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.

The details:

First to testify was Alyssa Ogden’s mother, Diane Kaulave. Alyssa’s mother heard about the sexual advances from the guy who had arranged for White to interview Ogden for the job originally, Gerry Bowles. When she got the call from Bowles, she was on her way to bankruptcy court, where the family had just filed for protection from creditors. Bowles is a friend of both the Ogden and White families. Kaulauve said she was supportive of her daughter filing the sexual harassment complaint, even though she never personally witnessed the harassment. She was very tearful while on the witness stand. As the lawyers argued points of law in one of the sidebars that occurred, she looked intently at her daughter as if to say, I’m here for you.

Alyssa’s sister, Crystal Lauren Ogden takes the stand. She tells how she accompanied her sister to lunches with White and to some special events. She tells of one incident at the Bamboo Club Restaurant where she walked up to the table and White exclaimed, “WOW!!!” He then comments how her pants are so form-fitting and he asks her to turn around once more so he can see it from all angles. She claims she rebuffed him and did not turn around. At the next lunch at Jackson’s Bistro on Harbour Island, she said he gawked at her the whole time. He then started discussing their breasts sizes and asked Crystal if she was bigger than her sister and if she had a “C” or a “D” cup. At the next lunch at La Terrazza, she said White gave her a box of chocolates. He continued to tell her that he would like for her to work for him.

Crystal said she feared for her life and for her family. She had heard her sister talk of White’s boasting, on occasion, of being in the Black Mafia and having killed people when he was a police officer. Alyssa also told her sister of an instance when she was in White’s car and — during a cell phone conversation with someone about a deadbeat that owed him money — he said that if the person who owed him money didn’t pay that he’d kill him and they’d have to bail him out of jail.

Then between witnesses, the plaintiffs (White and Hillsborough County) filed a motion with the judge asking for a summary judgment to throw the case out of court. They claimed that Ogden didn’t dispute the fact that she couldn’t do the job, along with the fact that she hasn’t established sufficient evidence to show that the sexual harassment was to the level of being “severe and pervasive.”

Judge Lazarra called their claim preposterous. He said he would make a ruling later in the proceedings, though.

White’s wife, Jenny Navarro White, took the stand. She said she worked at St. Joseph’s Hospital as an RN and was always on call. When asked if she ever saw her husband make any advances toward Alyssa Ogden, she said, “My husband would never do that in front of me.” That made me wonder if they should have asked her if she thinks he might do it behind her back.

Next up was Gerald White, Kevin White’s father. Being a big man (6’2”-plus and probably close to 400 lbs.) he lumbered slowly to the stand. White’s father tried to refute statements made by Blythe Andrews that implicated his son. He said that Andrews wanted to avoid being implicated in this scandal, implying that Andrews lied in his video testimony. He also said that he saw Andrews hand wads of cash to Alyssa Ogden on three separate occasions, totaling approximately $700. He denied that his son ever told him that he loved Ogden and wanted to have a relationship with her.

Kevin White was put back on the stand by his attorneys. He gave some of his background to the jury – He was born out of wedlock in New York City but was raised in Tampa, mostly by his grandparents. His mother worked full time for Verizon. He knew who his father was but had little to do with him and rarely saw him.

He said he never looked at Alyssa in a sexual context. He claims he even took issue a few times with the fact that her attire was not appropriate for the office (low-cut blouse, skirts with slits up the thigh and 5″-6” spike heels). When asked why he seemed to do a lot of interviewing and personnel management while dining at restaurants he said, “when you look at the White family, you can tell that our lives evolve around food.”

As his testimony was coming to an end, all hell broke loose in the courtroom. Here’s why — his attorney was setting him up so that he could give a parting speech to the jury. The attorney asks him to tell the jury how he has been affected by this case. Well, White proceeds to give a long rambling statement about how his life, his family’s lives, the taxpayers, and his constituents have been irreparably harmed by this lawsuit. He adds that he has never broken any laws.

