Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on ferry project:

Hillsborough to look for new site for proposed ferry

• Will Hobson, Times Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 20, 2014 12:12pm

TAMPA — Ed Turanchik told Hillsborough County commissioners in February that his clients had examined 14 potential spots for their proposed high-speed ferry’s terminal. Only one worked: the Fred and Idah Schultz Preserve near Gibsonton.

On Wednesday, Commissioner Sandy Murman made a surprise move that Turanchik said could jeopardize the ferry: She asked county staff to start looking for a different spot.

“I am very optimistic about this project … ” Murman said, “but the dam has broke and people are expressing concerns. . . . If there is a huge citizen uprising over this location, it’s not something that this commission will stomach.”

In the past few weeks, environmental advocates and Gibsonton residents have criticized the use of a nature preserve for a ferry terminal and parking lot.

Turanchik, a lawyer and former commissioner who represents the private companies that would operate the ferry, was not at the commission meeting. Any search is a waste of time, he said.

“We’ve been through painstaking analysis . . . county staff can do whatever it wants, but that’s the only site that works,” he said.

The 134-acre Schultz preserve is partly owned by a Hillsborough land-preservation program, and more than $3 million in public money has been spent buying and restoring the land. Turanchik has proposed swapping nearby land owned by his clients with the preserve land needed for the terminal.

That did not placate officials with Audubon Florida.

“It would have been a very destructive project that would have wasted millions of public dollars invested in that site,” said Charles Lee, Audubon Florida director of advocacy.

The ferry would provide commuter service for southern Hills­borough residents who work at MacDill Air Force Base and could add service linking Tampa to St. Petersburg. The project needs more than $20 million in startup funding, most of which would be covered by the county under Turanchik’s plan.

In February, commissioners approved spending $125,000 on a feasibility study. In June, the project won a $4.8 million federal grant.

“We would hate to see Tampa Bay lose this incredible opportunity . . . just because some people are being silly,” Turanchik said.

Also Wednesday, commissioners asked Hillsborough’s internal auditor to review the county’s Pet Resources Division, which used to be called the Animal Services Department.

Commissioner Ken Hagan asked for the audit and said he hopes it vindicates new county shelter chief Scott Trebatoski, who has drawn praise from commissioners but has riled some local animal advocates.

“I really believe having an independent audit will validate the improvements that have been made,” Hagan said.

Under Trebatoski, the county shelter’s live-release rate — the percentage of animals that leave alive — has jumped to 72 percent, up from 49 percent last year. Some local animal rescue groups have questioned the accuracy of those figures.

Trebatoski replaced Ian Hallett, who was moved to another county department last December after months of withering criticism from animal advocates.

Trebatoski told commissioners he welcomed the audit and promised continued improvements.

“We’re really undergoing a cultural shift as well as a philosophical shift,” Trebatoski said. “I think we’ve turned that corner.”

Contact Will Hobson at whobson@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3400. Follow @TheWillHobson.

Commissioner Murman mentioned and quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on the ferry:

Politics

Hillsborough commissioners reconsidering support of ferry plan

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff
Published: August 20, 2014   |   Updated: August 21, 2014 at 06:54 AM

TAMPA — Reacting to complaints from environmental groups, Hillsborough County officials are backing off their earlier support for a high-speed ferry terminal on conservation lands along Hillsborough Bay.

County officials were to appear on behalf of the project at Tuesday’s meeting of the Southwest Florida Water Management District governing board. The water management district owns the Fred and Idah Schultz preserve where the county and developers had proposed putting the terminal and a boat basin.

But County Engineer Mike Williams confirmed Wednesday the agenda item is being pulled. Williams said the county wants more time to investigate complaints from Audubon of Florida reported in Monday’s edition of The Tampa Tribune.

“Since these concerns were just brought to our attention, we want to understand them better, what the real root of the concerns are and see if there is some common ground that we can work out,” Williams said.

Support for the site also seems to be fading among county commissioners. On Wednesday, they unanimously supported Commissioner Sandy Murman’s suggestion that the county look at alternative sites. Murman cited opposition from Audubon and the Concerned Citizens of Gibsonton. Jan Smith, chair of the county’s Jan K. Platt Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, known as ELAPP, is also opposed.

“I think Audubon said it correctly: You shouldn’t be paving over pristine lands,” Murman said following the Wednesday meeting.

