Go Hillsborough's Private Campaign Collusion Behind the Green Curtain

As the Eye has repeatedly posted, the Go Hillsborough proposal was created through a crony and very flawed process resulting in a flawed plan (and a law enforcement investigation). But common sense (so lacking in politics today) did prevail last week. 

The county commissioners did the right thing and voted last Wednesday 4-3 NO. The proposed Go Hillsborough sales tax hike will not be on the November ballot. The Eye appreciates the four county commissioners who voted No: Commissioners Victor Crist, Sandy Murman, Al Higginbotham and Stacy White. Please thank them. 

Republican County Commissioner Ken Hagan sided with Democrats Les Miller and Kevin Beckner voting YES to putting the proposed 30 year 1/2% sales tax hike on the ballot. Hagan even doubled down after the 30 year sales tax hike got voted down and seconded a motion by Beckner for a 20 year sales tax hike. 

Why such behavior from Hagan? Because Hagan always supported another huge sales tax hike referendum. He has refused to consider anything else. We can only speculate about Hagan's position on the sales tax also being connected with his #1 focus - paying for a new Rays baseball stadium in Hillsborough County.

Leytham is a very close associate of Hagan and Buckhorn. She is a political operative who has worked for both of their campaigns, often referred to as their campaign consultant. The Times reported right after Parsons Brinckerhoff was handed their million dollar no bid contract [with Leytham in tow] at the end of August 2014 that Mayor Buckhorn filed for reelection, and had assembled his same team of political operatives including Leytham and pollster Keith Frederick. Leytham used Frederick for Go Hillsborough polling conveniently circling our county taxpayer monies to Mayor Buckhorn's pollster.

Beth Leytham is a very close associate of  Hagan, Buckhorn

While Leytham was being paid hundreds of thousands of county taxpayer dollars to facilitate the public face of the Go Hillsborough campaign, she was orchestrating the behind the green curtain private campaign with at least Merrill and Hagan.   

The Eye received a copy of an email sent last week to the county commissioners and President of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce from citizen Tom Rask. Rask's email is a public record so anyone can get a copy of it. It contains information Rask received via a previous public records request he made last year.

To:     Hillsborough County Commission
Cc:     Bob Rohrlack, his assistant Ms. Greco
Bcc:    Interested citizens

Today, in a widely distributed e-mail and in a blog entry posted on their Facebook page (which has over 5,000 followers), the Tampa Chamber insulted the BoCC majority who voted NO on Go Hillsborough last night.

Tampa Chamber CEO Bob Rohrlack wrote:

"We are disappointed that a majority the Board of County Commissioners failed to place a half-cent sales tax increase on the ballot this fall.  As I stated last night during the public comment portion of the hearing – our community must make a significant, long-term investment in transportation. Kicking the can down the road is not what we expect of our elected officials nor what our community deserves."So according to Bob Rohrlack, Commissioners Victor Crist, Al Higginbotham, Sandy Murman and Stacy White "kicked the can down the road last night".

This is interesting given that Mr. Rohrlack has not directed similarly harsh words towards Beth Leytham for corrupting the process to begin with. Let's recall that in an official county news release on April 7th, 2015 ( see it here), County Staffer Liana Lopez wrote:

With the first phase of this grass-roots engagement completed, GO Hillsborough will continue with the second, Choices phase from April 6 - May 21. These next 16 open house-style workshops and two telephone town hall meetings will delve further into potential transportation options, and identify areas of consensus and commonality among community preferences. Importantly, only after community needs and desires are clearly understood will strategy and funding options be recommended for the Community Transportation Plan.    [my underlining added]

So if no recommendations on "funding options" were to be made until that second phase was completed, then why was Ms. Leytham discussing a timeline involving "Approve Ballot Language" with Comm. Hagan in the middle of this phase? She did so in e-mails on April 27th, 2015 (attached).

