Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan
As the race for Hillsborough County Commission District 5 winds down to election day, pause for a few moments and reflect on what Hagan calls his “track record.”
In his first term with the county, he did and said little to contribute to the public conversation. His votes on issues pretty much went along with what would benefit contributors such as Ralph Hughes.
During his term as Chairman of the BOCC, Ken Hagan has been spending money on outside consultants like it wasn’t his money. Study after study, task force after task force and the only thing Hagan has to point to is getting onto the ballot the largest tax increase in Hillsborough County’s history.
Then true to form, Hagan back peddles to pander to his other campaign contributors by saying that he does NOT support the transportation plan.
Do we REALLY want four more years under Hagan’s brand of leadership?
Do we instead want to sweep clean from County Government the incumbent dust bunnies and start over with some squeekly clean new faces like Jim Hosler?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Economic Stimulus, Ethics, Tampa Choo-Choo, Transportation, Voter Support | Tags: Bus rapid transit, County Commission, Downtown Tampa, HART, Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Public transport, Sales tax, Tampa Choo-Choo, Tampa light-rail, Tax
Uh, come on. You can trust ME.
The news never ends about Transportation Task Force chair Mr. Ken Hagan (R) who is running for a county-wide seat on the County Board of Commissioners.
This time the news is that Hagan, oops forgot to look out for $40 MILLION he caused the county to borrow in 2008 against the last sales tax increase. Read the News Channel 8 story. The money, earmarked to fund a HART BRT project has been just sitting around, while taxpayers pay the interest on that loan, estimated to be over one and a half MILLION dollars each year. HART is now scrambling to spend it before they have to give (have it taken) back to The County.
The BRT program deserves a look-see. BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit. This is one of the most expensive modes of public transportation, second only to rail. Much more expensive than POB; Plain Old Bus service.
So, where is (was) this BRT scheduled to be built? Would you believe a few blocks away from where HART is also planning to build either another BRT line or a light-rail line? Yes boys and girls. The so-called critical north-south transit corridor to downtown ALREADY had money to build a sophisticated bus service, but wasn’t for some reason. So now HART is going to build competing transit lines in the same north-west corridor: one from the first tax increase, the second from the next tax increase.
What is that “some reason” why this north-south corridor route bus service was never pursued? Could it be that it was delayed so that ANOTHER sales tax increase could be muscled through on an unsuspecting public to pay for a Choo-Choo for Tampa?
The County and the City of Tampa, along with lawyers, consultants and developers have been working together on a scheme to use county taxpayer money to improve property values around downtown Tampa. They call it Transit Oriented Development (TOD). We should call it Tampa Oriented Development.
Why expensive light-rail instead of more cost-effective bus transit? The consultants and the lobby group Moving Hillsborough Forward determined that light-rail would have a bigger impact on Tampa property values than BRT or POB service. Plus, they found that riders would prefer to vote for a shiny new Choo-Choo than a stinky old bus. So what is the plan to get riders outside the corridors to the train stations? POB.
That $40 million is the only money that The County has given HART out of the $4 BILLION raised from the last sales tax increase. If public transportation was so important to them, Ken Hagan and the Transportation Task Force, why was only 1% of that tax used? Good question.
Hagan’s Transportation Task Force was all about property-value-enhancing rail for Tampa.
It was never about helping people get from one place to another.
If transportation was the important goal, better use of our $40 million would have been made, years ago.
Do we REALLY want to trust Commissioner Ken Hagan and HART with ANOTHER $180 MILLION per year, forever, to service the transportation needs of the tax-paying public?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Linda Saul-Sena
Cry-baby Ken Hagan was at it again this week.
Ken admits taking down one of Linda Saul-Sena campaign signs which had upset his tender sensibilities. What upset him the most was that she used his own words.
Cry-baby Linda says that Ken should keep his grubby little hands off her stuff.
Catch the Bay News 9 Video
Can’t we just have less crying and more discussions about things the voting public really cares about, like ethics in county government, meaningful term limits, non-partisan county politics, safe drinking water and accountability for spending our tax dollars?
Jim Hosler seems to be the only adult running in this race.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
Sign Wars erupted today at an early voting location. Creative Loafing broke the story.
It seems candidate Hagan didn’t like the public being reminded of his stand on honoring Condederate Memorial Day.
Taking matters into his own hands, Hagan reportedly removed the sign, with his own hands. We wonder if he got his hands dirty.
Interesting comments from both Hosler and Saul-Sena campaign camps is that their signs go missing while nearby Hagan signs remain. Coincidence?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Ethics, Leadership, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida
All of us have likely heard the maxim, “Confession is good for the soul.” It’s an old Scottish proverb but there is a word missing. The proverb actually reads, “Open confession is good for the soul.”
Commissioner Jim Norman could have heeded this advice and thereby avoided the possibility of being rejected or removed by the Florida State Senate; facing the FBI and facing the IRS. Some never learn. But the possibility of learning from this should not be lost on the remaining members of the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners.
Look deeply within your self.
