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.