Daily Loaf

Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair, a candidate for State House in District 47 next year, has come up with his own idea to help the homeless, after  watching his former colleagues on the Board of County Commissioners fail to come up with their own plan.

Blair says he wants to renovate at least one vacant hotel to house those without housing.

From his press release:

“It makes sense, across the board. Hotels are already equipped for sheltering people. And it would, at the same time, help the homeless and create jobs,” he added. Blair says the plan would entail selecting a vacant hotel and targeting it for renovation. Then, county homeless people would be moved in-after background checks-with attention paid to grouping them by gender and/or families. Blair said, though, that people wouldn’t be able to stay there indefinitely, in order to ensure that vacancies would be created for others.

Last month the Commission rejected a long discussed proposal by Catholic Charities to build a tent-city like structure off of East Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa.  After receiving stinging criticism from the editorial boards of both local dailies and from many citizens, Commissioners Kevin White and Al Higginbotham then simultaneously thought of the Floriland mall in Tampa as a possible site for the homeless.

But that idea went nowhere after the landlord of the property said he had no intention of using the land for such a purpose.  Also, local residents weren’t happy about the idea, and even less so that they weren’t consulted before White & Higginbotham made their proposal.

During that discussion, Commissioner Higginbotham stressed that it was important to show the community that “they cared,” though absolutely no vetting had been done to actually ensure that the homeless had a legitimate place to stay.

The Commission’s rejection of the Catholic Charities proposal made national news, as the New York Times reported on the fine compassionate citizens of Hillsborough such as Linda Hinson of East Lake, who said of the defeat of the camp plan that “I don’t have to go out and get a gun.” She declared that there were already enough shelters.

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.

Well, that bureaucrat watch is still on for embattled County Administrator Pat Bean but she is managing to stay afloat despite some very questionable activities. Since my last update on this even more issues have come to light: 1. She has a driver in spite of taking a car allowance  2. There seems to be no documentation of how her self given raise came to be (how convenient) and 3. Her former top aide, Wally Hill, has thrown her under the bus and said she gave herself the raise (recall she said she didn’t know who submitted her name for the raise award.) Uh-huh.

The Trib editorial board has called for an investigation and the Times has been calling for her head all along. Only Commissioners can clean this mess up (since Bean is not elected she is hired by the County Commission.) She is rapidly becoming the poster child for an elected County Mayor though. I was undecided on this issue or as Wayne Garcia once posed the question Seven knuckleheads or one? But at this point I am now in favor of an elected county Mayor or elected County Administrator whatever you want to call it. Read the rest of this entry »

This reporter was at the latest Bill Foster/Kathleen Ford debate last night in St. Petersburg.  Not a whole lot of news being made, with the exception that Foster now says he supports domestic partnership benefits.

Very interesting new poll numbers are out in Florida’s Senate and Gubernatorial races this morning.  The big news here is that even though Marco Rubio is still down by double digits to Charlie Crist in their race for U.S. Senate, Rubio has made up 14% from a similar poll conducted two months ago.

Download the Report here.

Perhaps feeling massive guilt, Commisioners Kevin White and Al Higgenbotham plan to unveil a new plan on finding housing for the homeless at today’s Hillsborough County Commission Board Meeting.

Interestingly enough, Commissioner White, who has been under fire after he was found guilty of sexually harassing his aide back in August, has had a number of supporters come out for him at this morning’s meeting.

Commissioner Kevin Beckner has written a letter that was published in this morning’s St. Petersburg Times regarding the Kevin White sexual harassment lawsuit.

Beckner takes exception to a Times editorial written last week:

This editorial incorrectly implies that I, as well as some of my colleagues, believe that Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin White should not be held financially responsible for the costs to the taxpayer for his indiscretions. If you watch the Oct. 7 County Commission meeting or review the transcripts, it is very clear that my colleagues and I are in unanimous agreement that Commissioner White should be held accountable for his actions and participate in reimbursing the taxpayers for related costs.

You may recall last week that Commissioner Rose Ferlita’s motion to have the county sue White died when the board deadlocked at three votes apiece.

Beckner followed with a substitute motion to table further discussions until the county learns how much (if any) of the debts owed could be covered by their liability insurance program.  (His motion also failed when it tied at 3 votes apiece as well.)

The county was told last week that it has another eight months to decide on whether or not they do want to sue Commissioner White.

As he said last week during the board’s meeting on the topic, Beckner writes that: Read the rest of this entry »

Brian Blair is one of this year's nominees for Worst Local Politician.

You can only find out by reading Best of the Bay when it’s published Sept. 16 — or by attending tonight’s Best of the Bay Awards Party, aka The Loafies.

It’s a tough category to predict because, well, there were so many deserving candidates. Readers named a whole slew of ‘em. Among those nominated: “All Democrats,” “Any Republican,” “anyone against gay pride,” “anyone in the County Commission’s office,” “anyone who has focused on regulating strip clubs as their career,” “crazy WANDA,” “the Florida legislature,” and (this may be the most cynical response of all), “The Honest One.” 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 »

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 »

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 »

Ronda Storms is putting the same kind of hurting on Brian Blair in our Worst Local Politician category that his kids put on him during that infamous “domestic dispute.”

Ronda Storms has owned this Best of the Bay Readers’ Poll category for as long as I’ve been at CL, but if ever there was a year for a new face to emerge, wouldn’t 2009 be it?

After all, there are the titillating sexual allegations in the Kevin White trial. And there’s the lingering fallout from Buddy Johnson’s election snafus and loss late last year.

And yet White can’t even crack the Top 5 in balloting so far? And Storms, despite moving up to the Florida Legislature where we rarely have to hear about her nonsense, still holds a commanding lead in this category? Those who are anti-anti-Storms (sorry, it’s getting complicated here) won’t sit still for this.

Here is what the order of finish would be if balloting closed today: Read the rest of this entry »