The Political Whore

I attended the recent swearing in of Kevin Beckner (so that is what all of you Obama supporters felt like?) Still fresh from the euphoria of seeing a good guy win one (and watching incumbent Commissioner Brian Blair go down in flames), I later headed down to the public workshop that evening regarding the Lithia Pinecrest road widening project in eastern Hillsborough County. I had like six or seven hours in between these two events to just be happy that the people of Hillsborough made a good decision electing Beckner and since Commissioner Kevin “the people have spoken and I am switching teams” White (a longtime pro-development vote) seems to have gotten the message, just maybe NOW the residents would have a majority on the board (so that is what the late Ralph Hughes must have felt like!)

Hey, six hours of hope was good, wasn’t it? Turns out we have been duped by our county AGAIN! When Iand many others attended a meeting last year regarding the widening of Lithia Pinecrest we were told that the rural portion of it (now known as segment D) from Fishhawk to State Road 39 would NOT be widened. The staff assured us…………assured us.

That is why I thought it was fishy when I read this article promoting this year’s meeting that said it could to be 6 lanes all the way through. WTF? In fact, all I remember them talking about last year was possibly 4 lanes and that was only in the urban sections, so to read that they were now talking about 6 lanes all the way through raised many suspicions. So many of us decide to attend this year’s meeting, and it was Beltway deja vu. Lies, circles, and deflections.

There are sections of Lithia Pinecrest that are overloaded by traffic and need relief, but those are in the Urban Service Area, and make no mistake about it, those sections failed because new home construction was approved without appropriate infrastructure. You can thank past and a few current county commissioners for that. The section I am referring to is in the Rural Service Area and it serves us rural types just fine, thanks. Why are we opposed to widening on this particular stretch? Because plowing a bigger road through a rural area is nothing more than a recipe for sprawl. Six lanes with a median is 1-75!

We have been down this road before……..and we destroyed it!

To give you some history, between the last workshop we attended on this and now a lot has happened. We found out that the county lied to us about a toll road, at a workshop. As it turned out, we were also deceived in front of a trusted elected official, Commissioner Rose Ferlita, when she summoned staff to her office in an attempt to better inform us. (note to county staff/consultants: she is the last commissioner you’d want to lie to). Anyway, in part because of all the documented lying plus the fact that it was just a recipe for sprawl, the ill-fated Beltway, Bypass, Green Swath of Death or Sprawlway (take your pick for names) was pulled from any consideration. It was a long battle with many agencies, always getting the run around that usually went something like this: Don’t worry there is plenty of time for you to weigh in, the county doesn’t even have the money for this, one agency pointing the finger at another and sending us in circles. We did finally beat the beltway………the toll road is now dead but the real toll was on our quality of life during this long and heated battle, and a greater toll was levied on our trust in government, especially county government. Oh and that study it was housed in and later pulled cost taxpayers $300,000.

So imagine our surprise to discover that not only had we been lied to about the Beltway last year…….but that we had also been lied to about Segment D of the Lithia Pinecrest Road Widening Project.

We paid 2.5 million for this?

Pam Prysner, one of the founders of R-LAND, and I found a wandering consultant from HDR named Mathew Wey at this year’s meeting. We fire all of our questions at him that he is ill-equipped to answer and he quickly runs for his project manager, who takes forever to return. In the meantime, we find the county camera running and leave our comments on tape as well as written ones in a box. (Interesting to note that I spot Miller Dowdy, Planning Commissioner/developer come up and sit at the table next to where we were being filmed to fill out his comments with one ear on us. Is it appropriate for a planning commissioner with developer background to be there leaving comments? Hmmm.

We then find other concerned residents there who also attended last year’s meeting and they too were irate upon finding out they were lied to about this segment last year. The consultant they were speaking with then turns and tells all of us that this project isn’t even funded in an attempt to ease our concerns (starting to sound familiar?)

Finally the project manager, also of HDR, Steve Gordillo shows up as we are in the middle of speaking with a reporter (jackpot).…..and he absolutely talks in circles, first adamantly proclaiming the project has always been six lanes all the way through. Later he changes it to a four-lane possibility and even later says that the no-widening option is still on the table. Funny that the poster boards (three huge ones) showing the alternatives all have the section in question as six lanes! So, I ask him, how can people comment accurately when all they have in front of them are these six-lane options? He says the movie shows the other options. When we asked him when the study was completed he replied last December. He later stumbles and says the study is still in progress………I am thankful the reporter is still there witnessing this clinic in doublespeak that Mr. Gordillo is putting on. I ask him if this project (regarding segment D) is compatible with our Comprehensive Plan and or Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) (I have studied both of them long enough to know (thanks to the Bypass) that this will never be compatible but I just ask the question) He says they look at that only after the study is done. (What a brilliant wasting of tax dollars because if I recall correctly from last year, this study alone costs 2.5 million dollars!) This was later confirmed in an email from William Alford of Public Works.

