Quizzing Ken Hagan’s office: Are they really going to answer for all citizen problems throughout Hillsborough County?
June 25, 2009 at 2:30 pm by George Niemann
By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
It looks like Commissioner Ken Hagan has decided to become the first point of contact for all county residents with problems.
As you may recall, Wayne Garcia reported that Hagan (District 2) has been distributing fliers in District 1 in what the Hillsborough County Commission chairman calls a public service gesture. As it turns out, the distribution of these fliers is heralding a new method of operation for the county, which is the brainchild of Hagan. During these hard economic times, Hagan has decided to singlehandedly re-engineer the way the county does business.
Interestingly enough, the flier says that Hagan wants to know about any issues that county residents have. He also encourages everyone to contact him saying, “Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can ever be of service.” Well, I decided to ask the commissioner if he really meant that. Is he going to work on anyone’s issue, regardless of which district they’re in? Does that mean that he intends to be the first point of contact for all of the districts??? I got some surprising answers when I called his office.
I spoke with Hagan’s senior aide, Rich Reidy by telephone on Monday. Reidy emphatically supports his boss’s idea of being the first point of contact for any inquiries, on a countywide basis. Here’s how Reidy responded to my questions:
“Are you going to take care of the problems for District 1 if people call?”
Reidy: “We’re going to try, if we can.”
“So we (all Hillsborough residents) can call from any district and you’ll work on it (problems) and if you can’t solve it, you’ll then refer it to whoever has that district?”
“That’s the indication that the commissioner has given us.”
“When I talk to the other district offices they say they’re inundated … they say that there’s not enough hours in the day, and they’re just handling their own district, so I’m wondering how you can handle all four districts, including your own?”
“We don’t know how we’re going to deal with that. I guess if it starts to become a problem, we’ll have to address it with the commissioner.”
“So it looks like we have a new process flow here in Hillsborough. This is what the new process will look like…
I always thought that for a change of this magnitude, the other commissioners would have to agree on having a single district (District 2) being the first point of contact for all Hillsborough residents. I guess the other commissioner’s staffs will now get a little breathing room knowing that the District 2 staff will solve most of the incoming problems and that they’ll only be used as a backup. Hell, it sure beats trying to remember seven different telephone numbers! Maybe we no longer need seven districts.
In any case, let’s test this new process out to make sure it works well. If you’re within the boundaries of Hillsborough and you have a problem, a question, or if you need anything from a Hillsborough commissioner, be sure to call Ken Hagan first, on 813-272-5452.
