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Candidate would control growth

A self-employed Moon Lake computer tech files papers to run against County Commissioner Steve Simon.

By GARRETT THEROLF
Published March 25, 2006

Growth, said new County Commission candidate John "Auto" Karpinski, is suffocating us. Literally.

"I don't know about you, but I breathe oxygen rather than a bunch of dirt and carbon dioxide. We're not going to have any oxygen left at this rate," Karpinski said.

So upon filing papers this week to campaign to unseat County Commissioner Steve Simon, Karpinski promised that if elected he will raise fees on developers to pay to cut down trees. They were lowered last summer when commissioners saw that their old policy would result in millions of dollars in fines for some builders.

That infuriated Karpinski as he watched from his couch in the Moon Lake neighborhood of Port Richey. He said he saw a need for his average Joe approach to find a more appropriate solution.

"I'm just a common sense American," Karpinski said, noting that he would have checked a party affiliation box saying as much if it had been available. Absent such a box, he has instead gone with "No Party Affiliation." Another complaint the 32-year-old self-employed computer repairman and Pasco-Hernando Community College student has is the current commission's support for an extension of Ridge Road to make a new east-west thoroughfare.

Focusing on new roads is inappropriate, he said, when many existing roads are unpaved. He cited a recent a newspaper report that said the county still has hundreds of miles of dirt roads.

"Just look at the roads in my neighborhood!," Karpinski said. "We could use that money here."

Plus, he said, "the girls at the bank say we're going to lose a CVS because of that Ridge Road extension. You should look into that . . . Why can't they just build the road around the CVS?"

He said that better roads, more sheriff's deputies and new parks could also be paid for by eliminating waste "beginning with the commissioner's salaries" of $76,497.

"It's a part-time job. They're surfing on the Internet for a lot of the time they're supposed to be listening to the people. They should be earning the median in come for the county," Karpinski said.

If elected, Karpinski said he would donate everything in excess of $35,000 to local charities.

He has an uphill task in front of him, though. His fundraising, he said, will rely on "some friends and family who will help me out."

His first campaign event will be this weekend when he plans to hold a three-day yard sale where he hopes to begin collecting the signatures necessary to qualify for the ballot.

After that, he said he plans to canvass much of the county on foot.

When he does, constituents will be greeted by a stark choice between the two announced candidates.

Whereas Simon prizes diction and decorum, Karpinski has a let-it-all-hang-out bearing. Answering the door by first peering through the blinds, he greeted this reporter at a previously arranged time with "Who are you?"

The home is shared with his wife, Marilyn, and three cats. His wife goes by "Mars" because co-workers back in California started calling her by the initials of her maiden name.

As for himself, his nickname "Auto" comes from the days when he worked as a cab driver.

When a supervisor told him to pick an alias so that he would not be at high risk for robbery, he wanted something that would stay true to his real name.

So "Karpinski" was broken in three parts. For "Kar" he substituted "Auto." "Pin" became "Sharp." "Ski" is now "Snow." Thus Auto Sharp Snow was born.

"Auto: That's what most of my friends call me now," he said, "and that's what the people of Pasco will probably know me as when I'm elected."

[Last modified March 25, 2006, 07:04:23]