Fix the Mess - Rescind Vote On Hagan's Retribution

We posted here that it appears there's deception and some incompetence regarding Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan's retribution motion to pursue those who filed ethics complaints against him. Hagan irresponsibly threw his controversial retribution item on the Consent Agenda and created this latest big mess at County Center.

We included an email from Tom Rask in our previous post. A response thread to Rask's initial email can be found here.

Mary Helen Ferris of the County Attorney's office responded to Rask stating

In response to your concerns, the agenda item approved by the Commission on November 15th only authorizes payment of legal fees. State law requires the County to pay for successful defense of charges against public officials, including ethics complaints. It was in the discretion of the Commission whether to include the claim for attorneys fees in the covered fees, and the Commission voted to include them. 

The matter itself is in Commissioner Hagan name alone. It is his and his lawyer s decision how to proceed with the case.

Ferris's response led Rask to respond back and point out the following:

When you say that "State law requires the County to pay for successful defense", presumably you are referring to FS 111.07. Said statute allows (but does not "require") your agency to "defend any civil action arising from a complaint etc. etc". There is no requirement, only authorization.You also say that such defense includes defense against ethics complaints. Quite the contrary, because an ethics complaint is NOT a "civil action". The Florida Commission of Ethics is under the Legislature, not the judiciary. See this Florida Attorney General Opinion (AGO), namely AGO 90-74, saying exactly what I'm telling you. It's an opinion that Hillsborough County itself sought in 1990. 

Unless that AGO has been superseded by a subsequent AGO or by court decisions, the county is definitely not "required" to pay to defend ethics complaints. 

Furthermore, citing from that same AGO:
If Hillsborough County makes a determination that acts alleged in an ethics complaint against an official or employee of the county arose from the officer's or employee's official duties and that a public purpose was being served at the time of such acts, the reimbursement of legal expenses for the officer or employee would appear to be authorized.
Note the "if, then" conditionality. If the county does X, then it may do Y.
In approving agenda item A-69, the BoCC made no such determination that the ethics complaint "arose from the officer's or employee's official duties AND that a public purpose was being served at the time of such acts."

In summary:
1. Mr. Hagan misrepresented his petition as being a future action when in fact he had already filed.
2. The commission has not made the required determination referred to in AGO 90-74
3. The County Attorney's office has failed to correctly state law to the commissioners, and likely did so before they voted.
4. The commissioners may have voted differently if they had known item 1, 2 and 3. 

The Eye received a copy of the Petition Hagan's attorney filed with the Ethics Commission to pursue reimbursement from one of the complainants, George Neimann.

Note the Petition was received by the Ethics Commission on Monday, November 13, 2017 - 2 days BEFORE the November 15, 2017 BOCC meeting where Hagan deceptively threw his retribution request onto the Consent Agenda. 

Hagan's lawyer had already submitted the Petition to the Ethics Commission the week before the BOCC meeting and before the commissioners ever voted.

Hagan filed Petition BEFORE BOCC meeting

Hagan failed to inform the commissioners publicly at the meeting when the agenda item was discussed that his attorney had already filed the petition. Hagan failed publicly to inform the commissioners he was asking the commissioners to approve something that he had already done. Every commissioner must answer if they knew the Petition had already been filed against George Neimann. The public deserves to know that answer from each of them.

In addition, what did the County Attorney know and when did he know it? 

This messy issue was brought up at the Wednesday, December 6 BOCC meeting during public comment from Tom Rask, Shirley Wood (one of the four complainants who filed an ethics complaint against Hagan) and from Yvette Neimann (George Neimann's wife). We captured their public comment from the county's online meeting transcript. The transcript and video can be found at HTV.

Rask's public comment reiterates the problems with Hagan's Agenda item A-69 vote that he included in his email back to Mary Helen Ferris. He asked the commissioners to bring the agenda item back so the commissioners, at the least, do things right and through proper procedure.

Shirley Wood and Yvette Neimann made impassioned pleas to the commissioners to rescind their previous vote. Shame on any commissioner who put the other complaininants under burdensome stress if Hagan is only targeting Neimann.

The county commissioners must take action to fix another smelly mess at County Center because proper procedure was not followed - again. 

The commissioners should rescind their previous vote. Even the Times wrote an editorial that Ken Hagan should drop effort to recover attorney’s fees in ethics complaint stating "Hagan’s strident position rings less of altruism than it does of bald-faced revenge." 

Because that is exactly what it is. Hagan's retribution makes him look small, vengeful and petty. What other commissioner wants to look like that? Why would any commissioner want to be tied to Hagan's deceit and vengefulness?

Apparently, Hagan wants to keep the Go Hillsborough crony debacle front and center. 

We will oblige. 

Go Hillsborough and the Commissioners "Bully" Pulpit

Go Hillsborough was on the agenda at Wednesday's BOCC meeting. The Eye was there.

An archived video of this meeting can be found at HTV. Click on Archived Meetings on the left then search for BOCC Regular Meeting and the date 10/7/2015. There are two links. Click the bottom link where the meeting starts.

Please watch the public comments and then move forward to about 1:13 where the Go Hillsborough agenda item discussion begins. Click the top link to where the meeting continues.

Watch and you can come to your own conclusions about some of the statements made by some of these elected officials.

After the meeting, a few who attended weighed in with some comments.
  

Some takeaways and commentary from the meeting:

The Director of Procurement Services told us that the term "Referendum" used in the work order handed to Parsons was a BENIGN word that staff used. 

According to Websters Dictionary, some definitions of benign are "harmless, gracious, favorable". Referendum, according to Websters is "an event in which people of a county, state, etc. VOTE for or against a specific issue". 

The term Referendum is NOT benign. It equates to an election and that is POLITICAL.

The Director of Procurement also stated because of the short time frame requested to get the work done in 6 months (by March 2015), the CCNA process was appropriate. That's ridiculous considering the reality of where were are today over a year later - we have a huge tax proposal and NO plan. Reality is we have a mess that happens when the county simply hands a million dollar blank check to Parsons with a scope of work titled "Hillsborough County Transportation Referendum Support".

The reality of where we are today is what happens when there is nothing documented - NO bid, NO RFP, NO requirements and NO adequate oversight and NO adequate project management. True project management understands that the requirements and expectations documented at the start of a project is most important. With no requirements, the taxpayers nor the commissioners can determine the success of spending $1.35 Million taxpayer dollars for an effort that has taken too long and cost too much.

Wednesday's meeting ironically started off with a commendation from Sandy Murman recognizing October as Bullying Prevention Month. Were some of the commissioners sleeping during the commendation and missed the message?

In addition, when public comment is announced, Chairwoman Murman tells the audience the comments may not be directed personally against a commissioner or staff member but rather directed at the ISSUES.

