Root of all Good or Evil!

In his second visit to USF Preston Trigg, Director of Administration & Special Projects, cover one of the least favorite topics for journalists, budgets. If you ask most journalists they would say that their job is to write, but the reality is that they should also know how to operate money.

According to Trigg every government agency that we as journalist are going to visit will have a budget. Here in Florida most likely those budget records will be open public records that we as reporters can look at it. Well managed budget will have equal revenue and expenses.

In addition to the revenue and expenses government budgets include facts and background information about the agency. Usually the government will meet in advance in order to plan the next year’s budget based on the information from the previous year’s budget cuts or increases. For some people budgets are complicated topic, but as we know asking questions doesn’t hurts as long as those questions come on time.

For people who have no idea what revenue and expenses mean Trigg explains it as money coming in need to equal money going out. The confusion for journalists continues when they keep hearing the government officials to refer to end cycling period of the budget as a fiscal year. If there is any extra money in the revenue they will be carried over for the next year.

Where revenue does comes from for the government budget? The answer is most of the money collected at the tax collector go towards the revenue of the budget. The list includes property and sales taxes, user fees, fines, occupational licenses, and state and federal grants. Don’t be surprised if you see major increases in water bills or property taxes especially at today’s recession! The revenue is short and the increases will fill up the empty spots in the revenue.

Money going out as I mention earlier are the expenses. They are separated to personal (salaries), capital (constructions), and operating (utilities, travel). Here is where journalist should take a deep look for any major expenses especially in the personal and capitol sector of the government budget.

In every budget there is miscellaneous money and usually they cause problem to most government agencies especially when journalists want to look at the data.

Again government budgets are complicated and we as journalist should simplify them as much as we can for our readers.

Tampa- Certified Gold Green City

Mayer’s citizen/TECO Energy Conservation Task Force meeting took place at the Mayer’s, Pam Iorio, conference room on Thursday afternoon. Going into this meeting I didn’t expect to sit just a couple of seats away from the Mayer. Actually, this was my first time seeing her in person. Pam Iorio welcomed all of the citizens and she made it very specific that those kinds of meetings are recorded and the Sunshine Laws require them to have the conversations taped.

Did you know that Tampa is one of the few cities in the America that is been certified as a Gold Green City? I didn’t. As a matter of fact TECO is the electrical company in town that helps the government to reach the green status of the city.

TECO works with the Mayer Pam Iorio and her energy conservation task force member on the green project for about a year now and they are trying to find the most efficient way to save energy and keep the city green. Those members included representatives from different organizations in town that are directly involved with the management of the energy use. The City of Tampa Staff attendees were also present at the meeting along with two representatives from TECO.

For over a year this force committee is been working on several recommendations on how to achieve energy savings. At the meeting the Mayer wanted to move forward and focus on the action plan that should be happening now in order to keep the progress in going green. Some members recommended education plan to be planned for the middle class residence to spread the word about their goal. She followed this offer by saying, “Do we want to target homes that use the most energy?” An example of this would be the people in the rich areas of Tampa.

According to the Mayer, TECO made some suggestions to their energy users but she wants to see soon a marketing plan on how to reach more people and businesses and make them aware that energy use is an issue. The educational idea was an interesting point, but the budgets don’t allow any money spending at this time.

Sharon Hanna, USF-Dept. of Mgmt & Org College of Business, offered her students research help for a future data which might be needed for accomplishing the Energy Conservation Task Force goals.

An interesting point made by C. J. Raynolds, Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association, included the small businesses knowledge on how to cut their use of energy and cost at the same time. She said that those companies don’t know and don’t pay much attention to saving the green world. TECO should focus on those types of energy customers in order to make a difference in their usage.

Stephen Koontz, Tampa Bay Trane, said the he is looking for something that will bring faster results for energy savings. He mentioned the $50 instilment kid for energy users offered by TECO that made a quick progress within customers.

In closing the long debate about the best idea for energy savings the Mayer asked the Task Force member to continue on working on this project with her because this is the best way she would stay informant of the “going green issue.”

Unusual and Final Trip

Dr. Vernard Adams is a Chief Medical Examiner for Hillsborough County. His twenty years of experience and ironic character talks to a great extend for his professionalism.
http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/medexam/about/director.cfm
At first I was confused between coroner and medical examiner because they both investigate death scene.

Dr. Adams referred us to Florida Statute 406.11 in order to understand the specific control of the Medical Examiner in response to a death occurred in his district or where the body was found to determine the cause of death when a person dies from the following:
- Criminal Violence
- Accident, suicide or poison
- Suddenly, when in apparent good health
- Unattended by a practicing physician or other recognized practitioner
- In any prison or penal institution
- In any suspicious or unusual circumstances
- By criminal Abortion
- By disease constituting a threat to public heath
- By disease, injury, or toxic agent resulting from employment
In continuation to the said above, the Medical Examiner is free to perform autopsies and other laboratory examinations, which will further explain the unknown to the public.

Six medical examiners and six autopsy physicians are available for Dr. Adams when they need to perform their forensic investigation in death scenes. Due to budget cuts the Medical Examiner’s Office stopped their overnight investigations.

Chapter 406.02 says that the Medical Examiner Office need dispose, cremate, and donate all unclaimed bodies. Tissues and organs
donating is done every day with the help of Live-link Donors.

In the second part of our visit Dr. Adams took us around the Medical Examiner’s facilities to show us all the documents and procedures done by his staff.

