Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners Meeting; 1/5/2012.
Commissioner Murman, on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners, presents a commendation congratulating the Tampa Prep Varsity Swim & Dive Team on their stellar, undefeated season which sent them to State competitions.
Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tribune article on the Ruskin Health Center:
By PAUL CATALA | The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 28, 2011 Updated: December 28, 2011 – 12:00 AM
RUSKIN —
Until a month ago, Bradley Herremans said some aspects of the Ruskin Health Center had become dysfunctional, broken or outdated and had the aura of an “old Greyhound bus station.”
But through a major renovation project, the clinic now has the ability to treat and counsel patients in a new facility, using state-of-the-art equipment and, most importantly, in less-intimidating surroundings.
Since re-opening Oct. 26 at 2814 S.E. 14th Ave. and expanding, an average of 200 patients have been seen, said Herremans, chief executive officer for Suncoast Community Health Centers, which operates Ruskin and three other health clinics in Hillsborough County.
Herremans and Betsy Martinez, the Ruskin center’s office manager, met with nurses, doctors, a pharmacist and some patients during a recent workday. Herremans, who has been with Suncoast Community since 2008, said the staff is working to get away from the health center’s reputation as a place for “health care for the poor.”
“Through our staff and technology, we’re trying to get away from the sense that this place is just for the poor. We want to be a place where all of the community goes for health care,” he said.
Thanks to the renovation — which used a $3.8 million U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration stimulus grant awarded Oct. 19, 2009 — services, rooms and patient capacity limits have grown.
Among the services the clinic offers are family practice, pediatrics, dentistry, pharmacy, laboratory work, social work, health education and transportation for unfunded patients. There are 34 examination and seven waiting rooms, and an average of 300 prescriptions are filled in the pharmacy daily.
Patient-focused renovation highlights include an expanded obstetrician-gynecologist area; a larger pediatric area with sick-well waiting room; a renovated dental clinic; and 10 examination rooms. Structural improvements include complete renovation of 14,000 square feet of existing interior, updated exterior and a new roof, air conditioner, plumbing and electrical infrastructure.
Martinez, who has worked for the clinic for 30 years, said positive feedback on the changes have come from not only employees and patients, but from vendors and patients’ families.
“I’m excited, especially about the technology and (computerized) medical records upgrade. It’s easier to get records for the doctors and it’s more expedient for the patients,” she said.
The range in cost for a visit to the Ruskin Health Center is $15 to $96, with medication costs based on a sliding scale and averages about $6, based on family size and income. The clinic is part of the Hillsborough County Health Care Plan, said Herremans.
Additionally, the clinic’s women’s health services are affiliated with South Bay Hospital, and mothers can deliver at Tampa General Hospital, Brandon Regional Hospital and South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City.
The clinic’s changes are significant in giving health care workers the ability to perform at high standards and changing the perception of a public health care facility, said physician Sathya Rau, who has worked at Ruskin facility for five years.
“In the old clinic, it was hard to keep sick kids away from the healthy ones; we had no safety nets to keep that from happening. We have them now,” he said.
A grand opening reception and public tour was given Oct. 29, featuring Herremans, Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman and state Rep. Greg Steube, R-Bradenton.
For information, call (813) 349-7800 or visit www.suncoast-chc.org.
By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 20, 2011
TAMPA —
Four companies filed a federal lawsuit against Hillsborough County and Sheriff David Gee on Tuesday, challenging a recently passed ordinance that bans so-called Internet sweepstakes cafés.
The lawsuit asks the court to stop the sheriff from enforcing the ordinance passed Dec. 7.
Lawrence Walters, a Longwood lawyer who filed the lawsuit, said the ordinance violates the four companies’ constitutionally protected speech.
“It’s been well settled that video games are protected by the First Amendment and recently by the (U.S) Supreme Court,” Walters said. “What Hillsborough County has done is ban video games because they resemble gambling even though they are not gambling.”
Café patrons pay for Internet time and are given a card that allows them to access video games that look like slot machines. But owners of the cafés say winning numbers for the games are predetermined. That makes them no more illegal, they say, than scratch-off cards used by fast food and retail stores to drum up business.
“The ordinance restricts the ‘computer simulation’ of an activity but allows the exact same activity to be done on paper, verbally or through any other non-electronic means,” the lawsuit states.
County Commissioner Sandy Murman, backed by the sheriff’s office, pushed for the ban, saying the cafés are a form of gambling but are not regulated or taxed like other gaming establishments.