In February, county commissioners approved spending $100,000 to study the ferry proposal put forth by South Swell Development Group and HMS Ferries. The companies, represented by former County Commissioner Ed Turanchik, plan to run ferries between the terminal, just north of Apollo Beach, and MacDill Air Force Base. The companies expect steady ridership from the 5,000 MacDill employees who live in south Hillsborough.

Turanchik said the group looked at 14 potential sites before settling on the Schultz preserve. The Tampa Port Authority would not allow a site on any of its property because of industrial development plans, Turanchik said.

Turanchik also maintains Audubon agreed early on that the terminal be placed on the preserve along with an access road and park that visitors could enjoy.

“This partnership agreement is based on a site that Audubon recommended that was presented to county commissioners and that Commissioner Murman embraced,” Turanchik said. “And we are about the process of seeing whether this site worked.”

That claim was dismissed by Charles Lee, vice president of Audubon of Florida. Lee said Turanchik was misrepresenting conversations he had in 2012 with Ann Paul, Audubon’s regional coordinator in the Tampa Bay area.

“The ferry terminal being discussed was either completely different or he hadn’t revealed to Ann that there was going to be a 1,500-car parking lot” to serve the MacDill commuters, Lee said.

Paul could not be reached for comment.

Lee took aim at the ferry group’s plans in an e-mail blast last week in which he pointed out that $2.5 million in public funds was spent rehabilitating the 134-acre Schultz preserve. He characterized the ferry proposal as a scheme to “grab the land for non-conservation purposes.”

The preserve was named for Audubon’s first warden in the Hillsborough Bay area and his wife. In 1995, the land was purchased jointly by the county’s ELAPP program and the water management district for $370,000.

Turanchik has proposed trading 46 acres owned by the South Swell Group for the proposed 20-acre terminal site.

“I can’t help the fact that Audubon switched their position,” Turanchik said. “They have their prerogative.”

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on the Port:

Port Tampa Bay to get two new cranes to handle container cargo

JAMAL THALJI

Tampa Bay Times

Tuesday, August 19, 2014 12:25pm

TAMPA — The Tampa Port Authority on Tuesday approved spending $21.5 million to build two new gantry cranes that officials hope will expand the port’s cargo container business.

This summer, the Florida Legislature awarded Port Tampa Bay $12 million to help pay for the project. The port will pay for the rest using a loan from the state’s infrastructure bank.

The port’s governing board voted to award the $21.5 million contract to ZPMC, aka Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., one of the world’s largest crane manufacturers.

Port Tampa Bay CEO Paul Anderson wants to expand the port’s share of cargo containers, which are a more lucrative than the bulk cargoes, like phosphates and anhydrous ammonia, that dominate its business.

“When we have met with the global ocean carriers,” Anderson said, “they are telling us, ‘We need you to have bigger cranes for us.’ ”

The port handled 34,379 containers in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, an 11 percent increase over last year. But containers is a fledgling business in Tampa. The Port of Miami handles more than 900,000 a year.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman, who sits on the board, said the project should benefit the region. “We’re getting two cranes here,” she said. “But it’s going to attract jobs and more companies and their goods.”

The cranes should take about two years to build and install. The port would then have five cargo cranes. The current three are 42 years old and can stretch 110 feet over a cargo ship. The new cranes will be able to extend 160 feet out.

The Tampa Port Authority’s crane project was panned by Florida TaxWatch, which put it on its annual list of state budget “turkeys.” The organization later said it was merely questioning the appropriations process.

Contact Jamal Thalji at thalji@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3404. Follow @jthalji.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on the Port:

Business News

Port Tampa Bay negotiating for two new gantry cranes

By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: August 19, 2014

TAMPA — Two mega cranes scheduled to be installed at Port Tampa Bay in a couple of years will allow the seaport to prepare for a future with larger, wider cargo ships.

The Tampa Port Authority board voted Tuesday to direct its staff to negotiate with Zhenhua Heavy Industry Inc. — the world’s largest manufacturer of gantry cranes — to purchase two of them at a cost of about $24 million.

More cargo coming in on larger container ships means more jobs for terminal operators, laborers, crane operators, truck drivers and logistic services, said port spokesman Andy Fobes.

Half of the money to pay for the cranes is coming from a state grant and half is coming in the form of a loan from the Florida Department of Transportation’s State Infrastructure Bank.

