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Area residents and officials gathered at Resurrection Catholic Church on June 3 for the Boys & Girls Club of Riverview groundbreaking ceremony. From left are Anne Garcia, Joe Garcia, Dan Campo, Diana Campo Ekonomou, Christine Hogan, Earl Lennard and Antonio Diez

Work is under way on a project that will mark the latest step in the development of Riverview.

On June 3, area residents and officials — including Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman — attended a groundbreaking ceremony for the Boys & Girls Club of Riverview.

The club is located on the grounds of Resurrection Catholic Church, 6819 Krycul Ave., Riverview.

“This marks the start of a great future for Riverview and its kids,” said Lynn Dumais, board chairwoman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay.

The ceremony marked the start of work on the first two of the three-phase project.

Phase one features a 6,000 square foot building, which will feature areas for tutoring, a computer lab and other recreation space. Phase two is a covered outdoor pavilion for basketball and other activities.

The first two phases are expected to be completed in August to coincide with the start of the fall semester.

“I spent over 40 years working with kids in this county,” said Earl Lennard, former Hillsborough school superintendent and chairman of Riverview Boys & Girls Club leadership team. “In my experience, kids aren’t as prone to trouble or mischief when they are active.”

Work on the first two phases of the Boys & Girls Club of Riverview is scheduled to be completed in August.

Phase three — which involves the closing of the pavilion and building an indoor gymnasium — will begin when the additional required funds are raised. In total, about $1.5 million has been raised for the $3 million project.

The leadership team is presently working toward raising money for a $250,000 matching grant. So far, the team has raised $114,000.

“There are a lot of generous people in Riverview who have stepped up,” said Joe Garcia, board member for the Boys & Girls Club of Tampa Bay.

Once completed, the facility will become the 16th Boys & Girls club in Hillsborough County and will serve up to 150 kids from the Riverview area every day.

“As our community has grown, the need for places for our youngsters has grown as well,” said Lennard, who is the county elections supervisor.

jceballos@tampatrib.com

(813) 627-4762

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Times article regarding Hispanic commission district:

Hispanic group forms to have voice in Hillsborough County redistricting

By Bill Varian, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, June 7, 2011

TAMPA — Hispanics fueled well more than half the population growth in Hillsborough County during the past decade.

Yet they potentially stand to lose ground politically when it comes to their ability to elect someone whose interests resemble theirs to the Hillsborough County Commission, or force that board to listen to them.

A hastily formed group of Hispanic civic leaders is mobilizing to try to change that as commissioners finalize proposals for new political boundaries for themselves in coming weeks.

“We need to be united, not try to get anyone elected,” said Lydia Medrano with the League of United Latin American Citizens heading an effort calling itself the Hispanic Redistricting Initiative. “We’re just trying to get a district with a large percentage of Hispanics in it.”

Hillsborough County has seven elected commissioners. Four of them represent separate, defined regions of the county, while the other three are chosen in countywide elections.

As with Congress and the Legislature, political boundaries for the four district commissioners are redrawn every 10 years to ensure each represents roughly the same number of people.

Commissioners draw their own boundaries with the help of county demographers and feedback from representatives, not to mention behind-the-scenes political arm wrestling. That process is going on now.

Much of the public debate so far has centered on ensuring that District 3 — representing much of central Tampa and parts of east Hillsborough — maintains roughly the same percentage of its African-American population share, about 40 percent.

On Monday, the Hispanic Redistricting Initiative heard a presentation from John Garcia, redistricting manager for LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a New York group that advocates on behalf of Hispanics. He said Hispanics are arguably worse off under each of the new boundary proposals.

He noted that District 1 — representing much of South and West Tampa, as well as neighborhoods along the south Hillsborough shoreline — currently includes a 35 percent bloc of Hispanics. The existing proposals each have the percentage declining, to no more than 33 percent to just less than 30.

That’s true although the Hispanic population grew countywide by 71 percent to 307,000 people during the past decade.

“You’ve got to work real hard to do something like that,” said Garcia of the fact that all six of the redistricting proposals so far dilute the Hispanic vote in District 1.

