Hillsborough County Successes

Oh, Buddy.

It is the largest success of the Hillsborough County residents that they successfully dethroned you as the Supervisor of Elections. The hundreds of voters missing over half the ballot, the lack of equipment at the University of South Florida that had students waiting in line four hours after the polls closed, and numerous other instances so eloquently showed how unprepared you were for this election.

What happened that so many poll workers were overwhelmed and unprepared that their lack of preparedness actually turned voters away especially in black neighborhoods were Obama was expected to win? Thank God for Kathy Castor asking the attorney general to intervene or else who knows how long this mess could have unraveled. The true success of the election was that Phyllis Busansky walked away the new Supervisor of Elections. Hopefully, Busansky is up to the challenge of breaking down the wall that Mr. Johnson put between himself and the public creating such a secretive office. Busansky has her work cut out for her, but at least this could be a step in the better direction.

It is still unseen if the Board of Education and Superintendent MaryEllen Elia can creat a success next year of the failure that has been the county school bus routes. After revamping the bus system this past school year, hundreds of confused and irate parents voiced off against the school system and called for change. Elia plans to hold off next year on revamping any more bus routes, but hopes to overhaul the current changes to address the problems brought forth by parents. One positive to come out of this whole debacle was the fact that the school system managed to eliminate a good number of bus stops, yet filled up their buses and got all students to the school on time. For the sanity of many parents next year, let's hope that next year isn't as entrenched with problems as it has been this year.

Jim Norman

County commissioner Jim Norman was born in 1954 in Jacksonville, Florida where he graduated from Englewood High School. After graduation, he attended Florida Junior College and then the University of North Florida. However, Norman left UNF when he was seriously injured in a car accident. Throughout school, Norman supported himself by working as an accounting clerk for Frito-Lay. Also, Norman worked as a comptroller for All State Pipe Supply Co. After leaving UNF, Norman worked as an accounting clerk for accounting firms in Jacksonville and Tampa. Before his election to the county commission, Norman worked as the state Salvation Army’s legislative liaison. He also worked as the head coach for the junior varsity football team at Berkeley Preparatory School.

Norman first ran for election for the county commission in 1992. In the republican primaries, Norman faced off against Gordon Davis and Harry Sexton. Norman ran on the platforms to bring a strong commitment to education and the judicial system. Also, Norman stated that he’d like to work with the sheriff’s office to make sure violent offenders stay in jail while looking at ways to get non-violent, bondable offenders in programs like community control to free space for the more violent prisoners.

After winning in the primaries, Norman went on to face Democratic opponent James P. Doyle. After a recount of the election results, Norman had beat out Doyle by 227 votes and on Nov. 6, 1992, Norman was declared the winner of the county commission seat for District 2, which covers north-central Hillsborough County. After successful re-elections each year, Norman could no longer run for District 2 due to term limits that would not allow him to serve past 2001. Instead, Norman ran for the District 5 countywide seat and managed to defeat Stacey Lynn Easterling with 54.8% of the vote.

