Birdsong Mounts Another District 2 Challenge To Hagan 

Ken Hagan (right photo, center) talks to K-Bar Ranch residents at a recent town hall held in the community.

In 2002, when Ken Hagan first entered politics, north Hillsborough County, including New Tampa, was a Republican stronghold.

But the times, they have-a-changed.

Nowadays, not only is Hillsborough County blue, with 50,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans, but New Tampa also has followed suit.

But, that’s not all. In addition to New Tampa’s already blue-ish tint, Hagan was dealt a blow when District 2 was redrawn earlier this year, moving out some of the more reliable Republican voters. As a result, Hagan is feeling the pinch as the General Election on Tuesday, November 8, draws nearer (with early voting running from October 24-November 6, 7 a.m.-7 p.m.).

His campaign to hold onto his District 2 seat, which represents most of the New Tampa area he used to live in, has been the most difficult of his career.

“The district has shifted,” Hagan says. “But, we’re still confident we will win.”

Hagan, who grew up in Carrollwood but lived in New Tampa for more than a decade, won his first election for the District 2 seat in 2002 by more than 17,000 votes.  In 2004, he defended that seat with a victory margin of nearly 30,000.

In 2010, he ran for the countywide District 5 seat, and defeated Linda Saul-Sena by 32,000 votes.

A prolific fund raiser who quickly became one of Tampa Bay’s most powerful politicians, Hagan ran for the District 2 seat again in 2018 and was expected to win easily.

However, he was nearly washed out in a blue wave. Political neophyte Angela Birdsong was outspent $500,000-$30,000 but only lost by 6,000 votes, or 52%-48%.

It was shocking, and so was this: Hagan only won two New Tampa precincts, and Birdsong received 3,000 more votes overall from New Tampa residents.

Hagan, however, continued to push for some big ticket items in New Tampa. The New Tampa Performing Arts Center held its ribbon cutting last week, and Hagan has been working on that project for two decades.

Branchton Park off Morris Bridge Rd. is getting a massive upgrade, and the county broke ground on that project last month. And, Hagan is pushing forward with plans to build New Tampa’s first indoor recreation facility in the Cross Creek area, hoping to break ground early next year.

Hagan has a beefed-up resume to show New Tampa voters.

Angela Birdsong (center), with Hillsborough County commissioners Mariella Smith (left) and Pat Kemp.

And, he has raised $397,560 – far more than any other county commissioner running this election cycle — while Birdsong has raised only $65,590. Hagan also had outspent Birdsong through Oct. 7 by a $56,000-37,000 margin.

But will it be enough?

New district maps may provide Birdsong with the last little push she needs to knock Hagan off the County Commission, which is controlled by Democrats.

The map proposed by Commissioner Pat Kemp — which despite objections by commissioners Hagan, Republican Stacy White and Democrat Gwen Myers — passed by a 4-3 vote earlier this year and removed GOP-voting areas in Seffner, Valrico and Thonotosassa from District 2, while adding a large swath of the more Democratic-leaning University of South Florida area.

Hagan says the whole process was “offensive” and called it “the most partisan political exercise I’ve gone through.”

Birdsong, 61, acknowledges that the new maps helped her make the decision to run again, with the district shifting from +2 percentage points for Republican voters to +7 percentage points for registered Democrats.

“It’s going to be a footrace,” she says. “But, we like our chances. It looks very good for us.”

An insurance agent and mother of one, Birdsong said she has campaigned on many of the same issues she did in 2018, namely transportation, workforce training and affordable housing.

She has also made a concerted effort to reach out to minority groups that she feels are growing in northern Hillsborough County but are unrepresented in the county.

She has met with Caribbean-Hispanic, Muslim and LGBTQ groups, and continues to try and draw as many different underrepresented voters into her campaign as possible.

“I really would like to do more to help minority businesses do business with Hillsborough County,” Birdsong says. “I really want to work with minority young people entering high-paying union jobs. You know who can pay the rent? People with high-paying jobs.”

Birdsong has lobbed familiar charges at Hagan — that he is beholden to developers, for one — and says it’s time for a change. Hagan has served as a county commissioner for 20 years, and Birdsong says she will bring a fresh perspective to the area’s changing landscape and needs.

“He’s a career politician,” Birdsong says. “It’s time for him to retire.”

Hagan, however, says his experience has yielded a number of improvements in his district, especially for New Tampa. A longtime advocate and key player in the widening of Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Hagan always has been active in our area. 

While larger issues involving inflation, immigration and abortion dominate the national landscape and make separating Democrats and Republicans easy, the effect county commissioners can have on those issues is minimal. That’s why Hagan says blue wave or red wave, local voters should focus on results.

