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County Administrator Bean and County Attorney Lee have still not been fired by the Board of County Commissioners. Even though Bean gave herself and County Attorney Lee raises in 2007 without board approval along with both of them violating numerous policies by snooping through commissioners' emails, the BOCC still doesn't send them packing. The only one with the guts to take immediate action was Commissioner Mark Sharpe. When he tried to motion for immediate dismissal at the March 18, 2010 BOCC regular meeting, he couldn't even get a second. The rest of the board would rather wait, even if it takes a couple of years, to find something criminal before taking any action. Incompetence, lack of ethics, failure to comply with policy, failure to create and maintain effective policy management, lack of leadership, failure to provide the best service to citizens, failure to maintain honest and open government - none of that is important enough to warrant dismissal in their eyes. It's business as usual until they commit a felony. Meanwhile our government will not function. This board needs a new chairperson that can lead us out of this mess. This link will provide a timeline of County Administrator Bean's long career as a beaurocrat.
On January 21, 2010, the Board of County Commissioners voted to sue Commissioner Kevin White for part of the settlement costs associated with the sexual harassment case that Alyssa Ogden won. His guilty verdict cost the county $491,000 so far. Commissioner White has arrogantly refused to pay for any of it, claiming poverty. In spite of his poverty claims, he threatened to sue the county and drive the costs up if they decided to sue him. So how is it that he has the money to sue the county but doesn't have the money to at least contribute something toward the cost? At last he is going to be forced to take some responsibility for his bad conduct.
The board voted to transfer the Cone Ranch property over to the Environmental Land Acquistion Preservation Program for a book value of $12M. Concerned citizens pushed for the transfer although the county dragged its feet and were misdirected by their staff into thinking that it only could be transfered after a fair market appraisal. That would have driven the price up to the point that it might not have been preserved. Over the years Cone Ranch has been a target for development. This latest move will protect it from being developed.
Commissioner Higginbotham (District 4) and his aide, Jess Johnson have been accused by UCAN of violating the Hillsborough Charter. Mr Johnson has repeatedly attempted to steer the outcome of the I-4 Corridor Study and other studies by pressuring the staffs and subject matter experts to arrive at certain conclusions. Our charter has definitive rules that prohibit the commission from "meddling" in the day-day operations of the staff, particularly when the staff is charged with conducting unbiased research as part of the decision making process carried out by the BOCC. An official letter was sent to County Attorney Renee Lee regarding these violations, but the county has yet to provide any response to the charges.
Citizens' voices were heard on November 4, 2008. Commissioner Blair was defeated handily by challenger Kevin Beckner. The ousting of Blair signifies a new beginning in Hillsborough County. Citizens want their leaders to respect them and put their interests first. For the last 4 years Blair, as a member of the Gang of 5, has consistently voted against our interests in managing growth. As the new countywide commissioner of District 6, Beckner will help bring some balance to this board. We are hopeful that the remaining Gang of 4 will realize that their days will be numbered if they continue to favor special interests over citizen interests.
On November 4, 2008 Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson lost his bid for re-election to Phyllis Busansky. The long delays in finalizing the vote count soon became an embarassment for Hillsborough County. In addition, Mr. Johnson's management of that office, at times, lacked the transparency that we expected. It was time for a change in management.
On June 27, 2008 the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority (TBARTA) board voted to remove 2 planned roads which, in effect, created a beltway from I-75 in Manatee county through south and east Hillsborough to Plant city. The staff explained that they received a significant amount of opposition which made moving forward with the plan problematic. This was a clear victory for residents of east Hillsborough. For the time being the beltway idea is not in the plan, however, we fear that efforts will be made in the future to get in back in the plan. Keep in mind that this idea was the brainchild of large land owners in south county going back to the late 1980s. We fear that those same land owners and their developer colleagues will be looking for ways to get it back on the map because it guarantees expanded/intensified land development wherever the road is placed. And in this case, the placement is targeted for the rural sections of east Hillsborough. Going forward, we urge all citizens to follow the actions of TBARTA very carefully.
On March 6, 2008 the BOCC voted 5-2 in favor of partnering with One Bay, a powerful lobbyist group for the building industry, to create a long range growth plan looking out to 2050. The board has decided to consider adopting One Bay's vision plan rather than funding our own Planning Commission to do the plan. What will this mean? Our board is literally "giving the store away" by letting a lobbyist group with an agenda write our long range growth plan. One Bays vision is based on the ridiculous premise that Florida must have a house built for everyone that may want to move here, and housing must be created no matter what the costs in terms of space and resources. We believe that our own Planning Commission must be the ones to write the Vision 2050 with existing citizens as the beneficiaries, not private companies that want to create a plan that affords them financial gain. The Planning Commission has the expertise and is the only entity that has no agenda or financial motives. Their job is to follow existing state laws which protect our interests. We believe that our board is demonstrating poor leadership and has violated our trust by taking this action.
