Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tampa Tribune article on transportation policy:

 

HART nominated to handle transportation improvements

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff
Published: January 15, 2014   |   Updated: January 15, 2014 at 09:00 PM

 

TAMPA — Several members of a Hillsborough County transportation policy group said Wednesday the county’s bus agency, HART, should be enlarged and charged with financing and building road, rail and other projects to spur economic growth.

The subject came up after County Administrator Mike Merrill told the group — made up of county commissioners, mayors of the county’s three cities and the chairman of the HART board — they would soon need to pick an agency to finance and start transportation projects the policy-makers approve this year.

Merrill compared it to the handoff between a quarterback and a running back, or between a product designer and the manufacturer.

“I would suggest it’s especially critical for this group to be thinking about the hand off,” Merrill said, “so that all of the great work that’s being done here — to develop the vision, pick the projects, talk about the funding — is only as good as who’s going to implement it; who’s going to make this thing real; who’s going to be accountable for it.”

County Commissioner Kevin Beckner said he felt strongly that HART was the only agency that made sense. HART deals exclusively with transportation, Beckner said, and its governing board includes county commissioners and elected officials from Tampa and Temple Terrace. HART also has the power to collect property tax and receives federal grants.

“I don’t think it’s sufficient in its current structure … but for me that’s a starting point,” Beckner said.

He suggested the HART board could be enlarged to include representatives from the county Metropolitan Planning Agency, the Florida Department of Transportation and Plant City, which do not have a seat on the transit agency’s board.

County Commissioners Sandy Murman and Mark Sharpe agreed, saying it would take too long to create a new agency with taxing powers.

Other members of the policy group, while stopping short of endorsing HART as the coordinating agency, said they do not want to create a new layer of bureaucracy. There was also general agreement that the agency should include elected officials so its operations are transparent under the state’s sunshine laws.

“I think everything starts with transparency and assuring the public we have an organization equipped to handle the monumental transportation issues in this county,” said County Commissioner Ken Hagan.

The new HART board chairman, Tampa City Councilman Mike Suarez, said the policy group needed more direction on what the proposed agency would do. HART’s main role, Suarez said, is “delivering folks from point A to point B,” not economic development.

“I think it’s too big to put under one roof,” Suarez said. “I think we need more clear direction from the leaders of the city government and the county government about what they want to implement.”

Regarding HART’s ability to get federal grants, Suarez said those dollars are “to run a bus system, not for economic development.”

Herb Marlowe, the policy group’s facilitator, said naming a coordinating agency is something that would take several more meetings, and the members agreed.

The policy group was created by the county commission in March and started meeting last summer, listening to advice from the public, business leaders and other government agencies about what transportation improvements are needed to lure high-paying jobs.

On Wednesday, County engineer Mike Williams showed members the first group of recommended transportation projects, all in the mostly industrial area east of Tampa. The area surrounds the Florida State Fairgrounds, Orient Road and Interstates 4 and 75.

The proposed projects included the following:

Adding two lanes to Hillsborough Avenue from 50th Street to Orient Road 60

Green bike lanes on 40th Street from Hillsborough Avenue to State Road 60.

Widening Falkenburg Road to four lanes from State Road 574 to U.S. 92, and to six lanes from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Palm River.

A roadway extension and bridge on Hanna/Sligh Avenue from U.S. 301 to Eureka Springs.

Widening Harney Road to four lanes from Martin Luther King Boulevard to U.S. 301.

Widening Sligh Avenue to four lanes with bike lanes from 56th Street to U.S. 301.

The list also includes intersection improvements and multi-use trails.

No decision was made on the list at Wednesday’s meeting. The next batch of improvements, to be presented to the policy group next month, takes in Tampa, Brandon and MacDill Air Force Base.

msalinero@tampatrib.com

 

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Times article on Asian Confusion restaurant in Town ‘n Country:

 

Town ‘N Country couple sell Thai sauces and dream of growing business

Shelley Rossetter, Times Staff Writer

Friday, January 10, 2014 11:42am

TOWN ‘N COUNTRY — Despite living in the United States, Petta Brown grew up surrounded by the flavors of Thailand.

Moving from Thailand to New Jersey as a child, Brown’s parents brought along the bold recipes of their homeland. Brown returned to Asia as an adult and fell in love with Thai cuisine even more.

“In our country, herbs and spices are so dense that the flavor of the food is more intense,” Brown said.

After stints in real estate, a move back to the States, and opening and then closing a French-Thai restaurant in Orlando, Brown, 47, thought she was done working in the food industry.

“I said I would never get back into the food business again,” she said.

That is, until friends urged her to bottle and sell the Thai sauces she had been giving as gifts for years.

Made without MSG or preservatives, Brown’s four Secret Gourmet Sauces — red and green curry sauces, satay peanut sauce and tamarind sauce — use almost all Florida-sourced ingredients.

And they helped spur an entire business, Asian Confusion.

About a year ago, Brown and her husband, U.K.-born Ian Brown, turned their office and test kitchen, at 5831 Memorial Highway, into Thai Gourmet Market, which seats 14 people. Using her sauces as a base to the menu, they serve lunch and dinner Tuesday through Friday.

With the sauces still the main focus of the business, the couple spend their weekends selling them at various farmers markets throughout Tampa Bay.