The three 42-year-old gantry cranes currently in operation at the port’s container berth can reach 110 feet across a ship’s deck, the width of 11 cargo containers. The new cranes will have a reach of 160 feet, which means they can reach across 19 containers on a ship’s deck. The decks on the “post Panamax” container ships (built after the recent expansion of the Panama Canal) will have room for just that many containers across their decks.

There are even larger ships being built, said Port President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Anderson. But those larger ships will be heading to Europe, not the United States.

The best part about this purchase, said Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman, who sits on the port board, is that the cranes “will bring a whole ton of jobs here and attract more companies to come here” to ship goods.

“The growth is there and we are building the footprint” for even more expansion, Fobes said. “We are prepping for the ultimate goal of about 1 million-container capacity moving in or out of the port.”

The number of containers coming through the port fluctuates annually, Fobes said. In 2006, the port had 23,167 containers come through. In 2013, 42,198 containers came through the port.

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

Port Tampa, Port Manatee meet, hoping to heal rift

JAMAL THALJITampa Bay Times

Wednesday, August 13, 2014 11:44am

ST. PETERSBURG — Today’s meeting of Tampa Bay’s seaports was billed as a chance to promote regional economic development.

But in reality, it was a peace summit to heal the rift between Port Tampa Bay and Port Manatee.

Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Ananth Prasad left no sports metaphor behind in declaring himself the referee of this regional economic conflict.

The state wasn’t spending millions on Florida’s ports so they could compete at the expense of each other, Prasad told a group of more than 50 officials and spectators attending the meeting at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

“The goal here is not to steal from each other,” Prasad said. “The goal is for Florida ports to steal from other state’s ports.”

Prasad sat between delegations from the Tampa Port Authority and the Manatee County Port Authority, who sat on opposite sides of the table.

The two ports have spent the past year at odds. Last year, Manatee accused Tampa port officials of seeking to combine both ports into one regional port authority.

Tampa officials denied that, and said it was a misunderstanding that started in Tallahassee. Prasad admitted that as well. But hard feelings still linger.

“I think this competitiveness being interpreted as combativeness is not helping at all,” said Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman, who sits on the Tampa Port Authority board.

“I feel tension in this room,” said Manatee County Port Authority Chairwoman Carol Whitmore.

The consolidation issue was followed in March by another point of contention when the Tampa Port Authority hosted the International Pineapple Organization’s Global Pineapple Conference in Tampa. It would not let Manatee officials attend the conference because of an exclusive agreement with the pineapple group.

Manatee feared that Tampa was encroaching upon its fruit cargo market.

“So what happened on the pineapple deal?” Prasad asked Tampa Port Authority CEO Paul Anderson.

Anderson said his port was offered an exclusive deal to host the pineapple conference and took it.

“It was really a miscommunication,” he said, “but that’s all I have to say about that.”

Anderson then defended regional competition. It’s inevitable and natural, he said, and in the end the free market will lead customers to decide which port to use.

“It’s a clear misnomer to think there’s no competition between regional ports,” Anderson said.

Anderson pointed out that Port Miami and Port Everglades compete against each other over millions of dollars worth of cargoes.

“That’s unacceptable, by the way,” Prasad said of those two ports competing.

“I’ve got to call it what it is,” Anderson said. “If anyone in this room wants to say otherwise, you have the wrong information.”

“I have to take exception to that,” Prasad said. “No one is saying we don’t want competition.”

But Prasad also said that the state doesn’t want its ports to undercut each other.

“If you use state dollars to take money away from other ports,” Prasad said, “I have a problem with that.”

When the room seemed to turn on Anderson, Murman came to the defense of the CEO of Port Tampa Bay, who has led the port since 2013.

“Our board has complete confidence in him,” she said. “When we brought him onboard as CEO, you have to understand, we were stagnant.

“We weren’t doing anything and we had a port director banking everything on the cruise business, which was not good.”

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on transportation:

Politics

Hillsborough transportation tax plan going public in September

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff
Published: August 12, 2014   |   Updated: August 13, 2014 at 05:58 AM

TAMPA — If you don’t know a lot about Hillsborough County’s big plans for transportation improvements, you’ll get plenty of chances to find out more next month.