“The reality is, with local government, people shouldn’t look as hard at partisanship,” Hagan says. “The governor, President, Congress, I get it.  But locally, it should be, man, who is going to deliver the goods? And I’ve done that.”

How Far Will $20 Million For Sidewalk Repairs Go?

With $20 million earmarked for sidewalk repairs, but $15 million of that designated for underserved neighborhoods, will the county’s recent vote impact New Tampa? (Photo: John C. Cotey)

The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) committed a large chunk of money to repaving many of its roads last year. This year, the BOCC is tackling sidewalks.

The commissioners voted 6-1 on May 4 to spend $20 million from the county’s remaining pool of America Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to address dangerous sidewalks damaged over the years by tree roots, vehicles and age. District 7 Commissioner Kimberly Overman was the lone dissenter, stating a preference that the $20 million be spent on addressing the affordable housing crisis instead.

The county received $285.9 million from the federal Covid-19 relief package in 2021 and, after the sidewalk appropriations, will have about $44 million remaining.

Which sidewalks will be fixed, and whether any of those are in New Tampa, won’t be known for another month or so (90 days from the meeting), and commissioners will meet with county planners to determine the areas of need.

District 2 commissioner Ken Hagan, who represents the New Tampa area, told commissioners at the meeting that, “sidewalk repairs and road resurfacing are by far the top requests to my office.”

Damaged and uneven sidewalks are a major concern, commissioners said. Hagan shared the story of one constituent who says their children wait in the street for the school bus in the morning because the sidewalks are so bad. In other cases, children and adults biking, the elderly out for a walk and those in wheelchairs are unable to use the sidewalk for basic things like getting to school, a store or a bus stop.

Tom Fesler, the county’s chief financial administrator, told commissioners that the county has paid out $2.5 million in claims over the last 10 years related to sidewalk trip-and-falls.

“It is one of the most significant items we have as far as claims to come to the county go,” Fesler said.

The Neighborhood News reported a story in July 2019 about the dangerous sidewalks in many of the seven neighborhoods that comprise Cross Creek. Jo-Ann Pilawski, the community association manager, said she had reported the sidewalks for years, but repairs were just added to a massive backlog. Instead, swatches of bright orange paint and dozens of orange safety cones were placed throughout the neighborhoods as warnings to pedestrians.

Three years later, the paint has faded, the cones are gone, and the uneven sidewalks remain. 

Pilawski hopes the BOCC’s vote moves some of the repairs further up on the county’s to-do list.

“I keep calling,” she says.

Hagan said he has compiled a list from constituent phone calls to compare with what the county staff has come up with as to which sidewalks to address.

However, Hagan stressed that there is an 8-10 year backlog on sidewalk repairs and, at the BOCC meeting, commissioners agreed that $15 million of the $20 million voted for would be used to repair sidewalks in underserved areas.

Hillsborough County Public Works maintains more than 3,200 miles of sidewalks, with a budget of only about $550,000 a year to perform repairs. Last year, the county said it had nearly 2,500 open requests for sidewalk repairs, but the budget would only allow it to get to less than a third of those requests.

“The need is enormous,” Hagan said. “Hopefully, we are able to spread it around as much as possible and do as many sidewalks as possible.”

County Approves 22-Percent Trash Assessment Boost

Despite a number of problems with curbside garbage service in recent months, Hillsborough County Commissioners didn’t seem to have much choice but to vote to increase trash assessments for the coming year.

On Aug. 4, commissioners voted 5-2 in favor of the 22% increase, effective Oct. 1, rather than run the risk of having no service when the current contract with Waste Connections of Florida expires.

District 2 Commissioner Ken Hagan, who represents the New Tampa area, was one of the no votes, along with fellow Republican Stacy White.

“A majority of (Waste Connections’) service failures were in north Hillsborough, including my neighborhood,” said Hagan, a Carrollwood resident. “It was getting to the point where they were missing up to 50,000 homes a day. Residents were extremely frustrated, and I completely understand. I feel the same way.”

The annual assessment will rise from $289.32 to $352.79, an increase of $63.47 annually, or $1.22 per week.

Solid waste assessments pay for two garbage collections per week, one recycling collection per week and one yard waste collection per week, as well as self-hauled disposals at the county’s collection centers.

Fuel prices, truck maintenance and population growth have led to the need for higher assessments, according to the county staff.

However, because of recent performance issues with Waste Connections, the timing for a boost couldn’t be worse. 

The trash service provider missed more than 250,000 pickups in June and July, while hundreds of routes weren’t completed. The poor service resulted in thousands of emails and phone calls from angry residents.

