i’m tired of it, are you?
tommySo, you opened Tuesday’s Tribune, and glanced at the Op/Ed page. The headline catches your eye: County Kills Plan To Phase Growth Without Hearing From Public. “Now what?” you think to yourself, as you begin to read the first bits:
Hillsborough County commissioners, in a surprise vote at a workshop last week, killed a proposal to encourage higher density growth in selected parts of the unincorporated county.
Because of last week’s action, the public will get no chance to tell commissioners what they think of a proposal to concentrate high-density growth on roads and corridors suitable for mass transit.
“Damn County,” you mutter to yourself. “Always ignoring the people,” you think, outraged. As you begin to flip to the sports page.
But wait a second! On the most recent poll here at Sticks of Fire, 60% of those who voted claimed that traffic/transportation was the NUMBER ONE priority. 75% chose that or “growth” or “development.” But that’s just clicking a stupid poll. Takes two seconds. How many of you really care?
Frankly, I’ve had enough. If this concerns you in the least, it is time for you to act. If you are too busy, I’ll give you the nutshell version of an email written by local resident Mariella Smith:
For three years, citizens have been participating in meetings with planners… [Those] County planners worked hard to propose the changes the citizens asked for: smart growth policies… ; walkable, bikeable neighborhoods — and more.
… these proposals were supposed to be decided by our county commission at a public hearing on April 19… In an appallingly arrogant move, the commissioners ripped out whole chapters from the citizens’ 3-year planning project, at a [workshop] with no public notice and no public comment, weeks before the [scheduled] public hearing.
… A hasty amendment snatched our community plans from the fire, [but] the commissioners voted 5-2 to eliminate everything new, allowing developers to continue with the same old sprawl… (Commissioners Sharpe and Ferlita voted against this high-handed tyranny.)
Sensing a huge public turnout at the public hearing, developers preferred to speak to the County Commissioners at a mid-afternoon workshop, where working citizens could not attend. Standard practice is that commissioners take public comment — and action — only at public hearings, not workshops… This is the second time in weeks the commissioners have misused a “workshop” to conduct business that is customarily reserved for public hearings. Some citizens… begged our commissioners to wait for the public hearing to listen to both sides, but were ignored… The workshop was packed with the most influential members of the local development lobby knowing their commissioners would bend the rules for them — and they were right.
We must remind our commissioners that they work for all the voters, not just the developers. Speak up. Write your commissioners or call them. They can only ignore us if we let them.
Enough for you yet? Maybe you still are not sure. Read more background:
- March 14 (day of workshop) Tribune editorial, begging commissioners to listen to all citizens on this specific matter.
- Hillsborough County description of a BOCC Workshop (emphasis added):
Informal, public discussions among the County Commissioners may include limited public comments and allow the BOCC to throughly explore specific topics. No actions are taken during workshops.
- txt file caption of the workshop where the motion was made, seconded and voted upon. Be careful, most commissions played as if they don’t understand what’s going on, so this reads like a 3 stooges script.
- The planning commission, the plan for Hillsborough County, the various amendments, and the amendment that was voted on at the workshop.
- Entire email from Mariella Smith.
- Tuesday’s Tribune editorial complaining that the commissioners took us back to square one.
That should be enough.
Again, if you are tired of how YOUR LEADERS treat you as a citizen, it’s time to let them know.
FIRST: I encourage you to write your commissioners right now. Don’t know what to say? Here is the email I sent.
E-mail your County Commissioners:
- Jim Norman normanj@hillsboroughcounty.org
- Brian Blair blairb@hillsboroughcounty.org
- Mark Sharpe sharpem@hillsboroughcounty.org
- Rose Ferlita ferlitar@hillsboroughcounty.org
- Al Higgenbotham higginbothama@hillsboroughcounty.org
- Kevin White whitek@hillsboroughcounty.org
- Ken Hagan hagank@hillsboroughcounty.org
Or call them: 272-5660
Or mail them: P.O. Box 1110, Tampa, FL 33601
NEXT: Attend the public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan. If you’ve read the links, you are aware enough. Mark it in your calendars now. April 19, 6:00 p.m., 2nd floor, County Center, 601 E. Kennedy
We have to demand better growth management of our communities. But more than that, we MUST DEMAND THAT COMMISSIONERS LISTEN TO ALL CITIZENS.
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March 22nd, 2007 at 7:47 am
I’m also drafting a letter. Does anyone have access to the specific oath that Hillsborough County Commissioners give upon taking office?
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:03 am
The oath is
“I promise to love, honor and OBEY all developers and homebuilders to the best of my bank account’s ability”.
March 22nd, 2007 at 8:08 am
I appreciate your input as to what they’re saying in their minds, but I was looking more for the words actually spoken. Thanks
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 am
WP: Is this oath of office the one you mean?
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:50 am
I think I found the current BOCC Oath of Office in their transcripts: http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/htv/caption/scripts/ic061121.txt
>>DAVID GEE: OKAY.
PLEASE PLACE YOUR LEFT HAND ON THE BIBLE AND RAISE YOUR RIGHT HAND. REPEAT AFTER ME.
[OATH REPEATED BY COMMISSIONER]
I, ROSE V. FERLITA, DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR, THAT I WILL SUPPORT, PROTECT, AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE
UNITED STATES AND OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA AND THE HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY CHARTER, THAT I AM DULY QUALIFIED TO HOLD OFFICE UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE AND THAT I
WILL WELL AND FAITHFULLY PERFORM THE DUTIES OF COUNTY COMMISSIONER IN WHICH I AM NOW ABOUT TO ENTER, SO HELP ME GOD.
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:14 am
Thank you both. I’m thinking they forgot the “well and faithfully” part, but the oath is ambiguous enough that perhaps they were just doing well for and being faithful to the wrong folks.
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:29 am
Great Post Tommy — stir the community up for a noble cause of getting elected officials to actually SERVE the public.
Kudos to you.
Many of these seats will be up for election in 2008 and all of them will be targeted by a solid, electable, opposing candidate.
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:07 pm
First off, who do these commissioners represent?
Second, we voted for them in the belief that they would listen to our needs.
So whats that say about us voting for them in the next election if they do not care to listen to us?
Me thinks about running for County Commission next election.
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Typical political chutzpah. I wrote on a similar situation a couple of days ago.
Until we, the people, are sick and tired of being sick and tired, nothing will change.
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
It would be more honest of them if they just admitted up front that they plan to ignore citizens in any matter that conflicts with developers. I don’t know if any of their minions monitor the comments on Sticks, but how these people can face themselves in the mirror, I just do not know.
Thank you Tommy.
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Brandon Pride — Lest we forget, they had an election for county commission just last November and we voted in more-of-the-same.
It’s a hypocritical joke, really. Jim Norman and Brian Blair hate Tampa but love the coddling they get from Developers who have a chance to build in rural Hillsborough county with thanks to the growth of the city of Tampa as well as St. Pete and Clearwater (yeah, people commute from Hillsborough to Pinellas to work too).
March 22nd, 2007 at 3:50 pm
thanks for reminding me John. Just more of empty promises from empty hearted commissioners who say they care about constitutents like you and me. I take the bus everyday so I know what you mean by the bad transportation hartline system, and the financial cutbacks by the commissioners so they can have more money for themselves to play with at tax payers expense.
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:01 am
A big week for the TBBA:
“TWO MAJOR VICTORIES
The Penny for Pinellas was reauthorized, even in the face of strong opposition. Thanks to the foresight and hustle of Rod Fischer, a PAC was organized at the last minute to help promote the reauthorization of the 1 cent sales tax. Rod had previously positioned the TBBA to actively support and fund a campaign, should it become necessary. The efforts proved successful and the reauthorization of the tax was approved. Great work, Rod!!!
We were successful in turning back an aggressive and overly ambitious update to the Hillsborough Comprehensive Plan. Adoption of the Plan in the form proposed by the Planning Commission staff would have shut down the building industry and severely hampered any economic growth. Under the masterful direction and guidance of Judy James and Dan Molloy, the TBBA developed a strategy and lobbied heavily to convince the County Commission that many of the proposals were absurd and that more scrutiny was needed. The BOCC completely eliminated the “tier” approach to land use densities and deleted the “Livable Communities” section of the Plan. The balance of the Plan was referred to the County’s Planning and Growth Management (P&GM) Department for cost analysis and a condensing of the 1,500 page document. Special thanks to Board members who attended the workshops and many others who worked hard on research.
Clear victories in the world of governmental affairs do not happen often. Great work everyone!!”
This is fresh off their web site:
http://www.tbba.net/bagitBriefs/default.asp?pid=2
Who could brag about having “completely eliminated ” .. deleted the “Livable Communities”?
Sprawl wins again, in two counties.
$2 billion transfered from Pinellas taxpayers to these guys.
March 24th, 2007 at 4:59 am
This BOCC will be a nightmare for us unless we are very outspoken about what we want and will NOT tolerate (ie, this latest move).
March 24th, 2007 at 8:24 am
[...] also left a comment on the HCBOCC sneak-vote killing your wishes. Tom points out that the TBBA is positively bubbling that they were able to [...]
April 5th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Concerned citizens have to band together to remove these SOBs one at a time on election day. We can write to them and attend all the hearings but they do not represent our best interests. Hopefully we can replace enough of them before they turn all of tampa into a vast network of row x row cookie-cutter houses and apt bldgs with mega-traffic jams and no green space!!!
April 9th, 2007 at 9:00 am
[...] communities, etc.) created by citizens. That they killed it is not the outrageous part. But they killed it without any public input, which really irked me, and had developers all soiling themselves with [...]
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
[...] isn’t the first time these puppets have danced to the developers’ tune without listening to the public. We have to regain control of our [...]
June 22nd, 2007 at 5:26 pm
What a surprise,our BOCC doesn’t listen to us. Like it has been said, we need to be sick and tired of being sick and tired. Don’t just fume about it-at least not all day. Do like I did; slam down the newspaper in disgust, then start composing your letters to the commissioners letting them hear how you feel, and that you’ll vote them out. Then send letters to the Trib and the SP Times. Then, lets all go to the next meeting to voice our opposition in unison, and in person. Give these “Political Whores” nowhere to hide- they’ll have to do our bidding. Don’t just get depressed-get depressed but then act on it. Works for me.
June 27th, 2007 at 10:54 am
[...] Plan. Again. It feels like Groundhog Day all over again: the county asked for our input, tossed out our input, and now they’re asking for our input again. But look closer at who’s listening to us and [...]