Fix it now

As of Wednesday, Aug. 20, all future Fix-It-Now posts will be folded into our new blog, The Daily Loaf.

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The citizen’s initiative to take growth decisions out of the hands of politicians and give the decisions to voters is fighting back get on the ballot this November. The group remains a few thousand verified signatures short of having enough to be on a ballot, a predicament it blames on ” a hostile Legislature, well-heeled corporate opposition, erratic counting procedures by supervisors of elections, questionable emergency rules from the secretary of state and inexplicably blasé (or non-existent) news coverage.”

What exactly is Florida Hometown Democracy? Basically, it is telling our elected officials that they suck and we no longer give them the right do make growth decisions for us. Sounds like the American way on the surface: Citizens — fed up with politicians who are permanently bent over for big developers with no regard to the environment or our quality of life — start a grassroots petition drive to get an initiative on the ballot. Get enough signatures and, bingo, citizens get to decide if they want to continue to trust the politicians or if they would rather have vote directly on land-use decisions.

FHD gathered the required number of signatures (and then some) and turned them in. Not so fast, said the building lobby (and the politicians that they buy up easier than rural land). The excuses made by the state for not putting it on the ballot were pathetic and seemed downright dirty. FHD did not give up and is now in court to decide whether it will make the ballot.

Opponents of the initiative say it will stop growth … NOT TRUE.

Growth is dictated by local governments’ Comprehensive Plans and will continue as those allow. What Hometown Democracy does is gives the power to decide on whether that plan is AMENDED to citizens. For example, that Comp Plan hearing I attended last week where 6 of our 7 Hillsborough County Commissioners voted to increase densities in rural areas — against the Comp Plan and against the advice of the Planning Commission thus creating more sprawl — I would have had an actual vote on that and so would you!

Only Commissioner Rose Ferlita voted against violating our Comp Plan. Team Sprawl (Jim Norman, Brian Blair, Al Higginbotham, Kevin White,  Ken Hagan and — I am sad to report— Mark Sharpe) voted to violate it, making the perfect argument FOR Hometown Democracy. This isn’t about stopping growth; it is about stopping special interest, out-of-control growth. It is about telling our politicians that they clearly can’t be trusted so we will do it ourselves, thank you.

In my opinion, this is the best chance of saving what we have left of Florida for future generations to enjoy. I believe if the referendum is passed, our grandchildren will have Ms. Blackner, who started Hometown Democracy, to thank for saving Florida from certain demise (unless you live here for the concrete). She is a fearless competitor against a mountain of developers and their sea of politicians.

What can you do? Support Florida Hometown Democracy by signing the petition and spreading the word. Vote to approve it in November, providing the courts do the right thing and actually put it on the ballot.

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I was unable to attend last week’s EPC meeting in defense of our wetlands but I did tune in to catch the end of it. I was very impressed with my fellow citizens as they fought for our environment and held our elected officials accountable for it to the dismay of developers. Seeing them in action is always inspiring, but in addition to their regular performances, there were a few I didn’t expect. As the motion by Commissioner Rose Ferlita to approve the staff recommendation was made and seconded by Commissioner Mark Sharpe, Commissioner Jim Norman jumped in and started to push for the staff to work on classifying the wetlands. This is something that the staff, the advisory committee, and the citizens were on record as AGAINST, yet the developer community wants it. Commissioner Brian Blair seemed like he was going to make a second motion to include this and tried to take his cues from Norman but fumbled.  Sharpe boldly intercepted Norman’s attempt to weasel this directive to staff and even EPC director Dr. Garrity showed a hint of a backbone as he told Norman that the staff was against classifying the wetlands. Blair, still looking like a deer in headlights (after it has been hit), finally just comes out and asks to hear Norman’s opinion but does not end up making a second motion. The staff’s and citizen’s recommendations passed unanimously and even though Norman and Blair voted for it their comments indicated to me that it was not because they wanted to. November is good for this county and so is public awareness.

So, kudos to  Sharpe for taking a stand and not allowing Norman to bully the staff. Thanks to  Ferlita for making the motion in the first place, and Commissioner Norman……….you might want to try clicker training with Commissioner Blair……it seems to work for dog trainers. Blair was still speaking when Commissioner Al Higginbotham adjourned the meeting……..the camera was on just long enough to see everyone get up and leave while Blair still continued on.

