Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tampa Tribune article on Go Hillsborough:
POLITICS
Tampa council vote hurts county transportation push
BY CHRISTOPHER O’DONNELL
Tribune staff
Published: September 17, 2015 | Updated: September 17, 2015 at 09:48 PM
TAMPA — The Go Hillsborough transportation initiative suffered another black eye Thursday as the Tampa City Council voted to suspend a contract with an engineering firm while an audit is conducted into how the company received a lucrative $1.3 million contract with Hillsborough County.
The move may require canceling future Go Hillsborough outreach meetings scheduled in Tampa.
Hillsborough County commissioners asked for the audit Wednesday after a WTSP 10 News TV report questioned whether Tampa public relations consultant Beth Leytham influenced the county in its choice of Parsons Brinckerhoff for the Go Hillsborough public outreach effort. Leytham’s public relations firm was later hired by Parsons Brinckerhoff to do communications and marketing on the project.
In the wake of that move, council members voted unanimously Thursday for city attorneys to put on hold the city’s $75,000 contract with Parsons Brinckerhoff. The council approved the contract earlier this month and the city staff has yet to finalize it.
The money was the city’s contribution toward another round of public outreach for the transportation initiative, which is expected to go to a countywide referendum in 2016.
“Obviously we cannot speculate what the results of that audit is,” said Councilwoman Lisa Montelione. “We need to put the brakes on this until after the audit report is returned to the county.”
Under the contract, the engineering firm was scheduled to hold another 22 public input meetings and to provide an update on the costs of transportation projects in the city’s 10-year plan.
Plant City and Temple Terrace were also asked to chip in $5,000 each toward the $350,000 cost of additional public outreach.
County Administrator Mike Merrill said the council’s decision will not stop Go Hillsborough from moving forward. The county is planning to continue with its public outreach efforts.
“What will happen more than likely is they will have to cancel all the outreach meetings that were scheduled in the city of Tampa,” Merrill said.
Councilman Mike Suarez, who serves on the county’s Transportation Policy Leadership Group, said the city should have signed an agreement with the county and paid them since the county was the agency that contracted with Parsons Brinckerhoff.
“It should never have been a separate contract between us and Parsons,” Suarez said.
Leytham’s firm, The Leytham Group, was in line to get $187,000 for its work on behalf of Parsons Brinckerhoff. That included $32,000 from the city contract.
Known as a well-connected consultant, Leytham has close ties to public officials including Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and County Commissioners Ken Hagan and Sandy Murman.
Parsons Brinckerhoff has been one of Leytham’s clients for several years. She told the Tribune on Wednesday that she did not lobby on behalf of Parsons Brinckerhoff and that her firm was only hired after the contract was awarded.
Merrill said the process to hire Parsons Brinckerhoff has already been through one audit and also a legal review.
“The county attorney and auditor both independently concluded the procurement was done properly according to process,” he said.
