Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on the Friendship Trail Bridge project:

Officials skeptical of TrailBridge plan

Mike Salinero, Tribune staff

June 19, 2013

TAMPA – Hillsborough County officials seemed to throw cold water Wednesday on a proposal to reconstruct the Friendship TrailBridge through a public-private partnership.

County Administrator Mike Merrill and several county commissioners expressed skepticism that a group of investors Could rebuild and operate the closed pedestrian walkway as a linear park, all without any county funding.

“It’s too big,” Merrill said. “You can’t get a decent return on investment and you can’t get a company to come in and take that kind of risk.”

A consultant hired by the county came to the same conclusion in a February report, Public Works Director Mike Williams told commissioners Wednesday.

But two leaders of the movement to save the bridge insist they have a group of investors who are interested in restoring and operating the bridge for a profit. The only money the county would have to contribute is the $5.2 million that Hillsborough and Pinellas County pooled to demolish the 57-year-old structure.

“The taxpayers don’t spend another dime on this project,” said Kevin Thurman, who along with architect Ken Cowart is trying to put the development group together.

Cowart told commissioners Wednesday he and Thurman are working with a team of developers, engineers and land planners who are interested in the project and want to bid on a request for proposals when the county issues one.

Williams, the public works director, said Monday the county hasn’t issued the request for proposals because he was worried that would jeopardize the low bid to demolish the bridge. Commissioners did not act on the bid a year ago, but the winning company has not rescinded it.

After checking with the county’s procurement department, Williams said he now feels confident the county can take bids on a public-private bridge restoration project. The county would have 60 days warning if the company that submitted the low bid to demolish the bridge decides to pull out.

Cowart and Thurman have asked the county for 90 more days to solidify the group that will bid on the project. Commissioners did not say no Wednesday, but they made it clear they don’t want the $5.2 million sitting around until next year.

“I’m not saying we can’t make this work if they give us a good plan,” said Commissioner Sandy Murman, who asked for the Wednesday update on the bridge.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this WTSP Channel 10 news story on Amazon.com:

Hillsborough County takes big step toward landing Amazon

3:29 PM, Jun 19, 2013   |

Eric Glasser

10 News: WTSP

Tampa, FL — You get the feeling if Amazon.com were single, the Hillsborough County Commission would be getting down on its knee to propose.

“I think what we are approving today is a very small dowry a potential great corporate community marriage,” said Commissioner Kevin Beckner.

Board chair Ken Hagan agreed. “This is an outstanding opportunity,” he said.

And County Commissioner Sandy Murman likened it it to a hurricane with Amazon’s feeder-bands attracting more businesses, creating a mega-storm of job growth for our region.

“This is fiscal responsibility,” said Murman.

On Wednesday commissioners started the ball rolling to turn an empty field in Ruskin into a mega-warehouse fulfillment center at the South Shore corporate park.

To do that, they voted unanimously to designate Amazon as a “Qualified Target Industry” or QTI.

They also offered generous tax incentives, but with strings attached.

“The company has to deliver on a promise before any payments are made by this county,” said Economic Development Director Ron Barton.

That promise? Amazon has vowed to create 1,000 jobs… 375 of which would be higher-wage, higher quality positions. In exchange, Amazon gets $225,000 spread out over four years.

But the bigger incentive is a huge ad-valorem tax break for six years once the center opens in 2016.

The 50% reduction in property taxes is worth about a million dollars annually.

Critics question why small business aren’t offered such breaks and whether the incentives are really a good deal.

Amazon’s lower-paying jobs, they argue, could also increase reliance on subsidized housing and tax-payer funded social services.

“The board is starting down a slippery slope of giving tax benefits to a select few at the expense of the taxpayers of Hillsborough County,” said Elizabeth Belcher from Seffner.

But county officials say right now, the proposed site is just unimproved property generating almost no taxes. So they say even half of the estimated $1.8 million a year Amazon would pay is a welcome infusion for the county’s coffers.

“I don’t see any downside here whatsoever,” said Commissioner Victor Crist.

There will likely be more criticism for the proposed ad-valorem tax break when the public is invited to comment during a meeting on the proposal, Wednesday July 17.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on Amazon.com:

BY Mike Salinero

Tribune staff

Published: June 19, 2013

TAMPA – Hillsborough County commissioners voted unanimously today to give about $225,000 in financial incentives to Amazon.com to locate an assembly and distribution center in the Ruskin area.