Starting after Labor Day, local government leaders will hold a series of meetings in all corners of the 1,000-square-mile county. The purpose of the gatherings will be to get feedback from the public on a long list of road, trail and mass transit projects. The list has been 14 months in the making.

County Administrator Mike Merrill, speaking Tuesday to the county’s transportation policy leadership group, said the purpose of the meetings will not be to “sell’ the project list, but to ask residents, civic and business groups to critique it and suggest changes.

Merrill said the outreach program, which will include a social media blitz, will last through mid-October. Then the results will be brought back to the policy leadership group, which consists of the seven county commissioners, the mayors of Hillsborough’s three cities, and the chairman of the HART bus system.

“What we’re really talking about is bringing it back to you in October and letting you know what we’ve heard,” Merrill said.

Depending on what county officials hear in the public meetings, the leadership group may pare down the projects list or add some new roads and transit routes.

At some point late this year, or in early 2015, the leadership group will decide whether to hold a referendum in 2016 to raise the sales tax by a penny. If it passes, the tax hike would produce $6 billion over 30 years for transportation.

The emphasis on public outreach is an outgrowth of lessons learned from the failed sales tax referendum in 2010. Proponents of that effort felt that large portions of the county were left out of planning when transportation projects were developed and the residents were unclear about how the tax would benefit them.

“In 2010, everything was not crystal clear; it was real muddy,” county Commissioner Les Miller said Tuesday. “If we don’t make it clear, we’re doomed to failure.”

The board approved Merrill’s suggestion to hire a consultant with transportation experience to help with the public information program and in crafting the campaign to win passage of the referendum.

They also agreed to delay a controversial decision to replace all the HART citizen board members with elected officials. Merrill, with support from the leadership group, had argued that HART should be enlarged to handle all mass transit projects if the tax hike passes.

If this comes to pass, he said, the board handling the money needs to be accountable to the public.

But the proposal met with resistance from the HART board and from some in the public who saw it as a power grab by the county commission. Commissioners, surprised by the push-back, decided the HART governance discussion was a distraction from the main mission: selling the transportation plan to the public and passing a tax to finance it.

“We’re moving from a governance conversation to a mobility conversation,” Commissioner Sandy Murman said, signaling an end to the HART board conversation.

Though the board voted unanimously to go forward with the public information campaign and to hire the consultant, there was some dissension. Plant City Mayor Rick Lott cautioned against showing the public specific road projects or bus routes during the information campaign because it would lead to questions about “why this is happening and why this is not happening.”

“I think it’s very dangerous when you go out to the public and you have lines on a map,” Lott said.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn disagreed, arguing that the sales tax referendum will only be successful if voters know how the tax will benefit them in terms of specific intersection improvements, road widening or new bus routes.

Buckhorn cited the success of The Better Jacksonville Plan, which voters in that north Florida city approved in 2000. The plan raised the sales tax by half a cent to finance $2.25 billion in construction projects, resurfacing of existing roads and construction of new ones.

“The people in that community knew, literally down to their street, what the benefit was to them directly, because the plan was that specific,” Buckhorn said. “I think that specificity needs to be there when they go to the ballot box.”

Commissioner Victor Crist said he was concerned there wouldn’t be enough money to pay for all the projects on the list, even with the sales tax increase.

Crist said voters in his north-county district are likely to balk at the high costs of the projects and vote down the tax.

“I’m not sure we have enough time to sell this,” Crist said, “and I’m not sure we have enough time to do the leg work that needs to be done to generate the voter buy-in … to get this passed.”

But Buckhorn, who once spoke of holding the referendum next year, dismissed any talk of delay. He used one of his familiar sports analogies to drive the point home.

To a chorus of laughter, he said, “We’re suited up, we’ve been training, we’re ready to go, we want to hit somebody, but we’ve got to have a game.”

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on HART:

Business News

HART: Residents should participate in transit decisions

By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: August 5, 2014

TAMPA — Residents should actively participate in deciding how transit should expand and operate in Hillsborough County, the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority urged on Monday.

A representative from the authority will take that message to the county administrator.

The conversation on what the HART board may look like in the future if voters approve a 1-cent sales tax for expanded transit and road projects dominated the meeting. Transit activists and several board members made it known that they don’t favor the county government’s plan to transform the board into one made up entirely of elected officials.

But they also agreed they don’t want the issue of the board’s makeup to derail efforts to pass the tax.