Following that long-winded dissertation, Ogden’s attorney jumps up and wants to cross-examine. He begins to question White’s admission of guilt in the now infamous Florida Elections Commission campaign finance case. In that case White admitted that he wrote checks in the name of a fictitious company (Robins Consulting) to hide the fact that he was illegally using campaign funds to buy personal items, such as custom-made suits. Objections are now flying around the room like a developer chasing a land-use approval. The judge rips into White’s attorneys for letting their client make broad sweeping claims that he never did anything wrong in his life. During his tirade the judge comments, “You should not have opened that door.” Now that White has made those grandiose statements, the plaintiff’s attorneys can dredge up his past in detail to show the jury that he’s not as pure as he says he is.

More to come tomorrow.

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.

White is no stranger to controversy, most recently his involvement with a security contract he lobbied for (against staff recommendations) was questioned. The lawyer representing the security company in question, David Mechanik, recently hosted a fundraiser for White’s upcoming campaign. Uh-huh. As it turns out that same lawyer was also pushing that controversial sprawl project billed as a “multi-modal” center which was pulled at the last minute last week.

This article from the Times shows White’s laundry list — make that dirty laundry list —of other questionable activities. Can we afford Commissioners that cost us more in legal fees than they actually make in a year? You can decide whether to bury this one or not during the next election. Until then it looks like White will keep shoveling.

Unrelated but I had to tell someone………… last week during budget talks White appeared to be lobbying fellow Commissioners regarding a budget item and he cited a white paper recently done by staff. He wanted to make sure his colleagues on the board knew the “white paper” was not named after him. You just can’t make this shit up.

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.

Here’s what Tampa Bay Water’s bill might look like:

If you would like to see more funding directed toward basic services for communities and less of it applied to corporate donations, let Jim “Johnny Appleseed of Money Trees” Norman and the other commissioners know.

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.

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.

So, at Hagan’s request the County Commission appointed a panel to study this idea of selling off public land (already listed as preservation) to private buyers. Or was the panel set up to study what was best for Cone Ranch in general? Even some of the appointees were not clear on this, so at the first meeting on Monday this question was asked by one of the appointees to Edith Stewart. Yep, that Edith Stewart: the county’s top lobbyist was running the meeting. She referred the panel to the County Commission’s transcripts on the issue. That must be why she makes the big bucks (recall you pay her $136,094).

Earlier in that meeting these were Commissioner Hagan’s words to the panel:
THIS IS ABOUT DOING WHAT IS BEST FOR CONE
RANCH AND HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, IT IS NOT ABOUT
RUBBERSTAMPING FCEG’S IDEAS AND PERSPECTIVES,

Yet the county’s own website on the Cone Ranch advisory panel states this: On May 6, 2009 the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners created the Cone Ranch Environmental Advisory Panel to work with the County staff and with the Florida Conservation and Environmental Group (FCEG) and the Nature Conservancy to consider a proposal by FCEG and all of the issues and partnerships that are involved with Cone Ranch.

The transcripts from the most recent County Commission meeting on this issue indicate to me that this panel is supposed to be about doing what is best for Cone Ranch, not just evaluating the private proposal.

Several members of the panel asked some great questions as did the residents speaking during public comment. Mariella Smith, a local environmentalist and activist, did a fantastic job outlining a process for the panel, and you don’t pay her anything.

Remember when Commissioner Kevin Beckner (the voter’s cure for Brian Blair) asked FCEG to provide a written report during their first presentation? Well, here it is - they only produced a few pages. The public already had a list of questions longer than this report and the lack of substance certainly makes one question their legitimacy and intent. There is a cool flow chart showing which way the money will go though.

Mike Merrill, Utilities and Commerce Administrator for the county, spoke to the panel during their first meeting and he seemed to be trying to steer the audience from believing this was public land by saying it was owned by a business (the water utility). Um, who supports that, Mike? Uh-huh. If this wasn’t public property then why does the Board of County Commissioner (elected by the taxpayers) have the final say on it?  Why did they appoint a panel?

Here is the kicker, kids: the Cone Ranch is NOT FOR SALE. You heard me: NOT FOR SALE. Mr. Paul Vanderploog, Director of Water Resource Services, also spoke to the advisory panel during Monday’s meeting and he states this in his presentation when he said:
CONE RANCH IS NOT
ACTIVELY BEING OFFERED FOR SALE BY THE ENTERPRISE.