The commissioners hear that statement at every meeting and know the rules whether they were paying attention at the time or not.

Some Alynsky style PR tactics were used by some commissioners to make accusations about a "few" ideologues making " bogus claims of cronyism and impropriety." Apparently, the county was so concerned about those "bogus claims" that they asked the Sheriff's office to investigate. 

Some of those so-called "ideologues" were proposing a Plan B to the commissioners during public comment. The "ideologues" who spoke were dealing with the issues of Go Hillsborough and transportation not name calling.

Did a text message not get received in time to alter the commissioner's script he was reading? 

We note that finally some commissioners were wondering why the cost of Go Hillsborough was so high. However, they have no one to blame but themselves. The Eye's been asking that question since last September and could never get an answer from county staff or commissioners. Isn't providing oversight a basic responsibility of our county commissioners?

When the PLG/county commissioners voted last August to hire Parsons Brinckerhoff, not one county commissioner or elected official asked, in the Sunshine, how much the effort was going to cost. County Administrator Mike Merrill did not even bring it up and he's the budget guy. Merrill knows how to suddenly "find" money when needed so we assume the commissioners knew Merrill would "find" whatever monies were needed.  

Vote to spend gobs of money on "something" without knowing it's cost or asking specifically what work we as taxpayers were actually going to pay for. Horrible way to govern. 

Perhaps the commissioners already knew the cost and it was already baked in but did not want to talk about such a high cost last August. Did the county commissioners get the text message below, thanks to Noah Pransky's 10 Investigates reporting, sent from PR lobbyist Beth Leytham to County Administrator Mike Merrill on 8/19/2014?

The commissioners had other opportunities where they could have questioned the costs but did not. 

The commissioners voted in January to waive the Parsons work order limit of $500K and double the work order amount to almost a million dollars. That vote was rammed through on the Consent Agenda. The Consent Agenda enables the commissioners to approve a long list of items with a single vote. It also prevents any discussion about any single item. Commissioners can remove items from the Consent Agenda and move the item to the Regular Agenda for discussion. No commissioner asked for that item to be removed from the Consent Agenda for a discussion before voting. Another lost opportunity to inquire why a public engagement effort was costing taxpayers a million bucks.

In July the PLG, including all the county commissioners voted to hand the Parsons/Leytham team $350K more of our tax dollars. Again, the commissioners did not question the cost, even as this effort became a run away train wreck taking way too long and being way over budget.

If the commissioners cannot manage $1.35 million and they can not answer why Go Hillsborough campaign costs so much, who wants to give them BILLIONS more to spend?

So the question of the day is why did this effort cost taxpayers $1.35 Million? There's NO engineer of record named or real engineering work being done. Instead, there is hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign work enriching Beth Leytham, a politically well connected PR lobbyist with very close ties to Mayor Buckhorn and Commissioner Hagan. 

Who else did this contract enrich? The taxpayers deserve to know to whom and where every dime of the $1.35 million went. 

The Sheriff needs to follow the money trail as well as the process trail because the Parsons contract is risky business to taxpayers.

The commissioners decided to do nothing until the Sheriff's investigation was completed. They also decided to have Parsons come back to the 11/5 PLG meeting to present their final work product. Who knows what will happen at that meeting.

The commissioners will then conduct a workshop for further discussion on topics we have been asking for months. What's their Plan B? What other funding options besides a sales tax hike can fund our roads and transportation. 

Why weren't the commissioners asking questions about other funding options months ago? Why weren't the commissioners seriously focusing on a 10 year feasible plan rather than a 30 year boondoggle plan? Why didn't the commissioners ask these questions of the Merrill/Parsons/Leytham team at the June 11 meeting when all that team did was propose a 30 year sales tax hike for a plan that did not exist?

As we have stated numerous times, no true consultant ever proposes only one, take it or leave it, option, to their clients. They always offer multiple options and scenarios.                                      

At the meeting, Commissioner White made a motion to terminate the Parsons contract but it failed 6-1. Shameful that failed because Parsons should have been fired. There's more questions, issues and misdeeds with this Go Hillsborough mess than just how they got the contract. 

The Internal Auditor stated at the meeting that a full audit would take 4-6 months. We assume a more extensive law enforcement investigation may take longer. The Sheriff's  investigation timeline is unknown. 

With the commissioners keeping the crony Parsons/Letham Go Hillsborough team going, some commissioners think the debacle can stay on its original timeline for getting on the ballot. That sounds more like desperation than logical thinking. 

Some commissioners have joined the Tribune in circling the wagons to salvage Go Hillsborough. But when some commissioners are reduced to using bully tactics from their bully pulpit, ironically during anti-bullying month, against constituents who ask serious questions, have valid concerns, disagree with them, offer alternatives.....

Someone must be running scared. 

Tribune Can't Help "Fix' Go Hillsborough Mess, Tribune is Part of the Mess

The Tribune's collusion to salvage the Go Hillsborough mess they helped perpetuate is now raging. This is a PR strategy and we know who's PR strategy it is.

The Tribune reports today that they finally found someone to publicly defend the crony debacle:

In the three weeks since the report aired, no group of supporters has emerged to defend the transportation effort. Business leaders, who supported a failed transportation referendum in 2010 and have been lobbying for another effort to alleviate traffic congestion, have been silent.

That changed Monday when Bob Rohrlack, president and CEO of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber has not backed off its support for a comprehensive transportation program.

Rohrlack was reacting to an article last week in the local weekly newspaper, La Gaceta, that said the chamber was backing away from Go Hillsborough in light of the controversy. Rohrlack said the report was incorrect. 

“The chamber has not blinked. We continue to move forward on transportation,” he said.

The chamber has two committees working on transportation issues, Rohrlack said, and chamber leaders have been communicating with county staff throughout this year’s Go Hillsborough process and during many rounds of transportation meetings in preceding years.

“We’re going to work together and do something on transportation,” Rohrlack said. “We’ve been open and honest talking to the county. We’ve encouraged them to do this and we’ve been part of the discussion.”

Reminder:  the Chambers have been on the LOSING side of every transportation referendum in the Tampa Bay Area. Isn't insanity defined as continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome?

Perhaps a different tactic is needed. The Chamber should get out of their downtown bubble and talk to those who actually vote.

County Administrator Mike Merrill, acting in his new role undertaken in January 2014 as an unelected County Mayor, other county and city staff and some county commissioners have spoken about Go Hillsborough at private Chamber meetings. Elected county commissioners can advocate for tax increases and policies all day long but staffers and unelected bureaucrats cannot. Things can get quite messy in those "private" meetings......between special interests and staffers.