In the attached e-mail (see below), Leytham induced a county commissioner to short-circuit the process she was supposed to be facilitating. That is exactly the kind of corruption of process that killed Go Hillsborough.

Comm. Hagan can perhaps be forgiven for not knowing the exact details of the process, but Leytham cannot be forgiven because her company was the process.
-----------

In my e-mail to you earlier today, I didn't do a touchdown dance over the defeat of Go Hillsborough. I didn't gloat. I've worked really hard to focus on issues, not people. I wish Mr. Rohrlack would've exercised similar restraint so that we can debate issues rather than insults.

------------

As always, thank you for your time.

Regards,

Tom Rask

================================================

Below is the Leytham/Hagan April 2015 email thread referenced above. An actual copy can be found here. Note that Leytham uses her business email address but her email is intentionally sent to Hagan's personal aol.com email address (not his county commission address: HaganK@hillsboroughcounty.org)

From: hagans@aol.com

To: Von der Osten, Barbara

Subject: Fwd: Go Hills - Timelines

Date: Monday, September 28, 2015 3:59:53 PM

-----Original Message-----

From: Ken Hagan <hagans@aol.com>

To: Beth Leytham <bethleytham@theleythamgroup.com>

Sent: Mon, Apr 27, 2015 6:07 pm

Subject: Re: Go Hills - Timelines

Oct 7 looks like the meeting to approve ordinance...

Sent from my iPad

On Apr 26, 2015, at 8:09 PM, Beth Leytham <bethleytham@theleythamgroup.com> wrote:

You good with the general timeline? See other re petition drive, just

fyi.

General Timeline

· PB Recommendations/Briefings to PLG – May 26

· PLG - PB Recommendations Presentation- June 11

· BOCC - Administrator’s budget recommendation - June 17

· BOCC – dark beginning of July through July 15

· PLG finalize Recommendations to BOCC – mid July

· Grassroots/Project Specificity a la Go Hills - August – December (this date is published in I

& O report)

· BOCC – late August/early September – late Oct./early November

           o Approve Budget

           o Approve Ballot Language, Ordinance, etc.

· Campaign “begins” – Jan 2016 (actually moment it is confirmed to ballot)

· Vote – November 2016

Petition Drive

Given the exact negative/losing trajectory that Hillsborough and neighboring Pinellas

suffered from the longer campaigns, here is another timeline:

· Professional Grassroots/Campaign ($450,000) – Pre organize & organize - now through

Jan. 2016 (oversight group, general campaign manager/consultant & fundraising)

· Signature/Petition Drive – January – June 2016

         o Assess primary v. general

· Officially place on Ballot – June 2016

· Obviously, this could shorten campaign from 9 months to 3 or 5 months and reduce overall

campaign costs from $2m to $1.2m (general research and excluding grassroots

fees/costs.)

· Mike is opposed.

        o Concern is failure to get signatures

        o Loss of control of ballot language (we can manage that part)

        o Swing commissioners won’t support as too close to 2016 election cycle

Beth Leytham

TheLeythamGroup

518 N. Tampa Street

Suite 310

Tampa, FL 33602

813.223.5951 (o)

813.245.1522 (c)

www.theleythamgroup.com

This email thread provides more evidence that the Go Hillsborough campaign was a taxpayer funded crony, phony campaign for another huge sales tax hike referendum. 

Leytham used her politically well connected "Insider" relationships to collude behind the scenes personally with Hagan and others on a referendum. Go Hillsborough used half-truths and flat out false information in their campaign messaging. Now we know why. 

It was Hagan who "jumped the shark" for a huge sales tax hike last April - right in the middle of the Go Hillsborough meetings when there was no plan and funding was not even being discussed. We later found out Hagan did that immediately after Go Hillsborough Leytham did a poll showing lukewarm support of maybe 50% who would support a 30 year 1/2% sales tax hike. This was the same poll that Go Hillsborough Leytham and the County refused to comply with my public records requests for the poll details until Channel 10's WTSP's Mike Deeson got involved.

