TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Look Who's In Store For A Coal Yule

ADVERTISEMENT

By TOM JACKSON

tjackson@tampatrib.com

Published: December 24, 2008

With the hours to the annual home invasion by the famed jolly elf having dwindled to a precious few, This Space offers as a public service to end the anticipation among the year's Pasco newsmakers just who can be expected to be treated generously, and who can expect stockings stuffed with coal and switches.

Like loafers in the hands of Iraq's answer to Helen Thomas, here comes our twice-checked list of who's been nice and who's been otherwise.

Ginny Miller, the former New Port Richey council woman, for running a spirited campaign for county commission that was rooted in ideas and experience: Nice.

John Nicolette, the St. Joseph rancher, Tampa firefighter and District 1 county commission candidate whose otherwise noble aspirations regarding public service suffered from allegations of recruiting a write-in candidate to close the Republican primary: Naughty.

Luis Lopez, the Zephyrhills councilman whose regular column in the city's weekly newspaper creates an ill-advised blending of public influence and access to ink by the barrel, a recipe that got the entire board in hot water when he spent two columns decrying local veterans' haunts as havens for inebriation: Naughty.

Mike Nurrenbrock, Pasco's chief numbers-cruncher, for drafting a balanced budget that was tight, lean, equitable in its pain and acceptable - however reluctantly - to the county's politicians: Nice.

Doors Close, Hearts Open

Mark Hashim, Port Richey vice mayor, who uttered, in the wake of City Manager Richard Reade's failure to earn a contract extension, a tawdry metaphor that was simultaneously epicurean and scatological: Naughty.

Richard Reade, the aforementioned city manager, for pleading geographical hardship as a consideration for being retained ("I am busting my butt trying to be here while my wife lives ... three hours away"): Naughty.

Chris Cooley, for spearheading the all-volunteer construction of a house to accommodate the special needs of his brother, former Pasco deputy Josh Cooley, desperately injured by shrapnel that lodged in his brain in Iraq: Nice.

Kayla Huth, the Longleaf Elementary fifth-grader who spent her 10th birthday operating a lemonade stand to raise money to battle pediatric cancer: Very, very nice.

Behavioral Studies

Marlene Siegel, the Wesley Chapel veterinarian who hosts an annual yuletide party for Lacoochee Elementary School kids in conjunction with the annual East Pasco Toys for Tots campaign: Nice.

Jessica Miller, the suspended and court-date-skipping civil attorney whose shuttered Port Richey practice is missing about $70,000 in clients' cash: Naughty.

Russell Barnes, Zephyrhills' ex-police chief said by an internal affairs investigation to have finagled with time sheets allowing employees to be two places at once: Naughty.

Mike Fasano, the state senator who strapped on consumer-protection armor at the first whiff of Progress Energy's staggering request for a 25 percent rate increase: Nice.

Marc Yacht, the former county medical director whose campaign for health industry reform leaps over thoughtful market-based government partnerships to a radical, disastrous solution - Medicare for all: Naughty.

Well. Time grows short, as does space, meaning some whom we've been keeping a skeptical eye on will slip off the hook ... this time. They know who they are. But just wait till next year.

Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT