Over this semester we have been required to keep tabs on the county. Many things have been in the news since August but two have really stuck out to me.
The first one happened several months ago but didn’t seem to have a real solution. That story is the bus problem in this county. Several children were injured or killed if I remember correctly.
I feel like this story really took off and many parents spoke out about the problem but no real solution came out of the situation. The county and the school board really dropped the ball on this one.
The second story that stuck out was and is the story that continues today is the Lowry Park Zoo. This story dominated the news through out this semester and updates seem to come daily.
This is another one that I feel the county could have avoided but swept it under the rug until a monkey escape prompted some digging by some reporters at The Trib. Improper use of taxpayer funds as well as back-room deals do not make the zoo or the city of Tampa look good.
The director of the zoo resigning is not the only course of action that should have been taken. The animals that he moved to his for profit exhibit are still there. Why? There should be a swift move to get the non-profit animals back from the for profit zoo. Especially since technically those animals belong to the taxpayers.
I especially don’t believe the mayor was forth writ in everything that she said publicly. Some video was shown of the zoo’s rhinos being transported during “The mayor’s hour,” but she did not know it was happening. It was on her show!!
The county and school board did not do much to boost my confidence in them over the last four months.
Hillsborough County assessment
December 9, 2008Kevin White
December 5, 2008Bio
Kevin White is currently a Hillsborough County Commissioner for District Three. District 3 covers Tampa, from Bearss Ave. down to Brandon. Map of district 3 White is a Tampa native and attended King’s high school. He graduated from Tampa College with a bachelors degree, went to National-Louis University where he got a business management degree and The University of Phoenix where he received a masters in organizational management. White has a wife, Jennie, and two children. His current commissioner aides are Cedric McCray and Amanda Corsentino. Whites Page
Credentials
White’s career began in The U.S. Navy. He has also worked as a police officer for The Tampa Police Department TPD as well as been an auxiliary deputy for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office. In 2003 he ran against, and won, his Aunt for a seat on the Tampa City Council. In 2006, White successfully made an attempt at the BOCC and that is his current position.
Basic Public Record
An arrest record check on the HCSO website turned up nothing under his name or his wife’s name. A check on the Hillsborough Property Tax site showed several Kevin Whites and no listings for Jennie White. Tax Records Going through White’s campaign contributions, there were several from himself and his wife. I looked up the address’ listed and none of the homes belonged to the White’s. I called and spoke with one of his aides to try and find out White’s middle name and McCray didn’t know it. I persisted and he said “I think its ‘L’.” I then asked if he could find out for sure, and he told me that was it. Of course the property tax site has no Kevin L. White on record. White has a shopping list of accusations and inconsistencies so I was not the least bit surprised when I was met with a bit of resistance from McCray.
As a member of the BOCC White has served on many different committees. White Assignments For the 2008-2009 year he is a part of the committee of six, council of governments, expressway authority, fair authority, which is always given to the commissioner from district three, hospital authority and public transportation commission. White is an alternate for Hillsborough County emergency policy group and Tampa Bay regional planning council(TBRPC).
According to the Clerk of the Circuit Court White is also a lobbyist for many figures in the Tampa Bay area.
Campaign Contributions
This is where White really starts to head south. For his run at the Tampa City Council seat there are many interesting contributions. First of all on February 27,2002 he made a $10,000 loan to his campaign. On March 31 and December 16th the campaign received $500 from his wife. On June 4, 2002, White received a check for $250 from Douglas Jeep. Now any business can contribute money to a candidate, what is suspicious about this is that this dealership is located in Venice, Fl. Why would a car dealer in Venice care about a city council seat in Tampa? Then on the 28th of the same month he contributed $100 to his own campaign.
One contributor really caught my attention because his name showed up over and over. James Gatti, (looks suspiciously like Gotti, the famous crime family), gave $50 on 3/11,8/16, 8/19,9/6,9/16 and 10/21. Now that is only a total of $300, much less than the $500 his wife gave, but why so spread out, but awkwardly grouped together at the end of the year?