He then tries to diffuse our fears by saying that this is for 2038. I ask him if he knows our Comp Plan only goes to 2025? He says yes. I again ask him about the Metrpolitan Planning Organization’s (MPO) Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) and at this point he starts to squirm. Far behind him in the back of the room I see his army of representatives huddled around watching this spectacle from afar. They are mocking his hand movements, laughing, and in general are probably glad it is not them on the hot seat. He has no idea I have one eye on them and neither do they……I did think it was funny enough to mention though.

We have been down this road before…………….and we destroyed it!

We grill him some more regarding being lied to last year and he maintains that this has been the idea all along and that we must be mistaken. At this point I tell him that I have a whole table full of people with me right now who will verify that we were told LAST YEAR IN THIS VERY ROOM – that the rural section would not be widened! At this point, the reporter chimes in and says that she too has gotten some calls on her recent story from concerned residents saying they were told the road would not be widened (double jackpot!)

“I don’t know what someone else told you,” he said, ” that may have been the developer section which is a different project.” Pam and I both give him an emphatic Noooooooo, that is not what we are talking about here. OK, he says, look, it might never be six lanes where you are worried about it (might not he emphasizes again) but we have to do it this way to get the federal dollars. I took that to mean either they are lying to the federal government about their project to get the money or they are lying to us about it never going to happen! Either way, once four or six lanes gets drawn on a map through a rural area the developers will be sure to make it a reality. Residents deserve the truth so that they can accurately comment on it. Misleading taxpayers, plotting sprawl in the dark, possibly planning to lie to the federal government for funds as well as squandering tax dollars on what appears to be a faux study just isn’t acceptable.

I later reviewed the newsletter that was handed out this year and guess what? The no build alternative was listed on there (funny it wasn’t listed on the poster board presentation titled ALTERNATIVES, recall all 3 of those were 6 lanes). Also interesting was that the Newsletter even states “Lithia Pinecrest Road between Fishhawk Boulevard and CR 39 is not currently included in the MPO’s 2025 Highway Needs Assessment.” So why would they waste money studying this section which is clearly in the rural service area and incidentally ends on CR 39 which I might point out is also…………2 Lanes. I googled Lithia Pinecrest PD and E study and it brings me to the study’s website and would you believe it talks about the county’s Needs Assessment and reads ” This document identifies Lithia Pinecrest Road as a future four-lane roadway between SR 60 and Bloomingdale Ave, as a future enhanced two lane roadway between Bloomingdale Ave and Fishhawk Blvd.” It then again states that “Lithia Pinecrest Road between Fishhawk Blvd. and CR 39 is not currently included in the MPO’s 2025 Highway Needs Assessment.” I think this would lead anybody reading it to believe that they are not planning to widen from Fishhawk Blvd to CR 39. Finally, in my cluster of paperwork I locate the Newsletter from last year’s meeting and bingo…….it says almost exactly the same thing as above and nowhere on it does it say anything about 6 Lanes on ANY SECTION (Triple Jackpot!) So, was it just a tactic to keep those pesky R-LAND people quiet until the very last minute? Sure seems that way. Oh and the media reported that this project could start in 2012………what happened to 2038 Mr. Gordillo?

Recipe For Sprawl = Rural Land + New or Widened Road (double the recipe by securing Federal $$)

We fought the bypass and won but the developers are still licking their wounds and they have more than one way to procreate sprawl, six-laning a rural road is just as good if you are a developer. Hell, it is better because you don’t have to find the private dollars to build it like you would a toll road. A bonus if you can get federal $$$$$. A new or widened road always delivers more housing density with it. It is the very justification if not entitlement they need to get re-zonings and comp plan changes approved. Think the housing disaster is slowing them down? Think again because while they might not be building any homes now, they are very busy trying to get land rezoned for when the market returns. So, as far as I am concerned, Segment D of Lithia Pinecrest Widening Project at anything more than 2 lanes is the new and not improved SPRAWLWAY and we will fight it as such.

What you can do?

R-LAND has created a form letter in opposition to the widening of this segment. It is available to any Hillsborough resident sharing our views. You can access it here. Tell a friend (or tell 100 friends) because politicians tend to sit up when the masses finally get pissed off enough weigh in.

How did this option become a reality without us knowing about it? I am sure we will never really know but my gut feeling is probably about the same way that the bypass did (in the dark). Lets hope our new and improved Board of County Commissioners like the Florida Sunshine as much as we do.