Huh?

So let me get this straight. Here we have a whole panel of volunteers, an army of staff working on this (which I believe is on the taxpayer’s dime), yet the Cone Ranch is NOT FOR SALE. Was it in danger of being developed into big bad subdivisions and commercial centers as FCEG threatened during a presentation to the County Commission? Considering it is on the Comprehensive Plan as preservation, I hardly think so. The County Commission itself would have had to approve any changes to our Comp Plan to get the land use of this ranch changed and as bad as the gang of Five Four is, I am guessing even they know that changing preservation land to residential or commercial would be political suicide. As I watched this advisory panel meeting unfold with the staff trying to explain all the bond covenants and all the other strings attached to the land, it was hard to believe it would ever be in danger of true development unless the county say……………. sold it?

Turns out the Nature Conservancy (part of the group pushing this proposal) ALREADY has an interest in the Cone Ranch. It is listed as a non-terminable unilateral interest. So they appear to already be charged with protecting the Cone Ranch (and also appear to be on the receiving end of funds according to that flow chart if the sale goes through). Anybody else think that is a conflict of interest? Maybe the County uses the Ray Sansom theory regarding conflicts of interests or maybe it is the Ken Hagan theory?

SWIFTMUD is listed as a terminable interest in the property and yet two of their representatives sit on the technical committee for the advisory panel. One of the advisory panel appointees is also a board member of SWIFTMUD and the Chairwoman of that advisory panel is a former Chair of the Swiftmud board. Hmmm, that doesn’t seem all that objective to me.

The obvious question to me is did we really need a panel to study a buy-out proposal for a property that is NOT FOR SALE in order to preserve what is already listed as PRESERVATION land? As I listen to our County Commission cry over decreased tax revenues and upcoming budget cuts (meanwhile their County Administrator is serving up double digit raises to people like Edith Stewart) I wonder how they can justify staff time and taxpayer money to even study this? Maybe Hagan is paying for it?

Balm Civic Association President Marcella Osteen got the final word in this WMNF interview. Her comment about looking at the proposal “with a jaundiced eye” says it all, and she goes on to say that “I would think that any investor is exactly what it says: investor. They’re looking to – let me think about it – make money? So I would be skeptical — anybody that comes in here to buy [Cone Ranch] with dollars would not be looking to make money. And just out of the goodness of their heart to restore it, I don’t think so.”  In case I haven’t said it lately, Thank You Marcella! Considering the past deeds of that County Commission as a whole (excluding Commissioners Ferlita, Beckner and usually Sharpe) forgive us if we don’t trust the rest of you. Just since I have been paying attention they have approved major subdivisions out in BFE, they have launched constant environmental attacks and their staff bald-faced lied to me about a toll road over my house (and you wonder why I have so much fun writing these?)

What can you do? You can contact your County Commissioners regarding Cone Ranch here. Be sure to start with Chairman Ken Half Truth Hagan since he is not only spearheading this project it looks like he is now the first contact point to all of the Commissioners according to George Niemann’s recent article. You can see the documents associated with this production and check for the next meeting on the county’s website. Some of the opposition even have their own Facebook page against this sale which also has updates on it.

My guess is that with elections coming up, the Commissioners will eventually cave to public will and sell this land to ELAPP (the county’s own land preservation program)  where it should be (but I bet they try to spin it to you and me like they are environmental heroes while doing it), so thanks to all those volunteering to go through the motions until then. Seems to me that if they really wanted to do the right thing they would leave the land as is and let ELAPP spend their money on less secure pieces of land that really are in danger of being developed. But this is Hillsborough County, where four of our current Commissioners think a pardoned ex-felon and ahem, campaign donor, was worthy of naming the Moral Courage award after. (For those of you keeping score, those current Commissioners are Hagan, White, Norman and Higginbotham.) So I guess there is no telling what they would do for these big-time potential donors. I hope the county is sincere in only wanting the best outcome for Cone Ranch, but how sad we can’t trust them at their word.

Stay tuned for another episode of Will The County Commission Successfully Be Able To Preserve PRESERVED Land?

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.

After the break, the story from TBO.com:

TAMPA — The Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office won’t prosecute Brian Blair on child abuse charges.