During his election for the District 5 post, Norman was involved with a lawsuit leveled against himself, Emeline Acton, Thomas Scott, Gary Trombley and Morris Weinberg by the Times Publishing Company. The lawsuit came about when in August of 1998, Norman and Scott were subpoenaed to appear before the federal grand jury of the Middle District of Florida. The grand jury was investigating irregularities related to a potential vote by the Board of Commissioners on the lien authority of Tampa General Hospital. County Attorney Emeline Acton advised Norman that legal representation was not available to him through the county due to the nature of the subpoena. Norman then retained Weinberg to represent him without the help of the county. Norman appeared before the grand jury on September 15. After the case was over, on May 5, 1999, the Board of County Commissioners determined that the expenditures of Norman arose out of his performance as an official for the county and that he should be reimbursed for his legal fees. On June 28, 1999, reporter David Karp of the St. Petersburg Times issued a public records request for all materials related to the payment of Norman’s lawyer for the case. County Attorney Emeline Acton delivered a letter to Karp informing him that the public records he requested were not in the hands of the county, but in the hands of the attorneys that represented the commissioners. The county argued that the attorneys were in the private sector and not subject to public records requests. The court applied factors from the case New Sun-Sentinel v. Schwab, Twitty, & Hanser and determined that a contract between a private entity and a governmental agency does not subject the private entity to the Public Records Act. Norman walked away from the trial without having to hand over anything to the Times.
In May 2006, Norman’s office confirmed that he underwent heart bypass surgery. Speculation had arisen when Norman had missed government meetings as to what was happening with him. He issued a statement after undergoing the surgery to alleviate his wife Mearline from any added stress from the media.
After moving to the District 5 post, Norman seemed to get himself into the middle of a lot of hotly contested issues at the Board of County Commissioners. In 2006, Norman proposed that the county spend up to $70.5 million in tourist tax dollars at Tampa’s three main sports venues, the Times Forum, Raymond James Stadium and Legends Field. Norman discovered that a tax on people who book hotel rooms in Hillsborough County are charged an extra 5 cent tourist tax for every dollar of their room charge, which a portion of goes toward paying off loans that financed the Times Forum and Raymond James Stadium. Norman also discovered that the tax raised more than was needed to meet the loan obligations. He suggested that the money be put toward upkeep of the arenas so that taxpayers would not have to pay for it. Moreover, Norman warned that annual multimillion-dollar losses by the Lightning could prompt its parent company, Palace Sports and Entertainment, to sell or the move the team, which would leave the county-owned Times Forum without a tenant.

A few days after his initial proposal of using tourist tax dollars, the Hillsborough County Commission voted to give the city of Tampa $6 million in tourist tax dollars to repair a leaky roof in the Tampa Convention Center. The move to release the money was prompted by Norman’s proposal of spending tourist tax dollars in the county’s main sports venues. The commission tried to tie the $6 million payout to aiding the Tampa Bay Lightning as well, but was not successful.

In March of 2007, Norman proposed that the commission expand residency restrictions for sex offenders to areas with high concentration of seniors. Norman was prompted to voice his concern after incidents involving sex crimes in the senior community of Sun City. Sex offenders were already banned from living within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds and other places where children congregate, but Norman worried that these restrictions would push them into areas that include other vulnerable residents such as seniors. Norman proposed that sex offenders also be prohibited from residing within 1,000 feet of areas officially designated as retirement communities such as John Knox Village and Sun City Center.

On April 18, 2007, the commission voted to tighten the restrictions of where sexual predators can reside. The county ordinance that was passed stated that convicted sexual predators are barred from going into or near seniors-only communities that request safety zone designation.

As the county commissioner assigned to the post of the Tampa Sports Authority, one of Jim Norman’s largest plans for the county was the proposed $40-million complex named Championship Park to be built north of Plant City. Norman suggested that the half-cent Community Investment Tax be used to construct the sports complex. A committee was assembled to research the viability of such a complex. Findings supported the fact that Tampa sports facilities were in overuse by 200 percent. The review committee supported Norman’s proposed Championship Park by stating that the complex could pay for itself and potentially make money.

However, by October when the commission was poised to vote on the proposed sports complex, Tampa citizenry so brazenly blasted the proposal due to the effects they would experience from the budget proposal that not one commissioner voted in support of Norman’s dream complex. As a show of sympathy for Norman’s crushed dreams, fellow commissioner Brian Blair suggested the Community Investment tax be used to improve existing parks rather than build new ones.

In November 2007, Norman was replaced as the commission chairman, a position that he had held for two consecutive terms, but was kept on at his Tampa Sports Authority post. A few months later in April 2008, Norman filed his papers to run for the state Senate District 10 seat in 2010. Fellow Republican and friend Rep. Kevin Ambler also filed for the same seat as Norman a day earlier almost guaranteeing an interesting race come 2010.

In response to the apparent recession in September 2008, Norman proposed giving county residents tax rebate checks to get them through the troubling financial times and help spur the economy. Norman suggested that the money could be given out due to the fact bids for county-road building jobs are coming in tens of millions of dollars below projections. It is unclear whether the rebate can happen since money for county-road jobs comes from sales taxes collected from residents and visitors with no way of identifying who paid how much and Norman has not offered insight as to who would get the refunds. If the refund were not plausible, Norman suggested lowering the gas tax to reflect lower costs; however, the chance to change that tax has already passed since it must be voted on by July 1 in order to go into effect Jan. 1.