What things about your past behaviors would you NOT want to see as newspaper headlines?
This is not an easy task.
Ask Jim Norman.
He could have come clean on questionable links to Ralph Hughes before someone else brought them to light. The voting public would have forgiven him and sent him to Tallahassee with pride. A re-born statesman, instead of a politician under a cloud.
The Senate would have forgiven him.
The FBI would have forgiven him.
The IRS would have forgiven him.
So now the remaining BOCC members
each have your own choices to make.
Step out of church on Sunday and openly confess anything that would otherwise disqualify you for a career in public office.
Do it now, while you still have the love and support of your public.
Do it later, and face possibly having all that you have accomplished taken away in a flash of unwanted publicity.
Each of you must decide for yourself.
Trust to “let the voters decide”. We are a very forgiving people.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Politics
Reading the Janet Zink and Bill Varian article today about Ralph Hughes’ influence on the Hillsborough Board of County Commission, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Who is left on the BOCC who might also have been (still being) unduly influenced by money, “mentoring” or other peccadilloes?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Electoral district, Gerrymandering, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics, Redistricting
The original Gerry-mander
When it comes to redistricting, who do you want on the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners: R’s, D’s or NPA’s?
Candidate Ken Hagan makes no bones about following the party line. This would seem to be his plan for redistricting, even if he is elected to District 5, county-wide. There are still R’s to protect in other single-member districts.
What Wikipedia says:
“Gerrymandering is a form of boundary delimitation (redistricting) in which electoral district or constituency boundaries are deliberately modified for electoral purposes, thereby producing a contorted or unusual shape.
Incumbents are likely to be of the majority party orchestrating a gerrymander, and incumbents are usually easily renominated in subsequent elections.
This demonstrates that gerrymandering can have a deleterious effect on the principle of democratic accountability. With uncompetitive seats/districts reducing the fear that incumbent politicians may lose office, they have less incentive to represent the interests of their constituents, even when those interests conform to majority support for an issue across the electorate as a whole. Incumbent politicians may look out more for their party’s interests than for those of their constituents.”
Sound like what we have now in Hillsborough County?
Is this what we REALLY want to continue under Hagan?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
With Commissioner Jim Norman now disgraced; with Commissioner Kevin White now disgraced; with other senior County officials either fired or put under a cloud of impropriety, how can Charmian Ken Hagan continue to be silent and offer no true leadership to the BOCC?
An ostrich with its head in the sand has a better chance of protecting the reputation of the rest of the flock than candidate Ken Hagan has in protecting what is left of the reputation of the Hillsborough Board of County commissioners.
There are far too many pressing issues confronting the taxpayers of Hillsborough to allow Hagan to continue to have any say in our county’s future.
Do we really want the King of D’ Nile in charge of our future, or do we need new leadership?
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
Three of these kids belong together
Three of these kids are kind of the same
But one of these kids is doing his own thing
Now it’s time to play our game
It’s time to play our game.
Only Candidate Mr. Ken Hagan
has NOT YET been caught being naughty.
Filed under: Campaign, Economic Stimulus, Ethics, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Politics
There is a draft study report that candidate Ken Hagan doesn’t want you to see until AFTER the elections.
The Number One factor reported as limiting Hillsborough County’s economic development and recovery is
“Civic Leadership.”
Since February 2009, candidate Ken Hagan has been the Vice Chair and senior BOCC representative on the Hillsborough County Economic Stimulus Task Force. On June 17, 2009 the Task Force Report included a number of recommendations. The Number One Recommendation was to “Develop and implement a detailed Economic Development Strategy Plan” to include an updated Locational Assessment, Cluster Analysis, Workforce Trends and Capabilities review.
Over a year later, with hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, the Locational Assessment report is pretty much complete and in draft form. The Number One “Next Step” recommendation coming from the New Jersey consultants? Develop a Strategic Plan!
This next round of “study” includes identifying six target industries; figure out how to communicate with them and finally produce an outline on how to implement The Plan.
How many more years and how many hundreds of thousands of dollars do the taxpayers need to throw at this before the first job is created as a result of County Government activities?
The Locational Assessment says some good things about the economic strengths of Hillsborough County:
- It is one of the lower cost major markets in the U.S.
- It has a labor market capable of absorbing employment growth.
- It has a competitive advantage over the rest of the U.S. in financial operations, healthcare and office support.
- It has a relatively well-regulated labor pool.
- USF has a rising reputation.
- HCC compares well with other large metropolitan community college systems.
- It competes well with other destinations on personal costs.
- It has a warm climate year-round.
- It offers convenient airport and residential siting opportunities geared to mark requirements.
What is keeping Hillsborough County from getting out and staying out of recession?
“Civic Leadership.”
The consultant’s report says we need leadership to:
- Create an area personality or sense of specialness.
- Control taxes.
- Simplify the development approval process.
- Develop a centralized property inventory.
- Work with industry and the local military to promote economic development.
All is not lost.
Hillsborough has a lot going for it. We just need new leadership NOW;
not more studies.
Let the voters decide.
"Let the voters decide" 