By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND; activist
Oh boy, where to start on this Cone Ranch scheme proposal? Recall Ken Half-Truth Hagan’s half-baked proposal to sell Cone Ranch to private investors in order to “preserve it”? Apparently the Hillsborough County Commission chair all of a sudden became an environmentalist worrying about the future of this sensitive land and wants to do all he can to preserve it, emphasizing the wetlands on the property. You might also recall that ironically he was one of the very same Commissioners hell-bent on getting rid of the wetlands division of the EPC. Hey, people can change, right? Especially when those behind the idea are big-time Republican fundraisers, uh-huh. Come to think of it, that assault on the wetlands division by the majority of the County Commission was also widely thought to be the idea of a ………….big campaign contributor. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by David Warner on Jul. 2, 2009, at 10:58 am
What happens to you if, according to police reports, you put your teenager in a choke hold and punch your 12-year-old in the head?
If you’re Brian Blair (mug shot at right), nothin’ much but some bad publicity, apparently. Check out these reports from Fox NewsRadio, and after the break, TBO.com, in which an assistant state attorney characterizes the incident as “discipline.” UPDATE: The St. Petersburg Times goes into further detail on the case and the reasons for the charges being dropped, referring to a memo from Assistant State Attorney Rita Peters that indicates Blair “took more punches than he gave.” (That would explain his condition in the mug shot).
TAMPA, Fla., (970 WFLA) - The Hillsborough State Attorneys office said it will not file child abuse charges against former Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair.
The State Attorneys Office won’t comment, but said prosecutors will not pursue the case against Blair.
Blair was arrested on Father’s Day. He was charged with hitting his two teenaged sons. There were no serious injuries.
Enough already with the military’s ridiculous “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
And it’s about time we legalize gay marriage.
Yet after the stunning parades this weekend and the first official recognition of the movement by a sitting working US President, I’m filled with more hope than ever before.
Which is why I didn’t allow my blood pressure to rise when WFLA/News Channel 8 aired an “it would be disturbing if it weren’t so silly” documentary infomercial Saturday night about wicked gays trying to silence Christians. I urged my fellow libs to take deep breaths and see this program for what it was — a spoiled brat stomping his feet and holding his breath in the hopes of getting attention and that last piece of cake.
“Their world is ending, Mary,” I said with a giggle. “It’s falling down around them and they can’t do a thing to stop it. Let’s not be so reactionary. Pass the Sangria and shut the fuck up. I want to hear what these freakshows have to say so I can make fun of them later.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 29, 2009, at 1:57 pm
UPDATE: We have 10 candidates for mayor, as Alex Haak didn’t qualify. They are Deveron Gibbons, Kathleen Ford, Bill Foster, Scott Wagman, Larry Williams, Jamie Bennett, John Warren, Richard Eldridge, Ed Helm and Paul Congemi. The primary election to determine the two finalists is Sept. 1.
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Today is the last day to file all the necessary paperwork to run for St. Petersburg mayor or city council, a day called Qualifying Day. We’ll know who is in and who is out by 5 pm.
A last-minute entry into the field, however, is entrepreneur, preservationist and restaurateur John Warren, 59, who owns Savannah’s Cafe on Central Avenue in St. Petersburg.
Warren, who has been frustrated by the city’s inability to help small businesses and truly grow its downtown in a sensible fashion, told supporters in an e-mail that he knows he is getting in late but doesn’t hear the issues he thinks ought to be disucssed.
“I don’t believe current candidates are addressing the issues that need to be discussed, nor do I feel they have the vision or experiences to deal with today’s challenges. Apparently many of you agree,” Warren wrote.
He also hints that he will get rid of controversial police Chief Chuck Harmon if the SPPD can’t start battling crime more effectively.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 29, 2009, at 1:41 pm
From the there’s-no-such-thing-as-bad-publicity-(or-polling) files comes this pitch to Scott Wagman supporters to pony up some bucks despite a pretty rotten showing in a recent St. Petersburg Times poll that placed Wagman tied for fourth, behind Kathleen Ford, Bill Foster and Deveron Gibbons and tied with Larry Williams.
For those not studied in the art of politics, this is called spin.
But before the Wagman haters chime in, let’s give some context to the poll. More than 60 percent of the voters surveyed said they didn’t have a preference yet, meaning that this is a wide open race and the poll was only an indication of a lack of voter engagement and existing name recognition, not a legit look at who will finish in what order. I don’t say this to defend Wagman’s poor showing; but the truth is not all of the campaigns have spent little or nothing in tems of direct voter contact (direct mail, television ads, radio ads, robo-phone calls, etc.) that is what gets voters ready to make decisions. At best, some of the campaigns have been walking door to door and using some new media advertising on Facebook and the like. That’s not enough to drive serious interest to an off-election year municipal election.
But Wagman felt his placement in the poll could be spun to his advantage with supporters and sent them this e-mail today: Read the rest of this entry »
You may not have even known it was happening, but “Rapprochement With Cuba: Good For Tampa Bay, Good For Florida, Good For America,” a conference sponsored by the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation and held Saturday at the Italian Club in Ybor City, was, by its very existence, a milestone in repairing the tattered relationship between Tampa and Cuba.
About 150 guests, panelists, professors and local politicians filled the grand, neo-classical Italian Club, once the social, cultural and political epicenter of Tampa’s Italian community. Whether the speeches, panel discussions, and networking sessions will really accomplish much toward ending the 50-year-old U.S. embargo, no one is really sure. However, to get a sense of where the Cuba barometer is pointing, you could start with the venue itself.
In 1955, a young, verbose Fidel Castro arrived in Ybor City. This was no accident, no anomaly. In fact, it made perfect sense. Castro, in a bid to gain popular support for his uprising against CIA-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, he followed — literally — in the footsteps of an earlier young, charismatic Cuban revolutionary, Jose Marti. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 28, 2009, at 7:17 pm
Cross-posted from The Daily Loaf blog
By Denis Baldwin Daily Loaf contributor
Last week, I attended the Rhino Political Action Committee’s political mixer at NOVA. Like the first event I attended, local mayor candidates and other politicos met with the common man, answering questions and trying to convince us that they were the right person for the job.
Unlike the first one I attended, the candidates actually seemed to have an agenda now. Many spoke on the importance of keeping our children in programs to avoid gangs. Others spoke of keeping the streets clean, both of garbage and of drug users and prostitutes. Still others pushed issues involving the St Pete Pier and its ongoing subsidy by taxpayers. It seems that everyone was making good points, making this a valuable (if somewhat overwhelming ordeal).
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 26, 2009, at 4:44 pm
Of the Big Six candidates for St. Petersburg mayor (Jamie Bennett, Kathleen Ford, Bill Foster, Deveron Gibbons, Scott Wagman and Larry Williams), the only one that I have not had a chance to have in the CL Studio was Williams — until now. The former St. Pete city councilman came in recently to tape his half-hour on the HoCast, talking about how to battle the city’s crime problems and whether he is behind the eight ball because he got into the race late.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 26, 2009, at 3:20 pm
Call it Phyllis Math: a gathering of Phyllis Busansky’s “five closest friends” numbered nearly 1,000 at her funeral at Temple Schaarai Zedek in Tampa on this dark, rainy Friday morning. It was a running joke throughout the tributes to the late Hillsborough County supervisor of elections, how Busansky had told so many people that they were one of her three or five or seven closest friends.
For some, that would be duplicitous; Busansky, however, meant it and was close friends with just about everybody she met, forging an instant connection, building communities and circles of influence, her longtime friend Jeannie McGuire told the gathered mourners. McGuire had one of my favorite lines of the funeral, talking about Busansky’s sense of fashion as not quite classic but “classic — plus dramatic.”