Join us in asking the Hillsborough Legislative Delegation to revise a bill that Repr Kevin Ambler is trying to move forward in Tallahassee without any local support. We are asking the delegation to reconvene immediately to rectify this matter...see below The Hillsborough legislative Delegation voted to move forward Repr Kevin Ambler's House Bill #723. This bill includes revising the current composition of the Planning Commission. Everyone objected to the inclusion of the Planning Commission in Ambler's bill - our BOCC, the Planning Commission themselves, Tampa's Mayor Iorio, Plant City and Temple Terrace govts. We are asking Ambler and Hillsborough's Legislative Delegation to remove the Planning Commission from the bill. Our citizens and our city and county leadership all agree that we don't want it tampered with. We urge you to write to the Legislative Delegation to help us get it corrected. We've made it easy to write. Below is a link to the RLAND site which has a form letter that will be sent automatically once you provide your name and address. Link to automated letter to Hills Legislative Delegation
Ethics charges were dropped against Commissioner Blair on June 17, 2008 by the Florida Ethics Commission. The reason for the recommendation to drop the charges is based on the lack of sufficient evidence to obtain a conviction. The investigation was stymied because EPC staff would not admit that Mr.Blair's actions kept them from carrying out their duties to the best of their abilities. It's not surpising that they covered for their boss. If they had admitted that he influenced their decisions and actions, then they would have also become liable. Mike Salinero, Tampa Trib March 07, 2008 "Blair Draws Ethics Complaint" Tampa Trib March 10, 2008, "Brian Blair in Ethical Stew"
Powerful developer Ralph Hughes has died. Many say he controlled the Board of County Commissioners like a master puppeteer. He wielded a tremendous amount of power over most of them. The only one that would not yield to his efforts at controlling was Rose Ferlita. As a result of his "owning" county leadership, their decisions disproportionately favored home builders and developers over the average citizen. Some people may not be aware that many of our commissioners won't ever meet with citizens, even when citizens groups beg for a meeting (their staffs claim that they won't have any time in the near to distant future), while at the same time, Mr Hughes could call and ask to see a commissioner and he would get in to see them the same day. When citizens don't have access to their elected officials, but those with deep pockets do, then the system has been corrupted. It has nothing to do with Mr. Hughes political affiliations. It's that he successfully corrupted the system and as a result, we all lost. Tampa Trib Editorial, July 7, 2008
On Jan 16, 2008, the BOCC could not commit to funding a long range growth plan for Hillsborough County. The planning commission stressed the urgency of doing the study, so that transportation planning could be integrated with land use (no integration exists today). The debate that took place was interesting. Some commissioners questioned the need for that type of planning. UCAN believes that this demonstrates the lack of management skills and vision on the part of some of our commissioners.
On Dec. 7, at the annual public hearing on proposed laws affecting Hillsborough County, state legislators were considering a bill that would change the balance of county and city representation on 3 local boards: the Environmental Protection Commission (EPC), the Sports Authority, and the Planning Commission. Our county commission voted unanimously to support the bill, only if the Planning Commission were removed from it. We anticipated that the bill would be amended in consideration of the BOCCs request, but at the last minute Representative Kevin Ambler, the bill's sponsor, put the Planning Commission back into the bill. Unbeknowns to most citizens, Representative Rich Glorioso asked the state to conduct a study to determine how effective the Hillsborough Planning Commission really is. Mr Glorioso explains that the delegation plans to take action based on the results of the study. It appears from the combined actions of Reps Ambler and Glorioso, that the Planning Commission is being targeted for destruction. It's interesting that even though Hillsborough citizens and their county commission aren't doubting the Plannning Commission's effectiveness, our state delegation thinks they need to be investigated. With that hanging in the balance, it was critical that our state legislative delegation understand the BOCCs strong position against including the Planning Commission in this bill. When the delegation asked County Administrator Pat Bean whether the BOCC would support the bill with the Planning Commission included, she tells them that the BOCC is in support of the bill, as written. That was in direct opposition to what her bosses had voted on. We are very concerned about the county administrator not following the directives of her bosses, the BOCC. If you agree that the county administrator should not be interjecting her own political bias over what the commission told her to say, we encourage you to let the BOCC know. Take a look at the full report of what happened on the Sticks Of Fire blog... 12-17-07 Sticks of Fire, "County Administrator Misled State Legislators"
On Saturday November 17, 2007 an article appeared in the Tampa Tribune detailing the efforts of U-CAN to curtail the unbridled development occuring in Hillsborough County. We want to thank Yvette Hammett of the Tampa Tribune for helping to helping to make the public aware of the serious issues we are trying to address. See the link to the story below... By Banding Together Rural Residents Fight Builders' Advances
Commissioner Blair seems to think that the health of our economy is based solely on the amount of development that occurs. Economists would disagree with his premise, but unfortunately he continues to repeat this fuzzy logic fed to him by the building industry lobbyists. Comment made to PGM staff at the Sept 26th LDC Amendments Workshop: >>BRIAN BLAIR: I JUST WANT TO MAKE A VERY BROAD COMMENT... I'LL GIVE YOU A DOZEN BIG NAMES THAT YOU'LL KNOW EVERY ONE OF THEM, AND THEY'RE SAYING IT'S GETTING HARDER EVERY DAY TO DO BUSINESS IN HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY. PEOPLE ARE LEAVING, THEY'RE GOING TO PASCO, THEY'RE GOING TO PINELLAS, WE'RE LOSING JOBS, AND MARK SHARPE POUNDS THE TABLE JUST LIKE I DO ON THE ECONOMY BECAUSE IF ANYBODY ASKS YOU WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CHALLENGE THAT WE FACE IN THIS COUNTY, IT'S NOT SCHOOLS, IT'S NOT EPC, IT'S NOT ANYTHING BUT THE ECONOMY BECAUSE WITHOUT A ROBUST AND VIABLE ECONOMY, WE SIMPLY CAN'T MAKE THINGS WORK POLITICALLY, SO I'M JUST GIVING YOU A LITTLE PEP TALK IN HOPES THAT MAYBE WE CAN MAKE THINGS A LITTLE BIT EASIER TO DO BUSINESS IN HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY... Drive along SR60 through Brandon, along Fowler Ave, along Dale Mabry, or along Bruce B Downs. Does it look to you like we've made it hard to do business in Hillsborough County????
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