The Trib’s Tom Holan has an excellent story covering the latest attempt by the Hillsborough County Commission to suppress the county mayor idea. The commission (minus Kathy Castor, who supports putting the plan to a vote) passed two resolutions in an attempt to hinder support.
The first vote demands a study on the issue of a County Mayor. This vote clarifies an earlier directive, and we already know how this will come out. This “study” will tell us how bad, bad, bad this county mayor idea is. That, of course, will give the BOCC ammunition to kill the idea. Frankly, I don’t care what Pat Bean decides I just hope she provides a fair and accurate report. Changes to the county charter can be expensive mistakes I suppose.
But just in case us stupid voters (more on that in a second) don’t understand that part, the second vote Wednesday lays the groundwork to make it much more difficult to pass if it does get on the ballot.
The BOCC’s “plan b” explores requiring a 65% supermajority to pass any changes to the charter. In theory, I don’t really have a problem with that either. Major changes in the way government operates are often required to pass a more stringent electoral standard than everyday legislative issues (see what it takes to amend the US Constitution for the most extreme example).
The part that gets my goat has more to do with the comments of some commission members:
“You know and I know people push a button and they don’t know what they’re voting for,” [Commissioner Tom] Scott said.
Other commissioners pointed to state constitutional referendums on class size and bullet trains as evidence.
(emphasis mine)
This is the opinion of those that are supposed to represent us? If we are that stupid, maybe the commission should just decide everything. You wonder why voter turnout is so low? Not only do voters feel their vote doesn’t count, they are told they don’t know what they are doing. I am not surprised that many voters see it as a useless bother to go to the polls.
To be sure, voters can be shortsighted, uneducated, small minded ingrates. We’ve said so before. But voters get to be all those things if they want. Our elected officials are expected to be better than that. They should be spending their time educating the voters about this issue rather than trying to stop the voters from even hearing about it.
Oh, and this:
Commissioner Ken Hagan said the board’s actions Wednesday are “doing nothing more than legitimizing a movement the average citizen could care less about.”
Hey Kenny – Judging from the media coverage and the discussion here in the Sticks and other forums, it sounds like an issue many people are interested in. You might want to stop whining for a second and consider why so many people feel it is necessary to circumvent the Commission in the first place.
But then again, we voted all these guys in.
Boy, are we stupid.
Meredith
4 years ago
“But then again, we voted all these guys in.”
Hmmmm…can we be so sure of that?
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_robert_c_060315_trust_us.htm
Fred
4 years ago
Yeah, like voting for this idiot:
“You know and I know people push a button and they don’t know what they’re voting for,†[Commissioner Tom] Scott said
tom stovall
4 years ago
Why isn’t tampa bay a single city including both hillsborough and pinellas counties?
editengine
4 years ago
oh man that is going to start a riot tom
John
4 years ago
long story Tom and has ties to ego and deceit and visions of grandeur…
It’s sorta like Hmmlet without the incest — I think…?
Editengine
4 years ago
INCEST! I have been trying to explain the existence of Ronda Storms for so long I never considered it!
Oh from the point of view of somebody that was born and raised here I can tell you that until recently Tampa and St Pete were seen as being worlds apart. Initially it was a long distance call between the cities and AT&T fought tooth and nail to keep it that way. Also they are in seperate counties so I am not sure if they can be a single municipality. Anyone?
Forest Hills Larry
4 years ago
(I know this is long, but try this…)
I believe there should be a third choice for voters come this November.
Observe: Jacksonville/Duval County, who’s millage rate of just over 18.5 for ALL county services, including schools and their bonds, libraries, mass transit, air and sea ports, water management authority, ad nauseam.
There, cheaper tax rates apply in all but one of four small municipalities and there is no “Ruskin-like” threat to secede from the county of Duval.
It’s called “a consolidated government” and it doesn’t exist anywhere else in Florida.
Yes, there should be a third option for Hillsborough County voters come this November.
Imagine, for a moment, if you can, one government…
Imagine: One government for all the county and the city. Imagine: One government – for all county and city residents. Imagine: One Mayor – with one budget. Imagine: One board of “district” representatives – instead of two constantly bickering over who-pays-for-what and what-benefits-whom. Imagine: One police force and one fire department.
Imagine: Lower taxes.
Go ahead, imagine that.
I believe there should be even a third proposal to consider this November’s ballot.
I realize nobody in Tampa wants to live in Jacksonville, including me. I know – I’ve lived there. We shouldn’t have to move to Jacksonville to enjoy better government services for less taxes. We just have to swallow our pride, and vote most of our current bunch of “spineless politicians” out of office (they are our biggest impediment to reforming our local government). And then, simply adopt a simpler, smaller, and cheaper alternative to our current governments “in-action” – in spite of all the cry-baby incumbents and bureaucrats warning us of doom and gloom and “the end is near!” It certainly would be — for them.
Imagine: Calling a government office and NOT being told, “You live in the City? Call them.” Imagine: NOT being told, “Sorry your house burned down, but you live in the county.” Imagine not driving past the county dump as you to drive to a downtown solid waste transfer station. Imagine residents paying equally fair shares for solid waste, water and sewer, stormwater, and street lighting. Imagine having just one district-elected representative, with no excuses about “the other local government.” Imagine just one zoning code, one set of hearing masters, and just one set of local codes and statutes. Too hard to accomplish? That is what they want us to believe.
At least one commissioner, Tom Scott, had the right idea, even if it was for all the wrong reasons.
There should be at least one more proposal on the ballot this November:
One government.
Editengine
4 years ago
good idea but never gonna happen.
Temple Terrace and Plant City would oppose it for one thing, as they would see an implied threat to their own sovereignty. Maybe not a realistic threat but the other small town within Duval county feared the same thing. Also unlike Duval county both the county and city maintain large bases of employees who would be adversly affected by a merge that would presumably eliminate duplicate job functions. I believe, from what I have read, that Duval county was much smaller when they began the process of merging governments in the 60’s which would have made the whole idea easier. But hey, don’t take my word for it, start a petition and lets get the ball a rollin’
John
4 years ago
If Tampa was alone in the county or had Brandon as part of a succeeding county seperate from Hillsborough, I could see the joint government thing.
You can’t even get Pinellas County governments to agree to something like this though. Everyone wants everything and expects it sperately. The county government doesn’t want or endorse things that certain cities do and vice versa. It’s a mini war from battle to battle in Pinellas but Apathy usually wins out.
The third choice will never happen.
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » feeling mayoral are we?
4 years ago
[...] The Tribune’s Mark Holan has a good human interest story out today profiling Mary Ann Stiles, proponent of the heavily discussed County Mayor petition, and her local lobbying group Taking Back Hillsborough County. The Times also dug into the details of the effort to get this issue on the ballot. Both stories include some comments from Ronda Storms which Stiles views as personal attacks — from the newspapers, not from Storms: “I thought that I would get a more formidable opponent, and I thought that the discussion would be at a higher level of critical thinking skills,” Storms said [...]
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » Blog Archive » commissioners play when we step away
2 years ago
[...] can believe that Jim Norman wants the county mayor issue to disappear too, but Norman is not an idiot. He told Blair to delay the motion until a later meeting, because [...]
Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog » Blog Archive » you make your own bed
2 years ago
[...] “You know and I know people push a button and they don’t know what they’re voting for.” – ex…. [...]