Why was Leytham telling Hagan in April 2015 about a proposed $450,000 Professional/Grassroots campaign for a petition drive to get the sales tax hike on the November ballot? A $450,000 campaign is NO grassroots campaign. 

Who else was Leytham involved in discussions with last year about some petition drive? Tampa Chamber? Mayor Buckhorn? Kevin Thurman? Mercury public affairs or some other PR firm? Obviously Merrill knew about some proposed petition drive because he opposed it. Merrill thought he was going to be successful in pushing public support for the sales tax hike so he opposed any petition drive at that time. 

While the Go Hillsborough campaign and the county were telling the public one thing last April, Leytham was busy behind the scenes orchestrating the sales tax hike referendum - while she was being paid lots of taxpayer dollars by the county through Parsons.

Why did Hagan personally tell Leytham in April 2015 that a vote on the sales tax hike ordinance should be held at the October 7 BOCC meeting? Because Merrill kept stating "they" needed at least a year to "educate" the public….Who is acting as the information traffic copy and conduit for who?

Now Kevin Thurman, the Executive Director of Connect Tampa Bay (CTB), our local transit lobbyist, is advocating for a petition drive. What a coincidence!

The Tribune reported that Kevin Thurman, suddenly being referred to as simply a mass transit advocate - not associated with Connect Tampa Bay, conveniently talks about a citizens petition drive to get the sales tax hike on the ballot:

As soon as the vote was recorded Wednesday night, mass transit advocates were calling for a grass-roots petition drive to put a transportation referendum directly on the ballot. It’s not clear whether they would be shooting for the Nov. 8 election or waiting until 2018. 

It would take 43,611 signed and verified petitions to put a measure on the ballot this year. 

“I think you will see people take matters into their own hands and bypass the county commission,” said Kevin Thurman, an advocate for mass transit.

Was Thurman involved with Leytham's petition drive discussion last year? Kevin Thurman is also a close associate of Beth Leytham. Leytham intentionally used the same brand name "Go Hillsborough" as Connect Tampa Bay's 1% sales tax hike plan they publicly proposed in January 2014 named "Go Hillsborough". Maybe Leytham originally created the brand name in the first place for CTB.

Obviously, collusion behind the scenes reigned throughout the entire Go Hillsborough debacle. What is more disturbing is Go Hillsborough was not an anomaly. Go Hillsborough is simply a symptom of bigger issues with how County Center operates.

Shame on the Tampa Chamber and our local media for supporting such a crony flawed mess. Is this the type of behavior they accept from our electeds and high powered bureaucrats? The use of any means to justify the end - another sales tax hike referendum. 

Go Hillsborough debacle occurred under County Administrator Mike Merrill. There must be some accountability for this mess to regain trust and credibility.  

Going forward Merrill and his deputies, Beth Leytham and Parsons Brinckerhoff must be as far removed from our transportation issue as possible.

For now - Good riddance to Go Hillsborough!

Chamber's Political Cavalry Ponders a Poll With the Wizard of Oz of County Center

Sunday's Tribune reported the Greater Tampa Chamber is "pondering" doing a poll on the sales tax hike referendum. 

The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce is considering polling Hillsborough County voters to gauge their appetite for a half-cent sales tax to finance road, trail and transit projects.

The chamber’s money and influence would be crucial in selling the transportation tax to voters if county commissioners put the measure on the Nov. 8 ballot. That support will likely depend on the results of the poll, if there is one.

Start by asking those polled if we should first begin appropriately funding our roads and transportation within our existing tax revenues as we know the county has $123 million of new revenues in 2016, including $40-50 million of new recurring revenues as our county revenues stream continues going up.

Of course poll results are only as relevant as details such as the specific questions asked and the demographics of who is actually polled is known.

