Contentious discord marks 'Courage' award

TAMPA -- Hillsborough commissioners have gotten into some of their most contentious debates over the past 10 years while choosing their annual Moral Courage Award recipient.

Wednesday was no different, and after a heated debate commissioners opted instead to recognize two people for their highest honor, the first time they have done so in the 11-year history of the award.

The selections made one recipient happy and humble and left the other upset and disenchanted.

Roy Davis, 70, a Dover nurseryman, was the nomination of the county's Citizens Advisory Committee on a strongly divided vote. Commissioners look to the citizens panel to screen the nominations and they historically have gone with that recommendation.

But on Wednesday, Commissioner Pat Frank initially proposed tossing all the nominations. Most may be fine people, she said, but she didn't believe they met the definition of moral courage.

Her proposal died, gaining only the support of Jan Platt, but started the debate in earnest.

Davis has led several campaigns before the County Commission over the years, usually on behalf of farmers. He spearheaded the effort to open part of a preservation tract near Durant High School to agriculture students. And he fought for the right of farmers to use swampy areas on their property for irrigation ponds.

The ponds enable farmers to lessen their reliance on groundwater pumping, but environmental regulators for the county have opposed them fearing they also wreck wetlands.

Frank said that the award is supposed to go to people who stand up to government for the betterment of the community. With Davis, she argued that it's not clear the community at large has benefitted from his actions.

Commissioner Ronda Storms accused Frank and Platt of disapproving of the nomination because Davis has different political views than theirs. And she called them hypocrites for not following the process commissioners have always used to make the decision, a point Platt in particular uses often to argue against other issues.

Underlying the discussion was the commissioners' knowledge that Davis was nominated by businessman Ralph Hughes, an active political backer and conservative whom Platt and Frank view with some distrust.

Commissioner Kathy Castor presented a compromise, nominating both Davis and Anna Yuninger, 74, a Wimauma civic leader who has pressed the commission to develop affordable housing and beef up code enforcement in one of Hillsborough's poorest areas. She has helped get money for new lighting and led government to clean up areas where dilapidated homes and failing sewer systems were the norm.

Yuninger was a close runner-up to Davis when the citizens committee reviewed applications.

Davis was recognized on a 5-2 vote, with Platt and Frank voting no. Yuninger's nomination was approved 4-3, with Storms, Commissioner Jim Norman and Chairman Tom Scott voting no.

Yuninger said a lot of other people who have worked with her should have their names on the plaque alongside hers.

"I got my reward from the joy in my heart in seeing things change," she said. "Had I not even gotten an honorable mention, that wouldn't have bothered me, because I see my joy every day."

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright