Commissioner Murman mentioned in this letter to the editor in the Tampa Bay Times:

Monday’s letters: On transit, build consensus, don’t belittle

Friday, February 26, 2016 4:39pm

Build consensus, don’t belittle

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, attempting to discredit the many citizens who disagree with him on the Go Hillsborough sales tax proposal, pompously belittles them all as “three tea party bloggers sitting in their underwear in their basements in Ruskin.”

First, Ruskin is not an insult — it’s a fine community and it’s my home. Second, it’s creepy that he is imagining citizens in their underwear. And finally, there are no basements in Florida.

This mayor is mad at a county commissioner, Kevin Beckner, for trying to reshape the sales tax proposal in light of concerns raised by people throughout the county — including groups from the Sierra Club to the tea party, Democrats as well as Republicans, and the local multilingual newspaper La Gaceta. Beckner’s proposal includes more transit, funded by a 10-year tax. Buckhorn is pushing the Go Hillsborough 30-year tax that would mostly fund roads, with relatively little transit.

So Buckhorn tries to dismiss Beckner’s alternate proposal with Donald Trump-like smack talk about bloggers, adding, “That’s not leadership.”

I’ll tell you what is not leadership: vilifying people with alternative views and trying to ram your agenda through despite the concerns of voters. Real leadership is listening to all your constituents, looking for common ground and building consensus among people with different perspectives — like Commissioner Kevin Beckner and Commissioner Sandra Murman are trying to do after the mess you’ve made of Go Hillsborough.

Eventually, the whole county will have to vote on any new transportation tax. Disparaging the community of Ruskin is no way to gain our support.

Mariella Smith, Ruskin