By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

Regional parks came up during budget talks last week at the Hillsborough County Commission. County Administrator Pat Bean’s budget proposal would close them down two days a week, much to the dismay of well, almost everybody showing up at the last budget public hearing. Looks like they will now remain open seven days a week after all. Several commissioners voiced their concerns and wanted parks to be kept open! Nimby translation: Get this angry mob of voters off our backs already and give them their damned parks!

There will be a new fee, which sounds like most likely to be $2 a car. It isn’t official yet, but commissioners voted unanimously to proceed with the idea that Mark Thornton, parks director, came up with for them. I wouldn’t ordinarily complain about $2 except I know what they are spending in other areas and things like the Sports Authority funding appears completely intact.

I know you are comforted that the stadium and three golf courses will be maintained as always (using an existing tax that could go to parks instead). Don’t forget the County Commission only charges developers 37 percent of the legal limit regarding impact fees for parks. Oh and lets not forget this is a “fee” not a tax after all, no politician wants to be tagged with increasing taxes. Since the voters spoke loud and clear on amendment one which was supposed to lower taxes no politician in their right mind would raise them right now. So instead of decreasing their pork barrel spending they are just raising “fees” on things that your taxes used to afford you. Other fee increases looking like they will be approved are dog tag fees and your water rates recently went up. Good thing they didn’t raise your taxes though.

How fiscally conservative of them.

Update: Late Wednesday afternoon (4:37pm to be exact) the applicant pulled CPA 09-13 and CPA 09-14 from consideration in front of the Board of County Commissioners. The letter states in part “Please be advised that we intend to re-file these applications although we will make every effort to address issues raised in the process to further resolve many misconceptions regarding the project.” Nimby translation: Crap, we just didn’t have the votes so we will try again later. Don’t go to the hearing Thursday as it will not be heard.

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

Is it appropriate for State Rep. Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg and shown above with President Barack Obama) to lobby Hillsborough County Planning Commissioners (and copy the County Commissioners on his letter) pushing sprawl?

He must have thought so, according to his letter. He openly advocated for a “multi-modal” center (nimby translation: big ass WAREHOUSE) out in the far corner of the county, where we purposely do not have urban services such as water and sewer and where the land use designation does not allow for this sort of thing. If Democrats are good for anything, isn’t it usually being anti-sprawl and pro-gay rights? Rouson appears to be neither, but then I found he used to be a Republican. Also interesting is the very tiny portion of Hillsborough that Rouson represents……………looks to me to be mainly underwater. How would this project help the fish in your district, Representative Rouson?

The California developers initially claimed that Port of Tampa needed this facility but then the Port said thanks but no thanks. Now, with a shitty economy proponents are claiming the project will bring jobs to the area. That is great but we can’t afford to breach the rural area with more sprawl so I respectfully suggest they find an appropriate site for this warehouse inside the Urban Service Area. The Ruskin Chamber of Commerce is pushing this project very heavily. Recall: your tax dollars help support the Chamber.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to deny this project (some pull Mr. Rouson has, huh?) but the final hurdle lies with County Commissioners who will vote on this sprawlhouse Thursday night at 6pm.

Environmentalist and local hero for fighting sprawl, Mariella Smith, put together this alert that covers it all.

Photo credit: capitalist_b/flickr.com

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

As we fight to keep public parks open, the Tampa Sports Authority uses your tax dollars to hire a new executive director at $170,000 a year plus a $2,000 a month housing allowance for up to five months. Looks like you are also footing a $12,500 bill for his moving expenses. Meanwhile, County Administrator Pat Bean is recommending to the Hillsborough County Commission to cut hundreds of jobs and basic services.

Commissioner Jim Norman, who sits on that board, voted to approve the director but not the housing allowance. He is quoted in this article as saying “the people who are paying this today, which are the taxpayers will be outraged.” Um, Mr. Norman I bet if taxpayers knew how much of their money goes to the Sports Authority in general they would be outraged that it even exists.

The Sports Authority gets millions from taxpayers and for what? Do you get to go to the games at a reasonable price? I didn’t think so. Norman does; he watches the games in style on the taxpayer’s dime. What exactly is the benefit of this agency to the whole community? uh-huh, that is what I thought. According to their website their main responsibility is “to maintain Raymond James Stadium and three city golf courses.” This drain on tax dollars should be abolished and please take Ms. Bean with it.

If getting rid of it takes our commissioners to ask for an act of the Legislature, then what are they waiting for? Maybe our highly paid lobbyists can help, but in the meantime please cut off their funds. Funny how they are proposing to cripple agencies like The Planning Commission and The Environmental Protection Commission (EPC) yet when you read Ms. Bean’s budget it is hard to get a final figure for the Sports Authority. It looked like well over 10 million dollars to me and the biggest chunk of that appeared to be from Community Investment Tax (CIT) dollars. This is the definition of CIT according to the county’s website: a discretionary half cent sales surtax approved by the voters to finance general government, public safety, educational and other facilities in Hillsborough County and the cities of Tampa, Plant City, and Temple Terrace. I would be willing to bet people didn’t approve that tax thinking Gee, I hope when they have to cut parks and safety services that the Sports Authority comes out just fine! (just a hunch).

The money we save without the Sports Authority can fund parks, programs like the Bakas Equestrian Center that showed up in force to keep their program alive at the last budget public hearing, The Planning Commission, The EPC and hey, maybe things like Fire and Safety that Pat Bean evidently thinks of as frills! Commissioners have the final say on her budget (and her job). You can tell them to get their priorities in order here. You can see the full budget schedule here.

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

I have been following the developments on the concrete-deficient, cracked CW Bill Young reservoir in eastern Hillsborough County for quite some time now, mainly because if that heap actually has any water in it when if it breaks, I won’t have to drive to the other coast to go surfing! (Or in my case drive to the other coast to go fall off my surfboard.) Tampa Bay Water voted recently to repair the cracks in the reservoir at a cost of $125 million (let’s not forget the whole thing cost $145 million to build in the first place). It was completed in 2005 and we first heard about the cracks in 2007 when the thing was just a mere two years old.

The fact that Tampa Bay Water is suing the company that designed the reservoir, HDR, is bad enough but the fact that Hillsborough County officials continue to give them millions of your dollars in other contracts is government at its worst. HDR received a $2.5 million contract for the Lithia Pinecrest PD & E study and most recently a $1.5 million contract from the Hillsborough County Commission for yet another project this past March! The only two Commissioners voting NO on that item (which had to be pulled from the Consent Agenda where it was buried) were Commissioners Rose Ferlita and Kevin Beckner. Ferlita pulled it off the Consent Agenda and later asked for a report regarding the Consent agenda itself (this earlier article suggests that she could support consent agenda reform) and Beckner asked for a report showing all the contracts HDR had been awarded from the County. Say it with me Thank You Commissioners Ferlita and Beckner! The other Commissioners happily voted to throw more money and work at HDR. It looked like the only Commissioners HDR contributes to was Chairman Ken “Half Truth” Hagan but then I stumbled upon this HDR, Inc a PAC that recently contributed to Commissioner Mark Sharpe (not a crime just interesting) This website shows the fortune that HDR contributes to political campaigns. By the way, it looks like HDR isn’t a stranger to lawsuits. No stranger at all it appears.

This article in the Times states that when Tampa Bay Water asked HDR for a copy of the computer modeling of the reservoir design that HDR said it was only on one engineer’s laptop and it was stolen from his car while he was jogging in Tampa. WTF? I have a very hard time believing this but let’s just say it is true. I wonder if there is only one copy of the other projects you are paying HDR millions for getting over-heated in an engineer’s car somewhere just waiting to be stolen? County staff tout HDR as the best company for their awarded jobs despite the fact that their track record looks like it has as many cracks as the reservoir. Should such incompetence be awarded with more contracts worth millions? Five of our seven commissioners thought so.

This column from Howard Troxler of the St Petersburg Times illustrates his frustrations at a regional water board and inability to hold them accountable. This is what we NIMBY’s, activitists and concerned citizens have been screaming about regarding TBARTA (the newly created regional transportation authority promising rail). By creating regional authorities and sprinkling their board with a few elected officials from surrounding counties NOBODY can ever really be held accountable. On Tampa Bay Water, for example, I can vote for (or against) only two of its nine member board. On TBARTA, I can’t vote for or against any of its members because the commissioner on that board from Hillsborough is not from my district. So, as much controversy and as many battles that I have already fought with TBARTA regarding the Green Swath of Death, I can’t cast a vote for or against any of its 15-member board, yet they have control over whether a toll road would have destroyed my community.

Here is the real kicker – who came up with the idea for these regional authorities? Special interests that is who. The Partnership created not only Tampa Bay Water but also TBARTA and now ONEBAY. Seems to me they want to take control of anything having to do with growth (water, transportation and land use). By creating regional rather than local boards and peppering them with elected officials from several counties it dilutes any power the local voting public might have over these entities but at the same time they get government to fund them……and bail them out. Pretty good deal, huh?

Sadly, the general public appears to have no idea that local control is severely weakened if not completely handed over as the State Legislature creates these quasi-governmental agencies at the requests of special interests and then sends you the bill for it. The reservoir issue illustrates the dangers of giving away local control for the regional “good”. It makes life easier on our politicians because they only take a fraction of the blame and we can’t hold them accountable. Jackpot – for them! Not that some of our local bozos are any prize but at least we can vote them out. Little by little the public is losing any voice we might have had.

People have been building reservoirs for a long time (according to this article as early as 600 B.C.) and so this doesn’t seem like new technology yet ours failed miserably just two years after completion and now it will cost almost as much to repair as it did to build. TBW’s other big project the desal plant has its own poor track record. (and also appears to be a money pit)

This is a basic service that we rely our government to provide us with – water and yet they have major problems doing it efficiently and this is at a regional backyard level. And some of you want big government to run Health Care. Think about it.

Update: I did hear from Commissioner Sharpe this morning and he relayed that he is meeting with the General Manager of TBW tomorrow. He promises answers ASAP.

In a Hillsborough County Commission meeting last week, Commissioner Rose Ferlita brought up those clandestine raises issued by County Administrator Pat Bean. When Ferlita holds up a mountain of paperwork indicating that she has done her research that usually isn’t good news for whoever might be on the other side of that paperwork. Ferlita didn’t think that Bean had fully informed the Commission prior to giving those raises, and because proper procedure had not been followed, the board’s decision to approve those appointments back in November could be null and void. During the discussion, Ferlita cited agenda documents and ordinances (article 6 section 1) and she even brought up a similar situation from way back in 2005, before she was even on the board.

