By George Niemann PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
Wednesday’s proceedings were like riding a roller coaster. Here’s the highlights:
• Alyssa Ogden’s mother cries as she tells about learning of the sexual harassment.
• White’s father badmouths the alibi-busters who didn’t corroborate White’s story.
• Alyssa’s sister tells about how White lusted after her, also.
• Whites lawyers file a motion to throw the case out of court.
• White goes back on the stand, and his testimony causes a firestorm of protest from Alyssa’s attorney, as well as the judge.
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Construction might be down but Commissioner Kevin White (D-Shovel-Ready) just keeps digging. He is currently in the middle of a trial for a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former aide. This article not only describes White’s history but indicates that taxpayers are on the hook for $100,000 of his in legal fees so far, and the article says that was approved by our current commissioners this past June……..WTF? His trial began Aug. 17 and the jury was picked Monday.
After this year’s budget brawl is over you will probably pay more for parks, dog tags, and other services and now you can add this costly lawsuit to the tab. That’s because the county has been named a defendant in the lawsuit, as well, so it is spending tax dollars for legal defense of its own interests, outside of White’s personal legal tab. Read the rest of this entry »
By George Niemann PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
The Hillsborough budget saga continues. County Administrator Pat Bean has submitted a proposed budget and now the county commissioners are reviewing it in detail via a series of budget workshops.
Even though some commissioners are continuing to dig and review the budget, we still have the same nagging problem – there is a huge imbalance between cuts in basic services and large donations to non-profit organizations. While we’re closing parks and libraries, we’re still lavishly funding organizations like the Sports Authority, the Sports Commission and Hillsborough’s many chambers of commerce.
Fear not, though. Commissioner Jim Norman, known in some circles as the Johnny Appleseed of Money Trees, has come up with a creative twist on how to solve the budget cut dilemma. In an editorial by the Tribune dated Aug. 6, it was reported that, during one of the budget workshop meetings, Commissioner Appleseed suggested that the county should seek donations from citizens. He thought that they should put a donation check box on Tampa Bay Water’s bills so that citizens could donate up to $5 toward keeping the parks and libraries open.
It’s easy to understand Appleseed’s motivations for putting forth this idea. The Sports Authority provides Norman with a luxury suite at Raymond James Stadium to watch football games in (St.Pete Times, Sept 20, 2008). He’s helped them stay well funded all these years so they want to reciprocate by affording him with, shall we say, the type of comfort that only connected politicians can appreciate. If he cuts their funding, will he continue to watch games from inside that gorgeous enclosed luxury suite with a private kitchen or, instead, will he be reduced to sitting on a bar stool at Beef O’Brady’s looking at a flat panel TV? It’s easy to see why the Money Tree man doesn’t want to kill the money tree.
But are citizens willing to donate more money to keep basic services alive, while their tax dollars are going toward funding organizations that give luxury boxes to politicians, and while those same citizens still have to pay a dear price to sit in the bleachers? I think Johnny Appleseed still has a problem.
So I put on my thinking cap and, EUREKA!!! I’ve taken the Money Tree man’s idea and improved it!!!
Let’s do this – let’s significantly reduce the funding for the Sports Authority and the Sports Commission in the budget, keep the parks and libraries open, and allow citizens to donate up to $5 to the Sports Authority/Sports Commission via their water bills.
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.
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.
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.
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 »
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.
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 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 »
By Kelly Cornelius PoHo contributor and R-LAND activist
Just when you thought that renaming the Moral Courage award after their shuga daddy (and pardoned ex-felon) Ralph Hughes was the low point, the Hillsborough County Commission, led by Chairman Ken Hagan, floats an idea that is starting to smell worse than the reclaimed sewage that some officials want to dump into our aquifer.
Sell the preservation land that is Cone Ranch to private developers … in order to save it! Read the rest of this entry »
By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor and R-LAND civic activist
For all of you mass transit supporters … buses everywhere were busy last week giving you a glimpse of what really goes on down at County Center. Read the rest of this entry »
By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Well, my earlier post on who voted in support of SB 360 (a gutting of growth management laws) caused quite a stir, and as Wayne already reported and corrected on that post, State Sen. Victor Crist actually changed his last vote on the growth management bill from yes to no. I do apologize that I did not find that change online before submitting that post. I spoke with Crist himself Tuesday afternoon regarding the issue. He wanted to make sure I understood the process so I will share his explanation with you as well. Read the rest of this entry »
By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor & R-LAND activist
Well, for one the now State Sen. Victor Crist, who has an eye on Ken Hagan’s county commission seat in a game of musical sprawlers and just voted to throw Hillsborough under the bus by gutting what meager growth management laws we do have. Yep, he voted YES on the deplorable bill SB 360 denounced by environmentalists, smart growth advocates and anyone with two brain cells that touch (who aren’t in the pockets of developers).
