Commuter Beware

OK, commuting around the Tampa Bay area – one that is conspicuously, unconscionably minus mass transit – is not a drive in the park. And it’s gotten worse with increased sprawl. But dead last among 60 major metropolitan areas? That’s where Forbes.com put us – ostensibly based on travel time and delays.

 

Forbes even has us behind Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia! I used to live in Marietta. Once you get out of your cul-de-sac community, it’s impending gridlock. Whether you’re heading into Buckhead, commuting into downtown via the merging lanes from hell that is Interstate 75 or going to the store.

 

The upside, however, is that it just may help make the 1-cent, sales-tax case for the November referendum on modern transit/light rail. Maybe.

Credit Union Credit

No, it’s not a mega-bucks deal. And it’s not associated with one of our philanthropic icons. But it was a nice gift, and now a lot of kids are indebted, if you will, to the GTE Federal Credit Union.

 

More than 12,000 eighth graders have been taking part in a joint program between the Tampa Bay History Center and the School District of Hillsborough County. Exposing our children to our common regional history is especially important in an area where so many of the adults are from other places.

 

But school district budget issues put the program in jeopardy. The district asked the History Center if it could pay for transportation. The Center put the word out. Thanks to a grant from the GTE Federal Credit Union, the buses will keep rolling. And keep bringing in those eighth graders to explore first hand the history of this area. Their area.

Advantage Crist In Photo “Oops” Ploys

Who knows, perhaps this state’s Republican Senate primary will come down to a hug-off. Obama-Crist vs. Sansom-Rubio. Picture that.

 

The Charlie Crist campaign, having been bludgeoned with footage of the governor embracing more than the president’s stimulus help for Florida, is now circulating a payback photo of Marco Rubio hugging Ray Sansom, the sleazy, former House Speaker. Take that, conservative, pin-up lad. More image damaging than a subsidized back wax.

 

Actually, if this primary descends into Hug-gate, the advantage should be Crist’s. The governor may be an empty ideology suit, and this may be a ploy born of desperation — but he has a pragmatic case. He hugged for a helping hand during the worst recession in memory.

 

He need apologize to no one for stimulus money that, in effect, bailed out state government. More than $2.5 billion alone went to Medicaid. He certainly need not apologize to the thousands of teachers who would have been laid off or the 1 million residents with expanded unemployment benefits.

 

The federal government estimates some 112,000 statewide jobs were saved or created by the stimulus help. Locally, the stimulus-jumpstarted I-4 Connector project, now underway, is worth thousands of projected jobs – from construction to Port of Tampa-related business.

 

Florida figures indicate more than $6 billion has already been spent – with another $17 billion still in the stimulus pipeline. Crist did the right practical thing by embracing the stimulus help; the wrong strategic thing by hugging the stimulator in advance of a Tea Party-skewed primary fight for his political life.

 

As for the Sansom-Rubio snuggle up, it would be political mud-slinging as usual if not for the uproar over the Obama-Crist hug. Now it’s all unfair game.

 

While the context is clichéd photo op, the connotation that comes with a Sansom hug is hardly helpful. It’s unsavory. The disgraced, indicted Sansom recently quit the House – to pre-empt an ethics trial.

 

And Rubio, while Speaker, did work closely with Sansom – even making him his budget chief in the 2007-08 legislative sessions.

 

And it’s a not so subtle, if cheap-shot, reminder that Sansom isn’t the only legislator to score a higher-ed job at a university that he had helped steer money to. It’s neither illegal nor uncommon. Merely business as usual in Tallahassee. Typically that’s no big deal unless, of course, you’re trying to portray yourself as pristinely principled and primed for conservative canonization.

For Crist, the Sansom-Rubio hug is an opportunity – after long ignoring Rubio’s rapidly ascendant candidacy – to re-define his opponent as something much less than an attractively packaged, GOP luminary-in-the-making.   

 

For supporters of Rubio, who is still outpolling Crist, the mantra remains “Tea Party on.” For supporters of Crist, who needs a game changer, it looks like “huggery helps.”  

Bean There, Done That – Again

Time was when an Administrator such as Hillsborough County’s Pat Bean could play out the string. A 64-year-old civil servant who did no harm during the good times. Her contract formally expires at the end of 2011. She has worked for the county for 33 years, the last six as Administrator.

 

The times, however, haven’t been good for a while now. In fact, the times are so challenging for a county with 5,000 employees and a $3-billion budget that there’s no place for anything other than sophisticated, out-of-the-box, regional thinking. The timing couldn’t be worse to be saddled with a vision-challenged, Peter Principled bureaucrat with a ham-handed approach to budget deficits as county Administrator.

