Latest New Tampa Town Hall Tackles Road Safety, Local Business & More

Hillsborough County School Board member Cindy Stuart (left) and Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera at a recent New Tampa townhall.

Since taking over as the Tampa City council member representing District 7, which includes New Tampa, Luis Viera vowed to try to create a more engaged community by developing local leaders who would hold politicians’ feet to the proverbial fire.

One vehicle for doing so: town halls, which are run by the New Tampa Council, a group Viera helped organize that is comprised of leaders from various local communities.

Here’s what you missed from the latest town hall, which was held Nov. 15 at the Venetian Event Center at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church on Cross Creek Blvd.

New Tampa Safety Group’s April Ingram.

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN — April Ingram, who started the New Tampa Safety Group, continued to beat the drum at the town hall for pedestrian safety in the K-Bar Ranch and Cross Creek areas. She also argued again for more crossing guards at Pride and Hunter’s Green Elementary schools, and suggested that the dangerous Kinnan St. and Cross Creek Blvd. intersection in front of Benito Middle School would benefit from more crossing guards, too.

Cindy Stuart, the School Board member for District 3, which includes all of New Tampa’s schools, didn’t disagree. Stuart, a guest speaker at the town hall, said that crossing guards are not offered by the Hillsborough County Sheriff Office (HCSO) at middle or high schools.

“That’s not my decision,” she says, even though she added she has shared data with HCSO that says middle and high school kids are more at risk than elementary school pedestrians. Stuart says that there is no money to hire more crossing guards or increase their pay, but added that HCSO will be requesting additional funds to do so.

Stuart, who chairs Hillsborough’s School Transportation Working Group (STWG), said the only way to get a crossing guard at Benito (or Wharton) would be to petition HCSO. You could hear light bulbs popping over the heads of many of the 50 or so residents in attendance.

DRIVE, DON’T TEXT — Stuart also said she has had numerous meetings about pedestrian safety in New Tampa, and there are minor changes in the works, such as moving the Benito Middle School bike rack from the side of the school where the buses operate closer to the front of the school, and clearing some trees to remove visual hindrances.

While students need to be taught the safest places to cross streets and not to assume that a red light means a car will necessarily stop, Stuart told the audience that it’s the adults who need to start paying more attention.

“The distracted driving in this community is horrible,” she said. “We have to stop.”

SWALLOWED UP? — A few residents in attendance expressed concerns that New Tampa is getting “swallowed up” by Wesley Chapel, due to the number of businesses that have been closing south of the Pasco line lately. One even suggested starting a grass roots organization to stop spending money in Wesley Chapel, while others worried that the two new tax referendums that recently passed (and have bumped the county’s sales tax to 8.5 percent) will only make it harder on local businesses.

Brad Suder, the superintendent of planning & design at the City of Tampa’s Parks & Recreation Department.

PARK NEWS — Brad Suder, the superintendent of planning & design at the City of Tampa’s Parks & Recreation Department, also was in attendance and provided some of the most well-received news of the night.

According to Suder, the five-acre New Tampa Sensory Park (one of Viera’s pet projects), planned for the land just south of BJ’s Wholesale Club on Commerce Palms Dr. in Tampa Palms, is not only proceeding, it is, “starting to become a dynamite-looking park.”

Suder, a New Tampa resident, said the original plans left him underwhelmed, but a new approach has yielded fantastic results. The proposed design should be completed by the middle of December.

Now comes the hard part: getting the money to actually build it.

While the $90,000 for the study and design was in last year’s City of Tampa budget, construction will require another $2-million that will have to be approved in this year’s budget come October 2019. It remains to be seen how a new mayor, who will be elected this spring, will affect those plans.

MORE MORE MORE — It was suggested by Arbor Greene’s Laura Blank that perhaps a group should be formed — a “town council” — to meet more frequently about issues residents in New Tampa may want to talk about. For example, why are there so many pizza places on Cross Creek Blvd.? And how about encouraging a breakfast restaurant to set up shop in New Tampa?

Jim Davison, who lost in his bid for the District 7 seat to Viera in 2016, suggested something like CafĂ© con Tampa, a weekly neighborhood gathering in South Tampa —often hosted by an area restaurant — where people show up to listen to special guests and talk about various issues.

It wasn’t clear if Davison was suggesting that these could be supplemental to the town halls, or a replacement for them. Davison lamented that “three months later, no one remembers what the hell we talked about.”

Viera, who defeated Davison to win his city council seat, took offense to that claim, pointing out that one town hall (at the New Tampa Recreation Center, or NTRC) was the launching point for local activists to get the NTRC expansion into the budget and approved, while other meetings have sparked things like Ingram’s safety group and a current study to repave the bike/pedestrian paths on New Tampa Blvd. in West Meadows.

MORE PARK TALK — K-BAR PARK ON HOLD? — Despite Davison’s claims, it was apparent that not everyone forgets what was said at previous town halls. K-Bar Ranch’s Will Tyson asked how the plans were coming along for the 50+-acre park planned for K-Bar Ranch that was talked about at the town hall in May.

Viera said that there hasn’t been any progress on the K-Bar park, as the city is trying to pay off some of its debt.

“It was never meant to be on the imminent horizon,” Viera said, putting a timeframe of 1-3 years on getting that park project built.

Business Attorney Derek Usman Helps Clients Right Here In New Tampa

Attorney Derek Usman says he moved from Chicago to Wesley Chapel in 2015 to be closer to family, bringing his experience in litigation, employment law and business law to the Wesley Chapel and New Tampa areas.

