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BRIDGET HALL GRUMETCounty Commissioner Ann Hildebrand's vote to pave roads in her neighborhood is okay because she won't get a special benefit.
NEW PORT RICHEY - Hundreds of Gulf Harbors residents supported a plan to repave their main roads. One of them was a county commissioner.
That led to a question Tuesday evening over whether Commissioner Ann Hildebrand, a longtime resident of Gulf Harbors, should vote on the plan to repave the neighborhood's main roads and bill the residents - including herself - for the work.
"Why is she allowed to vote on it?" resident Clara Chapman shouted from the audience, as commission Chairman Peter Altman pounded the gavel in the West Pasco Government Center board room. "That's a conflict of interest!"
Actually, it's not, said County Attorney Robert Sumner, who discussed the matter with Hildebrand a couple of weeks ago.
Hildebrand is one of about 1,900 property owners who will benefit by repaving Floramar Terrace, Topsail Trail, Headsail Drive and a snippet of Shell Stream Boulevard, Sumner said. She will be billed the same (about $291) as her neighbors on Pilots Place, a side street that is not being repaved.
Homeowners fronting the repaved streets will pay more ($1,166) under the theory that the improved streets benefit them more. All Gulf Harbors residents will pay something, because they must use at least one of these roads to get in and out of the New Port Richey neighborhood.
"She's not being singled out as having any better opportunity or any special benefit that's different than the benefit to every other property owner within the subdivision," Sumner told the Pasco Times.
In fact, Sumner said, commissioners are required to participate in every vote that comes before them, unless the matter poses a conflict of interest.
The Gulf Harbors repaving project passed 4-0 Tuesday evening, with Commissioner Pat Mulieri absent. The work should be done this summer.
Hildebrand said the work is long overdue. "As someone who's driven these roads for three decades and knows how bad they are, this is a great night," she said.
In other news Tuesday evening, commissioners approved plans for 277 homes at Grey Hawk at Lake Polo, a project southwest of State Road 54 and the Suncoast Parkway.
The 177-acre project sits next to a rural area where some residents live on 1- or 5-acre lots. Some of those residents asked commissioners to scale back the project or at least provide a bigger buffer.
"All we're asking for is some kind of consideration that you're coming right up to us, that we have a lifestyle that we moved there for," said Jorge Capote, who lives across the street from the development.
The developer offered to plant a buffer of 8-foot-high cedar trees. The new neighborhood, which will include homes priced from $300,000 to $700,000, will be an improvement to an area dotted with mobile homes, said Steve Booth, an attorney for the developer.
"To me, what we are proposing is a very serious upgrade to the community," Booth said.
- Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com