Commissioner Murman quoted in this WCTV article printed from a Governor’s Press Office email:

Governor Scott Announces 400 new jobs at Cognizant

Posted: Wed 3:56 PM, Dec 10, 2014

By: Governors Press Office Email

News Release: Governor’s Press Office
December 10, 2014

Governor Rick Scott announced that Cognizant, a Fortune 500 leading global provider of information technology, consulting, and business process services, will expand its operations in Tampa, adding more than 400 new jobs and investing approximately $5.7 million over the next four years.

Governor Scott said, “Our mission is clear – to be the number one destination for jobs in the world, and Cognizant’s expansion is another step toward accomplishing our goal. As a veteran myself, I applaud companies like Cognizant that are hiring our military heroes. Since December 2010, 679,000 private-sector jobs have been created and our unemployment rate is down to 6.0 percent, the lowest since 2008. Today’s announcement means 400 more Floridians will be able to get a great job and provide for their families, which is a big win for Florida.”

Cognizant has more than 75 delivery and operations centers worldwide, and more than 31,000 full-time employees spread across all 50 states in the United States. Ranked among the top performing and fastest-growing companies in the world, Cognizant currently has more than 900 employees throughout Florida with half of them based in Tampa. The newly created positions will be for highly skilled technology and business professionals who will provide business process services as well as application development and maintenance for U.S. corporations across the financial services, insurance and healthcare industries.

“Tampa and surrounding Hillsborough County are home to several Fortune 500 and other innovative companies, many of which are current and potential Cognizant clients. We are pleased to be expanding in the region,” said Steven Schwartz, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal and Corporate Affairs Officer at Cognizant.

“Thanks in part to the work of Governor Scott, Florida and the Tampa area are an attractive place to do business, given the robust infrastructure that has been created for technology companies, and the rich talent pool fed by the state’s 13 universities and concentration of highly skilled military veterans and their spouses. We have been privileged to employ a growing number of veterans as they transition from serving our country into the private sector. We’ve found the discipline, rigor and team spirit they bring help drive excellent service to our clients.”

Florida ranks second in the nation for tech job growth and third for high tech establishments. The Florida High Tech Corridor, anchored by the Tampa Bay region, has also been named one of the top tech job hotspots in the U.S. The Tampa metro area is home to approximately 20 percent of Florida’s IT positions. In the past five years, local IT jobs have grown at nearly twice the rate of overall average job growth, and are expected to increase by 10 percent over the next five year period.

“The expansion of Cognizant in Tampa will add value to Florida’s extensive IT industry,” said Secretary of Commerce and President & CEO of Enterprise Florida, Gray Swoope. “Because of the state’s top workforce, infrastructure and quality of life, companies like Cognizant are choosing Florida for their business growth. This expansion is a great fit for Tampa’s growing IT cluster and I look forward to Cognizant’s continued success.”

The project was made possible through strong partnerships between Enterprise Florida, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, Hillsborough County, and the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation.

”We are excited that Cognizant will be expanding its Tampa locations,” said Jesse Panuccio, Executive Director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. “The addition of more than 400 new, private-sector jobs over the next four years is representative of Florida’s growing opportunity economy. We continue to see growth in the STEM field in Florida’s High Tech Corridor as Florida further solidifies its high ranking as a hub for tech job growth.”

“Hillsborough County has become a premier destination for information technology consulting businesses ranging from startups to Fortune 500 ranked global organizations,” said the Hon. Sandy Murman, Chair of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. “We’re committed to help fuel the expansion of this industry sector in Hillsborough County, and supporting companies like Cognizant who are helping to do that.”

“Cognizant explored multiple options for this expansion but chose Hillsborough County over all of them,” said Dr. Ronald Vaughn, Chair of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation and President of the University of Tampa. “Thanks to the support of our state and local partners, Hillsborough County’s reputation continues to grow as a community that is pro-business and that attracts world-class technology companies with top IT talent.”

