Commissioner Murman quoted in this FOX13 News article on mental health court:

Mental health court to tackle roots of criminality

By: Gloria Gomez, FOX 13 News

POSTED:JAN 26 2017 06:08PM EST

UPDATED:JAN 26 2017 06:17PM EST

TAMPA (FOX 13) – The discussion around mental health as it relates to criminal cases has intensified and, as a result, Hillsborough County has opened a new court to address those cases.

FSU student Nicole Nachtman’s mental health has come into question after her arrest in the death of her parents. James Jugo has been under similar scrutiny after, police say, he killed his roommate while fighting over a chicken leg. And Joseph Corrao’s mental health has been questioned after he allegedly picked up slung Pinky the Flamingo during a visit to Busch Gardens. Pinky was later euthanized due to injuries from the incident.

The mental health of these criminal defendants will a play a role in their cases and could end up in courtroom 11 – the new home of Mental Health Court.

Mental health court to tackle roots of criminality

Hillsborough Public Defender Julie Holt says this specialty court is not like your typical courtroom. Here, you have prosecutors, defense attorneys and mental health experts all working together to problem solve.

“It’s really a collaboration about this individual that’s in front of you,” Holt explained of defendants who may land in the courtroom.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman is a big supporter of mental health resources.

“We don’t want another Sandy Hook or some unfortunate accident to happen in this community because we let people go undiagnosed,” said Murman.

State Attorney Andrew Warren believes our courtrooms are seeing more and more repeat offenders and untreated mental illnesses.

“We need to make sure that we are triaging so we are identifying the people who have mental illness, so we can get them the treatment that they need. Because the traditional conviction and incarceration fails,” explained Warren.

But Hillsborough Chief Judge Ron Ficarrotta says this will work.

“Our circuit was one of the leaders in drug court, way back when, and our veterans court has taken off and is one of the national models now, and I anticipate a bright future for our mental health court,” said Ficarrotta.

Thursday, many in the courthouse were getting up-to-speed on how it will all work. The goal is simple.

“Our focus is success. Our focus is to make these individuals independent is some way, and able to lead their life without the structure of the criminal justice system,” explained Holt.

Mental Health court is taking baby steps. It will begin with non-violent crimes, like drugs and petty theft, and eventually will take on more serious crimes. To start, court will be in session the third Wednesday of every month.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on PACE:

Hillsborough program would provide new way to finance energy-efficiency upgrades

By Steve Contorno
Times Staff Writer

Published: January 24, 2017

TAMPA — Hillsborough County is close to creating a new way for property owners to pay for upgrades to make their homes or businesses more energy-efficient or hurricane-resistant.

The County Commission recently signaled that it wants to start a Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, program that allows certain environmentally friendly improvements to be financed through a home or business property tax bill.

Under the program, third-party vendors can provide loans to property owners to put toward installing certain renewable energy generators, such as solar panels, or to fixes that lower energy consumption, like a more modern air conditioning unit. Fortifying a property with wind-resistant improvements would qualify as well.

Unlike with more traditional lenders, a homeowner or business in the PACE program would pay back the loan through an assessment on their property.

Commissioners voted unanimously in November to have county staff draw up requirements for vendors wishing to participate.

“A lot of people are looking at energy savings when they’re redoing their houses,” Commissioner Sandy Murman said. “They’re making costly home improvements, and they want energy savings in their homes, and I do believe that this could be very beneficial to those, and it will be their decision not ours.”

The Florida Legislature gave the green light for localities to create PACE programs in 2010. Since then, counties across the state have slowly implemented their own versions. In 2013, Pinellas County allowed commercial businesses to seek out PACE loans, but not homeowners.

Under Hillsborough’s proposal, any property owner can participate. While the county will allow certain qualifying vendors to offer the loans and it will advertise the program on its website, the county will not be the lender and won’t be liable if an individual has a bad experience.

For property owners, the advantage is they can pay for expensive upgrades without any cash up front. The improvements could save them money in the long-run and increase the value of their homes.

Typically, there are fewer eligibility requirements for a PACE loan than other financing options.