What can you do? Stay informed and get out and vote.

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As I have watched the discussion about an elected county mayor unfold, I have to chuckle. Politicos wanting another political position, what a shock. But with so many unanswered questions, how is a voter to make an informed decision?

The first question: What actual authority this mayor is going to have?  This is an important question, because the specter of litigation regarding any created veto power has already been raised.

Second, how much is this new position going to cost? I imagine that no one looking at the office is going to do the job without all the trimmings, including, but not limited to, staff, office space and maybe even a few monthly television shows.  In the city of Tampa, the mayor’s office costs in excess of $1.5 million year.  How much is it going to cost the county, and what current services does everyone want to cut to fund this new position?

Third, will this simply add more politics to the county government?  It is one thing for staff to pay little attention when a single commissioner tries to influence a department.  However, you won’t be ignoring someone who does not need four other votes to fire.  While this may be appealing when you think your candidate is going to be elected, imagine what happens if your candidate loses.

Fourth, is a county mayor going to need his/her own legal representative?  The city of Tampa has shown us what happens when an administration and council don’t agree.  So that is another $150,000 a year, plus that attorney will need office space, secretary, etc.

Then there are the more philosophical aspects.  For example, I have watched as many current politicians have already started maneuvering themselves for a potential run for this position.  The question then becomes will this new county mayoral position cause a disconnect between local leaders who are suppose to be looking out for the city and their ambitions to run for the county, thus giving the county’s political views more influence in the city?

Whatever the answers to these questions, the one thing for certain is that information is scarce. Everyone is talking about the position as a magic potion, a panacea to the city and county woes, but if ultimately all we are doing is shuffling the deck of the same leaders is there any benefit? Only with detailed information can citizens be informed before voting on the best way to FIX IT NOW.

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I know we have 10 categories to choose from in Fix it Now and usually my posts fit nicely under transportation or suburban sprawl but this one really needs another category, WTF will probably do it.

Boy, just a few short days to celebrate the death of the Bypass/ Green Swath of Death and then I read the July 1 front page of the Trib showing the cracks in the reservoir. Great, so I won’t have a road destroying my community but now I might need to don my scuba gear to get out to the barn. Tampa Bay Water (who look to me like the TBARTA of water with their regional board) are saying that the reservoir is safe (yeah and their inspectors said they had 12 inches of cement when it turns out there is only actually 3 in some places). Hmmm, claiming to have 12 inches while really only sporting 3…………. seems to me that overestimating how well-endowed the reservoir is could be disastrous. When it comes to holding back 15 billion gallons of water, I think size probably does matter and oh yeah, taxpayers paid for 12 inches! This photo is from last year’s report that I found on their website, so they have known about this for some time.

When we first heard these rumblings last year we were told everything is fine, and not to worry our pretty heads about it. I was busy fighting a road at the time and Ronda Storms said in the paper she would take care of it. (hey, give me some credit here for not making a comment about Storms). After reading the most recent article about the cracks, I contacted some of our BOCC (Commissioners Higginbotham and Sharpe are on TBW). Mr. Johnson, Higginbotham’s aide, replied promptly via e-mail and gave me some information about the reservoir. Mr. Johnson explained that the soil-cement was a less expensive alternative than other options such as rip-rap. He also made me aware that it was “essentially recycled material” since the native soil from the excavation was used. (Not a good case for recycling but I give him an A for effort on that one). He also provided parts of David Carrier’s June 20th report and describes Carrier as the state expert from FDEP on dams and reservoirs. Carrier reports his findings from the consultants Black and Veatch who are excavating the test pits. Here are the parts of his report that scare me: the B and V folks found seepage/erosion conduits in the soil beneath the geotextile. The diameter of the conduits varies from several about 8 inches; and they “evidently meander beneath the soil cement.”

Evidently meander? Hey, I am not a scientist or engineer but evidently meandering past the layer that of geotextile that is supposed to be keeping the water out of my neighborhood does not make me feel safe. It gets worse he is later quoted in the report: “In one of the conduits a tape measure could be pushed to a length of 12 feet, but presumably it extends even farther.” Presumably? How much money does this guy get paid to presumably inspect the reservoir that evidently has some meandering holes underneath the cracking surface? These types of descriptions from an expert beg the question………… Is he inspecting crack or smoking it? As you can probably tell, I wasn’t feeling too confident about this guy when I read the end of his report “In particular, the geomembrane deep in the embankment has not been breached and the safety of the dam has not been compromised.” Um……Mr. Expert, how long before those 12 ft (but presumably farther) conduits extending beneath the geotextile meander even farther? What happens when the dam has 15 billion gallons of water in it instead of just under the 4 billion gallons that it is holding now?

