Good first step

Remember in the Wizard of Oz when the good witch, Glenda, coaxed out the Munchkins saying, "Come out, come, where every you are." Well, that's the kind of elation some are feeling in the local Republican party with the resignation of their chairwoman, Ana Trinque.

Apparently, last week an emergency meeting was called at the HCREC. During this meeting, the chairwoman tendered her resignation with an excuse that she wanted more time to spend with her family. It is quite apparent that this position is very time consuming but why in the world did she accept the party nomination in January to carry on as chair for two more years and then resign in two months?

Everyone is being a good Republican, and not breathing a word of the reason for this resignation, but the speculation is rampant and the whispers are just below a roar. Could it be the poor attendance at this year's Lincoln Day Dinner after local party officials black-balled a prominent member of our business community? Who knows, and who really cares what the reason for the resignation except that she has stepped down as chairwoman. One down, and two more need to go, in the HCREC party structure. They are state committee man, and woman. They need to retire from their positions from the local party hierarchy before the county Republicans will see any significant change in the way they do business.

It's kind of ironic that the party leaders have asked former chairman, Frank Coletti, to head up the team to find a new chair for the party. Frank was the same person that put the party back together in the late 1990's when they had an similar internal squabble. He held the position of chair until 2002 and served with distinction to rebuild the base of the party. Hopefully, Frank will be able to find a replacement that is suitable to the majority of Republicans in this county. His integrity in impeccable and his decision-making process in the past was always fair and impartial to everyone in the party.

So, this resignation of the chairman could serve as a good first-step in rebuilding the trust within the local Republican party. Time will tell if the two state committee people will continue to manipulate their small ideas within the party structure or if they, too, will retire for the sake of the local party in Hernando County.

The Munchkins in the Wizard of Oz said it best with their rendition of the tune "Ding, Dong, the Witch's Dead."

Primary Industry

Last week I attended the Hernando Summit at Silverthorn Country Club. I wrote this article for my journalism class:

Primary Industry

The lack of primary industry in the county is cited as a major cause for the local economic downturn.

The biennial Hernando County Community Summit took on a somber tone Thursday as business and community leaders brainstormed issues surrounding the state of the economy with government officials. The positive community reports were overshadowed by the dire predictions of their guest speaker from an independent economics research firm. In his opinion, the chief reason for the local economic woes of the county stem from the deficiency in primary industry that serves to import money into a community.

“Primary industries are what cause economies to grow or fail,” said Policom Corporation President William H. Fruth who was the guest speaker. “The condition of your economy determines everything else.”

Fruth’s firm specializes in studying the dynamics of local economies. He has evaluated data for over 600 communities, in 32 states, over the past 10 years. In his presentation, he compared Hernando County to 363 metropolitan areas by population, annual wages, personal income, per capita Medicare and retirement transfers. Fruth’s hand-outs included a summary of the current economic climate in the county, along with his predictions for what lies ahead, and how Hernando County can best cope in the future.

“With the collapse of the local building industry, retirement is virtually the only primary industry in Hernando County,” Fruth said. “This will not cause economic growth in the future.” Fruth explained that there is no growth with a retirement based economy because the money just circulates within the system. Policom Corporation documents indicate that the quality of Hernando County’s economy declined due to disproportionate low-wage, service jobs created as a direct result of the increase in retirement population to the community.

“Local government and the community should make every effort to prevent this situation from every occurring again,” Fruth said when describing what to do in the future. “Hernando County needs to focus all activities on economic diversification, causing primary industries to grow in the county.” He finished his presentation by emphasizing that the community needs to invest $3 to $4 million dollars in future economic development to pull the economy out of the current quagmire.

Hernando County Business and Development Director Mike McHugh believes that a change in mindset with large, primary employers will need to occur to convince them to move their businesses from urban areas to where the workforce is located in Hernando County. “Businesses seek talent and the major conduit for this is the educational system,” McHugh said. “The new campus of Pasco-Hernando Community College, with the expanded 4-year programs, will be a significant business attraction.”

