Our investigation found that all 25 municipalities in Pinellas county fail to comply with a state law requiring them to notify the property appraiser’s office of real estate they own. The offending government agencies include…
Barclay Harless, a banker employed by Bank of the Ozarks, wants a seat on the St. Pete City Council. But has the now 32-year old Harless learned from the mistakes that the 22-year old Harless…
One year ago, the Guardian found that all 12 local government agencies we surveyed incorrectly stated that a special permit would be required for reentry after a hurricane. Many of them still do, including the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office…
State Rep. Kathleen Peters (R – Treasure Island) announced last week that she was running for a seat on the Pinellas county commission in 2018. In covering this announcement, SaintPetersBlog.Com reported that Peters had campaigned for the…
TBARTA, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Agency, operates a little known commuter van pool program involving about 100 vans. It’s a form of transit that costs much less per passenger mile than other forms of…
Multiple and extensive free ridership programs across PSTA’s network in April failed to stem the the ridership plunge at this beleaguered Pinellas transit agency. As the Guardian reported last month, PSTA ridership for its fiscal year is…
TampaBayGuardian.Com today filed a lawsuit against the Pinellas Business Technology Services Board (BTS), alleging Sunshine Law violations and other statutory violations. The civil complaint seeks to void three BTS meetings, including tomorrow’s meeting. BTS head Marty Rose…
Barbara Haselden, the leader of the 2014 No Tax For Tracks effort to defeat a 1% sales tax increase for light rail in Pinellas County, has filed to run for the Pinellas county commission in…
The Guardian today sued Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri after he refused to provide records detailing the “lawfulness and/or constitutionality of PCSO’s Emergency Access Permit (EAP) program.” That program provides for re-entry to the barrier islands…
President Trump’s “budget blueprint” for fiscal year 2018 calls for halting funding to transit capital projects (so-called “New Starts”), with the exception of projects that already have grant agreements in place. It also appears that no new grant…
As expected, the referendum on a lease expansion for Al Lang Stadium passed today in St. Petersburg. The Tampa Bay Rowdies want to sign a 25-year lease with the city in order to begin an $80…
The 6-month Cross Bay Ferry pilot project ends on April 30. But what is the stated public purpose of the heavily taxpayer-subsidized Cross Bay Ferry (CBF) that justifies spending public funds on it? It turns out that the…
Last Thursday, representatives of Jeff Vinik’s company Strategic Property Partners (SPP) met behind closed doors with Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill. SPP is seeking to have 75% of all property taxes collected on real estate “above [SPP’s]…
At today’s monthly PSTA board meeting, a flawed resolution that was “approved in form” by its top attorney was before the board for approval. The flawed resolution passed unanimously, as written. As explained below, there…
Recently, Hillsborough County commissioner White toured portions of Hillsborough County by helicopter with Hillsborough Sheriff David Gee. White has reportedly made “preventing unmitigated sprawl his top priority as commissioner.” The Guardian sat down with White for…
The Tampa Bay Times assigned two reporters to cover the City of Clearwater’s purchase of 1.4 acres of downtown land last night. However, the Times assigned no reporters to cover the city’s embarrassing loss in…
The decline of bus ridership on the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) network of routes continues, despite new programs aimed at boosting ridership. At the current rate, PSTA is headed for its lowest total number of bus revenue…
The second “Public Input Open House” on Penny for Pinellas renewal was held by Pinellas County government last night in Gulfport. County voters will be voting on whether to renew this 1% sales tax on November…
