The only mosquitoes killed so far by an expensive airplane purchased by Hillsborough County for pest control in 2003 were the few that may have smashed into its windshield on training flights. ...more

December 22, 2009

Like pulling teeth In signing the rail bill, Charlie Crist again shows that he is not the tax-cutter he pretends to be. He once said "property taxes are going to drop like a rock." What he didn't say was that the money would come from other sources. ...more

December 21, 2009

Pat Bean will continue as Hillsborough County administrator, but she will finish out the last two years of her contract on what County Commissioner Kevin White termed a "short rope." ...more

December 17, 2009

County administrator Pat Bean survived her annual evaluation today with her job intact but at the end of what one commissioner called a "short rope" that could be jerked if she doesn't improve her performance. Commissioner Mark Sharpe received no support for a motion he made to fire Bean and fill her position by a coalition of her assistant county administrators until the job could be filled permanently. ...more

December 16, 2009

I must take issue with your Dec. 13 editorial, "Time for Bean to resign." My views are based on my institutional knowledge of city and county government. ...more

December 16, 2009

With a fierce ambition and savvy political skills, Pat Bean survived the rise and fall of seven Hillsborough County administrators before she got the job in December 2003. ...more

December 13, 2009

Ask Hillsborough County Administrator Pat Bean her goals and she will explain she wants to duplicate the success of the fleet management department, which has taken innovative steps to cut fuel use and where Bean is justifiably proud of hiring the enterprising director, Sharon Subadan. ...more

December 13, 2009

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's recently gave Hillsborough County its highest rating for a bond issue the county will use to buy land for conservation. ...more

December 12, 2009

Hillsborough County commissioners embraced consolidating all the county's public water systems last Wednesday, tentatively approving $400,000 to study whether a merger has merit. ...more

November 9, 2009

In 2006 Hillsborough County commissioners spent $170,000 to terminate a golf range's lease on the Linebaugh Avenue County Northwest Landfill to hasten development of another solid waste transfer station. Today, the golf range remains shuttered, the site is an eyesore, no new transfer station is built and there is no sign of the construction that was to be completed this year. ...more

October 29, 2009