The Merrill/Leytham/Clifford team used a poll conducted 6 months ago with a margin of error of 4% that deceptively (how the questions were asked) reflected 52% would support a 1/2% sales tax increase. With that margin of error, there may not have even been a majority then to support a tax increase at that time. 

Based on a flimsy poll where they filtered the poll details from the PLG, a not very big participation rate from the public in the Go Hillsborough "public engagement" effort, no engineering done, no technical analysis done, no priorities provided, this team proposed a huge 30 year tax and NO transportation plan. 

Only in the public sector can crony consultants being paid $1.35 MILLION of taxpayer monies offer only one solution, a 30 year tax hike with no plan, to their clients. Real consultants never do that. In the private sector, these consultants would be fired and a refund demanded.

This is how entrenched special interests, the Tribune, the Times and other cronies operate. They have become insiders with an entrenched bureaucracy down at County Center. And according to Noah's reporting, the "Queen of Influence" Leytham, who has gotten hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars directed her way from the county, the city of Tampa, other taxpayer funded agencies, is their Gatekeeper for access.

The crony team of Merrill/Leytham/Clifford team is so entrenched that they unilaterally decided to bring back the full 1% sales tax because that's what they wanted all along.

There wasn't even any repercussions from this outrageous behavior. A little drama at the county commission meeting but no action taken and no repercussions for violating the CCNA contract, violating the policy making powers held by the electeds and violating the trust of the people.

The Go Hillsborough August 17th public release under Leytham's name violated Parsons own CCNA contract. Their contract specifically states Parsons (or any of their subcontractors) cannot publish public statements without first getting prior written consent from the county. 

I asked for a copy of the county's written consent via a public records request on September 9, 2015. To date, I have heard nothing. If it existed, they could have easily provided a copy.

Are these cronies also so entrenched with the electeds? Only an INDEPENDENT investigation going back years can find out. The investigation must include former County Commissioner Mark Sharpe.

The Tribune is desperate now because they know "they" have lost the narrative. Therefore they use one of their other often used strategies:  collusion. They collude using their editorial page (perhaps written by the "Queen of Influence") Editorial: Raw politics intrude on Go Hillsborough transportation initiative with their front page reporting referenced above. 

The Tribune has been an insider inserting their own "raw political agenda" in this mess all along with their "too cozy" relationship with the "Queen of Influence" Beth Leytham. We cannot forget Leytham's text message dated August 13, 2014 to County Administrator Mike Merrill, now public thanks to Noah Pransky's investigative reporting. Based on other text messages between Leytham and Merrill included in Pransky's reporting, we're left wondering when Leytham texts Merrill to jump, does Merrill ask how high?

Why hasn't the Tribune "owned" up to their tight knit relationship with Leytham? 

Because they have invested so heavily in it....for how many years? 

The Tribune continues to peddle another "Queen of Influence" Leytham PR strategy - point fingers elsewhere (remember when pointing, three fingers are pointing back). 

The Tribune would like nothing better than to distract, distract, distract from the real issues at hand and continue bashing and pointing fingers at those who raise legitimate questions about this entirely flawed Go Hillsborough process. The Tribune strategy is nothing short of pure arrogance put on full display by the Tribune.

The Tribune is so invested in the Go Hillsborough debacle that they do not care "how" anything is done - they just want the huge tax. To them, the "ends" justifies the "means". 

There was a time when print journalists were actually curious about "questionable" activities, possible misdeeds in government, unethical behavior in government, wasteful government spending or possible corruption and would investigate such activities. 

Those days are dead in Hillsborough County.

The Tribune cannot circle their wagons fast enough to salvage Go Hillsborough.

The Tribune cannot help "fix" the Go Hillsborough mess.

The Tribune is part of the Go Hillsborough mess!

Then You Win

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

That quote... really an imagined quote mis-attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, sums up the attitude of the local media and the politicians regarding Go Hillsborough.

We reported over the past year numerous issues with Go Hillsborough, and regularly reached out to county leaders.

They ignored us.

Go Hillsborough and the Transportation Policy Leadership Group refused to consider any alternatives besides a sales tax increase. Only the single sales tax increase was proposed... or was it two? Yet there was no real plan to build anything, only a promise to spend. They did not consider impact or mobility fees, they ignored the TBX plans, refused to develop any real plans, as if their lack of action developing feasible transportation plans over the last decade was our fault. What do we know?

Beth Leytham, working her magic "because I'm good" PR, deflecting her own creation of the mess called Go Hillsborough:

“Actually I don’t think this is just coming to light because of the TV,” Leytham said. “I think the tea partiers and anti-tax types have been talking about this for months and months.”

They laughed at us.

From the Tribune's editorial on September 19,

But tea-party opponents of the effort will look for opportunities to drive a wedge into every crease that opens in the process, no matter how small or trivial. In this case, they have the appearance of cozy relationships between elected officials and a contractor.

No. Tea Party opponents are not driving a wedge into every crease in the obviously flawed Go Hillsborough process. The Go Hillsborough team is quite good at doing that to themselves. We just report it. The Tribune presented no evidence otherwise. Only now the Tribune states the audit needs to

Eliminating that appearance [of cozy relationships between elected officials and a contractor] should be done quickly so the public can be assured the effort is about improving transportation and not about improving the bottom lines of contractors and the friends of elected officials.

Eliminating the appearance? Or should we get to the truth?

Many others besides the Tea Party, have come out against Go Hillsborough, from the Sierra Club to La Gaceta. The big story was broke by Noah Pransky. Are Sierra Club, Patrick Manteiga, and Noah Pransky Tea Party? So what gives, Tampa Tribune?

The Tribune has a lot of credibility to lose here. They've refused to acknowledge their meetings and  own "cozy relationship" with Beth Leytham, the focus of much of this investigation. Why not? 

The Tribune, severely damaged by their unacknowledged relationship with Beth Leythan, the center of the controversy, is leading the fight.

Here's a Tribune "Letter of the Day" from September 30.

Having lived through the Greenlight Pinellas war, I see another tea party activist using the same tactics to denigrate a thoroughly reasonable proposal that would benefit the entire community in West-Central Florida. Sharon Calvert is using the same methods that some No Tax For Tracks members used to unjustly defeat Greenlight Pinellas. One member repeatedly misled local municipal councils and went to Denver and brought back a totally erroneous report on Denver’s light rail. She constantly smeared PSTA management, calling into question some of their actions which in hindsight proved to be perfectly legal and reasonable. Now I see Calvert using the same misrepresentations to try to defeat Go Hillsborough — all in the name of “no new taxes.”

The fact the Tribune allowed this fact free LTE to be the Letter of the Day, much less published at all, is clearly a set up.