Why should you care especially if you don’t happen to live in rural Lithia? Because your tax dollars built this cracking mess and it is costing a fortune to fix it. After reading Wayne’s recent article on Ralph Hughes, concrete mogul, and his ties to 6 of our 7 current county commissioners I am surprised they couldn’t at least get us a deal on real concrete.

My question is how far does 15 billion gallons spread if the reservoir is completely breached? Can anybody presumably guess just how far that water will meander if it breaks through the rest of the barriers? TBW is proposing to put another reservoir out here. I say NO. Why should one little corner of the region assume so much of the risk for all the counties (Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas) that TBW supplies to? The land surrounding the current reservoir will be for hiking, biking and horse trails and it is scheduled to be opened next spring. This sounds great but adding another reservoir would decrease the land available for this and certainly increase the risk they have already imposed on our community.

TBW needs to FIX IT NOW but the question is how? The pictures in the Trib show them patching up the visible cracks where the reservoir is dry but I wonder how they patch those cracks underwater and how do they fix that tunneling that is described outside the cracks and in the mound itself? You can contact TBW here and ask them. You can contact our BOCC here and let them know if you have concerns. Mr. Johnson assured me that Commissioner Higginbotham will continue to monitor the reservoir very closely and remains committed to ensuring the safety and continued operation of the reservoir. I do hope that is the case but if living in rural Lithia has taught me anything it is that citizens need to pay attention and look out for ourselves.

UPDATE: Since this was submitted I heard back from Eric Larson, Commissioner Mark Sharpe’s aide.  I have found him to be accommodating and helpful anytime I have a question or request.  He provided me with more information (in the linked .pdf) regarding the structure itself and assures me that the safety of the dam has not been compromised.  He provided contact information to TBW and suggested I attend the next TBW Board Meeting on August 18 in Clearwater and put my concerns on the record.  I did email TBW on July 3 regarding this issue and have yet to hear back from them.  I also questioned what they were filling the cracks in with since it looked like real concrete and not soil-cement to me in the pictures.  Mr. Larson informed me it was grout cement.

I also heard back from Mr. Johnson who expressed confidence in the state inspector.  They both harped on the fact that the soil-cement is not what is holding back the water it is just a wave-attenuation (so I could have been surfing in Lithia if not for this wave-attenuation device?) and that the cracks have nothing to do with the integrity of the structure.  It is the “evidently meanders beneath the geotextile” part that is scary to me.  I am glad that I am a good swimmer just in case that meandering continues.

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You probably know by now that I am not TBARTA’s biggest fan. When I was in Tallahassee earlier this year I stopped by Governor Crist’s office to try to tell him about my concerns but he was out. Anyway, I signed his book and said in it that I had concerns with TBARTA. I later wrote to Gov. Crist before he approved the budget to let him know I OPPOSED the state funding TBARTA. I outlined my concerns and asked him not to fund the agency at this time. He later approved their funding despite my opposition.

Here is the funny part - I recently received an e-mail from one Aundra Bryant from the office of the Governor. Charlie thanked me in the e-mail for taking the time to write to him in SUPPORT of the appropriations for TBARTA and proudly proclaimed that he signed the act that would support them. I was not the only one, as two others in opposition informed me they received the same letter back as I did thanking them for their support. Way to keep your finger on the pulse of the people Governor. This inability to differentiate opposition vs. support could explain a lot!

What can you do? Sorry no suggestions this time as I am still shaking my head and rolling my eyeballs.

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If you want to reduce your carbon footprint and save some money in your ever-dwindling fuel budget you may want to stop making those time-consuming and wasteful left turns.

This strategy has been implemented by numerous companies, including UPS, FedEX and Home Depot. UPS’s routing software, also used by Home Depot, plans routes for drivers that minimize the number of left turns a driver makes. This measure reduces idling time if drivers have to wait to make the turn. While left turns cannot be completely eliminated, left-turn reductions have reportedly saved UPS over 28.5 million miles of travel, which in turn resulted in over three million gallons of fuel and shaved carbon emissions by 31,000 metric tons.