Murman further charged that the parlors were preying on older residents and poor people. Supporters disagree, saying the cafés create jobs and provide wholesome fun for seniors and others with free time.
Chris Brown, legal counsel for Sheriff David Gee, said Tuesday he had not seen the lawsuit and couldn’t comment.
Murman could not be reached for comment.
Walters said he hopes to have a discussion with the sheriff’s office about stopping enforcement of the ordinance without an injunction. The Tampa Tribune reported Tuesday that about 30 cafés operating before the ban have closed. A spokesman for the sheriff’s office said investigators have been visiting the cafés to inform the owners and managers of the ban.
“The problem the county has if they try to shut down my clients by enforcing the ordinance and then it is declared unconstitutional is that the county is then on the hook for substantial damages for loss of business,” Walters said. “It’s in the county and taxpayers’ interest to let the court consider these complicated constitutional issues before they take any knee-jerk reaction.”
Walters said his clients have changed the way they operate in hopes that they will not fit the language in the ordinance, thereby giving the sheriff leeway to halt enforcement.
Previously, they gave patrons electronic swipe cards that contained personal identification information and how much time they had purchased on the Internet. Now, customers will enter a personal identification number manually.
“By changing this business operation and method, we believe we are in compliance with the ordinance,” Walters said.
The cafes that filed the lawsuit are Paradise Internet & Sweepstakes on Cortaro Drive in Ruskin; Five Star Internet & Sweepstakes on West Brandon Boulevard in Brandon; Happy Mouse Internet Café and Sweepstakes, Sheldon Road in Tampa; and The Lucky Palms on Waters Avenue in Tampa.
Special letter to the Tribune about the Job Creation Program; Commissioner Murman spearheaded the Small Business Job Creation Program.
By ELLEN BROWN | Special to The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 19, 2011 Updated: December 19, 2011 – 12:00 AM
The importance of the role that small businesses play as “job creators” in their local communities is often heralded as one of the keys to a successful economic recovery. But high unemployment, rising costs and a depressed economy present great challenges to today’s independent business owner.
We have choices. Do we “wait it out” by decreasing staff, inventory and marketing, adding to the downward cycle and slowly going out of business? Or do we work to expand our share of the market?
Is there any help out there for us? The answer is yes. Hillsborough County’s Small Business Job Creation Reimbursement Program provides funding to businesses with 10 or fewer employees to help facilitate job creation in the county.
My husband, David, and I have faced a number of obstacles since we opened the Old Tampa Book Company, a used and rare bookstore in downtown Tampa, in 1995. We were often told that our store was the first sign of revival in a city of empty storefronts with few reasons for people to come downtown.
Seventeen years later, our store is now a destination in a revitalized city. The vacant stores of the 1990s are now unique cafes and restaurants.
Last fall we signed a five-year renewal lease demonstrating our commitment to, and faith in, the future of downtown Tampa. Our mission is to build a more profitable business that will secure the store’s future. To that end, we were fortunate to find out about Hillsborough County’s job-creation program.
The Small Business Information Center staff was extremely helpful in guiding our application efforts; within two weeks our request was approved. We hired two full-time employees, and the county will reimburse us for 50 percent of three months of their total salary.
By doubling our staff, we have been able to extend our store hours to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.
By listing many of the 40,000 books in our inventory on Internet websites dedicated to selling books, we will expand our share of the global market to generate a significant increase in income, enabling us to maintain our full-time staff and continue to grow our business.
Ellen Brown is a Tampa businesswoman.
By CHRISTIAN M. WADE | The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 19, 2011
NORTHDALE —
It was one of several businesses in the Northdale Shoppes plaza, a strip mall in this northwest Hillsborough County enclave of subdivisions and retail outlets.
Other plaza tenants say the man who rented the small storefront spent thousands of dollars on the property – located among a tanning salon, a neighborhood pharmacy and a yogurt shop – installing computers, leather chairs, a kitchenette and other amenities.
Then, about six months after opening, the Tampa Internet Entertainment Sweepstakes Cafe closed down.
As quickly as they appeared, the Internet sweepstakes cafes that flocked to Hillsborough after other counties outlawed them are disappearing from the local landscape. Some, like the one that occupied a spot in the Northdale plaza, were shuttered days after a Dec. 7 county commission vote to ban what they called “simulated gambling devices.”
“That’s how these guys operate,” Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Larry McKinnon said of the Internet café owners. “If they know heavy enforcement is coming, they just pack up and go somewhere else. And it’s usually just across the county line.”
