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Politics

Vote may smooth county, city tiffs

Two front-runners for County Commission seats are Tampa City Council members.

By JANET ZINK
Published October 22, 2006

TAMPA - Early this year, City Council members left fuming from a Hillsborough County Commission meeting on school crowding.

"They basically told us to leave," council member Kevin White said after the January session.

"We all came back with a culture shock," council member Rose Ferlita said at the time. "We were not welcomed. Hopefully, that's the last time we have that type of encounter. It accomplishes nothing."

Strained city-county relations have been a running theme in recent years.

The council and Mayor Pam Iorio have butted heads with county officials over hurricane planning, regulation of sexually oriented businesses, bus service, redevelopment of a public housing complex and repairs to the Convention Center roof.

Could the upcoming election help the two jurisdictions make nice? Maybe.

November will bring at least four new faces to the County Commission, and it's a good bet two of them will be Ferlita and White.

It's not a lock, but they are front-runners for the District 1 and 3 commission seats. After nearly eight years on the City Council, Republican Ferlita has name recognition and eight times as much campaign money as her Democratic opponent, Mary Mulhern.

White, a Democrat, is running in a district where fewer than 20 percent of registered voters are Republicans.

Some say that as long as Democrats dominate city politics and Republicans control most county offices, conflict will continue. Others believe adding Ferlita and White to the board could help smooth city-county relations.

"They will have a clear understanding of the needs of the city and definitely believe that the city is part of the county," Iorio said. "They know the issues."

County Commissioner Mark Sharpe said whoever ends up on the board, he hopes it will mean a more collegial future for the two groups.

"It's always helpful to have someone who has a knowledge of how city government works," he said, adding that his comment was not an endorsement.

Both White and Ferlita say if elected to the commission, they would be advocates for the city.

"It's no secret that lots of time I'm critical of the administration because I think they're too controlling," said Ferlita, who at one point accused Iorio of treating the City Council like the seven dwarves.

That doesn't mean she discounts everything Iorio does, Ferlita said, offering specific praise for the mayor's proposals to develop regional solutions to transportation problems.

"That's a wonderful idea," Ferlita said.

If Ferlita were on the County Commission, she contends, members never would never have been able to set up a study group last year to examine county bus service without including representatives from the city.

White points to the redevelopment as Central Park as an example of an important project stalled by lack of trust between city and county officials.

* * *

In late 2003, Iorio took to the County Commission a plan to rebuild the crumbling public housing complex near downtown.

But the commission rejected the proposal, complaining they didn't have enough time to review the details. Commissioners finally approved a scaled-down proposal this year.

"That project would probably be well under way right now if they had a little more institutional knowledge of how that came about," White said.

Both Ferlita and White say that as commissioners they would be able to draw on relationships they have developed with key city staff members.

"With people having a very fresh remembrance of what went on the in the city, they know what things they should address, what they should and shouldn't do and what channels to go through," Ferlita said.

The candidates running against White and Ferlita say they, too, will take a more cooperative approach toward the city.

"I get along with everyone," Mulhern said.

She said Ferlita has a "dominating personality" and has been at odds both with the mayor and fellow City Council members. Ferlita would be likely pick up the combative tone of Commissioner Ronda Storms, who is leaving the board to run for the Florida Senate.

"We need someone who can get along with other people," Mulhern said. "We don't need another mean girl on County Commission."

White's opponent, Republican Ken Anthony, said as a commissioner he would collaborate with multiple agencies, including the School Board and the City Council.

"All the issues we deal with interrelate," he said. "We have to have a culture of cooperation."

If White and Ferlita are elected, it won't be the first time city officials have gone on to serve on the Hillsborough County Commission. Jan Platt, Haven Poe and Joe Chillura are among those who made that leap.

"Any time you have someone who has an understanding of the issues and concerns of the city, and they begin to serve on the County Commission, it's part of their awareness. It expands their decisionmaking," said Linda Saul-Sena, who has served on the City Council for more than 15 years. "It creates a bond of trust, and trust is good."

But collegial city-county relations can exist even without former city officials on the board, she said. In her view, relations were best in the early 1990s when Iorio, Ed Turanchik, Phyllis Busansky and Sylvia Kimbell were commissioners.

Those four, Saul-Sena said, understood the importance of the county's urban center.

"They recognized that the city and county are part of each other and the health of one is a reflection of the health of the other," Saul-Sena said.

* * *

Of course, all four commissioners mentioned by Saul-Sena were Democrats, which mirrors her own politics.

And that may be more important than a history of service to the city, said County Commissioner Brian Blair.

"The city tends to be more liberal than the county, whereas the county is more conservative," he said.

He points out that four of the county's five constitutional officers are Republicans and so are all three county commissioners elected countywide. City elections are nonpartisan, but five of seven City Council members are Democrats, as is the mayor.

"When people have different philosophies, there's always going to be tension, and we all have to learn to give and take," he said.

Regarding the bus service study, he said a county rule dictates that city residents can't be part of studies of county services.

"It isn't that I didn't want anybody from the city. That was the ordinance," he said.

Platt, the former City Council member and county commissioner, agrees with Blair.

"In my opinion, it's raw politics," she said. "I don't think the Board of County Commissioners is going to do anything to make Iorio look good, and anything she embraces will not have a smooth ride with them."

Janet Zink can be reached at jzink@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3401.

[Last modified October 22, 2006, 05:22:52]