The money will be the county’s share of the state’s Qualified Target Industry incentive program, which calls for the local government to pay 20 percent of the total incentive package.

Commissioner Sandy Murman said Amazon will “fuel our competiveness in the region” and “really give us that longer value we need.”

“This is our time. We’re going to be No. 1,” an ecstatic Murman said.

Commission Chairman Ken Hagan said the warehouse, which would create 1,000 jobs, would provide a needed economic boost for the depressed south county area.

“We’re going to energize the South Shore community that has been in desperate need of development,” Hagan said.

The commission will meet July 18 to consider a property tax break for Amazon that would lower the company’s taxes by half, to $910,000 a year for seven years.

Gov. Rick Scott announced last week he had reached a deal to bring the online retail giant to Florida where it seeks to invest $300 million and create 3,000 jobs. Hillsborough is in the running for one of Amazon’s warehouse sites. About a third of the 1,000 jobs are expected to pay well above Florida’s average wage.

COMMISSIONER MURMAN AWARDED LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR CHAMPIONING CHILDREN

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  District 1 Commissioner Murman’s Office (813) 272-5470

Having made children’s issues the hallmark of her public service career, Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra L. Murman received the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award for Children’s Advocacy from the Early Childhood Council of Hillsborough County (ECC).  The presentation took place at the annual statewide Early Childhood Conference on June 14 in the first floor ballroom of Embassy Suites Tampa, located at 3705 Spectrum Blvd in Tampa.

As a community advocate and policy leader, Commissioner Murman has been directly involved in more than 20 organizations that enhance the lives of children and families. Fulfilling her lifelong dream of bringing a children’s museum to Tampa Bay, Murman led the capital campaign to raise $16 million to build the new Glazer Children’s Museum and became Chair of the museum’s Board of Directors.  Commissioner Murman has also served on the Prepaid College Foundation Board, the Florida Taxwatch Commission on Education Performance and Accountability, Florida Healthy Kids Foundation, and the Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County.   As a civic leader, she has championed Junior Achievement, Hillsborough Kids, Inc., The Children’s Home, Healthy Start Coalition, Phoenix House, Mental Health Care Foundation and was founding director of LLT Charter School.

“Sandy has been on the frontline for a lot of causes for children and families,” said Stephen C. Martaus, executive director of the ECC. “She is absolutely deserving of this honor, and we are privileged to have such a strong supporter in the state and here in Tampa Bay.”

“I am deeply honored by this recognition of my passion and grateful to have partnered with so many leaders in the community to build valuable programs for youth.  However, we still have work to do in the community to provide all of our children with a solid foundation for success in life through health, education, the arts and activities,” stated Commissioner Murman.

The Early Childhood Conference provides education and professional development to early childhood specialists, case managers, child care personnel, psychologists, social workers, community leaders and others involved and interested in early childhood development.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Times article on Amazon coming to South County:

By Michael Van Sickler and Bill Varian,

Times/Herald Tallahasee Bureau

MICHAEL VAN SICKLERBILL VARIANTampa Bay Times

Thursday, June 13, 2013 9:07pm

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott and Amazon announced a deal Thursday in which the Internet retail giant would create 3,000 new jobs in Florida by 2016 — with about a third of those likely headed for a 1-million-square-foot warehouse in Ruskin, a part of Hillsborough County desperately needing an economic jolt.

But the good news comes with a catch: The new jobs in the state also mean consumers will be required to pay a 6 percent state sales tax on all the books, DVDs, CDs and other products they buy through Amazon.com.

The tax will kick in once the company opens its Florida operations centers, possibly next year

“Amazon’s commitment to create more than 3,000 new jobs in Florida is further proof that we’ve turned our economy around,” Scott said in a statement. “Amazon will continue to work with (state officials) on its ongoing projects which will include a return on any taxpayer investment, and we look forward to the company’s announcements as it chooses locations.”

Amazon officials couldn’t be reached Thursday, but details of the proposal were included in a packet of information provided to Hillsborough County commissioners.

As part of the agreement, Hills­borough officials will be asked next week to approve nearly $6.6 million in financial incentives for Amazon.

In exchange, Amazon would create 1,000 jobs in the South Shore area of Ruskin near State Road 674 and Interstate 75, and invest up to $200 million in a massive “state of the art facility.”