McHugh said “Our community must embrace business at every opportunity and provide what it needs to be competitive with other comparable communities,” when asked what it would take to attract light industry to the county.

“Incentives can play an important role in attracting new companies and should be viewed as a tool,” McHugh said. “They symbolize a community’s desire to attract business with their willingness to compete and can play a role in helping to restart the economy.”

BJH Construction President Dudley Hampton gave a community report about growth management within the county at this summit. In his opinion, Hernando County needs to market its opportunities to bring responsible industry into county.

“We need to match economic incentives to bring clean industry into Hernando County,” Hampton said. “If you look at our county, we are in close proximity to major urban areas like Tampa and Orlando.” In his presentation, Hampton said, “With major shipping points in Tampa, products from Hernando County can be marketed to the world.”

“In the short term there is nothing the local government can do and the federal stimulus will do nothing to revive the economy.” William H. Fruth said in his final comments. “We will get through this cycle regardless of what government does to us and business will crawl out in spite of government intervention.”

Ostracized

After reading Dan DeWitt's column in the Hernando Times it looks like the local Hernando County Republican Executive Committee has hit an all time low by black-balling local realtor Gary Schraut. Mr. Schraut has been a loyal party member and does not deserve the venom and hate spewed upon him by party insiders.

What happened to the "big umbrella" of the Republican Party?

Do all registered Republicans in the county need to fall into lock-step with the state committeeman and chairwoman or face being ostracized from the party?

Apparently, the HCREC has a revised motto. It must say "do what I say, not what I do" because they certainly have swayed from conservative principals with their poster-boy Jim Adkins. Adkins wants to pass out gift cards purchased with taxpayer money in a scheme to pad a few pockets in the community. If anyone is keeping score on local Republican activities, you must know that your head will be handed to you on a platter if you speak ill of their boot-licking lackey, Jim Adkins.

Dan DeWitt's column alluded to the split in the Republican party. While I agree that it appears that way, he is certainly on the wrong path. This split isn't anything new with the HCREC. Some members of the HCREC have even resorted to becoming physical with Republicans that do not follow blindly like lemmings. It has become common place for a certain member of the HCREC to physically shove fellow Republicans that do not agree with his warped sense of party loyalty.

So while DeWitt may think this trend is following some national format, I respectfully disagree with him. This hate and venom has been brewing locally behind closed doors for a good, number of years. This is either a power-trip by some on the executive committee, or maybe a few are just loosing their facilities, going nuts so to speak, with age and senility. The perceived loss of power by some in the REC could be the underlying factor in their bizarre behavior of late...

Bang

According to the Hernando Today, Commissioner Jim Adkins will not be attending the inaugural meeting if the economic and development standing committee next week. He has decided to lobby on behalf of the Hernando County Farm Bureau in Tallahassee instead of attending to his local duties as county commissioner. He said that he will be representing small business and taxpayer concerns while in Tallahassee. When did the Hernando County Commission vote to send Adkins to speak on their behalf, or on behalf of the taxpayers, as a lobbyist for the Farm Bureau?

Adkins apparently joked with the reporter who wrote the story, saying that taxpayers would get more "bang for their buck" with him going to Tallahassee. What "bang" would that be Mr. Adkins, the "personal bang" of using local taxpayers money for your salary while you promote the interests of the Farm Bureau? The Farm Bureau can surely do without his participation since it has a board that includes 13 members.

It would seem a little more fiscally prudent for Adkins to attend the economic and development standing committee meeting next week instead of gallivanting off to Tallahassee.

Leisure-time

The following is a paper I submitted for my journalism class. I just wanted to say thanks to Sue Rupe, Greg Myers and Jeanette Soto for their input.

In what has been termed the worst economic time in years, many are searching for creative ways to stretch leisure-time, vacation money.

