Pinellas County Commissioners Hold Meeting in The Twilight Zone To Fund New Rays Stadium

It was the Twilight Zone at the Pinellas County Commission meeting held on Wednesday. After being delayed in November, the bonding of over $312 MILLION dollars of debt over 30 long years for a new Rays stadium was on the agenda again. 

Before the official business began, presentations were made about hurricane recovery efforts. Various county staff presented about property damage, status of debris pickup, unwieldy bureaucratic processes, status of major parks reopening such as Ft. DeSoto and programs said to be available to provide financial help for those impacted.

These presentations with Q & A took over an hour. They were eye opening to have an understanding of the impact the two hurricanes have had on people's lives and livelihoods in Pinellas County. 

The official business part of the meeting then began with General public comment. Many who spoke were those personally impacted by the hurricanes and stuck in the unwieldy bureaucratic processes hindering them from being able to recover. 

It was heart-wrenching and disturbing to listen to their situation knowing too many others in Pinellas were facing the same hardship. The commissioners did offer for County staff, who were at the meeting, to speak with those who spoke about their situation outside the meeting room. 

So the first hour and a half or more of the meeting was spent on the continuing hurricane recovery issue. 

The meeting then proceeded uneventful until the contentious Rays stadium funding agenda item.

Before BOCC Chair Commissioner Peters could finish identifying teh agenda item, there was an immediate motion and second. Public comment commenced and it was split about 50-50 who spoke in support and against the huge long term debt bonding. 

Supporters included the Chamber of Commerce suits and some stadium concession employees making emotional pleas. Those who opposed spoke to the flaws of a bad deal. That bad deal is now seen as worse because the hurricanes shined a bright light on the Rays financial vulnerability. 

The Twilight Zone began as the commissioners started discussing the handing of $335 Million of County long term debt dollars to the Rays for a new stadium. The commissioners appeared to have forgotten  what had just been said at the beginning of the meeting regarding the hurricanes and all those impacted. 

The timing could not have been worse. Approving hundreds of millions of dollars of public dollars for a stadium to enrich wealthy sports team owners while their constituents are struggling. It was as if the commissioners had stepped into another universe ignoring the reality of the two back to back hurricanes. 

Two commissioners who had previously opposed the funding, Chris Latvala and Dave Eggers, flipped from no to yes this go round. 

Latvala wants to see the Rays get a new owner. He stated that he "trusts" MLB commissioner Rob Manfred who told Latvala the Rays will remain in Pinellas. It was Manfred who yanked the All-Star game from Atlanta in 2021 after Georgia passed election integrity laws. Trust Manfred?? Hmmm.....

Eggers stated the County needed to honor the commitment they agreed to in July. That agreement includes a back out for the Rays but no back out for the County and allows the Rays to develop the County land even if they do not build a new stadium there. Who signs such flawed agreements?? Pinellas County.....

The hundreds of millions of debt dollars from the County and St Petersburg is not all the Rays will have access to. The Rays will also have access to over a Hundred Million Dollars of TIF (tax increment financing) funds available from the In Town Community Redevelopment Area (CRA) where the new stadium will be built. 

Side Note: The intent of CRA's are to provide funding to redevelop blighted areas. Under Florida law, the property tax revenue generated from increasing property values in the CRA in the CRA to be spent solely within the CRA. Those tax dollars do not go to the general funds of the city and/or county in which the CRA was created. 

Over time those CRA dollars can begin starving the general funds, especially during economic downturns or crisis and they become unfair burdens to other taxpayers.

Corruption is also a problem with CRA's in Florida:                      

Kelly: Community Redevelopment Agencies invite cronyism and favoritism

Lawmakers Amend CRA Phase Out, But Local Governments' Concerns Remain - "Critics say money that could fund affordable housing and infrastructure is going to ball parks or street festivals instead. Lawmakers say the agencies have run their course. Valrico Republican Representative Jake Raburn wants to prohibit new CRAs from forming. And prevent existing groups from starting new projects after October 2017."

Richard Corcoran: Why community redevelopment agencies have to go - "A mayor who received $84,529 from a side job paid for by taxpayers. A grand jury report stating that government officials were “spending large amounts of taxpayer dollars on what appeared to be pet projects of elected officials.” An inspector general’s report finding over $2 million in questionable expenditures and political cronyism involving a city commissioner. And finally, millions of taxpayer dollars spent and a new FBI investigation under way."

The In Town Community CRA was created by the city of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County in 1982 when downtown St. Petersburg was a ghost town with blight. It is almost 43 years later, downtown St. Petersburg is no longer a ghost town of blight and the CRA continues on. 

The Twilight Zone continued throughout the stadium funding discussion. It was as if they were handing out hundreds of millions of dollars to the Rays as a Christmas gift.  

No one discussed any analysis of the opportunity cost lost if the hundreds of millions of tax dollars were spent elsewhere. No one discussed the reality that redevelopment is naturally occurring in St. Petersburg and will continue - no subsidies needed.

