The No-Planning Commission

By Adam Hughes
| 6:00 p.m. December 9, 2005
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

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Fifty business, government and non-profit leaders concluded a meeting earlier this month by criticizing local politicians for failing to prepare for the day when population growth no longer drives the Hillsborough County economy.

A daylong workshop at TECO Energy Inc. focused on how local government can make Tampa more attractive to high-wage industry. Or, as a portion of the Dec. 2 event's unwieldy title put it, "identifying ways to improve Hillsborough County's competitiveness in 2025."

But the long-range planning workshop, which featured four simultaneous roundtable discussions, was consumed by an uneasy feeling that the county's current political leadership cannot see that far ahead.

"The political structure tends to be lacking," says Tampa plumbing contractor Jason Busto, who called for government reform. "The bottom line is, in this room alone, we've got enough people to make this happen. It's something we've got to do. Otherwise, our grandkids are not going to stay here. We're not going to be competitive. We'll continue to lose out, on some levels."

Former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ed Turanchik was more blunt about the sentiment at his table. "We thought that the current political system in the county is broken," he says. "It's not accountable, and it's time to have an elected county mayor, period."

Turanchik has advocated concentrating the decision-making of county government in an elected mayor since the 1990s.

Less clout

A county mayor would reduce the clout of county commissioners. Two of them, Republican social conservatives Brian Blair and Ronda Storms, have been roundly criticized this year for meddling in library, school board and other matters.

The criticism has given new impetus to the Tampa business establishment resurrecting Turanchik's county mayor proposal, which the Tampa Tribune endorsed last month.

Spencer Kass, a Tampa real estate broker and lawyer, says the evidence of a county leadership vacuum is all around. "Our infrastructure basically - this isn't a secret to anybody - is sort of falling apart," says Kass. "All these things about future growth are great. But if you don't have the infrastructure to support it, you're going to have a real problem."

The biggest deficiency in the county of more than one million residents is a public transit system that keeps shrinking as population expands, according to several workshop participants.

"We really need to start focusing on the transit system," says Fassil Gabremarian, former chairman of the Tampa Port Authority. "If we have to constrain other investments and choose one area to invest in, it's the transit system."

Gabremarian mentioned a light-rail system, a possibility that Democratic Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio says the region must explore. But Republican commissioners say the county doesn't need one.

City vs. 'burbs

Turanchik alluded to unnamed politicians who are pitting Democratic Tampa against the Republican suburbs when it comes to funding for the Hillsborough Regional Transit Authority, known as HARTline.

Blair is leading a study of HARTline, starting with the premise that residents of the county's unincorporated areas are paying for mass transit service that primarily benefits Tampa residents.

Of all the workshop participants, Turanchik, a former HARTline board member, spoke most directly about who he thinks is responsible for the latest turmoil at the county transit agency - without mentioning names.

"There's a kind of currency going on in discussions that, if we're going to have a transit system and it's taxed countywide, it should serve countywide." Turanchik told the workshop about the debate at his table. "And we thought that's just wrong."

Turanchik, who is working with private investors to redevelop blighted Tampa neighborhoods, suggested that stretching HARTline's dwindling resources to the comfortable suburbs and exurbs was Blair's way of further undermining the transit authority.

"Transit works well in some places and works bad in other places," says Turanchik. "If you force transit into places where it doesn't work, it's going to be held up as, 'look, it doesn't work.' Transit is not going to work in places where there is one or two units per acre, where the average income is $50,000 or $100,000, and people are living in $300,000 houses. No one's going to ride it. What a surprise!"

Blair, a former professional wrestler who didn't return a call seeking comment, is a political protege of Tampa businessman Ralph Hughes, a long-time HARTline critic. There has been bad blood between Democrat Turanchik and the GOP-oriented Hughes for years, especially over impact fees.

While concerned about keeping housing affordable, Turanchik says his table was in favor of raising school impact fees. "Everyone agreed that $195 per new home for school impact fees was an embarrassment," Turanchik says of the current levy.

Where'd the taxes go?

Turanchik says his table did question the spending priorities of local government. "We have seen massive increases in ad valorem property tax revenues. Where is it all going?" he asks. "None of it, or little of it, seems to be getting reinvested in the infrastructure that can sustain the growth and mitigate the impacts of growth."

Growth is one of the county's biggest industries, along with medical care. Yet Turanchik says immediate, if understandable, neighborhood opposition greets most development projects.

"It's a paradox that people can be opposed to the very thing that provides the prosperity for the community," says Turanchik. "Why are people against developments? Well, they overcrowd schools, they cause storm water flooding, and they flood our neighborhoods with traffic."

Calling it a "no-brainer," Turanchik's table favors a nickel-a-gallon hike in the county gasoline tax to cover transportation improvements. "We have seen massive increases in gas prices, which we pay to Arab oil sheiks and Russians and Venezuelans without batting an eye," he says. "But we won't pay five cents a gallon or more to improve the livability of our own community."

Turanchik ended with a quiz. The residents of which American city - Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, New York, San Diego or Tampa - pay more for housing and transportation as a percentage of average household income than any other metropolitan area in the nation.

The answer is Tampa, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. "That should be a giant issue that should be on every elected official's tongue," says Turanchik. "And we don't hear one word about it."

Who showed up?

Dozens of Hillsborough County residents signed up for a Dec. 2 workshop on long-term economic development called by county planners and sponsored by TECO Energy Inc. A sampling from the list included:

• Chloe Coney, president and chief executive of CDC of Tampa Inc.;

• Sandy Council, president of the Ruskin Redneck Trading Co. Inc.;

• Ed Dees, business manager of Iron Workers Local 397 in Mango;

• Mark Huey, economic development administrator for the city of Tampa;

• Jeff Knot, executive vice president of Rooms to Go Inc. in Seffner;

• John LaRocca, chairman of the Tampa Downtown Partnership;

• Joe Narkiewicz, executive vice president of the Builders Association of Greater Tampa;

• Mike Peterson, land-use lawyer in Apollo Beach; and

• Ron Vaughn, president of the University of Tampa.

Hillsborough County population and projections 2004 2015 2025

Tampa 327,220 376,040 425,900

Plant City 32,480 39,980 43,750