Other commissioners echoed similar complaints about not having the full information, and this is not the first time they have hammered Bean about this raises. Commissioner Kevin Beckner brought it up several weeks ago. But Bean held firm during Wednesday’s meeting stating she felt “we” had done everything “we” were supposed to (is there a Co-County Administrator that “we” don’t know about or does “we” just mean herself and Commissioner Jim Norman?)

Ferlita asked Bean to present her case the next day at the budget workshop. Commissioner Mark Sharpe went a step further and suggested a vote of no confidence (nobody bit) but he made it clear he felt Bean was not the one to lead them any longer. THANK YOU Commissioner Sharpe!

Bean stated in this article that she wouldn’t throw her employees under the bus. Um, Ms. Bean, there isn’t any more room under the bus for your employees considering you are proposing to fire hundreds of them. She was later quoted as saying she would not apologize to commissioners unless she was proven wrong (nice attitude) and don’t forget that mountain of paperwork.

Well, Ms. Bean was wrong and she admitted during Thursday’s workshop that indeed she failed to provide the board with the job descriptions and salaries of the individuals (details, details) and she apologized. This meant commissioners got to re-vote on those appointments. The majority of the board seemed to want the same thing, the reorganization without the double-digit raises. Turns out all the board can vote on is the appointments. This is where it gets muddy because evidently Bean doesn’t need the board’s consent to give raises……..now what?

You know things are bad when Commissioner Al “I Have The Floor” Higginbotham invites Ferlita to share the floor with him during the discussion. After much discussion on what they could actually do, Ferlita made the motion not to approve the appointments and Commissioner Mark Sharpe seconded. This didn’t take the raises away though (only Bean can do that) and she never offered to. Instead she explained somewhat defiantly that this would now create two vacancies that she would need to fill (costing you more money). Her HR person backed her up saying they couldn’t ask people to do more work for less money because of the rules (is there a union down there or what?) The board voted anyway not to approve the appointments 6-1 (only Norman protected Bean).

It didn’t end here, though, because Ferlita left the ball in Bean’s court saying we can’t make her do the right thing (referring to rescinding the raises). Maybe not but hammering her publicly, withdrawing support for the appointments, and outlining what she should do might help. Bean showed no willingness during Thursday’s meeting to work with the board on their wishes so that is why I was surprised to read that indeed Bean rescinded the raises last Friday. (Game, Set, Match-Ferlita)

Ferlita and Sharpe were impressive all week. In addition to researching and shining the light on Bean’s shadowy raises, Ferlita  put the Moral Courage award name change on the agenda and kept it on there despite what looked to some of us as an attempt to silence her (and made the motion to have the controversial Hughes name stripped from it). She also created a memorial award in honor of Phyllis Busansky. Sharpe is to be commended regarding his comments during the Moral Courage award discussion, his calling for Bean’s head and finally for his instruction to staff to find out about the lawsuit other municipalities have filed against the state’s approval of the anti-growth management bill SB360. Thank You Commissioners Ferlita and Sharpe! Not to leave out Commissioner Kevin Beckner, either, because his comments and votes were also impressive. A few more good commissioners and I will have more time to go biking at the Flatwoods. (You can help me reach that goal by doing your research before voting.)

So far it sounds it like several of the Commissioners are reluctant to axe Bean because of the huge severance package in her contract (wonder why they agreed to that in the first place?) Maybe commissioners can find a loophole in the contract or maybe “reorganize” her job description? Why not ask the 700 people showing up at the budget public hearing how they felt about Bean’s raises in spite of her proposed budget cuts?

Update: Since this post was submitted the County Commission had another discussion on Bean’s raises during Wednesday’s budget workshop. I read the captioning and it sounded like they broke out into a chorus of Kumbaya. Bean asked for the board to officially approve the appointments (with only a 2.5 percent and a 2.5 percent cost of living raise) from what I could gather and she apologized to the board, the citizens and the other county employees. Ferlita made the motion to approve and it passed 7-0.

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

Remember when the whole idea behind the Cone Ranch possible sale was because Commissioner Ken “Half-Truth” Hagan wanted to “preserve it” after being asked by big-time Republican donors to subdivide and sell off Cone Ranch [more than 12,000 acres of publicly owned land in Northeast Hillsborough County]?

The county now has an advisory board pondering this deal. You can read my take on their first meeting here. This second meeting started with County Administrator Pat Bean addressing the panel lobbing threats about the state of the county water utility which owns the land. Wasn’t this panel supposed to be objective? Yet here we have the County Administrator throwing in her 2 cents. She did admit that the land was already preserved though, glad we got that cleared up. Recall the earlier threats that the Florida Environmental and Conservation Group (FCEG) (the group pushing the sale) made implying that the alternative could be commercial or residential development.

Bean said that the water utilities director Mr. Vanderploog was very concerned over the utlilities bond rating and did not want it to fall. Hmmmm, I thought he cleared that concern up when he asked Commissioners to approve a rate hike recently in water fees, which they did! Now Bean implies the sale of Cone Ranch could be necessary to save the bond rating? Unbelievable.

