Like no time in recent history, many of our Tampa Bay politicians are showing they are hopelessly out of touch with the public and have developed a tin ear.
The latest, prime example of this was a tiff last week between Hillsborough County Commissioners Brian Blair and Al Higginbotham, both social conservatives and Republicans.
As prelude, it's important to know that both have had their ethics questioned in recent media reports: Higginbotham in a solid-waste issue connected to his wife, Blair using his influence to get his lake cleaned.
So when Higginbotham suggested that perhaps he and his colleagues should cut their $600-a-month travel allowance (I don't get one of those; do you?) and freeze their salaries, Blair blew up. Here's part of the transcript:
Blair: "Most of the department heads are making more money than we are. We sit up here and take all the bullets and work 50, 60 hours a week. To me, I just can't see — you know, I do this job because I love it. I wake up every day to try to make a difference in this community, but at the same time, I don't want to take food out of my … you know, I don't want to take … let my … not just my kids, but I was just audited or asked for my, I made the statement that I give 15 percent of my money to charities. Well, when the Tribune got my accountant, which I had to pay $125 for, it was over 20 percent that I give to charities.
"… And it just seems to me, Al — and I hate to take — you know, I started my aides out — I asked them how much they wanted to start out. I've got one with 30 years' experience. He started out at $49,000. You started a new aide out at $62,000. You had ethics questions, so now all of a sudden you're bringing ethics questions upon this board. And, you know, I don't feel like being the scapegoat for problems that you've had."
Higginbotham: "There's no reason, Brian, for this to get personal. There was no question of your financial integrity. … When I look at where I start staff, I research through the university system. A graduate with a similar degree starts at $66,000. The young man that started in my position is working for less money than he was making in private sector. He spent a year as an administrative assistant to the vice president at the University of Florida Student Affairs, so I don't know where we're going with this, and it's regrettable.
"All I've done is I've said that we should be strong enough in ourselves that we look at ourselves and make sure that if we have people in this audience who are being laid off, who have staff who are being laid off, that we should be strong enough and confident and mature enough to not take this personal, and I'm sorry that you feel that way, Brian."
This is how they bicker over the matter of a few thousand dollars they get to spend on themselves, while people in the audience that morning waited to beg commissioners to restore (among other funding cuts) $1 million for poor children in the Head Start program.
The Hillsborough commissioners and their brethren in Pinellas County cut tens of millions of dollars, hundreds of government jobs and untold grants for community groups — but kept millions of dollars intact for their own 24/7 government television stations, which are little more than political propaganda. And high-priced propaganda at that: Pinellas plans to spend $3.4 million on its Pinellas 18 station and other parts of the spin machine; Hillsborough has budgeted just more than $4 million for its PR staff and HTV 22 cable station.
I suspect that most people would much rather have a new sidewalk built in their neighborhood or a pothole repaired on their streets than watch a self-serving television show. The online listing of Pinellas County's Inside Pinellas actually describes it as "a half-hour news program that features balanced, in-depth reports on Pinellas County government news, programs and events."
Fair and balanced.
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This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2007.