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Editorial: Hillsborough commission needs fresh start in 2017

 
Published Dec. 10, 2016

The final regular meeting of the year for the Hillsborough County Commission ended on a sour note this week, as commissioners bickered over several minor matters that in the grand scheme of things don't amount to much. The holidays are a good time to refocus on serious issues awaiting in the new year.

Commissioner Sandy Murman managed to annoy her colleagues on several fronts. She insinuated they were not doing enough for transportation, which is true. She proposed a ban on texting with lobbyists during commission meetings, which would be good. And she threw water on a plan to rotate the board chairmanship after earlier voicing support, which is unfortunate.

Murman's actions were opportunistic. The money she wanted for transportation is a drop in the bucket. The texting ban is reasonable but had no teeth. She objected to a new policy of rotating the board chairmanship among members after reflecting on it — even though, by helping to kill the rotation plan, Murman has helped her four fellow Republicans on the seven-member board keep the post in Republican hands.

Commissioners have always been obsessed about the board chairmanship, which means little to average people. The other two issues of the day were relatively small-bore. They certainly aren't big enough to disrupt the board's civil working relationship or to distract the county from larger issues, from improving mass transit and expanding affordable housing to boosting jobs and incomes across the region.

Fortunately, this Hillsborough commission doesn't have the same bomb-throwers it did a decade ago. But the new board chairman, Stacy White, needs to manage the sniping and keep commissioners on course as they confront a packed (and substantive) agenda in the new year.