Although winning the praise of the citizenry for his proposed tax refunds, Norman managed to outrage others with his proposal to put a name on the Moral Courage Award. The Moral Courage Award was instituted to recognize a citizen who challenged government or fought back against wasteful spending or flat-out wrongness. In September 2008, Norman suggested that deceased millionaire concrete magnate Ralph Hughes have his name attached to the award. Outraged citizens against the renaming of the award said that Hughes was more of a campaign contributor than an involved citizen working to make a change. However, five of the seven commissioners voted to rename the award to memorialize Hughes including Norman who had received funding from Hughes in past election bids.

Most recently, Norman has come under fire for his use of luxury suites at Raymond James Stadium. Norman railed against the head of the agency that runs Raymond James Stadium saying that he wanted salaries frozen and travel expenses slashed. Norman’s demands came after the Tampa Sports Authority hadn’t cut enough spending demanded by the public in desperate need of tax relief. The point of contention over Norman’s crys of cutting spending at Raymond James is that he does not seem to believe that his access to the luxury suite designated to the Tampa Sports Authority be cut. Norman asserts that the cost of the suite is justified because it is used as a marketing tool for the county boosting community relations and economic development. However tickets in the past seem to have gone to the same people as well as the same invited guests of ticket holders causing citizens to regard the suite access as a perk not necessary to county development.

Aside from his political life, Jim is married to Mearline Norman and they share a four-bedroom home built in 1978 on 4210 Carrolwood Village Drive in Tampa. Norman’s home has an assessed value of $191,043 to which he pays $3,560 in taxes.

Juvenile Court

I attended juvenile court proceedings at the courthouse in downtown Tampa. I was astounded at how many cases were on the docket. Even more surprising was how many kids were in the courtroom in their orange jumpsuits. All of the defendants were brought into the court in both leg and handcuffs. It was baffling to understand how these young children could commit such horrible crimes. Good portions of the crimes were theft or assault. In some assault cases, the kids had assaulted their own parents who in turn called the cops on them. One case stood out in my mind when a young girl was arrested for assaulting her mother. The mother appeared in court to tell the judge that she did not want her daughter returned to her because she feared for her life. She said that she would rather have her daughter stay in jail until some form of custody could be arranged. A lot of the defendant’s parents did not appear in court. Most of the kids were left alone to stand trial for their crimes. It made me wonder how long some these problems have been going on that once the child was arrested that the parents no longer cared to see their child come home. Despite one or two cases, every child was represented by the public defender. When I first entered the courtroom, I could see the public defender shuffling through numerous amounts of papers looking completely frazzled. I did not know how many cases he actually would oversee that day. The workload that is given to the public defender is insurmountable and I could not imagine having to preparing for so many different cases in one day. A scene that stood out in my mind is when one of the younger girls was called forward to have her case heard. As she approached the pulpit, she tripped and fell due to her leg cuffs. For a moment, I felt terrible for her having to endure such treatment and embarrassment. For a second, I could see a mother wanting to rush to her daughter’s aid, but when the girl reached the pulpit, I learned that she had beat her. The mother did not come to witness her daughter on trial.

NPO CARE Loses Funding

Nonprofit organization CARE has recently lost all of its government funding. CARE, which aims to fight global poverty, works alongside poor women whom they equip with resources to educate their family members and communities to escape poverty.

            Like most nonprofit organizations, or NPOs, CARE receives 90% of its funding from donations from private persons; however, a small part of their budget comes from taxpayer dollars. Generally, state-run health and human service charities receive the largest amount of government funding. In the case of CARE that has concentrated its efforts recently in Haiti, they fall outside of the group of charities that work toward bettering the problems here in the United States and have seen their entire government funding cut.

