Ronda Storms

Background
Ronda Storms was born Ronda Newcomb on September 5, 1965 in Des Moines, Iowa. Because she was born into a military family, Storms did a lot of moving around when she was growing up. After stops in Germany, Turkey and Alabama, her family made their final stop in Brandon, Florida when she was 15.
After graduating from Brandon High School, Storms received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Florida in 1988. Years later she went on to Stetson College of Law to receive her law degree, and she did so in 1995.

Hillsborough County Commissioner
Storms became a commissioner for Hillsborough County in 1998 and held that position for 8 years. She was succeeded in 2006 by current commissioner Al Higginbotham. Storms did not hold her position as county commissioner quietly, as she was involved in a number of controversial issues in her 8-year tenure.
The first controversy Storms was involved in happened in 2000 and had to do with Florida A&M University wanting to start a School of Law in Tampa. Storms took a firm position against this, and produced quite a ripple with an infamous quote on the matter: "We can get them though law school, but we can't get them to pass the Bar."
This quote did not sit well with a number of people, and it gave a lot of them a bad taste in their mouth when they thought of Ronda Storms. Some tagged her as a racist, though she apologized for the comment and insisted she wasn't one. Whether it was Storm's position or other factors involved, Florida A&M did not get the School of Law built in Tampa.
In 2005 Storms took another firm stance that rubbed some people the wrong way. It happened in June, which is Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. Storms heard some grumblings about a book display that was in a Town 'N Country library. The display was honoring Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. This perturbed Storms, causing her to put to a vote banning displays like that one in libraries.
Storms did not stop at that, however. She furthered her stance by asking this of the Commission, "Adopt a polity that Hillsborough County government abstain from acknowledging, promoting, or participating in gay pride recognition and events."
The vote passed rather easily, with Kathy Castor being the only one opposing it.

Florida Senator
After being a County Commissioner for 8 years, Storms decided in 2006 to run for the open state Senate seat that was being vacated by John Stemberger. Her opponent and candidate for the Democratic Party was Stephen Gorham, who at the time was unknown to the political world in Hillsborough County.
Following her announcement to run for the open seat in the Senate, there was uproar from the gay community, who all vehemently opposed Storms. Storms, however, did not budge from her anti-gay stance. Instead she furthered her stance against the gay community by stating that she planned on barring any gay couple from adopting children. It was this issue that brought out another outrageous and highly controversial quote from Storms: "I don't support putting at-risk children in homes that I think are at-risk themselves."
Although Storms had many people that despised her, enough people voted for her, and she won the seat in the Senate in a close race in November of 2006.
When Storms took the seat in the Senate in 2006, she brought along her ability to spark up a controversy. This controversy started in February 2008 when Storms introduced the Academic Freedom Bill. The target of this bill was the teaching of evolution in public schools. The bill was proposed by Storms to prohibit teachers from using evidence supporting the theory of evolution.

Personal
Ronda and her husband David live in her home district in Valrico. They have one son, Elijah who was born in 2008. Their Valrico residence is currently valued at $357,516 and they currently own two vehicles. This is a large increase in the value of their last two homes. The previous two residences for the Storms family were valued at $166,391 and $126,144 respectively.
Ronda and David’s average household income and home value have increased dramatically since their first home. Their first residence was valued at $72,400, and at the time their average household income was $37,362. Their average household income has increased to $61,109 since that time.
When reading and hearing about Storms, you see pretty quickly that her views are certainly far to the right of center. The things she says and political moves she makes prove her to be a very staunch right-wing Republican. This obviously has something to do with how she met and eventually married her husband David. David Storms is a deacon at Brandon First Baptist Church, which is where she has been a member for the last 25 years.
Her longtime membership to a Baptist church could help explain her extremely strong views and opinions on the gay community and the teaching of evolution in public schools. Her religious status also explains her introduction of what became known as the “Pole Tax” in February of 2008. Storms introduced this bill so that the adult entertainment industries (strippers, escorts, etc...) would be heavily taxed. The money made off of these taxes would then go to the funding of additional services at the Department of Children and Families.
One thing about Ronda Storms is for sure, not everyone agrees with her. Her radical views and ideas beg the question, how does she continue to get elected for these positions? A lot of her views are so right of center that even her own party would seemingly disagree with her. Surely anyone on the fence or simply not a republican would not agree with her radically right views.
Even if you go back to her days as county commissioner and you re-visit her statements regarding the Florida A&M Law School proposition, you have to believe that it rubbed everyone was rubbed the wrong way. Some of her views are extremely right side, but racism is not on the agenda of any political part, especially considering that she made the statement in the year 2000!
None of this, however, fazes the strongly opinionated Senator. She is going to do what she thinks is right and isn’t going to change for anyone, as she has stated before: “I am not apologizing for who I am.”

