Election Day In Tampa; Pinellas Nervous Over Penny

It's election day in Tampa, where Mayor Pam Iorio is a safe bet for re-election, and six seats are up on the City Council. The most interesting council races involve two incumbents, Gwen Miller and John Dingfelder.

Also, check out an article by my colleague Will Van Sant about the March 13 Penny for Pinellas election, and the fact that local pols are slightly nervous over its prospects. Between property taxes and insurance crises, a lot of taxpayers are in a grumpy mood.

Me, I am in a grumpy mood because the county won't talk about the fate of the Brooker Creek Preserve until March 15, two days after the Penny election. If they're gonna pump water out of the thing and build soccer fields on it, they oughta say so beforehand.

Comments

[Reggie Hall]

I will vote for the penny because it is necessary but like Howard I am not happy with the County's decision to rule on the fate of Brooker Creek after the election. I believe the County will rule against the ballfields and pumping in the end. Any of you reading this can help by writing a letter to the editor and contacting the County government.

Brooker Creek Preserve and the penny are both most important but separate issues. The penny has many dollars dedicated to environmental issues such as water quality. Lets don't cut our nose off in spite of our face. I urge my fellow tree hugging brothers and sisters to vote yes for the penny.

[Ron]

No way can I vote for this or any other measure that increases taxes. Governments at all levels are extremely inefficient and wasteful and until the local governments show me something different, I encourage everyone to vote NO on the penny, the special school tax and, most importantly, the asinine Rubio plan to increase the sales tax. Even though Rubio's plan would save me money, it is bad for renter's, poor people and business. Just put a cap on government spending. It seems so simple that a politician can't understand this.

[Phillip]

I will vote no on the penny simply because I'm tired of these insulting political games. Clearly, the BOCC positioned this vote early and in a municiple cycle, to take advantage of low voter turnout. Once again... minority rules.

[SJ]

So Steve Spratt's nervous about this? He should be. He's pretty much single-handedly assured this thing will be voted down. The Penny's done a lot of good in this county, but because of the antics of Spratt and the other county mis-managers on the commission I, for one, can't trust them with any more. I'm sure they're still plotting to put commercial businesses in Ft. Desoto Park, Penny or not, and you watch, Brooker Creek will just quietly start to vanish under golf courses and ballfields for the well-connected.

SJ,

So you picked up on the "Brooker Creek is flooding" take also. It's coming, just you wait and see. Howard was right.

[Zhombre]

If Joe Redner finishes at or near the bottom of a six way county wide race and thus loses in his 7th try at public office, can we officially regard Redner as a pimp with pretensions but no real substance as a candidate for public office?

Ummmmm, ok Zombre... put down the crack pipe, you're forgotten where you are.

[Cheiri]

Sorry, Reggie - but you obviously have not been following the debate about Brooker Creek Preserve. It could just as well be one of our other preserves such as Shell Key, Mobbly, or Ozona.

A portion of penny tax money purchased land in the Brooker Creek Preserve and the voters were told that the land was for PRESERVATION. That's what voters voted for when they approved the Penny surtax. Presently, the county is toying with removing land from the Brooker Creek Preserve, pumping from it for a private golf course, and leasing 38 acres for ballfields (allowing thousands of trees and wildlife habitat to be destroyed in the process). The lease was approved years ago by the commissioners who now ask us to trust their judgement that they will use the new penny tax for projects on a new project list.

However, OVER $15 MILLION OF PENNY FUNDS EARMARKED FOR endangered lands were misallocated from the current penny for roof replacements and other such bait-and-switch items and the commissioners have ignored pleas by the public for 8 months to forego pursuing the pumping permits and find other land for the ballfields. There is county talk of removing acreage from the preserve also.

WHEN IS A PRESERVE A PRESERVE? YEARS AGO WHEN IT WAS CONVENIENT TO PASS A PENNY VOTE?

Go to this site to learn more about why you should vote NO for the Penny Tax on March 13th:
http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/2521
and learn about the county's mismanagement of Brooker Creek Preserve at this site:
http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/1664

[Zhombre]

OK - Redner in a run-off with Gwen Miller. Well, at least I get to vote against him twice. Best of luck, Gwen.

Go back to bed Zhombre. You need your sleep for your nightly trip to Mons, with a stack of ones you borrowed from mom.

[Reggie Hall]

Cheiri, just so you know. I'm the volunteer site coordinator of the Ozona Preserve. I work as much as I can doing restoration work. We volunteers are saving Pinellas residents tax dollars and helping the environment. I want all of our preserves fully protected from any unwanted developments. I'm a 55 year old many generation Tampa Bay native who has voted twice for the penny. I'm voting for the penny because much of the money will be for the environment including land purchases for Brooker Creek.

[Cheiri]

I am voting against the tax. Reggie, you obviously did not visit the sites that I suggested but would rather soak in the propaganda of our local government officials. They have ABUSED our environmental lands and misallocated over $15-million from the Penny promised list that was earmarked for endangered lands. For the sake of our environmental lands, please become informed on these issues.

There are links to government documents on these sites, along with the audit of the current Penny that discovered false promotional tactics and that many projects were removed from the penny list once it was passed. Many other shocking facts are in that audit and no taxpayer would have confidence in the county after reading it.

The county feels that promises are made to be broken. Fool me once, shame on you Pinellas County, fool me twice, shame on me.

I am guessing that Ozona preserve is near the water? Better be careful, Reggie - because the county is looking for marina and boat dock sites. The way that they are eyeing our environmental-sensitive lands as idle land, you stand a good chance of picking up trash in the parking lot of a boat launching site rather than working on restoration.

Go to this site to learn more about why you should vote NO for the Penny Tax on March 13th:
http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/2521
and learn about the county's mismanagement of Brooker Creek Preserve at this site:
http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/1664

[Reggie Hall]

Cheri I'm glad you care so much about our preserves, I do too. That is why I have spent the last ten years doing what I could for this small preserve in Ozona. I lead a group of Ozona activists who lobbied the county government to purchase some wet lands in Ozona in the 1980's. In 1989 the county purchased the first parcel and in the 1990's added two more properties that connected the properties together. This small property is the most protected preserve in the county. The Ozona Preserve is protected by a 1997 resolution as a native plant and animal sanctuary. Don't you worry about the Ozona preserve but I'm concerned that you can't see the forest for the trees. I think you want good environmental protection as I do. I doubt that there are many people in this county who have lobbied our government more than I about environmental issues over the last 30 years.

It is okay that we differ on the penny but it is more important that we both want good environmental protection. Thank you Cheiri for caring about the most important issue we all share,"the environment". I hope you know that no one on this earth could get me to vote against the environment and that is why I will be voting my third time for the penny.

[Cheiri]

Hi Reggie - I wonder why the county considers your Ozona parcel "Our smallest management area" rather than a preserve? http://pinellascounty.org/Environment/pagesHTML/envLands/el1000.html

You feel that Ozona management area/preserve is protected by a county ordinance? Are you aware that Brooker Creek Preserve has two county ordinances "protecting" it? That hasn't stop the county officials from leasing acreage for a sports complex or wanting to pump from it to sprinkle a private golf course. You may want to review the county's newest proposed ordinance for the preserves/managment areas/parks. You'll find that it doesn't offer protection needed but that is my opinion (shared by Sierra Club, Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve, Native Plant Society, etc.) which you no doubt will not share in your blind advocacy for Pinellas County government. I doubt if you will even review it since all is right (on the surface anyway) in your little corner of Pinellas County.

Oh, by the way, approximately a third of your "preserve" is zoned and has a land use designation of "residential". Wonder why the county hasn't changed that for you?

I will NOT be voting for the Penny because I care enough about the environment to be concerned about ALL our sensitive lands and I care enough to be informed.

http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/2521
http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/1664

[Ron]

Where did the County get the $200,000 to promote the Penny vote and the money for the survey. Glad it wasn't tax dollars!

[Carol B]

VOTE NO for the 'Penny'.

This isn't about a 'Penny'. If you only go to the Dollar Store and buy a dollar's worth of goods - ever, then its a 'Penny'.

This is a 1% INCREASE IN SALES TAX ON EVERY TAXABLE ITEM YOU BUY FOR THE NEXT 13 YEARS.

Government officials love to put this over on us as if its a teeny little 'Penny' and if we don't vote for this one teeny little 'Penny', well, we'll have to take a prisoner home because of overcrowded prisons, our preserves will go to pot and no more road improvements will be made... and on and on..

oh plu-eeeese...

I remember when the lottery was voted in - it was to enhance education. Sure, education gets lottery money, but they took education's regular budget dollars and put them somewhere else.

Same thing can happen with the 'Penny'. It's a tax that can go away now because the coffers are plenty full of tax dollars that can be re-appropriated.

The government used OUR tax dollars advertising/promoting their 'Penny' agenda. They put fliers in my bills, put signs on the public roadway. How come they get to use the public right-of-way to advertise their agenda? If I spray painted a big 'NO' on those signs, would I be arrested for vandalism? They're my signs....

To be fair, shouldn't they have also put up vote 'no' signs next the the vote 'yes' signs?

If they want to use our tax money, they should represent both sides since not everyone in the county is of the same opinion. Maybe they just should have spent that money on our preserves instead.

Did they ask us if it was ok to spend our money for their campaign! Nope. Has anyone out there gotten an accounting of the cost of the fliers and signs? I haven't.

Here's a chance we all have now to lower our taxes and not hope that the politicians will do it for us.

VOTE NO!