PUBLIC MEETING

I went to the Board of County Commissioners meeting on March 23rd. I will say it was quite a disappointment. The meeting was about land use, which sounded extremely boring. It was on the second floor of a huge building downtown. Now that I'm learning about where to park, the downtown visits are becoming less stressful.

The first thing I noticed upon entering the room was how small it was. It looks a lot bigger on television than in person. It's a tall room but very narrow and awkward looking. There were a lot of cameras around blocking the view on the sides.

It starts with someone going up to the podium before the commissioners and asking for a permit to do something to their land. The audience is then asked if they have anything to say or any objections. Then the Commissioners vote.

The Board of County Commissioners from district 1-7 are: Jim Norman , Ken Hagan, Kevin White, Al Higginbotham, Kevin Beckner, Rose Ferlita (I wonder if there's any relation to the Ferlita bakery in downtown Ybor), and Mark Sharpe. The board is in charge of the county’s capital and operating budgets.

The meeting started at 1:30. They then took a break about 15 minutes after. This really drove me crazy. We had to wait there an extra hour in order to see the second part of the meeting. What was the point of having a second part of the meeting? I would love a job or class that I could take a break every 15 minutes.

Oh wait! It's like most of us college students taking breaks after every paragraph to see if anyone has commented on our Facebook status, or if Brett Favre has decided whether or not to retire or come back to play one more year.

The first part of the meeting might have lasted a little longer if they didn't unanimously vote in favor of the first 12 decisions( B1-B12). I was tempted to go up there and just ask to have some property. I thought maybe they would just not pay attention and unanimously agree.

It really seemed like they just didn't care what happened during the first part of the meeting.

The second part of the meeting rolls around. I'm thinking surely they saved the hard decisions for last and tried to get the easy stuff out of the way first.

I was wrong. They worked just as fast as before. If our government employees worked this way we would have plenty of stuff done by now. I'm kidding, refer back to my post while visiting the Courthouse and you'll know.

I noticed three key personal appearance petitions. The first one was the relocation of commercial square footage to the office parcel for property located on the west side of North Florida Ave, and 200 ft. south of Siobhan Ave. The second was to allow affordable homes on the Southwest corner of 14th ave SE and 12th St. SE. Finally, to modify parking property located on the south side of Progress Blvd. Riviting stuff huh?

All-in-all I do understand that politicians have a lot more to do than just these decisions, this was just not a great show-case. The visit did give me an opportunity to talk to a reporter about an internship, which is always a good thing. I also got to see Mark Sharpe in person. He is my assigned public official, so you will be seeing some more of him later in the month.

Until next time....