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on tourism:

Tampa area aims for top tier in tourism revenue

By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: December 1, 2014   |    

TAMPA — Santiago Corrada is zeroing in on foreigners eager for some beach time, Midwest families hoping to hustle from Busch Gardens to The Mouse in Orlando, and conventioneers hungry for Tampa cuisine or Ybor City’s growing craft beer scene.

Even as county leaders push to diversify the area’s economy with more high-tech business and biomedical research companies, tourism remains an important focus.

With new hotels on the horizon, growing convention business and major sporting events in Hillsborough County’s future, Corrada, president and CEO of the tourism agency Visit Tampa Bay, aims to thrust the county into the elite high-rollers club — those collecting more than $30 million annually in bed taxes.

And he wants to do it in three years or less.

His plan is based on financial metrics, not dreams, he said.

Membership in that exclusive club would allow the county to consider adding a sixth cent to its bed tax, an additional $6 million annually. Corrada says it is too soon to speculate on how that money could be used — it’s up to the county commission — but it could be designated for anything from pure promotion to paying for new arenas.

❖ ❖ ❖

The tourist development tax, or bed tax, is a surcharge levied on any short-term rental, including hotel rooms.

Hillsborough County Commission Chairwoman Sandra Murman said she applauds Corrada’s efforts as a way to help visitors pay their way by supporting improvements to venues such as Raymond James Stadium and Amalie Arena.

“Our big goal is to land a major Fortune 500 company here,” Murman said. “That will put us on the map.”

In the long run, that would attract more tourists who will spend more money to grow the local economy, she said.

“As more people work and live here, more interest grows in the arts and culture,” which means more attractions for tourists.

So far there are only a handful of members in this high-rollers club, and almost all are beachfront counties, including Pinellas. But Corrada thinks Hillsborough County has amassed enough treasure to draw tourists interested in everything between those beaches and Disney World.

“30 in 3 is not far-fetched; it’s not a whim. We may be able to do it even sooner. We’ve looked at past growth, what is on the books and production we expect from the team.”

This year, the county collected $24 million in tourist development taxes, he said.

“We’ve had some great fortune, being able to lock in marquee sexy events like Bollywood, the women’s Final Four in 2015, the men’s Frozen Four in 2016, the college national championship game in 2017. … We’ve got some pretty strong years coming up,” Corrada said.

Then there is the growing number of foreign tourists, a collaborative effort between Tampa International Airport, Visit Tampa Bay, Visit St. Pete-Clearwater and the business community.

“Frankfurt will be in place,” with Lufthansa German Airlines announcing nonstop flights to and from Tampa, Copa Airlines flying daily to Panama City and Edelweiss Airlines flying to and from Zurich. There are also regular nonstop flights from Britain.

“There are a lot of leisure travel opportunities,” Corrada said.

Visit Tampa Bay is taking a multipronged approach to growing tourism, providing information on how easy it is to get to the beach from here, the nightlife in Ybor City, the upscale and culturally rich cuisine throughout the county, Busch Gardens, the Straz Center, The Florida Aquarium and more.

Hotels will play a big role in future tourism growth for Hillsborough County as well, and so far, Corrada said, the stars appear to be aligned.

Aloft, Epicurean and La Meridien all opened here during the past year. Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik is working on a 400-room downtown hotel, and plans were announced recently for an upscale hotel in Ybor City designed to embrace the area’s history.

“There’s been a lot of investment by hotel owners groups, so they can ask higher rates,” Corrada said. “Hotels need to keep the rates moving in the right direction” to help the bed tax grow, he said. Higher rates mean more tax money to promote the county.

❖ ❖ ❖

Right now, Hillsborough County allocates the first 3 cents, or 72 percent, of its bed tax to Visit Tampa Bay. Seven percent goes to the convention center. The Tampa Bay Sports Commission gets 5 percent, and the Straz Center gets 3.9 percent. The remainder goes to the Plant City, Ruskin and Ybor City chambers of commerce.

Only eight counties belong to the high-rollers club: Duval, Volusia, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Orange, Osceola and Pinellas.

Pinellas County joined the high rollers last year but has yet to institute the sixth cent on its bed tax. The Tourist Development Council there recently voted to limit how much of its bed tax can be spent on capital projects to ensure that most of that money goes to promote tourism in the county.