There were more laughs than tears.
Tampa Tribune columnist Steve Otto, who long held a valued spot on Busansky’s speed dial and in heart, called his politician-friend “a tornado with hair.” Busansky’s daughter, Rebecca, read a 2005 e-mail that came to Busansky’s husband, Sheldon, from a woman that Phyllis had helped in the 1960s get into a college. The woman was hoping that Sheldon was related to Phyllis so he could pass along her thanks.
Most touching was the remembrance of her son, Alex, who said he was happy to have had 47 years with his mother. “I am my mother’s son,” he told the crowd, which flowed over into a separate room and outside, where monitors were set up. “If you’ve met her, you’ve met me.”
The room was full of politicians and elected officials, from Mayor Pam Iorio to the county commission, city council and constitutional officers — including Gov. Charlie Crist. Even the man that Busansky vanquished in the 2008 elections, former Elections Chief Buddy Johnson, attended, making for an uncomfortable moment when Rabbi Richard Birnholz said he had endorsed Phyllis in that election because it was the community’s only hope to clean up a hopelessly bungled office. Johnson later shook hands with people in the parking lot.
For progressives, it was a trip down memory lane, a viewing of some of the people who helped Tampa and Hillsborough County make great strides during an eight-year period, from 1988 to 1996, when social conservatives began their destructive takeover of county government and the rise of suburban development gave them the numbers to consistently beat urban progressives at the ballot box. Busansky’s quarterbacking of the county’s landmark indigent health care program, part fiscal sense-part social justice, that was a highlight of that era.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 26, 2009, at 8:24 am
The now-rejected watefront ballpark; will St. Pete-Pinellas also be rejected?
And the other shoe drops. It was predictable after the outburst earlier this week from Tampa Bay Rays President Matt Silverman about poor attendance at the Phillies series that it was just setting the table for a St. Petersburg departure. Now, comes confirmation that it is very actively being considered.
The A Baseball Community, studying everything from new sites for a Rays stadium to how to boost ticket sales, now confirms that three of the five geographic areas it is analyzing are in Hillsborough County. The three are in Westshore, downtown Tampa and east of the city at/near the Florida State Fairgrounds. Those sites join mid-Pinellas County (the Feather Sound/Carillon area) and downtown St. Petersburg on the list of five regions under study.
The need for public transportation is growing, especially in Tampa, which makes these meetings rather important. Wednesday, I attended a meeting at the Community Center on 22nd Street. Thursday, I was able to chat with the MPO Executive Director Ray Chiaramonte.
Why is developing public transportation in Tampa important? Here is what we talked about:
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: Read the rest of this entry »
By Catherine Durkin Robinson PoHo contributor,“feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field
Charlie Miranda has come up with a plan to turn hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater into drinking water. All in the name of self-sufficiency.
Yes, we are in the middle of a drought. But we aren’t desperate:
In 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a study of the treated wastewater from the city’s Howard F. Curren Wastewater Treatment Plant and found 27 different kinds of micropollutants in the recycled water even after it passed through a filtration process.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 23, 2009, at 3:52 pm
It’s funny the things you remember — and don’t remember — about your friends when they die. I spent much of the afternoon searching my brain for a tiny detail about Phyllis Busansky among the thousands of bits of info I know about her over the past two decades.
A drink. I can’t remember the last line of a 1991 Tampa Tribune article that I wrote about Phyllis on the night she completed her major opus, an effort to create a decades-ahead-of-its-time indigent health care plan in Hillsborough County. I remember how she gathered allies, the narrative approach the story was written in, the delight in my editors when they read it. The last line had her going out for a drink after the vote (I was along) and detailed exactly what she drank.
But it’s gone, lost in the recesses of my brain and not available online.