Links:

1) http://www.rondastorms.com/

2) http://www.flsenate.gov/Legislators/index.cfm?Members=View+Page&District_Num_Link=010&Submenu=1&Tab=legislators&chamber=Senate&CFID=116879512&CFTOKEN=54611777

3) http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=65564

Purchasing Process Assignment

For the public purchasing process assignment I followed the lead of a couple of my classmates. I decided to call up Jeff Hurst from the Hillsborough County School Board. Because Hurst has been working in the transportation department of the School Board for the past 10 years, I thought he would be perfect in letting me in on the process of purchasing a school bus.
Hurst said that since he started with the board in 1998, the process for purchasing buses has become a bit more tedious. He mentioned a few reasons why the process takes a little bit longer now then it did when he started. He said that when the process starts out a committee meets to decide on what features they want on the bus. This process takes longer now because there are quite a few more features on buses now then there used to be.
After they decide on what features they want on the buses, there is a bidding process. This is where the state decides how much money to give the county to purchase school buses. If the county does not use all of the money that the state allocates to them, the county gives it back to the state. All of this budget allocation information is open to the public.
Hurst said that there are typically about 1,000 buses per day on the road. He said that the price of the buses has increased dramatically over the past 10-15 years. Hurst stated that now a bus with all the features they want on it (air conditioning, video surveillance, etc…) typically costs over $100,000.
The county will usually buy around 90 buses every year to replace the ones that have been used for 15 years. That is basically how the cycle works. Right now the county has a total of 1,425 buses in its system.

Public Meeting 3

I recently attended a public meeting on December 1, 2008 on the 26th floor of the County Center. This meeting was held by the Hillsborough County Affordable Housing Advisory Board. Before going into the meeting, like all of the other public meetings I have attended, I did not know what to expect. I did have some idea as to what the agenda of the meeting was going to cover, but I still was not sure what type of tasks the Hillsborough County Affordable Housing Advisory Board performed, or what their main goals they would like to achieve are. After attending the meeting, many of the questions in my head were answered.

I spoke with public official Valmarie Turner in order to gauge what exactly the Hillsborough County Affordable Housing Advisory Board’s purpose is.

“The Hillsborough County Affordable Housing Advisory Board’s main purpose is to advise and make recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners and Affordable Housing officer, said Turner. “We touch on issues affecting housing development, and to assist the County in developing new programs and policies.”

This public meeting was very similar to the other meeting I attended prior. Both meetings were held by Hillsborough County Advisory Boards, and both dealt with the wellbeing of the community we live in. This meeting’s particular purpose was to discuss and approve the Final Housing Incentive Plan. Many of the details of the plan were very confusing to me. I do not have much knowledge about real estate or decent pricing for purchasing a house. I understood that the plan is to be implemented in order to keep development and preservation of affordable housing for residents in Hillsborough County. I think the plan is very smart and economical, and is very fair to residents. The plan will help every single person of the community purchase and reside in a safe, affordable and desirable house.

The actual Hillsborough County Affordable Housing Advisory Board is made up of 20 members. Each of these members has a different title and duty to perform in order to make the board as effective and efficient as possible to Hillsborough County residents. A couple of the different members spoke out on their part in the Final Housing Incentive Plan. Overall, the meeting was very informative and interesting. I realized that there are so many different advisory boards just in our own county in order to better our community as a whole.

“We’re here in order to foster the development and preservation of attainable housing for those Hillsborough County residents who desire to live in safe and affordable housing,” said Turner.

Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board (HCAB)

On Thursday, November 20, 2008, I attended a public meeting held by the Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board (HCAB) at the Lee Davis Neighborhood Service Center. Before attending the meeting, I was not sure what the meeting would be about. I was not even sure what exactly the Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board did or what duties they performed in order to better the community. I knew that this particular advisory board had to have something to do with the healthcare system, but I did not know what tasks they performed or why they even held so many frequent public meetings. However, after attending the meeting, I gained a better understanding of the Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board. Even though the meeting was primarily held to approve priorities for next year’s advisory group, I learned a lot about the duties of the board itself.