 

The Commission, as we’ve seen and heard, has been growing increasingly disgruntled.  

 

Recall that less than three months ago, the County Commission – in a fit of frustration and pique – had called into question Bean’s priorities, judgment, vision, initiative, leadership and innovation instincts. It was obviously a lot more than those ill-advised pay raises, as disturbing as they were.

 

In lieu of a firing, where the taxpayers would have to ante up Bean’s annual salary ($224,000), they upbraided her, treated her like an intern – and told her to come back with a list of goals and measurable objectives. They also adjusted her evaluations from annual to quarterly.

 

When she finally submitted her list – late – it was glaringly shy of specifics. Her “Road To Our Future” term paper was, in effect, a re-stating of the present challenges facing Hillsborough County. The Commissioners needed a perceptive, action-oriented solutions-partner, not a clueless subordinate awaiting marching orders. They were not pleased.

 

They were more than displeased when allegations recently surfaced about Bean being involved in questionable internal records e-mail searches. Bean indicated she did, indeed, make some regrettable requests, but claimed to have thought better after the fact and consequently never actually read one.

 

Commissioner Mark Sharpe summarized the snooping fiasco and Bean’s incredulous response appropriately. “She’s saying she didn’t inhale,” said Sharpe.

 

Frankly, if this didn’t finally fan the flames for firing – six-figure termination severance notwithstanding – you’d have to wonder who else might be smoking on the job.

Commission Chairman Ken Hagan, referring to Bean’s part in a “toxic and dysfunctional” culture, was moved to address an “open letter to the community” urging Bean (along with County Attorney Renee Lee and internal performance auditor Jim Barnes) to pre-empt a firing by resigning.

 

That would be doing the right thing, which is, of course, problematic. Recall that Bean had ample opportunity previously — when the issue was sheer incompetence. Now she has morphed into an ongoing, unwelcome distraction, one that already has resulted in the postponement of something critically important: a session on the transit referendum.

 

However it happens, Bean must resign herself to the reality that she can no longer be Hillsborough County’s Administrator. Sometimes you add by subtracting when investing in the future.

Holtz Charm Offensive Impresses

The contrast couldn’t be more stark. Skip Holtz, the new USF head football coach, oozes good humor. His predecessor, Jim Leavitt, didn’t.

 

Off-putting arrogance to outsiders is out; affability to all is in. It speaks volumes when the most important person in the high-profile, high-pressure, USF football program – one frustratingly perched between unrealized potential and national prominence – is not the least bit self-important.

 

Holtz, 46, likens himself to a multi-hat-wearing “CEO” with constituencies ranging from players and high school coaches to boosters, media, the business community, everybody on campus and everybody in the Tampa Bay market. That’s who his charm offensive is limited to.

 

“It’s critically important to reach out,” emphasizes Holtz. “From fund-raisers to alumni. Being successful is about doing public speaking, leading people, relating to your players and having a vision.”

 

And he knows where big-time football fits in the context of a university with more pressing priorities than beating Rutgers.

 

“It’s curb appeal,” he explains. “It’s your front porch. Now that you’ve got their attention, you get an opportunity to introduce people to all that you have.”

 

While Holtz is paid like a CEO — $9.1 million over five years — his workday, dress-for-success ensemble is shorts, T-shirt and Bulls’ cap. He’s also casual in manner and grins easily. He’s in the midst of a sleep-challenging, whirlwind blitz – from redoing the organizational chart, saving a recruiting class, watching Bulls’ video, monitoring winter workouts and planning for spring practice (March 16) to holding regional town hall gatherings (“The Inside Skip”), doing promotions (“A HOLTZ New Era”) and meeting and greeting whomever and whenever.

 

His top priority, he says without hesitation, is to “bring this team together.” The coaching change, of course, was abrupt and emotionally-draining on players loyal to the fired Leavitt. “It’s about building relationships,” says Holtz. “It’s about building a trust factor. …They didn’t choose me. I chose them.”

 

Positive Feedback

Early signs have been encouraging.

 

At his introductory, on-campus, mid-January “press conference,” which quickly morphed into a pep rally, the uber enthusiastic Holtz went over equally well with students and student-athletes. Likely speaking for many of his teammates, starting quarterback B.J. Daniels notably observed: “We don’t like the circumstances that it happened under, but we’re behind him.”

 

This area’s most successful high school coach, Plant’s Robert Weiner, has already been on campus watching Holtz conduct conditioning drills. Weiner, known for emphasizing values, discipline and camaraderie as much as X’s and O’s, came away impressed.

