They were supposed to watch over CareerSource. Many didn’t show up

By Mark Puente and

Zachary T. SampsonTimes staff writer

Published: May 2, 2018

Updated: May 2, 2018 at 09:10 AM

With millions of tax dollars at stake, the board members of two local job centers are supposed to attend quarterly meetings to scrutinize spending and policy decisions.

But many members rarely bother to show up, the Tampa Bay Times has found.

Dozens missed at least half of their CareerSource Pinellas and CareerSource Tampa Bay meetings since 2014, according to an analysis of agency records. Several, in fact, never showed up at all.

“They should be dropped,” said Pinellas board member and electrician Tom Bedwell, who attends most meetings. “They’re not helping anybody. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.”

The lax oversight is one reason why both jobs centers have come under federal and state investigations.

The U.S. Department of Labor and Florida Department of Economic Opportunity are investigating “allegations of serious misconduct and potential criminal conduct” and whether the centers inflated the number of job placements reported under former president and CEO Edward Peachey.

In recent weeks, federal auditors have pored over financial records and interviewed employees and board members.

CareerSource board members blame the lax attendance on the boards being too big, each with more than 30 positions, making it hard to talk at meetings or have much influence. All members are unpaid volunteers.

Several also criticized a policy that allows members to call into the meetings. Technical glitches make it hard to hear, participate in the discussions and record votes, they said.

At least seven board members disputed the attendance figures, pointing to the agencies’ poor record keeping.

None who spoke to the Times expressed regret for not providing better oversight.

Ultimately, the boards are appointed by and answer to the Pinellas and Hillsborough county commissions. Commissioners in each county said that federal labor officials told them that no other workforce boards operate with such little oversight.

Both commissions are now making current CareerSource board members reapply.

“At least half of the members don’t come and another third are on the phone where you really don’t have much participation,” Pinellas commissioner Pat Gerard said. “It’s ridiculous.”

• • •

The Tampa Bay jobs centers are part of a network of 24 CareerSource centers across Florida tasked with putting people to work.

They are both publicly-funded nonprofits overseen by separate boards, which include members from education, business, government and labor organizations. The full boards meet four times a year, barring emergencies.

CareerSource Tampa Bay, which serves Hillsborough County, has 35 positions; Pinellas has 45. Open positions typically go unfilled for months. Federal law requires the boards to maintain a balance of representatives from different segments of the regional economy and government, which contributes to the board’s size.

County commissioners have final say over appointments, but in recent years they have offered little scrutiny to board applicants and performance. That has allowed a number of members to rack up spotty attendance records.

In its last eight meetings, the CareerSource Pinellas board has only once had more members physically in the room than absent or on the phone. Just 10 members of the CareerSource Tampa Bay board showed up to a meeting in December. Nineteen did not.

Pinellas Schools Superintendent Michael Grego missed every meeting in the last three years. He said he must juggle several board positions across the county. In April, after the Times asked questions, he resigned his position and recommended a subordinate take his place.

Pinellas member David Fries, a university scientist and business owner, last attended a meeting in person in March 2016, according to records. Fries moved a few years ago to Pensacola, he said, but has remained on the board by phoning into meetings. He didn’t participate weeks ago when the board voted to fire Peachey as the agency’s CEO. He declined to say how he would have voted.

“Because I wasn’t there to hear the complete discussions back and forth,” he said. “… I can’t, I don’t have enough information.”

The boards have an attendance quorum requiring that at least a third of their members be in attendance in order to conduct business. They routinely meet it by members phoning into a teleconference. Often they leave their phones muted and don’t participate.

CareerSource Pinellas board member and Goodwill Industries-Suncoast CEO Debbie Passerini said the phone-in option “helps busy executives save time but stay involved.” She has phoned into three meetings since September 2017, records show.

Other members who have participated by phone say it is hard to hear, making the teleconference a poor substitute for in-person attendance. The phones also make it difficult to track participation, they say, because if a person joins the call after the meeting starts, they don’t always get recorded as having attended.

Several board members questioned the accuracy of CareerSource attendance records.

In Pinellas, CareerSource minutes show that County Commissioner Janet Long missed all four full board meetings in 2014. She said the records must be wrong and asserted that she would not have missed that many meetings.

