Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

I’m sure you’ve already heard that your Hillsborough County BOCC voted 5-2 to rename the county’s Moral Courage Award after long-time local activist and money man Ralph Hughes.

According to articles in both the Tribune and the Times, only one person showed up to support the renaming of the award.  Neither paper tells us how many people were opposed, but the Trib quotes three of them, and the Times talked to three others.  But even in the case of six (or more) to one against them, your Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners showed that they are going to do just what THEY want to do.

To be sure, this is not the greatest threat to our quality of life.  And in a county of 1,000,000 people, only a handful of citizens cared enough either way to show up.  But still, when there is no other gauge, shouldn’t those citizens who took time out of their busy schedules be given due consideration?

Not according to these “leaders.”

Maybe they got thousands of emails in support of the award. But most likely commissioners just heard the echoes of years of campaign contributions.

Sure wish there was something we could do about that.

Pasco Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Tallie Gainer III for check fraud.  He didn’t do it.  The real criminal used Gainer’s name, but left his own thumbprint on the bad check.

Eight months passed before the Pasco Sheriff’s Office decided to compare the thumbprint to Gainer’s.

EIGHT freakin’ MONTHS.

In the meantime, Gainer and his wife missed work to attend court. He lost his deposit on a real estate deal. His savings dried up. And he lost his chance to bid on a laundromat.

So he’s rightly suing the Sheriff.  And your tax money will pay.

Sure wish there was something we could do about that.

As far as local elections go, we complain that the local media don’t give us the coverage we want.  Of course, the local parties themselves are not all that forthcoming with online information.  For as much “communicating” they claim to want to do, local party websites sure are bare:

The Hillsborough County Republican Party website has only links to each Republican in the local, state, and federal elections.

The Hillsborough County Democratic Party website gives a little more information on each of the Democratic candidates, but here in mid-September, still has primary elections on their mind.

Ever wanted to find the Pinellas County Democrats?  There they are, just a click away.  They have photos of the national, state and local democratic candidates, and links to their websites, and not much else.

Of course, then we have the one that makes those above look like they are robust.  The Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee website doesn’t even tell us who is running for the local offices.

Excerpt from Agenda for 9/17 Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners’ Meeting (page 14):

Commissioner Norman

[Item #] F-2:  Give authority to County Administrator to ask the Hughes family for permission to name the Moral Courage Award after Mr. Ralph Hughes and request a family member to participate in all future presentations.

Agenda Backup:

“Prior to meeting each commissioner was issued a DVD giving a few examples of Mr. Hughes’ twenty five years of thorough presentations. Mr. Hughes was an example of courage, hard work and dedication for our community.”

This will get local liberals’ knickers in a twist.

When I was in high school, my friends and I walked about a mile from my home to the bus stop.  That was from 1982 to ‘85.  It was dark, and seemed like a long walk to us, but three to five of us walked together, and got used to it.  At the end of that twenty minute walk, we were picked up last, and from there it was a 5 minute bus ride to school.

But apparently, some Robinson High School kids on Davis Islands have to walk more than 2 miles, cross busy streets, and the Davis Islands bridge to get to the bus stop at Wilson Middle School.  Even googlemaps says “Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.”  From Wilson Middle, the bus ride to Robinson is almost seven miles. 

Of course, Plant High (watch volume) is the Davis Islands neighborhood school, but these parents have chosen to send their kids to Robinson High School’s International Baccalaureate program.

I’ve mentioned before that school choice is a great idea, but the board should not be responsible for getting those kids to schools outside their neighborhood.

Alas, the Hillsborough County School Board disagrees, and caters to parents who want it all, and want you to pay for it.  So, we have these bus problems.  Here is what we’ve noticed thus far:

• August 2005:  Transportation for school choice is too generous.
• September 2005:  There is a shortage of school bus drivers, because they have to deal with wild children raised by wolves.
• July 2006:  There is a severe shortage of school bus drivers, because administrators also treat them like crap.
• January 2007:  School bus troubles continue even after hiring a consultant to point out inefficiencies.
• October 2007:  Nine months later, they have spent over $340,000 on consultants. And after spending all that money, we still have kids showing up late to school.
• August 2008:  School district redesigned all bus routes, and let the parents know at the last possible second, sending the entire school transportation into a spiraling quagmire.
• August 2008:  10 year old killed - bus stop close to busy road.
• August 2008:  School Bus admin Jack Davis retires for “health” reasons.  Of course, the guy was also the chief information and technology officer, supervising communications, assessment and accountability, information services, staff development, supplier diversity, and customer service and support.  Doing all that PLUS transportation would make me sick and tired, too.
• September 2008:  Parents are still waiting for return calls and bus stop changes, but the number of callers was down to 600 on Monday, said Deputy Superintendent Ken Otero.
• September 2008:  School board contemplates fee-based busing.

For three years (at least), school transportation has been a mess, and your School District of Hillsborough County has not yet solved the problems.

Sure wish there was something we could do about it.

We recently mentioned the low voter turnout for the primaries in Pinellas and Hillsborough, and suggested that you just don’t care about picking a leader.  But was that a fair statement?

Creative Loafing’s Wayne Garcia weighed in on the sorry turnout for voting in the primaries, calling it “crappy.”  He says the “circumstances” include (my highlights):

few good choices on the ballot in either county. And no exciting races. And little to no television coverage of the campaigns. And a presidential battle that is sucking all of the oxygen out of the political-attention room.

