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© St. Petersburg Times, published April 20, 2002
Pasco County commissioners are having second thoughts about their top choice for a job that might end up costing $750,000.
On Tuesday, the commission voted unanimously to start negotiating a contract with Wade-Trim Inc. of Tampa to prepare the next evaluation of Pasco's comprehensive land-use plan, an analysis required by the state every five years.
The commissioners ranked Wade-Trim first out of three companies that made presentations on how to tackle the job, which the county staff said could become a $750,000 project.
But Thursday, some commissioners said separately that they plan to reassess their choice at the next commission meeting, at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at the West Pasco Government Center in New Port Richey.
Despite published reports of Wade-Trim's rocky past with Port Richey and problems one company officer had with the city of Clearwater, commissioners and the county attorney were not aware of the information until a reporter mentioned it after the vote.
Now they have questions about whether they should move on with Wade-Trim or the next choice, URS Corp.
"It raises my eyebrows," commission Chairwoman Ann Hildebrand said.
The issues in question are two-fold. One is about the company's relationship with Port Richey. The city ended its ties with Wade-Trim as its engineering firm in October 2000 after the company pushed a plan for a 217-unit condominium and townhome project to the city's planning and zoning board. The city said that created a conflict of interest.
David Gildersleeve, executive vice president of Wade-Trim, said the company withdrew the contract for the condo project when conflict questions arose, even though he said a conflict didn't exist. That's because Wade-Trim designed city projects, it didn't review development plans, he said.
However, officials in the city were also concerned at the time because the condo project required an amendment to the comprehensive plan, which Wade-Trim wrote.
Gildersleeve said county commissioners can be assured that the company would not take on any private business in Pasco should it win the contract to analyze the county's comprehensive plan. About 95 percent of its business is with governmental bodies.
"We don't have any private clients in Pasco anyway," he said.
The second issue involves Mike Roberto, the company's manager of governmental solutions. Before joining Wade-Trim, he was forced to resign as Clearwater city manager in July 2000. Roberto had caused a controversy related to his spending on consultants and benefits for top staffers, a proposal to impose a new fee on residents to finance the fire department, and the accident-prone Clearwater Beach roundabout, which Roberto built on a rapid time-frame.
Roberto said he chose to leave Clearwater because of differences of opinion on the city's future.
"The focus was different," he said. "I really believe that ultimately you have to deal with the whole downtown question and the economics of the beach, that you have to deal with declining neighborhoods in the community. I really felt we needed to put a lot more money in those neighborhoods."
Hildebrand said she thought that Wade-Trim had done a good job for Pasco in the past while compiling studies on parks and libraries.
However, this job calls for higher scrutiny.
"How do we envision our county to look the next couple of decades? You don't get too many chances at that opportunity, and you don't want to mess it up," she said.
Commissioner Peter Altman said he could be reassured if the company promises not to do business with a private developer in Pasco during the analysis of the comprehensive plan.
"If someone wants to tell me they are not competent or are notorious overbillers or some other information . . . I think that's what could cause us to revisit it," Altman said.
Commissioner Ted Schrader said his key concern is with Roberto.
"Why did he leave the city of Clearwater? Was it on his terms or their terms?" he asked.
Commissioner Steve Simon said if other commissioners want to put the issue back on the agenda, he's happy to hear from all sides.
Commissioner Pat Mulieri said she wants to iron out questions about conflicts of interest.
"I think we have to talk about it," she said.