In the same span, Hillsborough County commissioner Sandy Murman missed three board meetings, according to minutes. But she disputed the records, saying she has phoned in or had staff members represent her without it being accurately recorded.

• • •

Some members said they stopped attending meetings because they had no control over decisions anyway.

Peachey consolidated power in executive committees, made up of about eight members, who regularly approved his requests, they said. The full board elects officers to the committee and the chairs select additional members.

Peachey did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2014, CareerSource Pinellas made a major purchase in west St. Petersburg: seven acres that included the 24,000 square-foot Science Center of Pinellas County.

Peachey pitched the idea to the executive committee in a 35-minute meeting May 2014. The panel approved it with little discussion. The sale closed days later. Peachey never asked the full board for approval, according to records.

“I’ve never seen a board work like that,” said Debra Johnson, a Pinellas board member and executive director of the Pinellas Housing Authority, who called the meetings a “dog and pony show.”

“The executive committee allowed (the CEO) to do what he wanted. The decisions were not made by the board.”

Former St. Petersburg College President Bill Law said he attended a few meetings at CareerSource Pinellas but then stopped because the executive committee had already made the important decisions.

“All of us have day jobs,” Law said. “I don’t remember the board being engaged in any policy matters.”

Former Pinellas board member Stephen Sarnoff said Peachey and his confidantes did nothing at the meetings but “pat each other on the back.” He added: “Most of it was a rubber stamp.”

Even on the rare occasion when a board member questioned Peachey, the challenge received little traction.

In September 2016, Pinellas County commissioner Ken Welch, the board’s vice chair, accused Peachey of ending a contract with an accounting firm without proper approval from the board.

“This is the issue of the highest concern to me,” Welch told the full board.

Welch speculated that Peachey fired the auditing firm because a former CareerSource employee had joined the company and knew too much about the agencies’ accounting practices.

The other board members listened as they ate sandwiches. None took issue with Peachey firing the firm.

The discussion ended, and Peachey gave a report about how well the agency compared to other CareerSource offices across the state.

“Mr. Peachey just saw these opportunities to get it the way he wanted it to be for his personal benefit,” Murman said. “It’s not right. It wasn’t right.”

Contact Mark Puente at mpuente@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2996. Contact Zachary T. Sampson at zsampson@tampabay.com.

Political skirmish erupts over plan to revamp Hillsborough commission

By Christopher O’Donnell, Times Staff Writer

Published: April 18, 2018

Updated: April 18, 2018 at 10:12 PM

TAMPA — A political fight over the makeup of Hillsborough County government could be heading to voters to decide.

After a discussion divided along party lines, commissioners voted 5-2 Wednesday to move ahead with a plan to overhaul the structure of the Hillsborough County Commission including the addition of two seats. If approved by commissioners at an upcoming public hearing, the measure would go to a countywide referendum in the November general election.

The proposal is being pushed by Republican Commissioner Sandy Murman, who said the county has become too large for commissioners to serve constituents effectively. Hillsborough’s 1.4 million residents are represented by seven county commissioners — four elected in equally apportioned single-member districts and three who are elected countywide.

Under Murman’s plan, countywide seats would be eliminated and the commission would be made up of nine single-member districts. Citizens who now vote in four of the seven commission races would vote in only one.

The commission’s two Democrats voted against Murman’s plan. Commissioner Pat Kemp said the move is aimed simply at protecting Republican controlled at-large seats in what political pundits predict may be a tough election year for the GOP.

“This is in my mind raw partisan politics,” Kemp said. “This is commissioners trying to draw districts for themselves to keep themselves on the commission.”

Murman’s proposal would give her more options to stay in office.

She was re-elected in 2016 to a four-year term in her District 2 seat, but has filed to run for an open countywide seat this year.

But she could withdraw from the countywide seat and avoid running this year then run again in 2020 for a seat drawn to include her south Tampa home.

Asked three times at an earlier meeting, Murman would not commit to staying in the countywide race if her proposal advances. On Wednesday, she said her intent was to give local communities more say on the board.

“Our county is growing so fast, is getting so large, this is the best thing for fair representation throughout the whole county,” she said.

Les Miller, the commission’s other Democrat, has proposed smaller districts twice in the past, in part because he wants more representation for minorities — especially the Hispanic community. Murman was among a majority of commissioners who voted down the proposal in the past.

