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Jan Platt

Pat Kemp sworn in as newest Hillsborough County Commissioner

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

Pat Kemp, Sandy Murman and Les Miller were all official sworn into office on Tuesday to serve on the Hillsborough County Commission for the next four years. For Miller and Murman, if all goes well they will have spent a full decade in office when their term ends in 2020. Both were elected in 2010, after serving previous stints in the Florida Legislature. For Kemp, it’s the culmination of her work over the past several years to finally sit on…

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LGBT protections won’t be going into Hillsborough County’s Charter

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

At the end of the night at the Hillsborough County Center in downtown Tampa, both sides got what they wanted, but it was hardly a united community. The Hillsborough County Charter Review Board voted 11-1 Tuesday night against amendment the county’s charter to prohibit discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgendered people. If it had been approved, it would have to go before Hillsborough voters next year. With LGBT activists joining up with Christian conservatives in advocating that the board not…

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Hillsborough Charter Review Board rejects idea of changing BOCC makeup

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

Perhaps a proposal to prevent anybody in Hillsborough County from staying in office longer than eight years will provoke more unity among members of the Hillsborough County Charter Review Board. That idea was briefly discussed at the end of Tuesday night’s sometimes contentious discussion among those 14 board members after they decisively rejected a proposal to add two additional members to the seven-member County Commission. The vote was 11-3, with only E.J. Otero, Norma Reno and Gerald White supporting the…

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Mitch Perry Report for 7.7.15 — Last call for change with Hillsborough County Board size?

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

The Hillsborough County Charter Review Board meets again tonight at 6 p.m. at the County Center, where advocates for a several years-long push to expand or change the configuration of the seven-member Board of County Commissioners will have one last chance to persuade the majority that such a change is needed. The odds are stacked against them. The purveyors of status quo, none more prominent than former County Commissioner and now Charter Board member herself Jan Platt, remains fixated on keeping…

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Window closing on advocates’ attempts to change Hillsborough County Commission composition

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

Though they haven’t been completely dismissed yet, advocates supporting a change in the size and/or configuration of the current Hillsborough County Commission are on life support today. On Tuesday night the Hillsborough County Charter Review Board voted to review a proposed  “5/4 plan,” which would expand the current number of county commissioners from seven to nine, adding an additional single-member district and another member who would be elected countywide. The other option they will review will be simply to maintain the  status…

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Hillsborough Charter Review Board not ready to decide on County Commission makeup

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

They batted it around for more than two hours Tuesday night, but in the end, the members of the Hillsborough County Charter Review Board were no closer to recommending any changes regarding the current configuration of the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners than they were when they began. For over 30 years, the board has consisted of seven members — four from single-member districts, and three at-large, voted on countywide. But there is once again a demand to change the current system,…

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Time for change on the composition of the Hillsborough BOCC?

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

For over three decades, the seven-member Hillsborough County Commission has consisted of representatives from four single-member districts and three at-large seats. But the county is much larger now, and there are a lot of people who think its composition needs to change to reflect that growth. In the past few years, there has been two futile attempts to add another single-member district and eliminate an at-large seat. The opportunity to debate the issue comes back this Tuesday night in Tampa, where the…

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