However, that can also mean higher interest rates than a traditional loan. State law also requires PACE liens to take precedent over other mortgages, which can make selling a home or refinancing more complicated.

There’s uncertainty, too, since it’s still relatively new.

“The thing about the PACE program is they’ve only been around for five years,” said county finance director Tom Fesler. “I imagine a lot of jurisdictions are going to have them shortly. And some (problems) may show up.”

Companies looking to provide PACE loans say they are in high demand elsewhere in Florida and can help businesses grow.

“Every week when I drop into my contractors’ offices, they ask me when is the program going to be available in Hillsborough,” Arturo Gonzalez, a regional account manager at Ygrene Energy Fund, told commissioners this month.

Commissioners have considered implementing a PACE program several times in the past but didn’t act. That is likely to change.

“This is a long time coming,” then-commissioner Kevin Beckner said. “There were a lot of questions, there was a lot of uncertainty about these programs, but I think it’s been very clear that this is the direction we need to go.”

Contact Steve Contorno at scontorno@tampabay.com. Follow @scontorno.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this ABC News article on dog barking:

Hillsborough County aims to crack down on excessive dog barking

Right now, there’s no rules on barking

Lauren Rozyla

7:55 PM, Jan 24, 2017

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – Hillsborough County is considering new rules about how to deal with excessive dog barking.

Currently, there are no laws concerning dog barking in Hillsborough County.

Several courts have held that excessive dog barking which interferes with a neighboring property owner’s right to enjoy the use of his or her home constitutes a nuisance, according to a recent report by the Hillsborough County Attorney’s office.

Although there is no exact rule or formula for figuring out when barking dogs rise to the level of a nuisance, the Supreme Court of Florida has found this usually means barking sounds which are unreasonably loud, raucous, jarring, disturbing, or a nuisance to a reasonable person.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman is helping create some of the new provisions and said curbing excessive dog barking not only protects homeowners but dogs.

“There could be maybe abandonment type issues where the dogs just aren’t being taken care of,” Murman said.

But for those out there concerned this could mean a little dog barking could land them with a fine, Murman said don’t worry.

“It would have to be something very excessive,” she said. “We want to protect our citizen’s quality of life and their neighborhoods.”

Murman said the county doesn’t even have the resources to chase every dog barking complaint.

Some pet owners in the area feel barking could be challenging to regulate.

“That is a dog’s nature,” said John Cornish, a Tampa dog owner. “I mean so unless you’re going to get a breed that does not bark, they’re gonna do what they’re supposed to do.”

County leaders are also considering recommendations for any necessary improvements in the area of general nuisances related to pets, including provisions addressing odor, unsanitary conditions, and pest/parasite problems,

It’s unclear now if dog owners could be fined for excessive barking or what kind of penalties they could face for allowing too much dog barking.

The new ordinance language is expected to be discussed Wednesday at an Animal Advisory Committee meeting.

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tampa Bay Times article on Al Higginbotham:

Al Higginbotham won’t seek re-election to Hillsborough County Commission in 2018

• William March, Times Correspondent

Thursday, January 12, 2017 2:48pm

Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higginbotham, a key figure in county government and local Republican circles for more than two decades, announced Thursday he won’t run for re-election to his countywide seat next year and is getting out of elective politics.

Higginbotham, 62, said he made the decision because of worsening health issues connected with the 1995 hunting accident that left him partially paralyzed and a desire to spend more time with his family and in outdoor activities, a major part of his life that continued after the accident.

He denied that anger over some of his stances by conservatives in eastern Hillsborough County, the base of his support for years, is any part of the reason for his decision.

“I know it would be a hard election, but I know I could win,” Higginbotham said. “A typical work week for me has been 50 to 60 hours. I truly want to spend more time with my family and I miss the outdoors.”

Higginbotham, who has leg braces and uses crutches and occasionally a wheelchair, has been seen more often using the wheelchair in the county center lately.

His decision means there will be two open countywide commission seats on the 2018 Hillsborough ballot, likely generating a scramble of candidates: Higginbotham’s District 7 and District 5, where Republican Commissioner Ken Hagan he faces a term limit.