This time, Miller voted “no” because of concerns that new districts would be drawn up to guarantee Republicans a large majority.

Under the plan, the nine districts would be created by the county planning commission. But commissioners would have the final say and could alter district boundaries, raising the prospect of gerrymandering, Miller said. He also questioned why the county wouldn’t wait for the 2020 Census when new districts are traditionally redrawn.

“This board will put the politics back in it,” Miller said.

As evidence, Miller said he was contacted in November by Republican consultant Anthony Pedicini and asked if he would support for single member districts. Miller told him the district boundaries would need to drawn by a neutral organization.

Earlier this year, Miller said, Pedicini called him back and said he could broker a deal that would guarantee two Democratic districts, leaving Republicans with the other seven seats.

“They would have a super, super majority,” Miller said.

Contacted after the meeting by the Tampa Bay Times, Pedicini denied having that conversation and said he is not being paid to consult on the issue. But he said he did talk to Miller about single-member seats as an interested Hillsborough resident.

“I have not drawn any maps to make a promise like that,” Pedicini said.

Hillsborough’s current commission structure was set in a home rule charter proposal passed by voters in 1983 and adopted two years later. The mix of district and countywide seats was intended to give residents a say in both their local community and the county as a whole.

Other large Florida counties have only single member districts including Miami-Dade, which has 13, and Broward, which has nine.

Both also have a county mayor, however. In Miami-Dade, the position is elected. In Broward, commissioners appoint the position.

In Pinellas County, three members of the seven-member board are elected countywide and four from single-member districts.

Kemp said the proposal would pit each district against the others for the county’s limited resources. And commissioners would only be answerable to voters within their districts with no incentive to champion issues outside them, she said.

Some of the Republican commissioners who supported Murman’s plan also expressed concerns.

Commissioner Stacy White said he would make a final decision on how to vote after hearing from the public.

“That will give us a good gauge on how people feel about this ,” he said.

Commissioner Victor Crist said he hoped the public would come up with more ideas.

“This process was designed to give every community an opportunity to get a majority vote on this board,” he said.

Commissioners on Wednesday also tackled other issues that could result in significant changes to the way county officials are elected.

They asked county staff to draft an ordinance to limit service on the board to 12 consecutive years. That would prevent commissioners from bypassing the current eight-year term limits by running for a different seat.

They also voted to look again at making the election of constitutional offices like property appraiser and tax collector non-partisan. The idea was voted down in a recent meeting.

Commissioners vow to take control of CareerSource operations

Hillsborough County commissioner Sandra Murman, vice chair at CareerSource Tampa Bay, said Thursday that the county does not want CareerSource Tampa Bay to merge with CareerSource Pinellas. {[ALESSANDRA DA PRA | Times]

Mark Puente

Zachary T. SampsonTimes staff writer

Published: April 12, 2018

Updated: April 12, 2018 at 07:30 PM

CLEARWATER — For years, Tampa Bay’s two job placement centers operated with little scrutiny from elected officials or the county governments they represent.

That’s about to change, said the county commissioners who serve on the boards of CareerSource Pinellas and CareerSource Tampa Bay in Hillsborough County.

And that likely will start with the county commissions on each side of the bay requiring board members for both agencies to reapply for the positions.

“We’re in charge now,” said Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman. “We’re the boss. We’re going to fix this.”

The warning came during a meeting of select CareerSource board members from both agencies.

The commissioners said they were interviewed last week by officials from the U.S. Department of Labor, which is investigating whether the employment centers inflated the number of people they helped find jobs in reports to the state. Labor officials expressed alarm at the lack of financial oversight at both agencies under former president and CEO Edward Peachey.

Peachey was fired from both agencies in separate votes last month.

“We have been chastised by the Department of Labor,” said Pinellas County Commissioner Pat Gerard. “We need to straighten it out.”

Thursday’s meeting was scheduled so the panel could start discussing whether to merge the two agencies or split them apart under new leadership. They previously operated as separate agencies until Peachey was asked to oversee both in 2010 following a spending scandal in the Hillsborough CareerSource offices.

Peachey reported to separate boards made up of people from education, business, government and labor organizations.

In a memo last week to Pinellas commissioners, Gerard wrote that federal officials said “almost no municipality or county has handed over the day-to-day fiscal functions” to its workforce board. Many counties provide the “services themselves” or use a third party, the memo said.

