Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article:

POLITICS

Name-calling post draws scorn for aviation authority member, GOP activist

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff 
Published: September 3, 2015   |   Updated: September 4, 2015 at 07:17 AM

TAMPA — Sam Rashid, a conservative activist and Hillsborough County Aviation Authority member, is giving Donald Trump a run for his money when it comes to insulting rhetoric.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, Rashid called Tampa businesswoman Beth Leytham a “taxpayer subsidized slut,” and suggested Leytham had “intimately close relationships” with three elected officials — two at the county center and one at city hall.

Rashid, an anti-tax crusader, was attacking Leytham for her role in the “Go Hillsborough” transportation outreach effort, funded by the county government. The county is considering a sales tax increase to pay for new roads, bridges and expanded mass transit.

Leytham is being paid $187,500 for communications work she’s doing for the county’s transportation consultant, Parsons Brinckerhoff.

In all, the county has paid Parsons Brinckerhoff $1.23 million, in part for holding public workshops where county officials answer questions and explain transportation options. When contributions from the city of Tampa and the Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority are included, Parsons Brinckerhoff is receiving $1.35 million.

“Well done commissioners,” Rashid said in his post, “you’ve given this taxpayer subsidized slut (and I may be talking about the Go Hillsborough plan with this pejorative reference) another $300,000 of my money to intentionally deceive me into thinking (Los Angeles) is Tampa.”

Rashid did not return phone calls for comment, and he took the posting down Thursday.

Leytham, who said she has never met Rashid, called the post sexist and inappropriate.

“I feel it’s unfair,” she said Wednesday. “If he wants to yell about Go Hillsborough or no taxes, that’s fine. But to then just sling mud and call into question someone’s sexual life is just beyond the pale. And he wouldn’t do it to a man.”

The clash involves two people from opposite ends of the county, both of whom move in influential circles. Rashid, a wealthy businessman from Valrico, is considered one of the leaders of the conservative wing of the Hillsborough GOP. He gives tens of thousands of dollars to candidates at all levels of government, and politicians are loathe to cross him.

“Sam is a very open minded, very outspoken and a very smart businessman … but I certainly wouldn’t talk about somebody like that publicly,” said county Commissioner Victor Crist, who serves with Rashid on the airport authority and knows Leytham well.

Leytham, who owns her own public relations firm, has friends in local politics, though she insists those relationships never crossed the line into intimacy.

“No, no, never was it anything inappropriate,” Leytham said. “I earned what I work for.”

Leytham often operates below the surface in battles that play out in the public sphere. For instance, she represents Yellow Cab, which along with other cab companies is fighting to protect its territory against ride-share companies Uber and Lyft. And when a pier collapsed on the Selmon Expressway in 2004, Leytham handled damage control for the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority.

“She’s among the best in the business in PR and media relations,” Crist said. “She’s smart, she’s aggressive and she knows her stuff.”

Commissioner Ken Hagan, who backs a sales tax referendum for transportation projects, knows Leytham and Rashid well. Hagan, though careful in his remarks, said Rashid’s Facebook post about Leytham went beyond the businessman’s usual combativeness.

“Sam enjoys an intellectual fight,” Hagan said. “I admire his candor and his willingness to play hardball. However, this is clearly over the top even for Sam and is an attempt to obfuscate the real issue at hand, meaningfully attacking our transportation package.”

County Commissioner Sandy Murman said she also admires Rashid’s passion and candor but not when it turns sexist.

“As far as being a woman and trying to express my concern over women’s well-being, no one deserves that,” Murman said.

This isn’t the first time a Rashid Facebook rant has drawn crticism problems. In May, he referred to three unnamed circuit court judges as “dumbasses.” After a Republican newspaper columnist criticized Rashid’s remarks, he was forced to decline an appointment to the Federal Judicial Nominating Commission. The commission nominates candidates for federal judgeships, U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal.

Those remarks did not cost Rashid his seat on the airport authority, a post he was appointed to by Gov. Rick Scott in June 2014. When asked to comment on Rashid’s remarks about Leytham, the governor’s press secretary, Jeri Bustamante, issued a single-sentence reply: “Gov. Scott expects all of his appointees to serve with integrity.”