Because any candidate can switch from one countywide district to another up until qualifying in June 2018, there could also be back-and-forth jockeying as candidates seek to choose their opponents.

Democrats may be encouraged to try for one or both seats because of Democrat Pat Kemp’s very narrow loss to Higginbotham in 2014 and her win for the countywide District 6 seat in November. Among prominent Democrats who have said they could be interested are state Rep. Janet Cruz of Tampa and former Democratic county Commissioner Kevin Beckner, who lost to Pat Frank in the clerk of court race in November.

Among Republicans, Commissioner Victor Crist, who faces a term limit representing the north Hillsborough District 2, has said he intends to run for Hagan’s seat. Numerous others may be interested, said East Hillsborough conservative political activist Sam Rashid; Tea Party activist Tim Curtis already has filed for District 5.

State Sen. Tom Lee debated running for a county seat for months last summer before deciding to run instead for re-election to his Senate seat.

Higginbotham said his adult son and daughter, both home from out of state for Christmas, and other family members “held an intervention with me” during the holidays, convincing him not to run.

He said he doesn’t expect to get back into elective politics.

“I never viewed this as a stepping stone,” he said.

Higginbotham angered both conservative supporters, including Rashid, and backers of the Go Hillsborough transit funding plan with his stances on transportation funding last year.

He was a critical swing vote on the issue.

In April and June, he voted against Go Hillsborough, a 30-year half-cent sales tax surcharge, after previously saying he would support the recommendation of the Policy Leadership Group, a body of local elected officials from the county and cities.

That angered some traditionally right-of-center business groups that had endorsed the sales tax hike.

Higginbotham also rankled some of his biggest backers when he helped beat back fellow Republican Commissioner Sandy Murman’s alternative plan. Murman proposed locking in a guarantee that one-third of all future growth in property tax revenue would go toward roads, sidewalks, transit and the like.

Higginbotham instead put forth a much more modest proposal to set aside $600 million over the next 10 years to pay for roadwork. While it passed and didn’t raise taxes, conservative activists saw it as a toothless promise that would be easy for future commissions to undo.

“He stabbed his most loyal supporters in the back” over the transportation issue, Rashid said. “He was told he could not run for re-election, and that’s what happened.”

Higginbotham’s departure from the commission will mark the end of an influential career within the Hillsborough GOP. He was a county campaign chairman for Jeb Bush’s runs for governor in 1998 and 2002, and a regional chairman for George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004.

In 2003, he led he takeover of the Hillsborough County Republican Party by East Hillsborough conservatives from the Tampa-based moderates who had previously controlled it. He became chairman of the local party until he ran for commissioner in 2006.

Higginbotham was partially paralyzed when a tree limb fell on him while he was in the woods hunting in 1995.

Prior to that he had been an active outdoorsman who ran a contracting company that applied herbicides in agricultural fields and power line rights of way.

He later became an author and motivational speaker. In 2002 he summited White Mountain in California, one of the highest in the lower 48 states, becoming the first physically disabled climber to do so, he said.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Observer News article on Amazon in Ruskin:

Amazon Ruskin center sets holiday season records

Local fulfillment center for retail giant shipped nearly a million items in a single day; shipped more than 17 million items in December, more than any other U.S. Amazon Fulfillment center.

By MITCH TRAPHAGEN

mitch@observernews.net

There was a time, not so long ago, when the news of a company hiring a thousand or more people would have been unthinkable in South Hillsborough; more, it would have been a stretch of the imagination for much of the Tampa Bay metropolitan area. The construction of the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Ruskin changed all of that.

Ruskin and the surrounding area was once a sleepy suburban/exurban area known largely for retirees and tomatoes. Beginning early in the new century, it had been discovered as people moved in by the thousands, in search of a high quality of life with easy access to all that a large metro area has to offer.

Particularly in Ruskin, the location is strategic not just for residents but for business as well; nestled between two major airports along with easy access to I-75 and even rail terminals.

