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Around HillsboroughBy BILL COATS and LINDA GIBSON © St. Petersburg Times, published February 3, 2001 Governor puts Timmerman on circuit benchWayne S. Timmerman, a criminal defense attorney from Lutz, was appointed a Hillsborough circuit judge by Gov. Jeb Bush Friday. Timmerman, 59, will replace Gasper Ficarrotta, who resigned at year's end as his affair with a bailiff was being investigated by the state Judicial Qualifications Commissions. Timmerman said he first applied for a judgeship last year. Since summer, Ficarrotta's vacancy was the fourth for which Timmerman had been nominated by a local Judicial Nominating Commission. "It's something I've aspired to for a long time," he said. "It's the fulfillment of a dream." Timmerman is a 1964 graduate of the Citadel, South Carolina's military college. He received his law degree from the University of South Carolina in 1967, and served in a Judge Advocate General unit in the Air Force for the next three years, eventually as a court-martial judge. After seven years as a Hillsborough County prosecutor, Timmerman opened his own firm in Tampa in 1977. -- BILL COATS Injuries minor to 13 in school bus crashThirteen students from Limona Elementary School were taken to Brandon Regional Hospital with minor injuries Friday after a car collided with a school bus. None of the students had to be admitted to the hospital. The bus driver, Patsy Denson, 45, was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital after complaining of chest pains, the Hillsborough Sheriff's Office said. She was treated and released. The bus was traveling on Limona Road about 2:25 p.m. when a 1989 Ford Escort driven by Robert Milner, 21, skidded into the left side of the bus at the curve 1 mile east of Lakewood Drive. Deputies charged Milner with failure to use due care. -- LINDA GIBSON AG says budget cap contradicts state lawAttorney General Bob Butterworth has told county officials that a proposal to limit yearly increases in Hillsborough County's operating budget to 3 percent or less is contradictory to Florida law. The plan was presented by the 14-member Charter Review Board, a group of citizens appointed by county commissioners to review the county's charter and propose changes. During its review, the board proposed placing a cap on annual operating budget increases of 3 percent or the annual inflation rate, whichever is lower. The proposal provided a way to eliminate the cap if six of seven county commissioners voted to do so. But Butterworth, responding to a request from County Attorney Emmy Acton for an opinion, said it would conflict with state laws requiring commissioners to set a millage rate and a budget every year. -- LINDA GIBSON
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