Seeking counsel

Tampa City Council OKs funds for independent police review board lawyer.

By Arielle Stevenson

After years of pleas from the community, Tampa City Council voted 4-3 last week in favor of an ordinance allowing the Citizens Review Board (CRB) to hire its own outside legal counsel. The budget for the appointment is up to $100,000 and comes from the general fund. Councilmembers Lynn Hurtak, Bill Carlson, Luis Viera, and Orlando Gudes voted to approve the measure.

“This is something the people continuously tell us they want,” council member Hurtak said during the vote last Thursday. “It will help citizens build and develop trust that many say is lacking.” president Dr. Ken Atwater. Of the 219 voting FUSA members, 209 voted in favor of the “no confidence,” and just 10 members opposed.

Last July, Tampa City Council voted 5-1 to have the city’s legal team create an ordinance providing an outside attorney to the Citizens Review Board and subpoena power to obtain its own evidence. Mayor Jane Castor has opposed both changes to the CRB. In October, then-Tampa Police Chief Mary O’Connor (who resigned last December after she was caught on camera flashing her badge to escape a traffic violation,) met with city council members.

O’Connor urged council to oppose the expansion of CRB powers going to a public vote. Her work paid off, only days later city council voted 4-3 against giving citizens the right to vote on CRB subpoena power. Another measure for providing outside legal counsel passed 4-2 with Maniscalco and Citro voting against.

Sheryl Sippel, president of FUSA and HCC mathematics professor, told CL that the faculty needs a raise.

“Our minimum starting salary has only increased $1,700 in 15 years,” Sippel said. “Our starting salary with a bachelor’s degree in 2008 was $40,487. In 2023, it’s $42,187.”

Sippel called the no confidence vote “a last resort,” and said faculty had tried to resolve the issues through bargaining and discussions with Atwater, who’s been leading the college since July 1, 2010. FUSA even went to HCC’s board of trustees four times with concerns.

And this isn’t the first time FUSA cast a “no confidence” vote since Atwater took over in 2010. The first time was in 2015, which led to the creation of a faculty step pay system.