Hillsborough sheriff’s investigators, who are visiting the cafes to inform owners of the ban, are finding many of the 30 or so outlets in the county already are closed.
McKinnon said that’s what happened when Pinellas County voted to ban the cafes.
“We started seeing them popping up like mushrooms all over the county,” he said.
Tenants said they knew little about the man who ran the Internet café at Northdale Shoppes. But they say he spent a lot of money setting it up and didn’t seem to get a lot of business.
“I never saw anyone going into that place,” said Silvia Clarke, owner of Britan’s Yogurt Mill, who has been a tenant in the plaza for nearly a decade. “It was very strange.”
* * * * *
The café was open 24-hours, served food and drinks and catered mostly to seniors.
Attempts to reach the owner were unsuccessful. A man who answered the door at the business on Friday said the owner was a real estate agent, but didn’t know how to reach him. The man, who wouldn’t give his name, said he was helping the owner move out.
Dozens of other sweepstakes cafes, including several along Hillsborough Avenue, also have closed their doors within the past week, following approval of the countywide ban.
Alan Petzold had operated a café near Hillsborough Avenue and Racetrack Road with a business partner and planned to open another one, before the ban was approved.
He said the county’s crackdown on the cafes is hurting small business owners.
“We’re not getting rich doing this,” Petzold said. “They’re just putting people out of work.”
He said he knows of a few café operators – particularly those financed by corporations with deep-pockets – who are digging in their heels for an expected legal challenge.
“They’re going to fight to stay open,” Petzold said. “Honestly, I don’t blame them.”
* * * * *
Similar moves by Pinellas, Seminole and other Florida counties to ban the games have been challenged in court and Hillsborough officials are bracing for possible legal action.
“We haven’t seen any litigation yet, but we have been told that it’s forthcoming,” said Chris Brown, an attorney representing the Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office.
Justin Kaplan, a Miami-based attorney, represents Arcola Systems, which makes software and hardware used in cyber cafes including several in Hillsborough.
He said many café operators are worried about being treated like criminals.
“They’re shutting down because they’re afraid of getting raided,” he said. “These are mostly independent mom-and-pop operations that are being driven out of business.”
Casinos, race tracks and other gambling establishments in Florida must adhere to strict regulations, but the Internet sweepstakes cafes operate beneath the radar of regulators.
The legality of the cafes is in dispute throughout the state because state law is vague on what constitutes a slot machine. Operators of the cafes say they are offering a chance at cash prizes to customers who buy Internet time. Though the players see a slot machine on their computer screen, the winning number is predetermined, supporters say, much like a scratch-off ticket used as a promotion at fast food and retail outlets.
Hillsborough Commissioner Sandy Murman, who pushed the ban, calls the cafes illegal gambling houses that don’t pay taxes and siphon money from elderly and poor people.
She wasn’t surprised to hear many of them already had shut down.
“They’re just going to pack up and find somewhere else that they can prey on vulnerable people,” she said. “It’s the nature of these kinds of businesses. They’re predatory.”
Tea party activists in Hillsborough County have a new burr under their more-liberty, less-government saddles: county crony capitalism.”CCC” is the term the Tampa Tea Party and the related Tampa 912 Project are applying to county commissioners who want to renegotiate residential garbage contracts with the county’s three current haulers. Instead, the conservative activists think the county should open bidding to any qualified company.
“We believe competition and the free market ensure that citizens get the best services at the best price,” said Sharon Calvert, founder of the Tampa Tea Party. “This doesn’t eliminate the current providers. They just need to put their bids in. But they have to know they’re up to competition.”
The new contracts, which would take effect in 2013, will be worth about $60 million to haulers with the winning bids. The high stakes have generated pressure from both sides that has escalated in recent months. A public relations company representing the current contract holders — Waste Management, Republic Services and Waste Services Inc. — started a Facebook page called “Leave Our Trash Service Alone.”
The page claims the current haulers have a 99 percent satisfaction score with relatively low rates. A photo panel shows overflowing garbage defacing suburban sidewalks, implying that service will decline under new vendors.
Public records show lobbyists representing the three franchise haulers or Waste Pro, the main challenger to the current system, visited county commissioners 59 times this year.
The lobbyists or the waste companies they represent contributed $4,500 this year to two commissioners’ campaigns: $3,000 to Al Higginbotham and $1,500 to Kevin Beckner. Both commissioners favor opening the system to new bidders. Higginbotham got $2,000 from the franchise haulers, and Beckner received $1,000 from those companies.
