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

Buckhorn vows (again) to fix downtown streetcar problem

JAMAL THALJITampa Bay Times

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 12:21pm

TAMPA — Just when Tampa Port Authority board members thought they were out of the downtown streetcar debate, they got pulled back in on Tuesday.

Last week, Mayor Bob Buckhorn said the streetcar’s volunteer board — which runs the trolley along with the city of Tampa and the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority — needs to be disbanded. The struggling and under-used trolley needs to be run by just one entity, the mayor said, and it needs a seven-figure infusion of cash to get it running more frequently and for free.

Then at Tuesday’s port meeting, Hillsborough County Chairwoman Sandra Murman decided that she wanted the port to take the lead in helping turn the streetcar system around. She wanted port staff to organize the main players and start working on a resolution.

“We are a partner in this,” said Murman, who sits on the port board. “Somebody’s got to take the lead.”

The board members resisted that, until Buckhorn stepped in with an alternative plan: the city will lead the conversation on how to save the streetcar system.

“I’m happy to take ownership of this,” the mayor said, “because I do think we need to resolve this.”

Buckhorn, though, has been here before. In fact, it was exactly two years, four months and three days ago in this very same room that the mayor vowed to save the system and implored his fellow port board members to continue a $100,000 subsidy.

The mayor, though, hasn’t done much since then and the port hasn’t paid anything since that 2012 meeting. And in October, the board voted not to contribute a six-figure subsidy until the system’s operator, the nonprofit Tampa Historic Streetcar Inc., came up with a turnaround plan.

Buckhorn said Tuesday that after that 2012 meeting, he’s had a lot on his plate.

“It just hasn’t been at the top of my list of priorities,” he said.

But that’s changed now, because of Jeff Vinik. The Tampa Bay Lightning owner has launched his $1 billion project to redevelop downtown Tampa, and a revitalized streetcar could help make mass transit a part of that plan.

“Now is the time to get it done,” Buckhorn said.

The mayor stepped in at an opportune time, because his fellow port board members weren’t buying Murman’s plea for the Tampa Port Authority to take the lead in organizing the other agencies together to fix the streetcar.

“I think we need to move forward to the next step,” Murman said. “This is a critical part of downtown redevelopment, for redeveloping everything.”

But the board showed the same resistance that led them to stop funding the streetcar in October. While there was no talk of resuming the subsidy, port chairman Steve Swindal didn’t even want to pay for port staff to spend time working on the streetcar issue.

“I want our staff to take care of maritime matters,” he said. “This is a land-born transportation system that we have nothing to do with.”

“It runs right through port property,” Murman said.

“You want our staff to spend time on this when they should be spending money getting ships under the bridge,” Swindal said. “I want to be a partner, but I don’t want to be lead.”

Now Buckhorn will serve as the lead. He said the city will bring together all the main players — Vinik, the streetcar board, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, Hillsborough County, the Tampa Downtown Partnership and the community redevelopment agencies for downtown Tampa, the Channel District and Ybor City — to figure out the first steps.

That will likely include a jointly-funded comprehensive study of the streetcar system, its current ridership, the cost and benefits of increasing service and how to eventually expand the system with federal money.

Fixing the streetcar will be a daunting task, Buckhorn said, especially securing the extra $1 million a year it could cost to get the trolley running more often so that more people will choose to use it.

“My mother always said I had way more courage than brains,” the mayor said.