The estimated $6.2 billion in projects the tax would fund over 30 years is designed to break up gridlock on Hillsborough’s roads.

Mike Suarez, HART’s chairman and a Tampa City Council member, HART interim CEO Katharine Eagan and board attorney David Smith will meet with County Administrator Mike Merrill in an effort to reach consensus on the HART board’s future makeup. They will report back to the full board at an unspecified time.

The discussion is part of a larger conversation sparked by the Policy Leadership Group, a committee made up of elected officials from Hillsborough County, Tampa, Temple Terrace and Plant City that is devising the plan.

The 13-member HART board is made up of seven county representatives, elected officials and citizens among them, plus three representing Tampa, one Temple Terrace and two gubernatorial appointees.

In addition to the governance issue, concerns were raised about whether an authority running the bus system should oversee road projects if its role is expanded.

In an email memo Monday to leadership group members, Merrill said that while HART would collect the new sales tax money, it could allocate money for road projects to the cities and the county. HART and its staff would not be expected to plan, design or complete road projects.

For now, the policy group is aiming to put the 1-cent sales tax on the ballot in March 2016. If approved, the sales tax would generate more than $6 billion over 30 years. That’s enough money that elected representatives should be overseeing it, said county Commissioner Mark Sharpe, who sits on the transit council.

Elected officials, Sharpe said, are accountable to taxpayers.

Not everyone agrees.

“Why on earth, when we know what we know about the track record of elected officials in this county, would we feel more secure with a board of elected officials?” citizen activist Ken Roberts asked the HART board.

“Nobody’s ever been led out of the HART chambers in handcuffs,” he said, referring to county commissioners sent to federal prison in the 1980s for taking bribes.

HART board member Fran Davin, a Tampa citizen appointee, said getting into a confrontation over governance of the board won’t help the transit cause. In Pinellas County, citizens, the Pinellas County Transit Authority and elected officials “are in lockstep” to expand transit, Davin said. “We want to go about it the same way.”

The board and the county need to work the issue out, said county Commissioner Les Miller, appointed to HART last week to replace Ruskin businesswoman Anne Madden, who resigned. Miller’s appointment fueled the conversation about the board’s makeup because he will become the fourth elected official to fill one of the county’s seven slots.

“Rushing to something that changes the way we function without balancing the needs of the community would be done in haste,” HART board member John Melendez III said. There is still much to be done before the HART expansion plan is a done deal, he said.

“There is nothing on paper, set in stone,” said county Commissioner Sandy Murman, also a HART board member. “We have to start showing a great deal of leadership and the message has got to be that we understand the big picture, the traffic problems, the transit problems in this community and we are willing to step back and work on a consensus.”

Murman made the motion to have Suarez and the others meet with Merrill to work it out.

“This is such an opportunity for us,” she said. “The community is going to grow and we have to answer that need.” HART and the county need to show residents “we are going to do it and do it right.”

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

HART board unsure how — or whether — to transform into super transportation agency

CAITLIN JOHNSTONTampa Bay TimesMonday, August 4, 2014 3:00pm

TAMPA — Two months have passed since a recommendation to greatly expand the role of Hillsborough Area Regional Transit to oversee all sorts of transportation initiatives beyond bus service, and it still is unclear what its new board will look like and just what it will oversee.

At a meeting Monday, the directors of HART were unable to agree on how or even whether to change the board’s composition.

Instead, they voted to allow their chairman, CEO and attorney to meet with the county attorney, administrator and staff to create a consensus document about the board’s governance.

“We have to start showing a great deal of leadership,” said County Commissioner Sandy Murman, who serves on the HART board and made the motion. “And the message has got to be that we understand the big picture — the traffic problems, the transit problems in this community — and we’re willing to step back and work on a consensus document.”

The recommendation would eventually be brought back for discussion and possible approval.

The proposal to transform HART goes hand-in-hand with a proposal to ask voters in 2016 to approve a 1-cent sales tax to help pay for transportation improvements, including light rail, in the county. As envisioned, HART would become the agency overseeing the projects, expected to top $5 billion over three decades.

A similar tax-for-transportation referendum failed in 2010. In that case, the topic of governance was a last-minute discussion, County Commissioner Mark Sharpe said, so leaders are trying to act now to assure they have everything organized before going to voters this time.