Amazon, the world’s largest internet retailer, recognized the opportunity the location offered, along with a growing population that provided a base for a very large workforce.

In 2014, Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman had this to say about Amazon and the news of a then-new facility in Ruskin: “The South Shore area has been a diamond in the rough for a long time. Someone has finally found the treasure here in Amazon’s decision to locate its distribution center in Ruskin. It’s going to mean economic development and more jobs for an area that so desperately needed a jump-start after the recession. It’s a perfect fit, and it couldn’t happen in a better place than South County.”

The commissioner’s words proved to be prescient. Today Amazon not only provides well over a thousand permanent and many more seasonal jobs for residents of South Hillsborough, the Ruskin Fulfillment center has proven itself to be a key part of Amazon’s operation.

Amazon shipped more than 1 billion items worldwide, the equivalent of nearly three items for every man, woman and child in the U.S.

In December, the Ruskin Amazon Fulfillment center shipped more than 17 million items — the most of any of the company’s fulfillment centers in the United States. On one day alone, the center shipped nearly 1 million items. Additionally, the Ruskin center shipped the most gift-wrapped items of any Amazon facility in the world, totaling more than 250,000 gifts.

In just two short years, the employees and management team of the Ruskin facility have moved to the forefront of the nation’s fourth most valuable public company by market capitalization, a metric by which it passed Walmart in 2015.

Amazon itself was also prescient — in less than a year after opening in 2014, the company nearly doubled the capacity of the new fulfillment center, adding hundreds of additional jobs.

“Looking back on our 2016 holiday season, I’m amazed by all the incredible accomplishments of this fulfillment center and our dedicated team of associates and managers,” said Chris Monnot, general manager of the Ruskin fulfillment center. “We work all year to be prepared for this time of year, and I’m proud of our fantastic employees who made so many holiday wishes come true. Thank you!”

The praise for the local center also came from the top of the company.

“We are so proud of our local fulfillment center team in Ruskin. This year was our best holiday season and we couldn’t have done it without them,” were the words contained in a press release with a congratulatory blog post to all of Amazon from Mike Roth, Amazon vice president of operations.

Like the Ruskin center, it was a record-breaking holiday season for Amazon itself. The company shipped more than 1 billion items to customers worldwide through Amazon Prime and Fulfillment by Amazon. That is roughly the equivalent of three items for every man, woman and child in the United States.

Roth went on to credit the more than 200,000 Amazon hourly associates — a mix of permanent and seasonal — for making the record-breaking holiday season possible. In the past two years, the company opened more than a dozen new facilities, creating tens of thousands of jobs, in which employees work alongside more than 45,000 robotic units in the expansive fulfillment centers.

“This truly was a massive team effort, and the results speak for themselves,” Roth stated. “Almost every fulfillment center, sortation center, or specialty site showed year-over-year improvement. Some broke network records. And some even broke multiple records in a span of days. We were able to do it because of the 200,000-plus workforce working diligently to serve customers. The hard work was accomplished by a mix of veteran associates who prepared all year for Peak, newly hired seasonal associates who played a critical role in helping us meet increased customer demand, the managers who dedicated extra hours to ensure teams got the support they needed, and the HR teams who organized fun and creative entertainment while providing associates with one-on-one attention.”

With a note of trivia that also reveals the extreme measures undertaken by Amazon employees during the busy holiday season, the company, which offers same-day delivery in some large metropolitan areas, revealed that the last Prime free same-day delivery order for Christmas was placed on Amazon.com was ordered at 10:23 a.m. on Dec. 24 by a customer in Richmond, Va. The customer received that order at 2:42 p.m. the same day — certainly an extreme example of last-minute shopping.

Amazon also noted that its Florida fulfillment centers donated $1,500 to Toys for Tots and $5,000 to the Children’s Home Society of Florida this past holiday season, an effort to give back to the communities in which associates live and work.

For information about employment at Amazon, visit workatamazonfulfillment.com

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tampa Bay Business Journal article on Transportation:

Transportation 2016 in Tampa Bay: Yes on boats, no on taxes

Dec 29, 2016, 2:42pm EST

Janelle Irwin

ReporterTampa Bay Business Journal

For years, transit initiatives have crashed and burned in the Tampa Bay region, and 2016 was no different.

