Appraiser candidate comes out attacking

By DAVID KARP

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2000

TAMPA -- Democrat Pat Hannon officially launched his campaign for property appraiser Thursday by accusing incumbent Rob Turner of raising taxes and keeping a scandal-tainted official on the payroll.

Hannon opened the attack in a press release that set the tone for his campaign against Turner, a Republican who took office in 1996 by defeating Hannon's former boss, appraiser Ron Alderman.

Even before the attack, Hannon's supporters have been privately criticizing Turner at fundraisers and festivals around town. Last year, anonymous fliers appeared making unproven allegations against Turner.

"That is what they call politics," Turner said about his opponent. "They make up anything."

He said Hannon's press release contained a pack of "lies and misrepresentations."

Hannon, 54, accused Turner of raising property assessments "with the push of a button" and creating the largest increase in taxable property in Hillsborough's history. Hannon said that assessments rose by $10.2-billion, or 38 percent, during Turner's four years in office.

But in an interview, Hannon said he could not explain what had caused the increase or whether Turner was responsible for it.

"There are a multitude of reasons" for the increase, Hannon said. "I don't know the answer to that."

Turner said new construction accounted for 50 percent of the increase. The booming real estate market explained some of it. And some of the rest came when Turner eliminated thousands of tax breaks that he said Alderman had awarded improperly.

"I am the type of man who takes his obligations under the Florida Constitution (seriously)," said Turner, 48, a former bank executive.

Turner also defended his decision to keep Jim Glaros, assistant chief deputy for evaluations, on his staff. Glaros worked as director of assessing services for Alderman when Alderman's office obtained a secret list of Hillsborough properties being audited by the state to determine the accuracy of Alderman's assessments.

Hannon described Glaros as "the architect" of the scandal. And even though Hannon worked as a department head for Alderman at the time, Hannon said he wasn't part of Alderman's inner circle involved in the scandal.

"That really disturbs me," Glaros said. "I am very upset to have my name slandered in that manner."

Turner said he could find no evidence that Glaros played a role in obtaining the list for Alderman.

"Believe me, if there was any question or doubt, it would have been much easier for me to remove someone than to keep them," Turner said.

After defeating Alderman in 1996, Turner kept seven of Alderman's 18 top officials. He said he kept workers who were hard-working, honest and competent.

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