Joe Chillura Courthouse Square: Joe Chillura may have lost his last attempt to regain office, but his years of service are recognized in a courthouse square.
By MICHAEL CANNING
Published May 21, 2004
Getting a downtown park named after you is not a bad consolation for having a 27-year career of public service end in defeat.
Joe Chillura is humble about it just the same. When the Hillsborough County Commission voted to bestow the honor on him, "They apparently didn't have anyone important to name the park after," Chillura said with a laugh.
A native of Tampa, Chillura grew up in Seminole Heights and graduated from Hillsborough High School in 1958. He studied architecture at the University of Florida and in 1963 started an internship with H. Leslie Walker and Associates, working on the design team for the proposed Tampa International Airport.
Chillura graduated from UF in 1965 and joined McElvy, Jennewein, Stefany and Howard, the first of several architecture firms Chillura worked for while serving in the public arena.
From 1966 to 1970 Chillura served on the mayor's Downtown Development Commission. After that he served five years on the Tampa City Council. In 1978 he began the first of three, four-year terms on the Hillsborough County Planning Commission.
Chillura put his architecture work on hold in 1990 when he was elected to the Hillsborough County Commission. He was re-elected in 1994. Among his proudest achievements while on the commission was creating the county's Economic Development Department and the Neighborhood Bill of Rights.
His most-famous action was also his most controversial: the establishment of the Community Investment Tax. Passed by voters in 1996, the half-cent sales tax funded new schools, infrastructure and public safety. It also funded the controversial construction of Raymond James Stadium, which the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers demanded to keep the team in Tampa.
"A lot of people are still mad at me about that," Chillura said.
Voters expressed their feelings in 2000 when he lost to Jan Platt for a third term as commissioner. Polls indicated considerable anger over the tax, he said.
He had also lost to Jim Davis for U.S. Congress in 1998.
In 2002 Chillura literally went back to the drawing board and resumed his architecture career as a design consultant, consulting on land use and zoning matters. Now 63, he lives in Culbreath Bayou with his wife, Mary. They have five children and six grandchildren.
In his spare time he enjoys photography, reading and keeping up with local politics. He also recently founded the Italian Cultural Foundation with his cousin Mike Garcia and hopes to establish a permanent course study on Italian culture and language at the University of South Florida.
In 2001 the county dedicated the Joe Chillura Courthouse Square at Pierce Street and Kennedy Boulevard.