They often serve food as well, to showcase the uses of the different sauces.

“We try to inspire people to cook at home, using my sauces,” Petta Brown said.

She also would like to inspire people to eat healthier.

“Many people don’t realize that all soy sauce from Asia and many premade sauces are laced with MSG, even if the label doesn’t say it,” Brown said.

What makes her Secret Gourmet Sauces unique, she said, is the lack of those ingredients.

“It’s really hard to find those qualities in Asian cuisine,” she said.

The line is gluten-free and Brown said she is working on making a vegan version of two of the sauces, which currently have shellfish as an ingredient.

The sauces are manufactured at a plant in Lake County, but the couple is planning to expand manufacturing and move to a closer facility this year, with a goal of breaking into the highly competitive supermarket industry.

But their plans don’t stop there.

The couple hope to bring a line of packaged precooked meals to local markets this year, as well.

The pair are working with Hillsborough County Economic Development’s Small Business Information Center, Petta Brown said, to get more information on opportunities for businesses owned by women and minorities.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman toured the company in December, bringing attention to the couple’s venture, which is part of their plan for success.

“There are a lot of successful entrepreneurs in the area who might want to help,” Petta Brown said. “We want to make noise. Maybe they’ll notice us.”

Shelley Rossetter can be reached at srossetter@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3401.

 

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on human trafficking:

 

POLITICS

Groups unite in Tampa to fight human trafficking

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff
Published: January 8, 2014

 

TAMPA — The Tampa Bay area is a top destination for human traffickers in Florida, experts say, but the enormity of the threat has barely scratched the community’s collective consciousness.

That may be about to change. Friday will see the first of a series of events aimed at mobilizing the public and uniting different civic groups that have worked on the issue. The Abolish (child sexual slavery) Movement will kick off the events with a Saturday rally at Lykes Gaslight Park in downtown Tampa.

 

“Florida is considered third in the nation in sex trafficking, labor trafficking and domestic servitude,” said Dotti Groover-Skipper, chairwoman of the Community Campaign Against Human Trafficking of Tampa Bay. “The Tampa Bay area is a top destination for traffickers, looking for people to traffic or to bring victims here.”

 

Human trafficking is the illegal holding of people against their will and selling or renting them out for involuntary sex or labor. Child sexual slavery caters to pedophiles and is international in scope.

The problem has been festering here since before 2004 when federal authorities created the “Rescue and Restore” program, designed to recruit and train local police, medical and social service providers in how to recognize and help human trafficking victims. Tampa was one of four cities, along with Phoenix, Philadelphia and Atlanta, chosen as a site for the campaign.

Then in 2006, local police created the Clearwater/Tampa Bay Area Human Trafficking Task Force after local Hispanics reported the problem existed in their communities.

Despite those efforts, child sex slavery continues to proliferate in the area, according to government authorities. Groover-Skipper said at least 100 civic, non-profit and faith-based groups are working on the issue.

“The new part is all the different groups are coming together and have finally developed an awareness campaign,” said Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman. “Awareness is good if you can get people to see what the signs are so their kids don’t become victims. That’s the important thing.”

The Abolish Movement has a purple logo developed by the local AD2 advertising firm, which Groover-Skipper said has donated $400,000 worth of free branding to the campaign. Also helping in the effort is the Junior League of Tampa, which last year identified human trafficking as a priority.

The campaign will include “gritty ads” with purple as the dominant color, Groover-Skipper said, and “gorilla art,” which means anonymous art work left in public places.

“There hasn’t been a unified umbrella campaign,” she said. “Once people are aware, it will help with fund-raising for these organizations.”

Murman agreed, but said to truly abolish human trafficking in the area would probably take more law enforcement resources.

“The real work is in the investigation and prosecution, and that is something I’m going to be working really hard with the sheriff and the city of Tampa Police Department,” Murman said. “I think it will take dollars. It will probably take a minimum of five deputies to do the thorough investigation needed to track these people.”

The Saturday event at Gas Light Park will be from 4-7 p.m. and will feature Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and other elected officials, food trucks and a candlelight vigil.

Other upcoming Abolish Movement events:

Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Training, Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Stetson University Tampa Law Center, 1700 N. Tampa St. A three-part training series to promote awareness and education on child sex slavery. Registration is required. Contact: Shannon Martucci at (813) 272-6272.

Movie and popcorn at Sun City Center, Friday, 1-3 p.m. at Sun City Center Atrium Building, Florida Room, 945 N. Course Lane. Free popcorn and movie, “Abduction of Eden,” starring Jamie Chung and Beau Bridges.

“Freedom at the Cross Conference,” Saturday, 1-7 p.m., Bridgeway Church, 30660 Wells Road, Wesley Chapel. This men’s only conference is designed to them understand the many faces of human trafficking and what role men can play in combating this horrific crime. Registration is required at www.2b3n.com.

Other events can be found at www.abolishmovement.com.

 

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Times article on the new year:

 

Visions 2014: Hillsborough residents, leaders forecast the year

  • Times staff

Tampa Bay Times

Tuesday, December 31, 2013 5:46pm

 

As we enter 2014, we ask several notable Hillsborough County residents to look into their crystal balls and forecast the promise, potential and possible pitfalls that lie on the horizon. Here are their visions on a range of topics including the environment, Bollywood and education.