The limited supervision allowed Peachey to centralize his power among “a relatively small number of” board members, Gerard wrote. She said she wants the county to consider making board members reapply for the volunteer positions.

The Pinellas commission is set to hold a workshop Tuesday to discuss the jobs center.

Murman said Hillsborough County officials are telling board members this week that they must reapply and that each will be required to live in the county. Leaders there also have assigned a high-ranking county economic development employee to work at the jobs center to help get information to commissioners, who want the agencies separated by June 30.

Even with scrutiny in the past two months, Murman said, the agencies have been slow to turn over financial records for inspection. The county is demanding to know how the agency spent $23 million last year that was supposed to serve Hillsborough residents.

Murman blamed Peachey for creating a structure that gave him total control of the organizations.

“Ed Peachey sold us a bill of goods,” Murman said. “We gave our rights as boards of county commissioners in Pinellas and Hillsborough over to one individual.”

CareerSource Pinellas chairman Jack Geller agreed, saying, “In the past, let’s be honest, Ed was running everything. Period. End of discussion.”

Peachey did not respond to a request for comment.

Contact Mark Puente at mpuente@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2996. Contact Zachary T. Sampson at zsampson@tampabay.com.

Joe Henderson: Changing Hillsborough Commission makeup worth a look

JOE HENDERSON

2 hours ago

You could say Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman was thinking outside the box when she proposed a major change Wednesday to how that governing body is chosen.

On the other hand, you could say it was all about the box — the ballot box, that is.

You probably would be correct on both points. It also doesn’t mean she was wrong to argue that the Commission should eliminate countywide seats in favor of single-member districts.

It also is a fact, though, that commissioners have used countywide seats as a way to stay in power.

Doesn’t that trump everything?

Confused?

Hang with me for just a bit.

Hillsborough’s charter, approved by voters 35 years ago, provides for seven county commissioners. Four of them represent a single district; three are chosen countywide.

The rationale behind that is that voters will always have a say in the majority makeup of the board.

In 1983, when the referendum passed creating the current setup, Hillsborough’s population was a little over 700,000. Today, it is 1.4 million and expanding rapidly.

In the Tampa Bay Times story about Murman’s proposal, she made the point that the county has more people than 10 states.

I looked it up. She is correct.

There are more people here than in Alaska, Delaware, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. For good measure, we’re about equal with Hawaii.

Another fun fact: Hillsborough’s population has jumped by about 200,000 since 2010. To put that in perspective, basically, the population of Richmond, Va. moved into Hillsborough County.

By the year 2030, only 12 years from now, that number is predicted to increase by another 300,000 — roughly the population of Cincinnati. If that happens, I hope they’re thoughtful enough to bring more Skyline Chili outlets here, but I digress.

Murman argues that changing the commission makeup to single-member districts — and maybe expanding the board by two members — makes sense because Hillsborough is too large for anyone to effectively represent everyone in the county.

That point is worthy of discussion.

But critics were quick to pounce on Murman, and they had a point too. After all, she plans to run for a countywide seat this fall even though voters in District 1 elected her in 2016 to a four-year term.

With a big, blue Democratic wave forecast for November, Murman, a Republican, might face a tough battle in a hotly contested countywide race.

If her idea passes, though, she could suddenly have a change of heart and stay in District 1 until 2020. There’s a good chance new boundary lines would leave her in good shape to win another election.

Such intrigue.

Let’s be honest, though. Commissioners have been using these countywide seats to bob and weave around term limits. We’re seeing that play out again this fall.

Commissioner Victor Crist can’t run again in his single-member district because he has served the maximum of two consecutive terms. Ah, but he can run countywide and start the clock over.

That’s what he is doing.

Ken  Hagan, who has served two countywide terms, is running for Crist’s District 2 seat.

Crist is running for Hagan’s countywide chair.

See how this works?

Yes, voters have the final say whether that tactic is successful, but generally, incumbents and familiar names have a great advantage in these situations.

I doubt Murman’s gambit will be approved, if the initial reaction from the board means anything. It was tepid, to say the least.

Since five of the seven members would have to approve putting the idea on the ballot, and then voters would have to decide, getting enough support is a long-shot.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.

Just look at the mishmash way the Commission has handled the county’s already-explosive growth. Then imagine what we’ll look like when Cincinnati moves to town little more than a decade from now.

