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Ethics dilemma is fleeting for award winner

By STEVE HUETTEL
Published September 24, 2005

TAMPA - The phone call notifying Jan Platt that she'd won this year's Tampa Bay Ethics Award gave her a moment of discomfort.

Platt had served on a committee that picked a previous winner and, "I almost wondered if I had an ethical problem accepting," Platt told a crowd of about 200 at the University of Tampa Friday morning. "But I'm going to take it."

The longtime Hillsborough County commissioner who retired in November built a reputation as a maverick willing to say unpopular things and take on powerful figures for causes she believed in, friends said at the awards ceremony.

Former Tampa Mayor Bill Poe recalled how Platt came to him after her election to the Tampa City Council in the mid 1970s insisting on changes in the city's bylaws.

"I came to the conclusion (the changes) would be a pain," he said. "And she was the pain. She believed good men and good women can disagree ... and this diversity is to be cherished. Our government and our community are stronger because of people like Jan."

Platt ended up on the losing end of so many 6-1 County Commission votes that opponents dubbed her "Commissioner No." She twisted around the nickname and called herself "Commissioner Know," said Jerry Noland, a senior aide for Platt's final five years in office.

The commission's self-appointed ethics watchdog, Platt was so strict that staffers worried about getting to keep Christmas cookies and kept meticulous records of gifts like coffee mugs, Noland said.

The award is given by the university's Center for Ethics to Tampa Bay area residents in business or government who "exemplify moral qualities and the highest standards in the daily activities."

Previous winners include former Gov. Bob Martinez, Monsignor Laurence Higgins of St. Lawrence Church and former St. Petersburg police Chief Goliath Davis.

[Last modified September 24, 2005, 00:59:07]