Of the 1,000 jobs, 375 would be “higher-wage quality jobs,” according to the county, with average annual pay of $47,581.

Commissioners reached late Thursday were practically giddy at the prospect.

“This is a grand slam for South Shore,” said commission Chairman Ken Hagan. “It’s an extraordinary opportunity for Hillsborough County.”

Commissioner Sandra Murman, who represents the area where the distribution center is being considered, said she’s “ecstatic.”

“This is the big silver bullet we’ve needed to kick off our economic development efforts,” Murman said.

The cost to the county would be spread out over seven years starting in 2016. Officials say it would be awarded to the company only if it builds the complex and creates jobs.

“From that point of view, it’s a really good value,” said county Administrator Mike Merrill. “And South County definitely needs jobs.”

Negotiations between Amazon and the state seemed dead last month after Scott signaled that he would not support a proposal that would include — essentially — a tax increase for many Floridians. But Scott spokeswoman Melissa Sellers said the deal announced Thursday was not a reversal of his earlier stance but a “culmination of ongoing discussions.”

When the facilities are operational, Amazon will begin collecting the 6 percent state sales tax as required under Florida law. A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that an Internet company collects sales taxes only in states where they are physically located, which would eventually include Florida.

“We haven’t had a chance to review the proposal,” said John Fleming, spokesman for the Florida Retail Federation, an association of 6,000 small and large retailers who are physically located in the state and must levy sales taxes on their transactions. “We’d like to have more details on the time line. There are a lot of questions about location and what type of facilities we’re talking about.”

The federation has long complained of the unfair advantages online companies like Amazon have. The Florida Retail Federation estimates that the state loses $450 million a year in online sales taxes, with Amazon accounting for about 10 percent to 20 percent of that total.

State officials said they could not provide any more specifics because negotiations were ongoing and confidential under Florida law.

“We are truly in the process of negotiations where it’s confidential,” said Melissa Medley, chief marketing officer with Enterprise Florida, the public-private economic partnership overseeing the discussions, which could include additional warehouses in other parts of the state.

Overall, the state says Amazon would invest $300 million in Florida.

“The company is very forthcoming in saying that they are making a commitment, but we haven’t progressed that far into the project to give any details,” Medley said.

Times/Herald staff writer Steve Bousquet contributed to this report. Michael Van Sickler can be reached at mvansickler@tampabay.com or (850) 224-7263.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Times article on Homeless recount:

Richard Danielson, Tampa Bay Times

Friday, May 17, 2013 2:22pm

TAMPA — Advocates for the homeless found a total of 2,275 homeless people in Hillsborough County — about half the number from two years ago — in a count and recount this year.

The last count, in 2011, found 4,681 homeless people.

The good news: The drop suggests that several new efforts to address homelessness are making a dent in the number of people living on the streets, in emergency shelters, in transitional housing or in jail.

The bad news: “The count is never going to find everyone,” said Maria Barcus, chief executive officer of the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County.

Some homeless people weren’t counted because they refused to answer survey questions. Others might have been missed because the first count took place two days before the Gasparilla Pirate Fest. When the counters went to some known homeless camping spots, they didn’t find anyone, suggesting that Gasparilla preparations had displaced the regulars.

“I think that there has been progress, and I think that there was also some level of under-counting in January,” Barcus said Friday. “Unfortunately, we just can’t tell how much is one versus the other.”

The Jan. 24 count was so surprisingly low that organizers did a one-day recount last month. The recount confirmed that the original numbers were not so far off that they shouldn’t be used.

Of the 2,275 homeless people that the census found:

• 944 were on the street or places not meant for human habitation.

• 387 were in emergency shelters.

• 578 were in transitional housing.

• 366 were in jail and were homeless when they were booked. That’s 35 percent less than the 567 behind bars at the time of the last count in 2011.

There are other encouraging signs.

The number of children that the Hillsborough County School District reported as homeless — a group that mostly lives doubled-up with family or friends — dropped 20 percent from two years ago.

She said some non-profits had told the coalition that they have seen something of a decline, though nothing as dramatic as the county revealed.

At Metropolitan Ministries, “We’re not seeing any decrease,” president and chief operating officer Tim Marks said.