Instead of pondering whether to do a poll, the bigger question is will a valid poll officially drive a stake through any proposed sales tax hike? Voters are restless and more upset than ever this election cycle. Putting a sales tax hike wanting billions more on the 2016 ballot going to "placate" them? And yes the billions more is for a plan that includes high cost trains that will benefit few  - again. Deja Vu?

According to the Tribune, the Chamber sent their political cavalry to County Center to help their poll pondering:

The chamber is serious enough about a poll that it sent former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez and former U.S. Rep. Jim Davis to meet with county officials about possible poll questions. 

Martinez and Davis met with County Administrator Mike Merrill and County Attorney Chip Fletcher several weeks ago and brought along a draft of some possible questions, Merrill said.

The Tribune neglected to mention that Martinez and Davis are now lobbyists with Holland and Knight. In 2010 Holland and Knight donated at least $25K to the pro rail PAC Moving Hillsborough Forward and were big supporters of the rail tax. Davis was not just "involved" in the 2010 rail tax referendum, he was a public spokesperson for Moving Hillsborough Forward.

Why did the Chamber send in their political cavalry to meet with unelected bureaucrats if they want to gain insights regarding the transportation policy issue? Merrill and Fletcher are not policy makers and they are not accountable to any voters. Why wasn't the Chamber's political cavalry talking with the actual policy makers, the county commissioners? And what role was County Attorney Fletcher playing in a discussion about a poll?

Martinez and Davis met with the wrong people because on the transportation issue - Merrill is tainted. He is a big problem and a big liability - whether of his own doing or enabled by others. Merrill is a staunch supporter of another huge sales tax hike, is smack in the middle of the crony Go Hillsborough debacle and has been the public and media face throughout the flawed Go Hillsborough campaign. And the law enforcement investigation may be so narrowly focused that we may never know the true extent of the crony mess Merrill helped create.

The Chamber knows how to do polls. There's a good possibility they've already done some polling about Go Hillsborough and a sales tax hike. So what was really going on and what was really being discussed with bureaucrats Merrill and Fletcher?

We are left wondering what the Wizard of Oz of County Center will pull out next from behind his green curtain.

The Tribune article also reports

The results of the sheriff’s investigation are expected to be made public in the next week or so. If the investigation turns up no wrongdoing, Merrill said, he expects the chamber to support whatever transportation plan and financing mechanism county commissioners approve.

“On February 17th or 18th, we will be able to restart the actual decision-making on the plan and the funding so we can be in a position at the end of March to do a sales tax, if that’s the way the board wants to go,” Merrill said.

Merrill speaks for the Chamber? Merrill tells the county commissioners when he wants them to vote on a sales tax hike? How many times has Merrill told the media since last year when a vote on the sales tax hike was coming? Instead it keeps being delayed. Wasn't it Merrill who kept saying a full year was needed to educate persuade voters to support the sales tax hike? Wasn't that the excuse used after the 2010 sales tax was overwhelmingly defeated - "they" simply did not have enough time?

Like Beth Leytham, Merrill is wearing too many hats and playing too many kingmaker roles down at County Center, some of which blatantly overstep his authority as County Administrator. The county commissioners cannot delegate their policy making authority to an unelected bureaucrat and it is illegal for Merrill and other county or city employees to be discussing a private sector advocacy campaign in private group meetings.

Where did the Tribune get this statement?

A main component of the Go Hillsborough plan — mobility fees paid by developers — is the subject of a commission workshop Feb. 4. The fees are meant to capture more of the true costs of increased traffic from new developments.

Mobility fees are not tied to the flawed Go Hillsborough plan or any sales tax hike. Who told Salinero that? We suspect it was a Merrill again. However, we participated in some of the county's focus group meetings regarding mobility fees. Salinero should ask Lucia Garsys, one of Merrill's deputies who has been facilitating the focus group meetings, if mobility fees are tied to Go Hillsborough and a sales tax hike. She told us mobility fees are NOT connected to any proposed sales tax hike. She acknowledged, as many of the county commissioners are well aware of, mobility fees are totally separate from any sales tax hike, as they should be. Otherwise it looks like a quid pro quo with the development community.

