Mayhem No Mirage

Item: Last Thursday police arrested 15 people at Tampa’s Mirage nightclub. Charges ranged from drug possession and probation violation to felon with a firearm. 

 

Item: The week before two Mirage patrons were shot and hospitalized. The arrested suspect was accused of pointing a gun at an officer and trying to run over another.

 

Item: From August 2008 to August 2009, there were 137 calls from Mirage for police help.

 

Item: The after-hours Mirage scene is so disturbing — and so predictable — that TPD officers have been regularly assigned there for the last year.

 

Question: This magnet for mayhem is still open? TPD officers have to police it? And be at risk? And not be somewhere else protecting the, well, innocent?

 

Response: To usual bureaucratic answer is that filing a complaint with the city’s nuisance abatement board – anarchy abatement board, anyone?  – can be a laborious and Byzantine process.

 

Conclusion: Had one of those officers who was fired on two weeks ago been wounded – or tragically killed – a way would have been found to scissor the NAB red tape. So, why wait?

Arbitration Absurdity

Where else but in professional sports could “arbitration” have such a parallel-universe meaning?

 

B.J. Upton made $435,000 last season as the Tampa Bay Rays’ centerfielder. Arguably he was overpaid for his offensive underperformance. For the record, he hit .241, 11 home runs and drove in 55 runs. He’s also been known to need a reminder that hustling was far more important than looking cool.

 

The Rays and Upton went to arbitration over this year’s salary. The Rays offered $3 million; Upton asked for $3.3 million. The arbitration panel ruled in favor of the Rays. Imagine if Upton had actually had a good year last season? Imagine if these were flush times?

Quoteworthy

·                     “If you took us out of the American League East, I think we’d be the favorite in any other division.” – Tampa Bay Rays’ President Matt Silverman.

·                     “This is not a proposal for off-shore drilling. This is a proposal for near-beach drilling.” – Florida CFO Alex Sink.

·                     “A year into his (Obama’s) presidency, two things stand out: the easy history has been made, and it’s simpler to change our leaders than ourselves.” – Richard Norton Smith, scholar-in-residence, George Mason University.

·                     “I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives, but I do not love Congress.” – Retiring Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

Congressional Commentary

If ever there were a place where sound bites were never in short supply, it’s Congress. With a mosaic of constituencies and myriad agendas, Beltway politicians have quotes for all occasions. And, as we’re all too frequently reminded, there have never been more outlets or forums.

 

And yet amid all the posturing pol-speak, the recent comments of Sen. Evan Bayh, 54, resonated far above the usual, partisan din. The two-term Indiana Democrat, who was on Barack Obama’s veep short list in 2008, announced that he was quitting the Senate. Even though he was considered a shoo-in for re-election this year. Even though he had $13 million in his campaign coffers. Even though his party, still reeling from the Kennedy-seat loss in Massachusetts, needed him to stay.

 

But he had more compelling reasons to leave. For Bayh, the toxic atmosphere of partisanship was no longer worth tolerating – and, in effect, enabling.

 

“Even at a time of enormous challenge, the peoples’ business is not being done,” he acknowledged. “Examples of this are legion.

 

“I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives,” Bayh added, “but I do not love Congress.”

 

Even in the cacophony of Washington, that spoke volumes.

Lobo Appointment

By now most of you know that a local PBS leader has landed a prestigious appointment in Washington. Dick Lobo, 73, president and chief executive of WEDU-Channel 3, has been named by the White House to head the International Broadcasting Bureau. The IBB runs, among other things, Voice of America as well as Radio and TV Marti. Lobo’s appointment is contingent upon confirmation by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

 

Lobo’s management experience is considerable and includes NBC affiliates in Miami, New York, Chicago and Cleveland. What many don’t know, however, is his extensive and eclectic field reporting. Among his interviewees: Fidel Castro, Mickey Mantle, the Beatles, Malcolm X and Barbra Streisand. And when was the last time those five references appeared in the same sentence?

Female Surgeons: Still A Rarity

It’s one of the last bastions of high-profile, male dominance: surgeons.

 

Ironically, statistics tell us that there are more female doctors than ever before. In fact, more than half of all American medical students are now women. And yet only 6 per cent are considering careers in surgery.

 

The ongoing disparity is enough of an issue that USF and Tampa General Hospital are jointly sponsoring a national symposium focusing on the challenges confronting women surgeons seeking to advance in a male-dominated field. The National Women In Surgery symposium, aimed primarily at physicians, residents and medical students, will be Saturday, Feb. 27 at the Don CeSar Hotel on St. Pete Beach.

 

The barriers cited as typical deterrents include lack of role models, perceptions about an “old boys’ club” culture and sexual discrimination, and a work environment unfriendly to family life.

 

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Julie Freischlag, vascular surgeon and chair of surgery at Johns Hopkins.

“Over time, as more women in the medical education pipeline enter surgical programs and stay, they will feel more comfortable assuming leadership roles,” says Dr. Freischlag. “If women really want to change the rules and advance, they have to be in charge to do it.”