            CARE is one of the oldest NPOs in the nation having been created in 1945 to deliver aid to survivors of World War II. CARE seeks to deliver relief in emergencies and provide economic opportunity. CARE began its work with Haiti in 1954 to help those affected by Hurricane Hazel. However, since October, CARE has been working to help those affected by several tropical storms that hit the country this past summer. Tropical storms have damaged access to drinking water in many regions of Haiti and have affected the personal hygiene of many Haitian residents. On Oct. 8, CARE delivered to 1,500 families hygiene kits that included soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, detergent and chlorine tablets to disinfect water.

            The flood-ravaged regions of Haiti are in a severe crisis because the majority of municipal and community drinking water sources have been destroyed by storms. Also, the muddy terrain has left residents stranded in regions where there is no clean water sources. Haitian residents are left to drink or use contaminated water for cleaning and hygienic needs. The contaminated waters contain water-borne diseases that can lead to infections and have left many Haitians dead or near death.

            CARE volunteers have targeted the most vulnerable groups of people in Haiti including children, pregnant women, single mothers, handicapped people and those affected by HIV/AIDS to educate Haitians on good hygiene practices as well as to distribute water purification tablets. CARE is concerned with passing out water purification tablets to many Haitians until they are educated on their use. CARE worries that tablets may be sold on local markets or destroyed if not put in the hands of the informed. CARE needs more money to expand their distribution services and has turned to the Internet to drum up resources. On the CARE Web site, those wishing to donate to the cause will be matched by private donors dollar for dollar.

Midterm II

The Florida Sunshine Laws are aptly named when you think about sunshine. When something is in the sunshine, it is out in the open. Florida Sunshine Laws state that all government proceedings are open to the public for inspection. Any public record created by a government agency is open to any person in the community for review. Public records are broadly defined by Florida statutes as all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, data processing software, or other material, regardless of physical form, characteristics, or means of transmission, made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency. This broad definition is what gives Floridians such a unique set of public record laws. Other states do not have such lenient laws and may make requests for public documents nearly impossible. For example, a public record under Florida Statute 119.011 would make an e-mail sent from a county commissioner to city council a public record open to the community to inspect.

 

These Sunshine Laws have not come into being as a recent amendment to the state constitution, but in fact have been a part of the Florida constitution since 1909. Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes was passed in 1909 and became known as the “Public Records Law.” This law provided that any records made or received by any public agency in the course of its official business are available for inspection, unless specifically exempted by the Legislature. Since the passage of this statute, the definition of public document has been reinterpreted throughout the years to adapt to the evolving means of communication.

 

Beginning in 1967, the Government-In-The-Sunshine Law was enacted and became a part of Chapter 286 of the Florida Statutes. This law went on further to say that Sunshine Laws also cover public meetings.The law establishes a basic right of access to most meetings of commissions, boards and other government bodies. Floridians have since been able to attend any government meeting where two or more publicly elected officials talk about any government proceedings. The Sunshine Laws even allow residents to attend meetings of the Legislature. When the problem of deciding to allow residents into Legislature meetings, an amendment was overwhelmingly passed by voters in 1990 to allow public access to legislative meetings.

 

To further the availability of public records and open meetings, Gov. Charlie Crist issued Executive Order 07-107 on June 19, 1997, creating the Commission on Open Government Reform. The commission is a nine member panel that was created within the Governor’s Office of Open Government The commission reviews, evaluates and issues recommendations regarding Florida’s public records and open meetings laws.

 

“Florida’s Sunshine Laws are among the strongest in the nation and give every citizen access to information necessary for participating in the democratic process,” said Governor Crist. “The Commission on Open Government will help ensure that all levels of government are accessible to the people.” Gov. Crist instructed the commission to review policies pertaining to Article 1, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution as well as Chapters 119 and 286.011. The findings of the commission will be presented to the Governor, the Senate President, and the Speaker of the House representatives on December 31, 2008.

 

The commission has set forth specific responsibilities to address concerning Sunshine Laws. The first responsibility is to review fees imposed for copying or reviewing public records. Problems have arose in recent times due to the advancement of technology. The commission is working to ensure that the public is receiving information for the least amount of money to produce such records. Another responsibility of the commission is to review the collection, storage, retrieval, dissemination and accessibility of public records through advanced technologies such as the Internet. Throughout this course, it has been seen that most records are available for inspection on the Internet; however, some records are still only available for inspection at the office in which they are housed.

