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Power Shift On Boards Will Bring Less Unity And More Backbiting

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 11, 2007

A proposed game of musical chairs with three local boards should be stopped before the elbowing and pushing for seats begins.

Tampa City Council wants its own voice on the countywide Environmental Protection Commission, while the county commission wants majority control of the Tampa Sports Authority and more representation on the City-County Planning Commission.

The requests are unnecessary to give the public fair representation. They also threaten to split the local legislative delegation and increase the political rivalry between the city and county. With more tax cuts possible, the city and county should instead be cooperating on ways to consolidate more services and save tax dollars.

And the Tampa-area delegation, recognized as weak compared with those from other metropolitan areas, should avoid picking petty squabbles with one another.

A bill to change all three boards has been introduced by Rep. Kevin Ambler of Lutz, who proposed some similar changes last year.

Now the change includes the environmental protection commission. Ambler proposes the county get five appointments, Tampa two, and Temple Terrace and Plant City one each. Tampa City Councilwoman Mary Mulhern, who erred in starting this dust-up, doesn't like Ambler's bill. She wants the commission to have four county members, plus three from Tampa and one each from the two smaller towns. Her idea is captured in a bill sponsored by Rich Glorioso of Plant City.

Both changes are ill-conceived. The last we looked, the three cities are part of Hillsborough and city voters have as much voice as anyone else in electing the seven county commissioners, who now sit as the EPC. Tampa voters control District 3 and largely control District 2.

Giving Tampa and the other cities an added layer of representation wouldn't be fair to the unincorporated areas. And there is no justification in giving the three municipalities majority control in a county where many environmental issues involve farms, wetlands and streams far outside the urban areas.
Sports Authority Balanced

Tinkering with the Sports Authority and Planning Commission is counter-productive for different reasons.

On the Sports Authority, the city and county each have five representatives and the governor appoints one. Ambler wants to give the county six members and cut Tampa's membership to four. The change would give county appointees majority control of an authority that manages venues - golf courses, the football stadium and the hockey arena - that all lie in the city.

County Commissioner Jim Norman strongly supports shifting the power to the county because the Sports Authority has debts and obligations that put all county taxpayers at risk. "The city is spending unincorporated money," he says.

The county does carry two-thirds of the financial risk of the authority, but some of that exposure is covered by county taxpayers who happen to live in the city.

And the entire county benefits from the availability of major-league sports and its economic spin-offs.

Norman has a keen interest and expertise in sports, but future commissioners might not. Structural changes should not be made based on strengths and weakness of today's politicians.

Planning Board Has Right Mix

Different dynamics apply to the countywide planning board. The City-County Planning Commission writes long-range plans for all four jurisdictions. Hillsborough County and Tampa each have four representatives and Temple Terrace and Plant City each have one. Ambler wants to give the county an extra representative.

There is no taxation-representation argument here. The planning commission issues no bonds and levies no taxes. Its job is to give the four governments planning advice as independent as possible from political interference. When the Legislature created the board many years ago, it intentionally set up a city-county balance not linked to population.

The county never complained about an imbalance when a majority of the population was in the city. Nor was the city harmed by the equity.

The composition of all three boards is logical. It reflects long-standing compromises that serve the public well by fostering cooperation.

The coming fight over so-called fair representation raises the question of whether some politicians want to stir up city-county rivalries or whether they just don't have enough to do.

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