Teacher Awards: More Than One

It’s that time again. With appropriate fanfare, the Hillsborough Education Foundation has named its teacher of the year. Congratulations Emily Marrero, a fifth-grade teacher at Philip Shore Elementary Magnet School. Her award includes a $4,500 scholarship from USF and Nova University, plus $1,000 in cash. It’s always gratifying to see our best teachers, too often taken for granted, receive such recognition — and rewards.

 

As School board chairwoman Susan Valdes noted at an assembly, Marrero, an 8-year-veteran, “was chosen No. 1” in a district of more than 14,000 teachers.

 

But once again — as when Megan Allen of Cleveland Elementary won it last year — this award begs a fundamental question. Why not give more than one? One for elementary, middle-school and secondary teachers. As hard as it is to single out one outstanding teacher, at least do it in the context of comparable criteria.

 

The template for good teaching is not the same for all teachers, K-12.  Of course, they all put a premium on motivation and creativity – as well as results. But non-elementary teachers are subject specific – and impacted by FCAT subplots and adolescent rites of passage. But what they do is obviously built on the foundation that must be laid at the elementary levels. The teacher roles are complementary, but not identical.

 

Thus the evaluative criteria can’t be the same when the focus, content and group dynamics are so different. As different as grade school is from high school. Exceptional teachers at all levels should be honored. It’s only fair.

Bolts’ On A Roll — “Cowboys” Jettisoned

So, has a hedge-fund manager ever been such a welcome sight? That would be 50-year-old financial maven Jeffrey Vinik of Boston, who just signed a purchase agreement to buy the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning – as well as the St. Pete Times Forum lease and 5 ½  acres around the arena. He’s already cutting paychecks.      

It’s believed he paid about $110 million – in cash – for what cost the previous owners, the highly-leveraged OK Hockey, $200 million. Vinik will be the sole owner. His net worth is estimated between $500 million and $800 million.

Sometimes you add by subtracting. At minimum, that’s what just happened to the Lightning. A Harvard MBA with a track record for methodically-researched, investment success replaces the “cowboys,” as ex-Bolts coach John Tortorella dubbed former owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie. Actually, their verbal sparring and their need for payroll advances had forced the NHL into a broker role. Koules and Barrie were the guys who hired Barry Melrose, jettisoned Dan Boyle and Brad Richards and signed Vinny Lecavalier forever for too much. These were the edgy hipsters who had trouble grooming themselves.

Already the team is doing better. The Bolts are in the playoff hunt. Not playing under a cloud of ownership uncertainty had to help. Without stability, the team had no future.

And, yes, Vinik says he’s committed to this franchise, this market and this community. His father lives in Boca Raton, and he plans to relocate his wife and four kids here.

And who knows what else he’ll involve himself with? For what it’s worth, he once funded a wing of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as a birthday present for his wife, Penny.

Crist’s Limp Legacy

No, it’s not second-guessing.

This space and others have long urged Governor Charlie Crist to make the future solvency of this state more of a priority. More of a priority, that is, than his own popularity and empty-suited ideology of self interest. No, an onerous recession is obviously not Crist’s fault, but keeping Florida woefully unprepared for an inevitable day of reckoning is on him.

Recall that he never exhumed the bully pulpit his predecessor had used for FCAT-shilling and bullet-train killing to bring Florida revenue-raising in line with something other than growth and sprawl forever. Florida had become a Ponzi state, fueled by ever-more move-ins. And a revenue formula that was good enough for LeRoy Collins wasn’t a good enough rationale.

And the beat goes on. Crist’s $69.2 billion budget proposal would once again rather rely on the sunniest of scenarios. These include Fed money, a gaming agreement and local-option school district taxes. He would also —  again — tap into Florida’s dwindling reserves, which can adversely impact this state’s bond rating, rather than look at alternatives that might upset key special interests.

Sales-tax exemptions, for example, are too numerous and ill-allocated – especially services. He’s never made an effort to work with other states on an internet retailers  tax compact. He’s never made the case – or tried to raise the political consciousness – about what unfettered trade with Cuba would mean for Florida. Now more than ever. Why should Washington change its policy of feckless incrementalism when the chief executive of the biggest beneficiary state remains cowed and quiet?

But before long that will all be somebody else’s watch and worry. He assumes most voters won’t even remember that he gutted growth management laws and appointed his former chief of staff as Mel Martinez’s senate-seat warmer. Right now Crist’s concern is getting through one more hurricane season and hoping a Marco Rubio love child turns up before the August primary.

Add By Subtracting

Call it hitting a reset button or just adding by subtracting.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are now on a roll – one that is hardly limited to being in the NHL playoff hunt for the first time in too many years. The highly-leveraged “cowboys,” owners Oren Koules and Len Barrie, are out. The dysfunctional duo who brought in Barry Melrose , dispatched Dan Boyle and Brad Richards, jousted verbally in public and needed a league advance to make payroll are history.

In their stead: financial maven Jeffrey Vinik, who paid cash — reportedly about $110 million — for the Lightning, the St. Pete Times Forum lease and 5 ½ acres around the arena.

Without stability, the Bolts had no future. With the wealthy (net worth estimated between $500 million and $800 million) sole owner whose passion is hockey and whose plans include a Vinik family relocation to Tampa, the Bolts now have a chance.