and get the story out there. I tried to tell Deeson that it was too early to do a report on it because there was no way of telling if the case would go anywhere. He acknowledged that it might be premature to report on it but the decision had already been made, and it was going to appear on the evening news.

According to Deeson, Lee was absolutely livid when she discovered that someone, possibly a person that reported to her, secretly provided him with a copy of the complaint. As soon as Lee got the call from Deeson on October 9th, telling her the story was going to be on 10 Connects TV news and that the document was going to be posted on their website, she sent a terse, accusatory email (below) to the county commission staff. Basically the note warned everyone that whoever leaked the story to Deeson was going to be caught and punished. I think it’s safe to say that the mole who leaked this story should not expect to receive any (secret award) raise money at the end of the year.
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After finally viewing the entire October 1st 2009 St. Petersburg City Council meeting regarding the now infamous Baywalk sidewalk issue, I have noticed many interesting details that are worthy of mention. With just over a month to go until the City election, I found some interesting dynamics displayed. I must admit, the results did not follow my original expectations.

Jeff Danner, voted during the first hearing to give the sidewalk away. Then Danner  flip-flopped and voted against the idea at the last meeting. Could this be because his opponent in the District 8 race, Leonard Schmiege has been speaking out against giving the sidewalk away since the beginning?

Video after the break
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As if giving double digit raises in an economic crisis to some of her faves wasn’t infuriating enough to taxpayers, it was recently revealed that County Administrator Pat Bean took an “award” herself. It was a 1% pay increase, really……..isn’t that a raise? The Internal Performance Auditor (IPA) uncovered this (after 300 hours of searching) and was professional enough not to send it to all of the Commissioners before it somehow got leaked to the press.

In her defense, Bean asked County Attorney Renee Lee if it was OK for her to accept the “award” and Lee gave her the green light. Guess who else took the raise award without the Board’s knowledge? Lee! The raise award in question was for saving the county money (isn’t that Bean’s job?) and according to this article it was designed for lower level employees (which is where Bean probably should be). Read the rest of this entry »

Lady Liberty, ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone – only darkness every day. Our St. Pete house just ain’t a home when she goes away. You can forget about solar panels in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mayor Rick Baker has completely robbed the city of all sunshine. And as for Lady Liberty, I wonder if she’s gone to stay. (Click here to hear the song that’s already playing in your head)

The St. Pete times recently reported that agenda items that come before the St. Petersburg City Council are a “done deal” before they are brought to a public forum, according to Councilman Jim Kennedy. This means that any time you or any member of the public speak at a city hearing, your testimony and evidence will not be considered by the board because they have already made up their mind in a meeting with the mayor days before. “It may be a done deal because it has been analyzed and its been massaged” said Kennedy, who openly admits that the Mayor regularly conducts private meetings with council members to ensure his ideas will get a majority vote.
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The City Council of St. Petersburg will make a decision this Thursday that will signal what path the city is taking for the future. The council will vote on spending nearly $700,000 in taxpayer money for more police and special projects for the owners of BayWalk, including privatization of the sidewalk outside the mall entrance.  BayWalk’s ownership, whose controlling interest is held by Wells Fargo Bank, said without the subsidy and the sidewalk, they cannot possibly turn around the failing entertainment complex.

From the standpoint of public policy that promotes sustainable economics, the council’s choice is clear, I think. Will it continue a worn-out policy of subsidies to out-of-town corporations and mainly profit the wealthy few? Or will it adopt an enlightened, sustainable public policy that promotes economic development of all local residents, in every community, not just the privileged ones?
Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first year I have really followed the county budget. While I have a lot of concerns about how politicians spend tax dollars I narrowed it down to the top ten for Thursday night’s final budget hearing. This is the message I delivered to the County Commission regarding my picks for wasting tax dollars:

10. $500,000 to study a rural section of Lithia Pinecrest which was not actually on any plans to be widened.

9. Cost of Pat Bean’s double-digit clandestine raises to some of her faves without your knowledge, including one employee without a college degree pulling in six figures.