But while residents saw yet another transit initiative go up in smoke, there was some success. Put it all together and Tampa Bay’s 2017 could yield some interesting results.

TBX

The Tampa Bay Express project, or TBX, created a lot of consternation throughout 2016. So many people showed up to speak either in favor of or against the more than $3 billion transportation improvement plan, the Metropolitan Planning Organization meeting where it was approved went well into the wee hours of the morning.

Supporters, many of whom were local business leaders, hailed TBX as an opportunity to fix aging roads, increase capacity and reduce congestion. Parts of the plan that added connectivity to Tampa International Airport were particularly attractive to the business community.

Critics argued the plan was too focused on roads and relied on what they saw as an incorrect assumption that adding capacity reduces congestion. Critics also worried about land acquisitions that could lead to possibly hundreds of home and business demolitions.

The bulk of the controversy, however, swirled around the inclusion of 90 miles of tolled express lanes across the region. The Howard Frankland Bridge was slated to have a pay-per-use toll lane, but that plan was axed after residents and elected officials came forward saying they had no idea the lanes would take an existing lane of regular traffic rather than create a new one.

Other critiques included nicknaming toll lanes “Lexus lanes” because naysayers said they would only benefit the affluent.

In December, the Florida Department of Transportation put the entire project on hold. Expect a series of revisions in 2017.

Go Hillsborough

In April, Hillsborough County Commissioners voted not to put a measure before voters that would have raised sales tax in the county a half penny for 20 years. The measure would have provided additional funding over 30 years for improvements to roads and bridges, sidewalks, intersections and transit.

Later in the year, the same board rejected the same measure on a 20-year plan.

A quarter of the funding would have been reserved for Hillsborough Area Regional Transit for use in making improvements to public transportation and increasing access to transit.

The rejection was initially a huge loss for transit supporters who were hopeful the measure would represent a long-needed win for increasing transportation options. Instead it became the second measure in six years to tank in Hillsborough County and the second in less than two years to fail in the Tampa Bay area.

Go Hillsborough was lacking in specific details. It laid out parameters for which governments would get money, but didn’t’ specify how the money should be spent. Studies looking into transit priorities were either incomplete or nonexistent.

Past transit defeats at the ballot box have been attributed to such incomplete measurables.

That’s all since changed. The Florida Department of Transportation is funding a premium transit study through Hillsborough’s transit agency, HART. Hillsborough County Commissioner Al Higginbotham expanded a plan first proposed by colleague Sandra Murman to fund immediate and future transportation problems by tapping into the county’s growing revenue.

Longtime transit activist Pat Kemp was elected to Hillsborough County Commission in November. Kemp will likely focus a lot of her efforts on transit-related issues in the new year and throughout her term.

Cross Bay Ferry

Where TBX and Go Hillsborough were steeped in controversy and deep political divides, the Cross Bay Ferry stands as a breath of fresh air. The water ferry service that connects Tampa and St. Petersburg’s downtowns was funded through a four-way partnership between St. Pete, Tampa, and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

Opposition for the $1 million six-month pilot project was hard to come by.

But while the service has seen positive ridership numbers since launching in November, it’s still unclear whether ferry service in Tampa Bay has a place in the prolonged immediate future.

At $10 each way, using the ferry in lieu of other modes of transportation could be cost prohibitive for some. The $20 round-trip fare is a bit less than what it would cost to use Uber or Lyft to get from one city to the other if there’s only one traveler. Put riders in pairs or more and any savings is quickly evaporated.

Even some consider the established half-off commuter discount– 20 one-way trips for $100 – a steep fee.

But those closest to the project acknowledge its limitations and look at this six-month period as an opportunity to gauge rider support for this kind of transit. It’s seen as a way to push for other routes, ones that could be more profitable and cut back on the overall cost to riders. Those include trips on smaller boats connecting south Hillsborough County to MacDill Air Force Base and, potentially, a stop in Westshore.