Blair was arrested on Father’s Day after a confrontation involving his two sons.

In a memorandum, Assistant State Attorney Rita Peters characterized the scuffle between Blair and his 17-year-old son Brett as “discipline,” given the history between the two.

When Bradley Blair, the younger son, called 911, he told dispatchers that his brother had “gone crazy,” the memo said.

Peters wrote that Brett Blair was more aggressive and hit his father more than his father hit him. Brian Blair’s injuries appeared to be defensive, she wrote.

There were inconsistencies in witness statements about who punched whom, she wrote.

Deputies initially arrested Blair on felony child abuse charges, after Brett Blair told deputies his father grabbed him, punched him in the face and put him in a choke hold, the Sheriff’s Office report said. He then grabbed younger son Bradley by the throat and punched him, the report said.

As he left jail last month, Blair called the arrest “a real, I guess, unfortunate situation. 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,” Blair said at the time. “Sometimes, the hardest kids to mentor are your own.”

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.

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.

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.

“It was on my doorknob,” said Mary Mulhern, a Tampa City Council member who is considering the Hagan race, or the mayor’s race in 2011, or re-election to her own seat on the Council.

And getting Mulhern’s attention — or at least the attention of South Tampa Democrats who have been talking up a challenge to the north Tampa commissioner — may have been Hagan’s ulterior motive.

“Oh, I never thought of that, i just thought it was a non-campaign campaign piece,” said Mulhern. “I was curious that the north hillsborough county commissioner was actually checking in with constituents who are not his constituents in South Tampa. I don’t think it’s intimidation; he’s got to get some name recognition down here.”

I couldn’t reach Hagan late Friday after getting the non-campaign piece. But it is an old campaign trick and an advantage of incumbency; under the cover of a “constituent survey” you get your name out in neighborhoods that frankly may not know you exist. Hagan’s current district covers New Tampa and other northern parts of Hillsborough County, nowhere near South Tampa. In 2010, however, he wants to jump to a countywide seat to beat term limits in his existing seat.

Since Hagan apparently used personal funds, nobody is saying what he is doing is illegal.

“I doubt that he would have done it if it isn’t legal,” Mulhern said. “If it is a campaign piece you have to say who paid for it. I think it is iffy, but I haven’t looked into whether it would be legal or not. It certainly does have that look of what Buddy Johnson was doing. I think he’s got some vulnerability if he thinks he’s got to start sending out campaign literature so soon.”

Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean took more than a few stutter steps last week when the discussion at the budget workshop finally addressed the earlier article in the St. Petersburg Times about her issuing fat raises to a handful of her BFFs. Commissioners are in the middle of a budget nightmare, up to 900 jobs could be eliminated and Bean is passing out up to double-digit raises to some of her faves, including the bean counters.

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?)

Edith Stewart, a lobbyist, makes more than even the commissioners do. I challenge Bean and commissioners to justify a lobbyist making this kind of fortune when they can’t even tell me if Stewart or any of our eight registered lobbyists spoke on the record in committee this session on ANY bills this year. Judging by their inactions on SB 360 I don’t think we can afford this kind of lobbying! I also noticed that five of the lobbyists listed under Hillsborough County appear to have the same long list of clients including the Florida Chamber, who you might recall was very much for SB 360. I still wonder how much we paid those other lobbyists but back to Bean’s recession proof raises.

It seems to me that Bean can usually talk herself out of (or the majority of the Commission into) anything but this time I think she slipped up pretty bad. When initially questioned about the raises she uses the excuse that the raises are a requirement under civil service rules (problem is she later contradicts herself when questioned by the Commissioner Al “New Blair” Higginbotham and states those positions are unclassified positions that are not controlled by the civil service office.) See for yourself, here are the transcripts and the excerpts that blow her cover are as follows: (Comissioner Beckner is questioning her)