Another name only showed up twice in 2002. William Forde Sr. gave a total of $100 on March 11, 2002. Not out of the ordinary, however he gave two separate donations for $50 each, one with a listed address, the other with a PO Box number. One year later campaign contributions went through the roof. From the fourth quarter of 2001-2/28/03 White’s reported contributions from 362 contributors totaled 35, 927. From the end of February to the end of March he had 75 contributions for a grand total of 22,480. Somebody must have been really pounding the pavement to raise that much money for a Tampa City Council seat. Well, actually that is where our next piece of the puzzle comes in, Matthew Cox.
The Con Artist
Matthew B. Cox allegedly arranged for campaign contributions for White during his City Council campaign. In return White would vote in Cox’s favor to rezone a part of Ybor City so Cox could develop the land. Cox claims that he asked people to donate to the campaign and then would reimburse those contributors, no big deal, except it’s illegal, not to mention ethically wrong. But then again after researching White I would have to conclude ethics are not one of his strong suits. Which is really surprising from a formal Naval Officer and policeman. Of course White denies any and all allegations by Cox, who was questioned in an FBI investigation, by the way. This is a direct quote from the St. Pete Times article that first broke the story:
Told of Cox’s allegations, White said he was unaware that Cox arranged illegal contributions, and he said he never accepted any cash.
“He’s just lying. That’s all there is to it,” White said. “As a Navy veteran and a former police officer, I’ve made my life and career by serving others. Mr. Cox has made his life out of lying, cheating and stealing. So the public can determine who’s lying here.”
The court of public opinion, I would think, would determine that White is lying. Not only is White under investigation for illegal contributions but a former aide, Alyssa Ogden, has filed a sexual harassment case against White. Ogden alleges that White took her on a trip to Atlanta and basically tried to pimp her out to a man there.
Through out my public search of White it became more and more apparent that he just is not a ethically good person. He makes bad decisions at every turn, yet somehow is moving up to political ladder. I would hope that people can see the path he has taken to get himself where he is today and stop him from going any further.
Purchasing Process
November 13, 2008For the purchasing process assignment I decided to find out how the county goes about buying a bus. I was able to speak with Jeff Hurst. Hurst has been with the transportation department since 1998, and is very excited about his job.
Hurst spoke at length about his rise up the ranks and various maintenance issues that the transportation department could encounter on one of their 1,425 buses. On any given day 1,000 buses are on the road and 250 serving just as spares.
For 2008 the county did not receive any new buses. This is partially due to that they have changed over to a five year program. The county also does not want to overload itself with to many new buses because by 2010 there will be new emission standards. Hurst did say that on average they request about 90 buses a year. Just because they request that many does not mean they receive that many. Two years ago they requested 90 but only got seventy-five.
The whole process starts out with a bid to the state and the Department of Education. The state allocates the money and the county then uses the money. If the state decides the county should get $7 million for transportation and only $4 million is used then the the state gets the remaining funds back. Once the state allocates the money, the budget must be printed for the general public to see, always in one of the local papers.
Buses are kept for 15 years, however, this is on an informal basis. The oldest bus in the fleet is from 1994 and is used as more of a back-up now. That International brand bus cost $36, 850 in 1994. A bus from the same manufacturer in 2009 will cost $101,864. Just like when a person buys a car, there are amenities to consider as well. Air conditioning will add $12,000 to the total cost, a child reminder system will accrue even more cost. Hurst says that both of those additions are important.
The child reminder system requires a driver to physically walk to the rear of the bus and turn off the system. This way any child that may have fallen asleep in a row cannot be left on the bus accidently. Hurst says the high cost of the buses demands a fine tooth comb over the final product.
“If a bus costs $70,000-that is high end BMW range-nobody would take that car with the air not working and a dent in the roof,” Hurst said.
Public Meeting #3
November 4, 2008For the third, (and final!!), public meeting I went back to court. It was much easier to navigate the courthouse on this visiting, seeing as how I was just there the week before. However, it did seem to be a slow day in court. Most of the courtrooms were empty, one even had just a single lawyer sitting at a table by himself going over documents.
