Foes debate Hillsborough County mayor idea to full house By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer In print: Saturday, June 21, 2008 TAMPA — The opposing forces on whether to create an elected Hillsborough County mayor are honing their messages as the spotlight begins to shine their way. Former state Rep. Mary Figg and former Hillsborough Commissioner Jan Platt squared off Friday as pro and con. The event: a joint meeting of the Tiger Bay Club of Tampa and the League of Women Voters of Hillsborough County that drew a capacity crowd. Figg emphasized the challenges of "governing by committee" in a large urban county, arguing that Hillsborough is the only large county in Florida without a mayor. A second ballot measure, giving the office-holder veto power over commission decisions, would provide checks and balances. "The question is, does governing by committee work?" Figg asked the roughly 120 people in attendance. She answered herself a bit later: "If you think Hillsborough County's doing just fine ambling along, those two charter questions probably won't interest you." But if you don't … Platt, who served on the commission when the county's current governing structure was created in the early 1980s, argued that its creators sought to spread decision-making power in the wake of a corruption scandal. "It was our opinion that power should dispersed," Platt said, "To save us from ourselves, in other words." And by the way, she noted, "Everybody is not doing it," debunking Figg's assertion. She noted that Pinellas County has a professional county administrator rather than an elected mayor. Platt said the mayor's veto power will be tossed out in court if approved by voters in November. Courts, she said, have generally held that county commissions alone have power to set a budget for the county, and the mayor would be unable to overturn a spending vote. Who let housing office mess get so bad? In print: Monday, June 2, 2008 We are happy the allegations of insider-dealing and bid-rigging at Hillsborough County's affordable housing office have finally landed on the desk of Robert O'Neill, the acting U.S. attorney who has a history in Tampa of putting corrupt housing officials behind bars. The housing office has been a rats' nest for years, and criminal questions aside, the larger point to answer is why it took County Administrator Pat Bean so long to clean up an office vital to the health and welfare of the community. Bean gave O'Neill the findings of in-house investigations of the housing office, conducted by the county's professional standards bureau. They paint a picture of a working culture so incestuous it is hard to imagine how poor residents or taxpayers could have been worse served. Among the charges: Housing employees steered work and contracts to family and friends, put people who complained on enemies' lists and openly engaged in official misconduct, doing everything from destroying records and smearing colleagues to hiding outside employment. O'Neill should take the matter seriously. Federal prosecutors have jurisdiction because federal housing money is involved. The prosecutors' subpoena power could help do what county investigators could not — break through the wall of silence by uncooperative witnesses, several of whom quit their jobs while under investigation by the county. Whether he brings charges, the U.S. attorney could provide a fuller airing of this scandal. For her part, Bean needs to answer how the problems got to this point. County commissioners have tried to distance themselves by piling on the housing office administrator, but the records make clear the ethical conflicts and back-stabbing far pre-dated the hiring of Howie Carroll. Commissioners need to quit calling for his head and turn their attention to Bean. Her inaction allowed this crisis to fester; as a result, Bill Armstrong has been pulled away from the success he is having at animal control to manage somebody else's mess. That's sloppy administrating. It took the County Commission only months last year to gut wetlands protections rules after the developers started screaming. Yet it has allowed the housing program for the poor to be mismanaged for years. So much for this board's priorities. Hillsborough ballot proposal for county mayor under fire By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer In print: Monday, April 14, 2008 TAMPA — Community activist Gerald White stood before Hillsborough County commissioners last month literally begging them. Do something to fight a proposal on November's ballot that will create an elected mayor, White implored the board. If the measure