Higginbotham, Beckner and Commissioner Mark Sharpe favor seeking bids. Chairman Ken Hagan and commissioner Victor Crist were leaning toward renegotiating with the franchise haulers, though Crist said Monday he is keeping an open mind.
“Part of me says throw it in the air and see what lands,” Crist said. “On the other hand, everybody’s been happy with what we have. You could change to something and it’s not very good and nobody will be happy with it.”
Commissioners Les Miller and Sandra Murman said Monday they were undecided. Murman ran an Internet survey of residents who have communicated with her office on various subjects. Out of 185 respondents, 158 said they were satisfied with current garbage pickup. But 124 respondents said the county should open contracts to new bidders, while 33 favored renegotiating with the current haulers, and 21 said to do both.
Red-shirt wearing Tea Party members plan to pack commission chambers for the discussion at 1:30 today. The group is offering a free bus ride at 11 a.m. from Apollo Beach.
Published: December 07, 2011
Updated: December 07, 2011 – 9:55 PM
Tampa — One side called Internet sweepstakes cafés illegal gambling parlors. The other side said the popular cafés create jobs and raise huge sums for charity.
After a lengthy public hearing Wednesday, Hillsborough County commissioners came down on the anti-gambling side, voting 5-2 to shut down the 30-plus sweepstakes cafés in the county. The vote to ban the businesses came after a motion to impose a moratorium on new cafés failed by a 3-4 vote.
Commissioners are now bracing for a lawsuit. Similar attempts by Pinellas, Seminole and other Florida counties to ban the games have been challenge in court.
“The reality is, what Seminole County passed is virtually the same ordinance” that Hillsborough commissioners approved, said Kelly Mathis, an attorney for Allied Veterans of the World. The non-profit operates four cafes in Hillsborough.
The legality of the cafés is in dispute throughout the state because state law is vague concerning what constitutes a slot machine.
Operators of the cafés say they are offering a chance at cash prizes to customers who buy Internet time. Though the players see a slot machine on their computer screen, the winning number is predetermined, supporters say, much like a scratch-off sweepstakes ticket used as a promotion at fast food and retail businesses.
“What the commission has done is taken legitimate businesses and said, ‘We don’t want them in Hillsborough County,'” Mathis said.
But the Hillsborough County Sheriff and the county attorney’s office consider the computerized games slot machines, which are illegal except in certain approved venues, such as the Seminole Hard Rock Café. A recent opinion on the issue by State Attorney General Pam Bondi supported that view.
Supporters and opponents of the cafés packed the commission chambers, lining up to speak in their allotted two minutes. Both sides were organized and stayed on message.
Opponents, led by east Hillsborough social conservative Terry Kemple, stressed the evils of gambling and challenged commissioners to overcome their fear of lawsuits in pursuit of the common good.
“The legal point here is not whether the computers are slot machines,” Kemple said. “The issue is whether to exercise responsibility to protect our communities.”
Donna Rogers spoke of her gambling addicted brother who “wrecked his life playing around on the computer.
“If you look where many of these places are, they’re in poor neighborhoods and places where a lot of senior citizens live,” Rogers said. “They’re taking advantage of economic vulnerability.”
Don Tanner, a pastor in Ruskin, said the gambling devastates families so businesses that own the cafés can make fat profits.
“Fellas like me have to pick up the pieces and try to help families … after addiction to gambling has taken its toll,” Tanner said.
Supporters wore yellow T-shirts that said “Don’t Shut down our internet cafés.” They challenged commissioners’ commitment to creating jobs, saying closing the cafés would leave them unemployed.
“How is me not having a job and me being unemployed enhancing the lives of me and my family or this community?” asked Debra McIntyre, who said she supports an autistic son by working in an internet café.
Dave Plunkett, who said he manages a café, challenged allegations that the businesses prey on the elderly and the poor.
“We have retired military, retired law enforcement, retired attorneys — every walk of life and they’re all good people,” Plunkett said.
But the most riveting speaker was an undercover sheriff’s detective who wore a black hood to protect his identity. Under orchestrated questioning from Chris Brown, legal counsel to the sheriff, the detective recounted his experiences infiltrating cafés.
The detective said patrons of the cafés never used the Internet, but gambled away hundreds of dollars in minutes with the simulated slot machines. Many patrons are elderly the detective said.