The final responsibility of the commission is to review the policies regarding the public’s right to participate in agency’s meetings. The commission plans to see if under the Florida Constitution if the public has a right to speak at such meetings through the use of telephone, video conference,, or other remote electronic means.

 

In their August 2007 meeting, testimonies were given as to what areas the Sunshine Laws needed to address or be re-worked. One such testimony that was brought before the commission dealt with the secrecy of clemency files. Currently, clemency files are confidential in accordance with Rule 16 and Section 14.28 of the Florida Statutes. The statutes say that the clemency files are exempt from disclosure unless otherwise released by the Governor. The witness brought forth a testimony detailing how a juvenile in the wrong place at the wrong time was convicted of felony murder and was sentenced to life in jail without parole for 25 years. The witness spoke of testimonies from officers at the prisoner’s jail discussing good behavior and work towards education; however, his clemency was denied. The inmate will once again be able to apply for clemency, but since his lawyers do not know why he was denied the first time, then they cannot work toward rectifying the problem disallowing his chance at clemency.

 

Another testimony came from Joy Ezell who discussed the situations in Taylor County in regard to obtaining a public record request. Ezell had produced the request she had sent to her county government to obtain public records from her county government to any other governing body or the electric, utilities, or power agency concerning the proposed coal-fired power plant in Taylor County. Ezell stated that she had been denied access to county e-mails concerning county business related to the Taylor Energy Center. Ezell further went on to lay claims that the commission shrugs off all public records requests pursuant to situations concerning the company Proctor & Gamble/Buckeye. Ezell claims that the Taylor County government has been acting “out of the sunshine” for many years and that a change needs to come about in order to continue democracy in Taylor County.