"Unjustly" defeated Greenlight? It was justly defeated 62 - 38%.

"Smeared PSTA management, calling into question some of their actions which in hindsight proved to be perfectly legal and reasonable."

Seriously? Which is worse in your world, an erroneous report on Denver or the federal government demanding repayment of misappropriated funds, that was not judged "perfectly legal and reasonable", but was in fact judged potentially criminal?

"This is how the tea party is destroying America."

No. This is people like Dave Stanton who are destroying America, by purposely ignoring the malfeasance and dishonorable behavior if it fits their agenda, and tarnishing those that expect more from our public servants.

Remember Greenlight Pinellas, when proponents stated only the tea party was against it. Remember 62-38. We're all tea partiers now.

And weeks later, Joe Henderson has yet another column, on the Sam Rashid story that keeps on giving him columns... so many, I've lost count.

Yes Rashid used crude language. About a month ago.

Can we move on, Joe?

Unless, you know, you really want to write something about the real issues that we and Noah Pransky have uncovered regarding Go Hillsborough, and the valid concerns that Rashid raised.

But that's not as easy as writing another column about Rashid and his bad word.

As Joe closes,

There are legitimate reasons to raise an eyebrow about the way Go Hillsborough is being run, so let the investigation reveal specifically what’s going on and act accordingly.

No matter what turns up, though, I have a feeling it won’t be enough for Rashid and opponents of the transportation measure. I’m sure the Lindbergh baby kidnapping figures into this somehow.

That’s not true, of course, but when you hate something as badly as Sam Rashid appears to hate this proposed sales tax increase, there’s no need to wait for the facts. Those things can be inconvenient anyway.

Gosh, Joe almost took on the real issue. But he dipped back into the ad hominem attacks on Rashid, rather than the merit, or lack thereof, of his argument.

By the way Joe, did you know that Sheriff David Gee was a fundraising chair for County Commissioner Stacy White during his run for commission?

Sheriff Gee was fundraising host for Commissioner Stacy White

Now we hear that (downtown only) Tampa Mayor Buckhorn, on a trip to Denver this week, with over 100 Tampa Chamber of Commerce members inspected Denver's so called light rail success was quoted  as saying "those Tea Party cowards are funding the opposition to Go Hillsborough."

The only funding the Tea Party is contributing are our taxes that is funding the Go Hillsborough debacle.

Who's the coward, Buckhorn? Hiding behind the skirt of his "friend and advisor", not a lobbyist or campaign manager, but a political donor to him, Beth Leytham, who Buckhorn has helped direct hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to.

We'll take you on any time, downtown Bob. Name the time, name the place. Bring some facts, not pejoratives.

Then they fought us.

As we wrote last week, now they've lost. Just like 2010. Just like 2014.

We are all Tea Party now.

Then we win.

Here's a Plan B

As we wrote here on EyeOnTampaBay recently, Go Hillsborough is dead, and it's time for Plan B.

Now, Joe Henderson of the Tribune has finally caught up and now understands the implications of the Go Hillsborough debacle, has gotten on our wagon and is calling for Plan B.

Was it an inside deal and ethically shaky, as a recent TV report made it out to be? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it’s all about credibility. A skeptical electorate tends to tune out after hearing words like “tax” and “investigation” used in the same sentence.

It also raises the question that if the county can’t even handle a relatively small amount of money like that without controversy, what will officials do with a pot of dough in the billions?

That leaves the county with two options. Officials can wait until the morning after the election to get the message that voters don’t trust them, or they can go to Plan B.

Unfortunately, his Plan B involves recruiting Jeff Vinik and "other business people" to get involved, and that's about it.

Plan A is dead. Time for Plan B.

Vinik has made it clear he's not eager to take a position on the local political issues, other than we need solutions that improve mobility.

Why doesn't Vinik get more involved in political issues that could help Tampa's most impoverished neighborhoods and workers with little income mobility?

"Put yourself in my position," he said. In pursuing a project that could be worth $1 billion or more, "we think not only will it directly benefit downtown … we think this rising tide will lift all boats of this area."

Assuming that, he said, "we need broad support in general to do this, and we need to listen and to talk to people. If you were me, would you come out strongly on political questions, voice strong opinions? … If we were to wade into this too deeply," it would "take the focus off what we're trying to do."

And transportation is the ultimate local political issue.

As far as the "other business people", be prepared for increased opportunities for graft, which is the problem we've run into Go Hillsborough with only $1.3 million. Just imagine a several billion dollar trough for "other business people" to gorge themselves on, and the questions that could be raised. What exactly, are these "other business people" expertise and qualifications in transportation? Could Vinik steer the Plan B to support his downtown vision of Vinikville? Would the Westshore Alliance and Downtown Partnership representatives force a rail project between downtown and the airport, which would offer no relief to daily commuters?

Sounds vaguely like the Committee of 99. Yes, we've been talking about transportation issues around here since before 1999.

Joe does mention Sharon,

And, listen carefully, make the opponents part of the process. At some point county officials will realize that people like Sharon Calvert of the tea party aren’t going to shut up, so have her suit up and get in the game. I don’t agree with many (most) of her positions and she can be, um, feisty. But she’s smart and she cares about the issue probably more than anyone you can think of.

We actually agree with Joe on this. She can be quite feisty. And smart too! Not only that, she's already suited up and been in the game since 2010.

If our "Very Smart Officials" had listened to Sharon a year ago, we would not be stuck in the jam with Go Hillsborough.

Since Joe's brought the need for a Plan B up... actually, we've brought it up in numerous occasions in past few months in this blog. Sharon also brought up the need for a Plan B on September 25th on Florida This Week, where she was a panelist, along with Joe Henderson, to which Joe responded "we need a Plan B, C, D, E, and F".

Regardless, we'll throw our hat in the ring for Plan B, adapted from our friend Ken Roberts.

Establish a Transportation Trust Fund as follows:

1. Pledge 50% of all new county revenues to the Transportation Trust Fund. This year the county found over a $100 million in new funds. much of this money comes from an improving real estate market and the attendant increases in home values. The BOCC must first perform their fiscal due diligence with our existing budget. They will have to make some decisions on millage rates, but what are we paying them for if they can't optimize the budget?
2. Given the growth forecast for Hillsborough County, up to 600,000 new residents by 2040, enact an ordinance that establishes a mobility fee to mitigate the cost of development throughout the county as well as the cities. Downtown development and growth impacts the infrastructure as well, not just the suburbs where most of the growth will occur. A fair mobility fee would yield around $50 million per year. 
3. Raise the gas tax a nickel. That adds $25 million per year. A recent Go Hillsborough poll indicates strong support for this increase. The gas tax is essentially a user fee to pay for roads. 
4. Announce there will be no referendum for a sales tax increase.

These actions would yield $125 million a year in today's economy. They require no consultants and can be accomplished with four votes at a county commissioner's meeting. 

This can be done right now. 

Remember, we need to do something now. At least one commissioner has stated publicly that $60 million of the $98.9 million could be re-appropriated to transportation.

What to do with all that money? Lets start with some quick wins. 

1. Fix our roads first! The county has too long neglected our roads. The majority of the current road work in Hillsborough is funded through FDOT, even on some of the county roads. We have over 7000 lane miles of county roads, and hundreds of miles of F-rated roads in need or repaving, widening, and improved traffic flow. Don't delay any further. Fix our roads first!
2. Invest in Automatic Traffic Management Systems (ATMS). While not a silver bullet, ATMS is cost effective, and can improve the flow traffic with more intelligent traffic signal optimization on many arterial roads. In parallel, explore analytics and big data solutions, such as smart phone apps that can help detect traffic and rough road conditions, which can be used to further dynamically reroute and optimize flow and fix roads quicker.  In the 21st century, not every problem requires more infrastructure. Some issues can effectively and quickly improved with technology.
3. Kill the Public Transportation Commission (PTC), or at least allow ride sharing such as Uber and Lyft to service Hillsborough without over regulating and impeding them.
4. Support FDOT's TBX plans. It's not perfect, and FDOT will need to make improvements and listen to input from the community. But 600,000 new residents moving into the county won't "live, work and play" in the same neighborhood (there is much to offer everyone across Tampa Bay!). Adding capacity throughout the Tampa Bay Interstate system will be required to have any decent future for Tampa Bay.
5. Support HART Transit Development Program (TDP), their 10 year plan for meeting transit needs across Hillsborough County. Consider expanding if ridership and fare recovery continues to improve relative to population growth.
6. Ensure we are focused on improving mobility, and not trying to force a transportation solution into some economic development plan. Keep them separate. We can fund economic development for the economy's sake more effectively with a focus on that, and mobility focused on improving mobility where it is needed -- across the entire county -- not just around some job or economic hot spots. Sure, there are areas for some convergence we should plan and exploit, but that's the exception, not the rule.
7. Focus on the busy times -- rush hour -- which means commuters. That's when everything is gummed up. Wasting time and money on the latest urban planning craze adds cost and delays for the vast majority of commuters and residents who will continue to enjoy living in the county.
8. Limit the plans to 10 years. No one can effectively plan beyond 10 years. After that they are guessing. Review and refine the plans every two years based on successes, failures, revenue changes and new technologies.

If the above actions were taken by our commissioners, we believe most people would stand up and cheer!

If not, well, let us know how to make Plan B better.

The Death of Go Hillsborough

The impact of WTSP's Noah Pranksy's ongoing reporting on Go Hillsborough, is still rumbling throughout Tampa Bay like 20 straight days of thunderstorms in July.

• Hillsborough County Commission Chair Sandy Murman proposed lobbying reform
• Former Connect Tampa Bay co-founder and President, Brian Willis, Democrat running for County Commission, got some free publicity, said he had a better plan
• Tampa City Council votes to suspend their part of the contract.
• Tampa City Council also wants to review lobbying rules
• Hillsborough County Administrator asks Sheriff David Gee to investigate Go Hillsborough
• Hillsborough County Commissioner Kevin Beckner's motion to audit the Go Hillsborough process passed the BOCC unanimously
• The Tribune's Joe Henderson wrote Go Hillsborough could hit a stop sign
• The Tribune and Times, as if choreographed by a well connected PR firm, both editorialize on putting the investigation behind Go Hillsborough quickly
• SaintPetersBlog Mitch Perry weighs in, asking if the Hillsborough County transportation tax is DOA
• The Times relishes in the schadenfreude of Go Hillsborough in a Greenlight Pinellas remembrance
• La Gaceta's Patrck Mantiega wrote "This transportation tax, from the start, has just been a vehicle for Beth Leytham and her associates to pad their pockets."
• The Tribune's Salinero attempts to explain it away
• Many other leaders have been quoted in the media voicing concerns, eager to get things cleared up, and move on.

Regardless how the audit, investigation, lobbying reforms, hand wringing, etc. turns out, Go Hillsborough is toast. Done. Fini.

But no one has really caught why Go Hillsborough is dead.

Off the tracks.. and dead!

Sure, as Henderson wrote, 

If the review finds no violations occurred, as Merrill has insisted is the case, opponents will scream it’s a whitewash and business as usual. Even if commissioners went ahead with the referendum, imagine trying to convince a skeptical public that this isn’t an inside job where taxpayers get handed the bill.

True that. With good reason.

We agree with with Mitch Perry as well:

This proposed tax was always going to be a tough sell in a county that overall doesn’t seem to believe it needs to pay more for improved transportation. Now it’ll be even tougher.

True that too.

Yet they are all missing the reality that Go Hillsborough is forever tainted by their own doing, and the real downstream impacts. They can't recover from all the mistakes, lack of transparency, and insider dealings.

They could have learned from the mistakes of the 2010 referendum, but they didn't.

They could have learned from the mistakes of Greenlight Pinellas, but they didn't.

They could have heeded the AECOM study, which we the Hillsborough County taxpayers paid for, but they didn't.

They could have awarded the contract in an open and transparent process, but they didn't.

They could have not hired a crony leader of the rail cartel, Parsons Brinkerhoff, but they didn't.

They could have separated themselves earlier from an insider/PR/lobbyist/advisor/friend who always seems to get the business her way, but they didn't.

You get the picture. 

Hillsborough County Commissioners, the transportation Policy Leadership Group, and county Administrator Mike Merrill made a series of decisions.

Each decision was the wrong decision.

Now Go Hillsborough has to live with that legacy.

Will the expected business interests throw the big money at the real campaign? Will the same businesses that got behind Moving Hillsborough Forward in 2010, and Greenlight Pinellas in 2014 get near this thing?

The Tampa Bay Partnership, Downtown Partnership, Chambers of Commerce, Westshore Alliance, real estate developers, land use attorneys, big banks, real estate associations, et al.

Now they won't touch this thing.

If they do, they'll be tainted as well.

Without the corporate money from a multi-million dollar PAC, there will be no campaign, and no corporate support.  

Without that, no Go Hillsborough.

Time to cut our losses.

It gives me no great pleasure to write this, as we have to fix our transportation problems now.  But it is their own doing.

As we've asked before, and now more than ever.

Where is Plan B?

Time to dump Go Hillsborough, and get started on a new plan. We can start now. Work with the current budget, develop quick wins, demonstrate success, and rebuild confidence.

Before we go for the moon shot.

Go Hillsborough Circling the Wagons?

Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive.

Perhaps the Go Hillsborough team is thinking they should have studied more Shakespeare... or whomever that quote is attributed to these days (actually Sir Walter Scott, but Shakespearean Tragedy is quite fitting).

The fallout from the work here at EyeOnTampaBay.com, and recently, Noah Pransky's investigative reports on WTSP continues.

Noah's latest, County suspends Go Hillsborough outreach

Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill has asked Sheriff David Gee to provide a new review of the county's Go Hillsborough engineering contract following a 10 Investigates report that raised questions about the behind-the-scenes influence of a well-connected consultant. Merrill also suspended work on the transportation project's outreach "until a satisfactory resolution can be reached."

"To ensure continued public engagement, these allegations must be thoroughly and independelty [sic] investigated to preserve trust in local government," Merrill wrote Gee in a letter sent Monday afternoon.

Well that's interesting.

In Merrill's letter to Gee, he pointed the contracting award process, and also suspended work on Go Hillsborough.

The purpose of requesting this investigation is to determine whether this procurement and contract aware meets all requirements for Florida Statues [sic] and of County Commission procurement policies, and whether there has been any violation of State of Florida ethics rules, as applicable.

...

While this investigation is underway until a satisfactory resolution can be reached, I have directed Parsons Brinkerhoff and all the subcontractors engaged by Parsons in this contract to suspend work until further notice. Furthermore, the county will only process payments to Parsons for work completed to date. 

Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive.

The story was also picked up by the Tribune.  When asked about the County Commission's plan to have an audit of Go Hillsborough performed by newly hired internal auditor Peggy Caskey,

“It needs to be an independent auditor,” said Tampa Tea Party founder Sharon Calvert. “Because Peggy Caskey, they just hired her from the clerk’s office. She’s already looked at this one time before.”

And as Noah Pransky reported, Caskey's earlier look was only a review, not a full audit, and did not address many questions that he and EyeOnTampaBay.com have raised.

As we've documented in this blog, there have been numerous missteps and fumbles, from very questionable if illegal awarding of the Go Hillsborough contract to the Parsons/Leytham team, to transit activist co-founder of Connect Tampa Bay working events, to using Los Angeles traffic pictures to illustrate Hillsborough traffic jams, not to mention the exorbitant costs, to name just a few. It's been a mess from the get go.

It's a crisis of their own making.

Oh this too.

Text message of Leytham's talking points sent to 

Deputy County Administrator Lucia Garsys

(Courtesy WTSP.com)

A little "chewing" on your politicians to warn them of the issues should have been heeded this time rather than listening to "5 simple bullet points" from Leytham.

As if a few talking points can hide the deceptions and cover up the mess made in part by Leytham.

Did you note that date? It's from October 1, as in 2014.

That's almost a year ago we were warning the commissioners of the problems.

Oh what a tangled web we weave. When first we practice to deceive.

Now they're circling the wagons.

County administrator Mike Merrill has asked Sheriff David Gee to provide the investigation of Go Hillsborough.

Some of the commissioners are now getting a little antsy.

Merrill's feeling it too.

He know's who'll get sacrificed.

Tangled up in that web.

UPDATE: Fixed broken image of text message.

Go Hillsborough - the citizens speak, but the special interests decide

A Guest post by Thomas Rask, B.Sc., M. Sc. activist for good government 

Go Hillsborough is a county-funded "community engagement" effort aimed at finding out what transportation priorities Hillsborough County voters have, and how they want to pay for them. From the beginning, critics suspected that the Go Hillsborough process was rigged in favor of arriving at a sales tax increase as the only solution. Below, I compare statements made by Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill with outcomes to show that the public policy process has been corrupted once again.

A brief history: the county used to pay for roads out of their other tax revenue. The county historically paid for roads through general property tax revenues but stopped when the county diverted that road funding to other things during the recession. The 7th cent sales tax, the Community Investment Tax, was passed in September 1996, and then promptly spent and bonded out. Despite promises to the contrary, very little was spent on roads. Citizens pay higher taxes and county government takes a larger slice of the pie, but citizens get broken promises and worse roads.

At a Go Hillsborough public meeting on 4/9/2015, I spoke to Hillsborough County administrator Mike Merrill about the Go Hillsborough effort and transportation issues. Among policy priorities being expressed by the public, Mr. Merrill said that "[road] resurfacing is number one, then road expansion, and then transit is a priority. But really, when I hear people talk about transit at these meetings, then it's fixing our existing system. They aren't even talking about rail".

Since that conversation in April, the Parsons/Leytham/Merrill team proposed only one funding solution, a sales tax hike. They publicly proposed a 1/2% sales tax increase to the Policy Leadership Group and then behind closed doors and without any governing authority's approval, they unilaterally proposed a full 1% sales tax hike. Either tax hike includes rail projects. But if citizens "aren't even talking about rail", then why is rail transit in all the plans that the county is putting forth? What is causing rail transit to be put into the plans, and why do all plans involve a sales tax hike?

Mr. Merrill also said "when I go out and talk to groups, I tell them: we are not ready for rail. We need to build ridership, and you do that with rubber-tired solutions". By that, Mr. Merrill means buses, and I agree that buses are a better option. But again, we have to ask: then why is rail transit in the tax hike plan?

Mr. Merrill also expressly said that an expansion of the Tampa streetcar line "wasn't on our [the county's] priority list". So for the third time we ask: then why is rail transit in all the tax hike plans that the county has put forward? Let's find out !

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn's political campaign consultant Beth Leytham is the Go Hillsborough "community engagement" effort that the county has spent $1.3 million on. Ms. Leytham is the sole employee in a company, The Leytham Group, which is a company she owns. The Leytham Group (i.e. Ms. Leytham) was hired to carry out Hillsborough County's "community engagement" effort.

As we will see, even though county funds are being used to pay Ms. Leytham, she is in fact not advancing the interests of county voters and residents.

Recent reporting by WTSP 10 News reporter Noah Pransky adds to the mounting evidence that the Go Hillsborough "community engagement" effort has been hijacked by special interests. As Mr. Pransky showed, lines of responsibility are blurred when Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn's political consultant Beth Leytham does free campaign work for Mr. Buckhorn.....and then is paid out of county funds to conduct a "community engagement effort" on transportation.

Mr. Merrill also said "I know Buckhorn wants a train, but what I tell him is, look, a modern streetcar, if Vinik will help pay for part of it, and the Feds will pay for part of it, start with a streetcar. Let's see if people actually take the damn thing." That might be a reasonable approach - but why should all Hillsborough County taxpayers fund a project that can and should be funded by the City of Tampa?