Traffic will be worse than we can imagine. Sprawl, already a major problem, could reach nightmare proportions.

Having a more-nimble Commission that represents smaller parts of the county isn’t the worst way to think about dealing with this.

Hillsborough County commissioner proposes blowing up board

Steve Contorno

Published: April 4, 2018

Updated: April 4, 2018 at 04:18 PM

TAMPA — For weeks, rumors have swirled of a plot to shake up the Hillsborough County Commission and dramatically alter the political landscape there.

On Wednesday, that speculation became reality when Commissioner Sandy Murman unveiled a proposal to change the board’s makeup.

In its current state, there are seven county commissioners — four elected in equally apportioned single-member districts and three who serve county-wide. Murman, a Republican, wants to eliminate the at-large seats and instead have seven or nine single-member districts.

She said Hillsborough’s population is too large for county commissioners to effectively serve their constituents, and smaller districts will give communities and minorities greater voice on the board. The county is the size of Rhode Island and more populous than 10 states

“All of the other major counties have no county-wide commissioners,” Murman said.

But others see a naked political move by Murman to shore up her future on the board.

Murman was re-elected in 2016 to a four-year term in her District 2 seat, but has filed to run for an open at-large seat this year.

If the commission approves this plan, she could pull back from running in what has already been a tough election cycle for Republicans. Then she could stay in her district until 2020, when she can run again for a seat drawn around her south Tampa home.

Asked three times after the meeting, Murman would not commit to staying in the countywide race if her proposal advances.

“I can’t say,” Murman told the Tampa Bay Times. “You never say no to anything. But right now I’m still moving forward.”

Several candidates have announced plans to run to replace Murman and would be sent scrambling if she changes her mind in the coming weeks.

Commissioner Les Miller, a Democrat, grilled Murman over her past opposition to similar proposals. Twice, Miller has asked commissioners to consider smaller districts that could add a second minority-majority district. Murman helped defeat both efforts.

“It amazes me that I brought this up two times, and it went down the tubes twice, and now all the sudden it’s coming back,” Miller said. “I just hope this is not politically driven.”

Replied Murman: “People’s feelings can evolve over time.”

The make-up of the county commission is set in the county charter. To change it, five commissioners would have to agree to place an amendment on the ballot and a majority of voters would have to approve it.

A motion by Murman to study the idea was rejected by commissioners. But at the end of the meeting, a defiant Murman nevertheless requested a staff report.

It is unclear if there is enough support on the commission for the proposal to reach the ballot.

Miller said he would only support it if the staff of the county’s planning commission drew the new district boundaries. Murman wouldn’t commit to that. The commission is currently in charge of drawing the commission map.

Commissioners Victor Crist, a Republican, and Pat Kemp, a Democrat, opposed the idea. Crist praised the existing system because it allows residents to elect a majority of the county commissioners who represent the county — one commissioners from their district, and three at-large commissioners. Under this new proposal, voters will only have a say on one of seven or nine.

“What we have right now works and it works well,” Crist said. Crist is running for a countywide seat this year.

Kemp may have the most to lose if the board eliminates at-large seats. She was elected countywide, but would have to run for re-election in 2020 in whatever district encompasses her Seminole Heights home. That area has traditionally been represented by a black politician on the county commission.

The debate on districts came during a conversation on another charter amendment, this one to implement term limits. Commissioners approved Kemp’s request for a staff report.

Crist wondered if this was also politically driven and an attempt to push out the tenured Republican commissioners more quickly in a county that is trending Democratic.

On a 4-3 vote, commissioners rejected a charter amendment to elect constitutional officers, like the sheriff and tax collector, in nonpartisan races. Both the local Republican and Democratic parties opposed it.

Questions answered on affordable housing in Hillsborough County

Author: Shannon Valladolid

Published: 4:56 PM EDT March 29, 2018

Updated: 5:57 PM EDT March 29, 2018

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY FL – Nurses, teachers, police officers, firefighters.

They do some of the most important jobs in your community but some say they’re having a hard time affording a place to live.

“They all start at a low base salary, and a few of them exhaust their whole salary to afford to pay for rent or housing. We want to bring people here and we want them to know that we’re going to assist them in finding housing that meets their needs,” says Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman.

