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Proposal: Hillsborough, Tampa Should Merge Departments

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By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 1, 2008

TAMPA - Two Hillsborough County commissioners are proposing that the county and city merge some departments to cut costs to deal with reduced property tax collections resulting from Tuesday's passage of Amendment One.

Commissioners Rose Ferlita and Al Higginbotham are asking the county staff to develop plans to merge the Hillsborough Parks and Recreation Department with the city's parks department. Ferlita said the amendment's passage, which will decrease city and county property tax collections, requires that elected officials put aside the old enmities that have blocked city-county cooperation.

"It's not about the city losing its identity or the county scarfing the city up. … It's about cooperation. It's about maturity that we as adult members of this community say, 'This may work; let's try it.' "

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio rejected the parks consolidation out of hand. She said the city's parks are neighborhood-based and in a good position to respond to suggestions and complaints from residents who use them.

"If our well-run department were to be merged into the larger bureaucracy of county government which serves its residents throughout the unincorporated area we would lose out in determining the quality of our parks and programming as well as responsiveness to our citizens," Iorio said in an e-mail.

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