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HELP JOHN HERE
Friday, January 18, 2019
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Hillsborough Commissioners are seeking residents to serve on the Independent Oversight Committee.
Hillsborough Commissioners are seeking residents to serve on the Independent Oversight Committee. This Committee was created to ensure that the distribution and expenditures of the Transportation Surtax are successfully implemented. INFO
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
To MPO or not to MPO
The Hillsborough MPO (Metropolitan Planning Organization) is tasked with policy making for long-range transportation needs in the county. Last night's meeting was a presentation of the results of several workshops conducted by TBARTA (Tampa Bay Area Regional Transit Authority) intended to assess the feasibility of merging the MPOs of Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco counties into a single regional MPO. The presentation was given by Scott Lane of Stantec Consulting Services, Center for Transportation Research, a consulting firm commissioned by TBARTA.
So, buckle your seatbelts, folks, and get ready for the ride (pun intended). Below is the complete video of the meeting.
The really, really exciting moments in the meeting are at the following time marks in the video:
41:44
County Commissioner Pat Kemp presents a well elucidated counter-point argument in opposition to the merging of MPOs.
1:00:30
Tampa Councilman Harry Cohen presents a very passionate statement opposing an MPO merger.
1:04:30
The public speaks on the issue, every one of who vehemently opposes the idea of an MPO merger.
1:21:10
My good friend, Dayna, presents a convincing argument against the idea of merging MPOs
1:24:28
My pretty face (at least until the switch to the front view camera) unexpectedly appears and I elucidate on the practice of our local government bodies brazenly and openly making efforts to circumvent Florida's Sunshine Laws.
Ok, maybe it could have been a little more exciting but the circus performers and the Riverdance crew had last minute engagements elsewhere.
In reality though, the ongoing meetings by several committees of our local government and HART concerning transportation improvements in the area will have a VERY important bearing on the future of the transportation needs of you, the citizens. I can not express strongly enough that each and every person in the county, who cares about our future, should make every effort to stay aware of what these committees are doing and, whenever possible, come to these meetings and use your voice. Our government officials are not likely to make great efforts to come to us so.....WE MUST GO TO THEM!
Xenophobia and Racism from Florida's Annabelle Lima-Taub
A Hallandale Beach Commissioner she is facing calls to resign after saying Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Muslim, might “blow up Capitol Hill.” HERE
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Ybor City Demolition/Collateral Damage
Rays Demolition: Lets Start here
15th St. South to Adamo Dr.
4th Ave West to Channelside Dr.
Collateral Damage
Ybor City, Florida
For the uninformed!
Extinction Rebellion Tampa Bay
Extinction Rebellion is a Declaration of International Non-Violent Rebellion Against the World’s Governments (in our case the US) for Criminal Inaction on the Ecological Crisis. This group represents the Tampa Bay region
of Florida. INFO
of Florida. INFO
Blue Ticket Consulting: Nice Work If You Can Get It
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The ethical lapse could have been triggered by a string of previous losses by the Democratic consulting firm.
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Blue Ticket is representing Ed Turamchik in the Tampa mayor’s race. Turanchik so far has spent $14,640.90 with Blue Ticket, His gravitas with Tampa’s progressive community has evaporated.
More by Jim Bleyer
Is this the same consulting firm that advised Mr. Turamchik to kick off his campaign with 2 of Tampa's greatest Right Wingers who have made their careers on bashing Dems? Maybe that is where the
evaporation started!
evaporation started!
Monday, January 14, 2019
What we don't know CAN hurt us!
During the last BOCC meeting (1/9/19), several statements were made that indicate that our county commission not only intended to conduct negotiations with the Tampa Bay Rays out of the view of the public, who they expected to bare half of the billion dollars of constructing a new stadium in Ybor City, but that they intend to CONTINUE negotiations without public scrutiny. All text in white are directly from the official closed caption scripts of the commission meeting.
Mariella Smith: Over four years ago in October of 2014, a working group was formed to explore the potential of having a stadium in Hillsborough County. Commissioner Hagan was designated as the county's representative, the mayor represented the city of Tampa and we had a representative from the sports authority and some private interest were on that working group. Things are very different now than they were when this working group was formed over four years ago. Things are different now than they were when we last discussed this. Some of the main reasons for having a working group that could operate out of the sunshine no longer apply. For example, they selected their preferred site location and that is public knowledge now. The county has presented a proposed funding framework and that is public knowledge and with all that public information, the public has been wanting to be more involved in the discussions and have more input.
This working group was obviously never meant to "explore the potential of having a baseball stadium in Hillsborough County"; it's purpose was to secretely negotiate a financial deal with the RAYS franchise. Commissioner Smith describes the working group as one whose intent was to work outside the state sunshine laws, i.e. without public knowledge, and how information discovered by a local news media outlet made the negotiations known to the public. Because of the public becoming aware of those negotiations and the resulting backlash against a Rays stadium, Commissioner Smith rightfully felt that this secret working group no longer applied and should be disbanded.
Ken Hagan: I completely agree with those comments. Working within the confines of the sunshine law can be challenging.
Commissioner Hagan affirmed the difficulty of conducting business in the light of public scrutiny. OF COURSE IT IS when you know that the public would disapprove of what is being negotiated. On more than one occasion Ken Hagan stated clearly that he intended for the process used by the Atlanta Braves franchise to relocate their stadium to be the blueprint for how he planned to conduct the process for the Rays franchise move to Tampa. The Atlanta Braves process was conducted completely in secret and even approved by the Cobb County Commission secretly. The president of the Atlanta Braves, John Schuerholz, later admitted that the deal had to be in private to avoid a public backlash (HERE). Ken Hagan intended to keep the Rays negotiations secret from the public for the same reason. How is that even close to being ethical for a commission whose sole purpose is to represent the needs of the people of Hillsborough County?
Less Miller: And the other thing, our attorney is still having conversations both with the baseball commissioner and with Stu Sternberg. I didn't want you to leave here thinking all conversations have stopped because until the Rays sign a contract with Saint Pete or some other city, from our point of view, keeping the lines open are important and, in particular, our attorney wanted both the baseball commissioner and Stu to know that we, in fact, when we said we had private investment money, [w]e did. He offered to provide that to the baseball commissioner as evidence because the commissioner wrote a rather unpleasant letter to us saying he didn't think we had the money. We did have private investors who provide a proposal. He wanted Stu to know that as well. We had our 50% and I didn't want anybody to think....(at this point, Less Miller was cut off by another commissioner)
Here, Les Miller, placating those with financial interests, makes it clear that negotiations WILL continue, and continue outside the state sunshine laws. He also stresses that 50% of the cost for building the stadium has been committed by private interests but neglects to mention that the other 50% would come from public funds. The baseball commissioner was right in saying that we didn't have the money. That other 50%, that $500 million, would be OUR money and the commission, by voting to continue the working group and continue negotiations outside our sunshine laws, are effectively saying that our voice doesn't matter in decisions concerning how OUR money is to be spent. If they are allowed to continue this debacle unopposed, it will benefit only a select few individuals at our expense. Public funds are intended to be used to benefit the PUBLIC and not enrich a few. Independent studies overwhelmingly show that major sports venues DO NOT economically benefit the communities in which they operate.
WHAT DO WE DO WHEN THEY STEAL OUR MONEY?!
Florida GOP Officially The Party Of Donald Trump
Joe Gruters declared the state GOP “the party of
Donald Trump” after he was overwhelming elected chairman by party officials on Saturday. HERE
Alex Sink Gaslighting
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Rick Scott Is Pissing Off All The Florida Republicans
Florida's former asshole governor Rick Scott and Florida's new asshole governor Ron DeSantis have been butting heads for the last week or so, making a bit of a hash of DeSantis's transition into office. HERE
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Donald L Dowridge Jr at Saunders Library in Ybor City
CELEBRATING THE LIFE OF
DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
JOIN DONALD L. DOWRIDGE, JR.
FOR A IN DEPTH LOOK & TEACHING ON THIS
CIVIL RIGHTS ICON!
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JANUARY 14TH 5:30 PM!
Robert W. Saunders Sr. Library
THIS EVENT IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC.
JOIN DONALD L. DOWRIDGE, JR.
FOR A IN DEPTH LOOK & TEACHING ON THIS
CIVIL RIGHTS ICON!
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JANUARY 14TH 5:30 PM!
Robert W. Saunders Sr. Library
THIS EVENT IS FREE TO THE PUBLIC.
Saturday, January 12, 2019
RAYBOR IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL DAMN IT!
For the last regular meeting of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, held on January 9, there was an item (Item F-8), which was added as an addendum to the agenda as the last item for discussion. Yesterday, Item F-8 was listed as an agenda item "F-8 Discussion concerning the County's representation in any future negotiations with the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team regarding a stadium in the County.". Today, the official agenda (HERE) shows that Item F-8 has been deleted and relisted at the end of the agenda as "F-8 Off the Agenda". The discussion DID take place at the end of the Commission meeting, as you will see in the following videos, so it WAS officially addressed during the meeting. The following videos and texts will clearly show that the negotiations to bring the Rays franchise here to Hillsborough County and very possibly the original selected site in Ybor City are still very much active and still being held outside public scrutiny. During the discussion Mariella Smith, one of our new commissioners, placed a motion to disband the commission's involvement in the "informal" work group created in 2015 to negotiate with the Rays. In a 4-3 vote, Commissioner Smith's motion was defeated (Commissioners Hagan, Miller, Murman and Overman voted to retain the Commission's active involvement in the work group and therefore continuing negotiations). It was mentioned during the discussions that the contract for the legal firm hired by the Commission to represent them during their involvement in the negotiations will be taken over by the Tampa Sports Authority. Ken Hagen stated "The TSA assumed Council's contract and any future negotiations will be led by the TSA.". The TSA has no obligation to make public any of their proceedings.
