The Big Story: Iorio to county — stop hatin’ on gays
February 2, 2008 at 11:51 am by Wayne GarciaAnd that is a big fat raspberry and a moral lesson in doing what is right. On Friday, Mayor Pam Iorio made a stand that 
is the best thing she has ever done in her political career: She told county leaders she won’t even consider merging or consolidating functions with them because of their anti-gay stance. As she wrote to Times reporter Bill Varian in response to county commissioners’ overtures about merging parks and recreation departments:
We should not merge any services where our values are not compatible. The County’s lack of tolerance towards a segment of our community cannot be allowed to affect the services provided by Parks and Recreation.
Yes, Ronda Storms’ crusade of intolerance back in 2005 lives on. It is county policy not to recognize gay pride events, a policy that Storms made sure can only be overturned by a supermajority vote of the County Commission. As Iorio rightly points out in her e-mail, merging with the county parks department could endanger some city-support gay events:
The county took over the library system many years ago. (It has its own county-wide millage rate) This worked well until a few years ago when the BOCC decided not to allow any Gay pride displays at the libraries. This I very much disagreed with and thought it sent the wrong tone for the entire community. The City co-sponsors through our Parks and Recreation Department many special events as I mentioned above. One for example is Winter Pride at Al Lopez Park.
In my recent “Fix It Now” column, item No. 9 was “Stop beating up on gay people:”
We waste far too much time, energy and newsprint writing about the battle over gay marriage or transgender firings. Richard Florida was right; communities that embrace tolerance and diversity outperform those that don’t. Even if you aren’t down with homosexuality because of your religion or whatever psychosexual hang-ups you have, just walk away from this fight.
Iorio shows why this is so important. No matter what you think about the mayor, take time today to send her an e-mail of support for her strong stance and for the warning shot across the bow of the county leaders. There is a price we pay for intolerance, in lost economic growth, in government efficiency, and in creative and cultural richness. (While you’re at it, send some love over to the county commissioners and urge them to repeal their hateful gay pride resolution.)
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Wow talk about mixing appeals and oranges. First let me say that being intolerant of anyone is shameful, and that if more people focused on themselves and not others the world would be a better place. But talk about a rational out of left field. First I don’t think county staff is intolerant of anyone secondly for those who are intolerant of others the way to deal with them is not to hide our heads in the sand and hope they change but it is head on, perhaps having “tolerant†city people working with the “intolerant†county people will teach everyone that we are all just people. All that being said, this rational for not merging department is the biggest crock I have ever seen, did the mayor suddenly discover how the county felt….no… this is about Tampa politics as usual with everyone wanting to be in charge of a jobs program. Everyone should consider which is worse people who have different views working together (while maintaining city services) or far more people losing their jobs,(and reducing services) because that is the real choice. Merging staff for economies of scale is not a zero sum game, there are saving for the city and county, clearly the mayors comments are designed solely to bait the county into a fight, just the way the city and county like it no one responsible.
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:10 pm
fred — you miss the point. The county has a resolution by which its employees are bound, and that is not to allow or recognize gay pride or gay-related events. That would mean that renting out Al Lopez Field for Winter Pride, for instance, couldn’t happen. It is not whether county employees are tolerant or intolerant; i assume many of them are very tolerant and are as aghast at what Storms et al. did in 2005 resolution-wise. (And I’m sure there are plenty of intolerant city employees.) But only county workers are legally bound not to allow certain events or activities to take place in county facilities.
February 2nd, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Sorry, too easy…
“Not that there’s anything wrong with that!”
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Just because you would merge departments does not mean that you would have to merge policies on use, the city could maintain the same usage policies they currently have. The only real politics here are who employees owe the gratitude for their jobs to, the city or the county, because jobs = votes. By merging departments nothing would change except costs would be cut. The city still does not get it stop the waste, as long as the city continues its policies of waste you are going to see more and more proposals to cut city budgets at the state level. By the way in the last round of cuts mandated by the state the city claimed that departments would be gutted and services cut, I have not seen any loss of service, maybe there should be a story on how claimed cuts on services never materialized, honesty of elected officials questioned.
February 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
I commend Mayor Iorio for her position. Maybe at some point, someone at 601 East Kennedy will realize the hateful policy of the Hillsborough County government is not good public policy.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
fred, what’s really happening here is that the county is trying to make up for years of being inferior to Tampa; it’s like Duh-bya Bush invading Iraq for no good reason except to show up his father by (he thought) finishing the job. The reasons are much less financial than they are dominance-related.
The churches in East Hillsborough hate the fact that Tampa allows nude dancing and doesn’t really care all that much whether g-g-g-GAY people live here. There’s a squirrelly little contingent who would *love* to make Tampa behave and be God-fearin’ whether we want to or not, and these two boneheads (Ferlita and Higginbotham) are going along with it.
February 5th, 2008 at 3:59 am
Counties suffer from an inherent inferiority complex and penis envy as citizens generally identify with the nearest city or town rather than the name of their county, except for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - WTF.
The county in turn position themselves as defenders of rural areas only (re: Ronda Storms) against the evil city empires (re: Pam Iorio). Ironically, many of these same rural residents they defend work in, access amenities, and use services in those same evil cities. For the county, it is all about control and forced respect as they still generously collect property taxes from city residents and typically make them grovel to get any services in return. They also require cities to ante up for countywide projects which amounts to double taxation for city residents.
Mayor Pam is right to call them out.
February 5th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Maybe it’s time Tampa and points west seceded from Hillsborough County. Let them have Brandon and Plant City, we’ll take the rest.