 

“Having watched him already with his players, he is obviously a great teacher and an inspiring motivator,” assesses Weiner. “I think Skip Holtz is the perfect fit for USF. He brings a new-found energy and excitement. As I have gotten to know him these past few weeks, I know that he focuses on character first in his players and will work hard to ensure that quality football will follow that.

 

“He is extremely personable and knowledgeable – the two traits that make a college coach a great recruiter and a great on-the-field coach,” adds Weiner.

 

The new grid sheriff in town is playing particularly well with the Florida media. After meeting Holtz in an impromptu session with the press before last month’s Daytona 500, the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi wrote: “Now that Bobby Bowden has retired, Holtz immediately becomes the most likable, media-friendly college football coach in the state.” He then added that comparing Holtz and Leavitt was like comparing “mom’s home cooking and prison food.”  Ouch.

 

But Holtz is a lot more than pleasant personality and imposing pedigree.

 

Husband and father of three, including two teenagers, Holtz has always been a major player in local charities and has more than Coach of the Year awards to his credit. Accolades also include the National Football Foundation Man-of-the-Year Award as well as the Franciscan Life Center’s St. Francis Award for support of Christian values and athletic achievement.

 

His track record (72-50) had made him annual grist for the rumor mill of major-college job searches. Most recently his name was associated with openings at, among others, Cincinnati, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Tennessee and Notre Dame. Holtz was 38-27 in five seasons at East Carolina and led the Pirates to Conference USA championships the last two years while setting attendance records. Before Holtz arrived, ECU had won three games in two years. He was also a turn-around winner at Connecticut, compiling a five-year 34-23 record. UConn had gone 14-19 the three prior seasons.

 

ECU Athletics Director Terry Holland went beyond protocol niceties in assessing what Holtz had done in Greenville, N.C., hardly a grid Mecca.  “Skip Holtz and his family have transformed our expectations of ourselves and our athletic program while contributing to every aspect of our community,” said Holland.  

 

None of which surprises Holtz’s father, legendary coach and ESPN analyst Lou Holtz.

 

“No, it doesn’t,” responds Holtz Sr. from his home in Orlando. “You need consistency and a vision. He has both. 

 

“We only have three family rules,” he points out. “‘Do the right thing. Do whatever you do to the best of your ability. Show people you care.’ That’s it. Skip has followed all three. I couldn’t be prouder.”

 

He also underscored that his son couldn’t pass up the opportunity that Big East-affiliated USF represented. “He really loved East Carolina and living there, as did his family,” adds Lou Holtz. “But he told me, ‘I could not let that plane go back to South Florida without me.’”

Major-Market Opportunity

Indeed, a region with a population of 3 million, the 13th largest TV market, a primo, 67,000-seat stadium and a mother lode of blue-chip, Sunshine State prospects was too alluring to pass up. The only potential down side: USF isn’t the only game in (a pro) town – as was the case in Greenville, N.C. and Storrs, Conn.

 

“This is an opportunity that I embrace,” says Holtz. “All these people. The media exposure. Let’s face it. We were limited by how big we could get (at ECU). This is the first major market I’ve coached in. (His assistant-coaching stints were in Tallahassee, Columbia, S.C., South Bend, Ind. and Fort Collins, Colo.) It’s the farthest school south in the Big East. I want to recruit locally first. The top 100 schools in this area.”

 

It’s no secret that USF didn’t bring in Skip Holtz to win more International, Popajohns.com and Beef ‘O’ Brady’s St. Petersburg bowls. The stakes are higher than that. As in BCS bowl or bust.

 

“We want to compete for Big East and eventually a national championship,” states Holtz matter-of-factly. “We might take a year to get through it,” he says of the transition. “Everything is a first.”

 

But he also acknowledges that patience is rarely a virtue at this level. There are no first-impression mulligans.

 

“If we don’t win now, we can’t win then,” he concedes. But, no, he won’t put a number on how many “W’s” constitute winning. He needs to better assess what he has – and then who buys in and who improves. “It’s not just about beating Florida,” he notes pointedly. The Gators, of course, are on next season’s schedule.

 

What Bulls’ fans should expect, however, says Holtz, is a commitment to what Holtz-coached teams have come to be known for: mental discipline.

 

“I like to think it’s a team that plays with all the intangibles,” explains Holtz. “With focus, energy, excitement and enthusiasm. And doesn’t do the foolish things that get you beat.”