passes, he said, African-Americans will see their voices weakened by a concentration of power in one elected official. "I am afraid and I'm scared that black people will be hurt by a county mayor taking effect," White said. "We will lose political power." White's concern has risen as criticism No. 1 so far as the fledgling mayoral effort gets organized. It promises to be one of the main continuing points of debate in coming months. Critics say an elected mayor will wield most of the political might in Hillsborough County in the future. And Hillsborough voters have little history of electing blacks in countywide elections — none in at-large commission races, for instance. As importantly, they argue that the mayor, particularly one with veto power over commission decisions, would eclipse that board. That includes the District 3 seat, which represents much of central and east Tampa and has produced black commissioners. "That particular commissioner will have less power if a county mayor is enacted," said Curtis Stokes, president of the Hillsborough branch of the NAACP, which is opposing the measure. A group called Taking Back Hillsborough County is seeking voter approval to replace the county's appointed county administrator with an elected, nonpartisan mayor. A second ballot question asks whether the mayor should be able to veto commission decisions. A veto could be overridden. Group organizer Mary Ann Stiles describes the minority voice issue as a smokescreen. She says Hillsborough residents would simply get one more person to elect, someone accountable to them, not commissioners. A mayor would be hard-pressed to ignore any bloc of voters and expect to get elected, she argues. While the track record is limited, blacks have won countywide political seats, she said. Hispanics have fared better. "And there certainly hasn't been an African-American appointed to the county administrator, has there?" Stiles said. No there has not, though commissioners did appoint Renee Lee, who is black, as their county attorney in 2004. On Wednesday, Lee will seek to grant White's request. She will present commissioners with a draft letter to the U.S. Justice Department asking it to review the ballot initiative. Commission Chairman Ken Hagan will be asked to sign it. Hillsborough is one of five counties in Florida that face Justice Department supervision of how it conducts elections under the Voting Rights Act, due to past discriminatory practices. The Justice Department must approve changes to the way Hillsborough carries out elections. However, the Justice Department has said it only reviews changes proposed by government in advance of elections. It won't examine a citizen-driven initiative unless it passes, before it is implemented. Commissioner Jim Norman, who has pressed the issue on White's behalf, says it should be resolved before the public votes. And Lee's proposed letter requests just that from Justice. "We were known as sort of a racist kind of county," Norman said. "If that's going to be the issue, we should get it out of the way. I don't want us to have that tag on us." Popular perception holds that Hillsborough County is under Justice supervision due to discrimination against blacks. Actually, Hillsborough was one of several hundred jurisdictions brought under Justice review in the 1970s for possible discrimination against Hispanics. The Justice Department held that Hillsborough failed to provide Spanish language ballots and voter information, though at least 5 percent of voters are Hispanic. Once under supervision, the Justice Department reviews voting changes for how they affect all minorities. It shouldn't matter one way or another, say supporters of the mayoral initiative, including some black civic activists. "I'm sensitive to the concerns and remarks from the minority community," said Eric Brown, who owns the information technology firm ROI Consulting. "If you look at how the county mayor is going to be structured, in terms of county commissioners, that's not going to change. You're still going to have representation from the minority community." He argues that few blacks have run for countywide races. And he argues that the success of Barack Obama's Democratic presidential campaign shows times are changing. That's a theme tapped by retired banker Bob Samuels. "We all understand the unfairness of what used to be," he said. "But we can't keep falling back on that." Hillsborough voter demographics White 69 percent Black 14 percent Hispanic 11 percent Unknown 4 percent Asian or Pacific Island 2 percent Other 1 percent Source: Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections

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Amendments would give Hillsborough a mayor, change how it's run.

By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer
Published March 2, 2008

TAMPA - The mayor of Tampa leads a city of 330,000 strong that is the region's economic engine, home to its major ports, sea and air. Her name is Pam Iorio. Maybe you've heard of her.

St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker represents nearly 250,000 people, oversees a $680-million budget and is credited with helping spur the rebirth of his city's downtown. He's pals with Gov. Charlie Crist.

A group of civic leaders is seeking to create a new mayoral job to shepherd a much bigger swath of turf than both cities combined. They want to have an elected, nonpartisan mayor for Hillsborough County.

A supportive vote by the public in November could dramatically reshape the political landscape in Hillsborough, and across the region.

"I think it's a huge deal," said Scott Paine, an associate professor of government and communications at the University of Tampa. "In a system that doesn't currently have a strong elected executive, you are going to introduce a strong elected executive."

That executive will be in charge, at least on paper, of the region's largest local government by far, not including the school district. The person will represent nearly 1.2-million people over 1,000 square miles, from the West Shore business district to the tomato fields of Wimauma.

The person who wins the job will craft a budget that currently consumes $4-billion in taxpayer dollars a year on everything from garbage pickup to road building, and pays a work force of 10,000 people.

And he or she will do so for a part of Florida that is growing quickly.

Given the stakes, a fierce battle will play out in the coming months between proponents of the measure and defenders of the status quo. Advocates on both sides already are taking up positions.

Backers of the measure say Hillsborough has reached a point in its growth that it needs a person, accountable to the people, to chart a course for the future. The elected mayor would replace the county administrator, who is appointed and fired by the county's seven elected commissioners, who often have conflicting aims.

Commissioners would still set policy meant to guide the mayor, and would have to approve the budget. But the mayor would have veto power over their decisions, assuming voters approve a companion ballot measure.

Commissioners would be able to override a veto.

"This is about checks and balances," said Mary Ann Stiles, who leads the group Taking Back Hillsborough County Political Committee Inc., which she formed to push the initiative. "It's about having a strong elected person at the other side of the table who can say no, and who can be a leader."

She describes an elected mayor as being the antidote to a commission that fails to address major issues facing the county and busies itself picking fights with other governments.

A vote of approval would change parts of the Hillsborough County charter, it's constitution of sorts. It would be the first major rewrite of the charter since it was created by voters 25 years ago in reaction to a vote-buying scandal that saw three commissioners arrested.

Predictably, opponents include members of the County Commission that could see its power diminish. They have voted to oppose the mayor and veto measures, though it's not clear yet what form their opposition will take.

Despite the board's media image, commissioners say Hillsborough County residents like their government. Commissioners say that has been proven on citizen satisfaction surveys that give county government high marks.

"They must be espousing what the people believe, otherwise how would they be getting elected?" said County Administrator Pat Bean, who would lose her job if the ballot questions pass. Commissioners have asked her to "educate" the public on the proposal.

Other forces are joining county officials, from a long-serving former commissioner to minority groups and advocates of the council-manager form of government that exists in Hillsborough today.

They worry that minority voices will be weakened, with county voters having almost no record of electing African-Americans in countywide political races. And the proposal could face legal challenges on those grounds.

More generally, opponents fear a general concentration of power that shuts off access to all but the wealthy, leading to cronyism and corruption.

"Why interject politics and popularity into something that ought to be skill-based?" asks Beth Rawlins, referring to the task of running the day-to-day operation - the appointed administrator's job. Rawlins, a Pinellas public affairs consultant, has worked with groups opposed to mayoral proposals in other Florida communities.

While proponents promote having a mayor accountable to voters, Rawlins notes that accountability comes only every four years, with plenty of time between then to do real damage. An appointed county manager can be fired at any time.

Former Commissioner Jan Platt, perhaps the most popular speaker on the antimayor circuit so far, helped write the current charter.

She said a county-mayor proposal was discussed then but was passed over in favor of a system that spreads power rather than concentrates it.

They opted instead for a system with three commissioners elected by all the county's voters, and four chosen in district elections. This gives every voter a voice in picking four of the seven board members.

Platt argues that the proposed change has problems that even mayoral advocates should fear. She says the ballot language has a litany of flaws that may undermine the mayor's ability to set an agenda.

In general, she says, it leaves key decisions, including the mayor's salary, in the hands of commissioners and other elected county officials. The mayor won't have any control over spending by the sheriff, whose office eats up more than one-third of county operating costs.

"There's going to be some expectation out there that the person has some power, when they don't have any," Platt said.

And so the battle begins.

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Mayor petition count reviewed

Opponents of an elected county mayor question the validity of the supervisor's count.

By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer
Published February 27, 2008

TAMPA - Some opponents of establishing an elected Hillsborough County mayor are questioning the validity of petitions gathered to put the measure on the ballot.

They're especially concerned with Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson's recordkeeping of the mayoral petitions.

-Boxes labeled as holding 28,000 petition forms in support of placing the mayoral question on the November ballot contained 2,500 forms in support of a separate question about whether the mayor would have veto power. Did one set of forms get counted toward the other?

-Within those boxes were dozens of petition forms listed as rejected for a variety of reasons. Some were duplicates. Others came from ineligible voters.