Murman heard the concerns of the working class and put together the first affordable housing forum, where people could get more information on resources available in our community.

Thursday morning, a handful of organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Florida Home Partnership, the Housing & Education Alliance, Tampa Housing Authority, and the Housing Finance Authority attended the forum at Jackson Springs Recreation Center to answer questions people had about affordable housing.

“We’re increasing our population every single year. We’re 1.4 million people now and we’re slated to be up to 1.8 million by 2030. People are moving here because they love the quality of life with the beaches and sunshine. We have good paying jobs here but the rental and housing market is still not within reach for many people,” she says.

We took the top three questions being asked at the forum and got answers for them.

Why aren’t more affordable homes being built in Hillsborough County?

Cheryl Howell, Affordable Housing Director for Hillsborough County says the answer is a decrease in SHIP funding. That’s stands for Florida State Housing Initiatives Partnership.

The county has seen a 75 percent decrease in funding the last few years.

• 2016 – $6.1 million
• 2017 – $4.2 million
• 2017 – $1.3 million

Despite less money, Murman says the county is still committed to try and build 700 affordable home units every year, costing $13 million.

She also is working with developers to keep portions of their buildings affordable.

“It a worthy investment for us. I feel very good about what we’re doing in Hillsborough County and the City of Tampa. I know they’re producing units, as well but we’re also playing catch up. So, we need to keep investing and keep producing those units,” says Murman.

Where can I get help coming up with the money for a down payment?

Many people say they can afford a mortgage, but not the money up-front.

Hillsborough County works with many nonprofit groups to help with down payments and make you more profitable to lenders.

• Solita’s House
  • Provides housing and credit counseling services to residents seeking to improve their credit and prepare for homeownership.
  • (813) 425-4847 – Solitashouse.com
• CDC of Tampa
  • Provides multi-family housing opportunities to unincorporated Hillsborough County residents that are low to moderate income.
  • (813) 231-4362
• Tampa Housing Authority
  • Provides quality, affordable housing opportunities for Hillsborough County residents, including new multi-family project in eastern Hillsborough County.
  • (813) 341-9101

How can I apply for help, and how can I search for an affordable place to live?

You can head over to http://www.floridahousingsearch.org/

It’s easy to navigate, just type in what part of town you live in, find a home/apartment you like and then you can contact the company to apply.

This website also lets you know how much you can afford.

For more information on Affordable Housing in Hillsborough County, Click here: https://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/en/government/departments/affordable-housing

CareerSource office overrun by rats, including the small furry kind

Mark Puente

Zachary T. SampsonTimes staff writer

Published: March 28, 2018

Updated: March 28, 2018 at 12:12 PM

TAMPA –– Anonymous informers have helped fuel scrutiny of Tampa Bay’s two job placement agencies for months, angering the people who oversee them.

A different kind of rat is now distracting employees at one CareerSource office — the small furry kind that leaves droppings.

And this, too, has gotten state attention.

Rodents plague the CareerSource Tampa Bay office at 9215 N Florida Avenue, according to, yes, an anonymous letter writer. The building is owned by the state Department of Economic Opportunity, to which CareerSource reports job placement figures that are now under question.

This prompted CareerSource Tampa Bay interim director Juditte Dorcy to send a signed letter to the DEO asking it to do something about the infestation.

Dorcy warned her landlord that she will hire an expert to rid the building of the long-tailed beasts and deduct the cost from the rent. The rats are “unacceptable” for employees and taxpayers who visit the centers to find jobs, she said.

“We have been fortunate so far that we haven’t had one of these rodents bite a staff or customer in this building,” Dorcy wrote the DEO on March 21. “What is DEO prepared to do to remove this problem permanently and not just treat the situation when it reoccurs?

The DEO says it has tried to address the matter.

The state’s pest-control vendor has sealed openings in walls and placed traps around the building to keep out the elusive varmints, DEO chief of general services Ramone Smith told Dorcy in a letter Wednesday.

“The agency is committed to providing our tenants and their customers with a safe and healthy work environment,” he wrote. “We have taken every precaution to reduce the possibility of rodents infiltrating into the DEO’s space from the adjacent tenants’s space.”

The jobs center and its sister agency, CareerSource Pinellas, are facing federal and state investigations into whether they inflated job placements figures. The DEO is overseeing the state investigation into the local centers.

