TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Letters To The Editor

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 12, 2008

County Plan Should Cover

Regarding "Good Samaritan Needs Bullet Out" (Metro, May 2):

I seem to remember voting several years ago for a half-cent tax to support indigent medical care. So imagine my surprise when I read that the "good Samaritan," David Thomas, cannot afford to have a bullet out of his ankle.

Thomas came to the help of an elderly man who was being attacked and robbed by a young punk who shot Thomas in the leg for coming to the help of this 75-year-old.

Our tax should more than cover the cost of this medical procedure, along with a lot of other medical care for our indigents.

How about it, Tampa General and St. Joseph's?

SYLVIE J. BURNEY

Lutz

Accountability Needed

Regarding "Commissioners Call For Housing Office Leader's Ouster" (Metro, May 8):

This letter is to address the incompetent statements by County Administrator Pat Bean and a Mr. Barnes. These two keep bringing up the conspiracy theory that Mr. Carroll was sabotaged in his efforts to bring the Housing Department up to par. That does not work, my friends.

When you have problems communicating with your staff, by never talking to them for input, you are on a self- destructive path. Do I have any qualifications to talk about this subject? I was the commander of the Organized Crime Bureau and deputy commander of District I for the Sheriff's Office. My span of control was more than 150 employees. My reputation speaks for itself. I took the hit if something was wrong with my department.

JAMES TAGLIARINI

Dover

Tactic Won't Work

Regarding "Public Remarks Heat Up County Mayor Battle" (Metro, May 1):

I agree with former County Commissioner Jan Platt that County Administrator Pat Bean has every right to publicly present her political views. Evidently Mary Ann Stiles is attempting to use Bean as a whetstone to hone her political ambitions - an arrogance commonly used by Tallahassee lobbyists - suggesting Stiles has a propensity to denigrate people that don't genuflect to her worldview.

Stiles should be aware that her efforts to silence people who advocate another opinion are not the ticket on which she will become county mayor.

JAMES J. HARKINS

Sun City Center

Kids Won't Be Affected

Regarding "Mixing Cold Brews And Playgrounds" (Our Opinion, May 8):

Hey, take it easy and think about the reality of having a restaurant serving alcohol next to a public park with a playground.

In almost every residential refrigerator in town there is beer. The homeowners are often seen with the neighbors standing in the driveway visiting and having a can of beer while supervising the kid's playing on the streets or under basketball hoops. No big deal there, right? Isn't that an American tradition?

On the other hand, commercial retail alcohol sales are one of the most highly regulated activities in this society. There are 100 pages of laws, rules and regulations that liquor license holders have to comply with in order to keep their license to earn their living selling alcohol.

The point is, let the restaurant sell alcohol at the park, just like everywhere else in Western civilization. The kids will be just fine.

ERIC SCHILLER

Tampa

Let Teachers Teach

Regarding "Program Brings Fun To Schools" (Metro, May 6):

One might want to ask the school board for a recent document from a principals' meeting indicating that after a year of administering the program, the top five schools with the highest failure rate in English are the schools participating in the new EXCELerator program. How good can it be if these are the results?

What happened to letting teachers just teach? Constantly bombarding them with new programs that have not been adequately researched in the "name of education" does not equal success.

STACEY ALONSO

Valrico

Understand Real Issues

Regarding "Audit Will Benefit State Court System" (Our Opinion, May 7):

While it always is beneficial for government to investigate the facts which underlie its fiscal decisions, the terms thrown about regarding this currently proposed "audit" are misleading and counterproductive.

First, you state that "most everyone agreed that Fridays at the courthouse are slow."

I have practiced law in Tampa for 30 years. Fridays are no slower than Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. The judges before whom I appear schedule as many hearings on Fridays as they do on any other day of the week.

You also state that a Tribune reporter found on a particular Friday that "no felony judges were on the bench."

That may have been true on that particular day. But I assume you know - and if you do not, shame on you for shoddy research - that a judge's time "on the bench" is no accurate measure of the time or effort being devoted to the performance of his or her judicial duties.

Indeed, on the civil law side of our local courts, judges' time "on the bench" is far outweighed by time in their chambers, where they hear lawyers' pretrial arguments and otherwise decide cases. One could walk our courthouse many days and see every courtroom empty, but our judges still would be hard at work elsewhere.

In short, as this investigation suggested by Sen. Victor Crist proceeds, the Tribune and other media outlets should first understand the real issues, as opposed to the false issues, and then fully explain those issues to the public.

This community is blessed with dedicated and hard-working jurists.

No investigation, including this one, should falsely denigrate their contribution to our citizens and to our system of justice.

CHRISTOPHER L. GRIFFIN

Tampa

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT