Rose Ferlita is smiling and shaking her head. It's about halfway through the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners' hour-and-a-half-long discussion on the Kevin White case last week, and she appears to be trying to contain herself as her embattled colleague is declaring to the board, the dozens of people present at the County Center, and to the audience watching on the local government broadcast that, in fact, he is guilty of nothing — despite the fact that a U.S. District Court jury decided last month that White discriminated against Alyssa Ogden, a former aide, by firing her for refusing his repeated sexual advances.
Although the White case pales on the salaciousness meter with other sex scandals in the news (Polanski, Letterman, Sanford), the fallout has been challenging for County Commissioners.
That's because White's fall from grace hasn't been all about him, or his transgressions. It's become an issue for the County Commission and for every taxpaying member of the county, who are (as of this writing) on the hook for approximately half a million dollars, after Federal Judge Richard Lazarra ruled that the county was equally culpable with White because of its failures to provide strong discrimination protection for many of its employees, like Ogden.
But while White's fellow board members have appeared like they'd rather be doing anything but discuss his embarrassing situation, Ferlita has been the driving force in trying to hold White accountable — culminating in a formal motion last week asking her colleagues to sue him to pay off some of the county's debt on the issue (the motion failed on a 3-3 tie).
In the words of University of Tampa Communications and Government Professor Scott Paine, who lost a cliffhanger election to Ferlita in her first race for office for Tampa City Council in 1999, "What Rose has put her finger on — and it's characteristic of her — is to say, this stinks for taxpayers. And she's not going to sit there quietly, she's going to try to make something happen."
Ferlita has dominated the board's discussion about the White issue since it first came before them in late August. County Attorney Renee Lee said that she preferred the board hold all meetings on the White saga in private, citing a state statute that allowed legal discussions to be exempt from the Sunshine Law.
But Ferlita would have none of that, taking the pre-emptive move of telling reporters two days before the board was to convene that she disagreed with Lee, and would not think of attending a meeting held behind closed doors.
Later, her colleagues followed suit.
As gossip continues about potential Tampa mayoral candidates to succeed a term-limited Pam Iorio in 2011 (Jim Davis, Dick Greco, Bob Buckhorn, Thomas Scott, Mary Mulhern, among others), a name that is on the top of many people's lists is Ferlita, an Ybor City native who will turn 64 the day after Christmas.
But Ferlita says that she won't even address her future until sometime in 2010, calling such speculation a distraction right now.
When asked to account for her aggressiveness on the White issue, Ferlita says it's all about accountability.
"This is like an election. It's not about me and Kevin White. It's about me and the constituents, and I can assure you, people are not happy. They want us to hold him accountable, and we haven't." When asked why she seems more driven than her colleagues to do just that, she says she can't explain why they haven't been as outspoken as herself.
But not everyone admires her zeal. Political activist Jarvis El-Amin, says she's "posturing" for the 2011 campaign "at Kevin White's expense."
(Commissioner White did not return CL's call for comment.)
El-Amin attended White's week-long trial. He says Commissioner White is guilty of bad judgment, but not sexual harassment, and he says he intends to rally the black community to hold a "huge campaign against her" if Ferlita runs for Mayor.
And a close observer of the Tampa political scene who wished not to be identified calls Ferlita's pursuit of White "showboating." He says that there is a competitive side to her "that doesn't play well with her colleagues," adding "there is something to be said for mayoral temperament."
UT Professor Scott Paine says that Ferlita pushes hard, which he considers a strength. But, he says, "culturally that could become a liability."
Ferlita's fierceness doesn't stop at calling out colleagues. She has publicly lambasted the county's Internal Performance Auditor, Jim Barnes, on several occasions, including last month when he turned in a review of County Administrator Pat Bean's pay raises to top staffers and herself. Ferlita was among several commissioners who criticized Barnes for failing to contact Bean for a response before releasing the report, but Ferlita's remarks were the most pointed.
Tampa City Councilman John Dingfelder served with Ferlita on Tampa City Council for over three years. Regarding her anger, he says, "Rose needs to work on that personally." But at the same time, he adds, "When you feel passionately, you tend to be more passionate and more vocal."