Comments you left here on Sticks of Fire support those conclusions:

• “nothing that [I] cared about…”
• “no one candidate seemed any better… than any other…”
• “school board and circuit court judges [don't] drum up any attention.  Voters didn’t know who they were.”
• “nothing but judges and school board seats…”
• “they pimp the federal election for 3 years and the local election for 1 day…”

So basically, voter turnout was crappy because getting involved is a big pain in the ass.

Nothing about electing a leader is thrilling.  But it is important.  These people we are electing are in charge of the day-to-day decisions surrounding your home, your job (assuming a brick & mortar operation), the bars and restaurants you frequent, and retail stores where you buy supplies, and more.  In addition, they have a direct effect on the parks  you use, the roads you drive, safety in your neighborhood, and on and on and on.

Even the School Board affects each of us, from the number of busses that are on the road to the amount of your tax money being spent.  Not to mention quality of education given your employees, coworkers, friends, business partners, and the young girl taking your order at McDonald’s.

Of course this stuff is not very glamorous or exciting.  But neither is shopping for a mortgage, or insurance, or a mechanic.  Neither is driving during rush hour.  Neither is going through the honey-do list.  Neither is preparing for a hurricane.  Yet those things are important enough that you should spend more time on it than you would like.  If you did a half-ass job at any of them, your quality of life will decline.  It’s called paying the rent.

So what if you did care?  If everyone were concerned with electing real leaders, I believe you would see a difference in the above-mentioned “circumstances.”

• More qualified people would enter races if they were respected for doing so, giving you better choices.
• Better choices would lead to spirited discussions about their differences, making it a BIT more exciting.
• Local Newspapers and TV would be forced to actually cover the races.
• Leading to (hopefully) a bit less coverage of the presidential race.

So, what can we do to get more folks to pay better attention?  What can I do to convince you to become involved?  Seriously, I want ideas.

As an elected official, the Supervisor of Elections administers all elections in your county, conducts voter registration and issues voter information cards, updates voter registration lists and provides for absentee registration and voting. The Supervisor of Elections is also responsible for qualifying candidates for county office and receiving candidate campaign finance reports and financial disclosure reports. Other duties and responsibilities include maintaining election equipment, hiring and training poll workers, renting and equipping polling places, and providing information and statistics on voter registration, voting and elections.

In the Pinellas County race for Supervisor of Elections, Republican incumbent Deborah Clark (couldn’t find a website) is being challenged by Democrat Jack Killingsworth.

Hillsborough County’s race for SOE is between Democrat Phyllis Busansky and incumbent Republican Buddy Johnson (you can peruse Buddy’s one page website in about 3 seconds, but at least he has one).

Other related websites:

• State of Florida Division of Elections
• Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections
• Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections

First off, what does a Property Appraiser do?

The Hillsborough County Property Appraiser is an elected official charged with the duty and responsibility to appraise all of the property in the County. This includes real estate and tangible personal property (the equipment, machinery and fixtures) of businesses. The Property Appraiser prepares the tax roll, but does not collect taxes or determine tax rates.

The Property Appraiser is required by law to assess all property within the county each January 1st. In Hillsborough County this means that the Property Appraiser determines the market value for hundreds of thousands of individual parcels, including residential, agricultural, multifamily, commercial, industrial, as well as thousands of personal property accounts.

In addition to appraising property, the Property Appraiser must administer homestead exemptions, agricultural classification, determine the eligibility of certain religious, charitable, educational and municipal property for tax exemption, as well as administer widow, widower’s and disability exemptions. The Property Appraiser also maintains current and up to date legal descriptions and ownership tax maps of all the real property in Hillsborough County.

If you are good at math and setting a fair price for property, you could be qualified.  But you didn’t run, so here are the candidates:

In Hillsborough County, Democrat Ken Ayers is taking on incumbent Republican Rob Turner.  I couldn’t find websites for either candidate, so if you know where they are, leave ‘em in the comments.  Here’s the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser website.

Current Pinellas Property Appraiser Jim Smith is not running, so his senior manager, Republican Pam Dubov thinks you should vote Pam for Pinellas.com, while Ben Friedlander wants you to Choose Ben.com.  For good measure, we add the Pinellas County Property Appraiser website.

About the Hillsborough County Commission, and how to find your district.

The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners is made up of 7 officials. The first four each represent a different district within Hillsborough County. Depending on where you live, you could expect to speak to (and therefore vote for) any one of 4 different commissioners. Check the map to see if you live in District 1, 2, 3, or 4. In addition, you have three other commissioners that purport to represent the entire county.

Elections for Districts 1, 3, 5, and 7 will be held in 2010.  Districts 2, 4, and 6 are on the ballot this November.  Here are the candidates’ websites, and links to a map of each district.

District 2 includes the northern portion of the county, including New Tampa.  Incumbent Republican Ken Hagan is up against Harold “Bud” Gleason - it is suspected that this write-in candidate was simply there to keep Democrats from voting in the Republican Primary.  In any case, I couldn’t find any “Elect Bud” websites, although there is a myspace group.

District 4 is that “South County” you’ve heard so much about. It’s everything east of 39 and south of Hwy 60.  Al Higgonbotham is the Republican incumbent, elected in 2006, and Pete Gifford (no party affiliation) is his opponent.

Brian Blair is the Republican incumbent for countywide District 6, and will be faced by Democrat challenger Kevin Beckner.