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Ed Hooper say he will be able to steer clear of restrictions on lobbying the commission or planning board.
By CHRISTINA HEADRICK
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 21, 2001
CLEARWATER -- Former City Commissioner Ed Hooper is starting a consulting, lobbying and public relations firm with local businessman Joe Burdette, who oversees promotional gigs for the Philadelphia Phillies and the Hooters restaurant chain.
The two men also plan to add a lobbyist in Tallahassee to help clients work with state government, Hooper said.
The new endeavor will be called the Consus Group, named for a Roman deity of good counsel, says Burdette, who came up with the name.
"There's a lot of people that don't know how to get things done at the city," said Burdette, who had a previous career as a resort developer. "We'll try to steer them the right way."
The company is in the process of being incorporated, but it already has had one dry run, albeit not a very successful one.
Burdette heard recently that Tony Markopoulos, whose family business owns several motels on Coronado Drive just south of the roundabout, including the Days Inn, was upset with the slow progress of negotiations with the city to create a resort on his property.
Instead, the city has focused recently on a rival resort deal next door to the Markopoulos property, a proposal for a 250-room Marriott resort that was being debated by the city's planning board Tuesday afternoon.
Burdette and Hooper felt they could help both hotel deals succeed, so they offered to try to help Markopoulos work out his problems.
"The last time we visited with them, we were thinking we've addressed the issues that came up," Hooper said. "We wanted both projects to be successful. We were just trying to find the things that would make everybody happy."
But Markopoulos decided to hire an attorney and consider legal action against the city. He showed up at Tuesday's Community Development Board meeting with attorneys to object to the Marriott proposal.
Hooper said he and Burdette don't plan to send the beach hotel owner a bill, since they didn't work long on the job.
"I'm a little worried now that nothing is going to happen on the beach," Hooper said.
City Attorney Pam Akin said Hooper has to adhere to prohibitions both in the city's code of ordinances for commission conduct and also in state law, which prohibit him from lobbying the city's "governing body" for up to two years after leaving office last fall.
The rules apply only to instances in which Hooper is getting paid to use his savvy about city politics for a client.
The restriction applies to Hooper talking to any elected or appointed official, such as commissioners or his fellow members of the city's planning board, to which Hooper was recently appointed, Akin said.
But she said the restriction doesn't prevent Hooper from talking to the city manager or any city bureaucrats, who are not technically the governing body of the city.
Hooper said that he is aware of the restrictions, and he'll abide by them. For instance, when he worked briefly for Markopoulos, Hooper said, he talked only to Clearwater administrators and not to any commissioners about the hotel deals on the beach.
Both Hooper and Burdette said they can envision their new firm working for clients in other cities and county government, too.
Hooper, a retired firefighter, also plans to continue his work as a district vice president for the Florida Professional Firefighters Association.