Mr. Merrill also said that "the only thing I can think of that might make sense at some point is if CSX would let us use existing tracks to maybe run some light rail some day". Having CSX freight rail traffic share the tracks with light rail traffic is impossible for regulatory and technical reasons, and Mr. Merrill should know that. Therefore, the only thing Mr. Merrill's statement could have meant is buying a rail line from CSX.

However, buying a rail line is extremely expensive, and there is also no evidence that any CSX rail line in Hillsborough County would go from where people are to where they want to be. Why would it - freight rail and passenger rail are two very different animals. Setting the folly of such a rail line purchase aside, not even this "only thing that might make sense" policy choice is in the final tax hike plan.

In summary, none of the county priorities and positions that Mr. Merrill expressed are in the final plans. The inescapable conclusion is that Ms. Leytham is inappropriately shaping the final plan to benefit narrow interests. Powerful economic interests want to fill their order books with boondoggle rail transit projects at taxpayer expense, just as in 2010. Worse yet, this is being done even though Mr. Merrill himself said that no one is coming to the public meetings and asking for rail transit.

Ms. Leytham is not stupid - to understand her motivations, you just have to follow the money to the special interests she represents. When doing so, think "rail transit cartel".

The final thing Mr. Merrill said to me is "it is interesting how this thing is rolling out". Well, it sure is interesting. To understand why certain things are done around the Tampa Bay area, we need to know more about these close personal relationships among some political insiders.

I am confident we will learn more on that topic in due course.

New Take on that Rashid Rant

We condemn Sam Rashid's and anyone else's misogynist, sexist and other needless derogatory comments.

But he did raise some points the media chose to ignore despite their never ending coverage of the rant, until WTSP's Noah Pransky independently broke the story that was the subject of Rashid's rant. Rashid's comments were directed about Beth Leytham's behind the scenes cronyism, much of which has been covered in this blog over the last year. However, Rashid's language overshadowed the subject of his comment.

Which got us thinking... there might be a few more dots to connect that no one else has explored.

It did occur us the last week of so during the Sam Rashid kerfuffle, the local media was hyperventilating over a hot-headed, personal comment Rashid made on Facebook, obviously not intended for wide public consumption. It's not the first time for Rashid, who got in hot water earlier for some comments about Facebook posts on judges.

Sam Rashid

The Tribune and Times were all over the story, each publishing several articles.

The Tribune published lead editorial, a Joe Henderson column, and 5 other articles all critical of Rashid's misogynistic language and generally supportive of Leytham and Go Hillsborough.

Only to be beat out by the Times, which is now up to 11 articles and counting including an editorial and an Ernest Hooper column, John Romano commentary, and Sue Carlton.

Fair enough if a bit more than overdone.

In this day and age, this once again shows anything you say can and will be used against you in any way if it's convenient to do so by your opponents.

This time, and this timing, it was very very convenient to do so.

But neither the Tribune nor the Times ever discussed the merits of Rashid's statement, which that Beth Leytham is behind much of the mess that is Go Hillsborough, pulling the levers of power behind the scenes, crossing the gray lines between lobbying, activism, and policy, and political campaigns.

Now let's open up a few more questions about the Rashid kerfuffle.

Who was trolling Rashid's Facebook page, and leaked it to the media?

It is rather interesting that someone saw that and it conveniently found its way out to the media.

Would it have been leaked without Rashid's use of language?

Was the leaker aware of Pransky's investigation and upcoming report?

Pranksy stated he had been working on the report for a year, so with all his investigation, the principals in the report knew something was up, and he stated so in his report. Pransky claimed that Leytham and Connect Tampa Bay's Kevin Thurman tried to tarnish him with the Rashid statement.

And when a member of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority, Sam Rashid, made sexist remarks about Leytham in a Facebook comment, Leytham and Kevin Thurman from Connect Tampa Bay repeatedly tried to tie 10 Investigates to the story.

Rashid was not one of 10 Investigates’ more than two dozen sources for this series, nor did WTSP communicate with Rashid during the research or writing of this investigation. Rashid has since removed his comment and apologized to Leytham, but as news of the investigation spread through Tampa-area political circles, Rashid told the Tampa Bay Business Journal he won’t resign from his board position until after 10 Investigates’ story is published.

Despite repeated assurances that there was no WTSP/Rashid relationship whatsoever, Thurman tried to “withdraw” a quote he provided until it was explained to him if Rashid was a source for our report. Leytham sent numerous text messages, e-mails, and voicemail messages to media outlets in Tampa Bay suggesting the upcoming investigation had no credibility because Rashid was awaiting it.

We can conclude that Leytham and Connect Tampa Bay's Kevin Thurman definitely tried to use the Rashid rant to blunt Pransky's critical report.

Beth Leytham

What is the Tribune's and the Times relationship with Leytham?  She claims in her practice as a PR firm to have relationships in the media, including the editorial boards on both papers. We know for a fact she has met with the editorial boards regarding Go Hillsborough. Her relationship with the editorial staff is something she has stated as one of her qualifications for PR work.

Why did neither the Tribune nor the Times editorial writers disclose their relationship with Beth Leytham?

Were the Tribune and the Times played for gullible pawns in this power play?  How much of their blind support for Go Hillsborough has been influenced by Beth Leytham?

Leytham claims to be good at what she does, including crisis management.  What is the real crisis here?

Is it Sam Rashid's rant?

Or is the real crisis the failing message behind Go Hillsborough?

Who is responsible for that failing message?

Did Leytham or other Go Hillsborough supporters use Rashid's rant to attempt to preempt Pransky's report critical of her relationships and her work on Go Hillsborough?

After all, preemption and redirection is a well known PR and crisis management technique.

Leytham's good at what she does. Just ask her. She is the Queen of Damage Control.

We're not prone to conspiracy theories when sheer incompetence will explain the mess.

This time, we're not so sure.

Disclosure: We have met Sam Rashid, or at least been in the same room, but have no ongoing relationship. We have met Beth Leytham, or at least been in the same room, but have no ongoing relationship.

Circling the Wagons Yet Again

The Tribune is in full "circle the wagon" mode because the Go Hillsborough campaign is so flawed and full of deception.

Yesterdays Tribune editorial "Tampa’s growth a flawed vision without better transportation" at least admits it is Tom Tom, the maker of GPS devices, who makes the Go Hillsborough claim that we have the 11th worst traffic.

....TomTom, that listed Tampa as having the 11th worst traffic congestion in the nation.

However, Tom Tom does not provide any source data or methodology they used for making such claim. We understand Tom Tom refused to provide that information when asked.

Go Hillsborough makes the same claim and other claims in their campaign without ever citing any source, source data or methodology for their claims. Transportation experts will always cite their sources. PR lobbying firms creating false narratives don't.