The Good, The Bad, and the Bright New Hope

Glad I had a small window of hope for our county. Now back to waging a full on war to protect our rural area. While our trust in the majority of local government and their staff was destroyed last year over the Bypass we did come away believing in two Commissioners: 1) Rose Ferlita for sticking by us and not tolerating the lies. 2) Mark Sharpe, who was openly pro-Bypass but still made the motion to have it removed in an effort to restore our trust. I am confident that neither of these commissioners will tolerate this second breach of trust. I also have faith in newly elected Kevin Beckner. You can contact the good and the not so good ones here.

What about our own District Commissioner? A rare exception.

You know, I also remember meeting our district Commissioner Al Higginbotham at the first county workshop I attended on this issue. A group of us descended upon him because Lithia-Pinecrest worries dismissed (since the staff had just told us our section would remain two lanes) we turned his ear over our Bypass concerns. He was a new commissioner back then and couldn’t have been nicer as he relayed his daughter had horses. “You have land I asked?” thinking he must be a great improvement from Storms……..yes, he said, “and if the beltway comes it will be over my house too”. I walked away thinking he was a good guy. My first impressions are rarely ever wrong…………he was the rare exception. Now, if we were told that night that this project could be 6 lanes don’t you think we would have had a temper tantrum right then and there about it and let Higginbotham know? You Bet! He was also present at a Brandon Chamber of Commerce meeting in late January last year that many of us attended since there was supposed to be a presentation about the bypass from the expressway authority representative. The Expressway Authority representative canceled at the last minute………not sure if we scared him off or if it was because of the gay computer porn scandal going on at the Expressway Authority at the time. We suffered through the meeting anyway which included a presentation on the Lithia Pinecrest Widening Project. I don’t recall a thing about 6 lanes on any section there either! I wonder if Al ‘you all should meet with developers’ Higginbotham will have our backs on this one?  I seriously doubt it. His aide, Commissioner Mr. Johnson was present at this most recent meeting (he might put in as many hours as volunteer activists do!) He seemed to know all about the project saying it wouldn’t happen for 10 years (now we have 2012, 2018, and 2038) and he knew section D was not failed. He also parrot-mouthed almost word for word the excuse of having the six-lane option to gain federal dollars. We told him that we had been lied to and that the road was not needed or wanted but he seemed too busy telling us about the federal dollars excuse to listen.

What next?

The newsletter states they are taking comments on the project at this website. (the media report said they are only accepting comments until Dec 5th) how convenient for them. The newsletter also states the Public hearing at the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) is in the Spring of 2009 and I do not see any other public meetings listed. I asked for another meeting this time in rural Lithia on this issue before it goes before the BOCC. Recall last year’s meeting in rural Lithia regarding the Bypass drew a SRO crowd of over 400 angry people willing to fight to keep what is left of Lithia rural and many were turned away at the door. I am betting county staff remembered it too and that is probably precisely why they tried to sneak this one past us. We can turn pretty quickly on a fast ball out here in Lithia but maybe the county needs a reminder.

To contact Project Manager Steve Gordillo call 813-282-2348 or email him at Steve.gordillo@hdrinc.com.

Also listed on the Newsletter as a contact is William Alford of Hillsborough County Public Works 813-307-1920 or email alfordw@hillsboroughcounty.org.

Update: Since this story was submitted I received a letter from Commissioner Ken Hagan (the very first reply he has sent regarding any of my concerns EVER) Call it the Beckner effect! Anyway, the same excuse of federal dollars was listed but here is the important part:

Currently, the county has no plans to widen Lithia Pinecrest South of Fishhawk Boulevard (segment D). The inclusion of this segment does not obligate, nor does it suggest that the county is interested in widening this part of the roadway.

Are you F-ing kidding me? So why doesn’t the consulting firm getting paid 2.5 million know this? Why did they have one story last year and another one this year? Who authorized the year 2038 when none of our plans go out that far? And last, but not least, HOW are the federal dollars involved in all of this?

I asked some of these questions in a formal public records request as allowed by Florida Statutes Chapter 119 and it seems like they can’t really answer them offhand as they have now been referred to the county attorney. I will let you know how that goes although Mr. Hagan indicated that many of my questions might be answered at today’s County Commission meeting as this issue is now on the agenda for discussion.  I suspect they will try to gloss this over and place the blame elsewhere.  At best they will do their own internal investigation and that will take forever and the outcome from Pat Bean,  county administrator, will be no wrong doing.  I hope our good Commissioners won’t buy this bullshit if it turns out that way and I hope they demand some answers.  This one is smells worse the more I dig and it looks like someone at the County got some splaining to do.

Also interesting is that Tampa Bay Water is now suing the engineering company over the cracks in the reservoir. Guess who that company is? HDR! It never ends does it?

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