They
have no character and no moral courage and in fact we see that
time and time againThey
have no character and no moral courage and in fact we see that
time and time again
Who said NO to each and every one of the canidates?
Many say we are in a time of ethical crisis, but the greater crisis may be that of moral courage. Given an ethical dilemma, you may know what is ethical and right thing to do, and yet choose another course of action. This lack of moral courage is a reluctance to do what is right because the "price it costs" is more than you want to pay. This cost isn't necessarily monetary; it could be in terms of effort, time, convenience, pleasure, status or recognition. Ethical responses vary according to your ability to reason ethically. Awareness and discussion of ethical issues are the most important factors in developing ethical reasoning skills. My sense is that we ought to tie the question of moral courage to our practical professional decisions and ask ourselves whether we are living up to our potential to act with moral courage. In this vein we give out our Hall of Shame Awards to deserving individuals or groups.Here is a list of the commissioners some of thier rules for the committee, and thier appointees that are the Citizens Committee.
Citizens Advisory Committee Members
Section 1. The Committee shall be made up of a cross-section of citizens throughout Hillsborough County. Effective January 1, 1987, membership of the Hillsborough County Citizens Advisory Committee shall consist of fourteen (14) members; two to be appointed by each County Commissioner.
Section 2. All members of this Committee shall serve a two-year term, beginning January 1 and terminating December 31 of the second calendar year or at the pleasure of the Board of County Commissioners, pursuant to appointments made by the individual Commissioners.
Section 3. Any member who misses three meetings in a calendar year shall become ineligible to continue serving on the Committee, at which time the Chairman of the Committee shall notify the appointing County Commissioner about the member's ineligibility. The appointing County Commissioner will appoint a replacement member or may reappoint the member who has become ineligible due to extenuating circumstances. Any member may nullify one absence per calendar year by his or her attendance at one (1) subcommittee meeting or other appointed service on behalf of the Citizens Advisory Committee.
Hmm,
that two year thing doesn't seem to make an impact on anyone here, does it.
| Name | Term | ||
| Commissioner Pat Frank: | |||
| Mr. Wofford Johnson | 03/12/98 - 31/12/00 Reapp: thru 31/12/02 Reapp: thru 31/12/04 |
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| Ms. Gaye Townsend | 01/02/00 - 31/12/01 Reapp: thru 31/12/03 Reapp: thru 31/12/05 |
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| Commissioner Thomas Scott: | |||
| Mr. Daryl M. Manning | 03/01/03 - 31/12/04 | ||
| Mr. Gerald White | 25/02/97 - 31/12/97 Reapp: thru 31/12/99 Reapp: thru 31/12/01 Reapp: thru 31/12/03 Reapp: thru 31/12/05 |
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| Commissioner Jim Norman: | |||
| Ms. Carla Bolling | 28/08/01 - 31/12/02 Reapp: thru 31/12/04 |
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| Ms. Pam Prysner | 16/05/01 - 31/12/01 Reapp: thru 31/12/03 Reapp: thru 31/12/05 |
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| Commissioner Ronda Storms: | |||
| Mr. Eddie Jenkins | 11/06/02 - 31/12/03 Reapp: thru 31/12/04 |
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| Mr. Cliff Roberts | 01/01/03 - 31/12/04 | ||
| Commissioner Jan Platt: | |||
| Ms. Kay M. Doughty | 01/01/85 - 03/01/95 Reapp: thru 31/12/95 Reapp: thru 31/12/97 Reapp: thru 31/12/99 Reapp: thru 31/12/01 Reapp: thru 31/12/03 Reapp: thru 31/12/05 |
||
| Ms. Joyce Smith | 23/01/99 - 31/12/00 Reapp: thru 31/12/02 Reapp: thru 31/12/04 |
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| Commissioner Kathy Castor: | |||
| Mr. Charles "Chip" Fletcher | 03/12/02 - 31/12/04 | ||
| Ms. Sue Grier | 11/02/03 - 31/12/03 Reapp: thru 31/12/05 |
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| Commissioner Ken Hagan: | |||
| Mr. Brian Blair | 04/12/02 - 31/12/03 Reapp: thru 31/12/05 |
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| Mr. Mitchell Thrower III | 04/12/02 - 31/12/04 | ||
Moral Courage Award:
»
Review and rank applications and make recommendations to the BOCC.
