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Nimby week in review: Remember Florida, watching officials threaten our state with offshore drilling and bureaucrat watch is back on!

By Kelly Cornelius on Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 5:29 pm

7. How the Hillsborough County Transportation Referendum got her "rail" back.

8. Commissioner Ken Hagan's Transportation Task Force recommended some hefty developer pork (0ver 110 million!) on that rail referendum and it was recently removed due to public outcry and, ummm, "legal hurdles" according to county staff member Lucia Garsys. Hagan practically blew a gasket over this during Wednesday's meeting. Looks like his little attempt at throwing developers a bone (make that one developer (Newland) who you would know the developer of Fishhawk, with all six developer projects on the gravy train list) blew up in his face and is now slowing down the referendum process. Kudos to Commissioner Kevin Beckner who has been dogging Garsys about these projects all along. Since they waited sooooo long to actually address the problem it is now holding up the referendum.

9. Well lookie here.........on the heels of those developer funded roads being taken off Newland (see #7) is asking the county to pay less than half of what was originally agreed on for roads for a massive subdivision project even though they are only downsizing their development by 18.7 %. It just never ends does it. Oh and by the way, Commissioner Ken Hagan voted to approve that massive controversial project back in 2006 which allowed adding 3200 homes to already failing roads. Since then he appointed their Vice President to his Transportation Task Force and supported the developer pork (over 110 million dollars) to go on the proposal for you to pay for some of which were from this very project in question.

10. President Obama was against reconciliation before he was for it. Might I recommend Ms. Bean for Ethics Czar?

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1. This commentary in Sunday's Tribune regarding natural Florida should be required reading for every elected official in the state that ever has a vote on land use.

2. Obviously Mike Haridopolos, R- Melbourne never read that editorial considering he has filed a bill (SB622) to allow drilling just three short miles off Florida's coast. This excerpt from the article is very telling:

Meanwhile, House leaders said today that they would not be deterred by a report last week that found that drilling in Florida waters would "have no discernible impact" on gas prices or the nation's dependence on foreign oil, even if it would pump millions into state coffers.

3. Bureaucrat Watch for embattled County Administrator Pat Bean is back on. Seems like the only question left is will Commissioners finally fire her or will they take the easy way out and let her resign? Shouldn't slurping out of that big McDonald's cup during the last BOCC meeting have been grounds enough? I admit I like McDonald's, but it seems a bit unprofessional of the County Administrator in the middle of conducting a BOCC meeting.

4. While the area debates whether or not adding shit to Tampa's tap water can help solve the water shortage in the future, here is a great editorial that exposes just how much water the phosphate industry uses for free not to mention what it does to the environment. Recall most people were instead pissed at strawberry farmers for watering during a freeze. Seems like the real culprits are unchecked growth and the water giveaway to the phosphate industry. Who else besides me loves strawberries? The strawberry festival runs through March 14th and those freezes are said to have made the berries sweeter than ever!

5. Charlie Crist denied that he will switch teams.

6. Troubled bridge over shitty (but not yet oil-slicked) water. This article explains the issues in rehabbing the the road at the Courtney Campbell shoreline proving it isn't just the water you should be worried about. Meanwhile lets hope they don't ask HDR (who designed the cracking reservoir) for help.