With Latvala and Eggers flipping, they joined Commissioners Peters, Scott, and Flowers to pass the odious 30 year debt dollar Rays stadium funding....that will tie the hands of future county commission boards for decades.

Kudos to the two new commissioners Nowicki and Scherer who voted No. They were not recently elected to fund a new Rays stadium but  the nationwide mandate to be fair and prudent stewards of all our tax dollars. May they continue to have a spine.

And leave the Twilight Zone to TV reruns!

Follow the Money! As the Rail Cartel Hamster Wheel Pumps Again Hillsborough County Launches Another Fraudulent Tax Hike Scam

Deja Vu Hillsborough County!  

The cronies are pumping their rail tax hamster wheel again.  

It's 2010, 2016 and 2018 in Hillsborough all over.

Instead of the County directly using Parsons Brinkerhoff and local PR crony Beth Leytham as they did with the 2016 Go Hillsborough rail tax hike scam, this go round the County just merged with the All for Transportation Transit (AFT) rail cartel cronies. The County is shamefully rewarding the very same people who funded the illegal AFT rail tax. 

Hagan Only Tip of Iceberg in FBI Probe?

Reposted with permission from Jim Bleyer, Tampa Bay Beat

Ken Hagan

The federal investigation into shady land deals in Hillsborough County includes several targets besides County Commissioner Ken Hagan and his family, Tampa Bay Beat has learned.

Those being investigated include private citizens as well as other public officials, according to our source in Tallahassee. No specific names were mentioned but could very well include Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, former Mayor Bob Buckhorn, County Administrator Mike Merrill, Water Street Tampa developer Jeff Vinik, and Ybor City land magnate Darryl Shaw.

All promoted and/or had a significant economic interest in a countywide light rail transit referendum and relocation of a ballpark for the Tampa Bay Rays from St. Petersburg to Ybor City. Constitutionality of the referendum is tied up in the Florida Supreme Court where it is expected to be struck down.

The Weenie Tax

Plans to fund the planned new Tampa Bay Rays stadium near Ybor City are emerging.

"Every hot dog, beer purchased in that district will go toward the stadium."

Taxing hot dogs and beer to pay for a stadium? Now you got my attention.

Cronies Collaborate to Control Billions of Tax Dollars

The Vinik $15-18 Billion transit tax hike and the Chuck Sykes/District Rays Candidate Hagan billion dollar stadium have officially combined into one collaborative effort.

The latest campaign filing found on the SOE website of Vinik's transit tax hike All For Transportation (AFT) PAC provides the confirmation. On July 11, Sykes donated their Vinik required $150K to the PAC.

Sykes donates $150K to Vinik's tax hike PAC

Here is the entire list of donors to the AFT PAC available on the Hillsborough SOE website.

AFT donors and expenditures

AFT did a faux grassroots call to action for citizens to donate $20.18 to their transit tax hike petition effort. It was an epic failure. A whopping four people responded because AFT and everyone else knew the special interest donors were their bank account.

Thomas Scherberger, who donated $250, works for Hillsborough County Clerk of the Court and is the husband of Janet Scherberger. As we reported here, Janet Scherberger works for Lopano at TIA and is a Director of the nonprofit Keep Hillsborough Moving, Inc. connected to the AFT PAC.

The highlighted five deep pocketed special interests donors who donated $150K each are connected to each other, Jeff Vinik and his [Under] Water Street development.

Sykes, Vinik and Rays President Brian Auld each pay Tampa Bay Partnership $50K a year to be a member of their pay to play lobbying organization.

WSP previously known as Parsons Brinkerhoff of the Go Hillsborough debacle, Vinik's Tampa Bay Lightning and Darryl Shaw each pay Tampa Bay Partnership $25K a year to be a member of their pay to play lobbying organization. After Shaw bought up the Ybor property, he donated at least $5K to District Rays Candidate Hagan's District 2 race right before Ybor was announced as the likely site for the new stadium last year. Ybor is NOT in District 2…..

Sykes donated almost $200K and carried the financial torch for the losers - the pro rail tax hike PAC Moving Hillsborough Forward (MHF) - who spent almost $1.6 million promoting the rail tax hike in 2010.  It was Hagan and his Transportation Task Force who recommended putting that massive boondoggle tax on the 2010 ballot that was defeated 58-42.

Tampa Bay Partnership with Sykes in tow created the MHF PAC and had donors contributing before the rail tax was ever even put on the ballot in May 2010. Why? Because they had assurances from then BOCC Chair Hagan that he would get the tax hike on the ballot.

Then Sykes supported Greenlight Pinellas rail tax boondoggle in 2014 that was defeated by an even greater margin 62-38 in Pinellas County.

Now Sykes has decided to play first fiddle for the BILLION dollar stadium with no parking.

