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By Times staff reports
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 14, 2000
Greco won't support quest to link Tampa and Havana
TAMPA -- A drive to make Tampa and Havana sister cities ran into a wall Wednesday in the form of Mayor Dick Greco.
Greco refused to lend his support to the idea, said the local activist leading the drive.
Steve Rupert, a Tampa-based mediator who collects humanitarian supplies like medical equipment to ferry to Cuba, said the heart of the sister-city plan is a cultural exchange.
"I would like to have little leaguers down there, and students and artists," Rupert said. Rupert stressed the cultural and historical ties between the two cities, including the architecture. "Everyone in Cuba knows about Tampa. If you walked in Ybor City or the Old City of Havana, each city looks like the other."
Still, few subjects touch sensitive political nerves like the question of opening relations with the communist island. Rupert said some supporters of the plan do not want to be named.
Greco declined to sign the proclamation that would have allowed sister-city plans to proceed. He could not be reached for comment. "To my knowledge he hasn't ruled it out for the future," Rupert said.
TAMPA -- A mother and her roommate were arrested Wednesday after leaving a 3-year-old child unsupervised at home.
Hillsborough sheriff's deputies found the child alone at 215 Red Cedar Place in Brandon after receiving an anonymous call about a child crying.
The mother, Karla Tapia, 20, later told deputies she had gone to work at 4 a.m. and left the child with her roommate, 20-year-old Maria Garcia. But deputies said Tapia did not make arrangements for the boy's care and Garcia left the home at 7 a.m., leaving the child alone.
Deputies said the mother told them she had also left the child on Tuesday.
Both women were charged with child neglect, a felony, and taken to jail.
The child was placed in the custody of Florida Department of Children and Family Services.
ST. PETERSBURG -- A circuit court judge has ordered the city of Clearwater to preserve e-mail that is the subject of a St. Petersburg Times lawsuit against the city.
An injunction granted Wednesday by Judge Anthony Rondolino prohibits the city from destroying the records. The injunction does not, though, instruct the city to produce the e-mail for public review.
Earlier this year, the Times requested the e-mail of Assistant City Manager Garry Brumback and Planning and Development Administrator John Asmar.
The city officials released only the e-mail they deemed to be public record and withheld others said to be personal. In a memorandum submitted in court, the city said some of the e-mail deemed personal was deleted. But a city attorney said the e-mail was retained on another city system.
At a hearing Wednesday, attorneys for the city argued that the e-mail was withheld because it was not made or received in the transaction of official business. Times attorney Penelope Bryan argued that the e-mail is public because it was transmitted on a city computer while city officials were supposed to be conducting city business.