Commission's Blair all wet
By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published June 30, 2007
For Hillsborough County Commissioner Brian Blair, wetlands protection is an issue that hits close to home. As in, the lake behind his house. Blair prodded the county to clean up his lake even though he later took the lead to kill local wetlands protections, calling them a waste of money and a senseless hurdle for developers. Take your pick which is worse - his abuse of power or hypocrisy. This is a man the entire board put in charge of its Environmental Protection Commission.
The Times' Michael Van Sickler reported last Saturday how Blair had pushed the county to clean up the secluded, private Noreast Lake since months before he won election in 2004. Blair didn't let up after taking his seat on the board that oversaw the very staff he called into action. He blamed a county drainage project for polluting the lake, even though at least three reports contradicted that claim or that nearby lakes had suffered lower water quality.
Blair and the staff deny any coercion took place. But as the public works director said: "You'd have to be deaf and blind not to feel some pressure." Since February 2005, the Times reported, a few months after Blair won election, county work crews have spent more hours at Noreast than any of Hillsborough's 229 other lakes. Blair has not abstained from voting on Noreast improvements, thanks to legal advice by the county attorney who works directly for the board. The staff labored to accommodate him even though the reports found no evidence linking Noreast's condition to the drainage project. Even now, between $673, 000 and $985, 000 is planned for cleaning up Noreast and nearby lakes, even though one consultant who studied the issue said the area lakes are "doing fine" and "I don't think you have that much of a problem."
The timing couldn't be more embarrassing to Blair. He recently joined the 4-3 majority in a preliminary vote to kill the county's wetlands protection program. Wetlands are the natural filters that protect communities from flooding and water bodies from pollution. Blair, in other words, insists those circumstances harmed his lake, yet he moves to disband the very agency he and others rely on for help. Even those who give his ethics a pass must wonder about Blair's ability to connect the policy dots.