Site of Proposed Rays stadium in Ybor City with no parking

Sykes is now scheming in secrecy with the District Rays Candidate Hagan for how to bleed dry Community Redevelopment Area (CRA)/special taxing district money to publicly finance the billion dollar stadium. Since 2011, District Rays Candidate Hagan has been talking about using tax increment financing (TIF') to publicly finance a new stadium with huge amounts of debt.

CRA Boards, which can be stacked with more cronies, can pledge TIF funds to finance bonds with NO public input. CRA's, with lax accountability and transparency, can invite abuse and have been abused.

In steps Vinik last year. Indications are that the tax hike and the Ybor stadium site were probably being orchestrated at least early to mid last year. That was about the same time Vinik admitted he bailed out the Times as he needed to own his own media megaphone to push his agenda.

According to the county lobbyist registry, Vinik was meeting with County Administrator unelected county mayor Mike Merrill in May, June and December of 2017. Vinik met with Hagan on June 5, 2017.

County lobbyist registry
Vinik was lobbying Hagan last year

Taxpayers have been paying for highest paid Merrill and his highest paid staff's time to be intimately involved with Hagan and the Rays - behind closed doors with no transparency - on public financing schemes scams for the billion dollar stadium.

Vinik now plays first fiddle for pursuing another 30 year massive transit sales tax hike that is worse than the rail tax defeated in 2010 (post for another day).

Now that Sykes has thrown in his obligatory $150K into Vinik's massive transit tax hike - the collaboration of cronies pursuing the Billion dollar stadium with no parking and a $15-18 Billion transit tax hike is confirmed.

 It's a Package Deal! The Billion Dollar Stadium Needs Billions for Trains

The Sykes/Vinik/Hagan triumvirate to control billions of tax dollars and scam taxpayers not once but twice is complete.

San Diego Didn’t Fall for Shady Stadium Deal; Will Tampa?

Reposted by permission of Tampa Bay Beat.

By Jim Bleyer

Fifteen months ago the people and politicians of a major American city stood up to protect their region’s economic health and integrity by rejecting a shakedown from a billionaire owner of a big-league sports franchise.

But the citizens of San Diego had three major advantages over their counterparts in Hillsborough County where special interests are intent on bilking taxpayers to build a new baseball stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays.

—Public funding of a new stadium for the NFL Chargers was put to a referendum with passage requiring a 67 percent supermajority;

—The political will existed to push back against a blackmailing bully, in this case Dean Spanos, scion of real estate magnate Alex Spanos;

—Access to accurate, complete information from the San Diego Union-Tribune which reported all facets of the issue.

San Diegans killed public financing, 57-43 percent, not even a majority let alone the required threshold. The ballot measure asked voters whether they wanted to increase the city’s hotel room tax rate from 12.5% to 16.5%, with the proceeds to fund a new $1.8 billion stadium and convention center. The tax increase was to repay $1.15 billion in bonds, leaving the Chargers and NFL to pay the remaining $650 million.

What’s happened since the ballot defeat? The Chargers moved to a temporary facility in Costa Mesa playing the 2017 season to a fraction of the audience they drew in San Diego. Half the fans rooted for the opposition. The Rays are used to that; the Chargers weren’t. When the Chargers move to a larger, modern stadium in Inglewood for the 2020 season, the facility will be shared with the Los Angeles Rams.

Meanwhile, life goes on without the Chargers in San Diego. Most citizens are bitter at the Spanos family; a tiny minority actually trek to Charger games. The city is still a hotspot for high-tech innovation, an incubator for Broadway-bound theatre, home of the historic Gaslamp Quarter, culturally diverse and harmonic, an attractive beach and surfing destination and much more.

Despite offering a specific plan that had adequate access, didn’t destroy neighborhoods, and meshed with a convention center, San Diegans saw through the bamboozle of transferring wealth to a billionaire and shot down the proposal by a healthy margin.

The stadium scheme in Tampa has nothing to recommend it. A new playpen doesn’t guarantee Rays owner Stuart Sternberg will spend more than a pittance on payroll, reduce the abominable number of food safety violations, or ditch players coming into their prime to cut costs. It does guarantee to increase the value of the Rays franchise by a half billion. That’s the name of the game.

Look at the above rendering. The combo stadium-convention center in San Diego blends with the neighborhood and has adequate access. The proposed Rays stadium in Ybor City (be,ow) is shoehorned into a unique, celebrated district. Access and parking are difficult if not laughable.

San Diego also had one definitive financing source; Tampa’s revenue origins are uncertain as special interests and their toady politicians are scrambling to cobble together a taxpayer-funded sports subsidy.

As for the plan, San Diego actually had a specific one. The Union-Tribune ran factual balanced accounts about the stadium campaign, its pros and cons. Hillsborough County residents, the few who subscribe anyway, are not as fortunate with the Tampa Bay Times publishing slanted articles and omitting important facts.