For the remainder of the pilot, however, riders can take advantage of a scenic trip across the Bay for free every third Sunday of the month.

Janelle Irwin is a reporter for the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this StPetersBlog article on Pat Kemp:

Pat Kemp talks (about low-paying) jobs before a group of Tampa millennials

MITCH PERRY

A recent Census Bureau report reveals what many people in the Tampa Bay area know all too well – that the area doesn’t pay that well in terms of annual salary compared to other major regions in the nation.

The median household income in Tampa Bay is $48,911. That’s dead last among the top 25 metro regions in the country, and the only region in the top 25 below an average salary of $50,000.

“We have to look at our economy and what we’re doing here because that separates us from so many other places in terms of driving our wages and driving our economy,” recently elected Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp told a group of millennials in Ybor City on Wednesday morning.

Speaking at the Blind Tiger Cafe on 7th Avenue to discuss the economy and how millennials are impacting job creation, Kemp said that she’s just now learning about all the things the county is doing on the economic development front. One of the biggest surprises she says she’s learned in her short time on the board is the fact that there are thousands of Hillsborough County employees making less than $12 an hour. “That’s stunning to me,” she said.

Speaking about a recent tax-incentive deal the county has made with a window manufacturer, Kemp says she’d like to find a way that new jobs that do come to Hillsborough County pay a certain wage.

“I want them to put something in there that’s like a minimum wage of $12 an hour or something before we subsidize,” she said. “I don’t know what models we have for that or if we just create out own, but I’d really like to see that be part of the protocol for that fund.”

She also said that while business and economic leaders in the Tampa Bay area want to attract educated millennials to the region to reach up to the Austin’s and Charlotte’s of the world, the number of people with undergraduate college degrees in the area is twenty-seven percent, under the national average of thirty-five percent, and below areas like Austin and Boston, which are around forty to forty-five percent. Kemp emphasized that the number of people with college degrees was just one measure of measuring the area, but an important element.

A longtime activist, attorney and and aide to lawmakers like Kathy Castor and Sara Romeo, Kemp for the first time holds elective office. That means being accountable to voters.

Andrew Machota, the head of New Town Connections which presented Kemp’s appearance, expressed concerns about how much lower the pay is Tampa Bay than around the rest of the nation, and asked what her vision was to cure that?

Kemp said she didn’t have any immediate answers, but said she knew what she didn’t want to do.

“When we were subsidizing Walmarts and retail which I just think is ludicrous for minimum wage jobs, that they would be here anyway,” she replied. “I’m going to try to support going local, keeping the wealth here and looking at that avenue as a form of prosperity rather than bringing in the chains and retailers who would come here anyway.”

Although the issue has long past, Kemp again brought up her opposition to the awarding of a $6.25 million subsidy in early 2013 by the BOCC to land a Bass Pro Shops, the chain store mecca for hunters and recreational fisherman. “I don’t know why. That was $6 million that could have been used for economic development … .it’s like crazy, right?

Kevin Beckner, Kemp’s predecessor representing District 6, was the only board member to oppose the measure. Commissioner Sandy Murman recently expressed no regrets for her vote, saying that the county’s return on investment will come back within three years.

Kemp said the county and the state has relied too long on low-paying tourism jobs and then segued into criticizing the county for failing to increase transportation impact fees on new development for decades.

Discussion of what is now known as mobility fees then propelled Kemp to drop talking jobs and segue into talking about one of her passions, public transit, which then dominated the rest of her address.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this follow up article in the Tampa Bay Business Journal on NewSouth Windows:

NewSouth Window deal makes the case for tax incentives

Dec 8, 2016, 12:22pm EST

Janelle Irwin

Reporter

Tampa Bay Business Journal

Hillsborough County is giving a half off discount to a Tampa company on its property tax bill for the next seven years. NewSouth Windows will save about $50,000 a year on a tax incentive from the county for expanding its business.

The deal is, NewSouth gets a total $350,000 tax break and in return must create at least 30 new jobs as part of a $17 million capital expansion.