This week, Metropolitan Ministries’ outreach center saw 160 men and women come through seeking assistance in a single eight-hour period. That’s on a par with what the charity would expect in November and December around the holidays, or at the end of the month when people’s benefits start to run out.

Marks participated in the count himself this year and found some empty camps near Interstate 275 near Sulphur Springs and in North Tampa. And he’s seen more people being housed and local programs working together better.

“I do think, as a community, we’ve taken good steps,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that we’re done in any sense.”

The count’s surveys offer a demographic portrait of the homeless in Hillsborough County: Nearly two-thirds are men. About five of six are older than 18, but only one in 20 has reached 60. Nearly a fifth are veterans. More than half have disabilities (about equal numbers have physical or mental disabilities; slightly fewer suffer from addictions).

But while the number of people considered to be “literally homeless” fell, the number living in precarious circumstances rose from 10,419 in 2011 to 12,843 this year. This category includes people sleeping on someone’s couch as well as those in motels because they can’t afford to maintain housing of their own.

“I think that’s just the recession continuing to impact people,” Barcus said. “Even though the economy’s better, there’s still significant unemployment. The hope is that as the economy improves those people are going to be able to get their own places and not be doubled up anymore.”

The Homeless Coalition credited the decrease in the number of homeless people in jail to efforts by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and Tampa Police Department. Both have created homeless liaison positions to help homeless people re-connect with family, get services, look for work, apply for benefits, find housing and stay out of trouble.

In addition, the coalition said, more than 1,900 people were helped by three new federally funded programs that didn’t exist in 2011:

• A veterans homelessness prevention demonstration project.

• A program to provide support services to the families of veterans.

• A homeless prevention and rapid rehousing program. Before ending in 2012, the program provided financial assistance and other services to help homeless individuals and families move into permanent housing and stabilize their lives.

At the same time, a fourth program received 300 more vouchers to provide permanent housing to households with veterans.

In Hillsborough, the homeless count has taken place every two years, but organizers plan another count in 2014 to get more data and spot trends sooner. But there will be some changes. It will take place during the last 10 days of February, after Gasparilla. With the permission of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Hillsborough will use a shorter survey and homeless people will be counted even if they do not answer the survey.

“We’re going to do all of those things to try to get a better picture of who is really out there,” she said. Changing the counting methods might not result in a larger number, Barcus said, particularly if there are improvements in the economy and in programs to alleviate homelessness.

County Commissioner Sandra Murman said Barcus has worked hard to get a more reliable count, and that helps in the planning. In past discussions about homelessness, Murman said the numbers were daunting. She recalls thinking it would take “so many years” to help all those thousands of people.

Now the numbers seem more within reach, and that’s encouraging.

“We can now set realistic goals to provide housing and to provide services,” she said.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Times article on Starting Right, Now, a program for unaccompanied youth:

Starting Right, Now secures a home for young people near Bayshore

ERNEST HOOPER, Tampa Bay Times

May 2, 2013

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/starting-right-now-secures-a-home-for-young-people-near-bayshore/2118568

Vicki Sokolik hovered between unyielding gratitude and sheer joy Wednesday.

Sokolik, the executive director of Starting Right, Now, spent Wednesday officially assuming control of the old Haven Poe Runaway Shelter near Bayshore Boulevard. Under Starting Right, Now’s watchful eye, the Tampa shelter will serve as an apartment complex for the unaccompanied youths her upstart nonprofit organization serves.

The students, who will soon call the complex home, will no longer live alone in apartments after being abandoned by their parents. Starting Right, Now’s teens — good kids who through no fault of their own end up without a stable place to live — embark on a path of success by going through a holistic process that focuses not only on improving schoolwork but growing as a person.

In bringing about the needed stability, the nonprofit has put the kids up in apartments either by themselves or in suite-style units where they don’t know their roommates.

“They end up feeling alone and if they feel alone, they’re not going to do what they need to do,” Sokolik said. “But when they see other kids and meet other kids overcoming the same obstacles they’ve gone through, it gives them the incentive to make their lives better.”

At its new training center in New Tampa — another recent addition, thanks in part to a Bank of America Neighborhood Initiative Grant — the kids come in to get tutoring and learn about leadership skills. But they also come in to share in the camaraderie offered by the staff and the fellow students.

That sense of community will only grow in the apartment complex. It also gives the organization greater contact in a centralized location and allows for easier transport to events and activities, but it’s the connectivity that excites Sokolik the most.

