Community Forum on Transportation - February 13, 2019

Opening comments by Commissioners Mariella Smith, Kimberly Overman and Pat Kemp (left to right)
 

Please forgive me if the video and sound are slightly out of sync in these videos. In the rush to get this post out today, I neglected to preview the final edited versions of the videos. The sync should be close enough that you won't be distracted from the message.

Two days ago a Community Forum on Transportation was held at the Seminole Heights Library. It was hosted by the Sierra Club, a well recognized environmental advocacy organization that has been around since 1892. Considering the critical impact our new transportation initiative will have on the immediate and long range plans for transportation within Hillsborough County, I expected a huge turnout of both community activists, or advocates if you prefer, and public officials directly charged with implementing new plans for improving transportation here . I saw neither.

Questions and Answers

There were about 50 people representing the interests of the public and a grand total of 3 public officials on the panel. In this first serious attempt to establish a line of communication between our government officials and the public, of the 7 members of the County Commission, only 3 bothered to answer the open invitation to attend, Commissioners Mariella Smith, Kimberly Overman and Pat Kemp. Of the 14 members of the HART Board of Directors, only 3 members attended and coincidentally they were, Mariella Smith, Kimberly Overman and Pat Kemp. Of the 7 members of the City Council of Tampa, not one councilperson showed up. In the audience, there was 1 candidate for the upcoming election for mayor, Topher Morrison, and 2 candidates for councilmen, Walter L. Smith II and John Godwin. This dismal turnout of county government officials and candidates seems to me a clear indication that, despite the rhetoric to the contrary, the large majority of present and future hopeful officials have their own agenda of how they intend to spend this new transportation windfall and have no serious interest in the wants or needs the public, who voted for the initiative and is financing it in full. I have to add that John Turanchik, the son of Ed Turanchik, candidate for mayor, spent some time outside the event handing out flyers promoting Ed's "Go Plan", his agenda for transportation. John didn't attend the event itself. If your interest is in the people who actually rely on the bus system in Hillsborough County, I can only add that, when the host of the event asked for a show of hands of how many people in the audience had taken a bus to get to the event, only 1 person, myself, raised his hand. When he asked how many WOULD have taken a bus if there was one available to get them there, nearly half the audience raised their hands. I think the host was trying to make a point of how lacking our bus system is by asking these questions but I, personally, interpreted the responses completely differently. I found the responses rather odd because the HART MetroRapid has a stop 3 blocks from the event and I find it difficult to believe that I alone among the 50 or so attendees of the forum live near enough to a bus line capable of getting me to the event. I hope you get my point.

I also hope that, in the near future, I will see a real concerted effort to establish a working relationship between our government officials and the citizens of Hillsborough County. I'd like to see the schools in the county handing out notices to their students, to take home to their parents, advertising upcoming forums in their school auditoriums. I'd like to see questionnaires on all the buses that can be filled out and returned to any driver, asking riders what they want from the new bus system and inviting them to future outreach events. I'd like to see an upsurge by the public, demanding of the county officials, who THEY elected and whose salaries they pay for, listen to their concerns about the future of the transportation system they are funding. I'd like to see an indication by our county representatives that they will at least make an effort to reach out to the public they supposedly represent. Voting for the transportation initiative is a fine example of talking the talk. County officials telling each other how important it is to establish a concerted program of community outreach is a fine example of talking the talk. I'm hoping to see many, many more of these people begin actually walking the walk......but I'm not holding my breath.

Finally, there are thousands of Hart patrons who rely on the buses to get back and forth to work or school every day and will continue to suffer a dismally broken bus system for at least another year thanks to a lawsuit, meant to completely undermine the intent of the transportation initiative, filed by the self-serving Commissioner Stacy White. Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or any other political affiliation, you must know that Stacy White does not represent you and should not have a seat on our county commission. I urge everyone to keep this in mind when the elections come around next year.