By JANET ZINK, Times Staff Writer
Published October 28, 2005
TAMPA - The City Council on Thursday postponed a vote on a contract with a company that promotes clean waterways, saying they needed more time to review the arrangement.
City Council member Rose Ferlita has complained for months that Mayor Pam Iorio and her administration too often wait until the last minute to consult the council on important issues.
This time, she said, she didn't hear about the contract until Wednesday, and the administration has been working on it for at least nine months. As head of a sign ordinance committee, she should have known earlier about the contract, since it could mean more than 100 signs would be placed along Tampa's roadways.
Council members Linda Saul-Sena, John Dingfelder and Gwen Miller also voted to postpone considering the contract, saying they, too, had problems with some details. But council member Shawn Harrison said he trusted Iorio and her staff had done the necessary research, and he was ready to vote.
The deal with Adopt-a-Waterway calls for the company to negotiate corporate sponsors to have their names on for signs that promote clean rivers and bays. Adopt-a-Waterway would get half the money.
The city would get the other half, which could be as much as $200,000 a year. That money would be used to clean up the Hillsborough River and other Tampa bodies of water, said Steve Daignault, administrator for the city's public works and utilities.
Adopt-a-Waterway, which has overseen the program in about a dozen other cities, including Baltimore and Miami, also could launch a public education campaign, although that was optional under the terms of the contract.
"We don't have enough money to do what we need to do in this city," Harrison said. Council member Kevin White agreed with Ferlita that information on the contract came at the last minute, but, like Harrison, he was ready to vote.
"I am all for anything that anyone from the private sector is willing to do for the city that won't cost us anything," he said.
But Saul-Sena said it wasn't "free money."
"It's a trade-off. We get sign pollution," she said. "I'm not looking forward to the day when we're on the beach and there's a sign that says, "This sunset brought to you by X corporation.' "