The company will spend $15 million on a new building and $2 million on new equipment, according to CEO Dan Ochstein. The company is building a 240,000 square-foot facility on Williams road near the intersection of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Interstate-75.

“We’ve grown into four different locations around Tampa and need to consolidate,” Ochstein said.

Company leaders considered locations from Orlando to Pinellas. The ultimate decision on the Williams site wasn’t made entirely on the basis of earning a tax subsidy, but Ochstein said it did help seal the deal.

“We would have had to really think hard about it,” Ochstein said.

Such subsidies for businesses to open or expand are sometimes controversial as critics cry foul over what they dub corporate welfare. But this deal was different. Not a single person spoke against it during public comment at the meeting Wednesday where it was scheduled for approval.

Commissioners also had nothing to say. All, that is, except for Sandra Murman who had praise for the initiative.

“With construction booming here and all the growth that we’re going to be experiencing, it really shows that more and more manufacturers are seeing the value in expanding,” Murman said.

The incentive passed unanimously.

That’s unlike past initiatives like a $6 million road improvement subsidy for Bass Pro Shops. The obvious difference is the dollar figure – $350,000 compared to $6 million. But this deal also came with guarantees.

In return for the halved property taxes, NewSouth must create at least 30 jobs. It plans to meet that and potentially even exceed that with estimates putting total job growth at 40 employees.

Those jobs would be mostly high paying professional sector positions and some manufacturing. The incentive also guarantees the retention of some 100 jobs already in Hillsborough County.

NewSouth is a window manufacturing company serving 76 cities in Florida including Tampa. Statewide it currently employs roughly 150 people.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on BOCC meeting:

Testy Hillsborough County Commission sets tone for divisive 2017

• Steve Contorno, Times Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 7, 2016 6:13pm

TAMPA — Charges of flip-flopping. Accusations of indifference. One elected official caught on a microphone mumbling about a colleague: “How do you sleep at night?”

If Wednesday was a harbinger for the upcoming year, the Hillsborough County Commission is headed toward a rancorous 2017.

In their first meeting since the November election, commissioners heatedly argued several subjects: How to spend a $7.9 million surplus turned over by the county’s constitutional officers; whether lobbyists should be able to text commissioners during meetings; how to pick a board chairman in the future.

It wasn’t quite a return to the battles of past County Commissions, when showdowns were commonplace. But it was a noticeable departure for a board that just recently toasted its family-like relations, and a signal that divisions over how to pay for transportation could boil over.

Commissioner Sandy Murman, for example, wanted the surplus $7.9 million to go immediately toward fixing roads. But she was rebuked by the rest of the board, which voted to hold off on spending it for now.

At one point, Murman threatened to keep commissioners there all day with motions to allocate the money for transportation and questioned their commitment to solving the problem.

“You guys, is transportation important?” she said. “I mean, really.”

To which Commissioner Ken Hagan replied: “If transportation was such a high priority for Commissioner Murman, with all due respect, she should have supported the referendum (to raise the sales tax).”

Hagan and Murman sparred earlier in the meeting when Murman proposed a ban on texting or emailing lobbyists during commission meetings.

In Tallahassee, incoming House Speaker Richard Corcoran has pushed similar reforms for lawmakers, and Murman’s plan would model that.

Murman’s proposal, however, did not include any punishment for commissioners who violated the rule. Hagan said it was “symbolism over substance.”

Several other commissioners indicated concerns with Murman’s proposal, but in a 5-1 vote, asked staffers to draft an ordinance for future consideration.

Commissioner Les Miller grew agitated when commissioners killed his proposal to rotate the board chairmanship each year.

The title, largely ceremonial, is bestowed every November in a process often rife with backroom dealings and intense lobbying.

Miller was ousted as chairman last month, and Murman, after voting for Commissioner Stacy White over Miller, suggested it was time to rotate it among the seven board members. No one objected when Miller said he would move it forward.

But on Wednesday, Murman changed course, crediting her constituents for persuading her to oppose it.

As she explained her about-face, Miller could be heard laughing and saying, “How do you sleep at night?” He insinuated that the politically connected were pulling strings to block his plan.