 

This alone would be an upgrade and cause for optimism among Bulls’ faithful. USF fans have seen more than their share of late-season swoons – too often characterized by carelessness on the field and composure meltdowns on the sideline. The ultimate result: a losing Big East record and a consolation-prize bid to a lower-tier bowl.  

 

For now, Holtz is gearing up for spring practice and reveling in his new working and living environment. “It’s a gold mine,” says Holtz of his new domain. “Very fertile for recruiting. Plus, I like the feel of Tampa. Like a small big city. This is going to work.”

 

Holtz & Holtz

 

  • “I’m very proud of my dad. But I’m not trying to be the next Lou Holtz. Just the best Skip Holtz.” – S. Holtz.
  • “You learn to develop a tight core of friends around you.” – S. Holtz, explaining how he, and now his 16-year-old son Trey, could best handle adolescence with a celebrity father.
  • “He wanted the public school experience, and we did our research.” – S. Holtz, on his son Trey’s enrollment at South Tampa’s Plant H.S.
  • “I was an ‘AYO’ — ‘All You Others’ — in high school.” – S. Holtz, self-deprecatingly referring to his quarterback days at Fayetteville (Ark.) High School.
  • “We might take a few JC’s (junior college transfers) to fill some holes, but I would rather recruit a high school player and let him develop in the program for 4-5 years.” – S. Holtz.
  • “I did not pick Mike Ford (running back who was recently dismissed for unspecified violations of team rules) to make an example out of, but everyone will be held accountable for their actions.” – S. Holtz, on the senior who rushed for more than 200 yards and was named MVP in January’s 27-3 International Bowl win over Northern Illinois.
  • “He’s a wonderful young man. I’ve never seen him despondent. Or disparaging of anyone. He has good common sense.” –L. Holtz on S. Holtz.
  • “Skip wanted to know why I was so hard on him. I told him, ‘Because I raised you. I know you know better.’” – L. Holtz, on why he was extra demanding of his son when he was a player (Notre Dame) and a coach (Notre Dame, South Carolina) for him.
  • “USF is a wonderful opportunity. It’s BCS. You can win a national championship from there. Don’t forget, both West Virginia and Cincinnati came close to playing for it the last two years.” – L. Holtz.
  • “ESPN has this thing about impartiality. Nonsense. I’m going to be as honest as I can be, but I’m going to be partial to my kid. How can I be impartial about Notre Dame? I mean they built a statue to me.” – L. Holtz.

Annual Legislative Legerdemain

First, the bad news.

 

Another year, another legislative session, another balanced, Potemkin budget. With urgently-needed, revenue-raising reform still politically off the table, the bar for legislative accomplishment necessarily remains irresponsibly low. Florida’s fiscal future remains fragile – and unaddressed.

 

Now, the good news. There’s still the prospect of some easy money – and the possibility that common sense could yet prevail on something of life-saving importance. Perhaps this term-limited, experience-light avatar of underachievement can get this much right:

 

  • Easy money in hard times should be a no-brainer, even among the cerebrally challenged. That means the legislature finally signing off on Gov. Charlie Crist’s $433-million Seminole tribe gambling compact. And putting some gambling parameters in place would be a bonus.

It also means, without apology to Congressman Kendrick Meek, doing the right

thing on Florida’s impractical, feel-good, class-size law. If the governor can ever

locate that bully pulpit – and make common cause with key legislative leaders – a

re-configured, more flexible, class-size formula could actually result, one that

could easily pass muster with voters and save Florida upwards of $3 billion next

year.

  • And let’s hope that 2010 is not another do-nothing year on the ever-alarming issue of ever-increasing numbers of motorists who text while driving. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, distractions caused by mobile devices are major factors in 6,000 highway deaths a year nationwide. Such preventable fatalities are now regular media staples.

 

Numerous studies have shown device-distracted drivers comparable to those

      impaired by alcohol. Or worse. Arguably, most legally drunk drivers are at least

      looking at the road. That’s why 19 states and the District of Columbia have

      already banned texting while driving.

 

      Surely something meaningful in Florida can result from the dozen bills already

      Proposed regarding cell phone use and texting at the wheel. Surely. 

UT Not TU

For the third time in six months, a University of Tampa student has either been robbed, assaulted or murdered near campus. Tampa Police patrols have been beefed up as has UT security. In January UT and Tampa Police hosted a student safety seminar. And UT might add a mandated online course on personal safety – to complement the one it does on alcohol consumption.

 

Whenever I hear of these scary criminal and violent acts near UT, I hearken back to my second night of graduate school at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1970. After class I headed back to the university parking lot. It was probably 9:15 pm. The lot was already a crime scene.

