*Hillsborough County Commissioners have no right to bristle over references to their well-earned “dysfunctional” and “yahoo” reputations. Most recent example: Ousting Commissioner Rose Ferlita from her seat on the Tampa Port Authority and replacing her – by an outrageous 5-2 vote – with Brian Blair. If anyone should “apologize,” it should be those five – or everybody but Ferlita and Mark Sharpe.
Ferlita, a former Tampa City Council member, is smart and familiar with port issues. Blair is neither. The port is also in Ferlita’s district.
The port, for those commissioners who need reminding — or minding — is very, very important to this region — from economic as well as security standpoints. Much too important for the obtuse likes of Blair, whose credentials include being a ham-handed, inarticulate chairman of the county’s Environmental Protection Commission.
Couldn’t Blair have been, say, permanent chaplain? That way he could formally thank God every week for having been elected to something.
* May cooler heads yet prevail on Tampa City Council. The flap over who speaks for Tampa, a city with a classic strong-mayor form of government, is petty, ego-driven and unworthy of either council or the mayor.
Best bet: Let Charlie Miranda mediate. He’s got just the right qualifications on this one: old-school smarts — and no longer wants to be mayor.