Recall the referendum on ballot regarding preserving land last year passed overwhelmingly even though Ms. Bean didn’t want to put it on the ballot. Hillsborough County Voters want land to be preserved Ms. Bean. Come early get a program.

During Monday’s meeting the panel also got a history lesson on Cone Ranch, a wetlands update and water quality concerns. There was also a briefing on the procedure of disposing of county property describing some interesting loopholes where a competitive bidding process can be avoided (like to non for profit groups….like what FCEG is proposing) uh-huh, or other governmental agencies (like ELAPP!)

Then the meeting took an unexpected twist with Rosanne Clementi making a motion to recommend to Commissioners that they do not dispose of the property. Hugh Gramling seconded it which raised both my eyebrows considering his recent involvement against wetlands. On the surface this motion sounded OK but as Clementi (with the help of Gramling) clarified their her motion they made it clear that while they did not want the land to officially change hands they still wanted to make recommendations as to the future use of the land and hinted about other ways it could make money (call me jaded but this made me think they might be toying with the idea of letting private companies come in and use the land for profit … maybe a lucrative wetland mitigation bank?)  In other words, what came to my mind was the county pimping out publicly owned land to turn a private profit (throwing the county a few bones along the way of course) and shutting up those pesky residents by not actually selling the land. I know, I know, jaded. This motion would effectively appear take ELAPP (the county’s own land-buying program) out of the picture too.

Dee Layne, Pamela Jo Hatley and Chairwoman Heidi McCree voiced concerns over the prematurity of Clementi’s motion and the fact that FCEG had not even given their official proposal yet (do they even have one?) and that they didn’t know all the facts regarding conservation easements. Clementi and Gramling pushed hard for their motion and I couldn’t help but wonder about the speed at which he seconded it and the hard lobbying he did for it. Hmmmm.

Clementi’s motion failed (a count was not given). The panel will continue to meet and they will hear a detailed (hopefully) proposal from FCEG as well as other options. You can follow their meeting schedule as well as find information about this issue here.

Does this land really need to be “restored” or does it function fine as is? Maybe we could have our EPC do an updated and indepth study? Oh yeah, Ms. Bean’s budget cuts threaten to cripple them. If restoration rather than preservation is now the goal then maybe panelists can suggest a restoration plan to County Commissioners in whatever form keeps the land in public hands.

From my cover story in this week’s print edition of Creative Loafing:

I got an e-mail a few weeks back from the good people at the Greater Pinellas Democratic Club. I had agreed to speak at their monthly meeting in July and they wanted to know what my topic would be.

Without thinking, I said, “Fixing Tampa Bay Politics.”

Now I’ve been known to offer my fix-it advice to Tampa before: See CL’s Fix It Now series from 2008 for my thoughts (rants?) on growth, sprawl, transportation and diversity issues.

But fixing politics?

I might as well have opted to speak on “Getting Palestinians and Jews Together: Solving the Middle East crisis.”

But I was speaking to a Democratic Club, so an easy solution came to mind: Get rid of all the Republicans.

And yes, that line got a good cheap laugh when I gave the speech. But as I told the Democrats, “You need the Republicans. They are the yin to your yang. The salt to your sweet. The darkness to your light. Good ideas and good government cannot exist in only half the spectrum. The verbal nonviolent battle over ideas and truth is what defines our nation, and defines our ability to arrive at great solutions and great leaders.”

And that is what’s broken. The marketplace of ideas has become an unpoliced and incomplete cacophony of noise. Without vibrant daily newspapers and interested broadcast journalists who want to illuminate public affairs, and without an audience that wants to read about such things any more, the marketplace of ideas is now littered with infomercial-quality crap.

Instead of statesmen, we have the political equivalent of ShamWow.

Instead of citizens who question their leaders, we have blind anger or, worse, blind loyalty.

But I did come up with six ideas that, if the parties, candidates and voters would agree to do them would make Tampa Bay politics immeasurably better. This is what I told the Pinellas Democrats:

1. End term limits. Providing artificial limits to politicians’ terms of employment has not made government better; on the contrary, it has made it worse. Bureaucrats and lobbyists now provide the institutional knowledge in any local government, and elected officials have so little time to get up to speed they naturally kowtow to those entrenched individuals. Term limits are government for the lazy and stupid. Officials elected under term limits automatically get all eight years, because even if they are reviled, most folks would rather wait out their terms in office than challenge them. In the old days, you had to challenge such officials, because you didn’t know when or if they would ever leave office.

Term limits also allow public officials to play Musical Chairs. “I’m term limited at city council, so I will run for county commission. I’m term limited in the House, so I will run for Clerk of the Court.”

2. Define ethical behavior. One way to start is to ask all candidates to articulate a campaign code of ethics and post it on their websites so that they and their supporters can be held accountable for it. Scott Wagman, a candidate for St. Petersburg mayor, has an example on his website.

3. Demand that politicians pledge to consolidate government services. This is especially important across the 25+ different governments in Pinellas County, where taxes pay for unconscionable duplication. Support only those candidates who will consolidate HR, purchasing, fleet, janitorial services, construction permitting, etc. and then we can talk about the more politically sensitive consolidation: code enforcement and public safety (law enforcement and fire/EMS).

