Last month, after a painfully drawn-out process, the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners — in a sort of slow-mo version of the reality show Survivor — voted to boot Administrator Pat Bean off the island that is county government. The 64-year-old Bean had alienated board members, as well as members of the public, after it was revealed she'd awarded raises to herself and key advisors at the same time the county was laying off workers. A reported Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation continues amid claims of her snooping through staffer e-mails.
If Tampa attorney Mary Ann Stiles (above) had her way, there wouldn't be a Pat Bean serving at the behest of commissioners. As leader of the group Taking Back Hillsborough County, Stiles supports a plan to have a strong mayor run the county, a person who would be accountable to the voters, not the seven men and women of the Board.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.