Go Hillsborough's claim that we have the 11th worst traffic in the country is easily debunked with the updated INRIX/Texas Transportation Institute 2014 traffic study. Tampa Bay is nowhere near #11 in traffic congestion and their source data and metrics are included.

We all know our local infrastructure, including our local roads and storm water, need attention, preserving, improving and, of course, need funding. They have been neglected for years. Why hasn't the Tribune asked why the county keeps holding our road funding hostage? Because they don't care about our local roads? Because they want high cost trains?

We also know that the county has money but the county continues refusing to use existing monies on basic responsibilities of local government, funding our infrastructure. The county has $123 million of NEW revenue for FY2016 yet only $2,8 million is going to roads. Does the Tribune ever look at the county budget and ask anything? Apparently not.

We have confirmed over and over that the Go Hillsborough campaign has been deceptive and flawed from the moment County Administrator Mike Merrill "handed" crony Parsons Brinckerhoff a million dollar blank check to create a transportation plan sales tax referendum marketing campaign.

Work Order for no bid contract County handed to Parsons Brinckerhoff
for "Transportation Referendum Support"

Merrill and others knew exactly what Parsons Brinckerhoff planned to do - subcontract out their phony public engagement work to their crony PR lobbyist sidekick Beth Leytham. Leytham was Buckhorn's PR campaign consultant when she took over the Parsons effort. Buckhorn is a voting member of the Policy Leadership Group who voted to hire Parsons and Leytham.

What a deal for Buckhorn and Leytham. He was able to direct hundreds of thousands of county tax dollars, from the cool million the county handed to Parsons, to his campaign PR consultant. The city of Tampa did not even have to contribute a dime.

As we previously posted here, lobbyist Leytham immediately started micro-targeting voters most likely to oppose a sales tax increase. She didn't even wait for Parsons to present to the Policy Leadership Group last October. These activities were not done in a vacuum. People knew and we know it.

Go Hillsborough is so flawed and deceptive they are forced to display pictures of traffic in LA at their meetings insinuating it is traffic here. Apparently, Go Hillsborough thinks the public will believe anything they say. Who are they kidding? The Tribune?

Go Hillsborough goes rogue when Leytham issues a Press Release unilaterally stating, with NO governing authority to do so, that the 1% sales tax is back. Decisions made behind closed doors outside of our Sunshine laws to double down on the tax is no problem for the Tribune.

We know Leytham and the Tribune editorial board are good buddies. Leytham is a political insider/lobbyist with easy access to electeds and other power brokers. The Tribune also wants access and can get it through her. We're left wondering - does Leytham write the Tribune's editorials on this issue?

Leytham, at taxpayer expense, met with the Tribune editorial board earlier this year about Go Hillsborough. Remember Leytham is getting hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Go Hillsborough. We understand that conversation included Go Hillsborough's message must mute anything from NoTaxForTracks, who led the opposition of the 2010 rail tax.

Is the Tribune that scared that another proposed 30 year $3.5 - $7 BILLION tax increase won't pass again?

Taxpayers are paying hefty "transportation expert" consulting rates, almost $1.5 million taxpayer dollars, for this Go Hillsborough effort that is a deceptive marketing campaign.

The Go Hillsborough campaign has created a $1.5 million taxpayer funded mess of deception, lies and half-truths. The mess is amplified as the Go Hillsborough campaign colludes with others.

Taxpayers in Hillsborough deserve so much better. The only remedy for this mess is for the county commissioners to step in, take responsibility and shut the Go Hillsborough campaign down NOW.

The Tribune should be investigating the Go Hillsborough deceptive campaign. But they won't. They are too invested in the deception so instead they prefer to be complicit in the deception by echoing it.

There is no way the Tribune can circle their wagons fast enough to "hide" Go Hillsborough's deception.

Go Hillsborough Goes to Los Angeles For Traffic Pictures

As we reported here, the Go Hillsborough campaign, behind closed doors and without any governing approval to do so, decided to double down and expand the size and scope of their effort. We had no idea they wanted to expand to Los Angeles.

At the latest Go Hillsborough meetings, what appears to be a video is continuously run on a screen for the public to view throughout the meeting.

I asked the county for a copy of the video and if the same video was being shown at all the meetings. I received a response from the county that the video was a Powerpoint deck that continues looping at the Go Hillsborough meetings. I was provided a link to the Powerpoint deck Understanding the Issues Powerpoint Loop that is posted on the GoHillsborough.org website.

Like Go Hillsborough's claim about Tampa Bay traffic congestion that we debunked here, there are NO source or source data cited for ANY claims made in the Go Hillsborough Powerpoint presentation. 

We're paying hefty Parsons Brinckerhoff "transportation expert" consulting rates for the Go Hillsborough campaign. For an effort that is costing taxpayers almost $1.5 million, we expect factual, substantiated information be presented to the public and our elected officials.

However, it appears what is being shown at the Go Hillsborough meetings does not match the Powerpoint deck on their own website. I have asked the county if there is another Powerpoint deck being shown at these meetings but have not yet received any response back to that question.

This picture is being shown at Go Hillsborough meetings but is not in the Powerpoint deck. We must assume this picture is shown to supposedly show traffic congestion in Hillsborough County.

Go Hillsborough uses picture of Interstate 5 traffic in LA
(Click to enlarge)

However, there is a problem with this picture. This is NOT a picture of traffic in Hillsborough County, the Tampa Bay area or even in the state of Florida. 

Is Go Hillsborough now including Interstate 5 in Los Angeles in "their" plan?

This is a picture of Interstate 5 in LA that runs the entire west coast of the United States from the Mexican border to the Canadian border.  

How do we know this is Interstate 5?

We highlighted with yellow arrows three things in the picture that tell us.
1. The Interstate sign says Interstate 5. (That was easy.)
2.  We were in CA this past spring and their interstates use red lights with their on ramps. No interstate in the Tampa Bay, perhaps even Florida, uses red lights on our interstate on ramps.
3. There is a "George Brazil" plumbing truck in the foreground. A simple Google search of their website confirms this plumbing company operates in the LA area.

Who added pictures to the Go Hillsborough presentation posted on their website? Are there multiple presentation decks? Who created these presentations? A transportation expert or a PR firm? 

Was there any oversight from the county? Who at County Center is responsible for overseeing content used by Go Hillsborough? 

Why would Go Hillsborough deceptively show a picture of traffic in LA insinuating it is traffic in Hillsborough County?

Because the Go Hillsborough process is bad and a bad process creates a bad product.

Because the product of the Go Hillsborough campaign was always another huge sales tax increase. But according to their own polling, there's no desire for a huge sales tax hike. 

And when you cannot sell a bad product to the public, you "try" to deceive them.