4. Apply what I call the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade litmus test. If you recall that movie, Harrison Ford and Sean Connery went galloping off into the desert to find the Holy Grail, discovering that it was guarded by a hundreds-year-old knight templar. Along the way, they encounter members of the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword who guard the grail and who tell Dr. Jones, “Ask yourself, why do you seek the Cup of Christ? Is it for His glory, or for yours?”

I suggest a similar test for you when you meet candidates, putting this question to them: “Ask yourself, why do you seek public office? Is it for the voters’ glory, or is it for yours?” Look them in the eyes when they answer, and if they don’t have a good answer or you don’t believe them, don’t support or vote for them.

5. Provide greater transparency. Campaigns should voluntarily post all incoming and outgoing emails to candidates on their websites, and they should post weekly, if not daily, updates to campaign financing reports instead of making voters wait months and weeks to see who is giving and how much they are giving.
While we’re at it, how about better, more user-friendly interfaces to search campaign finance reports at the local level, as well as a way to tie local contributions to those made in state races? Right now, if I give to a city council candidate and a state House candidate, a voter would have to search two different databases to find all my contributions. And some cities, most notably St. Petersburg, have terrible or nonexistent campaign finance databases, which is inexcusable given the state of campaign finance software available that can easily be dumped into a searchable online database.

6. Fact-check campaign rhetoric. You may remember the Fair Campaign Practices Committee in Pinellas County. Defunct for years now, it was a good method of giving candidates a chance to complain to a politically balanced and independent board about lies told about them. We need its 21st-century successor, a grassroots equivalent of the St. Petersburg Times’ PolitiFact.

I’d like to see both major parties in Pinellas and Hillsborough agree to establish online fair practices fact-checking operations. For each website, Democrats would appoint three members, Republicans would appoint three members, and those six would have to agree on three more Independents to join.

The committee’s work should be totally transparent; all e-mails back and forth between members would instantly be posted on the Internet. It would use volunteers to research the veracity of campaign speech, both proactively and as the result of complaints filed by campaigns, and publish the results online. When five of the nine members agree with a finding, it will be labeled as “True,” “Mostly True,” “Some Truth” or “False.”

I asked the Democratic Club to make such a website happen. Readers, call your local party and demand it.

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

Hillsborough County pork thinks it should be fed before basic public safety services, before public parks, before important public agencies like the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC), The Planning Commission and before voter-approved programs such as ELAPP [the county's environmental land buying program]. Hillsborough pork even thinks it should be in line in front the homeless. Why? Because under Pat Bean’s administration, evidently, that is how it works. Hillsborough pork knows no boundaries and has no ethics. Who thinks it is time for a little visit to the butcher?

As I wrote about in this earlier post, I was appalled to see Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean’s proposed budget cuts to programs such as public parks while still forking over millions to the pet pork hoofing it up to the county trough. Bean’s pork-filled budget comes on the heels of her huge raises to a few of her faves (while proposing to cut 900 jobs). More research revealed that she suggests cuts that would absolutely cripple agencies that the public has made clear they are in favor of keeping, such as wetlands protection in the EPC and one of my favorite agencies, The Planning Commission. Bean’s budget cuts have even prompted the normally Mr. Rogers-like Executive Director of the EPC to finally stand up (hey, is that I spine I see sprouting on Dr. Garrity?)

On top of her proposed cuts, Bean even had the nerve to suggest to County Commissioners (who have the final say on her budget) that they might make ends meet by increasing a tax user fee to all cell phone users. She had the gall to attribute this to the voter approved continuation of the ELAPP. What she didn’t say was that if they cut other areas (like pork) that they wouldn’t need to increase any taxes. Commissioner Rose Ferlita asked staff to clear this up, and Bean was later proven wrong about the need for another tax “user fee” to support ELAPP. Bean can’t even hide her disdain of this successful program that is overseen by a citizen volunteer committee, but to use it as an excuse to increase taxes is unbelievable… even for her.

In Bean’s budget, she proposes to shower the Sports Commission (a private organization run with your tax dollars) with a fortune and send millions to the Tampa Sports Authority (so Commissioner Norman can feast in style at games), and yet she had the audacity to suggest closing many public parks two days a week, and one of my favorite ones, at that, The Flatwoods.

The Flatwoods is located in northeast portion of Hillsborough County, so why would a NIMBY from Lithia (over in the south central part of the county, for those non-Hillsborough types) be concerned about a park so far from where I live? Well, ever since the county allowed a developer to extend a once rural road into their massive subdivision, my favorite road biking route no longer feels safe. The Flatwoods offers a seven-mile paved trail for not only road bikers but runners, rollerbladers, and walkers. The property also has off-road trails for hikers and mountain bikers, and just up the road a portion of the Wilderness Park has a kayak/canoe launch on the Hillsborough River.

For you nature lovers on any given day you can see alligators, turkeys, deer, hogs, snakes, a wide variety of birds, and gopher tortoises (and that is just what I have seen from the paved trail). I was out at the Flatwoods recently trying to pedal off some of my own pork and I spoke to many people at the park that day about the proposed cuts. Everyone I spoke to was not only aware of the cuts, they were opposed (and the parking lot was full).

I also stopped by the local bike shop in Brandon, AJs Bikes and Boards and they were certainly doing their part in making local bikers aware of the proposed budget cuts by sending out informative emails.