Many companies with freight-shipping operations are changing routes and shipping methods in order to reduce transportation costs. These are necessary strategies that make shipping operations more efficient and prevent excess costs from being passed onto consumers. For now, at least. Read the rest of this entry »

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As City Council gets ready for another vacation, leaving work on the budget and Tampa’s down turning economy on the table, angry citizens in Drew Park met to discuss eliminating the city’s hastily and completely backward proposed land-use changes. With citizens sick and tired of a city working against them at every turn, the voices had one common thread: the city needs to get out of our way, handle the basics of government (which they can’t get right) and leave the rest up to us.

For those of you unfamiliar with the drew park economic development plan here is a quick rundown, drew park the area west of Raymond James stadium, north of Columbus Ave, south of Hillsborough Ave. and east of the airport, is a CRA (community redevelopment area) and it has a TIF (tax increment financing district), which means that the area gets to keep all of it’s tax revenue over a base year to spend solely in the area, but the money can’t be used for traditional city services. Every time the city creates one of these areas they then go out and hire a consultant costing hundreds of thousands of dollars to tell them how to spend the money. (You could figure this out by walking the neighborhood and asking a few people, but who needs the exercise?)

The city then adopts the plans that often include land-use changes. In the case of drew park, a mostly industrial area, the city consultants decided that jamming residents into the neighborhood and forcing business out was a great way to start. Then in traditional city fashion, instead of carefully studying the plan, the city quickly adopted it because they wanted the plan adopted before councilwoman Alvarez retired from council. So basically they shoved through with no thought a plan affecting thousands of businesses, and turning a neighborhood on its head for over a year because they wanted a nice going away present. What everyone quickly discovered is that businesses could not borrow money because lenders were afraid of losing money if the property lost its zoning, business could not expand and the area quickly ground to a halt. Then the city suspended the land use change part of the plan and discussed it for over a year.

Now, finally having enough, the people have spoken and voted to tell council to stick the plan where it deserves to go, in the trash!Just a few weeks later when the business of Drew Park thought their voices had been heard; city council showed just how out of touch they really are.  To add insult to injury the city council so eager to get finished with its meeting because the hour was late — 11:00 in the morning. They decided they just did not have the time to deal with the suffering of hundreds of businesses. Now remember this is the elected body that pushed through this land use change as a present to one of their fellow council members as a retirement present [needs link to newspaper story] in just one week, and that has spent more than a year trying to undo the damage, the whole time with not a peep from Mayor Pam Iorio. Oh that’s right she is out of town riding the rails in other cities, after all what is of real concern to these businesses that can’t expand or grow is mass transit. But don’t worry, Drew Park, they will take the matter up at their next meeting in 30 days, WOOPS my mistake, it will have to wait 60 days, council is going on vacation. Apparently the world stops this month: people don’t have to worry about their mortgage payments, or putting food on the table, or paying their exorbitant city property taxes. And don’t count on 60 days, either; from what I hear, council’s schedule is so packed already with unfinished and new business that it is not going to have time to discuss it then either, so tack on another 30 days to that at least. So only another quarter of a year until council discusses how it stuck it real good to this neighborhood. I won’t hold my breath waiting for the outcome.

Here is an idea; council should cancel its vacation, and start meeting every day until all city business is finished. That way we can get our local economy moving again. Now for full disclosure, I was one of only a handful of people to originally object to the plan when it was being considered. I informed city council that the land changes would make lending impossible and my companies could not lend money under the conditions they were imposing. I have repeatedly been at council asking that the changes be eliminated. While I appreciate that some members want to carefully deliberate any changes one has to ask where the thought was when this plan was passed.

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Remember when TBARTA came out with its proposed maps with routes C and D on Map 8 (aka the revisitation of the Green Swath of Death bypass highway)? It made about as much sense as the county proposing to give away our land use and transportation planning to special interests………NONE!

Recall I asked the question several months ago about a red dot (listed as a major employer) in the middle of the Green Swath just as it made the 90-degree turn to the east. That turn now avoids plowing over my neighborhood but still appears to bisect a state park. Who is employed there at that mysterious red dot, I asked in April……..a Park Ranger? Even though the map was vague and didn’t show environmentally sensitive lands or parks, it looked to me as if it was right in the middle of a state park!