In the last two months, CareerSource employees have sent anonymous letters to reporters and elected officials alleging office romances, favoritism and hostile work conditions. Board members at each agency have complained about employees hiding behind their anonymity rather than raising concerns publicly.

The donnybrook about real rats surfaced in anonymous letters sent Saturday to the Tampa Bay Times and Hillsborough County commissioner Sandy Murman.

“These rats are leaving feces all over floors, carpets, on top of desks and microwaves. As you know this is a very dangerous situation for employees and our customers and their children,” said the letter-writer. “Several employees have taken pictures of this rat or family a rats and the feces that is left all over the building for some reason there has been no shut down or instant clean up to make this a safe working environment.”

Dorcy’s letter to the DEO left open the possibility that employees have attracted the rats by leaving unopened food around the office.

Meanwhile, a city of Tampa code enforcement officer “didn’t witness any rodents on the interior or exterior” during an inspection on March 19, Smith wrote. The officer also reported that the DEO has taken the necessary steps to stop the rodents from penetrating the 46-year-old building.

“We will continue to monitor and perform preventative actions to prevent any future issues with pests or rodents,” Smith wrote.

He later informed the local CareerSource office that the DEO plans to send its own facilities manger to inspect the property on Thursday.

Road improvements coming but not as fast as growth in south Hillsborough

By Sheila Mullane Estrada, Times Correspondent

Published: March 27, 2018

APOLLO BEACH — The once sleepy southeastern portion of Hillsborough County is sleepy no more and Hillsborough County officials are scrambling to keep up with infrastructure needs.

Meanwhile, motorists in the south county region continue to spend time fighting congested traffic to and from work.

Relief is coming, Public Works Director John Lyons says, but it will take time and a lot of money — and there are no guarantees planned improvements will keep up with residential and commercial growth.

This month, the county got a boost from a $5 million state appropriation to begin work on Big Bend Road west of Apollo Beach and its intersection with three major north-south arteries: Interstate 75, U.S. 301 and U.S. 41.

Between U.S. 41 and U.S. 301, Big Bend Road serves East Bay High School, St. Joseph’s Hospital South and major retail centers such as a Sam’s Club and a Neighborhood Walmart.

Then there is traffic from multiple new residential communities, including Summerfield, Waterleaf, Royal Lakes, Village Brook and Waterset.

“This is just one of the critical corridors we need to get fixed,” Lyons said. “A lot of growth has happened in the south county. Developments have pushed the road’s limits.”

The state’s $5 million contribution, one of the few local projects not vetoed by Gov. Rick Scott, will be used primarily for initial planning, engineering and right-of-way acquisition.

The Big Bend Road project is expected to take 10 years and cost about $75 million, much of it yet to be funded. The will be done in phases, eventually expanding the existing four lanes to six lanes.

The first phase will involve making ramp improvements to the existing Interstate 75 interchange, improving traffic signaling, and adding two limited-access lanes.

A second phase will include a new northbound on-ramp and a new southbound off-ramp onto Big Bend Road.

“In reality, we are looking at two years before any construction starts,” Lyons said. “People are going to have to wait a bit longer for relief.”

Meanwhile, the county is planning other south county roadway improvements, including extending Apollo Beach Boulevard and changing signal timing on U.S. 301 and U.S. 41 to improve traffic flow.

The developer of Waterset is contributing to a project to extend Paseo Al Mar Boulevard from U.S. 41 to residential communities west of Interstate 75.

“This would create a new east-west corridor in about four years,” Lyons said.

In addition, within the next year, the county hopes to begin widening 19th Avenue on the northern border of Sun City to four lanes to ease traffic there.

Currently, there are more than 500 active road projects countywide.

Lyons said more than $100 million needs to be spent every year on roadway improvements “for the foreseeable future” to keep up with population and development growth.

At a workshop last week, county officials presented their latest population growth estimates, emphasizing the pressures they will put on transportation and infrastructure.

The report says Hillsborough County’s population is expected to grow by 150 percent in the next 27 years, much of it in the south county area.

Officials estimated the county’s current population of 1.3 million people will surge to over 2 million by 2045, consuming about 54,000 acres of vacant land and forcing major density increases in already developed areas.

Roadways are inadequate for people driving from south county homes to the major north-south transportation corridors of U.S. 301, Interstate 75 and U.S. 41, said Lucia Garsys, the county’s chief administrator of development and infrastructure services.