The Times is rolling over for Sternberg, real estate interests, and the investors who temporarily bailed it out of bankruptcy.

Politicians love hotel taxes because this levy is the embodiment of taxation without representation. Prancers to the pork barrel polka, such as Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan, look for any means to leverage tax dollars to fund their “legacy.” They abhor referendums that allow the public to interfere with their gifts to special interests. They would find a super majority requirement lethal to their indulgences.

Taxpayers in other cities that paid for stadiums often discover they are still on the hook long after the team departed. In New York when the Giants bolted the Big Apple for New Jersey, taxpayers were still paying off $110 million in debt on the old stadium. St. Louis lost the Rams, but they didn’t lose $144 million in stadium debt the team bequeathed.

Philip K. Porter, Professor of Economics at the University of South Florida, terms sports subsidies as a “transfer of wealth” and competition for funding with more needed municipal services regardless of the revenue source.

Of the 38 metropolitan areas with at least one major professional sports team, Tampa ranks fourth in per capita subsidy, according to Porter. That number will only increase if the Ybor City boondoggle comes to fruition.

His report, “Public Subsidies and the Location and Pricing of Sports,” can be found here.

According to Michael Leeds, an economist at Temple University, “If every sports team in Chicago were to suddenly disappear, the impact on the Chicago economy would be a fraction of 1 percent. A baseball team has about the same impact on a community as a midsize department store.”

Victor Matheson, a sports economist at College of the Holy Cross, is dubious of the economic hype surrounding professional sports facilities.

“A good rule of thumb that economists use is to take what stadium boosters are telling you and move that one decimal place to the left, and that’s usually a good estimate of what you’re going to get,” Matheson says.

Economists say the biggest reason sports teams don’t have much impact is that they don’t ignite new spending. Most people have a limited entertainment budget, so the dollars they shell out for a game is money they would have spent elsewhere such as a restaurant or small businesses where more money would have stayed in the community. Matheson added that instead of drawing people to a neighborhood, games can actually repel them.

That certainly applies to Ybor, one of America’s most storied, culturally significant and eclectic neighborhoods. And how much of the money that absentee owner Sternberg rakes in from his revenue sharing/cheapskate payroll template do you think remains in the Bay area?

When politicians like Hagan and Buckhorn go directly to “how should we fund the stadium” omitting all the intermediate steps and any taxpayer comment let alone vote, they’ve already lubed the public to assume the position that shoveling tax bucks toward a sports facility should be the correct priority. It eliminates discussion of uplifting economically depressed neighborhoods, educating and assisting disenfranchised youth, properly training and retraining law enforcement officers, and addressing infrastructure needs.

Buckhorn and Hagan, abetted in their misinformation campaign by the Tampa Bay Times, obsess with burnishing their legacies, however fleeting, and rewarding their real estate cronies plus Sternberg with hundreds of millions.

Tampa residents are victims of this squeeze play.

District Rays Candidate Hagan Challenged As His Teflon Wears Thin

Career politicians, especially those who park themselves in the same position for 16 years, know how to work and game the system. 

After 16 too long years, District Rays Candidate Hagan is violating the spirit of term limits and running again for a single district seat he already held. He doesn't care that he's setting a horrible precedent doing what no other commissioner has done in the 34 years of the county charter.

When asked why, after 16 too long years, he is running again, the District Rays Candidate has said he has "things" he wants to complete. Of course! The candidate for District Rays wants to complete his pursuit of a new Rays stadium - that he's been pursuing for most of his 16 too long years as a county commissioner.

But besides a baseball stadium, what are the other "things" Hagan wants to complete? Hagan must have an earth shattering list of things to complete that he feels entitled to egregiously flip flop back to a seat he already held.

The Times even reached out in December to the county commissioners to ask each commissioner about their priorities. They got crickets from the District Rays Candidate Hagan. As the current longest serving commissioner, District Rays Candidate Hagan was the only commissioner who did not respond. Perhaps the holidays kept Hagan from getting his scripted response from his PR confidante in time to respond.

We checked Hagan's campaign website owned by HCP Associates, a professional marketing/PR firm. No list there either or much of anything else - considering Hagan's been in office for 16 years. The District Rays Candidate Hagan's professionally created website is just a shell to collect some donations of at least $100 (the big donors send checks directly) with a small blurb of political gobblygook.

From Candidate Hagan's website

Hagan may consider himself "experienced", but after 16 too long years, he is a career county commissioner who refuses to respect term limits.

Where did that first bullet about standing firm to manage the budget and growth "without increasing taxes" come from? District Rays Candidate Hagan is living in his own alternative universe, echo chamber or the Twilight zone to make such stuff up.

Did Hagan erase or BleachBit his past?

Candidate Rays campaign website also touts he wants to create high-wage, high quality jobs. Well..