Go here to find the Mobility Fee presentation that will be presented to the county commissioners at a Thursday workshop. Nowhere is there any mention of the mobility fee tied to Go Hillsborough or specifically to a sales tax hike.

How many times are the county commissioners going to tolerate County Administrator Mike Merrill, an unelected bureaucrat accountable to no voter, making misleading statements to the media? How much longer are the county commissioners willing to keep him as the tainted face of our transportation issue? They must send Merrill back to doing the job he was hired to do and remove him totally from our transportation issue.

The quote at the end of this article by Chamber President and CEO Bob Rohrlack is a bit disingenuous almost three years after the transportation initiative began.

“The fact that our community as a whole is talking much more about transportation is good,” Rohrlack said. “There is an overwhelming majority that is saying doing nothing is not an option.”

The county spent over $1.3 million on a taxpayer funded marketing campaign for the sales tax hike that resulted in blatant cronyism and a law enforcement investigation. Yes, the community is talking transportation but it's not talking about support for a sales tax hike.

We have been publicly saying "doing nothing is not an option" since the transportation initiative started in 2013.

We have been publicly requesting the county commissioners have a Plan B for a long time.

Where has the Chamber or the rest of the business community publicly been, especially since this crony Go Hillsborough mess? Sitting on the sidelines as we wait and wait and wait while our local roads continue to crumble and deteriorate as nothing gets done. 

If the Chamber is really serious about the "doing nothing is not an option", the Chamber should have sent their political calvary to tell the elected officials - not unelected bureaucrats - time for a serious discussion about a Plan B - no sales tax hike referendum required. The commissioners do not have to reinvent the wheel, they can start the discussion with Murman's proposal. They have all the data they need and they do not need Mike Merrill, more consultants, studies or crony PR firms.

Instead of pondering another poll, it would be refreshing to hear the Chamber publicly request the county commissioners to actually do something and NOW.

Regardless of the outcome of the law enforcement investigation, Go Hillsborough and any proposed sales tax hike has a dark cloud hanging over it. No $2 million advocacy campaign, funded and supported again by special interests or astroturf, can overcome that dark cloud.

There's a good chance a valid poll will reflect little or no appetite for another huge sales tax hike so the Chamber should just do it - do a poll. We then hope they will honestly publicly provide the results and details.

If the county commissioners vote to put a toxic sales tax hike, created by a flawed and crony marketing campaign, on the 2016 ballot, we believe it will most likely fail - and nothing will get done. We all lose.

Then what will the Chamber say?

Greater Tampa Chamber of Cronyism

Robert Triguax of the Times published a puff piece about the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce turning 130 years old. New leadership, some new companies, blah blah, aren't they great. But he accidentally let the cat out of the bag.

If only Tampa could find a way forward on improving a transportation system. It remains a controversial topic that shows little sign of positive momentum.

That is true, as we've documented repeatedly here at EyeOnTampaBay.com, starting with Beth Leytham, (a former VP of Public Affairs for GTCC) who states on her web site "[w]hether it’s working behind the scenes with decision-makers or mounting a grass-roots campaign to rally behind your cause – we can help you affect the process, not become a victim of it."

Most of that "little sign of positive momentum" is due to the cronies lined up at the trough for the relatively small beans of the Go Hillsborough initiative, exhibit one in cronyism run amok. Just wait for the real thing, and the cronies will really be looking to gorge on the public dime.

The Tampa GTCC reluctantly endorsed the plan, despite some reporting by La Gaceta of internal battles (which we've confirmed independently as well, but has not been reported in other media which required a small group of county and business leaders to cut a deal to gain the endorsement). The GTCC has been laying low given all the bad news behind the plan. They've not even bothered to publish a press release on their web site, except perhaps this broken link for the Chamber's letter to Chairman Ritch Workman in regards to Local Flexibility for Transportation Funding Options. Apparently GTCC is hoping for the dust to settle before they line up at the trough.