Recall that initially County Parks Director Mark Thornton told me he expected to save $483,390 by closing the Flatwoods two days a week and also relayed that the total cost per year is 1,691,867. I am not a math major but seems to me like he just took the total cost per yer and got a cost per day and then added up the days closed to get those savings. Hmmmm, seemed to me that the majority of the savings would be from decreased staff time yet the dollars listed were from total operational costs. So, I voiced my concerns about this to Thornton and asked him for a complete breakdown of where every dollar he expected to save by closing the Flatwoods was coming from. Thornton indicated that 75 percent to 80 percent of total operational costs were attributed to staffing. I said I wasn’t a math major but I did pass math! So I took 75 percent to 80 percent of the total operational costs that made up his savings and that leaves us at $362,543 – $386,712 (that is $96,768 – $120,847) less than his estimate so where does the rest of the savings come from? Well, Thornton had his finance guy, Chuck Kuntz, contact me who provided me with a few more numbers and this is what Kuntz provided to help enlighten me. He was quick to point out that their expected savings were only estimates and that the park would be more expensive to run this year (his numbers were from 2008).

Kuntz relayed that $215,761 per year was attributed to fuel, fleet replacement and fleet maintenance (I broke that down to a daily cost of $591) and added up the days saved by closing the park to get $61,477. He also indicated that the park spent $44,544 on utilities per year so using that same formula I can up with $12, 688 dollars in savings from the 2 day a week closing bringing the grand total of possible savings closer to $436,708- $460,877. That is $22,513 – $46, 682 less savings than Thornton’s estimate. I would challenge that the park still needs to be maintained the same whether it is open 5 or 7 days a week. Sorry to be a pain boys but if you are throwing claims of such huge savings around then be prepared to account for every dollar to show to the public. Lets not forget that same Mark Thornton supported Commissioner Norman’s $40 million vanity park idea.

You know what else is hard to chew? Bean is proposing to cut $2.5 million in total from parks and there are many parks on the chopping block not just the Flatwoods. Your favorite park or program could be on the list too. To put that in perspective do you recall how much the very questionable and very controversial Lithia-Pinecrest study cost you? $2.5 million and it was approved without discussion on the board’s Consent Agenda, and designed by the same firm that brought you the cracking reservoir. That same cracking reservoir now costing taxpayers a fortune.

I again offer you this FIELD report that the Planning Commission had done showing that because of the past developer welfare practices in this county we are billions behind in what they could have charged developers for impact fees (which fund roads, parks, fire and rescue and schools). Recall many of our Commissioners are heavily funded by developers. Looks like that is decreasing this year but their past practices have caught up with them. The Tampa Bay area is the 11th worst in the country for traffic thanks in part to the massive give-aways to developers. Had they been charging developers appropriately all along with reasonable impact fees instead of give-aways their reserves might even be over-flowing.

I contend that even in bad times Commissioners could afford to fully fund all of our basic public safety services, public parks, The Planning Commission, The EPC and other deserving causes if they only had the guts to cut the millions doled out to pork. The only pigs left standing should be the wild ones that live in those parks!

Wanna see which Commissioners go kosher and say no to the pork and maybe even the Beans? Wanna speak out to save public parks or any other budget items? The local bike community is organizing and SWFBUD has organized a ride to pedal down to the public hearing this Thursday evening. Please note that the meeting is NO LONGER AT COUNTY CENTER…………they have moved the meeting to the All People’s Life Center at 6pm. You can find directions here.

Can’t make the meeting in person? Well, you can call in and tell them what you think on their budget hotline 813-307-8337 or send them an email during the meeting here. You can also contact your Commissioners here.

Photo Credit: shawnzam at Flickr.com

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist

If you think County Administrator Pat Bean’s recent double digit raises to a few of her favorite minions amid epic budget cuts were unbelievable you might want to take some Beano before catching a glimpse at her proposed budget itself. The millions thrown at special interest is enough to make anyone’s stomach turn. County Commissioners have the final say on her budget. Many of these same Commissioners renamed their Moral Courage award after a pardoned ex-felon last year, and they also think it might be OK to sell off sensitive publicly owned land to investors in order to “preserve” it, so I suggest you offer to help them in this budget decision making process.

Parks are what got me looking into this budget in the first place. When I heard my beloved Flatwoods Park was on the chopping block to be closed two days a week, (and knowing how much this Commission gives away each meeting on the consent agenda alone) I was furious. They pass out hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions regularly under the Consent Agenda without even discussion yet they now claim they have to cut public parks.

So, upon hearing about the proposed closing I contacted our Board of County Commissioners voicing my concerns. At the time this post was submitted I had only heard back from one Commissioner’s office and that was Commissioner Rose Ferlita’s office who is often the first to respond to my concerns. Strange though because Commissioner Ken “Half Truth” Hagan’s office is now claiming to be the first stop for any citizens in any district. So far, Hagan’s office isn’t living up to its claims. Isn’t the Flatwoods in Hagan’s district? Maybe he was just too busy campaigning handing out constituent service fliers in Ferlita’s district.

In my e-mail plea to Commissioners, I described the Flatwoods in detail since many times I’ve heard several of them say how much they support sports. I told them that many athletes such as runners and cyclists train for their individual sports out at the Flatwoods. Course I couldn’t help adding that there was no taxpayer funded suite for them to dine like Kings in as they watch me pedal by but it was about sports just the same…and kids, too. Maybe I should have mentioned the several covered water stops equipped with benches should they decide to become spectators.