“So many things had to happen to make this come to life,” she said.

Things like getting Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman to Starting Right, Now’s annual luncheon. She attended in October with a subsequent meeting on her agenda that would force her to leave early, but she couldn’t pull herself away after she began hearing testimonials from Starting Right, Now students.

“I could not leave,” Murman said. “The stories — and the film we viewed — that was very compelling. Homeless youth are a very unique group of kids that are part of a larger group experiencing homelessness. What Vicki has done is tapped into the potential of that and given them the opportunity to succeed.”

Kudos to Murman, who worked with the county staff to make the home available. Starting Right, Now will handle all the upkeep and improvements.

The home is the latest step in an amazing journey for Sokolik, who initiated Starting Right, Now just five years ago to help homeless families. The focus has since narrowed to unaccompanied youth, but the results remain impressive.

Nearly all of the kids touched by Starting Right, Now have rebounded from dire situations to go on to a university or tech nical school on scholarship. Not only are most of them first-generation college students, they are first-generation high school graduates.

We can only hope that when the organization looks to expand to other counties, it will find a community just as supportive.

That’s all I’m saying.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tribune article on Medicaid budget plan:

Advocacy group says Senate Medicaid budget plan would hurt Hillsborough

Mary Shedden | Tribune Staff

April 19, 2013 

TAMPA – Tampa General Hospital could lose $7.4 million next year under a Florida Senate plan to recalculate payments for treating the poor. That’s an even bigger hit than originally expected, a hospital advocacy group said Friday.

Hospitals in metropolitan counties like Hillsborough could lose more than $112 million next year under the plan, Tony Carvalho, president of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida, said in an updated analysis of the bill.

The alliance criticizes the Senate plan in part because it diverts a portion of local sales taxes from Hillsborough and other counties to a statewide Medicaid reimbursement fund. It also doesn’t like that the state’s for-profit hospitals benefit more from the new formulas than the alliance’s 14 public and nonprofit facilities.

In Hillsborough County, roughly $26 million from a local tax would go to help counties that don’t have a local source of revenue. Much of that money currently is used to help offset costs at Tampa General Hospital, which serves a large portion of uninsured patients.

“More (uninsured) people will show up at the emergency rooms … and there will be no money to pay for their care,” said Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman, a former state legislator.

Instead, the alliance backs a House plan that doesn’t divert local taxes and also increases state reimbursements to hospitals treating Medicaid patients, Carvalho said.

Both proposals are now in the hands of legislative negotiators.

Hillsborough County Commissioners this week also voiced opposition to the Senate’s plan, which would take away 45 percent of federal matching funds for the tax, which covers acute and preventive health care for uninsured county residents.

A county attorney also is looking at whether the state legally can claim any of the local tax or federal match, both of which totaled $93.8 million last year.

Commissioner Murman was quoted in this Times article on Human Trafficking issue:

Human trafficking issue rises to the forefront

Caitlin Johnston, Tampa Bay Times

April 18, 2013

TAMPA – The room of more than a hundred fell silent as the woman on the tape recording sobbed.

“I thought I was going to die, I swear,” she cried.

Her strained voice filled the room at the Department of Children and Families Community Alliance Meeting as she described how a pimp held her head under water over and over again because she didn’t bring home enough money. The woman is one of hundreds of possible victims, many believed to be children, of human trafficking in Tampa Bay.

Whether it’s the emotion, the loss of innocence or the criminal nature of these heinous acts, human trafficking has arisen as a prominent issue in the minds of many in Hillsborough County and Tampa Bay.

On Wednesday, Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman proposed an ordinance to establish guidelines limiting business hours of massage parlors and preventing workers from living there. The board voted unanimously to have its staff draw up a measure, which came about after police raided a massage parlor on Henderson Avenue for prostitution believed to be linked to human trafficking.

The subject of human trafficking in Tampa Bay isn’t new. Many acknowledge the problem has lived here and in cities throughout the United States for decades. But only recently has awareness risen enough to permeate multiple layers of the community, including law enforcement, prosecutors, community advocates and the political sphere.

Quantifying domestic human trafficking has proven challenging. A limited number of cases come before law enforcement and even fewer reach the level of prosecution. Still, the Clearwater/Tampa Bay Area Task Force on Human Trafficking gathered data as of August for 131 arrests with 47 convictions in Tampa Bay. Nearly 200 potential victims were reported, with 45 confirmed as victims of severe human trafficking.