The HART board is made up of 13 members — seven appointed by the Hillsborough County Commission, three by Tampa, two by the governor and one by Temple Terrace. The county’s other city — Plant City — has no appointees to the board.

Under an idea proposed by a large group of local elected officials calling itself the Policy Leadership Group, the HART board would still include the two gubernatorial appointees. But every other member would be an elected official — all seven county commissioners and the mayors of Hillsborough’s three cities, for a total of 12. As it stands, fewer than half the HART board members currently are elected.

Under this iteration, the mayor of Tampa would be that city’s sole representative on the board, but would still be able to cast three votes. This means HART’s charter would have to be altered to allow for proportional voting. County Administrator Mike Merrill said interlocal agreements between the county and cities could accomplish the change.

Even if the HART board were to reject a reorganization, Merrill said rules already allow the county and cities to appoint all elected officials — rather than laypeople — if they choose.

“Each jurisdiction can appoint to the HART board whoever they chose,” Merrill said. “It’s not like it’s anything really new that’s needed. If the County Commission wanted to appoint all seven of themselves to the HART board right now, they could do that.”

Several citizens spoke up during a public comment period Monday against that idea.

“What evidence is there that a board of elected officials is preferable from the people of Hillsborough County?” Ken Roberts of Citizens Organized for Sound Transportation asked. “You see, nobody’s ever been led out of the HART chambers in handcuffs. Nor has anyone from this board ever gone to prison for malfeasance or misuse of public money.”

Contact Caitlin Johnston at cjohnston@tampabay.com or (813) 661-2443. Follow @cljohnst.

A Times Editorial

Editorial: Murman’s steady hand on the tiller

Sandy Murman

Tuesday, November 18, 2014 6:00pm

DANIEL WALLACE | Times

Sandra Murman’s experience, personality and quiet confidence will be enormously useful in the coming year as she takes over as chairman of the Hillsborough County Commission.

Sandra Murman’s experience, personality and quiet confidence will be enormously useful in the coming year as she takes over as chairman of the Hillsborough County Commission. In selecting her Tuesday, the board signaled that it wanted a moderate leader and a forward-looking agenda, which is what the county needs as it considers new investments in transit, jobs and the social safety net in the coming year.

Murman, 64, is a Republican and former state legislator who has long championed children’s issues. Her unanimous selection speaks to the reputation she has built among both Republicans and Democrats. She has a thorough understanding of how state and local governments work. She knows the back roads of this community, and she appreciates the role that Hillsborough plays across the Tampa Bay region. Murman has also taken on job development issues, preparing her to assume that policy area from former Commissioner Mark Sharpe, who left this week because of term limits.

The board is off to a good start by concluding its organizational session without creating new scores to settle. But it must quickly transition from ceremonial to substantive duties. A city-county work group is reading a new transit package, presumably for the 2016 ballot. Hillsborough is examining ways to better align its public investment and job recruitment efforts. The county also is remaking its housing program, looking to reauthorize a tax for children’s services and poised to enter the discussions on keeping the Tampa Bay Rays in the area.

With so much on the table, the commission needs to focus on the right priorities and demonstrate a higher level of engagement on the diciest issues, especially the proposal for a new tax-funded transit package. On that note, it was striking Tuesday that the board gave new Commissioner Stacy White, who opposes new taxes for transportation, seats on three critical boards — two that oversee county transit policy and a third that deals with regional job development efforts. This unexpected vote of confidence in White might at least expose him to the region’s pressing need for a modern transit system, but it is another big gamble for a county that is falling behind in these areas.

In a welcome demonstration of bipartisanship, the new Pinellas County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint as 2015 chairman John Morroni. This will be the third time Morroni has chaired the commission, but the first as a Republican leading a commission with a majority of Democrats. Morroni knows the county and the issues well, and his even temperament serves him well in a leadership role.

In Hillsborough, Murman clearly has the desire to lead. She seems to have an ally in modernizing the county’s approach to jobs and transit in Commissioner Ken Hagan, who has served ably as chairman and who has found a stronger voice on regional and transportation issues. Murman needs to bring the transit plan into sharper focus and begin work on a framework for a referendum in 2016. And she needs to help sell conservative commissioners and voters on the need for a new funding source for transit. There is no other issue more important to address as she leads the county in 2015.

Editorial: Murman’s steady hand on the tiller 11/18/14 [Last modified: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 6:19pm]