The Political Whore

Just at the end of last week’s meeting on wetlands in Hillsborough County, as many in the audience had left and the cameras were just about to blink off, commissioners Rose Ferlita and Ken Hagan got into over a remark that Ferlita made in the Times critical of some of her colleagues skipping out on a meeting to attend the funeral of a well-connected developer. I didn’t get my hands on the closed-captioning script until the weekend, so here’s the [edited for clarity] exchange between the two:

Hagan: I received a few minutes ago an e-mail on the funeral arrangements for Sergeant Ronald Harrison [who was slain last week by a racist gunman], and the funeral is scheduled for 1:00 on Tuesday, and I think we should consider rescheduling our land-use meeting that day. I don’t know the board’s position on this. Judging by Commissioner Ferlita’s comments in yesterday’s paper regarding rescheduling our Wednesday meeting, I know she feels it’s bad government and inconsiderate and we should just send a designee or a card. I think sending a card or designee —

Ferlita: Mr. Hagan, you are absolutely out of order in terms of the questions of what I said. That is very, very unfair.

Hagan: — I certainly think it’s not good enough for Tuesday, and so I think we should make every effort to attend Sergeant Harrison’s funeral. And it’s the least we can do to show respect for this man.

Ferlita: Mr. Hagan, your comments directed to me were absolutely inappropriate. The difference between the majority of this board going to an individual funeral of somebody you have attachment to as opposed to deciding to have government continue while you paid your respects through a [designee] is hardly the same ….

Sir, nobody is stronger here than me for public safety. I was chairman down the street [of Tampa City Council’s public safety committee] of that for a long time, and to say that in the same breath — yeah, keep your smirk — to say that in the same breath that you talk about the death of a deputy sheriff who died in the line of duty for us, you are absolutely hitting below the belt, Mr. Hagan.

That is not fair to me, to them and to the gentleman who died.

Chairman Jim Norman: Folks, folks, folks.

Ferlita: That is very, very rude.

[applause]

Hagan: I just want to state that I’m reading directly from the papers yesterday that we should — other ways to express sympathy such as sending a designee from the board or a card, and I’m simply stating — I simply want to say that’s inappropriate, and the board should go, all of us.

Ferlita: … For Mr. Hagan to continue quoting me when it comes down to the service that this gentleman gave us, Mr. Hagan, I have no respect for your comments. You better correct what you’re thinking because you’re way out of line.

The Hagan-Ferlita intraGOP tiff follows another public fight between two other GOP County Commissioners, Brian Blair and Al Higginbotham, in which Blair attacked Higginbotham’s spending habits after Higginbotham suggested that commissioners might consider freezing their salaries in light of budget cutbacks that are costing public and private workers their jobs.

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