January 08, 2004
Civitas secrecy starting to ruffle feathers
Finally, others seem to be taking note of all the secrecy behind Ed Turanchik’s Secret Plan to Take Over the World:
Hillsborough commissioners say the people hoping to remake central and east Tampa into a hipster haven better start producing some facts soon if they want anything from the county - real soon.They can start by telling commissioners just what it is they want from the county, they said.
"It sounds like a lot of people have a lot more information about this than I do," said Commissioner Jim Norman. "I haven't seen one piece of paper, and I haven't talked to one single person."
The board was reacting to the proposal from former Commissioner Ed Turanchik and his investment group, Civitas, to raze the Central Park public housing project as part of a massive east-side redevelopment project.
Turanchik has been promoting the project for weeks, after his investment group spent two years gobbling up more than 200 parcels of property as part of the project. But he has released little in the way of documents or details about what he wants to do with it all.
A centerpiece of the project is teaming up with the Tampa Housing Authority to seek $20-million in federal HOPE VI money to demolish the Central Park public housing project and replace it with a mixture of low-cost and high-end housing. The poor people who live at Central Park would be moved to new housing while the project was being built, then be able to move back to low-income units at the new development if they qualify.
......Turanchik has been meeting or seeking meetings with individual commissioners and top county staffers during the past two weeks. Bean said she met with representatives of Civitas last week. They gave a presentation, but not with enough detail for her to provide an analysis for commissioners and nothing in writing to share with them.
"They took all of the papers with them when they left," Bean said.
Meeting with only one public official and leaving no papers means that there is little or nothing that can be gleaned by the public under Florida’s Sunshine Laws.
This scam known as Civitas is just too much. Look at it this way: Ed Turanchink is a car salesman. He wants to put you in a new vehicle today. Sign here. Now. Just sign. Don’t worry about which model you’re buying, what color it is, whether or not it is used or flood damaged. No need to talk price or financing or gas mileage. Trust the car salesman. Everyone knows that car salesman are an honest lot. Ed would never sell you a lemon in order to earn a commission. Hurry. Sign now, or you might miss out on this great deal!
More on Civitas.
Posted by Norwood at January 8, 2004 05:35 PM