Growing like ‘wildfire’

Community leaders point to the increase in documentaries, legislation and training regarding human trafficking as the reasons for growing awareness. Just last year, Gov. Rick Scott signed the Safe Harbor Act into law, allowing children who are rescued from prostitution to get help from child welfare professionals instead of being placed in juvenile delinquency.

For years, area organizations have made domestic human trafficking a priority. But many call the Nov. 16, Fall Forum organized by the Hillsborough Coalition on the Status of Women the catalyst pushing the subject to the front of the community’s radar.

“There were women in that audience that are strong, community-minded and active women,” said Friends of Joshua House executive director DeDe Grundel. “Were there smaller groups that were already formed and trying to do things? Yes. But the coalition had the right audience to represent the message to, and from there it just turned into wildfire.”

The movement gained further traction when more than 350 people gathered at the Stetson University College of Law’s Tampa Law Center in February for a human trafficking symposium sponsored by the Junior League of Tampa. Because the Junior League doesn’t have a political or financial stake in the game, it allows them to work as the mutual convener, president Stephanie Wiendl said.

Human trafficking presentations and seminars are lined up through the summer, including a three-day seminar for human trafficking investigators in Clearwater and a conference at the University of South Florida expected to draw as many as 500 attendees.

“I think the rise in awareness is a combination of the task force doing its job really well and people starting to understand that, yes, this is in our community,” said Dot Groover-Skipper, vice chairwman to the Commission on the Status of Women. “And if this is really going on, we need to stand up and take action.”

Defining the problem

Even though awareness has increased, identifying human trafficking remains complicated. Visions of drugged women smuggled into the country in boxes permeate culture.

“People don’t even know what human trafficking is,” Wiendl said. “They think if Tampa is number three in human trafficking, they think that’s people shipped into the port of Tampa in containers. There’s not a lot of education about what the actual issue is.”

It’s those more insidious cases — young girls wooed by men promising them travel, love and an escape from the struggles of their current lives — that can be harder to recognize.

“I read stories in the paper now and these cases are presented as prostitution, but when you read what happened you say, ‘This is completely human trafficking,'” Wiendl said. “You have to explain the whole domestic prostitution type of human trafficking. Because people don’t define it that way unless you help them define it that way.”

Taking action

After hearing a presentation from the Coalition on the Status of Women in early April, the Hillsborough County Commission agreed to coordinate a public awareness campaign and look into providing safe housing for victims at the county’s Lake Magdalene campus for children in crisis.

“They seemed extremely interested and extremely concerned at the same time and really wanting to help resolve this horror in the community,” Groover-Skipper said.

Murman said there are victims of human trafficking in the program at Lake Magdalene, but the county is evaluating how much space it will have available.

“We have to keep the pressure on,” Murman said. “We don’t want anybody’s child to be a victim of one of these predators.”

In Tallahassee, Rep. Ross Spano, R-Dover, tackled human trafficking in one of the first bills he sponsored as a freshman legislator. Spano became aware of the issue from a friend in law school. Through studying human trafficking, he saw how many victims were prevented from moving on with their lives because of criminal convictions obtained during their time as a trafficking victim. His legislation would allow judges to vacate certain criminal convictions if the offender can prove that they committed them under duress.

Spano’s bill is one of several bills addressing human trafficking this session, including restrictions on massage parlors and protections in court for minor victims.

“This is a nonpartisan issue,” Spano said. “It’s easier to gain momentum from a legislative standpoint when there’s almost no resistance. You’ve got to be an idiot to not understand and acknowledge that we have to do something to address this.”

Working together

Different panels and seminars the last six months have allowed nonprofits, law enforcement, judges and volunteers to conference on the issue, but many are still determining how to work together.

“Everybody’s still a little discombobulated,” Wiendl said. “We are continuing trying to bring the right people to the table so everyone knows what everyone else is doing and we can have a true collaboration.”

Spano sees the same complication in the legislature: There’s no shortage of passion, but the problem is being addressed bit by bit instead of with a unified approach.

“I’d love this summer to see the interested legislators come together for two or three summits and decide what do we have to do to form a global perspective omnibus bill that addresses every single critical issue,” Spano said. “We’ve seen movement along the way, but I think we can do better working together.”