Last month, the county threatened the trash hauler with fines if it did not improve service. Hagan says Waste Connections blamed Covid-related issues as well as an employee shortage brought on by not being awarded any of the new contracts, worth $589 million, which were approved in June and will begin in February of 2022. 

The new contracts went to Republic Services of Florida, Waste Management Inc., of Florida, and Fomento De Construcciones Y Contratas, Inc. 

Hagan said the new contractors are working with Waste Connections of Florida to bring over some of their employees.

“I feel relatively comfortable where we’re at now,” Hagan says. “They say they are caught up. And, we have procedures in place to prevent this, should it happen again. I feel much better than I did a couple of weeks ago.”

Parents Have Tough School Choices To Make

Schools are not just re-opening this fall, they have to re-open.

The President tweets it; the Governor repeats it. 

With the rising and record number of positive Covid-19 cases and deaths in Florida seemingly finding no ceiling, that leaves parents with one of the toughest decisions — whether to send their children back to brick-and-mortar schools or have them learn online — many of them have ever had to make.

Jaclyn Lewis-Croswell, the parent of a fourth-grader at Turner/Bartels K-8 school, will be keeping her daughter home in the fall to learn online. It’s not ideal, she says, but for her, the risk of infection outweigh the benefits of social interaction and classroom learning.

She certainly understands anyone who chooses the opposite for their kids, sympathizing with those who trust the safety measures and some studies that say children aren’t as affected by the virus, while also worrying their children’s mental health may suffer in a detached, online setting.

But, when Jaclyn looked at the rising numbers, “I felt like there is a potential risk of losing my child,” she says. “And that’s not a chance I’m willing to take.”

If Covid-19 continues to rage at its current rate, there remains a chance that schools will not open by August or will be completely online, at least until January. But, as of now, school is moving forward with an expected start date of Aug. 24, with Hillsborough County’s schools offering three different options:

‱ Option A: A return to traditional, face-to-face, brick-and-mortar schooling, with special social distancing and enhanced disinfecting measures implemented, as well as requiring all students, teachers and staff to wear masks at all times.

‱ Option B: eLearning full-time through the students’ assigned schools. Students will participate in a distance learning program from home, taught by teachers at their school through Canvas, a new Learning Management System which will replace Edsby. Daily log-ins and attendance will be required.

‱ Option C: Hillsborough Virtual K-12, a web-based curriculum taught by teachers from Hillsborough County, but not the same as the eLearning program. For grades 6-12, Hillsborough Virtual K-12 and Florida Virtual School (FLVS) are the same, except Hillsborough Virtual K-12 will follow the District’s 2020-21 school calendar, meaning they have more stringent start-and-stop deadlines.

Earlier today, Hillsborough County Schools tweeted out declaration-of-intent results so far. With 115,001 responses tallied, 56,488 families have selected on-site learning, 48,410 have chosen eLearning and 10,103 have picked Hillsborough Virtual K-12.

The Neighborhood News spoke with multiple New Tampa families about their respective decisions. Here are three stories about how some of those parents made their decisions.

Cindy and Connor Kelly both feel the decision to stick with online learning is the safest way forward

Cindy Kelly – eLearning

When schools abruptly closed in March due to the coronavirus, teachers and students were thrown into an online system of learning that ended up receiving mixed reviews. 

While some found the spring experience underwhelming and ineffective, others, like Wharton’s Connor Kelly, thrived in that environment.

So this fall, Connor plans to spend his senior year again learning outside of the classroom as he prepares for college.

“He had no desire go back to the bricks and mortar,” his mom Cindy says. “I was kind of surprised by it myself.”

Cindy says that if Connor had expressed a desire to return to school, the coronavirus would have definitely caused her some concern. In fact, Connor says a big part of his decision stems from his own concerns about passing anything onto his parents. 

“It really does seem like people are really concerned about the virus and weighing it with the social aspect and the isolation (of online) learning,” Cindy says. “It’s a miserable, tough decision to make.”

Thankfully, Connor found the flexibility of online learning to his liking last spring, and looks forward to continuing it. He says, however, that a slight majority of friends in his social circles say they are returning to brick and mortar.

“They want to be able to have that social interaction,” he says, “although, the way it sounds, there probably won’t be too much social interacting allowed anyway.”

He regrets having to miss some, or, depending upon the virus, all of his senior year. He is serving as president of Rho Kappa, the social studies honor society, and isn’t sure he’ll get to make his induction speech, and says he also had roles in other clubs he will miss, as well as the other social benefits of his last year in high school.

“It kind of sucks,” Connor says. “I had a whole meticulous plan laid out for the last three years
I spent a lot of time designing my senior year, and then a rock was thrown through it. But that’s okay, it’s a life lesson.”

