Although there appeared to be less than full-fledged support during the debate, Hillsborough County Commissioners voted unanimously today to approve funding $150,000 to a San Francisco Bay Area based nonprofit organization and a local facilitator to assist a county task force in addressing violence prevention.
In January — at the first Board of County Commissioners meeting of 2013, as well as the first meeting since the Newtown, Conn., shooting — the Board approved Commissioner Kevin Beckner's motion to form a task force to deal with violence in the county. Since then, County Administrator Mike Merrill, Commissioner Beckner, and their respective staffs have been working on a proposal.
Beckner's first motion at that January meeting — to have the county invest in a gun buyback program — died without generating much support.
The $150,000 will come out of the county's Victim Assistance, Crime Prevention, and Youth Advocacy Fund, and will go to the Prevention Institute based in Oakland, and to professional facilitator Herb Marlowe.
This article appears in Apr 4-10, 2013.