Phyllis Busansky — who died on the job at an elections conference in St. Augustine overnight Monday — was a unique political force in Tampa Bay. She was a domineering presence, physically and mentally, smart and savvy, with top columnists’ phone numbers at the top of her speed dial and an unwavering enthusiasm that led to her say the word “fabulous” at least once every 10 minutes.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 23, 2009, at 2:40 pm
Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: Winning a mayoral forum or debate is not the most meaningful thing in a campaign. The myriad gatherings of the 10 mayoral candidates in St. Petersburg that have already occurred and are yet to occur likely won’t alter the Sept. 1 primary outcome one iota.
Why?
Because such forums are a place that can only do a candidate harm. Stumble, or stumble badly, and the media coverage can magnify it into major damage. “Win” such a debate and not only will the MSM mostly not declare you the winner, but you have only “won” in front of a few hundred people, at most.
The way campaigns are really won are through spending campaign contributions on direct mail, television and radio advertising and through a concerted grass-roots voter contact effort.
So that brings me to reporting the “results” of Monday night’s mayoral forum held by the St. Pete Pride organizers at the King of Peace MCC. The “winners”?
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 23, 2009, at 11:05 am
From Congresswoman Kathy Castor:
Phyllis will be well remembered in our hearts for her brave leadership, for her open, gregarious style and for her ability to fix problems that were tough to tackle. Her legacy as the primary author of the Hillsborough County Health Care Plan lives on every day in the improved health of our neighbors and our community. She was truly passionate about making sure those who least could afford medical services had an advocate on their side. She already was showing that passion as Supervisor of Elections, working to guarantee that voters’ rights were protected in Hillsborough County. My thoughts and prayers are with her family. She will be sorely missed.
From Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio:
I am shocked by the death of Phyllis. How sad that death claimed her just as she was embarking on a new challenge that she loved very much. The public needed her and this was her calling. I had the pleasure of serving with Phyllis on the County Commission and her passion for helping those who needed help the most was something I always admired. This is a great loss to both her family and to our community.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 23, 2009, at 9:42 am
Phyllis Busansky was a friend of mine, and I worked on her various political efforts, including her stint as the director of welfare reform in Florida, so it is with great sadness I pass along news of her death today, from ABC Action News:
Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Phyllis Busansky has been found dead in her hotel room in St. Augustine, according to Pam Iorio.
Ms. Busansky was supposed to be participating in a conference in St. Augustine. When she didn’t show, coworkers came looking for her, and found her dead in her hotel room.
Foul play is not suspected.
I spoke with a mutual friend who mentioned that Phyllis had a health problem earlier this year in which she was hospitalized but that they thought it was simply hyperventilation. Busansky did battle lung cancer in 2007 but told friends she was cleared of the disease after surgery.
She was 72 and had battled lung cancer. She died in her sleep, said Sigrid Tidmore, spokeswoman for the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections office.
“Honestly, this is all I know,” Tidmore said.
Tidmore was with Busansky last night, before she went to sleep about 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. She said Busansky was not complaining of any pain. When Busansky didn’t respond to phone calls this morning after not showing up to today’s conference meetings, hotel security went to check on her and found her dead, Tidmore said.
(Busansky’s office says she was 73, but the Times says records show she was 72.)
Tidmore went on to say that everyone connected to Busansky was in shock, that she was very vibrant and had lots of plans for the office. I can attest; I ran into Phyllis two weeks ago in Bamboozle in downtown Tampa and she was her usual exuberant self, eliciting a promise from me that I would pay a call on her to hear about her innovations at the office in a few weeks, after she was done traveling.
Busansky was a mainstay of local Democratic politics for the past two decades, after winning a seat on the Hillsborough County Commission in the late 1980s as part of a reform effort that brought progressives to that board.
Under state law, Republican Gov. Charlie Crist will appoint a successor until voters choose a new supervisor in the 2010 elections.
UPDATE: This statement just in from the Supervisor of Elections Office:
Ed.’s note: George Niemann filed this report before Brian Blair’s arrest on Father’s Day on two child abuse charges.