Then this.

[Guy] King [III, incoming GTCC leader], a longtime Tampa business observer, recalls the days when a small group of city/county leaders could sit down and cut a deal to move forward. No muss. No fuss (at least most of the time).

Triguax moves on... but he buried the lede.

"A small group of city/county leaders could sit down and cut a deal."

Where were the rest of us when those deals were cut?

The GTCC got theirs. Did you get yours?

The incoming leader of the GTCC is missing the days of cronyism and corruption. The old business as usual, cutting deals in private meetings that you and I were unaware of, but deals we get to pay for. What's not to like about a touch of crony nostalgia of the good old days?

Got that?

If you're looking for someone to blame for the way things have been in Hillsborough County, start with the connected, the self appointed elite who know better what's good for you, and how to leverage their power and money "working behind the scenes" with our politicians to get you to pay for their "deals".

As Trigaux's article confirms, many in the media know about it, yet continue to promote and enable the cronyism.

They Greater Tampa Chamber of Cronyism should live in the real world with the rest of us.

With more muss.

With more fuss.

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.

Who Are the Sales Tax Hike Cheerleaders?

Yesterdays Tribune had a front page article titled, "Hillsborough businesses ready to cheer sales tax hike".

What businesses?

The problem with that title is the article does not identify any Hillsborough businesses saying they are "ready to cheer sales tax hike".  The only person quoted representing the business community is Mickey Jacob, co-chair of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce transportation council. And quoting him, the Tribune refused to disclose that Jacob is also a member of the HART (our local transit agency) board. 

“I think we’re looking at how we build a coalition of organizations like ourselves to be out there and talking about this,” said Mickey Jacob, co-chairman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce transportation council. “We want to be right in the middle of the debate and the discussion.”

The Tribune also quotes Rick Homans, CEO of our Economic Development Corporation that has been heavily taxpayer funded to the tune of hundreds of thousands of our county tax dollars. It was Rick Homans and County Administrator Mike Merrill who invited the rail cartel to the very first Policy Leadership Group meeting in July 2013 as we reported back then.

“From my perspective, the issue that keeps coming up over and over is transportation,” said Rick Homans, president and CEO of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation. “And it’s critical we respond and be able to say, ‘Look: We’re doing something about it.’ ”

Is it good policy just throwing a huge 30 year sales tax hike out there and then saying "hey look we're doing something about transportation"? 

Is it good policy to propose a 30 year $3.5 Billion sales tax increase BEFORE identifying what it will pay for? 

Does Homans think that with a new huge 30 year sales tax hike, we can tax ourselves into prosperity?

Back to all those "business leaders ready to cheer for a huge 30 year tax hike. Where are they and who are they?

Only three other people from Hillsborough County are quoted in this entire article, a current county commissioner, a former county commissioner and our county administrator. County Commissioner Ken Hagan who has thrown his hat in to support the huge 30 year tax.

“I do not envision the county or HART being involved in any manner regarding the private-sector campaign; I think that’s dangerous ground,” Hagan said. “I think PSTA ended up making fatal flaw. We want to avoid the self-inflicted grenade even getting remotely close.”

Hagan said he expects a private-sector campaign committee will be formed after the first of the year to raise money and provide oversight. Merrill said the group will likely “organize themselves.”

Hagan said he wants to see a citizens advisory committee that includes some neighborhood leaders to advise the campaign’s executive committee.

“That’s how I envision we can dig down to the grass roots,” he said.

Did Hagan catch the quote from Jacob before his comments. Certainly he knows Jacob is a HART board member because he probably voted to put him on HART. 