SOUTHSHORE: Securing commuter transportation to match vigorous growth.

 

Sandra Murman

Hillsborough County commissioner, District 1, SouthShore area

 

County Commissioner Sandra Murman has possessed an affinity for the SouthShore since the 1990s when she served as a state representative, but her optimism for the southern part of Hillsborough County’s coastal community has never been higher.

With the additions of Amazon, St. Joseph’s Hospital-South and the expansion of Hillsborough Community College, comes a promise of new growth that has reinvigorated the community.

“Everything’s really starting to take shape,” Murman said. “The planning for the growth and development, the picture is becoming a little more clear for the direction it’s going to take.”

Though Amazon has not yet released a timetable for completion and its opening, the announcement of the facility is a catalyst for growth, including residential, commercial, retail and more, Murman said.

“The only challenge I see right now is getting the funding we need for the bus system,” Murman said. “We really need to develop more bus transit down in that community, and it’s got to be a commuter system.”

Murman pointed specifically to high school students who are earning college credits at HCC. Unlike their counterparts in Tampa who have access to public transportation, students in SouthShore who don’t have a car have a harder time getting around and getting to the campus.

The need for an extended transportation system is also linked with the commercial and residential growth expected to come to the area in 2014.

“If you ask people in the area, they don’t really want to go to Brandon any more to shop or buy their groceries,” Murman said. “They want to do what they need in their lives right here in their community, but they want to be able to get around.”

Big Bend Road is going to be the main corridor, similar to Lumsden Road and Bloomingdale Avenue in Brandon. A possible interchange will also be added to aid traffic flow on each side of the interstate, Murman said.

“It’s all exciting. I see a whole new area of my community, it’s really going to blossom,” Murman said. “They have hardly any problems, it’s almost all opportunity.”

Caitlin Johnston, Times staff writer

 

• • •

STATE POLITICS: The governor’s race tops a year for opportunity.

 

State Rep. Janet Cruz

State House, District 62

 

As an election year, 2014 could mean big changes in state politics.

“With a governor’s race on the horizon,” said state Rep. Janet Cruz, “we have to have some great public debate on what’s needed to make Florida a better state.”

Cruz, a Democrat who represents neighborhoods north of downtown Tampa to Egypt Lake and includes part of neighborhoods such as Seminole Heights, West Tampa and Town ‘N Country, said she hopes to take advantage of those discussions.

“We’re hoping for better outcomes in 2014,” Cruz said. “For a new governor to bring new changes the people are expecting.”

That said, much of the major issues legislators will likely focus on this year, she said, are continuations of old concerns.

There will be more discussion on the topic of affordable health care, she said. As well as closer looks at the expansion of gaming in the state.

“Expanding gaming is revenue dollars for the state, so the state makes more money,” Cruz said. “But do we want to be known as a gaming state, is what Floridians have to ask themselves. Or, is it okay to expand gaming in Miami Beach but not our neighborhood?”

Legislators will also look at concerns surrounding flood insurance, Cruz said.

“What we as state legislators can do to protect Floridians from these flood insurance hikes that are happening,” Cruz said.

And, like many of her peers, Cruz also has a few personal goals for the year, including pushing forward a business bill that would provide tax incentives for large businesses that support small Florida-based businesses, as well as a fair pay act for women.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to the Legislature in Tallahassee,” she said.

Shelley Rossetter, Times staff writer

 

• • •

 

TEMPLE TERRACE: Pressing mixed-use development for a livable downtown.

 

Frank Chillura

Temple Terrace mayor

 

Though the city and the developer of its ambitious Downtown Temple Terrace project have long been at odds over what would make the project profitable, Mayor Frank Chillura said he’s convinced that staying true to residents’ original vision will bring success.

“And their vision is basically to have that mixed-use, viable, walkable Main Street, and that’s what we want to create.”

But as 2014 dawns, the big question is how much longer the project, which stretches along the east side of 56th Street from Bullard Parkway to the Hillsborough River, will remain idle.

The city and Vlass Group, the developer, appear headed to court to break up the partnership, and a key point of contention has been the look of the residence buildings the developer had planned to build in the northeast corner of the property. Vlass has said a mixed-use plan such as what the city wants, with retail businesses on the first floor, would not be successful in a depressed economy.

Though they aren’t in a mixed-use configuration, retail shops fill all the available space in the section of property that Vlass has completed, the section anchored by the Sweetbay Supermarket.

“That tends to tell me that there is a demand,” Chillura said. “It may not be as strong as it used to be . . . or the asking price might not be as high, but there is a demand for it if it is priced right.”

Chillura says the project of offices, shops, restaurants and residences, along with a cultural center, is critical to the city’s efforts to market itself as a great place to live.

“What I hope to see is that it be resolved quickly,” Chillura said.

Beyond that, Chillura said a new effort to market the city seems off to a good start. He would like to make it easier to attract residents and businesses by streamlining the application and building permit process.

He also wants the city to consider lowering its tax millage rate. The current rate is 6.43 for $1,000 in value — or about $640 on a home assessed at $100,000 — the highest in Hillsborough County, which, he noted, doesn’t help attract home buyers.

