Cranky commission castrates Castor, cozies up to Clear Channel

Well, the county sold out to Clear Channel yesterday. Truthfully, I’m surprised it took this long for the commissioners (acting as the EPC) to cave.

Under the terms of the deal, Clear Channel can play music as loud as they want for a year or so with no fear of penalty. Then they have to build a wall and monitor things like speaker placement. If the music is still too loud in January of 2007, then we can start the whole process of fines and lawsuits over from scratch.

Also yesterday, the County Commission ganged up on Kathy Castor and voted her out of many positions of responsibility. Kathy was the only one to vote against the Clear Channel deal, and has irked fellow commissioners with her independent and common sense stands on many controversial issues.

Hillsborough commissioners conducted their annual settling of scores Thursday when they met to pick their chairman and vote each other on and off various boards and councils.

For Commissioner Kathy Castor, who is running for a seat in Congress, it was mostly off Thursday.

The housekeeping task would seem as exciting as scrubbing the tub to the uninitiated. But for this board, it tends to be the most political day of the year, a day when commissioners flex their muscles or get socked in the stomach instead.

Commissioner Ronda Storms got things going by suggesting that commissioners simply keep their assignments of the past year. If they wanted another assignment, they could put their names forward. The board would vote for either the current post holder or the commissioner now seeking the same spot.

Then Storms put her name forward. For the Children’s Board. For chairmanship of the Environmental Protection Commission. For the Executive Policy Group, the panel that deals with hurricane preparedness and other emergency situations – all seats held by Castor.

Commissioner Mark Sharpe was also interested in the Executive Policy Group. Storms withdrew her name for that one, leaving the choice between Castor and Sharpe.

The votes went 5-2, 5-2, 5-2, with Castor’s lone fellow Democrat, Tom Scott, siding with her. And with that, Castor had lost three of her most high-profile and coveted assignments. Then, for good measure, Ken Hagan asked for a seat on the Metropolitan Planning Organization, a group that deals with transportation and includes four commissioners. Specifically, he wanted Castor’s seat.
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Before the boards and councils selections, commissioners unanimously voted to keep Commissioner Jim Norman as chairman of the commission and Hagan as vice chairman. They appointed Commissioner Brian Blair as their chaplain.

This entry was posted on November 18, 2005 at 7:10 am and is filed under Tampa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.