By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND, UCAN, Amendment 4, FSP activist
Views expressed are my own and not necessarily those of the organizations to which I belong
You probably already heard the headlines – Hillsborough County Commission puts the rail referendum on the 2010 ballot. OK, so you’ve got the headline, but what about all of the antics that occurred during this meeting at county center? This is what makes a commission meeting more exhilarating than a mammogram with cold compression plates or a prostate exam done by a football player turned doctor.
The December 2, 2090 commission meeting had a lot of little side shows that occurred.
The king of rule changers does his thing
Chairman Ken Half-Truth Hagan was up to his old tricks of manipulating the rules to give political cronies special consideration. After 15 citizens spoke (40 had signed up to speak, but only 15 fit into the 45 minute time allotted @ 3 min per person), Half Truth suddenly announces that he was giving his political buddy, David Caton, 5 minutes to speak. He said that David contacted him in advance of the meeting and said he needed 5 minutes. Half-Truth’s second reason was that Caton represented a group. So by being generous with his buddy and putting him on the list with extra time, he disappointed a lot of citizens who were turned away. Interesting how when "connected" people ask for the rules to be bent, Half-Truth always says, “what rules?” Now that’s what I call political patronage at its best!
In case you didn’t know, Half-Truth routinely makes up his own rules to eliminate certain speakers or force them to wait until the end of the day to speak, as reported previously by CL contributor Kelly Cornelius. Because so many have complained, the commissioners are going to discuss the issue at their workshop retreat this month. And don’t go rushing down to that retreat workshop thinking that you’ll give them an earful about not being allowed to speak because at that workshop you have to be invited to speak.
Mastubator-turned-moralist makes strange bedfellow in rail opposition
David Caton, founder of the Florida Family Association, used his ill-begotten 5 minutes of speaking time to oppose the rail referendum. Caton railed against rail, saying that the data used was flawed and that it was too much of a burden to increase taxes with such a high rate of unemployment. The Florida Family Assn. is a conservative moral watchdog organization, but no one really knows if he is the only member or not. He has great credentials for holding that post. He claims to have been addicted to pornography and masturbation. How was he cured of this addiction? Did he undergo a 12 step program? Is it similar to what an alcoholic faces – if he does it just one more time, will his addiction return? I stopped reading my copy of Playboy and hid it under my seat as he left the boardroom. One thing is certain, Half-Truth has some interesting cronies.
Damage Control to the rescue
One of the speakers was a car dealer (didn’t get his name) that opposed the rail referendum saying that the auto business was struggling and imposing a higher tax would hinder sales and cause some dealers to go under. He seemed reasonable and credible. His concerns are legitimate. As soon as he goes back to his seat, Half-Truth’s aide, Rich Reidy, comes running over to have dialogue with this guy. I was sitting directly behind him when Reidy came over. Reidy knows that if I’m within earshot of his conversation with this guy, he’ll probably see some of it in print. He then asks the guy to step out into the lobby so they can converse privately. They are good at damage control. When they see a credible speaker (particularly one that hasn’t been seen before) that opposes something they want and gets the rooms attention, the alarms do go off.
Then the racial outbursts
Half-Truth no sooner announces that public comment is closed and one of the citizens that got shut out of speaking, community/black activist Michele Williams, jumps up and starts storming out of the room. She had another woman and 3 men sitting with her. They all start storming out. One of the men starts shouting at Hagan, saying that blacks aren’t being allowed to speak. Half Truth tells the court officer to escort the man out of the room. The man yells back, “I don’t need no help”. Half-Truth has to have the last word, so he yells at them in a sarcastic tone, “and have a nice day”. As Michele is going out the door she says, “they think I’m not gonna speak?…wait till you see what I’m gonna do…I got a bullhorn!!!” So 5 minutes later you hear a booming electronic voice coming from the street. And there is Michele and her cohorts pacing on the sidewalk below. Michele goes on and on using the bullhorn. Look, these citizens have to understand that the chairman is the chairman and he can do whatever he likes. And you thought Hillsborough ran like a well oiled machine?
Dancing Piggy
During the presentation that Lucia Garsys made to the board outlining the preparation for moving forward with the rail referendum, citizen advocate Marcella O’Steen was in clear view of the broadcast camera so she decided to push her ideas on the referendum by holding a sign that had an image of a pig with the caption, “No Pork in the Penny”. The audience in the back of the room was hysterical laughing watching that little pig dance around as the staff in front of her was talking about billions of dollars and a 30 year plus project. The point Marcella wanted to make is that she objects to the “pork” (paying for road improvements that developers walked away from) that’s been put into the referendum package.
Higginbotham lobby’s in the lobby
Commissioner Higginbotham wanted to delay the referendum issue to allow for more hearings to be held and for the public to give their input before the commission decides. After the vote took place and they broke for lunch, Higgy (Higginbotham’s nickname) approached us in the lobby. He’s clearly looking for support regarding the position he took. He told us (myself and other advocates) that we better be careful about this referendum because Commissioner Sharpe is talking about putting a beltway through east Hillsborough. We told him that was dead issue. He told us he’d send us an article that would prove that it’s currently being considered by Sharpe and others. Later that day we did some research on that article and discovered that it was written in 2006 (before citizens defeated that initiative and got it removed from the county’s plan). Remember, you can’t believe everything you read in the papers or what politicians tell you is the current state of affairs.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2009.