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, Leadership, Tampa Choo-Choo, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Jim Hosler, Ken Hagan, Linda Saul-Sena, Tampa Choo-Choo
St. Pete Times reporter Bill Varian talks about candidates Linda Saul-Sena and Ken Hagan’s negative comments about each other. This has all the ear-marks of a cat and dog fight.
Jim Hosler comes off more like the thoughtful adult that he is.
Saul-Sena is reported as lashing out at Hagan for missing many meeting of the various county boards he represents. Hagan fires back that Saul-Sena nearly prevented IKEA from opening a new store in Ybor City.
Hagan likes to take credit for “studying” job creation.
Important, but unemployment under Hagan’s leadership
increased from 8 to 12%.
He is disingenuous about being against taxes after he voted to recommend the biggest tax increase in the history of Hillsborough County.
Linda is all about the soft stuff of “quality of life” issues.
Important, but it must be balanced with the quality of life that comes with having a good-paying job.
She is more than naive to believe that the Tampa Choo-Choo will bring jobs on Nov. 3rd for anyone other than for downtown Tampa lawyers, consultants and developers.
Jim Hosler on the other hand, has many years of experience at both the state and local government working with the small business community to create new jobs.
Hosler’s blog and website contain over 100 pages devoted to not only his positions on important topics, but also clear roadmaps on how he proposes to help bring Hillsborough County out of this recession.
Hosler is running with No Party Affiliation (NPA).
Hagan and Saul-Sena are both party-politic-puppets, always looking out for that next campaign donation, careful to deliver what is expected of them. Taxpayers only have their vote to help decide what the county does or does not do with their money.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Leadership, Voter Support | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan, Linda Saul-Sena
Bill Varian has some interesting things to say in today’s St. Pete Times about the three candidates running for the District 5 seat on the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners.
It appears that the candidates are in a three-way tie at this time,
but each for different reasons.
Ken Hagan (R) has the name recognition, but part of this is due to vast sums of campaign money collected from downtown Tampa consultants, lawyers and developers which he uses to put his campaign signs all over the county. Still, Hagan has to live with his record of trying to destroy the region’s natural environment in favor of yet more development. No jobs have been created during his shift on the commission, except those for consultants, lawyers and developers. Hagan chaired the task force recommending the largest tax increase in Hillsborough’s history.
Candidate Linda Saul-Sena (D) has spent the last 20 years advocating only for the interests of the city of Tampa. She has a lot of supporters there who will expect her to continue to deliver for them if she should be elected to a county board seat. Linda’s track record of trying to keep IKEA from building near Ybor city speaks for her lack of job-creation skills. Linda supports the largest tax increase in Hillsborough’s history.
Candidate Jim Hosler (NPA) has 18 years experience with the Hillsborough County Planning Commission. He has worked tirelessly both in and out of government, to assist small business create jobs, including an appointment by Jeb Bush to the Florida Department of Commerce as well as now running his own small-business development company. Job creation is the number one need in the county today. Hosler feels strongly that this is not the time to increase county taxes.
Neither Hagan nor Saul-Sena have shown any ability to actually improve the quality of life for people living in Hillsborough County. So-called job creation during their participation on the city council and county commission has resulted in local unemployment going from 8 to 12% with no signs of a turnaround.
A vote for Hosler is not a “wasted” vote, because he can win this election for the voters. Votes for Hagan or Saul-Sena are wasted in that all voters can expect from them is more of the same.
We don’t need more of the same.
We need something completely different.
Only Jim Hosler is offering Hillsborough voters something different.
Let the voters decide.
Filed under: Campaign, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan
Have you seen this candidate anywhere south of Bloomingdale? He is running for a county-wide seat on the Board of County Commissioners, yet he cannot be found in south county.
He is missing from candidate forums.
He is missing from community meetings.
He is missing from roundtables.
He is missing from meet and greets.
He is missing from town halls.
He is missing from outreach efforts.
If he was not elected to the county-wide seat on the BOCC,
would YOU miss him?
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: 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, 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: Economic Stimulus, Leadership | Tags: County Commission, Hillsborough County Florida, Ken Hagan
Hillsborough: The Crazy Quilt
At least Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio has floated a number of city visions including “I am Tampa.”
Tampa columnist Steve Otto is credited with coining
“the Big Guava.”
“Cigar City” probably came the closest to an identity, until all the largest cigar factories closed down, although the city has done little to preserve these factories.
As for Hillsborough County, there is no vision of where it has been or where it is going.
Maybe “Crazy Quilt” best describes one vision of our county being just one square in the Florida High-Tech Corridor.
Hillsborough County is also made up of very different city swatches: the wanna-be urban center Tampa; the strawberry center Plant City and the who-knows-what Temple Terrace.
Hillsborough is also made up of various patches of unincorporated communities from Keystone to Ruskin.
But this Crazy Quilt of a county needs a common thread or two that might help bring it all together.
Not an advertising gimmick-idea like Florida’s “Sunshine State” but rather a County Commission that can articulate and inspire a working together of the various populations of Hillsborough County.
I have this crazy idea that if we all just put aside our petty differences and greedy aspirations, Hillsborough might be simply become known as “a great place to go to school; get medical treatment; to live, work and play”.
We just need the kind of civic leadership that we don’t have now, to help bring it all together.
Let the voters decide.
"Let the voters decide" 