Well, TBARTA has new and sort of improved maps on their website that now depict parks. Right where that red dot was claiming to be a major employment center…………is indeed …….A STATE PARK! If this confirmation wasn’t so sad I might tout I TOLD YA SO but I will refrain. You can see the other State Parks, wetlands, and environmentally sensitive lands these two corridors would destroy. I wonder how much this effort cost the state since FDOT provided the technical support and created these maps for TBARTA from a regional needs assessment study earlier this year.

Here’s the before and after versions of Map 8:

The good news is that now TBARTA, the regional transportation authority, is suggesting that both lines — which would destroy rural and preservation areas, bring with them unwanted sprawl and, oh yeah, have public opposition — be removed. Ya think?

In the meantime, looks like the Green Swath is sporting a new summer dress as she has gone from Green to Orange, and the Purple leg of the green swath of death is now Blue. Note to TBARTA: We can fill in the blank for whatever color you choose for your ill-conceived Swath of Death and calling it the Sprawlway covers just about the whole color spectrum…………although sprawl is usually the anti-Green.

Both lines are Grey on the map that has them recommended for removal. So, is the Green Swath of Death finally dead? At the county level….yes. At the special interest level……..that remains to be seen.

TBARTA’s next board meeting was today up in San Antonio. You can click here for agenda details. Should I wear black for the Green Swath’s funeral or does proper protocol dictate that I at least wait until the time of death is officially announced?

What can you do? Write to TBARTA and tell its leaders what you think. If you agree with those who want to protect what is left of rural and preservation lands then feel free to send in our letter from R-LAND. We made it easy for you. It goes to TBARTA, our BOCC, our MPO and our Gov. You can access it here.

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In what can only be called one of those gotcha moments, Tampa City Council was confronted with the realization that its actions are not only costly but so slow-moving that spending $30,000 is cheaper way to avoid its own processes.

Here’s how we know this: City Council had a small item tucked into its consent agenda, an increase of more $30,000 to build three affordable houses in East Tampa.

What made this request for additional funds interesting was the background data that stated that the request was to redesign plans to bring them into compliance with the East Tampa overlay district.  For those of you unfamiliar with the City of Tampa overlay districts, these are not health or safety regulations but rather special design requirements for homes in various areas throughout the city.  The problem is that City Council and Mayor Pam Iorio’s administration never do any economic analysis of these regulations. They are all designed to pander to the existing homeowners in communities who don’t want “outsiders” moving in.

So in this case, it is going to cost the city’s affordable housing fund $30,000, resulting in higher mortgage payments and property taxes for the new homebuyers.  But more important than showing the cost of compliance with these excessive overlay regulations, it shows the extreme expense in requesting a PD (planed development) rezoning in the City of Tampa — more than $30,000 for developers and, ultimately, homeowners.  So when city officials talk about how fast and easy its processes are, or how you are their customers and they care, remember this: For the city to get through its own process of waiving the restrictions that caused the plan redesign would have had to cost it more than the $30,000 just to redesign the plans. Otherwise why would the City not have just applied for the waivers?

Council had a simple option: It could have had city staff fix the regulations so the city could use its current affordable housing plans, without having to re-draw them to comply with the overlay district.  Apparently they thought that the $30,000 was the easier and cheaper option.  This is an example of the city being called to account for its own regulatory schemes, and unfortunately it is the taxpayers who end of paying the price.  In a time of tight budgets, skyrocketing fuel prices and benefit costs rising exponentially, one has to ask if a $30,000 expenditure — which could be avoided — is the way to go, or if council should FIX IT NOW.

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The shortage of trees in the bay area got a little shorter recently when former Tampa Bay Buccaneer/Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens/New York Jets/Dallas Cowboys/New England Patriots/Carolina Panthers quarterback Vinny Testaverde cut down a few on his new lakefront Odessa property.

By a few I mean around 40 or so (not Vinny’s ex-trees pictured at left; the actual trees are now appearing in a mulch bag in a Lowe’s near you). They could have filmed an episode of Ax Men at his house. Sheesh, Vinny, why so many? There are people around here that would freakin’ kill for that many trees on their property.

The Hillsborough Environmental Protection Commission came to the rescue and cited him for cutting down the cypress trees because they were in a protected wetland area. Testaverde said he didn’t realize it was a big problem. He apparently had a landscaping company cut the trees down and they never said anything about it being illegal.