[EDITOR'S UPDATE: Legislative records show that Crist changed to a "No" vote on the bill. In an interview with PoHo, Crist said he was off the floor in a budget conference meeting during the vote in question and another Senator "voted his button," a fairly common practice in the Legislature. Crist said he noticed the yes vote and changed it by the end of the day. More from Crist in the comments section. The Senate floor vote record is here.]
Remember that in 2010 when we have the “special election“ experts think is going to occur for Hagan’s seat. I didn’t know anything about Crist one way or the other before this, but voting yes on SB 360 tells me all I need to know. Looks like some of his constituents aren’t all that happy with him either regarding past issues. You can contact Crist here and tell him what you think.
Hillsborough Commissioner Kevin White has lost a key alibi in his defense against a sexual discrimination lawsuit brought by a former aide.
His uncle has recanted a statement that White stayed the night at his home during a now infamous 2007 trip to Atlanta that is central to the suit.
The aide, Alyssa Ogden, has claimed White asked her to accompany him to Atlanta within days of hiring her in April 2007. While there, Ogden says, White showed up at her hotel room asking to share her bed, saying, “I just don’t like to sleep by myself – I’m an only child.”
White’s uncle originally said White stayed at his Stone Mountain home during the trip in question, but now says he was wrong and may have been mistaken due to medication when he first gave the alibi statement.
Kevin White faces a Democratic primary challenge in 2010 from former state Sen. Les Miller.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Apr. 6, 2009, at 5:00 am
On the Friday after his Hillsborough County Commission voted 7-0 to start the ball rolling for a 2010 sales-tax increase referendum to pay for transportation improvements, Commissioner Mark Sharpe sat down for the HoCast recording session to talk about how we must embrace better mass transit, including light rail.
Just one more way developers run roughshod over the public and control our public “servants.” This article in the Times shows the beautiful green lawn of a model home and tells us how some vacant model homes use four times more water than if a family were living in them. The fees they get for violating the water restrictions? The builders consider it the cost of doing business. Looks like they laugh at these restrictions the same way the laugh at growth management laws. Probably the same builders that helped cause our housing glut in the first place with the blessing of most of our elected officials.
Posted by Jim Johnson on Mar. 10, 2009, at 3:31 pm
Okay. I goofed. Y’all read it. I proclaimed Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan’s to-be-vacated seat would be appointed. Allow me to clean the egg off my face. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Mar. 3, 2009, at 6:00 am
Yes, there was something richly ironic about taping our very “new media” political podcast in what used to be Creative Loafing’s morgue, or where we kept all our newspaper print back issues. I should say, keep, because they are all still in there, some bound in red leather collections.
Ahh, the good old days.
But I love this podcast biz. For my first, I invited WMNF’s Mitch Perry and Democratic consultant Ana Cruz to throw around three of the biggest issues of the week: the economic recovery and whether the Florida Legislature will try to reject some stimulus dollars; Barack Obama’s timetable for withdrawal in Iraq, which has not pleased some on the far left; and Mayor Pam Iorio’s rail-transit dreams running into a bit of a buzzsaw at the Hillsborough County Commission. Plus, we listen to the sound clip of the week. I’ll give you a hint: it is from a well-known prescription drug abuser.
Listen and enjoy, and we’ll have a new one for you every week. Download
UPDATE: I have a correction to post here. Turns out I am the late one to find out what everyone else knew already: It will be elected not appointed. The correction is posted here.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 17, 2009, at 4:00 pm
BREAKING NEWS: Victor Crist, a Republican state senator from the USF area and no relation to our governor, tells me this afternoon he has filed paperwork to run for the Hillsborough County Commission, as many expected and I wrote about in this blog before. He will seek the District 2 seat being vacated by Ken Hagan, who will run in a countywide seat in 2010 in an attempt to extend his term in office beyond the eight-year term limit. (The term limit applies individually to each district, so a commissioner can serve eight years in one seat and then try to jump to another seat and serve eight years in that seat.)
Technically, he is signing up for the 2012 election, when Hagan’s term ends. But that likely will be converted to an election in 2010, depending on how Hagan proffers his resignation, a requirement of state law since he wants to served in a seat elected countywide.