I spoke with public official Wanda West in order to gain more knowledge about this important local advisory board.

“Hillsborough County has a health care program to provide health services to the low income population,” said West. “The Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board is here to give advice on the management and oversight of the program.”

She expanded upon this statement, and talked about how Hillsborough County has so many lower income families who can not afford health care. The advisory board’s goal is to improve accessibility and efficiency of care for poor Hillsborough County residents. They plan to do this by giving recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners for fund allocation, coordination and planning of health care delivery systems.

There are many people who need help and need a way in order to be able to have health care just like everybody else. Healthcare is such a necessity, and an alarming number of families in Hillsborough County do not have it because their income is too low. They just can not afford it. They prioritize and put other life necessities first before choosing to pay for a healthcare plan.

The Hillsborough County Health Care Advisory Board holds public meetings often in order to discuss certain issues pertaining to the low income health care plan. The meeting I attended opened my eyes as to how hard it is for many families to acquire health care, and how much of a difference local boards like this one make in order to help out the community in need. The issue of health care is so important to discuss and plan, and I was happy to find that my home county is doing their part in helping less fortunate people.

Midterm

1) There are a number of documents and interview sources that could be used in a case like this to write a quality story. I think there are two categories of information that I would search to find out information on Al Zimmerman. First, there are all of the people that are connected to Zimmerman in one way or another that I could interview to find out what type of person he is. These people range from co-workers, family members, neighbors, and so on. Second, there are the public records that I could use to find out information about Zimmerman such as his arrest record and where he lives.
I will first discuss who I would interview and why I would interview them. I would certainly interview people that Zimmerman worked with at the Department of Children and Families. I would try to find out from them if Zimmerman ever displayed any behavior that would have led them to believe that he could ever be arrested for something like child pornography. I would ask them what type of a guy Zimmerman was on a daily basis. Did he go about his daily business as if everything he was doing was right? Or did he appear to have a sense of guilt surrounding him? Even if they said he appeared to be as normal as everyone else in the office, I could paint the picture that Zimmerman was clearly perfectly okay with the crime he was committing.
Another group of people that could be interviewed for this story would be the people who lived near Zimmerman. Now obviously I would need to find out where Zimmerman lived first, but I will get to that later. I think some good stuff could be obtained from these interviews, especially if there were some families with young children that lived in the same neighborhood as Zimmerman. Maybe there is a family with kids that have been around Zimmerman in the past. Now I could get the parents’ reaction when they find out what type of a guy Zimmerman really is. I think it would also be beneficial to interview some of Zimmerman’s family members, and get their reaction of Zimmerman’s arrest. If they gave a “he’s never done anything wrong in his life” description of Zimmerman, I could simply continue to paint that “you can never trust anyone” picture,
As I mentioned earlier, I think it would be a must to find out where Zimmerman lives for this story. I would find this information out on www.zillow.com. I would need this information for a couple of reasons. First, I would do what I stated earlier and interview Zimmerman’s neighbors. Second, I would see if he lived close to an elementary school or maybe even a middle school. I think if Zimmerman had neighbors around him that had children and he lived 500 feet away from an elementary school, my story could pack even more punch. I think another must for me when gathering information for this story would be to get Zimmerman’s arrest records from the county sheriff’s department, which can be done at www.hcso.tampa.fl.us. This would give me an idea of whether or not he had any previous criminal activity. This could tell me a couple of things. First, it could tell me whether or not Zimmerman has displayed a pattern of criminal behavior. Secondly, if he has shown that pattern then I would be inclined to research his hiring and find out why he was given a job at the Department of Children and Families if he has a record. Even if I find out that Zimmerman has never done anything wrong in his life up until this arrest, it can still give my story more fire power. I can send the message that here is a guy who has never done anything wrong and all of his co-workers think he is a great guy, and the next thing you know he is being arrested for child pornography.
I think that what I have listed above are the key doors that would need to be opened to write this story. What I found out from those sources could open up more doors for even more information on Zimmerman.