It is holding on to its option to levy the sixth cent, in case the need for a new baseball stadium arises.

Hillsborough County’s promotional budget is $1.8 million a year. Pinellas County already devotes $12 million to promotion — not only as a beach destination, but also as a cultural one, said David Downing, interim director for Visit St. Pete-Clearwater.

He said Pinellas spends the bulk of its money targeting core markets such as New York, this year wrapping 577 subway cars with Visit St. Pete banners, wrapping four double-decker buses, installing 1,500 elevator screens and handing out 300,000 promotional coffee cup sleeves through street vendors.

Visit St. Pete-Clearwater is also spending thousands to promote new nonstop flights from outside the country, Downing said. It’s a constant promotional job.

Downing agrees with Corrada that new air service development “really moves the needle. We have to get people here on direct flights not just for leisure, but for business.”

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on HART:

HART to put its finances online

CAITLIN JOHNSTON Tampa Bay Times

Monday, December 1, 2014 3:37pm

TAMPA — Hillsborough’s transit agency voted Monday to move a large amount of its financial information online in an effort to show the public the board is spending its dwindling money in a responsible manner.

The move goes beyond posting the budgets required by the state. It includes expenditures, monthly financial reports, vendor information, payroll, wire transactions and more.

Finances have been tight for the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, and its proposed 2015 budget shows a projected shortfall of $1.7 million in 2017. But spokeswoman Sandra Morrison said those numbers are for illustrative purposes and often act as a catalyst for finding increased revenue sources. The projected shortfalls can also be mitigated through continued cost reductions and tweaking of expansion of nonpeak service.

HART board member and County Commissioner Sandra Murman said the transparency initiative will help show the public that HART is doing the best it can with its resources, despite being “strapped for cash.”

“A lot of people think it’s so easy to do stuff because you have so many millions of dollars, but what they don’t understand is where all that money goes,” Murman said. “You are providing that transparency so people understand that every dollar that comes to HART is being spent frugally and wisely.”

HART’s nearly $84 million budget for 2015 is funded mostly by property taxes and includes revenue from fares and federal, state and local grants.

Chief Financial Officer Jeff Seward, who headed the project, said the information should be on the HART website by the end of the week.

There was also discussion about splitting the Finance, Governance and Administration committee into separate governance and finance committees, allowing the latter to delve further into potential revenue sources.

HART continues to look for ways to increase its revenue sources to keep operating without a massive shortfall. Much has been made of a potential 2016 tax-for-transportation referendum, similar to those that failed in Pinellas and Polk counties in November.

Board member Josh Burgin, who was not present at Monday’s meeting, has long warned against relying on revenue from a potential tax that voters could reject.

“HART should next expect to see dramatic budgetary growth as a result of a near future tax increase proposal,” Burgin wrote in a letter that was read during the meeting. “The most likely scenario for increased HART funding through additional taxes is one where a half-cent tax is passed with a majority of the revenues committed to roads and a relative small amount is dedicated to HART.”

Contact Caitlin Johnston at cjohnston@tampabay.com or (813) 661-2443. Follow @cljohnst.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this StPetersBlog article on HART:

Some HART members express further misgivings about potential transit referendum

By Mitch Perry on December 1, 2014

The power to put a referendum on the 2016 ballot in Hillsborough County on transit is up to the seven members of the Board of County Commissioners, and one of their newest members, Stacy White, has been quite explicit in declaring his lack of support for such a tax while on the campaign trail.

“I’m not in support of any type of tax right now,” White reiterated after attending his first meeting as a member of the HART (Hillsborough Area Regional Transit) board. He self-deprecatingly said as a new commissioner he was “wet behind the ears” and thus wasn’t prepared to address where the funding would need to come from to contend with Hillsborough County’s transportation woes, but said he knows he can’t just criticism against a proposed sales tax. “It’s easy to say  you’re against something. But what are you for?,” he asked rhetorically, adding that it would take him a bit of time to come up with a strategy to answer that question more fully.