Ultimately, Chillura said, Temple Terrace needs to expand its territory. He wants to see a serious effort to annex vacant land east of the city, which he predicts will be an area of growth.

“I think annexation is a very big part of the city’s future.”

Philip Morgan, Times staff writer

 

• • •

 

 

 

MIDDLETON HIGH: Improving academics in tandem with school’s goals.

 

Owen Young

Middleton High School principal

 

Every morning on the PA system, Middleton High School principal Owen Young shares an encouraging message with students. He knows their lives outside the school’s safe, structured walls can be very different from their lives inside the East Tampa school.

Looking ahead to 2014, Young sees a need for balance, in how teachers address the varying needs of students who struggle and students who succeed, and in striving for learning gains but also for proficiency.

“As we look at Common Core and FCAT 2.0, making learning gains isn’t enough right now,” he said. “Making learning gains is one component, but we have to continue to tear away at the barriers keeping them from being proficient.”

Collaboration among staff and creating a set of core values everyone at the school believes in is essential, he said. But it’s also about data.

“You have to have the student’s best interest at heart,” he said. “As a family, you have to share that spirit of collaboration, and work to look at best practices, really grounded in data.”

Sometimes, he said, that means difficult discussions.

“What we’re doing here is nothing new to the field of education,” Young said. “What we’re doing is aligning all those components, to function in a manner that’s healthy for the school culture and academic growth.”

He sees Middleton, with its successful technology magnet programs and its traditional student population that has often underperformed, as a turnaround model for the rest of the country.

Young was hired as principal in 2009 after the Hillsborough County School District put together a team of specialists to help get the struggling school back on track. The school grade fell from a C in 2010 to a D in 2011, then bounced back to a B in 2012.

“We approach it from the aspect that all our children have room for growth,” he said.

Helping students toward being college- and career-ready will continue to be an important part of education in the county, he said.

“We can make learning gains all day long,” Young said. “If they’re not ready to graduate in four years, that speaks to our need to figure out something else to help get them over the hump.”

Keeley Sheehan, Times staff writer

 

• • •

 

BOLLYWOOD: An international spotlight comes with India’s “Oscars.”

 

Chetan Shah

International Indian Film Academy Awards organizer

 

In 2014, Tampa residents will witness a international spectacle replete with a designer fashion show, rock concert, technical awards presentation and glamorous “green carpet” event reminiscent of Hollywood’s Academy Awards.

It’s the 2014 International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Weekend & Awards to Tampa, and from all accounts, Bollywood’s impending arrival should not be underestimated.

“It’s like our India Festival times 2,000,” said Chetan “Jason” Shah, past president of Gujarati Samaj of Tampa Bay.

“Wikipedia may say India has 15 or 20 religions,” Shah added, “but only two matter: cricket and Bollywood. That’s what keeps the country together even in stressful times.”

The extravagance will be all the more remarkable when paired with the realization it started with a whisper.

A vendor at Tampa’s annual India Festival in 2012 asked Shah why Tampa couldn’t host the event, launching Shah on a mission to bring the event to town.

Shah, a Tampa Realtor and entrepreneur, quietly researched IIFA’s gala ceremonial events held since 2000. So quietly, even his wife, Shreya, and their two teenage children didn’t know he began spending 10 hours a day on feasibility studies back in November 2012.

Extrapolating economic data reported by Toronto 2011 organizers and other host cities, he predicts upward of 30,000 visitors will generate at least $30 million in Tampa.

Movie stars, producers, filmmakers, paparazzi and starstruck fans from around the world would boost tourism 35 percent that week, creating $150 million in public relations value.

With every text (160,000), email (400,000) and personal dollar invested, Shah grew more convinced that “both the Indian and mainstream community” would welcome the festivities.

Shah’s vision was real enough for him and 14 other city and county officials to attend the July 2013 awards weekend in Macau.

Shah and his wife paid for 11 of the travelers, “without knowing if there was light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

Organizers leaped into action after the IIFA signed a confidential contract in August, planning 30-plus associated events. The only detractor: the weather, specifically hurricane season.

Such fears sparked a hasty date change to April 24 through 27, from an earlier date in June. With the timetable now at warp speed, Shah took a step back, handing the spokesman role to his sister’s husband, cardiologist-philanthropist Dr. Kiran Patel, a major underwriter of the weekend.

But he is proud and humbled by what he set in motion.

“I have made a half-million relationships since Nov. 6, 2012. This is God-sent, otherwise it would not be possible.”

Amy Scherzer, Times staff writer

 

• • •

 

HEALTH CARE: Redefining where and how patients receive medical treatment.

 

Jay Wolfson

Public health professor, University of South Florida

 

So, what does 2014 have in store for the ambitious, yet troubled federal health care law?

“Confusion,” said Jay Wolfson, a public health care professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

The 2013 rollout of the Affordable Care Act was plagued by numerous problems, most notably with the Healthcare.gov website where people need to sign up for new health insurance plans.

“Now, a lot of the players — physicians, hospitals, insurance companies, patients and their families — will try to figure out how to operate within the (Affordable Care Act),” Wolfson said. “It’s not going to be a seamless transition.”

Physicians, for example, will be figuring out which insurance plans they’re on. Some hospitals may learn they’re not on certain health insurance networks. And patients, many of whom have not previously had health coverage, will need to learn how to use that coverage.

