“I do have confidence in [HART CEO] Adelee Le Grand,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor told WUSF on February 14 this year. “And I hope that this investigation shows that she didn’t have involvement in the…
Neither recently fired HART CEO Ben Limmer or current PSTA CEO Brad Miller ever submitted employment applications for their jobs, public records obtained by The Guardian show. All other employees, including the lowest paid ones,…
Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) interim CEO Carolyn House Stewart does not like being questioned by reporters. She feels “attacked” by their questions and their reporting. This past Monday, WTSP 10 Investigates reporter Jenna…
At a special meeting yesterday, HART’s board of directors fired its $210,000 per year CEO Ben Limmer for violating several HART policies. The firing was “for cause,” meaning that Limmer will not get the severance…
Just as citizens vote on a 1% sales tax to fund transit in Hillsborough County, the county’s transit authority reported that its bus ridership is down 10.3% for the fiscal year that ended September 30th…
In his re-election bid, St. Pete Beach Mayor Alan Johnson appears to have violated Florida campaign law at least twice. First by claiming to have a political endorsement he didn’t have, secondly by also touting…
PSTA staff will give a “Sunrunner one month update” report to the PSTA board tomorrow morning. The presentation includes social media impression claims, survey results, a dozen children…and beer. However, completely absent from PSTA’s presentation…
Term limits for Pinellas County commissioners has been a flashpoint ever since 73% of Pinellas voters approved 8-year term limits in 1996. The county commissioners waged a court fight along with others, mostly at taxpayer…
In a 4-1 decision, the Florida Supreme Court today threw out the Hillsborough sales tax hike for transit approved by voters in 2018 . The 1% sales tax was projected to bring in $16 billion…
Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp, who is on the ballot, is facing almost certain disciplinary action from the Florida Bar. This after a bar complaint was filed against her last month. The issue at hand…
Public records request by The Guardian revealed that zero (0) employment applications were received by Tampa International Airport for an unadvertised $223,000 per year position as Vice President of Marketing. Former TV anchor Veronica Cintron…
Hillsborough County Independent Oversight Committee (IOC) staff have developed a media plan that includes “key messages” for committee members and staff to advance to the public. Disturbingly, the media plan says that those key messages…
Pinellas County’s Thursday press release stated that “Commission Chair Pat Gerard extended Pinellas County’s state of local emergency [SLE] another 7 days.” Chair Gerard cited as authority for her action county commission resolution 20-22. That…
At PSTA’s Legislative Committee meeting on February 5th, PSTA’s federal lobbyist Harry Glenn spoke of a list that the FTA has. “It’s actually a list of projects…that kind of gives the Congress an expectation of…
At yesterday’s monthly PSTA board meeting, Pinellas County commissioner Pat Gerard somewhat surprisingly commented that “riding the [PSTA ] buses all the time, you see what kinds of things they [the bus drivers] deal with…
EDITOR’S NOTE: this article by Jim Bleyer is reposted from Tampa Bay Beat. We post it because the Tampa Bay Times today reported that the leader of Hillsborough County NAACP has come out in opposition…
It was after 3 P.M. in County Center on a hot Friday in September. The previous evening at 6:15 P.M., Hillsborough County Chief Financial Administrator Bonnie Wise had requested that “errors” be corrected in the…
Voter support for the 14% hike in the Hillsborough County sales tax is already unlikely. If the statutorily required audit of the government agencies receiving the money was supposed to increase voter support, a state…