“We have major traffic gridlock,” he admits. “So the question is, how do we solve that? Is it Bus Rapid Transit? Is it expanding upon our bus system? Everybody talks about that bad word, rail, right? But there is so much more to transportation infrastructure than rail. I want to make sure that I can come up with some sort of comprehensive plan that I can either propose or listen and support another commissioner’s plan.”

As White sat in on his first meeting with the transit agency on Monday, he got support for his opposition from one of his new HART colleagues, Josh Burgin.

Though Burgin couldn’t attend the meeting in person, he wanted to make sure that the board understood where he was coming from regarding the potential 2016 ballot measure loud and clear, sending a letter to HART board chair Mike Suarez that Suarez read aloud during the board’s monthly meeting.

Referring to how not only Greenlight Pinellas, but other transportation referendums went down to defeat in Polk, Alachua and Hernando counties by wide margins, he warned Hillsborough County leaders that they “cannot ignore the implications of these outcomes.” But he’s not sure they are.

“Immediately following election night’s tax proposed defeats, some local leaders publicly denied that these neighborhood county election outcomes had any hearing on the visibility of 1-cent proposal for Hillsborough in 2016,” Burgin wrote. “The hackneyed claims that the Hillsborough Proposal for 2016 would be different from Pinellas plan were reminiscent of prior claims that the Pinellas plan was to be different than Hillsborough’s in 2010, but in the end both the Hillsborough 2010 and Pinellas 2014 plans were opposed by approximately 60% of the voters.”

Burgin then cited a post-referendum analysis produced by Hillsborough County’s Metropolitan Planning Organization in February of 2013 regarding the failed Hillsborough 2010 vote, as well as the Tampa Bay Partnership’s recent voter analysis on Greenlight Pinellas, and deducting that the public’s priorities are for streets, roads and bridges, and not for light-rail. He then goes on to write that a 1/2 cent proposal “starts off with at least a some chance of acceptance by the voters,” before clarifying that he doesn’t support any type of tax increase in the future.

Burin’s opposition is no surprise. He took on then-incumbent County Commissioner Mark Sharpe back in 2010 for the GOP nomination to the board, mainly due to Sharpe’s outspoken support for the transit tax (Sharpe held off Burgin and went on to easily win re-election).

He concludes his letter by saying that “the most likely scenario” for increased HART funding through a tax would be a 1/2-cent sales tax, “with a majority of the revenues committed to roads and a relative small amount is dedicated to HART.”

But while such transit referendums all went down to defeat in the Sunshine State last month, that wasn’t the case around the country. HART board chair Mike Suarez cited a statement issued by the American Public Transportation Association that noted that public transit initiatives prevailed at the ballot box in  15 out of 25 possible local public transit ballot initiatives on November 4.

The only other comments the letter elicited came from HART board member and County Commission Chair Sandy Murman, who said it should be a priority in 2015 for the agency to discuss how to raise more money for buses and services. “That’s what they want. The message is clear to me.” She said she wants to have workshops on bonding, finances and going through line items. “We can’t keep on getting bogged down with other administrative and governance issues….that’s got to be our mission and goal over the next two years for HART.” Murman said the best way for the board to deal with that would be to restructure some of their committees. Chairman Suarez said he would entertain such discussions at an upcoming board meeting.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this SaintPetersBlog article on women’s business center:

Helen Gordon Davis’ Women’s Business Centre opens in Tampa

By Mitch Perry on November 25, 2014

Helen Gordon Davis was a powerhouse of a legislator when she represented Tampa in the Florida Legislature from 1974 to 1992, championing the rights of the disenfranchised, particularly women and minorities. Although in ill health now, the native New Yorker’s lasting legacy has been her creating the Women’s Centre based in Tampa’s Hyde Park,  designed in 1976 to help women succeed both personally and professionally.

On Monday afternoon the Centre held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the creation of the Women’s Business Centre, which will help fund training, business development resources, and programs for women entrepreneurs. The key to its creation was a $750,000 federal Small Business Administration grant procured by Tampa Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor.