Hospitals will be greatly affected by the new health care law, Wolfson added. Their reimbursement rates will be reduced, and more care will continue to be moved into other settings, such as surgery centers, skilled nursing facilities and rehabilitation centers.

“The hospital does not need to be at the center of the table anymore,” Wolfson said.

More health care will also be delivered at home.

“We have the technological capability,” Wolfson said. “Why should a 70-year-old patient with a hip replacement have to get driven to the hospital for a post-op checkup, when it can be done at home, online with a camera?”

Wolfson also expects more care being provided by nonphysician professionals, including nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants.

He likened the new health care law to riding a bicycle.

“We’ve all ridden bicycles. But now, everybody has been given a new bicycle, but it doesn’t come with clear instructions, and it’s not fully operational yet,” he said. “It’s going to take awhile. There’s going to be a couple years of education.”

Richard Martin, Times staff writer

 

• • •

 

MOSI: Blending science and the real world with cutting-edge discoveries.

 

Wit Ostrenko

President, Museum of Science and Industry

 

Coming in summer, children and adults will be able to get certified using a 3-D printer with their own designs at the Museum of Science & Industry, said Wit Ostrenko, museum president.

“We want to get people curious and excited about many things. An initiative we’re starting this year will give certifications in robotics and skills like designs for automobile and medical devices,” he said.

“We/>”We’re moving away from focusing on entertainment and more on what it means to you. How you can be a contributor. Creating new jobs and equipping people to do them. Much like Leonardo da Vinci wouldn’t separate all one thought process, we’re pulling a smattering and a smidge of many things: science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

“We want to blur the lines between hard core science and other fields. We plan to dedicate a portion of our 73 acres as a STEAM zone, to support this initiative, eventually, with a high school where kids will get work experience . . . with practical skills such as learning to weld and to run a milling machine, he said.

“If they want to be an architect, they can try it out in the real world before they commit. They’ll get their hands dirty and their feet wet.”

Elisabeth Parker, Times staff writer

 

• • •

 

ENERGY: Reduce energy costs with innovation to create jobs.

 

Susan Glickman

Environmental lobbyist

 

Tampa Bay resident and environmental lobbyist Susan Glickman hopes 2014 is the year the state begins to seriously address pressing energy issues.

Glickman, Florida director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, is optimistic state legislators will begin to make important policy decisions based on science and facts instead of political contributions and partisanship.

“We have the solutions,” said Glickman, who spends much of her time lobbying lawmakers in Tallahassee. “Whether we’re dealing with pollution coming from wastewater or reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we have clean technology solutions to fix the problems and in the process, we can create a whole new economy.”

Glickman points to Luma­Stream, an innovative St. Petersburg company she calls the “Intel chip of LED lighting” as an example of how clean technologies can protect our environment and create local jobs.

LumaStream’s patented low-voltage software-controlled lighting makes LEDs increasingly more cost-effective.

“They have enormous potential to meet our energy need and create jobs right here in our community,” said Glickman, noting that LumaStream already has a job training partnership with St. Petersburg College. “Florida could become a hub for innovative, clean technologies. There is a unique opportunity to cultivate breakout companies. We are the gateway to Latin America.

“It’s time to move down that path and not be stuck in the past.”

Yet Glickman says the path forward has been impeded by big utilities that rely on an outdated business model that rewards capital expenditures.

“The more they spend, the more they make. So naturally they want to build power plants when we could meet our energy needs more cost-effectively with efficiency and renewables. We must realign the incentives.”

A change not only would create economic development, but because renewable energy such as solar power has become cheaper, long term, consumers can save on their energy bills.

“Big utilities in the state, with the cooperation of politicians, have kept the solar market locked out,” Glickman said. “Energy from the sun can help to power our lives. Ignoring it costs Floridians jobs.”

So where does Glickman’s optimism come from in a state that has been on a downward slope in the last few years in terms of protecting the environment, buying land and moving toward clean energy? She thinks the public understands the potential and is demanding alternatives.

“I think there’s an opportunity for change if people, your readers for instance, let their elected officials know that it’s time to move on these important changes,” Glickman said. “There’s a pathway forward to do the right thing, protect the planet while creating jobs.

“We can do this.”

Ernest Hooper, Times staff writer

Visions 2014: Hillsborough residents, leaders forecast the year 12/31/13 [Last modified: Tuesday, December 31, 2013 6:16pm]

 

Commissioner Murman quoted in this top 12 memorable business quotes in the Tampa Bay Times:

 

 

A dozen memorable business quotes: Who said this stuff?

  • By Robert Trigaux, Times Business Columnist

    Robert Trigaux, Times Columnist

ROBERT TRIGAUXTIMES BUSINESS COLUMNIST

ROBERT TRIGAUXTampa Bay Times

Friday, January 3, 2014 5:27pm

There is nothing like a memorable quote to sear an event in your mind.

Here are a dozen gems quoted in the Tampa Bay Times from our business community in recent months.

Were you paying attention?

Who said this stuff? (Answers are at the end of this column.)

• • •

1. “This is bigger than landing the Super Bowl, a National Convention or the Olympics. It’s a mega-storm of growth that’s hitting our county with feeder bands that will create economic growth all over this area.”

a) Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch on the potential impact of this coming fall’s county referendum on mass transit.

b) Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman about Amazon’s decision to build a giant warehouse facility near Ruskin.

c) The Guinness Book of World Records for Hyperbole.

