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Elections Chief To Ask County For $2.3 Million

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By MIKE SALINERO

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Published: December 16, 2008

TAMPA - Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson will tell county commissioners today that he's in a financial jam and needs a $2.3 million bailout.

Johnson, who lost his re-election bid last month, says in a brief notice to the county that the problem stems from "unexpected costs" related to the change from touch-screen voting machines to optical scan machines in the November election.

Johnson will ask Hillsborough County commissioners for the money today. He needs five votes from the seven-member commission to get the money.

He won't get much help from County Administrator Pat Bean, who said Johnson's written justification for such a large request was skimpy at best.

"We just have very general information," Bean said Tuesday. "It's not sufficient for us to advise the board they should approve it."

Some of the costs Johnson cited were $528,000 for voting machines, $577,000 for overtime and other employee costs, $388,000 to hire temporary employees and $339,000 for voting privacy booths.

Also included in the wish list is $300,000 to cover the transition from Johnson's administration to Phyllis Busansky, who takes office next month.

Johnson could not be reached for comment late Tuesday. Busansky said he had not talked to her about his request. "I have no idea what it's for," she said.

Busansky did not take a position on whether the commission should grant Johnson's request but said she was confident the commission "will support the elections office and make it whole."

Bean, who has cut this year's county budget by more than $80 million and laid off 100 employees, said Johnson's timing could not be worse. She was taken aback that the elections chief would ask to increase his
$6 million budget by more than 30 percent so soon after it was adopted Oct. 1.

"In these times with the economy the way it is, to add $2.3 million when we've just been in a new fiscal year three months, it's kind of a strange budget amendment," Bean said.

Johnson's tenure as elections supervisor has been marked by delays in getting voting results. The November election dragged on for days in Hillsborough County because of problems downloading votes from the newly installed optical scan machines.

Earlier this year, Johnson took control of the elections office's payroll, billing and other financial responsibilities from the circuit court clerk, a move that raised concerns about a lack of transparency in the elections office.

On Tuesday, Bean complained that during the county budget-building process, Johnson's office supplied no financial backup figures for his request.

Johnson lost to Busansky in November by 18,000 votes. During the campaign, he was criticized for spending money on voter education materials that used his name and likeness and were considered by critics to be thinly veiled campaign literature paid for by tax dollars.

Johnson leaves office Jan. 4.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303.

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