Citizen oversight committees are not a simple answer to overseeing a huge long term $3.5 Billion tax. In 2002, Miami-Dade County, after a similar big public outreach campaign, voters passed a half-cent transportation sales tax called (literally) "The People's Plan" or TPT. A 15 member Citizens Independent Transportation Trust (CITT) committee was created as a mandate to provide oversight to the implementation of the TPT. Even with a citizen oversight committee, Miami-Dade transit misused funds and the FTA came in and suspended their federal funding. That will be a post for another day.

The other person from Hillsborough quoted is former County Commissioner Ed Turanchik, who drew similarities of this new 30 year sales tax to the Community Investment Tax.

Former Hillsborough Commissioner Ed Turanchik said a similar parallel can be drawn between the Go Hillsborough plan for specific projects and the Community Investment Tax passed by Hills­borough voters in 1996. The half-penny tax is best known for building Raymond James Stadium, helping keep the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in town.

We are not sure that comparing this new huge 30 year tax with the CIT tax is a complement. The CIT was blown out within 11 years when voters were promised the tax would be there for the life of the 30 year tax. However, a real good question is where was all that CIT tax money spent? Does anyone know?

The Tribune then felt compelled to jump over the bridge to Pinellas County with a quote from Joe Farrell, campaign manager for the pro Greenlight Pinellas PAC, Friends of Greenlight. 

“I think there were some people opposed to (rail) but they were opposed to it because they didn’t understand the value of it,” said Joe Farrell, campaign manager for Friends of Greenlight, a private-sector group that raised money for that campaign. Farrell said voters figured if the rail didn’t run near their job or home, it had no value to them.

The Tribune has Pinellas County Commissioner and PSTA board member Ken Welch weigh in who tries to compare the 10 year Penny for Pinellas with this new huge 30 year sales tax.

Why is the Tribune going to the head cheerleaders of the losing team in Pinellas?

Isn't it arrogant that the same people over and over keep telling us, the taxpayers/voters, that we just are not educated enough on the issue?  The problem with that argument is exactly the opposite. The public has gotten better educated and more skeptical of huge,  comprehensive, long term "something for everyone" tax hikes.

We are in a very different economic time than 1996 when the CIT barely passed 53-47. There is healthy skepticism and perhaps not a lot of desire for another 30 year sales tax hike.

The Tribune article continues with this vague description of supporters of the Go Hillsborough 30 year $3.5 Billion sales tax hike:

Despite the challenges in passing any new tax, Go Hillsborough proponents feel they will benefit from mistakes made by the failed referendums in Pinellas last year and in Hills­borough in 2010.

Here's more from the Tribune article

Another reason Go Hillsborough supporters think they can win is because of the county’s extensive public outreach campaign, something that many observers said was lacking in the 2010 referendum. The county held 36 public workshops during the spring and summer, as well as two telephone town halls. At least 56 more workshops, two at every county public library, will be held late this summer.

Why doesn't the Tribune tell us who these "Go Hillsborough proponents" and supporters are? 

Then our County Administrator Mike Merrill weighs in. 

“That’s the one thing that everyone has made a lot of is that we’re out there talking to the public and asking the public to get engaged,” Merrill said. “Just the fact that the people want me to come talk to them about it, it’s a good sign. They want to learn.”

Here's a clue. Merrill (in his newly empowered role as an unelected County Mayor) identified early on a list of stakeholders he planned to evangelize with on this issue. 

Key Stakeholder list, source Hillsborough County staff 

Tampa Bay Partnership, who led the 2010 pro rail PAC Moving Hillsborough Forward campaign and also contributed greatly to the Greenlight Pinellas campaign, is right at the top. SunTrust, who gave the very first donation of $50K to Moving Hillsborough Forward is on the list too. Do these look like grassroots?

Perhaps a better title for this Tribune article would have been "Commissioner Hagan ready to cheer sales tax hike".

Next time the Tribune makes vague statements about Hillsborough County businesses are ready to cheer a new huge 30 year, $3.5 Billion sales tax increase, we suggest they report who those business cheerleaders are.

Otherwise, are they just making this stuff up?