Midterm

1. The documents that I would search for upon the news of the arrest would first to look for an arrest report on the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Web site. After verifying the arrest, I would then go to the jail that he was being detained at to ask for a Criminal Incident Report in order to gain further knowledge of the crime and how Mr. Zimmerman reacted to authorities at the time of his arrest. At this juncture, I would ask police officers involved in his arrest questions regarding to how willingly Mr. Zimmerman cooperated with their arrest. If they were able to speak on the details of the case, I would ask questions as to what evidence they had unearthed and what instances led to the initial suspicion and eventual arrest. After receiving documents pertaining to his arrest, I would try to locate documents that led to his arrest. As noted by J.D. Calloway, I would like to inspect the warrant of arrest. Mr. Calloway made it seem that the media did not usually review such documents, but generally had great information for creating a story about the events leading up to the arrest including information about the crimes committed. To add to my story, I would try to find out if Mr. Zimmerman himself had any children by searching for birth certificates with his name listed as a parent. If Mr. Zimmerman did in fact have children, I would want to ask family members or neighbors who were open to talking to the media how Mr. Zimmerman conducted himself around his children or if they had any fears for their current safety and past histories with their father. I would ask the DCF for documents pertaining to Mr. Zimmerman’s Internet usage from his office’s computers. I would ask for e-mails and Web site history from Mr. Zimmerman’s office computer. If Mr. Zimmerman had a secretary at the DCF, I would ask him or her how often Mr. Zimmerman used the Internet from work and if he had ever asked his secretary to erase Web site history from his computer or redact information from e-mails or public spending documents. In addition to see if any possible government money was part of the child pornography operation, I would ask the DCF for documents on Mr. Zimmerman’s spending and use of government funds. In regard to interviews, I would want to interview a co-worker or supervisor of Mr. Zimmerman’s to see if any suspicions had arisen at work in regard to his extracurricular activities. I would want to know if Mr. Zimmerman had any personality traits that would lead one to believe that he had the potential to commit such a crime. I would specifically ask for such instances where Mr. Zimmerman prompted co-workers to outright wonder why he conducted himself in such a manner. To further that I would ask a superior to Mr. Zimmerman if there had ever been any sort of investigation launched inside of the agency about Mr. Zimmerman’s possible behavior or computer usage. In order to keep my readers up to date with where Mr. Zimmerman’s case stands, I would go to the Clerk of Courts to seek information regarding bail amounts and arraignments. In addition to looking for information on the current case, I would also look for past cases including Mr. Zimmerman to see if this was an isolated incident or one that has been recurring. After learning of the bond at status of Mr. Zimmerman I would want to know when a trial date would be held to be able to further my story throughout the entire court proceedings. Finally, I would try to reach out to Mr. Zimmerman himself to address the allegations and allow him to voice his side of the story. Throughout my interview with Mr. Zimmerman, I would be trying to get him to answer if he in fact had child pornography and if his answer was no then what was the reasoning behind his arrest.
3. When Mr. Crist announces his bid for Congress, my immediate reaction would be to look into his performance as a state senator. I would want to know how he voted on certain issues and would turn to my Supervisor of Elections to scan over voting history. I would specifically be looking for items that he voted on that may in fact contradict the campaign that he is running. If Mr. Crist were purporting himself to be pro-life, I would want to find cases where he had voted to uphold such cases as Roe v. Wade or a woman’s right to privacy. Next I would want to know who has donated to his campaign. I would use the Web site opensecrets.org to see how much Mr. Crist has spent on his campaign as well as how much he has raised. In addition to his money raised, I would be looking to see who his contributors were both personal and businesses. I would especially look to the business contributors to see if Mr. Crist might be greatly influenced in his job by certain industries. If Mr. Crist did in fact have certain industries contribute large amounts of money to his campaign, I would then turn to the Web site sunbiz.org. I would be searching to see if Mr. Crist has any businesses under his name that may in fact be a part of the industry that is contributing so much money to his campaign. In order to make sure that no illegal activities were occurring in regard to his campaign donations, I would want to cross-reference campaign contributors from opensecrets.org with companies that Mr. Crist may own or be owned by a large contributor from one of the industries backing Mr. Crist. In essence, I would try to find out if companies that would benefit from Mr. Crist making it into Congress were forcing their employees into donating to the Crist campaign. The main focus of my efforts would ultimately be to see if Mr. Crist would be unbiased in his work in Congress or if certain lobbyists or groups would sway him. I would look into any form of PAC contribution or 527s. I would try to follow the money as best as possible first from the documents kept by the campaign itself and trying to see who is listed as the donor. I would then try to do background searches on these individuals using such tools as AutoTrack to find out who they were and what assets or companies they may hold that would be affected by Mr. Crist’s election to Congress. In order to determine that Mr. Crist is qualified for the job in Congress, I would want to look into employment history. I would seek out his employment records as a state senator to see how long he has worked for the state as well as how much he has made. In addition, I would try to seek out employment information before becoming a state senator to determine if he has worked in the community long enough to understand the needs of the people he will be representing.

News Center

The images of Mr. Larson remained in my mind after leaving the News Center on Tuesday. I couldn't believe how someone's condition could become so bad without anyone doing something to rectify the situation. The work that Mr. Andrews did to bring Mr. Larson's story to light to me is the ultimate duty of investigative reporting. The amount of legwork and time that Mr. Andrews put into crafting a story to shed light on a case of abuse was empowering. I have been towing the line on deciding what avenue to pursue in regard to print or broadcast journalism. Mr. Andrews made it very obvious that amazing work could be done for television news. I for awhile believed television news to be summaries of newspaper articles with anchors merely reading to the audience. Mr. Andrews showed what kinds of work could be done in the television industry that would impact the community. 

Not only was Mr. Andrew's dedication to getting all the facts regardless of how many papers were thrown at him astounding, but his ability to thrust himself in front of the subjects of his investigations was mind boggling. I couldn't imagine researching a person for quite some time learning about their infractions against society only to jump in front of them with a microphone and conduct myself with such professionalism. When Mr. Andrews ran down the owner of assisted living facility Jackie Dorleen, I was half-expecting her to spew hateful things at him or quite possibly threaten violence. It seems very risky to see that the product of your research affects people in a negative way only to then approach those people for an interview. The hard-hitting news stories that had an impact on the community were what really won me over during the presentation. Mr. Andrews made it easy for me to decide that I should keep my mind open to all avenues of reporting.