“While women own nearly one-third of all firms, and the start rate of firms greatly outpaces that of men, the market share for revenues has not kept up, ” Castor said in her remarks to approximately 100 people or so who gathered on the unseasonably warm day for the grand opening. “I believe that entrepreneurship is a pathway to pay equity,” the congresswomen said, adding that women are only paid 78 percent of what men are paid, “and that’s not acceptable.”

The desire to add a business element to the Women’s Centre germinated two years ago, says executive director Ann W. Madsen, “to meet the needs of an increasing amount of women in our community who were looking for training and resources, so they could start their own businesses.” Florida is fourth in the nation in the number of women-owned businesses.

There are approximately 100 Women Business Centers (WBCs) nationally around the country, all designed to assist women in starting and growing small businesses. WBCs seek to “level the playing field” for women entrepreneurs, who still face unique obstacles in the business world.

The event also was a way for Hillsborough County women politicians to give homage to a pioneer like Davis, the first female to win elected office from Hillsborough County to serve in Tallahassee.  She sponsored the first legislation for displaced homemakers and spouse abuse centers, as well as the first sexual harassment law. She personally funded a study of equity in state employment.

“She was one of the most effective, powerful women leaders in the Florida Legislature,” said Hillsborough County Commissioner Chair Sandy Murman about Davis, whose political career ended when she lost to a freshman lawmaker from St. Petersburg in the Senate District that encompasses both Pinellas and South Tampa. A guy by the name of Charlie Crist.

Gordon Davis, the successful South Tampa restauranteur and son of Helen Gordon Davis, was the last speaker on the program.  He told the audience that his mother is currently in the “last stages” of a rewarding life, and is receiving guests and friends who are paying their last respects to her. He then read from a note written by Ms. Davis.

“In 1974 when I first arranged to purchase this mansion that is now the Women’s Centre, women were wearing buttons that were saying ’59 cents for every 1 dollar a man makes.’ In 1990 after all the strikes, struggles and bra-burnings, they finally increased wages to 77 cents for every dollar a man makes for doing the same job. Today due to the gaining awareness of inequality, it is now 82 cents for every dollar. My hope with the advent of this Business Centre,  women will be better trained to compete in the work place and earn wages at the same rate as their male counterparts. 48 million live in poverty in the U.S., 26 million of them are women, most of them are supporting families on their own. We need more centers to exist in the struggle for impoverished women to get ahead. Founding the Women’s Centre has been one of my proudest accomplishments, and the present administration has helped create a much better world for women in this community.”

Helen Gordon Davis’ name lives on even in current legislation.

Tampa’s Arthena Joyner was recently selected to become the Senate Democratic leader in 2015. She announced that her first bill she would file is the Helen Gordon Davis Fair Pay Protection Act, which would help ensure women get equal pay for equal work, in line with the U.S. Equal Pay Act of 1963.

“Women have entered the workforce in record numbers over the past 50 years, yet … many women continue to earn significantly lower pay than men for equal work,” Joyner says of the bill, adding  that “in many instances, the pay disparities are the result of continued intentional discrimination against women.”

The bill would add responsibilities to the state’s Department of Economic Opportunity, including “collecting and making publicly available information about women’s pay” and making sure the state’s vendors comply with fair pay provisions.

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Business Journal article on organizational session:

Murman takes Hillsborough commission chair

Nov 19, 2014, 6:19am EST

Salem Solomon, Contributing writer- Tampa Bay Business Journal

The Hillsborough County Commission held a swearing-in ceremony for three returning members and one newly-elected commissioner on Tuesday.

The re-elected commissioners are: Victor Crist representing District 2, Ken Hagan of Countywide District 5, and Al Higginbotham, who held the District 4 seat but now represents Countywide District 7. The new commissioner is Dr. Stacy White who was elected to represent District 4, the county said in a statement.

Following the investiture ceremony, commissioners held an annual organizational meeting and unanimously selected Sandra Murman to serve as chairwoman and Higginbotham to serve as vice chairman.

“We’ve got an important year ahead of us. It’s going to be a great year and I’m looking forward to it,” Murman said after receiving the chairwoman’s ceremonial gavel.