2. “Florida is the most bat-s— crazy state in the union.”

a) Response by Boston magazine defending tax-heavy Mass­achusetts from Florida Gov. Scott’s recruiting businesses in the state.

b) Response by Chicago magazine defending tax-heavy Illinois from Florida Gov. Scott’s recruiting businesses in the state.

c) Sooner or later, most folks who move here.

3. “I’m not giving it all up to Tampa. When it comes to quality of life, we’re the better city. I don’t say that as a slam to Tampa … I just don’t think we’ve been going out there.”

a) Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, in remarks made after admitting he smoked crack “in a drunken stupor.”

b) Mike Duggan, newly sworn-in mayor of bankrupt Detroit.

c) Rick Kriseman, newly installed mayor of St. Petersburg.

4. “We concluded that nuclear was too risky for us, our shareholders and our customers.”

a) Owner of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant.

b) TECO Energy CEO John Ramil.

c) Duke Energy Florida CEO Alex Glenn.

5. “Who will step up in Tampa Bay to be the celebrity investor that generates social proof for our startups? We’ve come up short to date.”

a) Jimmy Wales, co-founder in St. Petersburg of Wikipedia.

b) Daniel Scott, associate director of the USF St. Petersburg Entrepreneurship Program.

c) Tampa socialite Jill Kelley.

6. “You guys are overreaching, and in my experience whenever someone overreaches we cut off their hands. I am giving you the opportunity to keep your hands.”

a) Someone actually said that?

b) The Godfather Vito Corleone, testing an early line before perfecting his “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

c) Santosh Govindaraju, Liberty Channelside LLC investor, criticizing the Tampa Port Authority for undermining Liberty’s bid for Channelside Bay Plaza.

7. “Selling a Whopper at $3.79 is a good price. Selling it at $8 is not.”

a) Options analyst James Cordier of Tampa’s Liberty Trading Group on rising beef prices and their impact on consumers.

b) Area Burger King franchise owner Daniel Fitzpatrick on what happens if the fast-food industry faced a $15 minimum hourly wage.

c) But selling it for 99 cents? Priceless.

8. “That movie appeared to me to be just a bunch of thugs.”

a) St. Pete Beach Mayor Steve McFarlin at the start of local filming of Spring Break.

b) Winter the dolphin after getting a sneak peek at Dolphin Tale 2.

c) SeaWorld Entertainment CEO Jim Atchison referring to the so-called experts in Blackfish, the documentary critical of keeping orcas in captivity.

9. “It’s all about relationships, and we had a great relationship. … We should’ve never lost that store.”

a) Former St. Petersburg deputy mayor Goliath Davis insisting Sweetbay’s anchor grocery store in the Midtown neighborhood would not have closed if city leaders had paid attention.

b) Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn complaining that the Saks Fifth Avenue store at WestShore Plaza should not have left town in 2013.

c) Does it matter? Sooner or later, every store will be Walmarts, right?

10. “Our future years look stronger and stronger. If Bollywood can deliver the way it’s supposed to deliver … we’re projecting a very good year.”

a) Andre Timmins of Wizcraft International Entertainment, the Mumbai company staging the Bollywood Oscars in Tampa this spring.

b) A confused Dolly Parton hoping Tampa’s “Dollywood Oscars” will revive her acting career.

c) Santiago Corrada, Visit Tampa Bay CEO, on wooing Bollywood film awards to Tampa.

11. “Why don’t we do a Florida Inventors Hall of Fame? Why don’t we plant the flag?”

a) Paul Sanberg, USF’s senior vice president for research and innovation.

b) Tampa (“Oxyclean”) infomercial promoter Anthony Sullivan.

c) USF dance professor Merry Lynn Morris, inventor of the Rolling Dance Chair to help the disabled.

12. “I know people think I’m a nut. I’ve got no delusions about that.”

a) USF mascot Rocky the Bull.

b) Tampa’s Harry S. Dent Jr., financial author and bear market forecaster.

c) Robert Trigaux, Tampa Bay Times business columnist.

• • •

ANSWERS:

1b; 2a; 3c; 4b; 5b; 6c (Govindaraju later apologized); 7b; 8a; 9a; 10c; 11a; 12b

Contact Robert Trigaux at trigaux@tampabay.com.

A dozen memorable business quotes: Who said this stuff?

01/03/14 [Last modified: Friday, January 3, 2014 5:45pm]

© 2013 Tampa Bay Times

 

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on Enterprise Zone expansion:

 

Businesses in Hillsborough’s poorest neighborhoods could get tax break

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff
Published: December 18, 2013

TAMPA — Some of Hillsborough County’s most impoverished neighborhoods could get an economic kick-start thanks to action taken by the county commission Wednesday.

Commissioners voted unanimously to enlarge the county’s enterprise zone from 3.1 squre miles to 15.6 square miles. The vote extends the areas eligible for state tax credits for new or expanding businesses from the current zone around the University of South Florida to an area just west of King High School, and also impoverished areas in Palm River, Gibsonton and Riverview.

