After almost a year of battling and wasting over $50,000 of your money to study it, Cone Ranch is finally safe. Commissioners voted to have it go to ELAPP immediately without the expensive appraisal or highest and best use price tag. Recall highly paid staff member Mike Merrill had convinced the board that these were needed during the last discussion and vote on this issue. Since then Merrill has been under fire from citizens including attorneys and panel members that his recommendations were wrong. While he never really admitted to being wrong, he did give the board an option to transfer the land at book value (not highest and best use) and without an expensive appraisal to ELAPP immediately during Thursday's meeting so it sure seems to me like he was very wrong about those bond covenants. Nobody questioned him about his past recommendations during his presentation though. I hope as the financial guru for the county he gets our money back from those expensive bond counsel opinions. Higginbotham and Norman appeared confused at transferring the land this way and ultimately the vote on Commissioner Kevin Beckner's motion was 6-1 Higgnbotham voting no (I know you are shocked). Anyway, that is one of my 12 NIMBY Christmas wishes for Hillsborough County checked off.
Earlier that morning was part of the discussion on taxpayers funding Kevin White's sexual harassing. White and the County were found to be co-defendants in his case vs. Alyssa Ogden and all totaled the costs are almost $500,000 (or 9.1 Hookers). For the fifth time Commissioner Rose Ferlita asked White if he was willing to help pay. For the fifth time he avoided an answer but finally said "you can't get blood out of a turnip." He later threatened the board with countersuing the county, citing secret details that were not revealed during the first time around. I found it odd that he couldn't afford to help pay the judgment but that he could afford to countersue? Hmmm. I also wondered if he gave the county any binding assurances that he wouldn't sue for these secret details later down the line regardless of the county's actions toward him now.
His attorney counseled him in filing bankruptcy (which according to this article he has done before) and also threatened the other Commissioners with further litigation against the county (yawn). So maybe you can get blood out of a turnip if is for countersuing but not paying up on judgments?
If Commissioners let White's actions go unanswered then it would send a message that taxpayers are and will be financially responsible for wayward Commissioner's action. They worried about spending money to pursue the suit, which is a legitimate concern, but not holding White accountable for the cost that taxpayers would otherwise have to fund seemed like it would be even worse. Would they hold him accountable or let him walk? We would have to wait until the last item of the day when the item was continued to in order to find out. I urged them in an email to pick the bar up out of the gutter and if they didn't have the courage to raise it high then at least get it out of the dirt and set it low regarding what kind of behavior would be tolerated by elected officials and at what cost to taxpayers.
Ferlita made the motion to sue White and you could have heard a pin drop. Next Higginbotham made a push for mediation (which earlier it was explained that mediation wouldn't force White to pay anything). So, in their typical tits on a bull fashion they fumbled, mumbled, and played hot potato with this issue and White again said he couldn't pay. Newsflash Mr. White: Neither can we! Have you seen the budget?
White cited his family and his children in college many times throughout the meeting, saying he put them first and I couldn't help but wonder if he put them first during that trip to Atlanta with his young aide?
Finally after squirming, looking at mediation options which White said he would go to but indicated he still couldn't pay, Commissioners voted 6-1 to sue White (White voting no!) Should he have even had a vote?
Thank goodness they are finally clearing some of these scandals up. I am sure they have more pressing things to do like decide on controversial speed humps or whether or not to approve more land for development without sufficient infrastructure or even enough water.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2010.