I will present here segments of the video of this County Commission meeting, touching on the most pertinent statements during the discussion. With each segment, I will give some commentary of the VERY obvious implications that arose. The full video of the meeting can be found HERE and the Item F-8 discussion begins at 3:28:24 in the video.
In the first video excerpt, Mariella Smith explains why the working group, which was intended to work "out of the sunshine" is no longer needed.
In this excerpt, Ken Hagan explains why Commissioner Smith's intended motion is "moot" and, as he has many times, expressed that he is not and never was a "negotiator" during the dealings with the Rays. Hagan, quite obviously does not want negotiations to end because he, the County Administrator, Mike Merrill, and other friends of his, who were given information withheld from the public, have made serious financial investments into the success of a Rays stadium in Ybor. At the end of the video, I have added an excerpt from a radio interview Hagan did in 2017* (HERE) which clearly shows that he was taking a lead in the negotiations with the owner and manager of the Rays and that he was having private meetings with both. Though he stresses that he was never "officially" a negotiator, he was definitely a negotiator, if not the lead negotiator.
Pat Kemp states that things have changed since the last meeting, alluding to the fact that much of what the Commission intended to keep secret was ultimately reported by local media and that the public, namely the Ybor 6, responded. She also explains that even she, a commissioner on the board, had difficulties obtaining information from the working group. Les Miller then asks Commissioner Smith, "Do you think a motion is necessary at this point?", seemingly trying to encourage Mariella Smith to retract her motion. She doesn't but instead places the motion before the board.
And that leaves a couple final comments and the vote. Ken Hagan again tries to counter the motion by offending Commissioner Smith and calling it "meaningless", in a patronizing and insulting way. He then contradicts his "meaningless" comment by explaining that voting Yes on the motion might effectively "kill the deal" with the Rays. Les Miller climbs onto the misogynistic challenge to Commissioner Smith by calling the motion "fruitless" and "not appropriate". The motion is then voted on and defeated. Kimberly Overman, had she been the progressive she purports to be, could have been the vote to help kill the negotiations with the Rays but, instead voted to NOT disband the working group.
To wrap it all up, our County Commission is making it clear that negotiations are going to continue with the Rays franchise and that, because their plans for secrecy were thwarted by a local media outlet and the appearance of several citizens at the last meeting, voicing their clear opposition to RAYBOR, future negotiations will be conducted even further from the public eye. The negotiations are being handed chiefly to the Tampa Sports Authority in order to further conceal from the public what they are doing, in effect moving the back room dealing to a back room in the back of the back room. During the discussion, both Mike Merrill and Les Miller stated that "We have the money!" but they continue to ignore that they have only private investor's money, which amounts to 50% of the projected cost of a new stadium and ignoring that they ultimately intend to use $500 million, or more, of taxpayer funds to make up the other 50%.. Besides the private investments to partially fund the cost of the stadium, there is is also money invested in properties in the area surrounding the originally proposed Ybor City site and I have no doubt that the continuing negotiations will focus on Ybor City.
We have GOT to continue to pressure the officials in our government to listen to the citizens they are sworn to serve and end forever any further negotiations to move the Rays to Hillsborough County, and especially to Ybor City, and to realize that the voters of this county will NEVER accept having to fund half of the third most expensive stadium ever built, yet the smallest stadium in all Major League Baseball, smaller even than Tropicana Field. It would be doomed to fail and destroy Ybor City along with it.
* Correction: Ken Hagan's interview with Sports Talk Florida took place on May 31, 2017 instead of in 2015 as I mistakenly stated.
County Keeping Rays Ybor City Plan in Play
Even though the team has walked away from discussions, Hillsborough County is working for now to keep the door open for a new Tampa Bay Rays ballpark
Hillsborough County Commissioners Overman, Murman, Miller, and Hagan nixed a motion that called for disbanding a working group created several years ago to help bring the Rays to Tampa. Officials indicated instead that, for now, they want to keep the proposal on the table in the event that discussions could resume. MORE
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"Why would Kimberly Overman join Murman, Miller, and Ken Hagan in voting to keep the Raybor working group? This takes away any transparency that we should have in regards to continued negotiations to bring the Rays
to Tampa." Beth Eriksen Shoup
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"Why would Kimberly Overman join Murman, Miller, and Ken Hagan in voting to keep the Raybor working group? This takes away any transparency that we should have in regards to continued negotiations to bring the Rays
to Tampa." Beth Eriksen Shoup
MARCO RUBIO AND HIS COLLEAGUES NEED A REFRESHER ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT
This week, amid a partial government shutdown, senators tried to sneak through a bill that would encourage states to suppress constitutionally protected political boycotts of Israel.
Ultimately, the Combating BDS Act failed to make it to the Senate floor, largely because enough people exercised their First Amendment right to protest the bill and educate senators that they should get their priorities straight. HERE
Friday, January 11, 2019
Vigil for Border Patrol Victims / NO WALL - January 10, 2019
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