By George Niemann PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
Here’s the latest update on the Brian Blair campaign finance scandal.
In case you didn’t know, former Commissioner Blair is headed to a “trial” on charges he violated Section 106.19 of Florida Statute relating to campaign finance regulations (Case# FEC 08-224).
On Feb. 28, the Florida Elections Commission ruled that there was “probable cause” that he violated the statute more than once. His violations involve the acceptance of illegal campaign contributions from two contributors. Anyone can make a clerical error, however, the Elections Commission looks beyond just the accounting. They look for actions that indicate the intent of not following the law.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 22, 2009, at 4:34 pm
Elaine Silvestrini over at the Tampa Tribune has a great story to go with all the Brian Blair news today: One of Blair’s benefactors, the late Ralph Hughes, a top Money Man and power broker in Hillsborough County politics and business, died owing millions of dollars to the Internal Revenue Service.
The agency has filed a claim with Hughes’ family trust seeking more than $69 million in unpaid income and business taxes and interest for the years 2003 to 2007.
Hughes’ beneficiaries – his widow and two of his three children – are contesting the IRS claim, arguing Hughes paid millions in taxes.
After Hughes died at age 77 on June 27, 2008, Hillsborough County commissioners voted to rename the county’s Moral Courage Award for him. The decision was controversial, with detractors accusing commissioners of repaying their benefactor and injecting politics into what was supposed to be a nonpartisan award.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 22, 2009, at 2:27 pm
OK, so this was shot long before former wrestler and Hillsborough politician Brian Blair’s arrest on child abuse charges this weekend, but we’re pretty sure here at PoHo Central that the always erudite Iron Sheik feels the same way about that “jabroni” Blair today as he did back in March.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 22, 2009, at 11:38 am
In video now just hitting TV news websites, Brian Blair calls the family fight and his arrest “an unfortunate situation” and “a misunderstanding that could have been prevented.”
Fox 13’s Warren Elly has a report on that station’s website, here is the link (sorry, but the video didn’t embed into our software.)
According to Elly’s story, Blair told reporters on the way out of jail:
“It’s a misunderstanding that could have been prevented. I have over 7,000 hours mentoring children and the last thing I’d ever do is hurt a kid. Sometimes the hardest kids to mentor are you own. I guess that’s all I’ll say for now,” Blair told FOX 13.
Elly came by Creative Loafing before Blair’s release and I taped a short interview about what this does to Blair’s political career. Blair told reporters upon his release that his supporters would understand his actions once they hear the full story, but I’m kind of doubting that. Blair is not dead politically in the sense that he won’t ever quit the game, but he can’t possibly win public office after this.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 22, 2009, at 8:32 am
At a first appearance hearing this morning, a judge has ordered that jailed former Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair be released on his own recognizance, without any bond posted, commonly referred to as ROR. Blair likely won’t clear the jail’s long release process until this afternoon.
According to one reporter at the scene, Blair’s wife, Toni, spoke briefly to media to say only that her sons were fine, but she made no other comment.
Blair was arrested this weekend and charged with two counts of child abuse after getting into a fight with his teenage sons, shown in this photograph from his campaign website Blair continues to maintain.
Brian Blair, the former pro wrestler and Hillsborough County commissioner, is facing child abuse charges after he allegedly got into a scuffle with his teenage boys.
Blair, 52, was arrested his home on 12702 Boulevard N shortly after 5 am and booked into the Orient Road Jail at 12:45 p.m, jail records show.
According to Hillsborough Sheriff’s spokesman Larry McKinnon, Blair got into an argument with his two two teen-aged sons that turned physical, sheriff’s Deputy Larry McKinnon said.
“It was a family argument between him and his sons and during the altercation at least one was battered,” McKinnon said.
The Times adds these details from the arrest report:
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 19, 2009, at 4:20 pm
A curious piece of political literature has been hitting South Tampa homes over the past few days as a handful of County Commissioner Ken Hagan’s supporters do what is called a “lit drop” of campaign literature.