The new zones were chosen because they meet the state’s misery index: a poverty rate of more than 20 percent and over 30 percent in half of the designated area; unemployment at or above 8.9 percent; and general distress, such as high crime, abandoned buildings and deteriorated roads and drainage.

“It’s trying to speak to a part of our community in need,” said county Economic Development Director Ron Barton.

A city or county can have up to three non-contiguous areas in an enterprise zone as long as they don’t exceed 20 square miles. Until now, the county’s enterprise zone contained just the 3.1-square-mile area of shabby neighborhoods around USF.

The proposed boundaries enlarge the zone around the university northward. And they add a zone just west of King High School, bordered by 50th and 56th Streets on the east and west, Hillsborough Avenue in the south and almost to the Hillsborough River in the north. The third zone is a patchwork of destitute areas in the southern part of the county from Palm River south to Gibsonton.

When the state approves the new zones, businesses that locate there or expand will be eligible for the following tax credits:

• Job tax credit of 20 percent on wages paid to workers who live in the zone, or a 30 percent credit if 20 percent or more of the company’s employees live there.

• Building materials sales tax refund up to $5,000, up to $10,000 if 20 percent or more of the employees live in the zone.

• Business equipment sales tax refund, with the same conditions as the building materials credit.

• Property tax credit against the Florida corporate income tax. The credit will be equal to the property tax the new or expanding business pays to the county, up to $50,000 annually.

Barton said the tax breaks are aimed as much at retaining existing businesses in struggling areas as in attracting new companies.

“This is a toe-hold to keep businesses viable in distressed areas of our county,” he said. “It’s about business retention as much as it’s about business attraction.”

Commissioner Sandy Murman, who represents much of the southern part of the county, had asked Barton and the county’s enterprise zone committee to look at expanding the zone there.

“This is a no-brainer for me,” Murman said. “We meet all the benchmarks to expand these.”

Though he voted for the expansion, Commissioner Victor Crist expressed reservations after the meeting. Crist, a former legislator, sponsored the bill creating the enterprise zone in the University Area. He said the state has a finite capacity for tax credits.

Competition for the credits is fierce, Crist said, and the state judges which communities get credits renewed by the job-creation impact realized from past tax rebates.

Enlarging the zone will dilute the job-creation effects over a large area, Crist said.

“I think Hillsborough County has a greater argument that it’s been successful because its target area has been small,” he said.

The state reviews enterprise zone credits for renewal in 2015, Barton said.

 

Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Business Journal article on Port consolidation:

 

Relationships take precedence over consolidation for local ports   

Mark Holan, Tampa Bay Business Journal

Dec. 17, 2013

 

Hillsborough County and Tampa Port Authority Commissioner Sandra Murman on Tuesday said no efforts are being made to consolidate the four ports in the Tampa Bay area.

 

“What we do want to do is we want to engage in very strong relationships and cooperation with all the ports in our region,” she said. “We want to have regional relationships for economic impact.”

 

Her comments came at the end of Tuesday’s regular meeting of the port board and nearly a month after Port Manatee passed a resolution to “oppose any consolidation effort.”

 

The Bay’s smaller, southernmost port took the vote in the wake of several private meetings this fall with the Tampa Port Authority and the Florida Department of Transportation. FDOT has said it wants “to foster port cooperation – not port consolidation.”

 

As detailed over the past month by the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Tampa Port CEO Paul Anderson also offered to work more closely with Port Citrus and the Port of St. Petersburg through “memorandums of understanding.”

 

Such an offer was not made to Manatee.“They weren’t interested,” Anderson said after Tuesday’s meeting, his first public comment on the issue. He declined to elaborate on the future of regional port cooperation.

 

“I stand by Commissioner Murman’s comments today,” he said. “That’s all I have to say about it. She said it very well.”

 

 

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Times article on Port siren system:

 

Warning sirens at Port to be upgraded

JAMAL THALJI, Tampa Bay Times

December 17, 2013

 

TAMPA — The Port of Tampa will upgrade its siren warning system, which alerts port workers and residents when something goes really wrong with the handling of hazardous materials that are stored on port land, transported by sea or carried across city streets on railroad cars.

 

People had trouble understanding those warnings when the sirens blared three times this summer: A slow-moving train derailed with 4,500 gallons of flammable ethanol on July 25, and two fires erupted in a sulfur storage tank in August, releasing a toxic cloud.

 

So the Tampa Port Authority’s governing board decided Tuesday to spend $616,000 to improve the siren warning system and control stations.

 

The new sirens will be louder, clearer and have a greater range than the old ones. They’ll blare and broadcast the old pre-recorded warnings telling people to stay inside or flee the area.

 

But officials also will be able to use the new system to broadcast live instructions, so they can explain exactly what people should do during another emergency.

 

“I know that after the last sulfur incident, there was a lot of concern in the community about the siren system,” said Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman, who sits on the port board. “I think this will go a long way to improving that.”

 

Murman said it was also good to see emergency officials from the port, city and county working together to better inform residents about the siren system. That will include a public education campaign that will start when the new sirens are installed, so that people will actually know what they should do when the new sirens activate.

 

Emergency officials at Tuesday’s board meeting said residents have become too used to the old warning sirens erupting, because they are tested frequently.

 

The project must be done by the end of July 2014 or the port will lose the $425,000 federal grant that will help pay for it. The port is putting up the other $191,000.