In pursuit of a new baseball stadium, Candidate Rays Hagan has stated it could be more than just a ball park, but about creating an entertainment district - more restaurants, retail and fern bars. Are those high wage jobs? Is that what's needed in Ybor?

According to this article from the Economic Research of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis , 86% of economists surveyed stated state and local governments should ELIMINATE subsidies to professional sports franchises. That article also stated:

In a 2017 poll, 83 percent of the economists surveyed agreed that "Providing state and local subsidies to build stadiums for professional sports teams is likely to cost the relevant taxpayers more than any local economic benefits that are generated."

No wonder economists state that...especially when all the shady wheeling and dealing is being done in the dark. And in the case of District Rays Candidate Hagan, he was wheeling and dealing behind closed doors with his campaign donors.

Subsidizing sports stadiums for wealthy sports team owners does not create high wage jobs nor does subsidizing big retailers like Bass Pro. Is creating a place to host bachelorette parties part of Hagan's high wage jobs vision? Who was the local lobbyist for Bass Pro? Surprise! Hagan's cozy, close PR confidante Beth Leytham.

Bass Pro Shops recently sold their Brandon store and two other Bass Pro stores in Florida to Starwood Property Trust for a lease-back arrangement. Hmmm...

Past actions and behaviors are the best indicators of how one will behave and act in the future - not words on a website or some well scripted political rhetoric.

Hagan has been systematically recommending sales tax hikes and cunningly seeking risky financing schemes for years. It was Hagan who got Mike Merrill, former county bond/debt manager, his position as County Administrator in 2010 and the two of them have been pushing tax hikes and a baseball stadium ever since.

Something else unprecedented is Hagan has raised almost a HALF MILLION dollars for a single district county commission race, tons of it from those who cannot vote for him. It's not about District 2 for Hagan, it's about keeping his fingers in the county taxpayer cookie jar. 

District Rays Candidate Hagan's campaign donations confirms he must deliver the goods to his special interests donor base. 

After 16 too long years, District Rays Candidate Hagan thinks the county cannot live without him. 

But the so-called "teflon" that District Rays Candidate Hagan thinks still surrounds him has worn thin or perhaps totally worn off.

Republican voters in District 2 can reject Hagan's arrogance and entitlement attitude.

In the August Primary, they should vote for Chris Paradies.  

Fast Track HB13 to Stop Subsidizing Stadiums and the Pay to Play

According to this Floridapolitics.com article, House Bill 13, that bans Florida sports franchises from constructing or renovating facilities on leased public land, is heading to the House floor. It does have a companion bill in the Senate SB352. House Bill 13 is identical to one that passed the House last year but died in the Senate.

The bill will pass the House but will it pass the Senate this time? With all the recent brouhaha going on over wealthy players protesting on their wealthy employers time and dime most often in stadiums paid for by taxpayers, will subsidizing wealthy sports team owners, franchises and players finally become toxic in Florida?

The bill went nowhere last year most probably because Senator Latvala, as the powerful Senate Appropriations Chair, did not want it to. According to Noah Pransky's latest post at his Shadow of the Stadium blog, which we highly recommend you follow, the wealthy sports team franchises love Latvala:

Why do pro teams love Latvala? In addition to his attempts to provide them stadium subsidies, he's also the biggest thing standing in the way of a House push to ban public land giveaways for new stadiums in Florida.

Senator Latvala's PAC is Florida Leadership Committee. As reported by Pransky, the Rays and the Dolphins have handed tens of thousands of dollars to his PAC. From the PAC's last campaign finance reporting the Rays and South Florida Stadium who operates the stadium the Dolphins play in handed Latvala's PAC $10K each on 9/29 and 9/30.

Rays, Dolphins big donors to Latvala

A real eye opener is Latvala's PAC received its largest amount of contributions of any campaign filing period ever this past February. With Latvala in his powerful role as Senate Appropriations Chair, his PAC received over $1 million (the most ever in a single filing period) in February 2017 right before session started. Go here and click the campaign finance activity and select the filing period to review the contributions for that period.

Follow the money….and follow the electeds who are beholden to that money and not you the taxpayer. The special interests give the big bucks to the PACs where there are no limits on their contributions. The special interests are giving the big bucks for a reason - they want something in return. The PACs then contribute to candidates they agree with who will help further their agenda. It's a big circle of money.

Pransky also reported that locally the Rays just gave $50K to Kriseman's Sunrise PAC raising the total to $81,500 that the Rays, the Rays owner Sternberg and Rays' executives have handed St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman. Kriseman faces off with Rick Baker in the St. Pete mayor's general election on November 7th.

What about over in Hillsborough County? Commissioner Hagan, the commission King of County Center who is selfishly refusing to abide by the spirit of term limits in the county charter, is also on the receiving end from the sports team franchisees. 