BUT MY QUESTION IS HOW DO WE JUSTIFY TO THE RANK-AND-
FILE EMPLOYEES THAT ARE ASKED TO TAKE ON MORE
RESPONSIBILITIES AND THEY’RE NOT GETTING ANY ADDITIONAL
DOLLARS?
>>PAT BEAN: WELL, COMMISSIONER, IF THEY ARE GETTING A
PROMOTION TO A NEW POSITION, THEY WILL GET COMPENSATION IN
ADDITION BECAUSE THAT’S A REQUIREMENT UNDER THE CIVIL
SERVICE RULES. WE DON’T HAVE THAT OPTION NOT TO GIVE THEM A PAY RAISE.

but then later when questioned by Higginbotham about this Bean changes her story:

>>AL HIGGINBOTHAM: IT WAS NOVEMBER 6th, 2008, AND IN THAT
PRESENTATION WE HAD A NICE FLOW CHART.
I WENT BACK THROUGH EVERYTHING, AND I DIDN’T SEE ANYTHING
THAT TALKED — IT TALKED ABOUT RECLASS, BUT AS I CAN
REMEMBER, AND I WENT THROUGH THE — THE MINUTES, IT DIDN’T
OUTLINE WHAT THAT PAY WAS GOING TO BE OTHER THAN IT SAID
THERE WAS NO FISCAL — ON THE COVER SHEET, THERE WAS NO
COST OF REORGANIZATION.
THE COST IS COVERED WITHIN THE BUDGET OF THE COUNTY
ADMINISTRATOR.
>>PAT BEAN: THAT’S CORRECT.
>>AL HIGGINBOTHAM: SO — YEAH.
AND THAT’S WHERE — BECAUSE — AND THIS COMES THROUGH OUR
CIVIL SERVICE.
>>PAT BEAN: NO, THIS DOES NOT COME THROUGH OUR CIVIL
SERVICE.
>>AL HIGGINBOTHAM: YOU MENTIONED CIVIL SERVICE EARLIER.
>>PAT BEAN: NOT IN REGARD TO THIS.
I SAID THERE ARE CIVIL SERVICE POSITIONS THAT ARE
CONTROLLED BY MR. GARDNER’S OFFICE.
>>AL HIGGINBOTHAM: GOT IT.
>>PAT BEAN: THE UNCLASSIFIED POSITIONS ARE NOT CONTROLLED
BY HIM FOR ANY OF THE ORGANIZATIONS OF COUNTY GOVERNMENT.
>>AL HIGGINBOTHAM: OKAY.
I JUST MISUNDERSTOOD WHAT YOU SAID THERE, AND I THOUGHT
MAYBE THERE WAS SOMETHING — I MISSED SOMETHING ALONG THE
WAY.

I rarely stand up for or even agree with Higginbotham, but in this case I don’t think he missed anything. Bean did seem like she was trying to make them believe she had no choice but to give them raises when she said “we don’t have that option NOT to give them a pay raise.”

She also wanted to make sure we knew this happened last Oct-Nov (pretty sure they knew about huge budget cuts looming back then too). I found the link to this memo from Bean in an earlier article in the Times during this reorganization last fall and it doesn’t mention a thing about raises. In fact, it boasts about $500,000 worth of savings and never mentions the $100,000 in raises significantly decreasing those savings! Another inconsistency I found was that in this article they mentioned that four of the six got promotions with their raises but Bean seems to indicate that they all got promotions not just raises during the workshop with this statement:

I USED SOME OF THE MONEY SAVED FROM ELIMINATING THREE
POSITIONS TO PROMOTE THESE INDIVIDUALS AND ASK THEM TO TAKE
ON THE WORK IN ADDITION TO EVERYTHING THEY WERE ALREADY
DOING.

Well, which is it Ms. Bean? Did they all get promotions with their raises, or only four of the six? Were the raises mandatory by civil service laws or not?

Guess who was the only Commissioner supporting Bean? You knew it would be Commissioner Jim Norman didn’t you?

In the meantime, The Times named Bean The Loser of the Week and the Tampa Tribune titled its editorial “Bean-headed pay raises.” Glad to see the MSM increasing its snark factor.

Should be interesting to see how the board handles this one as the media is all over it and the public is outraged (judging by the hundreds of comments under the stories). Commissioners will most certainly be blamed by the public for not keeping a tight rein on this runaway horse. Will they continue to pay to keep her in the barn or realize it is past time to turn this one out to pasture?