Four of the proposed new boundary maps under consideration by the county were drawn largely by county planners, with public input. The two under closest consideration as of the last County Commission meeting emerged from the offices of Commissioners Victor Crist and Sandy Murman, both Republicans.

Crist represents much of northern Hillsborough — or District 2 — and he has to give up some of his territory to other districts that didn’t grow as fast. He is seeking to ensure he doesn’t lose all of the city of Temple Terrace to District 3, represented by Commissioner Les Miller, a Democrat.

Another map with origins in Murman’s office has the south Hillsborough part of her district spreading east to take in the heavily Republican retirement community Sun City Center.

Commissioners hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. Thursday at the County Center to consider the maps they have so far.

Hispanic leaders: County commission should reflect changing demographics

Hillsborough County’s population

By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune
Published: June 07, 2011

» 23 Comments | Post a Comment

TAMPA Now comprising 25 percent of Hillsborough County, the local Hispanic population grew more than any other group in the last 10 years, and some community leaders say it’s time the county commission reflected the change.

A coalition of Latino community organizations is preparing to petition the Hillsborough County Commission to take their concerns into account as commissioners set new voting districts as a result of the 2010 census.

Some are pessimistic their issues will be addressed and say if they’re denied, they will turn to the Justice Department or the courts.

“By continually ignoring the Hispanic community, for whatever argument they want to use, it’s only going to get worse,” said Victor DiMaio, president of the Hillsborough County Democratic Hispanic Caucus. “The numbers are just too big to ignore anymore.”

Hispanic leaders say they want an opportunity to put a Latino on the commission.

‘We have been traditionally a large part of the community for over a century now,” DiMaio said. “I really think that we deserve an opportunity to be represented as well as the African-American community…I think it’s time.”

“We want to be heard,” said Norma Reno, a community activist.

Al Frederick, president of the Tampa Latin Chamber of Commerce, said Hispanics don’t have a voice in county government. “There’s no one there to speak up for the people, to speak out for that ethnicity,” he said.

“We’re looking at empowering the community so the people who get elected to represent them will be responsive to them,” said John Garcia, national redistricting manager for LatinoJustice PRLDEF, a national legal and civil rights organization that is working with local Hispanic activists.

Four of the seven county commissioners are elected in geographic districts. The other three are elected by the entire county.

One of the four geographic seats – District 3 – was created to be a “minority district” under the federal Voting Rights Act. The federal definition of “minority” includes Hispanics and African-Americans. District 3 is 40 percent African-American and 25 percent Hispanic.

Les Miller, who was elected in District 3, is the only African-American county commissioner. About 17 percent of Hillsborough County residents are black.

Hispanics make up 35 percent of District 1, the highest percentage of Hispanics in any of the geographic districts. The district is represented by Sandy Murman, who is white.

“I think all minority groups should be represented in some fashion,” Murman said. “I make a big effort to reach out to Hispanic groups.”

But some activists think the absence of a Latino county commissioner means the concerns of their community are too often ignored. They point to their unsuccessful fight for years to obtain funding in heavily Hispanic areas for historic community club buildings that have fallen into disrepair, noting commissioners found millions to funnel into a lavish community center in Brandon.

Among those taking up the cause is Patrick Manteiga, publisher of the trilingual weekly, “La Gaceta.” He said Hispanics make up a relatively small percentage of county workers and argues that might be different if there was a Hispanic county commissioner.

“When you look at county government and they govern a diverse group of people, you would like to see that diversity naturally move up through the ranks,” Manteiga said.

Manteiga thinks it’s possible to form a district that is 40 percent Hispanic by linking West Tampa and Town ‘n Country. That, he said, would greatly increase the chances of electing a Hispanic county commissioner.

Steve Valdez, client services manager for the commission’s redistricting task force, said none of the current redistricting proposals specifically address the issue of Hispanic representation. He said that could change, depending on public input and direction from commissioners.

“That is something that can be brought up at public hearings on the 9th or the 20th of this month,” he said.