2) People wanting to obtain public records or attend public meetings in Florida benefit greatly from the Florida Sunshine Law. Here in Florida we have one of the most open laws regarding public records that give us a great deal of access to documents. This is not the case in all 50 states, as they each have their own statutes that create guidelines for public record access. First I will talk about how the law is interpreted with regards to accessing public records. Chapter 119, Florida Statutes, states that all state, county, and municipal records shall be open for inspection and copying by any person. The part of that statute that holds a multitude of importance is the last two words: any person. This means that no matter who you are, what you do, or where you’re from, if you want a public record in the state of Florida you can get it. In fact, you do not even have to be a United States citizen, as the law simply states that any person could get a public record.
Now that we know who can get one, I’ll discuss what the law says about what exactly a public record is. The statute defines public records as “all documents, papers, letters, maps, books, tapes, photographs, films, sound recordings, data processing software, or other material, regardless of physical form, characteristics, or means of transmission, made or received in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency.” So basically anything that deals with public business or public officials is there for inspection by anybody here in Florida. There is obviously much more detail to it than that, but what we can get out of that definition is that there is a multitude of information that is there for us and not a whole lot keeping us away from it.
Although the law is extremely open and does leave these public records very accessible, there are often times some obstacles that you have to get around in order to get a public record. One easy way to avoid any headache is to inspect the record that you want on-site instead of making copies of it. Although there are prices set in the Sunshine Law pertaining to making copies, agencies often charge much more than those prices. One way to get yourself into trouble is if you request a record that the agency claims requires the “extensive use” of that agency to obtain. If they claim that it requires extensive use they can charge you a reasonable fee based on the actual costs incurred in copying the requested records. The other obstacle to obtaining a public record is the many exemptions there are to certain records. If you are denied a public record by an agency, that agency must give a reason for denial and cite the exemption for that particular record. If they fail to put that exemption in writing they are subject to sanctions.
This leads me to the discussion of who makes the decisions on issues regarding public meetings and public records. On June 19, 2007 Governor Charlie Crist issued Executive Order 07-107, which created the Commission on Open Government Reform. Crist created this nine-member commission within the Governor’s Office of Open Government to review, evaluate, and issue recommendations regarding Florida’s public records and public meetings laws. In other words, this commission reviews whether or not the public has right to access certain public records or public meetings. One key ingredient to the Florida Sunshine Law is that there is a presumption of openness. The reason that this is important is because this means that if a person is denied access to a certain public record, the agency has the burden of giving the reason and the exemption. It is not on the person requesting the record to show that there is no reason or exemption.
The Florida Sunshine Law has a very similar lack of restraints when it pertains to public meetings. The Open Meetings Law requires that all meetings of state agencies and local government boards or commissions be open to the public unless there is a specific statutory exemption. This law is very broad, as it applies to any meeting of two or more officials of any public agency, any private company doing business on behalf of a public agency, and any advisory board or committee with the power or authority to make recommendations to a public agency. The law also requires public officials to go through certain procedures whenever they hold a public meeting. One thing they must do is give the public a reasonable amount of notice as to inform them when a meeting is going to be held. Obviously along those same lines they must tell the public where the meeting is and what it will be about. Just as there is with public records, there is a presumption of openness for public meetings in Florida as well. What this means is that any meeting between two (or more) public officials of the same agency are presumed to be open unless there is a specific statutory exemption. This means that if two public officials of the same agency are eating lunch and discussing public business, their meeting is presumed subject to the Sunshine State Law.
Charlie Crist saw all of the issues that could come up between agencies and editors pertaining to the Sunshine State Law. After countless disputes he saw fit to do something about it, and he did. I think that Commission on Open Government Reform is beneficial to the public because it demands that these public agencies are held accountable when they deny someone access to a public record or a public meeting.