“You’ve got to rely on the advice of these people. Whoever cut down the trees didn’t do a very good job of informing him,” Clayton Studstill, Testaverde’s attorney, told the Tampa Tribune. (We did not make up his attorney’s name, we swear. Studstill.)

OK, getting bad landscaping advice is understandable. It’s puzzling that he would want to de-tree his property to any extent, but I guess I can believe he didn’t realize he was doing something illegal. And putting aside any environmental implications caused to the waterway next to his house, or any possible deed-restrictions he may have violated, or the pissing-off of his new neighbors, it is his place after all. He should be able to cut down any trees not located in a protected wetland area of his property.

As punishment, the EPC ordered Testaverde to plant 40 15-gallon cypress trees on the property within 30 days and make sure they all survive for one year. Testaverde didn’t want to replace all the trees, so the EPC caved and said he could plant 20 30-gallon trees instead, along with some herbaceous plants along the shoreline.

If he doesn’t like that, the EPC will probably let him plant a single 600-gallon tree, only mow the lawn every third week, and do the edging only in a month that ends in a ‘y’ or a consonant.

That’s wetlands mitigation for you. You know what they say, it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.

It will probably be a few years before Testaverde’s new trees mature enough for the property to be returned to its previous ecological state. Understandably, Testaverde’s neighbors aren’t happy about the whole mess.

I wouldn’t eat any of that house-warming pie, Vinny.

photo by saveena(AKA LHDugger)

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Our Planning Commission recently proposed a Visioning project to our Hillsborough County Commission. In a nutshell, this would consist of coordinating land use with transportation planning. Historically, transportation drives land use; just drive along any toll road plopped down in an area that was previously rural in this state and you can see the Monopolyesque houses stacked up on either side of it — we call this sprawl.

Planning land use with transportation seems to make good sense. What doesn’t make good sense is handing over a project like this to a public-private partnership like One Bay, whose private business supporters could certainly benefit from its planning outcome. Yet this is what our County Commission was ultimately proposing. I got on One Bay’s website and clicked on to the Smart Growth button and, not so ironically, the first two articles listed that day were about toll roads.

Our County Commission has been accused of being blind to having a balanced vision for Hillsborough’s future, and sadly, they have proven this again and again. They denied the Planning Commission $100,000 it sought for its Visioning project. (which, by the way, had been allocated to it last year and lost on a technicality). Commissioner Mark Sharpe’s recent commentary suggested that One Bay be a part of the of this Visioning project along with the Planning Commission. To his credit, he tried to give it to the Planning Commission alone on two other occasions, but the rest of the boys on the board weren’t buying. I suspect that is because the Planning Commission is the only objective agency we have in this county that promotes smart growth and discourages sprawl.

In an effort to compromise, Sharpe suggested the Planning Commission work with One Bay since One Bay already had a vision. Why were we NIMBY’s, informed citizens, and activists so opposed to this? Because we know how developers can hijack a project and felt what little voice we do have would certainly be overshadowed by special interests. If I recall correctly, One Bay’s big claim to fame, Reality Check, was an exercise with Legos that people had to be invited to. Does this seem conducive to public input? Evidently that is what they are assembling their Vision from. Sorry, I just can’t see it.

I am not opposed to everybody having a voice, but I and many others feel that the Planning Commission should take the lead in the project. Its staff serves this community with pride, ethics and integrity. They provide an objective, balanced approach, taking into consideration all views. They have proven to me that their recommendations are in the best interest of the community and not driven by any political bias or hidden agendas.

As we watched what we thought was the beginning of the end of citizen’s voices on March 6 as Commissioner Al Higginbotham made a motion to have the County Commission participate in One Bay’s technical advisory meetings (and he mentioned they had already paid One Bay a consulting fee!) and come back in 30 days. Mark Sharpe made a substitute motion (even though I attended the actual meeting and read the transcripts, I could not find a clear statement of the motion because it was never clearly made in my opinion. Here is the best summary I could assemble of Sharpe’s motion:) Have the county as the lead facilitator and bring the rest of the interested parties into the mix keeping the Planning Commission involved but not solely giving the lead to the Partnership. So as the activists, NIMBYS, and informed citizens sat like deer in headlights I wondered…………are we just gonna get screwed by Sharpe’s motion or are we gonna get REALLY screwed by Higginbotham’s motion? The vote was 5-2 the outcome? REALLY SCREWED. Rose Ferlita voted with Sharpe and the rest of the board with Higginbotham. Another 5-2 vote; we all could have guessed that. George Neiman, a UCAN director, was not given permission to speak in the morning session due to time constraints and had to wait all day to voice his opinion but only after the actual vote occurred. In true George fashion, he made the wait worthwhile as he presented our County Commission with pretty wrapping paper and a bow so that the county would look nice as they gave it away to the Tampa Bay Partnership.