Here is where it gets tricky, so stay with me, because some politicos out there have raised the idea that Hagan’s seat might go to an appointment and not a special election. Florida has a Resign to Run law that requires public officials to give notice they are stepping down from their elected office if they are seeking a different elected office. From a 1979 Attorney General’s Opinion on the subject:
Florida’s Resign-to-Run Law is said to serve two purposes: To prevent an officeholder from using the power and prestige of one office to seek another and to spare the taxpayer the expense of having to finance a special election when an incumbent officeholder is elected to another office and is, therefore, compelled to resign from the one he or she currently holds. See the preamble to Ch. 70-80, Laws of Florida. It accomplishes these purposes by requiring any person who holds an elective or appointive office and who seeks to be elected to another public office, the term of which overlaps or runs concurrently with the term of the office which he currently holds, to submit an irrevocable letter of prospective resignation prior to qualifying for election, which resignation shall be effective regardless of whether the candidate is elected to such office. Section 99.012(2) and (3), F. S. A copy of the prospective resignation is presented to the Department of State, but otherwise the Division of Elections has no responsibilities or duties imposed by the law itself. See State ex rel. Shevin v. Stone, 279 So.2d 17 (Fla. 1972).
Florida Statutes 99.012 says it will be an election:
(2) No person may qualify as a candidate for more than one public office, whether federal, state, district, county, or municipal, if the terms or any part thereof run concurrently with each other.
(3)(a) No officer may qualify as a candidate for another state, district, county, or municipal public office if the terms or any part thereof run concurrently with each other without resigning from the office he or she presently holds.
(b) The resignation is irrevocable.
(c) The written resignation must be submitted at least 10 days prior to the first day of qualifying for the office he or she intends to seek.
(d) The resignation must be effective no later than the earlier of the following dates:
1. The date the officer would take office, if elected; or
2. The date the officer’s successor is required to take office.
(e)1. An elected district, county, or municipal officer must submit his or her resignation to the officer before whom he or she qualified for the office he or she holds, with a copy to the Governor and the Department of State.
2. An appointed district, county, or municipal officer must submit his or her resignation to the officer or authority which appointed him or her to the office he or she holds, with a copy to the Governor and the Department of State.
3. All other officers must submit their resignations to the Governor with a copy to the Department of State.
(f)1. With regard to an elective office, the resignation creates a vacancy in office to be filled by election. Persons may qualify as candidates for nomination and election as if the public officer’s term were otherwise scheduled to expire.
(Full disclosure: As a political consultant before joining CL, I represented Crist in his 2000 Florida Senate election and did other political work for him subsequently.)
Remember Chapter One of the Lithia Pinecrest Chronicles – A Road Widening, Some More Lying and We Just Ain’t Buying? Turns out we might not buy it but it looks like we sure as hell are paying for it! The reason this whole controversy regarding this road PD and E study started is that the consultants doing the study to possibly widen Lithia Pinecrest told citizens (screaming about the rural section of the study) that they had to study 6 lanes to be eligible for Federal Dollars (that argument didn’t really hold up) so then they used the logical termini defense for federal dollars and that one is at best arguable. There is one thing they all seem to agree on and that is the fact that the study can’t be predetermined according to Federal guidelines.
Enter a 10+ acre parcel of land off Lithia Pinecrest and Valrico in 2006 for sale for possible right of way (ROW). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 10, 2009, at 7:40 am
Smart-growth activist Mariella Smith reports on Sticks of Fire that a majority of Hillsborough County commissioners are moving toward easing development rules to speed construction in their version of a stimulus package.
Smith reports:
Near the end of their meeting last Wednesday, the commissioners discussed their ideas for how to get us out of the hole they helped dig. Four of them think the solution is to keep digging. Faster.
Incredibly, four of the seven commissioners – Jim Norman, Ken Hagan, Kevin White & Al Higginbotham – see the solution to our housing glut as MORE housing. And all the new strip malls and office buildings sitting around vacant? Yep, they want to see MORE of that commercial stuff built, too. And fast.
They want to deregulate development. It’s what they always want to do. When the housing bubble was booming they used that as an excuse to push for less oversight, and now that the bubble has burst, they’re trying to declare an “economic state of emergency” as a way to toss out the rules that manage growth and protect the environment. They claim that deregulation will stimulate more building.
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 7, 2009, at 12:21 pm
Back on Jan. 5, I wrote about how Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan could jump out of his district seat early (that term ends 2012) and run for Jim Norman’s countywide District 5 seat in 2010. This would give Hagan a chance at serving beyond his eight years that term limits hold anyone to in any one single seat. Hagan will have served six years in office by 2010; if he wins two terms in Norman’s seat he would end up with 14 years on the county commission.
I had been hearing buzz about this strategy for some time, so I raised the idea in January. Hagan late Friday followed through on his plans and filed for Norman’s seat. (h/t’s to Mariella Smith and Jim Johnson.)