Favorite Sons and Daughters Award:
»
Review nominations and recommend confirmation to the BOCC.
Hillsborough County's Citizens Advisory Committee considers none of them deserving.
The 14-member panel, appointed by county commissioners, has decided not to endorse any of the 11 people nominated for the award.
Gil Machin, a county employee who assists the panel, said Monday that no applicant ``met the criteria for moral courage.'' The annual award began in 1992 to honor those who challenge government, although not all winners have fit that description.
Current nominees include:
* Residents who chased drug dealers and prostitutes out of Old Seminole Heights.
* Residents who protested the installation of huge power poles in Egypt Lake.
* A Little League mom who fought for county park improvements in Riverview.
Joyce Smith, a committee member who was chairwoman when the panel made its decision last month, said Redner would have been a good choice given his First Amendment crusades, but, ``Some people can't look past the other things he does for a living.''
Smith said the committee will consider introducing other awards for bravery or citizenship. When county commissioners consider the moral courage recommendation next month, they can accept it or ignore it and declare a winner.
This Committee Seems To Lack Moral CourageThe Hillsborough County Citizens Advisory Committee could use some courage, too, but it also seems to be lacking in the heart and brains departments.
Maybe that's life in the land of Oz, sometimes called Hillsborough County. Maybe the problem is that there aren't any more wizards around these parts.
The last official wizard in the county may have been Fred Karl, who could fix anything.
When the county was going nuts, officials called Fred and made him county administrator. When the public hospital was going down the tubes, they called Fred and put him in charge.
Even Tampa's new mayor called on Fred to get things off smoothly.
Now Fred is retiring, and local government is left to make decisions without him.
Since 1992, one of those decisions for the county has been to hand out an award every year to a citizen who exhibits some kind of moral courage in righting a wrong.
The Citizens Advisory Committee is supposed to recommend a winner from a list of nominees. But this time around, the 14-member panel has decided not to endorse anyone.
The Naked Truth
One of the members said that although some of the 11 nominees had done good things, they didn't fit the criteria, which specifically includes ``the willingness to take a moral/ethical stand against decisions of government.''
The fact that some previous winners didn't fit that criteria doesn't seem to matter.
The lone nominee who does seem to fit the bill is Joe Redner. Putting nude-club owner Redner into any category that includes morality seems an unlikely stretch, though - and that demonstrates part of the problem with this award in the first place.
Convincing people that Redner is more interested in protecting the First Amendment than in keeping his nude clubs open might take a little moral courage of its own.
But the guy has been nominated. He has spoken out consistently on a range of issues, and his ``Voice of Freedom'' Web site is exactly what the county seemed to be looking for when it came up with this idea.
Through the years, many winners have been honored for noble tasks. All were worthy of some kind of recognition, but not necessarily for what the Moral Courage Award was supposed to be about.
Mounting A Challenge
In all the years they've handed out the award, about the only person I can think of who met the criteria is former Mayor Billy Poe.
He not only spent a great deal of his own money but also risked longtime friendships in a one-man effort to challenge public funding of stadiums for professional teams.
To the county's credit, it gave him the award in 1999.
If I were handing out the plaque this year, it would go to the people of Tampa's Egypt Lake area who fought to prevent their neighborhood from getting those monstrous TECO power poles - and who have worked to see that it doesn't happen in other neighborhoods.
As for the Citizens Advisory Committee, I think it ought to get the first-ever ``Committee of 99'' award.
This would honor the ill- fated panel that was supposed to come up with a plan to fix mass transportation in the area but came up empty after county commissioners ignored its proposals.