Each investigation case has a file that contains vital information for the public, next of kin, attorneys, and the investigators. You might think that death certificates are not public record, and you are right, but only for the medical part of it. Any undergoing investigation results, HIV test, hospital records, and autopsy pictures and videos are not public record. Rather than that the general autopsy report is public record, as well as examiners findings, supporting evidence, and attorney correspondence. An interesting fact about obtaining public records from the Medical Examiner’s office was that they don’t charge the regular fee of 15 cents a page. They ask for 2 stamps, an envelope, and a written request of what documents you want and they will send it to you for free.

To top of our visit, Dr. Adams took us trough the toxicology laboratories where we met Chief Forensic Toxicologist Dr. Pearson. There we saw the machines that analyses the blood and tissues for alcohol and drugs elements.

Just across the extraction laboratory we enter the autopsy lab where the autopsy medical personnel were working on three current cases. As soon as we cross the door we saw a death body. I just hope that I would never go back there for any type of info. I wonder how those people decide to work at the autopsy lab??????????

Judicial system in Hillsborough County

Being a Clerk of Circuit Court seems a powerful position that many people probably want to have, but wait until you know how much workload is expected to be done by Pat Frank. The responsibilities that clerk Frank deals with don’t end at the courthouse. She is also responsible for the finance investment portfolio for Hillsborough County, which equals to a million dollars.
The biggest concern that Pat Frank has is the 8% budget cuts for administrative cost that the courthouse is facing. The vast amount of workload is done by less and less people after the first cut of 117 employees but the only way the courthouse will survive is if the clerk takes another pay cut from her departments

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We as citizens have to ask the state legislators how they expect the Hillsborough County Courthouse to survive when they don’t do anything to help it. They even want nine additional judges to the court system in the county which will have to be paid by Mrs. Pat Frank. But the problem doesn’t end there, those judges each need three clerks to deal with their dockets for the cases, which makes the money problem even bigger.

With the recession we are in today our judicial system deals with more and more violations of the law are seen. The workload is overwhelming for each department in the courthouse that deals with family law cases, civil cases, felony cases, juvenile cases, misdemeanors cases, and traffic court cases. Those people not only maintain the paperwork of the cases for 75 years, but they also keep all of the evidences that go along with the cases.

The worries that Mrs. Frank has don’t end up with the 8% budget cuts. She also has to worry about converting all the data that the court maintains into electronic documents. The case documents are not safe at the warehouse on Falkenburg Rd. because they can be easily destroyed by any type of natural disaster. This long process is delayed for years due to pay cuts and workload volume.

Dana Caranante, Director of Juvenile Court Operations, in the office of Clerk of the Circuit Court, took us through family law department, civil case department, traffic, and felony case departments to see the amount of paperwork they keep. She also showed us how we can access the records available there. The only records we can’t copy for a $1 are the child abuse records because they are confidential.

Dana Caranante provided the class with some helpful tips and websites which will guide us when we are looking for public records in the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County.

Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County - http://www.hillsclerk.com/
To search the Court Progress Docket-http://publicrecord.hillsclerk.com/oridev/criminal_pack.ins
Florida Statutes- http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statuts/
Florida Rules of Procedure- http://www.floridabar.org/
13th Judicial Circuit- http://www.fljud13.org/
To search official records- http://pubrec3.hillsclerk.com/oncore/Search.aspx

Best of the best: Investigative reporter Steve Andrews

“I like doing what I do,” Steve Andrews. Primo investigating reporter with 25 years of experience talks for itself how high on his job is he today. There is no need of explanation who is he because tax payers in the Tampa Bay area know him closely through his revealing stories.

“On your side: News Channel 8”. Steve Andrew backs up his TV station’s slogan very well because his investigative stories open the eyes of many residents in the Tampa Bay area. He shows them how tax dollars are going in the wrong direction with the help of government agencies.

WFLA-TV 8 and Steve Andrews’s fascinating story about Workforce Alliance $ 20,000 spending on food brought attention not only to the public, but to many politicians on state and federal level. With the help of state agency public records, great amount of tips from people, and the powerful silence on TV the investigative reporting showed how taxpayers money fly away. NO JOBS for you people: SORRY we will eat our $9 a piece cheesecakes! The public and the lawyers’ strong responses of the story led to many changes in the Workforce Alliance agency. Steve Andrews showed the cultural political phenomena that people didn’t expected to see especially now.

According to Steve Andrews, public records are gold mine. He explained that the records take a lot of time to look through, but at the end they give us the key information. In investigative reporting we have to work until the stories are done. Mr. Andrews explained how his polite way of approaching people during his investigations give him extra power along the way. Bullying people during investigative reporting make the reporter look bad to his audience. Another good advice is that a reporter always have to have three key questions prepared to ask when he goes to a story. People usually get off subject to distract the reporter, but the written questions will always bring the reporter back on topic.

“Find the next logical Step”. Steve Andrews bombarded us with great advices, which will lead us in the right direction. His long time teacher Mr. Gil Thelen also added: Don’t wait, be a proactive reporter. What that means is to look ahead what’s coming up in the news world. Government meetings have agendas which usually give reporters clues if there is going to be an interesting issue discussion. BE READY!

In conclusion I would say that Steve Andrews’ professionalism was very impressive. He can be a role model to many future reporters. From him I learned that is worth knowing the rules and regulations in government because they are your guide in the work place.