“One lady customer lost $350 in 10 minutes,” the hooded figure said. He also said he had been told by a software salesman that the cafés manipulated the odds on the sweepstakes contests.
Mathis complained that the pro-café forces had been “sandbagged” by the detective’s testimony.
“I should have had an opportunity to cross-examine him,” Mathis said.
After more than an hour of comment by the public and the detective, Commissioner Sandy Murman made a motion to shutter the cafés. She restated her position that the businesses were operating illegal gambling houses that don’t pay taxes yet suck money away from the most vulnerable residents.
But Commissioner Victor Crist countered with a substitute motion to impose a moratorium on new cafés, regulating and taxing the existing parlors. Crist said he has always opposed gambling but owes a higher duty not to squander taxpayers’ money fighting a lawsuit.
It seemed the moratorium would prevail, and Murman said she was ready to concede defeat. But commission Chairman Ken Hagan told Murman her comments were “premature.”
“I have to rely on the advice of our county attorney and the sheriff’s office,” Hagan said, “and they were very clear in what they were saying. I’m not going to support the substitute motion.”
After the moratorium was voted down, Commissioner Mark Sharpe reversed course and voted for the ban.
“I don’t want to be the poster child for internet cafés,” Sharpe said.
Posted Wed, Dec 07, 2011 at 06:12 pm
By Steve Newborn (Send E-Mail)
TAMPA (2011-12-7) –
Hillsborough County Commissioners have voted to ban the use of slot machine-like devices at those “Internet Cafes” that have popped up recently around the county. The legality of their move, however, could be a gamble.
You might have seen them recently: those brightly-lit storefronts emblazoned with the words “Allied Veterans” and “Internet Sweepstakes.” Backers say they’re a pleasant diversion, a way to while away some time in a social setting. Opponents claim they feed an addiction to gambling.
Among the people in the latter camp is Hillsborough Commissioner Sandra Murman:
“I believe they are predidatory operations that are located in areas where elderly live and poor people live,” Murman told her fellow commissioners. “And every loss of a dollar by a citizen costs our county programs and our community, and puts dollars in the pockets of out-of-state owners, where the services are located.”
Several dozen people showed up at the commission meeting wearing bright yellow
“Don’t shut down our internet cafe” shirts. They included people who make a living at the cafes and those, like Melissa Barfield, who get donations from the money generated by the players.
She’s with the Children’s Cancer Cooperative of Summerville, South Carolina, and traveled to Tampa for the meeting.
“Internet cafes – they donate to us,” she says. “We get a percentage of their weekly revenue, comes to Children’s Cancer Cooperative. In turn, I turn around and I give this money back to the state of Florida. We have donated almost $2 million just alone in Florida this year.”
It’s unclear legally whether the cafes can be called gambling houses. That should lie with the state legislature, which may be called on during the upcoming session to rule on whether these places should be regulated.
So county attorneys took the extra step of walking in an undercover Sheriff’s deputy, who wore a black hood while giving his testimony.
“We had an undercover session with one of the salesman that sells the software, and he advised us that we could have the odds set at whatever we wanted them set to,” said Deputy Anthony Bordenaro.
He says he also witnessed what appears to be complusive gambling behavior.
“We had observed one lady come in and spend $350,” Bordenaro told commissioners, “and lost her $350 within about a 30-minute period.”
But Andrew Sash, who manages an internet cafe in Tampa, says people can come in and don’t have to spend a dime to enjoy some time with friends.
“You’re making a major decision on people’s choice. And it’s very important that we understand they choose to come to our place and enjoy themselves,” says Sash. “We need to not look at shutting down local business, but we need to look at supporting our local businesses that are supporting their families, and help them grow.”
Board members then voted 5 to 2 to ban the use of simulated slot machines using the Internet to set odds. The move came after Commissioner Victor Crist instead pushed for a moratorium on new cafes opening, preferring to wait until the legal picture becomes a little clearer.
“We just keep speculating on is this machine a gambling machine? Is this not a gambling machine? Is this gambling or is it not gambling?,” asked Crist. “Well, the bottom line is we can go on arguing and debating this, but it isn’t our decision to make. It’s the court’s decision. It’s the legislature’s decision. And if the legislature fails to act, then the courts must act.”
Commissioner Mark Sharpe agreed, saying the board had to be very careful, lest they end up gambling with taxpayer’s dollars on a legal challenge.
Commissioner Sandy Murman honors the Hillsborough County Consumer Protections Agency for winning the Florida Council on Aging's Service to Seniors by an Organization award.