Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Lobbyist won't be on USF transit board again

The decision is intended to protect the Expressway Authority director.

By S.I. Rosenbaum
Published December 22, 2006

TAMPA - The University of South Florida dropped controversial lobbyist John Beck from the advisory board of its transportation research center this week.

Ed Mierzejewski, director of the Center for Urban Transportation Research, said he chose not to reappoint Beck because he wanted to protect the center's program director, Stephen L. Reich.

Reich was hired on Monday as interim director for the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority, an agency that also employs Beck.

At least one member of the authority's board said this week that she did not know about Reich's ties to Beck when she voted to appoint him.

"I just don't want Steve Reich, who's going to be an incredible interim director for the authority, to have to deal with any perceptions of conflict," Mierzejewski said on Thursday.

Mierzejewski said Beck's four-year term on the center's advisory board is up in January, and he will not be asked to return. Beck had been the board's chairman.

Beck's association with the Expressway Authority has been a source of contention in recent months. His billing practices have come under scrutiny along with his role in the agency's handling of a legal services contract, a decision that led to a state auditor general's investigation.

Beck also helped Ralph Mervine, the authority's previous executive director, land that job in late 2004. Mervine had previously worked with Beck's wife in a high-speed-rail venture.

Mervine resigned from the Expressway Authority last month after it was revealed that he owned a gay porn company.

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srossenbaum@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 22, 2006, 05:55:14]