Commissioners also chose positions on boards, committees, and councils on which they will hold seats. These appointments include:

• Affordable Housing Advisory Board – Higginbotham
• Arts Council of Hillsborough County – Crist
• Aviation Authority – Crist
• Children’s Board of Hillsborough County – Kevin Beckner
• Council of Governments – Crist, Murman
• Environmental Protection Commission – Miller, chair; Crist, vice chair
• Expressway Authority – Miller
• Fair Authority – Miller
• Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority – White, Murman, Beckner, Miller
• Hospital Authority – Miller, Murman
• Juvenile Justice Board – Beckner
• Port Authority – Murman
• Public Transportation Commission – members/alternates: Higginbotham/Beckner,
• Hagan/White, Crist/Murman
• Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council – Crist, member; White, alternate
• Tampa Bay Water Board of Directors – Hagan, Murman
• Tampa Sports Authority – Hagan

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on Global Trade Symposium:

Business News

Symposium theme: Tampa Bay businesses must work together to boost exports

By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: October 30, 2014   |   Updated: October 30, 2014 at 09:16 PM

TAMPA — It took the Great Recession to shake the Florida business community out of its comfortable snooze. Many of the companies that survived it did so because of their overseas business dealings, said Doug Davidson, regional global commercial banker for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Florida’s road to success depends on its ability to compete outside of its borders, he said. Davidson helped lead an export pep rally of sorts on Thursday at Port Tampa Bay, with some 200 attendees. The recurring theme: the Tampa Bay business community must work in unison as a region if it is to become an export powerhouse.

“Florida is not just a state at the bottom of the country, but one jutting out in to the Atlantic and the Caribbean,” Davidson said. It is the 20th largest economy on earth and 80 percent of the global purchasing power is outside of Florida, outside of the United States. Much of it is accessible by ship and plane, he said.

Davidson helped the Florida Chamber Foundation pen a paper called Florida: Made for Trade, a document that looks at projected growth, demographics and economic trends, as well as the expansion of the Panama Canal, which is nearly complete.

“We need to move more trade through our ports and airports,” he said, noting that much of what is now shipped out of Florida is actually trucked here from manufacturing states like Georgia and Alabama. Moving manufacturing here means more jobs here and more exports from here, he said.

“For every 10 jobs we create through manufacturing, we get 20 additional jobs” from bankers, to retailers, to truck drivers and more, he said.

“We have the potential for 500,000 more jobs if we get global trade and logistics right,” added Tony Carvajal, with the Florida Chamber Foundation.

Back when Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman served in the Florida Legislature (1996-2004), no one talked about incentive packages for business, she said. “There is a new energy in the community. The recession was a total wake-up call. The climate has changed in the state to support economic development.

“It is our time, but it will only be as good as us getting the job done,” said Murman, who serves as a member of the Hillsborough County Port Authority. “We’ve got to have incentive packages lined up” and ready to lure new businesses here, she said.

In continuing the pep rally atmosphere, Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano told the crowd that businesses can’t be afraid to take a stand, to invest in the future of the region. He urged local leaders to get on planes bound for South America and Europe and make trade connections.

Florida is the only state in the nation with an assistant secretary in the Department of Transportation overseeing intermodal (truck, rail and shipping) and logistics, said Port Tampa Bay CEO Paul Anderson. That will help Florida capture global trade, he said. “We are well positioned to capture new opportunities for the I-4 corridor, both going and coming from the port, he said.

Showing a map with a mass of distribution centers painted across Central Florida, Anderson noted that 60 percent of the merchandise going to those centers is entering the country through Long Beach, California, Savannah and Charleston. That cargo needs to be coming in through Florida, instead, he said.

“We are poised on the verge of something really special,” Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn told the crowd. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve planted the Tampa Bay flag around the world,” from Israel to Latin America, Germany and Switzerland, he said. “We’ve got to keep pushing… and tell the Tampa story to the world.