Hagan has raised a special interests war chest of over $400K dollars for a SINGLE MEMBER District seat. A quick review of donors to his campaign include a thousand dollars each from:

• Stuart Sternberg, Rays owner
• Strategic Property Partnership, Vinik
• Amalie Arena, where Vinik's Lightning and Storm play
• Tampa Bay Lightning, Vinik
• Tampa Bay Storm, Vinik
• Yankee Global Enterprises
• Robert Dupuy- attorney in NY firm Foley and Lardner, recently was president and COO of Major League Baseball
• Latvala's Florida Leadership PAC

Those donations are just the tip of the iceberg of Hagan's special interests donor war chest. After 16 years of being a county commissioner and being term limited out of his county seat next year, Hagan thinks he is entitled to 8 more years. Hagan is leap frogging back to a District 2 seat he has already held.

Since the county charter was enacted 34 years ago, no one else has ever done what Hagan is arrogantly and selfishly doing - violating the spirit of the county term limits in the county charter by abusing a loophole. And his donors know it…

For WTSP, Pransky reported on August 23rd about Hagan's idea of handing the Rays the HCSO property in Ybor:

"In his search to find the Rays a new place to play in Tampa's urban core, Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan has toyed with the idea of relocating the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office headquarters out of Ybor City to make room for a new stadium."

Providing public land for stadium development could be another possible avenue for taxpayers to subsidize the project. Hagan, who once advocated "no public dollars" be spent on a Rays stadium, has recently said he thought taxpayers should help with the "infrastructure" side of a new stadium.

And voila! More money goes pouring into Hagan's Pay to Play war chest. As Pransky posted on his stadium blog on September 18, 

"Companies controlled by Darryl Shaw, who has been dubbed "Ybor's big new (development) player," gave $5,000 to Hillsborough Commissioner Ken Hagan last month, according to campaign finance reports. Shaw's wife and a company she controls also each chipped in $1,000, the maximum-allowable donation for the 2018 election.

H/T Noah Pransky
Hagan's Ybor Pay to Play donors

Nothing about how taxpayers would be on the hook for paying for a brand new HCSO HQ facility somewhere - can't let those silly little details get in the way….

Not only is Hagan a leap frogger from one county commission seat to another and back, he's also a flip flopper on the issue of public funding for a stadium.

We posted this expose of Hagan and his tactics back in January 2016 during the Go Hillsborough tax hike debacle.  

At the October 1, 2014 county commission meeting, Hagan stated

I CAN TELL YOU FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, THERE'S NO LESS THAN A DOZEN BASEBALL STADIUMS I'VE GONE TO AND TAKEN RAIL THERE, THAT'S CRITICALLY IMPORTANT (emphasis mine), REGARDLESS OF WHERE THE STADIUM IS ULTIMATELY LOCATED, BUT TRANSIT'S GOING TO BE A NECESSARY INGREDIENT

At the next BOCC meeting on October 15, 2014, the county commission "quietly" hired the major league baseball law firm Foley and Lardner. They did it egregiously through the use of the Consent Agenda where there is no discussion - just a rubber stamped approval. See above - Foley and Lardner is now one of Hagan's Pay to Play donors.

No wonder Pransky reported for WTSP in August that the county was eyeing federal transit dollars to help pay for a stadium aka Hagan's quest for costly trains and stadiums. 

Hagan and his baseball attorney took the baseball meetings secret and behind closed doors. Hagan likes the Atlanta model for how the Atlanta Braves got a new stadium because all their negotiations were behind closed doors too. 

That new stadium effort was led and shepherded by Cobb County commissioner Tim Lee. 

According to this article in May last year:

Lee cut a deal in secret to give nearly $400 million in tax money to multibillion-dollar conglomerate Liberty Media (AKA the Braves) to get the team to load its gear into moving vans and head north on I-75 to the Smyrna area. Lee even had a code name for the clandestine negotiations with the team — Operation Intrepid — which kind of gives it that Invasion of Normandy feel. 

What summarized the process was a May 2014 meeting where commissioners approved a series of legal agreements with the Braves without serious debate. The bond documents weren’t even made available until one business day before the meeting. 

As an exclamation point — or slap in the face — the 12 slots for public comment at the meeting were gobbled up hours earlier by sneaky pro-deal forces. Complainers were sent packing. The image of citizens getting shut down and marched out of a public meeting by cops doesn’t say Open Government. 

But this is what eventually happened to Tim Lee according to a July 2016 Atlanta Journal Constitution article (emphasis mine):

By the time the first pitch is hurled from the mound of SunTrust Park stadium next spring, the man who lured the Atlanta Braves to Cobb County will be out of office. 

Incumbent Chairman Tim Lee lost his reelection bid Tuesday to challenger Mike Boyce, a retired marine colonel, in a runoff seen by many as a litmus test for support of the deal to bring the Atlanta Braves to Cobb.

Boyce beat Lee, winning 64 percent of the vote, with all precincts reporting.

Now this: The Braves want $14M more from Cobb County taxpayers for their new stadium

Once these deals are made, it never ends for taxpayers.

