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Brandon losing a tireless activist

By BILLIE SMITH
Published December 2, 2005

The Brandon area and Hillsborough County will lose a well-known activist and friend next month when Michael Carducci moves to Tallahassee to be near his daughter and her family.

Michael was one of the first visitors to our Brandon bureau when it opened in 2003. He stopped in to welcome us to the area and offer me "some background."

A few hours later, I was pretty well versed on past attempts to incorporate Brandon, on local transportation issues and on a group called FAIR, which supports fair representation for the community based on its tax contributions.

Michael is a transplant from New Jersey who has been coming to this part of Florida since the mid 1950s when he purchased a vacation home on Siesta Key. After retiring, he moved to Brandon in 1986, following his children.

He believes in a balanced government because "neither party is sufficiently intelligent enough to handle the public trust."

He has been one busy retiree. Although Michael says many of his efforts might not have reached their desired result, he believes they contributed to the "first step in correcting the problem."

A good example was his involvement in trying to save the old Galvin house on Victoria Street. His stand on saving historical landmarks was well known. Ruth Dean, a local retired schoolteacher and activist, called on Michael to help her save the house. Michael's friends told him, "Leave it alone. It's a done deal."

That didn't stop him from rallying folks to attend board meetings and write letters to save a piece of local history. The house came down, and the local historical group lost that battle. But they "won the war in changing the game rules," Michael says. No longer can tearing down a house with landmark potential be a condition of a sale, as was the case of the Galvin house.

Some years ago, the Women's Club of Brandon was trying to get their clubhouse on Moon Avenue recognized as a historical landmark. The sign notifying the public that the house was under review caught Michael's eye. He parked his car and went inside.

Maggie Savitch, then president of the Women's Club, said he just stood in the back of the room during the meeting. When it was over, he asked how he could help.

He eventually wrote more than 300 women in the area to ask for support in getting the house landmark status. Today, a sign in the yard indicates they got what they were seeking.

During Ronda Storms' first term on the County Commission, she appointed Michael to the Citizens Advisory Board for the Metropolitan Planning Organization. A couple of years later, he was removed, in his opinion, because he proposed a bypass around Brandon and others controlling the MPO didn't like the idea.

Michael also was on the board of the Bay World Public Trust, which protested the destruction of the Gandy bridge and managed to save it for recreational purposes. Neil Cosentino was president when that organization also initiated the effort to have Tampa host the 2012 Olympics. Neil describes Michael as a mentor, a "wise old owl" and "someone you can go to when you need some good advice."

Michael spends a lot of time watching the government. Most of his efforts have been his own grass roots style of campaigning. He railed against a deal that extended the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway to the future Brandon Main Street area because it involved destroying wetlands and altering the watershed.

Michael says he remembers being part of a group that approached the county's Charter Review Board some five years ago and recommended that the county - a huge enterprise - should have outside auditors. They complied. Sort of. They hired one auditor. He still shakes his head at that one.

Several years ago, when Michael was president of the Presidents' Roundtable, he could not understand why a community as big as Brandon did not have an annual fireworks display on the Fourth of July. With the help of Storms, he got folks together and managed to raise $20,000. He considers it his most memorable experience.

About six years ago, Michael and Ron Wolfe founded FAIR, Fair Action and Representation, designed to get county taxpayers better representation on the County Commission. Although the group's mailing list numbers in the tens of thousands, the organization is no longer active.

Winthrop Village's Kay and John Sullivan said Michael's departure will leave a void.

"He's constantly circling around and making you think about things," John Sullivan said.

"I really feel like he's been the conscience of Brandon," Kay said.

When I asked Michael what he would like the people of Brandon to remember about him, he said, "I would like them to say, "He tried."'

People who know Michael will agree.

- Billie Smith is general manager of the Brandon Times. She can be reached at 661-2438 or bsmith@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 1, 2005, 09:34:11]