8. Pat Bean’s raise to herself without your knowledge. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to another edition of “Can Hillsborough County Commissioners successfully preserve ‘preserved’ land?” Which, as it has unfolded, has actually turned into “Can Hillsborough County citizens successfully save publicly owned preserved land from the Hillsborough County Commission?”

Photo Credit: MariellaSmith at Flickr.com Read the rest of this entry »

According to this press release from Hillsborough County:

Hillsborough County has been notified that it will receive $7,665,200 in federal stimulus funds to undertake energy efficiency and conservation projects on its facilities and vehicles. The award is the largest energy grant awarded to a County government in Florida to date. The funding comes from $2.7 billion set aside as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to improve energy efficiency and reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions by governments around the nation.

The County plans to use the grant money on the following improvement projects:

-A solar photovoltaic system on the original County Courthouse on Pierce Street, $1.307 million

-Energy-saving lighting retrofit to two County warehouse buildings on Falkenburg Road, $300,000
Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND; activist
Tampa Bay Water (TBW) could be slapped with some hefty fines for over-pumping ground water recently. They cited a drought and a cracked reservoir for breaking the rules on pumping limits. Anybody else think our elected officials have allowed too much growth without a thought in the world of how to quench the thirst of all these people? OK, they did think of dumping shit in the aquifer and in the river to increase our water supply, but other than that what have officials done to link water to growth? Nada. Read the rest of this entry »

By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
The circus continues as Hillsborough County muddles through the process of settling with the victim in the Kevin White Sex Trial. Hillsborough’s Board of County Commissioners held what could be truly called a sideshow on Sept 8, 2009. It even included a Barking Dog Act, as well as an approach from Rose Ferlita that sounded a little like Johnnie Cochran. (If he won’t communicate, then we will l-i-t-i-g-a-t-e!!!)

Some of these commissioners may think they’re tough, but Ferlita shows them all how it is done, and she does it with poise and conviction. She is a fearless champion for the citizen, it is that simple…more on that later.

In the deceptively wimpy style to which we’ve all become accustomed, the commissioners sandwiched the White Sex Trial follow-up within a land use meeting. When they do it that way, they don’t have to list it on any agenda and average citizens aren’t going to catch it unless they’re a fan of watching land use cases. In addition, when an issue is buried within a different meeting the commissioners don’t have to offer citizens the opportunity to comment. They’re pretty adept at keeping things that are supposed to be in the sunshine at least partially in the shade.

County Attorney Renee Lee presented options to the commission with their respective costs: Read the rest of this entry »

We want to know who you think should pay for Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White’s indiscretions: The Pimpin’ Commish himself, Kevin White, or Hillsborough County taxpayers? The jury awarded his former aide $75,000 in a sexual harassment suit and the legal bills for her and the county are piling up.The bill is up to $500,ooo so far and you might be stuck with all of it. Vote in our poll and let us know who you think should pay.

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Photo Credit: wolfsavard at Flickr.com

Step right up! Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages anyone over 18. The circus comes to town again this Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., another three-ring event starring… The Pimpin’ Commish! The epic comb-over!  And one Brave Soul who can make other politicians fall silent just by turning up the sunshine!

But let’s turn the clock back and look at last Wednesday’s show, which may contain some hints about what we can look forward to on Tuesday. Read the rest of this entry »

By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist

The Board of County Commissioners spent 1 ½ hours of their regular meeting yesterday deciding what the next steps will be in settling the Kevin White Sex Trial Case. So far they’ve passed two motions: 1) to spend an additional $10K to have attorney Claire Saady file Post Trial Motions which would try to remove the county’s liability, as well as allow an appeal in the future, and 2) to begin negotiations with Alyssa Ogden’s attorney on the settlement amount.

A key issue was not decided, however. Who is going to pay the settlement, Hillsborough County, or Kevin White, or both? Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND; activist
I was surprised to read Thursday that the meeting of County Commissioners regarding who will foot the bill for what could be nearly $500,000 of your tax dollars (for the financial mess in the wake of Commissioner White’s sex trial) would be behind closed doors. What? This board do something without the public involved? The initial assault on the wetlands comes to mind.

I really didn’t think that a meeting with more than one elected official from the same governing body was allowed to occur without public access according to the Sunshine Law, so I asked County Attorney Renee Lee. She quickly informed me that there is a provision  F.S. 286.011(8) that “allows the attorney to meet in private with the board to discuss pending litigation.” She went on to state that these meetings are often called shade or closed meetings or an executive session. Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND; activist

Photo credits: MariellaSmith at Flickr.com

With scandals galore in Hillsborough County, I am a little late on updating you on the most recent Cone Ranch meetings. Recall the Cone Ranch deal was our County Commission bending over backwards at a questionable proposal to buy the publicly owned land by private investors. The idea was pitched to County Commissioners by their Chairman, Commissioner Ken Half-truth Hagan, R -Ridiculous, in order to “preserve” Cone Ranch. The brokers pushing the deal are big time Republican donors. Uh-huh.

After many months and several meetings I think they have finally established that a) The land is publicly owned, and b) It is already preserved, and c)  It wasn’t even for sale! I wonder how much that cost you in staff time from county employees? Here is a quick recap of what you missed at the August 14th meeting; I will cover the August 24th meeting in another post. Read the rest of this entry »

The candidates at the August 19 forum at The Palladium.

The poll released earlier this week by the St. Pete Times found four candidates leading the pack of 10 contending for mayor of St. Petersburg. As we enter the final hours before the Sept. 1 primary, which will narrow the field to two, here are links to CL stories which reference the top four: Read the rest of this entry »

Injection of pesticide at the Babe Zaharias Golf Course in Tampa attracted the attention of neighborhood activists, who worried it was making them sick. (photo courtesy of Debra McCormack)

Tucked away in a northern Tampa neighborhood is a golf course named after the greatest figure in women’s golf history, Mildred Ella Didrikson Zaharias, better known as Babe. The champion golfer died of colon cancer in 1956, so it seems fitting that, when the turf of her namesake course was being injected with a pesticide believed to be a human carcinogen, three activists fought passionately, persistently and (ultimately) successfully to stop it.

It took years to win. This is how they did it.

Read the rest of this entry »

You may recall that a few weeks ago the Public Transportation Commission outraged the city by pulling the plug on four companies that operated electric shuttle services, free rides for people downtown, on Harbour Island and SoHo instead of traditional for-hire taxis. About a week or so later, we learned that a traditional taxi company that had protested the unlicensed existence of the green-friendly shuttles then started its own downtown freebie hybrid car service.

Might funny smelling.

But now we find out that the Commission has either relented or (as it is spinning matters) never really meant to put the electric shuttles out of business in the first place

Read the rest of this entry »

The St. Petersburg mayoral race (that clears its first hurdle next Tuesday in the primary election) would clearly work better as either a reality show or an awards ceremony. After watching the big mayoral forum last week sponsored by the St. Petersburg Times and Bay News 9, I’m going with awards ceremony. The envelopes, please:

Best embrace of St. Pete Pride: Candidates Jamie Bennett, Kathleen Ford, Ed Helm, John Warren, Deveron Gibbons and Scott Wagman all said they would sign a city proclamation for gay pride.

Ronda Storms Award: For refusing to agree to recognize gay pride events, Paul Congemi, Bill Foster, Larry Williams and Richard Eldridge.

Read the rest of this entry »

Since my last post on Commissioner Kevin “Pimp Daddy” White (where I thought it might be cheaper for taxpayers just to have paid for a hooker for the poor guy), I decided to do some research on what hookers in Tampa really cost. I thought they might get as much as attorneys (who charged the County $250 an hour to defend them in the case against White so far costing taxpayers $170,000). According to this article, I was wrong. These two prostitutes in the article offered services to officers for $150 and $100. So, lets go with the higher number for arguments sake.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND; activist

Photo credit: tom.arthur at Flickr.com

Good news: Not only do we NIMBYS and concerned citizens think that Commissioner Kevin Shovel-ready White should pack his bags, but both the Tribune and the Times are also calling for his resignation. If that doesn’t happen, then they think the governor should at least consider removing him.