Ferlita’s office referred me to Mark Thornton of the Parks Department. I had several questions for Thornton including exactly how much savings were attributed to the Flatwoods closing two days a week and his answer was $483,390. My other question had to do with accessibility of the Parks for disabled residents. While biking out there I have often seen motorized vehicles taking laps around the paved trail out at the Flatwoods and wondered how many other parks could offer this and if there was any special consideration given regarding accessible vs. non accessible parks. He indicated that of the 206 sites that 193 of them were generally ADA accessible and he also relayed that he is working on a volunteer program in order to keep the Flatwoods open. If our Commission didn’t heave such a fortune to special interests then I would think using volunteers to keep it open was just great but to continue to fund the pork but ask residents to run their parks didn’t seem all that honorable especially when some rangers face losing their jobs.

I don’t like to publicly bitch about something without offering a solution so knowing that several members of our County Commission have a history of supporting some hefty pork in past budgets I decided to take a look at their proposed budget in an attempt to find other ways to fund the Flatwoods. You might be amazed at what I found. These little piggies didn’t go to market they went to the bank…of Hillsborough County!  (This is just one NIMBY’s view of how I interpreted Bean’s budget which you can look through yourself here)

The first glaring red flag I spotted was that $500,000 is attributed to No Impact Fee Zones (page 341) that is developer welfare on the backs of taxpayers! Not to say that is the final number either because I stumbled across this little doozie of an amendment to the 2005 No Fee Zones where Bean asked Commissioners to increase it from $1.9 million to $2,349,000 in a budget amendment. So, they are proposing to close our public parks but still giving their developer friends (who are often campaign donors) a free ride with these waivers to slap up more rooftops. I will give you the county’s own definition of impact fees as found on page 81of their budget document: (note the relationship to parks that impact fees have):

Impact Fees – Impact fees on new construction were implemented
in June 1985 to finance capital facilities needed to maintain service
levels in areas of growth. The first of these fees was for roads and
parks, while the right-of-way portion of the roads impact fees was
implemented in February 1986.

You should know that this and past boards have been widely criticized for not charging developers enough in impact fees in the first place. According to this document from the Planning Commission every new rooftop built puts the county in the hole $13,133 more (some of which would have gone to parks) so to add a half of million dollar give-away on top of that is really throwing salt in the road rash. I hope you are still stinging if you go to the next meeting and speak to the Commission. This commission only charges developers 37 percent of the legal maximum allowed of the Parks portion of impact fees.

Next time you hear politicians tell you they don’t have money for roads or parks or you have to come down to speak in front of the Board of County Corruptioners Commissioners to save your favorite park remember their massive impact fee give-aways that help developers and short-change the rest of us. That report also shows us the staggering billions we are behind in providing roads to existing developments (thanks to their generous developer welfare practices) because they only charge 12 percent of the legal max for roads. So that means if they close your favorite park down you will most likely be pedaling on over-crowded roads! They also give away the fire portion of the impact fee by only charging a meager 27 percent of the legal maximum to developers for Fire and Rescue.

One of the best examples of Developer Welfare is found on page 371of the budget document where Bean flat out admits development does not even attempt to pay for itself with this statement: payment to the Fishhawk developer for improvements to roads previously constructed for which they are
being reimbursed from transportation impact fees.

So they are giving developers impact fee credits for roads that I bet the county told you and me were paid for by developers (yet they slyly give them back that money via the back door in the form of impact fee credits (meaning taxpayers are footing the bill). You can also see more forms of developer welfare in this recent post.

What else looks to be a waste of the public’s money in this budget? Well, I see the Sports Commission, no stranger to the public trough, even though they are a private group is not taking much of a cut at all as they are scheduled to haul in $700,000 from the County Budget (that’s only $200,000 less than last year) page 349. To put that in perspective for you  Bean has proposed to cut one single public park more than double what she cut a private group. The Sports Commission’s big claim to fame seems to be getting us major sporting spectacles brought to the area. If ever there was a spot for some good volunteers it would he here. I suggest asking current officials to volunteer to work together to show off Tampa as a potential host city. What else are politicians good for if they can’t glad-hand a few sporting officials while promoting their own cities? Using existing government officials and their staff shouldn’t cost us a thing. This fortune usually reserved for the Sports Commission can then be used where more of the public will see the benefit from it….like Parks!

Then we have the biggie, the Sports Authority. Chaired by one of our most common opponents when fighting sprawl in front of the County Commission, land use attorney Vincent Marchetti, whose fellow board members include one County Commissioner Jim Norman. It looks like the Sports Authority is scheduled to bank millions from taxpayers. Just how many I can’t be sure because the Sports Authority is talked about throughout the budget document and it is quite confusing to this NIMBY (was that by design so we wouldn’t really know exactly how much the Sports Authority costs taxpayers each year?) Best I can tell page 336 has 1,751,254 listed (property taxes and oper deficit) also on page 336 under Debt Service they have 2,042,476 for sales bonds and under that CIT distributions of 8,937,000. Just under that there is another $750,000 listed for stadium renovations. Wayne gives us a great breakdown of just what a rotten deal taxpayers are getting regarding the Sports Authority. FYI – They are currently looking for an executive director of the Sports Authority which according to this article pays between $140,000 -$190,000. Is that bacon I smell? This should be the first thing to be eliminated or streamlined as far as I am concerned.