Only it is not really campaign literature, or at least, it doesn’t carry the necessary campaign disclosures that a campaign advertisement would carry. Nor is it a county government piece, as it points out that it was “Not produced at taxpayer’s expense.”
That left some Democrats e-mailing me furiously about how this was akin to the stealth campaign that Buddy Johnson ran with federal dollars in 2008, the one being probed by the Feds and the St. Pete TImes’ Jeff Testerman. And it caught the attention of at least one Democrat who has been thinking about running against the Republican Hagan in 2010.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 16, 2009, at 3:40 pm
Trimming the fat at the top of the St. Petersburg City Hall pecking order would help mayoral hopeful Kathleen Ford trim property tax rates in the city by 8.5 percent, according to a proposed budget she released this afternoon.
So at the end of the day’s budget workshop last Thursday, Commissioner Kevin Beckner acknowledged the elephant/s in the room and brought up the subject to Bean newspaper in hand.
I had my own concerns with two of her minions getting these raises. Lucia Garsys is listed in the Times article as a “former planner,” yet she makes even more money than the head of The Planning Commission. How can Bean justify this, and more importantly how can Commissioners let her get away with this? (Especially with elections nearing?) Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 16, 2009, at 6:29 am
The Tampa Bay Rays continue their inevitable move OUT of St. Petersburg and to a mid-Pinellas location after being denied a waterfront ballpark and realizing, “Hey, we could be closer to tens of thousands of new fans if we weren’t stuck in The Burg’s downtown.”
The latest evidence? The Rays commissioned a study on rehabbing Tropicana Field. Even with improvements and a retractable roof, to the tune of $471 million, the Trop would only be a “B-, B+” kind of facility, the report concluded.
The Rays, however, want an A+ home. Rays stadium procurer Mike Kalt wrote to the A Baseball Community meeting, according to the Times, “We believe the study leaves little doubt that a renovation of Tropicana Field would not be a prudent course of action going forward.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 15, 2009, at 12:19 pm
Take it with a grain of salt, but fired Jamie Bennett campaign manager Peter Schorsch (first a GOP political consultant, then avowedly Democrat in his outlook) has endorsed (sort of) Republican Bill Foster, probably the most conservative of the candidates, for mayor of St. Petersburg.
After savagely dismissing Deveron Gibbons and Scott Wagman, Schorsch writes:
Bill Foster is the devil we know. I disagree with Bill Foster’s rightwing worldview, but I think he would do right for our city. He is a good person with a wonderful family, a fact that reflects well on Foster. Sure, he can be clunky at times. He can be holier-than-thou most of the time, but the city will be safe in his hands.
Instead of raising money from developers and lobbyists, Foster first wrote a 15-page plan about how he would lead the city. I don’t think anyone has read the Foster Formula other than me and Cristina Silva, but if you have, you know that there is some serious thought in it. Particularly on public safety, Foster has the most sensible approach to leading St. Petersburg.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jun. 15, 2009, at 7:55 am
It is a only bit of a surprise (and far from “stunning,” as the campaign puts it), since Deveron Gibbons has long been a supporter of Charlie Crist and a beneficiary of the Gov’s appointments, but Crist has publicly endorsed Gibbons in the mayor’s race in St. Petersburg. Normally, politicians running in their own races have their hands full and stay out of other campaigns where they could make enemies. Nonethless, Crist is on board with Team Gibbons. Here is the news release, and DL the entire release after the jump:
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
I wasn’t the only one that thought something smelled funny about this Cone Ranch deal, a recent proposal by Commissioner Ken “Half Truth” Hagan (to subdivide and sell public land to private investors) and in the process serve up millions to Republican donors for brokering the deal. The St. Petersburg Times raised some major concerns and inconsistencies in this editorial and, according to this article in the TampaTribune, Mariella Smith says it stinks! Smith is a highly regarded environmentalist and she fights tirelessly and fearlessly on behalf of it. She always comes armed with enough information to make even the most seasoned and highly paid development interests look like buffoons, and I have nothing but respect for her on this or any other issue for that matter. If she says it stinks, bring a clothespin or a gas mask.