3) There is a multitude of information out there to write a solid story on Congressional candidate Victor Crist. Using public records alone I could find out where Crist stands on certain issues, who is providing money for his campaign, and how he has voted since he has been in office. As far as figuring out where the money is coming from to fuel his campaign I would visit the website www.moneyline.cq.com. On this website you can find out who has made contributions to certain campaigns and how much those contributions were. Another website you could benefit from as far as finding out about campaign contributions is the Florida board of elections website. On these sites you can search by a specific contributor if you feel like a certain company has a history in swaying a candidate on certain issues.
The next site I would visit would be www.opensecrets.org. This is where I would find out the voting history of Crist. I could also find out the voting history of the companies that are major contributors in his campaign. This site, as well as moneyline.cq.com, is also good for finding out about campaign funds.
After finding out about the money involved in the campaign and how Crist has voted on certain issues, I would then move on to finding out about Crist in a personal manner. Like I talked about with Zimmerman earlier, I would talk to co-workers about Crist. This time it would just be general questions to find out about his personality. I think an obvious thing that would be needed to check out would be Crist’ criminal record, if he has one. I think it would be beneficial to talk to some of the higher-ups of the companies that are contributing the most to Crist’ campaigns and find out why they are backing Crist. Maybe you can find out if that company has a hidden agenda with backing Crist, not that they just think he is the best candidate. You can at least get them to tell you why they feel so compelled by Crist as a candidate to contribute such a large amount of money to fuel his campaign.
Lastly, another site to check would be www.election.dos.state.fl.us. At this site you can make sure that Crist has completed all of the necessary steps needed to run for Congress. This step is really just a formality, but it would be terrible to have a chance to stumble on a mistake like this and miss out on it.
I believe that thorough research of these sites and interviews of the aforementioned individuals would be a solid foundation of information to write a story on. This information would enable me to find out where the money is coming from in Crist’ campaign. It would also tell me a little bit about Crist as a person to go along with a lot about how he has voted in the past.

Public Meeting

VISTA Gardens
Village Institute for Sustainable Technologies and Agriculture, Inc.


On Thursday, October 9, 2008, I attended what I found was a very interesting and insightful public meeting. The meeting was held by President Bill West, where he spoke about the newly formed non-profit organic garden and educational facility. When I heard about the meeting and the meeting’s topic, I thought is sounded very uninteresting and I was hesitant about even attending. However, once West explained about the new facility and its goals in order to better the community, I was happy that I chose this particular meeting. I learned many things about new technologies being created right here in my own neighborhood, and VISTA’s role in bettering the environment, as well as the people who live in it.

“VISTA is an educational facility in order to educate people on organic gardening and sustainable technologies, said West. We have teamed up with talented architects who know how to put plans and landscape together in order to conserve on resources for home owners so they don’t have to use as much water and energy.”

One of the topics that I thought was particularly interesting was when West talked about how VISTA can show people how to use their own plants to better their home and their property. One example he spoke about was how a person can use plants in order to cool their house. I would have never thought that plants could be used in such a way. West also spoke about how one of the main goals of VISTA is to show people how to grow their own organic garden so that they can produce their own food.

“VISTA’s goal is conservation and reducing costs to the homeowners”, said West.

Another thing I learned about VISTA was that they plan to introduce anything from solar energy to different products on the market that people can purchase in order to conserve energy and help our environment. This meeting really made me realize that we all should do our part and do all that we can in order to help our environment. VISTA is a great tool that people can use in order to gain valuable knowledge about how they can do their part in the conservation of the environment. Just by attending this meeting about the new facility has educated and opened my eyes to how important conservation is, and how by using simple products, techniques and even a garden can help the environment in a tremendous way.

“We want to be the resource for people to come to to find out how to improve the environment inside and out”, concluded West.

Channel 8 News Center

The class took its final field trip on Tuesday, as we went back downtown to visit the Channel 8 News Center. It was there where we spent a little over an hour with Channel 8 senior investigative reporter Steve Andrews. It was a real treat being able to hear from someone as experienced and talented as Andrews. It was also fascinating to hear from someone in the television broadcasting field stress how important public records can be to building a story.
After a brief introduction Andrews showed the class videos of five stories from his 23 years of experience that public records played a large role in. For me, the first story was the best example of what can happen when you put in the time and effort to get the facts and put together a solid story. Andrews did an investigative piece on Tampa Bay Water, a company that had built a massive reservoir right here in Tampa. The walls of the reservoir had dozens of cracks in it, causing obvious concerns for the tax payers that had helped build it. Andrews wanted to find out the extent of the problem and also what was causing the problem.
His answers to these questions were found in a massive stack of reports given to him by Tampa Bay Water. The reports were public record, so Andrews requested them from Tampa Bay Water. They obliged by giving him the entire document, a massive stack of papers that Tampa Bay Water figured Andrews would look at and say that there is no way I’m reading all of this. They were wrong, as Andrews read every single word of the reports. Also in the reports were videos made by divers who went underwater to examine the cracks extensively. All of this information allowed Andrews to produce an eye-opening story about tons of wasted tax dollars spent in the flawed construction of this reservoir.
This was an excellent way to wrap up the field trip segment of the semester. It was great for us to hear a talented reporter like Steve Andrews show us examples of how going the extra mile in your investigation can give you a dynamite story.