-Several petition forms were incomplete. In most cases, that meant they failed to include a second page that had to be signed before it was accepted.

"The certified petitions from that petition drive should have been pristine," said Beth Rawlins, a public affairs consultant. "And it's chaos."

Rawlins has led other fights around the state against proposals to replace appointed professional administrators with elected mayors. She was joined by others, including Hillsborough political consultant Louis Betz, in reviewing the petitions Monday.

Initially, the group set out to review how many Spanish-language petitions were submitted. The goal was to see if that would show evidence that Hispanic voters were being disenfranchised.

They found only six Spanish-language petition forms by the time they had nearly finished looking through boxes.

But at least as disturbing, said Rawlins and her cohorts, was the seeming mixing of petition forms. It makes a meaningful analysis nearly impossible, they said.

"It kills me to find boxes that are supposed to have one thing and have something else," said Dani Dahlberg, a colleague of Rawlins'. "We don't know what we've found, but it's very clearly not an easily auditable trail."

Johnson expressed confidence that all of the petition forms were counted accurately, then double counted and recorded. He said he could check any form against the computer record of how they were counted, if a question arises.

"The work on the petitions was done meticulously," Johnson said. "What's in the system, the way we've recorded them, is the official record. If some were put back in boxes that were labeled other than that, it does not affect the disposition."

He said his office will be happy to look into questions about individual petition forms.

Mary Ann Stiles, who leads the group Taking Back Hillsborough County Political Committee Inc., which collected the signatures, said any questions about petition forms are Johnson's problem at this point. She has raised concerns of her own about whether Johnson's office correctly counted petitions, delaying when she could get the issues on the ballot.

She said petition gatherers had Spanish-language forms and that the small number submitted doesn't mean anything anyway. Many Hispanic voters likely signed English language forms, she said.

"I can't answer for the supervisor and what he does," Stiles said. "I would not surprised if they're all confused."

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There is a malaise in Hillsborough County, and it comes from poor leadership. On issue after issue this year, the County Commission has seemed almost paralyzed by the challenge of managing the fourth-largest county in the fourth-largest state. Members do not bring the right skill sets to the table, the policymaking process is closed and the commission resists looking for solutions that would stretch beyond the next election or the county line.

Last week's decision by commissioners to scuttle an earlier attempt to kill local rules protecting wetlands symbolized how they wing it on major policy decisions. Four of the seven members - Brian Blair, Jim Norman, Kevin White and Ken Hagan - reversed their votes in the face of heavy criticism. But political expediency routinely is the driving force for the commission instead of any long-term vision.

Pick any major issue: transportation, budget priorities, economic development, the environment. Rather than connect the dots, and marry, for example, growth with environmental policy, the commission treats these matters piecemeal. That invariably ensures that one step forward results in two steps back. A transportation plan Hagan conceived and the board approved this month will worsen sprawl in the very suburbs already crawling with traffic, and add stress to the environment in a county struggling to generate new water supplies.

Commissioners are caught up in their own pet projects or political frustrations, and they lose sight of the big picture because no one on the board or among the senior staff can articulate a vision. Hagan, who wants Pasco residents to pay for their impact on Hillsborough roads, floated an idea last week to put a toll booth on the county line. This is the commissioner who sits on a new regional transportation cooperative. Members talk up sports as a way to fill hotel rooms but then balk at repairing the convention center, Tampa's biggest hotel draw. Commissioner Mark Sharpe has had to beg his colleagues to invest in mass transit and help diversify the economy, even as road funds dwindle and incomes suffer in service-sector jobs. The public, seeing this disconnect, must wonder: Is anyone in charge?

The board's priorities are small potatoes. Sports, toll booths, nickel-and-diming the infrastructure - these are not the strategies for communities moving forward. This lack of vision is one reason why activists succeeded in putting a county mayor on the 2008 ballot. The public sees the board lacking not only leadership, but competence. It sees the administration as having settled into the role of an enabler. The wetlands debacle didn't help and illustrated once again that commissioners have no guiding principles beyond self-survival. A county of 1.2-million residents deserves better.