Seven months after her election to the Pinellas County School Board, Nina Hayden has decided she wants to go to Tallahassee. Hayden, an attorney in the Public Defender’s Office, confirmed on Thursday that she will run for Sen. Charlie Justice’s seat in 2010.
Q. So you’ve made up your mind not to run for School Board again. Was that a difficult decision?
When I first signed on for School Board, I wasn’t sure where I would be in two years. I already was passionate about kids. I had a history of being involved with children and young people in the community. Did I have future aspirations to go to Tallahassee? Of course. Did I expect it to happen so soon? Not really. That’s where the decision came into play. I looked at the political climate of Florida. I saw how important education had become. It’s always been important, but now it’s more so. We’re dealing with a situation where we’ve sort of been bailed out by the stimulus money. But that’s going to run out. It’s going to be a crucial time in the state of Florida. That’s why I’m going to Tallahassee.
By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
The Hillsborough County Commission seemd at a loss during a discussion about SB 360 during Tuesday’s land-use meeting. Peter Aluotto of the County’s Planning and Growth Management Department (same guy that helped push the ill-fated South County Transportation Plan, for all you Green Swath of death fans) gave the presentation and asked for direction from the board on what to do now. Don’t worry, he wasn’t alone; he had members from the developer community ready and willing to help him present if needed but in a rare wise move from Chairman Ken “Half-Truth” Hagan he did not call up any of the development community to speak.
Basically, what I got from the presentation, combined with the questions raised by the board, is that the county has no freakin’ idea what to do, and the developers they are a-callin’! How are they going to foot the bill for this developer welfare? According to the material online, possibly a gas tax! Or maybe they do the right thing and raise impact fees? (hysterical laughing) No doubt the taxpayers will be taking this one for Charlie’s team; the only question left is how. You can see Aluotto’s documentation here and read the transcripts from the discussion here Warning: if you are a smart growth fan, NIMBY, concerned citizen or activist or if you just think developers have already ruined Florida then you might want to pour a glass of wine (or two) before reading. Read the rest of this entry »
By Catherine Durkin Robinson PoHo contributor, “feminist mother of twins” and a political blogger, working under the title Out in Left Field.
Hillsborough County, like most of the country, is facing a budget shortfall. Officials have to come up with ways to cut at least $144 million in spending. Unfortunately, they won’t go after no-bid vendors or other white-collar prostitutes fleecing the Bay area. Instead, commissioners target programs serving our children and abused animals.
Because who cares about them?
The other night, several hundred concerned residents showed they cared by turning out to speak before the Hillsborough County Commission and voice support for these threatened programs.
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Hillsborough County’s top lobbyist Edith Stewart makes $136,094; that is including a 17 percent raise of $20,000. I had to read this in the Times even though I did ask Commissioners what our lobbyists made in an e-mail back on April 14 and have yet to hear back on that.
Why did I want to know? Because I didn’t think our lobbyists were doing anything about bad environmental and growth management bills and I wondered how much you were paying them. Now we know. Maybe she got the bonus for letting SB 360 get through? I also asked Ms. Stewart herself in an e-mail several months ago to provide me with a detailed list of the activities of our lobbyists in Tallahassee and asked if any of them have ever spoken on the record in committee about SB 360 or any bills for that matter. I am still waiting. I even suggested the Board fire Ms. Stewart in this recent post regarding SB 360 so to read she recently got a raise while sitting back and letting the worst growth management laws quietly pass in Tallahassee is unbelievable. Especially amid such a budget crisis. In fact she got the highest percentage increase. Read the rest of this entry »
Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean
