Good morning everyone.
The Florida Legislature is up in Tallahassee this week, doing things that they do when they're not officially "in" session (Don't you ever think that maybe the regular session should be longer than 2 months, by the way?) Bills are being prepped as I write, and one of them is a piece of legislation that alarmed not just environmentalists a year and a half ago, but also mayors and county commissioners of large regions of the state as well. That was SB 360, the law that gutted a lot of legislation already put on growth management from the 1980's. A judge threw it out this summer, calling it unconstitutional. Now the legislator who brought that to the floor is ready to scale it down in an attempt to pass it year coming year in the Legislature.
We learned this morning through the St. Pete Times that Rick Barcena, the co-owner of Rigatoni's restaurant in Tampa who ran for City Council in 2007, is running again for the coming election, this time in District 1. And we reported yesterday on a new entrant in the District 4 race, Dennis Meyers.
And the Hillsborough County Commission will be tied up all day at a retreat, where they'll be discussing the goals of the coming year. Interim County Administrator Mike Merrill has a lot of ideas of his own, as he previewed the other day.
the report here.
This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2010.