Hagan liked the Atlanta "speedy" process done in secret. Why? Because it enables electeds  to make deals behind closed doors to commit hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to a baseball stadium while prohibiting citizens and voters from appropriately weighing in. 

We bet that Hagan's Pay to Play donors likes the arrogant Atlanta quick and dirty process too but it should scare taxpayers in Hillsborough County. Hagan is being paid to deliver for his special interests - why their bucks are pouring into his Pay to Play campaign.

Beware Hillsborough County taxpayers and stay aware! Who knows what Hagan's going to hit them with when the St. Pete Mayor's race is decided next month.

Hagan does have a challenger who has filed, Chris Paradies, who is a West Point graduate.

So voters in Hillsborough County could do to Hagan next year what Cobb County voters did to Lee and toss him out. 

The continuing pursuit of a new taxpayer subsidized baseball stadium in Tampa Bay is why HB13 needs to be fast tracked and quickly passed by our state legislature next year.

All the Pay to Play to put taxpayers on the hook to subsidize wealthy sports team owners in Florida must stop. 

Third Season Update - Oldsmar still in the race for the new Rays Stadium

Where else in the United States could you go see a horse race or two, bet on the ponies, walk across the street, and catch a major-league baseball game.

St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

You just have to love Doug Bevis the Mayor of Oldsmar.

“I would say that we’re still in the running and I think we have a site that offers things that some of the other sites in Hillsborough and Pinellas don’t offer,” Bevis said.

In case you are not familiar with Oldsmar, it is a Pinellas County City, lying along the border between Pinellas and Hillsborough County North of St. Petersburg with a population of about 13,800.

Check out Bay News 9 Josh Rojas, Oldsmar still in running for new Ray's stadium site

As the Third Season, the time between the end of the World Series and early spring training, winds down it has been quiet especially in Hillsborough County and Tampa.

Ben Kirby, the spokesman for St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, said the city has no formal meetings planned with the Rays, but the “mayor does talk with them occasionally.”

According to the Rojas, Bay News 9 piece Mayor Bevis indicated the Rays are hoping to pick a site in the next five months. Wonder of Kriseman knew that.

That would be interesting since MLB likes to focus on baseball during the season and leave the politics to later.

When Bevis first announced that the 120-acre site near the Tampa Bay Downs racetrack might be available, a lot of people just laughed it off. Apparently, the Rays did not.

Maybe Mayor Kriseman and St. Petersburg would be better off if he gave the Rays a little pat on the fanny and endorsed the Oldsmar location.

With a series of nightmarish problems, a number of huge projects, and a struggling south side, drumming up public dollars for a gazillion dollar baseball stadium may be a big campaign downer.

It will also be interesting to see if, when and how much the Rays put up for the Mayor's re-election campaign.

For now, my money is on Oldsmar.

Where else in the United States could you go see a race or two, bet on the ponies, walk across the street, and catch a major league baseball game.

E-mail Doc at mail to: dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Be sure to follow me on Pintrest (Doc Webb),  Like or share on Facebook and follow me on TWITTER  @DOC ON THE BAY

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Buckhorn on the Rays crazy or sly like a fox?

Buckhorn's first pitch in the baseball stadium saga is low and inside.

St. Petersburg, FL

Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

Just a day or so after the St. Pete City Council approved a deal to let the Tampa Bay Rays look for a new stadium site Tampa Mayor affectively  pours some gasoline on a newly smoldering fire.

Buckhorn is indicating an apartment complex housing 327 low-income families that are mostly African American currently is his favorite location for the new baseball stadium.

Here are a couple of articles:
Christopher O'Donnell Tampa Bay Tribune: Buckhorn wants Rays ballpark near downtown parking garages

 Richard Danielson, Tampa Bay Times: Following Rays vote, spotlight turns toward Tampa Park Apartments

Baseball - some history:
Los Angeles Times; May 28, 1985  Battle Rages On for Baseball in Tampa, St. Pete

May 28, 1985

Steven Kaylor, Jon East, St. Petersburg Independent August 1984: St. Petersburg Stadium will be a sure Winner supporters say

United States District Court, MD Florida, Tampa Division , March 8, 1990,  Locascio v. City of St. Petersburg, 731 F. Supp. 1522 (M.D. Fla. 1990) from the findings of fact:

From the (City of St. Petersburg) 1979-80 Block Grant application, the Project Summary section, covering the Project, reads:

The Gas Plant area has long been recognized as one of the worst areas of housing in St. Petersburg. Based on surveys showing that over 80% of the structures in the area were deteriorated or dilapidated, the City Council declared Gas Plant an area of slum and blight suitable for redevelopment in September of 1978 and mandated the preparation of a redevelopment plan

A draft of the plan has now been completed and was adopted in September, 1979. The plan seeks to rid the area of slum and blight as well as to "expand the employment and economic base of the City" (City Council Goal No. 4) and "encourage and reinforce downtown development" (City Council Goal No. 7) in conformance with the City's adopted Comprehensive Land Use Plan-Intown Sector

Towards accomplishing these objectives, the plan proposes the acquisition of 182 properties, the relocation of 25 businesses and 45 owner-occupant and 281 tenant households, the demolition of 262 structures, and extensive sight improvements, including street and sidewalk improvements, landscaping, the construction of detention basins and some municipal parking, and rerouting of utilities to provide redevelopment parcels unencumbered by utility and access easements.

