The mayor's trip outside city limits ruffles some feathers.Political WhoreBy Wayne GarciaA few weeks ago over breakfast, newly elected county commissioner Mark Sharpe talked about some pretty big ambitions.
They included luring biomedical-related business to this region and doing a substantive re-examination of zoning and planning. He also talked about his hope that his election could provide a fresh start for strained city-county relations and give Mayor Pam Iorio the ability to work with county commissioners productively.
Unfortunately, the first item of city-related business that came winging Sharpe's way was Iorio's request for $7 million in state and federal dollars to fund a 0.8-mile extension of the Ybor City trolley line marginally further into downtown.
The project has boondoggle written all over it, and few outside of downtown — let alone out in Republican suburban and rural Hillsborough County — can see the wisdom in it. A member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization that controls those road monies, Sharpe had to say no, but then phoned the mayor to urge her not to allow that to stand between a better relationship.
I want to work with Iorio, Sharpe said emphatically, adding he wished the mayor had chosen her first request of him more carefully.
But in the latest round of protocol-busting and feather-ruffling, some at County Center are quietly upset with the mayor's recent foray onto their turf — specifically at Armwood High School to laud the state champion football team.
Here is what happened: Iorio appeared January 10 at the suburban high school outside of city limits to proclaim Armwood Hawks Day in Tampa and to toss a football for a photo op with all-star fullback Kalvin Bailey. Iorio's county politicking was laughed off in most news coverage. "It doesn't matter that Armwood is located in Seffner, which the mayor said the city has no plans to annex," the Tampa Tribune wrote.
"When people live in Carrollwood or Seffner or down in Ruskin, they still say to the outside world when you represent a state championship, that you're from Tampa," Iorio said on Bay News 9. "So we look at it as one community." Many Armwood players also live in Tampa, so Iorio is their mayor. Let's not forget that Iorio also has served in countywide positions before, as county commissioner and supervisor of elections.
Fair enough.
But the behind-the-scenes grumbling among a few commissioners and staffers began anyway, coupled with some rumor-mongering about whether Iorio was trying to lay a wider groundwork through this appearance and one last August in Sun City Center for a push to create a county mayor's position, the long-sought Holy Grail of political fiefdoms in these parts.
Although no one would say it on the record, some felt that Iorio's Armwood visit violated the delicate etiquette that calls for public officials to include their brethren when they are on their turf, or at least not step on their toes. The county commission has yet to do its own lauding of the Armwood Hawks.
If you recall in January 2004, Iorio was sharply criticized by Commissioners Ronda Storms and Jim Norman during her attempt to win approval for the Civitas redevelopment project for what was perceived to be a lack of respect for the commissioners' role in the approval process.
Neither Norman nor Storms responded to a request for an interview about the Armwood matter.
For the record, Iorio says she's not campaigning for anything, let alone a non-existent office of county mayor.
"People in this whole media market want the mayor to speak to them," Iorio said. "I get requests for speaking from all over the region. I don't look at where the city starts and ends. It is a terribly parochial view to take."
The Armwood tiff may be a bit silly, yes. Inconsequential? Maybe not.
Even perceived slights can be used to prevent real progress in city-county cooperation. Some of this is the natural result of the growing power of county politics, the enormous challenge of residential growth in unincorporated Hillsborough and a fractious county commission that has trouble getting along with itself, let alone the Mayor of Tampa. But it's important that the two entities learn to work together because many projects the city wants to undertake (including redeveloping the urban-core neighborhood at Central Park Village) require buy-in from the county commissioners.
Iorio suggests that notions of city-county disfunctionality are exaggerated.
"Here in Hillsborough County, the issue is really overblown," the mayor said. "When I talk with mayors all over the state, they have all kinds of battles all over the state with their county counterparts, others going to court. We really don't have anything."
She offered as proof of goodwill the county commissioners joining with her to transfer ownership of the St. Pete Times Forum to the county so the Tampa Bay Lightning can be exempt from property taxes.
As for Armwood fans, they see their team's appeal as transcending county/ city divisions (and political pie-tossing).
"It would be sort of silly to say it is only a county team," said Bill McBride, president of Armwood's Booster Club, father of the team's starting right guard and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate. "This is a team for everybody."
The Political Whore freely travels outside of city limits without attracting criticism. You can reach Political Whore at (813) 832-6427 or by e-mail at wayne.garcia@weeklyplanet.com.
New Faces
An occasional series about the next generation of Tampa Bay's political leadershipMatt King, Tarpon Springs
He's 28, his law office is small and intensely used, and his biggest passion is finding a new site for a vintage house behind his office that is being threatened with demolition. Oh, and Matt King is also running for the Tarpon Springs City Commission against an incumbent.
King, a former Pinellas-Pasco prosecutor and Seminole Heights native, said memories of living in that historic Tampa neighborhood are fueling his campaign to keep his new home's small-town charm intact. He moved to Tarp on Springs, his wife's hometown, because he found "a community unspoiled by the proverbial 'race to the bottom' that too many cities are engaged in." At the center of his first campaign is opposition to Wal-Mart's development plans. Last week, King began airing a radio ad urging his neighbors to speak out against the big box retailer's proposal.
This article appears in Jan 19-25, 2005.