White has cost taxpayers a fortune already since the county was also named in his sexual harassment suit. I heard back from the County Attorney’s office and was shocked to learn that the county was paying $250 an hour for their defense in this case. I don’t know what hookers make, but let’s just say they make the same as attorneys. By my calculations taxpayers could have bought Commissioner White a hooker for an hour a day for an entire year and still come in well under the $100,000+ that taxpayers are on the hook for so far. Read the rest of this entry »

Would you like to stand up against the Big Oil and Big Energy companies and oppose offshore drilling of the Gulf Coast? Would you like to support Clean Energy and green jobs in the Bay area? Then help make a difference and make your voice heard by attending this Clean Energy rally on Thursday in Ybor:

The American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying front group for Big Oil and other energy industries, is orchestrating staged “grassroots rallies” to try and stop the Clean Energy and Climate Bill from passing the U.S. Senate. The press calls these rallies “astroturf”: manufactured grassroots. This Thursday, August 27th, join Sierra Club, 1Sky Florida, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and other environmental groups for a real grassroots rally outside Big Oil’s staged gathering.

WHEN & WHERE: Meet beforehand at 9:30 am at La Tropicana Café, 1822 East 7th Ave. for some for great cuban coffee! The “Energy Citizens’” event begins at 11:00 am at The RITZ YBOR theatre, and we will counter rally out front at 1503 East 7th Avenue, Tampa, FL 33605 (there is a shady area where we’ll be).
Read the rest of this entry »

By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist

Friday, the jury came back with its verdict in the Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White sex trial at 5:10 p.m.

Jurors determined that 1) Commissioner Kevin White did sexually harass Alyssa Ogden during her employment with Hillsborough County and 2) that the sexual harassment played a part in her firing.

The awarded damages as follows:
Medical expenses incurred: $15,000
Mental Anguish: $60,000

Read the rest of this entry »

By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist

The fourth day of the sexual harassment civil trial of Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White had all of the elements of a good Perry Mason episode: legal maneuvering, drama, suspense, a no-nonsense judge and surprise testimony.

Here are Thursday’s highlights:
• White’s moral character gets reamed over previous admission of eight campaign violations.
• A surprise witness threatens White’s defense.
• A central witness told White he’s going to kick his ass when he learned of the allegations.
• Expert witness for defense says he hopes he can earn $10K for his testimony.
• Both White’s aide and his chauffeur try to remain loyal to their boss.

The details after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

Click on the chart to make it larger

As we report on tight and interesting races in the Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll, this category is always popular. Some view it as a good thing to be named a troublemaker; others vote it as a pejorative. We don’t care how you vote/view it as long as you vote in the poll.

Longtime reader fave Joe Redner is winning at this point. You have less than two weeks to vote (the poll ends Aug. 31). Vote now,

[About Daily Best of the Bay: Creative Loafing is posting writers' and editors' picks for Best of the Bay 2009 each day until the BOTB issue is released on Sept. 16. Vote now for your own BOTB choices in our Readers' Poll!]

Bill Foster wasted no time in getting the Times recommendation on his website

The drumbeat that the St. Petersburg Times was considering an endorsement (errr, recommendation, as the Times will always let a candidate know its preferred term) of Bill Foster. On its surface, it seems ludicrous. After all, Foster is the same guy who wrote to the school board a few years back making a strong pitch against teaching Darwinian evolution alone in public schools, hoping it would mix in a bit of “intelligent design.”

But the lack of an emerging alternative to Foster left the Times in the inexplicable position of endorsing an anti-gay rights, anti-evolution mayor of St. Petersburg. More to the point, however, the editorial board chooses a candidate based on who will play ball with it. Which candidate will kiss the ring over on 1st Avenue S? That’s what gets you the recommendation. Disagree with the Times on a core concern at the paper — say, firing Police Chief Chuck Harmon, as Scott Wagman as vowed to do — and you are at a disadvantage, to say the least.

It is OK to disagree with the Times on social conservative issues, as long as you play your cards right, promise not to let those views play out in public policy at City Hall and generally keep your wingy-ness in the closet. After all, the Times’ former editorial chief, Phil Gailey, was totally tight with Rick Baker, who was also a social conservative who refused to recognize gay pride parades or appear in them.

From its recommendation today: Read the rest of this entry »