The county will need millions of dollars for an estimated 700 miles of new streets by 2045, said Melissa Zornitta, Planning Commission executive director. That doesn’t include money for expanding major roadway corridors, Zornitta said.

In addition to the Big Bend project, the county is fast-tracking expanding 42nd and 46th streets and 19th and 131st avenues in central and north Tampa, as well as Lithia-Pinecrest Road south of Brandon.

The plans do not address rapid transit projects to reduce pressure on roadways, county officials said.

County Commission Chairwomanman Sandra Murman suggested the county consider building a rapid transit system along U.S. 41 when the state Department of Transportation widens the roadway to three lanes. That plan is under consideration, Garsys said.

“The elephant in the room is transportation,” County Commissioner Les Miller said. “Everybody cannot work in the neighborhood where they live. It is just not going to happen.”

FL: IRONMAN to Expand Tampa HQ, Create 70 Jobs

23 Mar, 2018

Governor Rick Scott announced that IRONMAN, a global endurance sports brand, will be expanding its Tampa headquarters and creating 70 new jobs. The company currently employs more than 160 Floridians. The new positions will include a variety of positions including sales, marketing, human resources, operations, finance and information technology. Governor Scott also recognized the company with a Governor’s Business Ambassador Award during the Enterprise Florida board meeting in West Palm Beach last week.

Governor Scott said, “I am proud to announce that IRONMAN will be expanding their headquarters to create 70 new jobs in Tampa Bay. Our work to cut more than $10 billion in taxes since 2011 has helped encourage global businesses like IRONMAN to continue investing in our state, which means more opportunities are available for our families. It was great to recognize IRONMAN with a Governor’s Business Ambassador Award for their commitment to creating jobs in Florida and I look forward to their continued success.”

Andrew Messick, president and chief executive officer of IRONMAN, said, “Since 1989 IRONMAN has had its headquarters in Florida, and we have found a great home here in Tampa over the last 10 years. We are proud of the growth IRONMAN has seen in our time here and we are enthusiastic about collaborating with local partners to continue that growth while showcasing the backdrop and amenities the Tampa Bay area has provided to us and our employees. Add in an accessible airport with national and international flight options and it is easy to see why Tampa is an ideal location for a global headquarters.”

Beginning as a single triathlon, IRONMAN is now celebrating its 40^th anniversary and has grown to offer more than 250 events across 53 countries, including triathlons as well as running, cycling and mountain biking events. IRONMAN World Headquarters will also lease an additional 10,000 square feet in Tampa at the Lakeside office complex.

The project was made possible through strong partnerships between Enterprise Florida, the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation, Hillsborough County, the City of Tampa and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. IRONMAN joins a growing number of corporate headquarters that have recently chosen to expand operations in Tampa and Hillsborough County, including Beneficial Blends, BlueGrace Logistics, Nitro, ReliaQuest, and Sunview Software.

Peter Antonacci, CEO of Enterprise Florida, Inc., said, “Enterprise Florida’s Board of Directors is proud to be part of this fantastic announcement. Florida’s great weather and business- friendly environment are two of the many reasons Florida is the best place for IRONMAN’s headquarters.”

Cissy Proctor, executive director of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, said, “We are proud that IRONMAN chose Florida to expand and headquarter in Florida. This will grow jobs for Florida’s hardworking families and strengthen the Tampa Bay area.”

Commissioner Sandy Murman, chair of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners said, “IRONMAN’s expansion is another great business success story for Hillsborough County. We are committed to supporting IRONMAN’s growth and appreciate the jobs they are creating and their continued investment in our community.”

Mayor Bob Buckhorn, City of Tampa, said, “We’re proud to have IRONMAN among Tampa’s corporate headquarters and excited to see them expanding in our market. Tampa’s pro-business environment, active lifestyle, and culture of innovation will make it easy for IRONMAN to attract the top international talent they need to keep growing.”

Alan F. List, MD, chairman of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation and president and CEO of Moffitt Cancer Center, said, “IRONMAN is another prime example of a locally headquartered company with a global reputation whose success is helping to shape Tampa’s economic future. The strength and diversity of our corporate headquarters are attracting more world-class companies and talent to Hillsborough County each year.”