The Political Whore

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 »

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 »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo credit: otisarchives3 Flickr.com

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Photo credit: DRB62 Flickr.com

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 »

Photo credit: amerune at Flickr.com

OR

Photo credit: Daquella Manera at Flickr.com                   YOU DECIDE!

By Kelly Cornelius
PoHo contributor and R-LAND activist

As if the past dirty deeds and developer-driven agendas of many of our Hillsborough County commissioners wasn’t proof enough (yes, we mean you Team Sprawl) now the Florida Legislature has shown you exactly why we need Florida Hometown Democracy (FHD). FHD is a citizen-driven initiative that would allow voters to make growth decisions instead of leaving it in the greased and dirty hands of politicians. To help make the case for FHD, there is this year’s legislative session.

Where to begin?

Read the rest of this entry »

photo by Tom (hmm a rosa tint)

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

Only in Hillsborough would the Captain of Team Sprawl propose to sell environmentally sensitive land already owned by the public …….get this………in order to preserve it!  WTF?

Read the rest of this entry »

I attended a recent sprawl battle down at Collusionville Headquarters the Hillsborough County Center (see my post on that here), where I asked Commissioner Ken Hagan to recuse himself from a vote at hand.  I asked because the applicant, Stephen Dibbs, was listed as hosting a campaign fundraiser for him, according to this article.

Sure seemed to me that if one of your fundraisers is asking you to change the rules for his financial benefit that would be a conflict of interest. [Editor's note: A Commission on Ethics opinion has ruled that receiving campaign contributions does not constitute a legal conflict of interest for a public official.] Hagan not only flat-out denied that Dibbs ever held a fundraiser for him but he did it on the record. His exact words, according to the transcripts, were “Mr. Dibbs has never held a fundraiser for me and even if he had that would be a ridiculous standard to try and enforce.” I guess that is why they are called puppets, right? As a review, 5 of our 7 current Commissioners have financial contributions from Dibbs.

Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

By Jim Johnson
PoHo Contributor

Jim Johnson is the creator of The State of Sunshine blog.

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Hagan has apparently been planning this switcheroo for some months. His campaign registered the domain kenhagan2010.com back in November 2008, with his 2008 campaign website designer listed as the admin contact:

Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

It started a few weeks ago, rumors flying that perhaps Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan was eyeing a jump to another seat on that board in 2010 in order to overcome term limits, which he would face in 2012. The story went that he would jump to the departing Jim Norman’s seat and state Sen. Victor Crist, term limited in Tallahassee in 2010, would run for Hagan’s seat.

I mentioned the possibility that Hagan could jump seats (and it is possible, legally that is) and about a week later, Patrick Manteiga at La Gaceta reported that the two actually had arranged the switcheroo.

But Crist, no relation to the governor, tells me no deal.

“I have to leave [the Senate] because of term limits,” Crist said by telephone from his Tallahassee office, where he had just finished up the special session on budget cuts. “I love public policy. I have options. I have my own political base, accomplishments and track record that I don’t need to cut any deals.”

Crist said he has not committed to any race or campaign and is keeping all his options open. But he did say he wants to stay in public office and continue working on issues he cares about, including improvements in the Suitcase City neighborhood near USF and criminal justice.

(Hey, I forgot when I posted this to add my disclaimer, that I represented Crist in one of his Senate races when I was a political consultant. Sorry about the omission.)

Times is reporting that Republican Ken Hagan, long known for staying out of the spotlight and away from the news media, won’t be able to keep that up any longer; he’s been chosen as the new chairman of the Hillsborough County Commission.

Hagan replaces Jim Norman, who is still stinging from the defeat of his $40 million Championship Park proposal. That puts Hagan front and center for the run-up to the 2008 elections, with some controversial transportation and planning questions ahead, not to mention the resolution of the Environmental Protection Commission wetlands fight and god knows what else will come in front of that dysfunctional board.

Commissioner Rose Ferlita, at the same meeting in which Hagan was chosen chairman, was essentially stripped of her seat on the Tampa Port Authority, which was given to Commissioner Brian Blair. Unsurprising given that Ferlita has been an outspoken critic of several of her colleagues’ actions, including Norman, Hagan and Blair. Norman kept the key perc of a seat on the Tampa Sports Authority, where members get free tickets to Bucs games and get to spend our tax dollars on flat-panel HDTVs for the luxury suites and club level.

The one spot of good news from the county commission today: the pragmatic Mark Sharpe was chosen vice chairman.

(addendum disclosure: forgot to add that Ferlita was a client of my political consulting firm in the 1990s and that I was consultant to the Jim Davidson campaign against a field that included Hagan in Hagan’s first campaign. Davidson lost in the Republican primary.)