He originally opened his local office of The Usman Law Firm, P.A., off of Bearss Ave. But recently, he moved to a new office on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. (south of County Line Rd., in the Central Bank building), to be right in the heart of the community where he lives and serves his neighbors.

From initial paperwork for business formation to settling disputes in court, Derek is both experienced and knowledgeable in all areas of employment and business law.

He can help business owners and other individuals who have legal issues that need to be resolved related to the workplace. This could be related to contracts, labor and employment, setting up a new business as a corporation LLC or partnership, or it could be related to severance agreements, sexual harassment or discrimination, disputes related to overtime, wages and commissions, non-compete agreement review and litigation, wrongful termination, and whistleblower and retaliation.

Derek earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree from Indiana University in Fort Wayne in 1997 and his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the Northern Illinois University College of Law in 2001.

He is admitted to practice before the bars of Florida, Illinois, U.S. Tax Court, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Forming Businesses &

Resolving Disputes

Derek says many attorneys who practice business and employment law specialize in either initial transactions or disputes. However, Derek isn’t limited to one area or the other.

“I know both parts and have experience in both,” he says. “I have more practical knowledge when it comes to forming agreements because I know what usually gets litigated in court.”

He says his clients benefit from the hands-on experience he has had in courtrooms, from county courts, to state, federal and even appellate courts.

“If an attorney doesn’t go to court,” he says, “it kind of becomes academic. You can read about it all you want, but it’s different when you actually litigate cases in the courtroom.”

He explains that this has an impact on the front end paperwork he creates.

“When I’m drafting an agreement, I know the pitfalls,” he says.

Derek is able to assist people starting a new business to chose the right business structure, such as an S-corporation or LLC, and help those business owners understand the implications of the different structures that are available.

His clients are both business owners and employees. Derek says that many of them come to The Usman Law Firm because of something that is increasingly popular these days, a noncompete agreement.

“Oftentimes, employers don’t want employees starting a competing business or using their customer base at their next job,” he says. “More and more, employers are creating these agreements for every little thing.”

Before someone signs such an agreement, Derek recommends a consultation with The Usman Law Firm.

“It can be negotiated,” he explains. “Just because they hand you something that says you can’t work anywhere in Florida, for example, you can usually negotiate those details.”

Specifics such as the geographic scope and the time duration of these agreements are often points that can be worked out in a more favorable way, he explains.

Cleaning Up Legal Messes

Tim Wojdan was referred to Derek last year, when he found himself in need of an employment law attorney.

“I was a senior executive with a company in St. Pete that was sold and being shut down,” Tim explains. “I wound up in a legal mess with regards to an employment contract and noncompete agreement.”

He says he had two phone consultations with Derek where he explained the situation top to bottom, and Derek immediately got to work.

“He very quickly resolved the issue in a favorable way,” says Tim. “With an entire corporation being shut down, there were many other employees in the same situation, but Derek had discovered that my particular case might infringe on a federal issue. The other side moved very quickly to settle once Derek introduced that information.”

Tim says Derek’s hard work brought the case to the forefront of many others being pursued at the same time.

He also says Derek’s expertise was valuable in the case, which was tricky because the corporate headquarters was out of state.

Tim says he highly recommends Derek, who has since worked with another member of Tim’s staff to resolve that person’s claim, as well.

“I was most impressed by his professionalism and his promptness,” Tim says. “Most of the time, I didn’t even have to call him because he was proactively reaching out to me.”

Local To New Tampa

One of the things that makes Derek’s firm unique is that not many business lawyers are physically located in or even near New Tampa. His office is much easier to get to for New Tampa and Wesley Chapel clients than firms in other parts of town. While there are many personal injury attorneys in the area, he says most business law firms are located downtown.

Derek sees his location as an asset. He regularly goes to court in both Hillsborough County and Pasco County, while some attorneys in the Tampa area won’t travel to Dade City for Pasco County cases.

He stays connected to downtown firms by being involved in the Hillsborough County Bar Association and by appearing in court. He says he is often in touch with big downtown firms and has a good relationship with many lawyers from those practices.

“I have a good rapport with attorneys from downtown firms,” Derek says. He also explains that this makes it easier to pick up the phone and discuss cases with attorneys who are representing his clients’ opposition.

Derek says his decision to move his firm away from downtown Tampa — into the heart of New Tampa and closer to Wesley Chapel — was intentional.

“I consciously decided to move my office here, in the community where I live,” Derek says.

Moving his office is not the only way that Derek connects to the New Tampa and Wesley Chapel communities. He is an active member of the North Tampa Bay (formerly Wesley Chapel) Chamber of Commerce. He also is involved in the community as a member of the New Tampa Rotary Club, where he enjoys building relationships with fellow Rotarians and the many opportunities to volunteer, like he does annually at the Wiregrass Wobble Turkey Trot 5K run.

(Note-we’ll recap this year’s Thanksgiving Day run in our next issue).

“Rotary Club leaders organize volunteer opportunities for members and make it easy for club members to participate,” Derek explains. “I don’t have to think up ways to volunteer in my community. They make it simple for me to be able to help.”

He adds that the events put on by the Rotary not only raise money for good causes, but are great family events that bring people together, too.

“Everybody likes it when you take your kid to the mall and everyone’s out and about, doing something,” he says, “like the Wiregrass Wobble.”

The Usman Law Firm is located at 20701 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. For more information, please visit UsmanFirm.com, call (813) 377-1197, or see the ad on page 41 of this issue.