More pork sidling up to the public trough this year is The Chamber of Commerce (a whole herd of them) are collecting a fortune from the county budget. The breakdown looks like this: (Pages 346/347)

1. Brandon Chamber $30,000 (no decrease from last year)

2. The Tampa Chamber of Commerce $361,000 (no decrease from last year)

3. Apollo Beach Chamber of Commerce $10,000 ($10,000) less than last year)

4. Plant City Chamber of Commerce $65,000 ($35,000 less than last year)

5. Ruskin Chamber of Commerce $5,000 ($15,000 less than last year)

6. Ybor City Chamber of Commerce $75,000 ($25,000 less than last year)

That adds up to $546,000 Why are they getting their Commerce from the taxpayers? Some of these groups actively push controversial political issues yet politicians are funding them (with your money!)

Other question marks include the Outback ProAM at $75,000 and the Tampa Bay Partnership $40,000 (same as last year)

Lets look at some other recipients of Bean’s budget. While it might not be pet pork it does raise some questions regarding priorities in lean times. Public Art looks to be slashed significantly in this budget but even in years where we can afford it I don’t think money can buy taste as evidenced by that giant slinky on Bayshore. The Performing Arts are getting a whopping $450,000 in this budget proposal (page 347) and the Arts Council is raking in $809,227 (down from over a million bucks this year) page 348.

Even though I occasionally like to attend a show it isn’t something that I think our tax dollars should subsidize (same with sports). A public park on the other hand has minimal entrance fees if any and is open to the masses. In my mind this should be a much higher priority for funding than the arts. If you can’t pay the light bill you certainly can’t afford to invest in art.

How about that $75,000 to a lobbying firm that let lawmakers saddle Hillsborough with even more debt?

Need more Beano? Me too! What we don’t need is more Bean. Will Commissioners finally come to their senses regarding Bean or will they continue to take the heat from the public over her bean-headed moves? Commissioners Ferlita and Higginbotham are outspoken in this article about her recent raises and Commissioners Kevin Beckner and Mark Sharpe voice their disapproval in this article (that’s 4 votes kids….if they are really serious) My suggestion to Commissioners is cut out the pork and the Beans!

Photo Credit: pheezy at Flickr.com

What can you do? You can contact your Commissioners here. You can show up and speak to the Commission at the budget public hearing Thursday, July 16 at 6 pm because nothing makes politicians do the right thing more than the angry masses showing up in force. You can Contact Parks Director Mark Thornton here.

Photo Credit: Eric Fink at Flickr.com

Stay out of the water! That was the warning just prior to the start of this year’s 4th of July holiday about the Courtney Campbell Beach. Was it because of a bull shark attack? Nope. Maybe an invasion of rogue lionfish? Nope. Maybe a jellyfish convention then?

No, silly, there was just too much shit in the water. Course they said the high bacteria count could be due to several things including animal feces, stormwater runoff, and lastly they mention sewage. Uh-huh. Don’t forget there is a 14-mile-long algae bloom going on right now that’s also attributed to contaminated run-off. Oh goodie, let’s make it easier to build more houses!

Photo Credit: James Laurence Stewart at Flickr.com

When I was a kid the 4th of July meant going to the beach without a care in the world. Guess maybe I am showing my age, but I don’t remember any of my favorite beaches getting closed down because of excess shit, but then again I did grow up south of here where I don’t recall any of our County Commissioners being hauled off in handcuffs for taking bribes in exchange for approving land deals either.

On what planet does it make sense to encourage practices that contaminate our environment, destroy the very reason people make Florida a travel destination and degrade our quality of life? Yet that is what local and state politicians have done by gutting growth management laws, wetland and water permitting while promoting “economic development.” Let’s be honest; at least in Hillsborough when you hear the phrase economic development from a politician, think campaign fund development and do a little checking.

Take a look at this article that describes how the Little Harbor developers lost a land use vote when wanting to build in environmentally sensitive areas. They later contributed heavily to two of the NO votes and when their appeal came up for review those two commissioners changed their votes, handing the developers a win and dealing a blow to the citizens fighting them. Shows just how hard it is to argue with bribes oops, I mean campaign contributions.

Remember, we don’t have enough water as it is (and people scaled back due to restrictions that in turn caused water rates to go up). And now we often can’t even swim in the bodies of water surrounding our communities because of pollution. Yet our politicians think we need to make it easier to build. Anybody else think maybe it is time to re-think things? Stop swallowing the shit many of our elected officials and their staff are feeding you about growth paying for itself (it doesn’t ) before you really could have to drink shit.

What can you do? Well, if you don’t like the way elected officials pass out land use changes like candy to their shuga daddies then vote YES to Hometown Democracy (Amendment 4) now officially on the 2010 ballot. It doesn’t allow us to vote on everything (like re-zonings) but it does give us the final say in Comprehensive Plan amendments which are often the route that developers use to get bigass subdivisions approved. Do your homework on current elected officials and candidates seeking office. When they claim to be fiscal conservatives, ask them just whose pocketbooks they are looking out for — yours or developers’? If they say they support “sustainable” communities, which seems to be the politically correct buzzword right now, ask them to define sustainable and see if their definition includes so much shit in the water that we can’t go swimming.