'96 Winner Doesn't Want Controversial Hillsborough Award

Eileen Hart wiped tears from her eyes minutes after she gave back her Moral Courage Award at today's Hillsborough County Commission meeting.

Two weeks ago, the commission voted to rename the award, which is given to citizens who challenge government, for controversial political activist Ralph Hughes. When Hart, who won the award in 1996, learned Hughes was a conservative power broker who helped finance commissioners' political campaigns, the award lost its meaning, she said.

"It's pathetic that they would name an award for a person when it's a nonpartisan award," Hart said outside the commission chambers. "It should have nothing to do" with politics.

Hart won the award for fighting to make regional water authorities diversify the water supply. It was during the period known as the "water wars," when St. Petersburg and Pinellas County overpumped well fields in Hillsborough and Pasco counties, drying up lakes and wetlands.

Hart and other citizens appeared at meetings of the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the predecessor of Tampa Bay Water, pushing for a limit on groundwater pumping and new water sources, such as a desalination plant and a reservoir. The things Hart fought for came to fruition with the creation of Tampa Bay Water, a regional utility responsible for providing wholesale water to the area's public utilities.

Hart said the honor of being recognized for the hundreds of hours she spent attending meetings and lobbying officials is now "negated."

"Everybody who received it worked for the good of the whole, for the citizens of the county," Hart said. "Mainly what [Hughes] fought for was his own business."

Hart told the commission about her feelings, then tried to say something to commission Chairman Ken Hagan as she handed him the award. Hagan tried to stifle her comments by repeating, "Thank you, Mrs. Hart."