Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tampa Tribune article on police review board:
POLITICS
Tampa police review board draws 73 applications and counting
BY Christopher O’Donnell
Tribune staff
Published: September 21, 2015 | Updated: September 22, 2015 at 05:38 AM
TAMPA — The city’s new police review board is unpopular with police unions and community activists and still the subject of a running battle between Mayor Bob Buckhorn and some City Council members.
That has not dampened the interest of people who want a role keeping tabs on Tampa Police Department.
While most citizen boards typically get a handful of applications, the city received 73 to serve on its Citizens Review Board in just eight days, records show.
Among those who want to sift through the findings of police internal affair investigations are a cigar salesman, a reverend, a retired fire pilot and the husband of a Hillsborough County commissioner. The 11 places on the board are open to Tampa residents or business owners. The deadline to apply is Oct. 15.
Augie Mauser, an 80-year-old retired University of South Florida professor who now runs a mobile retail cigar business, put his name forward because of his experience teaching and developing special education programs that were used in corrections centers. “I felt that I was more than qualified,” Mauser said. “I worked on education programs for prisons and with the State of Florida. I worked with learning disabilities and delinquency, so I understand the population.”
Another applicant is James A. Murman, the husband of Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman.
Murman, 70, works as a personal injury attorney for Barr Murman and Tonelli. He is also a member of the Florida Defense Lawyers Association, the American Board of Trial Advocates, and a former Chairman of the Hillsborough County Grievance Committee.
“Handling litigation is basically a fact-finding issue,” Murman said. “I’m competent and would like to continue that. I think that would be important on a police review board.”
For others, the board is a way to give back to the community.
“If you want to increase our quality of life and standard of living, that’s what you do – you serve,” said applicant Neil Cosentino, a retired MacDill Air Force Base fighter pilot who was also behind campaigns to save the Friendship TrailBridge.
Buckhorn created the review board after community groups and others had lobbied the city council for civilian oversight of Tampa Police Department in the wake of reports of police officers around the nation brutalizing the public and a Department of Justice probe of the Tampa Police Department’s ticketing of black bicyclists.
To be eligible for the board, applicants must pass a background check and complete the Citizens Police Academy and accompany police officers in patrol cars for nine hours to give them a better grasp of the challenges officers face.
In addition to internal affairs investigations, board members will review police pursuits and other police practices and issue recommendations to the police chief in cases where they feel an investigation was not thorough or discipline was inadequate. The recommendations are not binding but could throw more of a spotlight on cases where citizens feel aggrieved at their treatment by police officers.
Buckhorn’s executive order allows him to appoint all but two of the board members, angering council members who say that gives him too much control. They are scheduled on Thursday to discuss moving ahead with an ordinance that would give them seven picks and the city mayor only four.
Tampa for Justice, a coalition of civic groups including the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union, say the review board as proposed would do little to keep the police in check. The group is calling for the review board to have subpoena power and to be able to conduct its own investigations.
“Many members of the community are angered over the mayor’s insistence on creating a Board with no legitimacy,” said Kelly Benjamin, an organizer with the group. “They are waiting for this process to play out with the city council.”