Lisa and Eric Ling, with their kids Elijah and Ethan, think its time to get kids back to school, with increased safety standards.

Lisa Ling — Traditional School

Lisa Ling is sending her kids back to school.

While the mother of a first- and fourth-grader at Hunter’s Green Elementary (HGE) understands the risks associated with the brick-and-mortar option this year, she also feels better about her decision now that masks are going to be required.

“Getting kids back to school is what needs to happen,” she says.

Ling and her husband Eric aren’t alone. A recent thread on Facebook she participated in showed more than a dozen parents who agreed with them, and she says many of her friends are following suit.

Ling says it wasn’t really that tough of a decision. “Well, I really did not consider Hillsborough Virtual K-12 or Florida Virtual, because we love our school and didn’t want to disconnect from it,” Ling says. “The (Covid) numbers are going up, but it’s a very low percentage of the population. We feel that there also is evidence coming out that young kids just don’t transmit it as much. Our whole family is healthy, no one has a compromised immune system or lives with an elderly grandparent. God forbid, if one of us gets it, we’ll be okay.”

Lisa has been a stay-at-home mom for nine years. When her children were forced to learn from home in the spring, she says she didn’t find it to be a fruitful experience.

Her third grader was fairly independent unless he would click on the wrong thing while working from his computer, and her youngest, who was in kindergarten, needed constant support. 

She didn’t find the quality of the education to be what it should either, but understands it was a difficult, thrown-together situation for everyone.

“It wasn’t the same as being at school,” she says.

Lisa will no longer be a stay-at-home mom this fall. She is returning as a school psychologist at Benito Middle and Clark Elementary schools. She says her new job did not affect her decision.

“Even if I hadn’t taken that job, I was sending them back,” she says.

(l.-r.) Hector, Grayson and Laurie Gonzalez decided   eLearning will work best for them this fall.

Laurie Gonzalez — eLearning

As a teacher, Laurie Gonzalez isn’t sure how she would keep her students safe from the spread of Covid-19, much less her son Grayson, who would be attending sixth grade at Benito Middle School on school choice this fall if she hadn’t decided to keep him home for eLearning.

“I made the choice to do eLearning for my child because I don’t think it is safe for anyone to return at this point,” says Laurie.

By choosing school-based eLearning through his assigned school, as opposed to the other online options, Grayson can keep his seat and if Covid-19 is ever brought under control, he can return after the fall semester. 

“Of course I worry about social interaction, but at what cost?,” she says. “At least today, kids have video games and phones so they can keep in contact with their friends. It isn’t the same but, for now, it will have to do.”

Laurie has read the CDC guidelines and imagines what she and her co-workers’ classrooms would look like in the Covid-19 age. She doesn’t like what she sees.

“I know first-hand that it will be impossible to follow the CDC’s guidelines to keep kids safe from Covid, especially if we reopen schools at full capacity,” she says. “There is not enough room in most classrooms to space kids 3 feet apart for testing, so 6 feet is just not going to happen.”

A mask mandate is a great decision, Laurie says, “but I don’t believe it will be enough.  As soon as we open schools, I anticipate the number of Covid cases will skyrocket.”

Laurie, who teaches at Turner/Bartels K-8 School, says she has an auto-immune disease, and is nervous about the impact Covid-19 would have on her if she were to get it.

With so many unknowns, Laurie and her husband Hector have no idea when it will be completely safe again to return to school — for her or her students. She feels fairly certain that August won’t be it.

“Yes, I am very confident that coronavirus will still be a problem in August,” she says. “We haven’t seen the numbers (of deaths) that will correlate with the 4th of July yet, but I don’t have much faith that they will be good.”

City of Tampa Cancels Fireworks

Due to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases in the city and state, the City of Tampa has decided to cancel this year’s 4th of July — Boom by the Bay — celebration.

“While we would have loved to celebrate the 4th of July together in person, we have to put the safety of our community first,” said Mayor Jane Castor in a press release. “We are looking forward to an even bigger celebration next year once this virus is behind us, but we have to work together first to stop it.”

Castor also urged people to continue practicing COVID-19 safety by wearing a face covering in public settings, washing your hands often for at least 20 seconds, keeping at least six feet from others and avoiding large gatherings.

If you are feeling ill, you are urged to stay home and get testing, which is free for Hillsborough County residents by calling 813-272-5900.

Hillsborough County had a record number of positive cases of Covid-19 with 244 on Wednesday, breaking the record set just two days before. There were also five deaths, bringing the county total to 107, while Florida has had more than 3,100 deaths.

The state, which has had 15 straight days of more than 1,000 positive cases, had 2,610 new cases on Wednesday, a day after setting the record with 2,783.