 

The port awarded the $616,000 contract to Flores & Harper Construction Inc. of Temple Terrace. But Flores will team up with a national company, Federal Signal Corp., because the local company has no experience installing siren warning systems, according to the port.

 

The port stores and ships plenty of petroleum products. But another concern is the release of anhydrous ammonia, a colorless gas used as fertilizer. Small doses can cause irritation, while high levels of exposure can be fatal.

 

Upgraded control stations to activate the new sirens also will be installed at these port facilities: CF Industries, Kinder-Morgan, Yara North America and the Tampa Wastewater Treatment Plant.

 

 

Commissioner Murman mentioned and quoted in this Creative Loafing article on homelessness:

 

Hillsborough County officials say they can end homelessness in a “business-like way.”

Mitch Perry,

Dec 4, 2013 at 7:14 PM

 

In October the Tampa Bay Times reported that since 2011, Hillsborough County’s Homeless Recovery program has sent at least 130 ailing men and women to Bay Gardens, at a cost to taxpayers of more than $260,000. That ultimately led to County Administrator Mike Merrill to say that his staff was unable to review those cases listed by the paper because of the way the county’s records were kept.

 

Shortly after that, the county announced that it was working with non-profit organizations to transition to a new model for delivering assistance to the homeless. As part of this transition, the County’s Homeless Recovery Office will now close at the end of the year.

 

At a joint luncheon with the Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County School Board on Wednesday, Merrill said the county would provide funding and support, but would no longer be in the homeless business themselves.

 

“We’ll leave the Homeless Initiative program to those who do the job well like Metropolitan Ministries and the Salvation Army. We’ll provide funding, we’ll provide support….it takes a longtime to unwind 16 years of bad behavior and so we’re getting to it as quickly as we can,” he said about the problems with the Homeless Recovery program.

 

Merrill said he was extremely optimistic about changes within the leading organization for the homeless in the county – the organization formerly known as the Homeless Coalition of Hillsborough County, now rebranded as the Tampa-Hillsborough Homeless Initiative. “We can end homelessness and we can prevent homelessness,” he boldly proclaimed. “We just need to do it in a business-like way. Achieving social objectives, but business models work.”

 

Commissioner Sandy Murman chimed in that it was important for the county government to take control of both the homeless and animal services divisions, both troubled agencies that have had their problems extensively chronicled in the local media.

 

And she lavished enthusiasm about the teamwork going on between the city and the county when it comes to dealing with the homeless. “I’m very encouraged about that.”

 

Also at the meeting today Tampa City Council Lisa Montelione described her collaboration with Pinellas County state Representative Kathleen Peters on a social marketing campaign involving the Art Institute of Tampa. “They’re designing a media package that can be handed over to a community,” Montelione said.

 

 

Commissioner Murman quoted in this Creative Loafing article on the Civil Service Board:

 

Plan to cripple Hillsborough County Civil Services Board remains on track

Mitch Perry, Creative Loafing

Dec 2, 2013

 

The Hillsborough County legislative delegation met to discuss local bills on Monday

The local delegation of Hillsborough County lawmakers voted this morning to take a bill up to Tallahassee next spring that could see the power of the County’s Civil Service Board be severely limited — if not slowly killed.

 

The bill is being sponsored in the House by Dana Young (R-Tampa), who said that the world of local government and human resources has changed dramatically since the 1950’s, when the agency was conceived. The board works with all 21 of the county’s public agencies, classifying workers and setting pay scales.

 

One thing that the bill would not change is the board’s power to handle grievances for employee terminations, demotions and suspensions.

 

The County Commission and all of the publicly elected agency heads, such as Tax Assessor Doug Belden, strongly support the move. Although he said it was nothing personal, Belden blasted officials with the county agency, saying Civil Services was “not a true partner“ and works in a “non-collaborative manner.”

 

Accusations that the Civil Services Board simply creates too much bureaucracy was the general theme of the discussion. County Commissioner Sandy Murman said there was a need for the county to hire only “The best and the brightest,” and that Civil Service was a barrier to implementing that. County Administrator Mike Merrill agreed, saying the move would benefit taxpayers by eliminating a layer of duplicative services.

 

The man on the hot seat and having to defend the agency was Dane Peterson, who heads the Civil Service Board. Acknowledging that he wasn’t resistant to change, he said the agency had cut costs by 17 percent over the past six years, while at the same time adding services to various agencies, such as with Doug Belden’s Tax Assessor’s office.

 

“My point is we not only welcome opportunities for improvement, we seek them out,” Peterson said, adding that he has been shut out of reform efforts — a comment that seemed to rankle Belden and Clerk of the Courts Pat Frank, both of whom said they had talked with Peterson in the past.

 

Brandon-area state Senator Tom Lee said it sounded to him like the bill would ultimately kill the agency outright, though not at once. Bill sponsor Dana Young disagreed, saying the proposed law had been structured to give the Civil Services Board an opportunity to “retool.” And she insisted it was employee-friendly. “We need to focus on employees, not process,” she maintained.

 

Although Lee said he still had issues with the legislation, he ultimately supported it. Only two Democrats — Senator Arthenia Joyner and Representative Darryl Rouson — voted against the bill.

 

 
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