Hagan's 2010 website greets visitors with this tease
Posted by Jim Johnson on Feb. 7, 2009, at 10:43 am
By Jim Johnson
PoHo contributor
With a hat-tip to Mariella Smith, who posted a note on Facebook, it seems Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan has decided after all to run for outgoing County Commissioner Jim Norman’s seat. This could trigger Governor Crist to appoint a replacement to fill the remainder of his term. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Feb. 5, 2009, at 4:45 pm
Long-rumored and believed to be dropped early to beat Tampa City Councilman Thomas Scott to the punch, here is Democratic politico Les Miller’s formal announcement that he will run for Hillsborough County Commission. It will be a lively Democratic primary, even if Scott doesn’t run:
FORMER SENATOR LES MILLER TO RUN FOR COUNTY COMMISSION
TAMPA – Former State Senator Lesley “Les” Miller has filed to run for Hillsborough County Commission, District 3. Miller’s entry into the race will give the citizens of District 3 and Hillsborough County a candidate whose long history of public service makes him a formidable opponent.
Miller’s track record in government has provided proven leadership to his constituents in the legislature for over 14 years, and his work in the district, county, and the state have served as preparation for representing District 3. Miller says, “The citizens of District 3 and Hillsborough County deserve credible representation and a Commissioner who has their interest in mind. We are facing challenging times in government, both nationally and locally. Our County is facing tough economic times and with state and federal dollars dwindling, District 3 deserves a Commissioner who knows government funding and can fully focus on the task at hand. Hillsborough County needs effective and honorable leadership they can trust.”
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 28, 2009, at 2:31 pm
That would be activist Lorna Bracewell, Commissioner Kevin Beckner’s proposal last week to simply study the cost of providing domestic partnership insurance benefits to Hillsborough employees and an unknown aide to one of the county commissioners who was (behind the scenes) assisting anti-gay activists.
Kelly Cornelius is a civic activist with R-Land and a contributor to PoHo:
Two assaults …….oops I mean Comp Plan Amendment proposals …… on the rural area were heard last week at the Hillsborough Planning Commission. The attacks on the rural area were directed at Keystone in the northwest part of the county, but if passed, they would have set a dangerous precedent countywide. Both were in violation of our Comprehensive Plan (which is our county’s blueprint for growth) and Keystone’s Community Plan, so passing either one of them would have been undermining community plans everywhere which citizens work long and hard on.
An army from Keystone showed up to defend its plan, and several people outside of Keystone (myself included) spoke out against this would be breach of the rural service area. Joining together with our rural neighbors does two things: 1. It makes us stronger so that a small community has less chance of being marginalized. 2. It really pisses off developers that don’t like to follow the rules (so I sign up when I can.)
Posted by Wayne Garcia on Jan. 16, 2009, at 8:14 pm
The Tampa Tribune reported that Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner had put the issue of same-sex benefits on a future agenda, but I heard from Beckner late this evening, and he is worried that the Trib didn’t get the story right.
“This is totally going to get blown out of proportion,” Beckner said. “This has nothing to do with gay rights. It’s about what is best for our community.”
Kevin Beckner, Hillsborough County’s first openly gay commissioner, is about to reopen the potentially explosive issue of giving health care benefits to the domestic partners of county employees.
Beckner requested that commissioners discuss the issue Thursday at their regularly scheduled meeting. The last time the issue came up, in April 2004, a split commission instructed County Administrator Pat Bean not to take any steps to offer the coverage.
… Beckner’s gambit drew immediate fire from Mark Sharpe, considered by many to be one of the more-moderate commissioners. Sharpe said expanding government spending while the county and nation are mired in a financial crisis is “irresponsible.”
“We sit on the edge of economic collapse, and our government should be focused on tightening our belts and curbing spending,” Sharpe said.
Beckner said, however, he has not put approval for any domestic partnership benefits — for gays or straights — on the agenda. He wants the commission to overturn a previous board’s prohibition against staff studying the cost-benefits of such a change to allow county employees to examine the issue further, since the county is renegotiating its insurance package presently. He said he would not consider adding new benefits until its fiscal impact can be studied.
“The studies I have seen is that there is virtually no cost in adding these kinds of benefits to a health-care plan,” Beckner said this evening. “I contend this is a matter of economic development. If you want to talk about the rising cost of health care, two of the leading contributing factors are the uninsured and the underinsured. When we have the opportunity, when it is economically feasible to insure more people, … it results in long-term savings to our community.”
He said studies he has seen show that 67 percent of those who take advantage of such domestic partnership are of the opposite gender, not same-sex. Since a majority of Fortune 500 companies offer such benefits, it is time, he reasons, that Hillsborough County act more like the kinds of industries that it wants to attract to the region.
“This is not a gay rights issue,” he said. “This is about economic development. It’s not just about our employees. It is about our community.”
Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean
