Prescribed guidelines for awarding 1 percent merit pay increases to Hillsborough County executives were not followed when County Administrator Pat Bean gave the raise to herself in 2007. ...more

October 28, 2009

In recent weeks the Tribune has published many letters from apparent newcomers to Tampa who have absolutely no knowledge or awareness of the political history of this place. These writers bemoan the fact, sometimes to the point of being ignorantly insulting, that the Tribune focuses on local and state matters. ...more

January 27, 2009

Kelly Cornelius didn't mince words at The Palmetto Club at FishHawk Ranch last week, where Hillsborough County put its plans to expand Lithia-Pinecrest Road to six lanes on the table. ...more

November 25, 2008

SEBRING – The appeals of the firings of ex-county employees Treasa Handley and Jarod Lee will be heard by new Highlands County Administrator Michael Wright. But the informal hearing process won't be scheduled until after Handley's and Lee's attorney takes depositions from at least four and possibly more county employees. Attorney Jim McCollum, representing the two Office of Management and Budget employees who were fired for sending thousands of personal and inappropriate instant messages on their county computers, has not yet requested a hearing date. Their firings go back more than three months, but McCollum is not rushing to schedule the appeals hearing in front of Wright. Before any hearing is scheduled, McCollum said, he needs to get sworn statements in depositions from several high-ranking county managers and from one ex-county employee, Carl Cool. ...more

June 6, 2008

Ah, there's nothing like a relaxing three-day weekend. ...more

May 18, 2008

County Administrator David Hamilton wanted to hear what was on people's mind regarding the budget. ...more

May 7, 2008

While it is unusual to rethink the need for positions once one is well into the recruiting process, the new director positions certainly warrant deeper study than apparently took place; Kudos to the commissioners for taking a second look. Most likely, when this all shakes out, one of two things will happen: either we will not add the directors or adding them will be greatly delayed. Citizens adeserve more information about justifications for this major move, especially with the smaller-government-cut-expenses environment we live in. Speaking of expenses, the monetary cost of the new director positions has been routinely misrepresented, in print at least, because only salaries are mentioned. Employee benefits, perks, office space, equipment and the inevitable support staff-executive assistants, clerks- makes $1,000,000 a more accurate guesstimate of the annual cost. In addition, there are also significant startup costs associated with recruiting and situating them. Besides monetary costs, adding a layer of management results in a deterioration of communication from the bottom to the top. Information is filtered as it goes up the chain of command and often never reaches the top person. Generally, this means that the county manager will be less aware of negative information. ...more

February 9, 2008