Some observers say the criticisms of Ferlita's temperament constitute a classic example of holding a woman to a different standard. Pat Kemp is chair of the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee. She thinks other commissioners in the past have been just as hard-edged, "but they're not going to be noticed as much. Brian Blair and Jim Norman have been angry at a fair amount of meetings in the past."
For Ferlita's part, she is aware of observations that she has anger management issues. "I'm intense about everything I do. I'm intense about the standards I hold myself to."
She says she's relentless, but "more so on myself than anyone else." She says friends occasionally will chide her for not smiling more during commission meetings. "I forget that I'm supposed to be entertaining on TV," she says sarcastically. "I'm concentrating on doing a job."
And when it comes to doing her job, many local citizens say she's doing it as well as anybody these days.
Mariella Smith lives in Ferlita's district on the BOCC. She admits that she was not an original supporter of Ferlita when she ran for her county seat in 2006, saying she was concerned because of her support from developers, who "usually back the worst politicians around here."
But Smith says she's become an enthusiast, admiring her leadership. "While other commissioners will see which way the wind is blowing on the board, Rose has the courage of her convictions, and will vote her conscience, regardless of who else is with her — on the board or on the money side of local politics."
Lithia resident and CL blogger Kelly Cornelius helped form the civic group R-LAND in 2007(Rural Lithia Neighborhood Defense) to fight a proposed toll road in her neighborhood. She says Ferlita, who did not even represent her district, listened to her group's concerns and stood up for them publicly.
"Since then, she has continued to earn my respect on many issues… She does her homework, she is smart, and she is fearless."
Ferlita has carved out a reputation of being an old-fashioned Republican moderate. She's proud of her leadership role on the county's Renewable and Sustainable Energy Workgroup, as well as her efforts to stave off the elimination of the Environmental Protection Commission and to protect wetlands back in 2007 (though she jokes about never having been endorsed by the Sierra Club).
But as a moderate Republican, she's had her reputation sullied by the social conservative wing of her party.
In her run for the District 1 seat on the County Commission in 2006, Ferlita ran against Brad Swanson, a former official with the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, in the GOP primary.
Swanson ran what could charitably be called a vicious campaign, questioning her credentials as a Republican and telling the St. Petersburg Times that "She repeatedly votes in favor of the gay agenda. It is her responsibility to explain to the voters why at every turn she pushes the gay agenda and every vote opportunity she supports it."
But it appeared as a mean-spirited attack on Ferlita, who is single and lives by herself in South Tampa. In fact, there is very little if any record of the council voting on any issues involving the LGBT community during her tenure there.
Ferlita describes that '06 campaign as a lot of mud-slinging, and says she has no time for the social conservative wing of the GOP.
"In the past, the Republican Party has shown that they don't like moderates. The right wing of the party should not have the right to tell you what to do on a personal or moral basis. You can't impose your morality on anyone. People don't want government to tell them what to do, people want government to help them make their choices."
For much of her career until she came on the County Commission nearly three years ago, Ferlita was a pharmacist; her Rose Drugs establishment in Seminole Heights made her a community force, leading to her becoming president of the Southeast Seminole Heights Civic Association. And even though she sold her shop to CVS in 2007, she still works in her former occupation about 10 hours a week at a Hyde Park CVS. When asked her thoughts on the current health care debate, she says though she sees a need for improvement in the system (in particular with Medicaid fraud), she is opposed to any significant government involvement (yet believes that insurance companies do need more competition).
For now, the County Commission is in a wait-and-see mode, as they wait to hear whether their insurance company will honor the county's claim for coverage for expenses paid out in the White case.
If the insurance company approves the claim, the damages to taxpayers will be "limited" to the $350,000 deductible. Commissioner White has applied to have the insurance policy pay for his legal fees and damages as well.
But if the company denies the county's claim, you can bet that Commissioner Ferlita will continue to call for litigation to sue Commissioner White, and the next time around she may get that fourth vote to join her.
As the race to lead Tampa's future begins to take shape in the post-Iorio world in the next year and a half, many candidates will promise to fight for the citizens and taxpayers of this town perpetually known as "America's next great city." But one candidate will have the last couple of months as proof that she's already done it.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.