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$1-million down, plan for spending it to go

While a payment from Tampa General waits in a bank account, Davis Islands residents wrangle over how to use it.

By JANET ZINK
Published August 19, 2005

DAVIS ISLANDS - Residents are squabbling about what to do with $1-million that Tampa General Hospital committed to the community earlier this year.

Some say it should go to public parks.

Others say it should go into a community foundation for projects in the Davis Islands vision plan, including transportation improvements.

The hospital offered the money to Davis Islands residents in the midst of a contentious push for permission to build a parking garage on 0.4 acres of Marjorie Park.

Many Davis Islands residents objected to the hospital's expansion, saying they wanted to protect that piece of public waterfront property.

But the City Council approved the plans unanimously in May.

The Davis Islands Civic Association appealed the decision to Circuit Court, but a judge hasn't decided if the appeal will be heard.

Meanwhile, the money sits in a city Parks and Recreation Department account. The money will not be spent until the litigation is resolved, assistant city attorney Morris Massey said.

"There will be interest earned on it that will be added to the $1-million," he said.

The hospital's lease agreement for the city-owned land says the $1-million will be used for parks on Davis Islands with approval of representatives of the Davis Islands Neighborhood Task Force, the Davis Islands Civic Association and the Davis Islands Chamber of Commerce.

Steve Stanley, president of the Davis Islands Neighborhood Association, said he has no problem with allowing the city to hold the money for park improvements. What he opposes is the hospital expansion and the lease agreement in general.

But Lee Medart, chairwoman of the Davis Islands Neighborhood Task Force, said that when Tampa General offered the money, it was assumed the money would go to the residents for neighborhood improvements.

"It was not for the city. It was for the community," she said. "Somehow, the city siphoned that money off to go into a parks and recreation account."

The neighborhood's vision plan goes beyond parks, she said. Transportation is one of the most important issues, she said.

The best use of the $1-million would be as seed money for a foundation that could earn interest and fund projects on the island in perpetuity, she said.

Jim Frijouf, president of the Davis Islands Chamber of Commerce, also believed that the hospital's contribution would go to the resident organizations, not the city. His organization hasn't taken an official position on the issue, but he personally likes Medart's idea of a foundation administered by all three groups.

"It gives the people on the island more control and flexibility over where the money is spent," Frijouf said.

Prior to the council vote, TGH chief executive officer Ron Hytoff wrote an e-mail to hospital employees saying the money would "help fund and implement the long-range vision plan adopted by the Neighborhood Task Force after input from more than 1,000 island residents."

He encouraged employees to forward the e-mail to City Council members to show support for the expansion.

But hospital spokesman John Dunn said TGH never specified what should happen with the $1-million or how it should be administered.

"We never set up a mechanism for all this," Dunn said. "We offered the money up."

City officials made the decision to put the $1-million in the parks department account and stand by the decision.

"The residents were saying they were losing parkland," said Santiago Corrada, the city's administrator of neighborhood services. "The administration thought it would be best to put the money in a fund that would benefit parks."

Medart said she plans to circulate a petition to Davis Islands residents seeking support for creating the foundation.

Janet Zink can be reached at 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com

[Last modified August 18, 2005, 11:46:08]