the pit and the pendulum
tommyFormer Tampa Mayor William Poe fought hard against using the Community Investment Tax to build a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He wrote an editorial for the Tampa Bay Business Journal in August 1996:
In my opinion, taxpayers could ultimately pay $400 million to $500 million over 30 years to enrich the Bucs organization.
He didn’t think it was right, and made a lot of noise to try (unsuccessfully) to stop it.
Now, the Florida Department of Financial Services says he was much quieter in diverting millions from his insurance companies, which eventually caused Florida homeowners and auto insurance customers to pay millions of dollars more to bail out the problems.
Former Tampa Mayor Bill Poe Sr. and 19 others, including his wife and five children, have been sued by Florida regulators for engaging in what the state alleges was an elaborate scheme to divert more than $140-million from three property insurance companies even as the companies hurtled toward bankruptcy.
The William F. Poe Garage between Curtis Hixon Park and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center is named after Tampa’s 53rd Mayor “Poe cracked down on the growing number of massage parlors, prostitution and street people”), as is the courtyard of One Tampa City Center, dedicated in May 2005.
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April 4th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
This doesn’t sound like the Bill Poe I know. I hope when the truth is exposed and he is exonerated, the papers will give it the same hype. And by the way, shame on Tampans not backing him against the carpetbagging Glazers.
April 5th, 2008 at 10:10 am
It ain’t Bill Poe, I bet it’s one of his underlings at the company. Same thing with WellCare, somebody not named Patel was behind all that. The rug is up and the broom is out, now let’s see who comes out dusty!
April 5th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
or maybe, just maybe, Bill Poe and Patel aren’t the people that they have ben made out to be in the media int he past?