The courtroom that I did find with some people in it was presided by the Honorable Judge Walter Heinrich. Inside courtroom 10 there were only the court officers, a state attorney and a public defender. This court was run by the video system that we saw at The Orient Road Jail. The workings of this court made it seem like the drive-thru of the court system. It was a well oiled machine. Defendants stepped up to a podium, they could see the judge and the judge could see them, all on closed circuit TV.
In January, Judge Heinrich will have been in the judge’s chair for 20 years, all in Hillsborough County. Heinrich is a wealth of information with many different stories that go along with all those years working with criminals. He talks about how hard the court staff works in order to make his job easy and says all he has to do is show up and get to work. The staff comes in about five in the morning in preparation for the day that starts at 8:30 with an average of 100-150 cases. At 10, it’s on to a new docket, usually consisting of 25 cases. These cases involve a different court staff and are cases where most of the perpetrators can be released on their own recognisance and promise to come to court at a different date.
Heinrich said that his job is difficult at times, “I feel terrible everyday. My God, people have bad luck, and it’s a lousy thing, but I can’t let it affect me.”
The court moves at a rapid pace and has the efficiency of a production line. Even in these types of cases public records still come into play. Everything that is recorded in court, including closed circuit TV, is accessible to anyone who wants it. The only down fall is that Heinrich court is the only one that uses the system and the Florida Supreme Court has ruled that it can’t be used in cases involving juveniles.
After seeing this system in action, I believe it would be in the counties and the taxpayers best interest to utilize this system in more courtrooms. It could save on transportation costs, possible outbursts in court, and keeps the inmate in a more controlled environment.
Court Date
October 30, 2008Visiting the 13th Circuit Court in downtown Tampa is another in a long lists of firsts through out this semester. Barely getting inside the automatic doors and standing on top of a airport style security area was quite the surprise. Of course my luck never fails and I sent the metal detectors into a frenzy. The cold, robotic demeanor of the security guards on hand didn’t make me feel anymore at ease as I did the walk of shame back to the front of the conveyor to empty my pockets of anything metal. If only the courts were to employ a humiliating x-ray machine at there stations, much like the airport, or participate in a Raymond James Style pat down could my experience been a little bit more palatable.
The court system has had somewhat of a meltdown, however. Why build this beautiful, state of the art building, along with a half-a-million dollar statue out front, and hold court cases on the other side of the street in a rundown, probably rat and roach infested building. (The rodents and pests, not lawyers and criminals.)
Crossing the indoor overpass into the dilapidated part of the Tampa court system it was a maze of courtrooms. As I strolled quietly into courtroom 16A, I found Judge Daniel Perry hard at work. Not only is this man tough as nails on criminals, he is also the judge that required a new dress code in his courtrooms. He no longer allows sagging pants, pants three sizes too big, or anything else that he deems disrespectful. As I settled into my seat in the third pew, Perry had half his foot up the rear of girl who was in violation of probation. He did not believe the things she was saying and handed a cup to the bailiff so that she could prove right then and there she was drug free.
Perry continued quickly through the violators, ranging from possession to probation violation. At the point that Perry asked Erik Moore where he was getting is drugs from and then pulled up the guy on HCSO website, it almost became laughable. Each one had a different excuse for the reason as to why they had violated, or really they were just dumb and got caught. Sifting through all waist deep BS day after day must get tiring.
From an observers point of view, I wish that they had more microphones in courtrooms. Between all the whispering and paper shuffling it is hard to hear what everyone is saying. I moved over to an attempted murder trial in courtroom 16, where the Honorable Judge William Fuente was presiding. It was really interesting to sit and watch a trial, but again hard to hear what they were saying.
Steve Andrews
October 24, 2008What an absolutely awesome visit. To get to speak to a reporter and see some of the stories that he has done and hear the things he has gone through to get those stories was amazing. Andrews had some great tips for us. He said “The tools of journalism are in the spirit of public service.” I think some of that is lost on the general public. They want to criticize the media and say they are biased, apparently they have been watching a ton of Fox News lately. I would like to think that most serious journalists have the public’s best interest in mind. They report the facts, you do with them what you want.
He did mention something that I think the industry, professors and we as students pretty much already know-the Internet is the future. I think that this section of the medium is still being discovered much like broadcast about 50 years ago. How to get the information out there quickly, but responsibly, is the biggest hurdle the Internet must overcome.
Getting back to Andrews. He said that he has worked on stories that have taken anywhere from two hours to 18 months and that all stories have a life of their own. Andrews seems like he takes all of his stories and really sinks his teeth into them. The stack of public records he showed us for the cracks in the reservoir, were really daunting. I couldn’t imagine pouring over the mound of documents he did and discover what he found. The knack and sixth sense for news I’m sure comes with time, but after sitting with Andrews for only about an hour, I hope it happens sooner, rather than later.
Zimmerman
October 24, 2008For the Al Zimmerman assignment I would start with his arrest record. By starting with his arrest record on the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office arrest inquiry, it would be possible to find out if Zimmerman has any alias’ as well as any home address’ he may have. By looking at the HCSO site I found that Zimmerman was arrested on February 1, 2008 on seven counts of the use of a child in a sexual performance. Ten days later he was arrested again for a federal rule violation. The first arrest had an address listed in Tallahassee. Through a search of the Leon County Tax site that property is owned by Lisa Greene. When Zimmerman was brought in the second time the arrest record showed a lakeland address. I did check the Polk County Tax Collector’s office but the site was under construction and unavailable. In an online article it did say that he was arrested in Lakeland in the house that he grew up in. That leads me to believe that the home belongs to his parents.
Knowing that he grew up in Lakeland, I would check the Polk County Sheriff’s office for any previous arrests.
Zimmerman’s first arrest record showed an employer address of 5015 Florida Ave. N. This is a Tampa address. I would start there by interviewing some of his co-workers about his character. Also I would interview the DCF Chief, Bob Butterworth, particualarly about its background checks on potential employees. What kind of check was done before Zimmerman, and what type of check will happen now?
A look into Florida Tax records shows that Zimmerman has had four addresses in San Antonio, Tx., three in Macon, Ga., two in Tampa, and one Tallahassee. I would find out what public records are available in Texas and Georgia to find out if Zimmerman has any arrests, tax problems, property owned, and previous employers.
On a Jacksonville station website it was reported that Zimmerman worked for Bay News 9 here in Tampa. I would check that lead and follow it to the station. Interviews with the news director and former collegues at the station would be a good place to get some information as well.
I’m out of ideas. Does anyone have any?
Fl. Sunshine Law
October 24, 2008Florida’s openness in government dates back to 1909 with what is now known as the “Public Records Law,” Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes. Over the years the law has changed and adapted to current times. A public record consists of not only “written documents such as papers, maps and books but also tapes, photographs, film, sound recordings and records stored in computers.” The current “Government-in-the-Sunshine Law” was enacted in 1967 and can be found in Chapter 286 of the Florida Statutes. The law gives the public access to most meetings of boards, commissions and other governing bodies of state and local governmental agencies or authorities. In 1990 voters added a Constitutional amendment that allowed the public to be present in meetings under the legislative branch of government.
The Government-in-the-Sunshine manual is compiled by the State Attorney Generals Office and published every year by the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee at no expense to the taxpayer.
The Governor’s Commission on Open Government Reform was enacted by Governor Charlie Crist on January 3, 2007 under Executive Order 07-01. The order is in place to “serve Florida with integrity and transparency.”
The office is there to make sure that government agencies are complying with Florida’s public record laws and open government and provide training to those under the governor to ensure transparency. The office also wants to make sure that all public record requests are made in a timely manner.
Attending this years third meeting with the Governor’s Commission on Open Government Reform were several employees of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Diane McFarlin, Publisher, Mike Connelly, Executive Editor, Maurice Tamman, Online Editor, Chris Davis, Senior Editor/Investigations, Matthew Doig, Investigative Reporter, Paige St. John, Investigative Reporter, and David Gulliver, Reporter. All of these people spoke and all brought specific instances when a government agency did not comply with a public records law of part of the statute that includes Government-in-the-Sunshine.
Each one of these people would start out by stating their long list of credentials. Connelly had one of the most compelling stories of all the people who spoke on this day. Not to say that it was any more or less of a problem than any of the other stories told, they are all of equal concern to any current or would be journalist. But his told of a story the paper was working on that involved Social Security Numbers of teachers in the state Florida. The Department of Education sent out a mass email asking teachers to send their SSN’s to Connelly. He got some less than favorable responses.
Since that would be a pretty daunting task the Herald-Tribune asked the state to link databases so that they wouldn’t need the SSN’s. The state refused. Now that word was out, the state worked quickly to only allow them access to the last four digits of a teachers SSN. The paper tested the final four theory and found that on average if those were the only numbers they had it returned on average 7.6 names. The biggest problem with this request is that the state down right refused to help in a public records request.
Matthew Doig has been an investigative projects reporter for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune since 2002. He spoke about how in recent years he and his colleagues have had to jump through major hoops when making a request for public records. One major problem is that some public offices are using private companies to manage public information.
In one case Doig says there was “flat-out denial, excessive costs, and limited format.” Doig adds that it is probably a statewide problem, public offices using private firms to hold its records and effectively preventing access to public records. Some of the cost that he mentioned were up in the area of $120/hour.
David Gulliver is also a reporter for the Herald-Tribune and has worked in five states for different papers. Gulliver brought a document in front of the commission that had several words or sentences redacted from it. He also had many problems just as Doig and Connelly did.
The main point of all the issues brought to the attention of the board all hit on one thing: FS 119 is not being complied with by public officalls as it should be. FS 119 is supposed to provide the public with a “Government that works in the sunshine,” but clearly they still work in some shady areas.
State Sen. Victor Crist
October 24, 2008For the hypothetical run at the State Senate for Victor Crist I would begin by looking up his property taxes. I want to make sure Crist is an upstanding citizen. This can be accomplished through the Hillsborough County Tax Collector’s office.
I also want to know if Crist held any other public office. If he has held a public office in the past then it would be easy to find out what some of his voting records were in the past. By going to the United States Senate website, it is possible to find out if he has held office before, find a bill, read it, and see how each senator or representative voted.
Since Crist is running I am also going to go to Sunbiz.org and pull up a search for the companies that are donating money to his campaign. This can also be accomplished through moneyline.cq.com. On this site you would be able to find out who is a big donor to the campaign and what lobbyists are contributing to the campaign, if anything.
I want to see if there is an arrest record. Since Crist is running in Tampa, I am going to begin at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office. I’m going to need to find out if Crist has any previous address’ so I will know if I need to search any other counties for arrest records or tax issues.
If Crist has any kind of dirt on him it can be found through public records, especially if he is a public figure. Tax records, arrest records, campaign contributions, court documents, and the property appraisers office would be good places to start.
There are so many tools available to the public, but I am beginning to feel like the majority just don’t realize it.
Doug Belden
October 19, 2008On the day that we went to see Tax Collector Doug Belden, I was under the impression that he was going to be the person talking to us. I appreciated our speaker, Preston Trigg taking the time to talk to us, but I was also glad that Belden came and said hello. Maybe I will even vote for him just cause he stopped by.
Trigg is the Director of Administration at the tax collectors office and used to work at the Tampa Tribune in the south bureau. Even though a lot of the things that he talked about were a repeat from some other lectures and other guest speakers that we have had I really felt like some of the point was driven home this time. Going through some of the sites again really allowed me to follow along again and see things in action.
His tips for getting your hands on public records was helpful as well. Putting your requests in writing, asking for costs up front and the biggest one I felt was to be aware of the competition. Another point that I have heard from others as well is- follow the money. If you want to get to the roots of a story always follow the money.
I feel like sometimes a professor can be like your parent, and no matter how many times they are to say something you won’t really believe it until you hear it from someone else. I think that is what has happened in this situation. Gil has told us all of the things that Trigg has, but to have that different voice reinforce it and really drive the point home did me a lot of good this time.