The Hernando County tourism industry is thinking outside the box to compete for travel dollars in today’s slow economic climate. Market projections by experts have listed specialized package-tours as their primary growth segment of tourism, followed by staycations, or stay at-home vacations, to save money. Local business owners and industry experts are adjusting to lower revenue figures in tourism, with a stepped-up approach to customer service.

“To compete in today’s economy, businesses are forming partnerships for marketing purposes,” Hernando County Director of Tourism Sue Rupe said. “These businesses are putting together vacation packages, promoting staycations and even offering coupons to attract consumers.”

As the director of tourism, Rupe is responsible for attracting tourism dollars to the county. One of her primary job functions is the oversight of statistics related to Hernando County’s local option tourism tax. This tax provides an economic indicator of the volume of local tourism dollars spent within the county. The collection of this tax has seen a significant decline over the last 3 years and has affected many local businesses, as reported in county records. Low hotel occupancy, event attendance, and a decline in restaurant business is sign of this decline in tourism tax, according to officials.

ACBS Travel Agency President, Greg Myers has noticed a slowdown in some bookings but remains optimistic because he is still selling travel packages. Some of his client have shifted their travel plans to cruise bookings. Myers believes this trend indicates a need for his clients to find the most economical way to travel in the current financial climate.

“We have noticed our clients are more aware of how far their dollar will go,” Myers said. “We have seen changes in destinations, such as going Mexico or South America, verses going to Europe, where their dollars go farther, with the varying exchange rates.”

When comparing staycations to cruises, Myers said, “Staycations are good but most of our clients want to get out of town, even if it is just for a few days.”

ACBS Travel Agency credits their longevity in Hernando County on their individualized customer service. Even though records indicate the county has a 10.4 percent unemployment rate, ACBS has been fortunate they have not had to lay off any employees within their organization.

Jeanette Soto, retired administrative aide from Hernando County Public Works, agrees that the economy has affected all aspects of life, especially vacations. “Our family learned a long time ago to live within our ‘needs’ list instead of our ‘want’ list,” Soto said. “The necessities always take priority.”

“We haven’t taken a vacation in 3 years because of being care-givers for my 92 year-old mother,” Soto said. “She is very ill and should she not make it, we will take a vacation, no matter the economy, maybe to Puerto Rico.”

Randall Travel Marketing, which focuses on strategic planning and market research, is predicting that consumers will limit their spending and stay closer to home on vacation in 2009. The primary growth segment in tourism, according to Randall Travel, is booking specialized package-tours that are customized by operators to meet the expectation of the individuals in the group. To compete with the changing needs of their clients in this economic climate, Randall believes the industry is reinventing itself to meet traveler’s expectations.

“In the travel industry, you have to have excellent service,” said Greg Myers, president of ACBS Travel Agency. “Our agency takes pride in excellent customer service where we take the hassle out of travel.”

Award

Congratulations go out to John Pizzo! John won the Frist Humanitarian Award at Bayonet Point Hospital last week. He won by facing a stiff opposition of over 900 employees. John is now under consideration for the Frist Award on the nation level at all HCA hospitals. He & his Laurie should find out if he made it to the final 5 in early April.

Here an explanation of the Frist Humanitarian Award that I borrowed from the Bayonet Point Hospital website:

The Frist Humanitarian Award was created in 1971 to honor individuals for their humanitarian and volunteer activities. Named in honor of Dr. Thomas F. Frist, Sr., this award recognizes individuals whose daily dedication and care giving epitomize the highest standards of quality and personal commitment.

Dr. Thomas Frist, Sr. was one of the founders of HCA and served as its president until the mid-70’s, as well as, serving his community in a variety of ways. He was often heard saying, “good people beget good people” in reference to the quality of personnel that worked for HCA. The Frist Award is the highest honor our company bestows on its most important resource, our people.

Way to go, John!