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A Times Editorial
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 22, 2002
Watching Ronda Storms shoot herself in the foot would be entertaining if it weren't a serious comment on her job performance. Her battle with public access television is typical of the poor judgment and lack of proportion that Storms has applied to public policymaking since joining the Hillsborough County Commission in 1998.
Storms had plenty of legal and political ways to confront obscenity on public access television. She could have asked county staff to work with the show's producers to ensure the broadcast was within legal and contractual bounds. She could have urged the county to become more involved in promoting quality programing, and engaged the commission in a thoughtful debate on the line between free speech and community standards.
Most viewers would welcome relief from the many low-rent public access programs they pay for. Storms, however, chose another tack. She zeroed in on the graphic nudity aired on a late-night cable access show. Storms asked State Attorney Mark Ober to consider filing criminal obscenity charges, and she asked the county attorney to pursue canceling the broadcast contract. When a critic e-mailed Storms the other day with a sexually explicit photo, she forwarded it to other commissioners and their staffs.
Now two Hillsborough commissioners are wondering whether Storms broke any policy or law herself on the distribution of sexually objectionable material. And the downward spiral reached a low Wednesday when a county employee taunted Storms in vulgar terms at a public hearing; he was later fired.
Both sides have lost focus and credibility. Storms' lack of political finesse has polarized the issue and made it less likely her more thoughtful colleagues would wade into this debate. That's no way to get anything done.