“Irrespective of what happens Tuesday (election day) this community must continue to grow and prosper” by coming together to boost business, he said.

yhammett@tampatrib.com

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on homeless services:

Politics

Hillsborough to finance 75-bed shelter for homeless

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff
Published: October 22, 2014   |   Updated: October 23, 2014 at 06:08 AM

TAMPA — The chilly winds of winter add another degree of misery to the lives of Hillsborough County’s homeless population.

But that misery will be allayed for some families and individuals this winter thanks to a new Community Housing Solutions Center financed by county government. The county put out a call for bids Wednesday for a 75-bed center, which will be run by a non-governmental organization.

The center will provide short-term housing _ an average of six months _ along with case management services to help the residents get on their feet financially and find permanent housing. The project marks the latest step in a long-term commitment by county leaders to significantly reduce the number of people living outside.

“We want to solve the problem, not put a Band-Aid on it,” said County Commissioner Sandy Murman, a long-time advocate for homeless services. “It’s up to our staff and the people we contract with to make sure they do these services so we can really fix the problem.”

The county has budgeted $1.6 million a year for housing the homeless, said John Hollingshead, county division director for procurement. That figure is in addition to $2.3 million that county commissioners appropriated earlier this year for two-year contracts with three non-profit organizations _ Metropolitan Ministries, Salvation Army and the Agency for Community Treatment Services. The non-profits provide emergency services to homeless families, individuals and clients with mental or substance abuse problems.

And, in a project spearheaded by Murman last year, the county partnered with local business leaders to build Cypress Landings, an apartment building in north Tampa that provides permanent housing and a host of services to the chronically homeless.

The Housing Solutions Center now out for bid was supposed to be located in a former work release center owned by the Sheriff’s Office on Orient Road. Murman said the county postponed using the sheriff’s center when the county Environmental Protection Commission found a leaking fuel tank nearby. The housing center in the sheriff’s building was going to have 180 beds.

“When the jail problem is rectified, hopefully we’ll have enough money to do both projects,” Murman said. “We may have to have a smaller project at the jail with not as many beds.”

The new center will have 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week access. It will include basic services such as food, showers, personal storage, laundry, security and supervision.

Bids will be accepted until Nov. 5, Hollingshead said. The county commission will likely approve the deal at its December meeting.

“My understanding is they want to get it to the first board meeting in December because the cold weather will be occurring,” Hollingshead said.

msalinero@tampatrib.com

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Bay Times article on the Streetcar:

Tampa Port Authority votes to delay trolley subsidy

Jamal Thalji, Times Staff Writer

Tuesday, October 21, 2014 12:47pm

TAMPA — The Tampa Port Authority voted Tuesday to delay paying a six-figure subsidy to the city’s struggling trolley until its nonprofit operator, Tampa Historic Streetcar Inc., shows the board a new business plan to turn around the streetcar system.

The streetcar’s current $1.6 million operating budget is not dependent on port funding. The port gave the trolley $100,000 in 2012.

But this time Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman, who sits on the port’s governing board, wants the streetcar’s board to hire a consultant to look at ways to improve its operations before she votes to give it any more money. She also wants the streetcar people to work with the port as it develops a master plan for its downtown holdings in the Channel District and the Channelside Bay Plaza outdoor mall.

“I think it’s time for an expert to tell us how to do this,” Murman said.

The trolley suffers from low ridership and low revenue, limiting the cars to 20 minutes between stops. But transit times can’t be improved until the streetcar gets better funding, a conundrum local officials have yet to solve.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn agreed with Murman but also told the board it can’t give up on the trolley yet.

For one thing, the area is still on the hook for the federal subsidy that helped build the trolley line. If the trolley were to fold, the city and the county bus authority would have to repay millions of dollars. Buckhorn also pointed out that the trolley’s fortunes should improve as downtown Tampa does. The mayor said Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik’s recent purchase of Channelside, his plans to develop 24 empty acres around the Amalie Arena, his bid to bring the University of South Florida’s new medical school to his land, and several new residential construction projects all promise to radically redevelop downtown Tampa.

They need to keep the trolley going, the mayor said, because one day downtown will be able to support it.

“Whether it works now or not is really not important,” Buckhorn said, “in context of what’s coming.”