Politics

Iorio on 'Loafing's' red carpet again?

By JANET ZINK and BILL VARIAN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 22, 2007

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, named Best Local Politician last year in a Creative Loafing readers poll, has once again earned props from the alternative weekly's audience. She's a finalist in the category this year, up against Gov. Charlie Crist and perennial candidate Joe Redner. Winners will be announced Monday at Tampa Theatre. But according to the mayor's calendar, she's already taped an acceptance speech. That means she's either won the award or is highly confident. Ironically, readers also listed her pet project, the Riverwalk, as one of the biggest wastes of taxpayer money. It's competing with the Iraq War, the Tampa Museum of Art and Raymond James Stadium.

Mayor gets wateroff of her plate

Speaking of Iorio, she's giving up her seat on the board of Tampa Bay Water. This week she asked City Council member Charlie Miranda, who served on the board from its creation until 2003, to take her place.

Why? The meetings take all day, Miranda said: "The mayor's got a lot on her plate."

Campaign finance reform on the burner

City Council member John Dingfelder was embroiled in one of the nastiest political campaigns earlier this year, and he hasn't forgotten it. Shortly after his election, which came despite brutal attack ads mailed by supporters of his opponent, Julie Brown, Dingfelder asked city attorneys to find out if the council could institute some type of campaign finance reform for the city. Attorneys told the council Thursday that is indeed an option.

Dingfelder suggested lowering the maximum contributions allowed from individuals to city candidates from $500 to $100 or $200.

The last election, he said, showed an almost "obscene" amount of fundraising, he said.

Dingfelder raised $145,639. Brown riased $147,650.

"Citizens approached me after the last election and said "What can we do?' " he said.

Not all council members like the idea.

Miranda, Tom Scott and Gwen Miller indicated they wouldn't support the change.

But Linda Saul-Sena and Mary Mulhern said they want to hear from the public on the issue.

"You might think it's a bad idea," Mulhern told her doubting colleagues. "Why don't we let our constituents tell us what they think?"

Without a clear majority to approve the initiative, Dingfelder asked city attorneys to report back in six months. Meanwhile, he said, he'll organize public forums to whip up support for the idea.

Sports panel has reason to cheer

The Tampa Bay Sports Commission survived unscathed in Thursday's final budget vote by the Hillsborough County Commission, despite some jeers from a couple of public speakers. As we've reported, in the new budget the Sports Commission will get twice as much money as it got this year to run and bid for youth and amateur athletic events - $900,000 - while most other government and agencies are getting cut.

The commission did do some slight shuffling of the source of the money, taking $500,000 from tourist tax dollars and $400,000 from a general fund that is primarily made up of property tax dollars. The ratio of tax to tourist funds had been reversed before Thursday's meeting.

Staff writers Janet Zink and Bill Varian contributed to this report.

[Last modified September 22, 2007, 00:41:47]