If commissioners don’t respond to the coalition, Manteiga said, he will “do everything I can to get people together to fund-raise and organize” to get the Justice Department to exert pressure.

“Maybe the Department of Justice doesn’t have the last word,” Garcia said. “Maybe the courts have the last word… Redistricting invariably leads, in my experience, to litigation.”

Murman said she doesn’t know what the commission will do but said the question is still open. “I say to everyone in the community, just make your voice heard about how these maps should be drawn. We tend to respond to large cries for assistance in matters like this.”

esilvestrini@tampatrib.com

813-259-7837

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Creative Loafing article on HART:

HART board approves budget that will raise taxes and reduce some services

Posted by Mitch Perry on Mon, Jun 6, 2011 at 2:50 PM

Sandy Murman said she didnt want to balance HARTs budget on Hillsborough homeowners.

When Hillsborough county voters rejected the penny transit tax last year, officials with HART knew it would have a major impact on their budget going forward.

That impact was felt directly today after the HART board approved the 2012 budget that will include a 3.7 percent reduction in service, and an increase in Hillsborough homeowners property taxes, from .4682 to .5.

HART’s Katharine Eagan, who runs the agency’s Service Development Division, gave a detailed presentation to board members on the staff’s recommendations. She said that there would be some reduction in current services – such as eliminating service on holidays like Christmas and New Years, as well as reducing bus routes on Sunday evenings. The bulk of south and east county would have no weekend service. There would be no south Tampa service east of Dale Mabry, and only hourly weekend service in the Town ‘N Country/northwest Hillsborough region.

There would be some reduction of employees through attrition, but there are no plans to eliminate any other workers.

Voting for an increase on ad valorem taxes is always a sensitive issue, and these days, it’s become a third rail of sorts for Republicans. The only two votes on the board who voted no on the budget were the only two GOP elected officials, County Commissioners Sandy Murman and Mark Sharpe.

Their Democratic party colleague on the BOCC, Kevin Beckner, said he would proudly support the millage increase. He said that though he doesn’t have kids in the school system, he understands fully why it’s important that some of his taxes go to support public education, and said that was his same philosophy in terms of supporting HART, even though he doesn’t utilize their services.

Looking for potentially new sources of revenue, Commissioner Murman suggested buses that would drop off sports fans who go to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg or to the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa. But HART officials say that federal law prohibits that – later attorney Mary Ann Stiles suggested that the agency’s lobbyist seek a waiver from the feds on that potential source of new revenue.

HART’s interim CEO Philip Hale, who took over for David Armijo back in April, said one reason why the agency is facing this a tough budget situation is that is that it’s been drawing off of reserves in recent years. “We’ve been kicking the can down the road,” he said, sounding like members of Congress discussing Medicare and other daunting issues in the federal budget.

Board member Fran Davin noticed that there was no funds allocated in the budget for recruitment for a new CEO, prompting her to ask Hale if he was amenable to staying on for the next year or two.

“If you’ll have me,” he replied.

During her presentation Eagan scribbled down suggestions for possible ways to save money from other board members. John Byczek suggested cutting expenses withthe agency’s health care program might turn up some savings. In addition to the plan paying 100 percent benefits for HART staffers, the plan also pays 70 percent for that staffer’s family members who sign up on it.

Another proposal that was on the table was a 3.2 percent step pay increase for drivers and others with the Amalgamated Transit Union. Commissioner Murman said she was puzzled by that request, since it was in the same budget where staffing and services were being reduced. HART’s Eagan said that a one year freeze on that step increase would be implemented, with the board’s consent, which they obviously supported.

There is the chance that the budget could change by the time it must be voted on in late September. There will be pubic hearings in August.

Coffee with the Commissioner

Come out and meet me for coffee at Sava Café on Friday, June 10th at 8:30 a.m.

Share your ideas for our community and our county.

I look forward to seeing you there.

When: Friday, June 10, 2011 – 8:30 a.m.

Where: Sava Café, 143 Harbor Village Lane, Apollo Beach, FL 33572