Hillsborough Commissioner Sharpe steps down to gifts, praise

TAMPA — Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe stepped down Thursday after 10 years on the board, and fellow commissioners and county employees presented him with gifts celebrating his passion for small businesses, his love of coffee and his inability to sit still.

Sharpe received a plaque calling him "Commissioner Buddy Brew" from his favorite java stop, and another commemorating a new county initiative named after him — the "Mark Sharpe Entrepreneur Collaborative Center."

County Administrator Mike Merrill drew the most laughs as he read the title of the book he gave Sharpe, known for a high motor and a short attention span — The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere.

Sharpe, 54, leaves countywide District 7 because of term limits. He will become executive director of the Tampa Innovation Alliance, a business group working to spur economic development around the University of South Florida, Busch Gardens, Moffitt Cancer Center and Florida Hospital.

Will Hobson, Times staff