Column

Backroom favors not in your back yard

By SUE CARLTON
Published July 18, 2007

I am hopelessly old school. Not just because it's July and I haven't mastered the sleek MP3 player I got for Christmas, opting instead for my chunky Walkman with the duct-taped earphones. Okay, I haven't even opened the MP3 box yet.

And not because my teenage niece recently informed me that any sock that is worn with a sneaker and that covers the ankle is just excruciatingly wrong. I was supposed to know this how?

No, my particular lameness comes from wondering lately about a concept apparently as improbable and outdated as Barney the purple dinosaur. (Or is Barney back in?)

It's got to do with how politics work around here, and how they don't.

Let's talk waterfront property in Hillsborough County. Say you're lucky enough to live on a river, the Palm River, or even a nice little lake in the suburbs.

Say you think the situation could use a little official attention and public funding because your lake's too dirty, or you'd like a seawall to protect your shoreline from erosion.

Hmm. Know anyone who has the ear of a public official?

Homeowner Edna Walters made it her business to know one. The Times' Michael Van Sickler reported recently that with the help of new pal Roy Davis, a powerful advocate for the nursery industry who has pull with the County Commission, Walters managed to get herself that seawall courtesy of taxpayers. County e-mails chronicled the project as "top priority. Very hot and rush."

"There seem to be no limits to the tactics that (Ms. Walters) and Mr. Davis will employ to get what they want from the board," the public works director wrote in a memo at one point.

Interestingly, the lone voice on the Hillsborough River Basin Board voting against the project - the cost of which was eventually split between the county and Swiftmud - was a Polk County fellow. He wondered what this would mean when other property owners came asking. What an old-fashioned guy. Probably wears crew socks.

And speaking of county commissioners, don't forget Brian Blair and the little lake behind his house. You know, the one he pushed for improvements even as reports said his lake was looking pretty good. The one where county workers spent more time than any of the hundreds of other Hillsborough lakes.

Blair did get the okay from the county attorney to advocate for his lake. Thinking he might have opted to stay out of it for some other reason is just, well, quaint.

Oh, and how hopelessly old-fashioned was it for Rep. Janet Long, a Seminole Democrat, to decline to let taxpayers foot the bill for an upcoming Boston conference? And for St. Petersburg Democrat Bill Heller to say he wasn't going? And for Republicans Will Weatherford and John Legg to opt to use unspent campaign funds?

Given that lawmakers are shaking their fingers at local governments and telling them to cut billions from their budgets, travel did seem a tad badly timed. These trips aren't going to break the bank, but symbolic acts of faith and solidarity can reverberate.

So that's the question. Will all this fade away in the coming months as we try to puzzle out the Sudoku that is property tax reform? Will we forget how politics work around here?

If voters do remember who did what come election time, well, just call them old-fashioned.

[Last modified July 17, 2007, 23:30:23]