It wouldn't be Pasco if it wasn't a bit weird

On New Year's Eve, we look back at the year that was. From e-mail foibles to mating dolphins, here is Pasco County's datebook for 2006.

By C.T. BOWEN
Published December 31, 2006

January

So much for peace and quiet: The promoters of Livestock, the annual outdoor head-bangers concert, indicated their plans to return the hard-partying festival to Zephyrhills after a one-year hiatus at a Tampa location.

Not to be outdone, U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite created her own loud noise by pronouncing that members of the public can't support the troops in Iraq unless they support the war.

Proper motivation: State Sen. Mike Fasano, one of the few elected Republicans who did not publicly endorse the Penny for Pasco sales tax in 2004, announced that he is working on a plan to increase the sales tax to pay for health care for the uninsured. Fasano's push coincided with his acceptance of a $50,000-a-year, part-time job with Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, one of the hospitals that would benefit if fewer uninsured patients used emergency rooms.

February

Can you say, "Quick death?" County Administrator John Gallagher said his gut feeling is that the sales tax issue is dead for 2006. Nobody disputes Gallagher's gut.

Surf's up: A Times investigation revealed that Commissioners Ted Schrader and Steve Simon surfed the Internet and Commissioner Pat Mulieri answered e-mail on their county-issued laptop computers during public meetings. Simon, the first to acknowledge that what he did was wrong, lost his re-election bid in November. Mulieri attempted to blame county computer records as inaccurate before fessing up. Schrader, the most prolific of the surfers, at first downplayed the significance of his inattentiveness but later apologized. He is scheduled to face voters in 2008.

Check the donor list: Sheriff Bob White said there are no political overtones to the honorary deputy program he created a few months before beginning his 2004 re-election campaign despite contribution reports showing that two-thirds of the people invited to be honorary deputies donated $36,000 to the re-election.

March

Call the Love Boat: Port Richey police and firefighters, the Florida Marine Patrol and Clearwater Marine Aquarium were summoned to assist a reportedly injured dolphin in the Pithlachascotee River. Turns out the female dolphin and two males were mating.

"It wasn't a dolphin in distress call," police Sgt. David Brown said. "It was a Mother Nature call."

April

20/20 foresight: New Port Richey City Council candidate Tom Finn sent a political flier critical of one of his opponents, incumbent Matthew McCaffery, whom Finn characterized as "not a stakeholder in New Port Richey." McCaffery won the council seat, but it turned out that Finn was accurate in his assessment. McCaffery resigned six months after the election and moved to Pennsylvania.

May

Slow news day: The Pasco Times reported a story and included two color photographs of a woman who said she found a heart-shaped potato in a 5-pound bag of spuds purchased at Winn-Dixie.

Things were dull all over: A bailiff reported he had to nudge retired Judge David Seth Walker two or three times on the arm to wake him after a key prosecution witness testified in a criminal trial at the Pasco County Courthouse in Dade City.

No sign of an honorary deputy's badge: Sheriff Bob White pulled over a speeder but failed to run the standard background check on Randall Kernan, who, it turned out, was allowed to leave even though he did not have a valid driver's license.

June

Strangers need not apply: The Port Richey City Council hired James Mathieu, the live-in boyfriend of council member Nancy Britton, as its new city attorney. After the vote, council member Phyllis Grae complimented Britton on her taste in men.

July

Crime watch: A 31-year-old Zephyrhills man was charged with fraudulent urine testing after he was accused of using a prosthetic penis to try to pass a drug test. A probation officer reported that the appendage did not match Ahmed Hicks' complexion and "appeared to be detached from his person."

That darn computer again: Commissioner Pat Mulieri sent messages to the government e-mail accounts of county staffers, a Dade City public works employee and the director of the county Health Department asking them to help with her re-election effort.

August

Better e-mail Animal Control: Clad in a nightgown, Commissioner Pat Mulieri attempted to rescue her cat, Big Boy, from a pair of threatening raccoons on the porch of her Gowers Corner home. The raccoons turned their attention to the 68-year-old public servant and bit her on the ankle and scratched her foot, forcing Mulieri to undergo rabies treatments.

Do as we say, not as we depict: On the first day of school, the district distributed thousands of planners to middle and high school students with a cover photo showing a quintet of teenagers, all wearing headphones. Inside the same planners is this notation: Students are prohibited from bringing electronic devises to school including radios, CD players and MP3 players.

At least the students didn't wear capri pants: The school district considered a dress code for teachers that prohibits women from wearing capri pants and recommends that men wear neckties. Said Lynn Webb of the United School Employees of Pasco: "We have this phenomenal (contract) settlement, and people only have questions about whether they have to wear panty hose."

September

Incognito: A judge dismissed the speeding ticket issued by Bob White to Randall Kernan when the sheriff failed to show up to testify. Turns out White's own agency failed to serve him with the subpoena ordering him to appear at the trial.

October

Government consistency: On Oct. 23, the Port Richey City Council voted 5-0 to draft an ordinance for a nonbinding voter referendum on whether the city should dissolve.

On Nov. 1, the council held a special meeting and voted 3-2 to kill the draft ordinance.

Four weeks later, the council voted 3-2 to again draft an ordinance for a voter referendum on whether the city should dissolve.

Mayor Mark Abbot switched his vote each time.

Stay tuned. The ballot language is scheduled to be discussed in January.

Who are those guys in that department? County officials admitted that they didn't know they had a department to inspect for ground contamination until after the inspector notified the state of a polluted site about to be obtained by the county in a lawsuit settlement.

Campaign tactics: Democratic state House candidate Donovan Brown had the courage to answer questions from journalists even after the spate of publicity surrounding his confinement to a mental health hospital under the state's Baker Act.

Republican School Board candidate Cathi Compton showed no such fortitude and declined repeated interview requests.

Both lost at the polls.

November

Smart voters: With 3 percent of the vote, John J. Ubele finished last among a field of six candidates in the race for Mosquito Control District Board. Ubele was operations manager of the Nationalist Coalition, a group that wants a living space "completely free of non-Whites."

Honoring student-ATHLETES: As one of his first acts as a newly elected county commissioner, Michael Cox introduced a resolution honoring Gulf High School's football team for making its first postseason playoff appearance.

We trust that Cox and the rest of the commission will be equally enthusiastic and generous with its resolutions when the school produces the first graduates from its academically challenging International Baccalaureate program in two years.

Health food: McDonald's announced it won't build any more restaurants in Pasco if the county adopts its new higher transportation impact fees. We'll just have to suffice with the 13 current locations and another under construction along State Road 54 at Suncoast Crossings.

December

Hole in the floor gang: County commissioners heard of plans to curb homeowner insurance premiums by prohibiting claims unless a house has sunk at least 5 feet over seven days.

Also, in an unannounced change to commission rules, each meeting now requires multiple mentions of lobbyist Slayter Bayliss by Commissioner Jack Mariano and of Monroe County by Commissioner Pat Mulieri.

Just kidding - about the meeting rules, that is. Sadly, sinking homes remains part of the public dialogue.

Homeowner Sylvie Nevenkin said it best: "I want to know what the definition of a sinkhole is, or, otherwise, I want a shovel so I can dig that last half a foot out."

Keep the shovels handy. A new year begins Monday.

[Last modified December 31, 2006, 07:07:53]