Well, the beginning of April rolled around and since it was nearing the 30-day mark, many of us looked at the agenda to see if the BOCC would again address this issue. It was not on the agenda but then in the late afternoon on April 1 we were informed that indeed it was a part of the next day’s meeting. This was at the very last minute and many of us myself included cried foul because we did not make the arrangements to attend and there are rules about how things are added to the agenda and it certainly seemed as if they had been violated. After a lengthy discussion on the subject they finally voted to hold off another 2 weeks before voting on their plan of action. As luck would have it, before the next vote a lot of information would finally surface about One Bay.

Some digging revealed that One Bay was created by the Partnership and is listed as consortium of business and governmental interests. Hmmm. TBARTA was also spawned from The Partnership, and it has been charged with coming up with a transportation plan (that scares us). So if One Bay is given the VISION and TBARTA has been given the Transportation Planning, it seems the Partnership will be dictating growth in Hillsborough. I don’t recall the Partnership being on the ballot, do you? How will local voices be heard on a regional level and will they be heard at all since not all of the officials on TBARTA are elected some are appointed and One Bay was being marketed by Amy Maguire, a lobbyist with ties to developers. She is associated with former House Speaker John Thrasher, who was part of the campaign to kill Florida Hometown Democracy.

So even in a time of upcoming budget cuts we can’t afford not to have objective planning. We also can’t afford to give it away to private interests. The county planning staff also got tossed into the mix and are now involved as well. Sadly, I trust the county transportation staff even less than special interests considering my recent battle over the Green Swath.

Think that is the worst of it? Think again because recently a Trib editorial broke the story that not only was Maguire a lobbyist but she was involved with a land project with 20 landowners in south Hillsborough County who own about 90 percent of the undeveloped land there, and it is outside the urban service area and……. right about where that ever-famous Green Swath resides. Should she be given a lead in this VISIONING project by our county? No wonder the same Commissioners so opposed to the project when it was just the Planning Commission were happy to support the project when OneBay was asked to join.

Sadly our BOCC remains blind to a vision other than the one special interests are more than happy to create for them and they don’t even appear to possess 20/20 Vision in hindsight! It remains to be seen what the final outcome of this will be. Amy Macquire has since stepped down but I wonder how our BOCC will handle this one since they haven’t had a final vote on the issue yet. What can you do? Contact them and let them know how you feel about special interests creating our Vision. I did and told them I thought our Planning Commission was the only choice for the job especially in light of recent events. I also attended the morning session of the BOCC meeting on 4-16-08 because this item was on the agenda. It was a hot topic during public comment and although I signed up to speak I was not given permission due to time constraints (glad I wasted that time to attend and then proceeded to feel sick as I watched them bicker about our ELAPP land among other things). Anyway, the item in question was A-12 on the consent agenda and it read: Receive follow-up report to Proposed Conceptual Plan of Action to Begin Visioning in Hillsborough County. I would have never thought that this would include a continuation of the item so I was surprised to hear from Ms. Garsys of the county staff later explaining that to me. Someone should really inform Mr. Marchetti of this development………putting his last minute continuations on the consent agenda would really save those of us opposed to them a lot of time and energy.

I have to say that Ms. Garsys of the county staff has contacted me regarding this issue several times and is more than willing to set up a meeting about it. Not sure what more we would talk about yet other than the fact that I don’t want special interest planning our future (and I already emailed my comments to their website regarding a vision and you can too. She sent me a copy of the BOCC agenda for 5/7/08 and this time the visioning issue was a time certain item and again the county staff is requesting more time. They cite lack of citizen input and do note what little input they have had list concerns about ONEBAY. Part of their recommendations include regaining public trust. I think if our BOCC truly wanted to re-establish public trust they would give the Planning Commission the lead in the project because they have never lost public trust. One way not to regain my trust is to put staff member Ned Baier on this project but the county staff suggested he be involved at the April 2nd meeting. I tuned in to the meeting on May 7th and several of the Commissioners (Higginbotham, Sharpe, and Ferlita) went on record wanting the public to be part of the process and finally Commissioner Higginbotham asks Ms. Garsys if One Bay is running this program?

Ms.Garsys: No, it is our program.

Higginbotham: That’s all I wanted to hear. That’s right. I just wanted to make sure they were on the same page because that has been my mantra from the very beginning, that this is being powered by the county, the county commission, and the Planning Commission.

Ms. Garsys was asking for a continuation and they asked her if she needed a motion she said yes and a motion was made by Commissioner Higginbotham and seconded by Sharpe but nowhere in the transcripts could I find any conditions on the motion (like how long this is continued and is One Bay still a candidate to help lead this effort?) I emailed our BOCC and asked them if this meant they were completely divorcing themselves from One Bay regarding Visioning but I only heard back from Commissioner Higginbotham. He sent me the link to the transcripts and then stated in his e-mail “As you will read, I was very clear on my stand regarding the visioning process.. Comparing his quotes to the March 6th transcripts, I have to say it did not sound like the same mantra to me.

So is the BOCC finally heeding citizen’s requests not to give away our planning to special interests or is this more like a bad DRI rezoning with citizen opposition…………………just continue the hell out of it until finally nobody shows up and they can pass it without many people watching? I urge you to contact them and let them know you are watching.

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In a slight to both neighborhood leaders and city council, the administration of Mayor Pam Iorio decided that it had better things to do then to televise the ongoing city budget discussions. The administration, which has restricted citizen access to council and administrative staff by not allowing staff to attend meetings in the Mascotte conference room (a procedure allowed for years) on the pretense of having everything televised and open to the public, balked as soon as the light of day was about to be brought to the city budget discussions.

Despite a motion from City Council to televise the meeting, calls from Council Chairman Thomas Scott and from Councilwoman Mulhern, the city administration denied the request to televise the meetings saying that “we have never televised them in the past.” It is time for the Mayor to lead, apologize to the taxpaying citizens and fix it now.

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I attended the TBARTA board meeting last week. If there is a hell, then suffering through one of those meetings could be it! My concerns are with “Corridors” C and D on Map 8 Hillsborough Connections which would destroy rural and preservation lands and bring certain unwanted sprawl along with them.
The meeting started without the chairman, former Bucs star Shelton Quarles. When he later arrived, he explained that he went to the wrong location. In his defense, it sounded like he went to the location of last month’s meeting … not in his defense but… THEY CHANGE THE LOCATION OF THE MEETINGS EACH MONTH MR. CHAIRMAN!

Feeling good about regional transportation yet?

My first concern was that on the agenda it said ADOPT Conflict Resolution Plan. At last month’s meeting (which I confirmed with the transcripts from the April 25th meeting page 9 of 11, download it here: may-2008-tbarta-board-package.pdf) they said they would only PRESENT the final draft of the Conflict Resolution Plan in May. Why do I care about the difference? Because if Corridors C and D of map 8 don’t get removed, oh, will there be a conflict! Not only was it now on the agenda to be adopted, it was to be done BEFORE public comment. (Having attended enough Hillsborough County Commission meetings, I know that if an item is to be voted on then even they give us an opportunity to speak in a public hearing before they screw us). So what to do? Ask Commissioner Ken Hagan, who represents Hillsborough on that board, to bring it up? Considering the mountain of e-mails I have sent to the county commission (and have never received a response from him) combined with his actions on that board, I didn’t think he was the man for the job.

Protocol dictates that I should make the chairman aware of this before the meeting (oh yeah, he wasn’t there yet). Instead, I brought it up with Commissioner Patterson of Sarasota before the meeting. Last month, she asked for the future transportation line that would destroy environmental lands in her county to be removed, and it was clear to me from her comments that she isn’t afraid to speak up, so I relayed my concerns to her. Even though she didn’t have a problem with the Conflict Resolution itself she still raised my concerns about process and that the public should be allowed to weigh in BEFORE the actual vote (after some bickering from the board they agree to let us weigh in on the item). Dee Layne and I asked them to make provisions for citizen input regarding the Conflict Resolution Process but to no av