10 News WTSP, Eric Glasser: Residents once uprooted upset about Trop talk

Buckhorn said, "I don't hide my optimism for that particular site," following a City Hall news conference Friday.

Buckhorn's suggestion and optimism for the Tampa Apartments location brought up some interesting questions.

1. Does Tampa want to go through the agonizing relocation of 327 low-income families and all the negative publicity that might result?

2. Does Major League Baseball want to be a party to another political nightmare about displacing poor people for a palace for the boys of summer to play in?

3. Does Buckhorn really want to run for Governor while he is kicking 327 poor African American people out of their homes for a baseball stadium?

The property that the Tampa Apartments is on is privately owned and the owners have expressed an interest, so there would be little if any taking of property by eminent domain, but there will be gut wrenching stories of elderly African-American people being forced to leave their homes.

The real question may be is this Mayor Buckhorn's first choice or is just a simple way to not so quietly nudge the whole baseball question out to Hillsborough County?

E-mail Doc at mail to: dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook. See Doc's Photo Gallery at Bay Post Photos.

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Contributor: Waterfront Charter Amendment (Vote on The Pier), Carly Fiorina for President

Rays deal done – now what?

Cost is already a concern of Tampa Mayor Buckhorn who said, “I can’t tell you how we’re going to pay for this.”

St. Petersburg, FL
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin

  

January 3, 2016 I posted It is time to get the Rays deal done. Thursday January 14, 2016 the St. Petersburg City Council voted to let the Rays look for a new stadium site in Pinellas and Hillsborough County.

The memorandum of understanding is filled with caveats, and nuances so here are a few articles and Posts that may help you sort through it all.

Saintpetersblog, Janelle Irwin: St. Pete City Council approves Rays deal

Tampa Bay Times, Charlie Frago: St. Petersburg City Council votes 5-3 to let Rays search elsewhere for stadium home

 Saintpetersblog, Mitch Perry: Bob Buckhorn says possible Rays stadium in Tampa will be “complicated transaction”

Saintpetersblog, Janelle Irwin: Subtle MOU provision means Rays might play “home” games outside of Tampa Bay area

Getting this part of the Rays saga behind us is good for everyone. Now maybe the Kriseman administration can focus on some of the more pressing issues in St. Pete.

The Rays deal did come with a bit of a cost as an "arranged" positive vote was virtually assured by Kriseman's support of Lisa Wheeler Brown's election along with a great deal of help from the Tampa Bay Times.

The spotlight now moves to the Rays as they begin to prepare a site selection process and look forward to navigating the Hillsborough County and Tampa political waters.

It will become clear as time goes forward a move to Tampa/Hillsborough County is going to be costly. Stadium costs are one factor but infrastructure costs, roads, interstate access ramps, water, sewer and electricity will represent a huge cost. Some think those costs could almost equal the cost of the stadium in some proposed Hillsborough County locations.

Cost is already a concern of Tampa Mayor Buckhorn who said, “I can’t tell you how we’re going to pay for this.”

Those facts are what led Mayor Rick Kriseman to the conclusion that The Trop site will end up being the best deal.

During all of these discussions, do not overlook the fact that no matter what they say publicly MLB does not like St. Petersburg. They never have and probably never will. A lot of it has to do with the market and attendance, but the deal that was just modified by City Council has stuck in the MLB craw since it was signed.

The City has now put a number on the Rays leaving, $24 million, and if the franchise is really worth $600 million, Sternberg could likely put the team up for $624 million and get a deal. MLB would not be unhappy to see that happen.

For now, the Rays get to move from one cranky set of politicians to another as they poke around in Tampa and Hillsborough County. Bob Buckhorn has been a bit less baseball excited than he once was since Jeff Vinik decided he was not particularly interested in baseball.

Mayor Buckhorn would probably like to avoid a stadium referendum if he is really going to pursue the Governor's office.

With all the trafficking in sports franchises who knows what might come up. Kriseman's procured vote to get this deal moving just may come back and bite him. $24 million will hardly get you a good outfielder these days, and the development rights while enticing is long-range money in the wind.

Hang on this could be a wild ride.

E-mail Doc at mail to: dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook. See Doc's Photo Gallery at Bay Post Photos.

Disclosures:
Contributor: Waterfront Charter Amendment (Vote on The Pier), Carly Fiorina for President