 

A random, racially-motivated, drive-by shooting had claimed the life of a fellow student. A British Lit classmate, as it turned out, who I had never met. One who had arrived at the parking lot minutes before I did. Timing was everything. As well as fate.

 

But this was also North Philadelphia, what they called a “ghetto” back in the day. Temple wasn’t downtown; it was in a high-crime area. And it had remained so, despite a formidable Philly police presence, high-profile TU security and well-lit parking lots.

 

In UT’s case, the issue is more addressable. No, the campus is not sequestered in the suburbs or insulated in a college-town cocoon. The campus is downtown. But downtown Tampa isn’t North Philly. Sure, there is public housing nearby – and, yes, it’s a problem. No, you can’t harshly judge all its residents, but let’s be real, if politically incorrect.

 

But here’s the biggest – and most addressable – issue. All these criminal acts took place after 2 a.m. There’s only so much police patrols and campus security can do – short of creating a mini-police-state ambience. And, no, you can’t put a moat around the North Boulevard Homes public housing project.

 

UT now has an enrollment over 6,000. A lot of the students live on campus. They’re young, feeling immortal and residing in an urban setting by choice. But by definition, wherever you are, nothing good happens after 2 a.m. Not back at home, wherever that is, not in the suburbs, not in a college town. Let alone downtown Tampa with adjacent public housing and a smattering of transients.   

 

TPD spokeswoman Laura McElroy put it into perfect context. “It isn’t necessarily the location,” she told the Tampa Tribune. “It’s about who’s out after midnight, who’s out in the early morning hours. Often that’s when the criminal element is out.”

 

In the most recent incident, less than two weeks ago, a UT student was robbed at gunpoint near the Martinez Sports Center on North Boulevard. He was headed to the Metro Market convenience store on Kennedy Boulevard.

 

At 5 a.m.

 

That’s way too late as well as entirely too early. Be smart.

Connotation Counts In Politics

Ever notice how much questionable stuff is done in the name of that which seems unassailably good?

 

Recall “accountability.” No one, of course, is against it. In the abstract. But we don’t live – let alone politick – in the abstract. Remember how it was used to sell FCATs? Thanks again, Jeb!

 

Or how about our sacrosanct, forefather-revering “First and Second Amendment rights”? Where would Joe Redner be without the former or assault-weapon-selling gun shows sans the latter?

 

The list is as endless as rhetorical expedience itself. The rubric of patriotism, which we all subscribe to, can also accommodate “wars of choice” and mercenaries. The perverted morph of “freedom fighter” to terrorist is all too familiar.

 

On a statewide level, we will soon confront “Hometown Democracy,” which could lead to hometown chaos. “Referendumb” might be more accurate.

 

Or how about the Pyrrhic victory that has resulted from having passed feel-good, throw-the-rascals-out “term limits”? Arguably, it’s resulted in more lobbyists and more experience-challenged legislators, some of whom become leaders-in-waiting without having proved much of anything except the ability to get anointed.

 

The current Exhibit A is Rep. Chris Dorworth of Lake Mary. He was elected a little more than two years ago. He’s now, incredulously enough, slated to be the Florida Speaker of the House – for 2014-16. By then, hopefully, he will have put foreclosure behind him – as well as that nagging $2.7-million legal judgment. And maybe put up enough of a legislative track record to actually warrant being the House’s presiding officer.

Crist’s Ultimate Legacy

Seemingly everybody but Charlie Crist agrees that the challenges of a stimulus-skewed, Potemkin budget are onerous this Legislative session. Maybe $3 billion worth.

 

Would that this were finally the year that revenue-raising — the formula dates to the Leroy Collins’ era and is based on the Ponzi-schemed, go-go growth years — was finally addressed. And, no, cuts in health and human services, a token reduction in the state corporate income tax, and reliance on trust-fund raids, fee hikes and casino spoils don’t count.

 

What does count – closing unjustified sales-tax exemptions, including services, and getting serious about being part of the national push to collect Internet sales taxes — won’t happen. Again.

 

Crist’s watch has been defined by a tectonic shift in economic reality. A strong, gutsy leader was not merely preferable, but mandatory. Florida didn’t come close. Too politically risky for a career opportunist. The state still hasn’t adjusted. The fiscally fragile future will soon be Bill McCollum’s or Alex Sink’s — and everybody else’s — worry.

 

That dereliction of meaningful, pragmatically targeted leadership should be the Crist legacy – not that his ideology-free politics got him Tea-bagged by Marco Rubio.