Award's intent lost, commissioner says

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Tampa Tribune - Tampa, Fla.

Staff writer Francis Gilpin covers local government and may be reached at (813) 259-7365.

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TAMPA - An annual government rite, born of the county's less glorious past, has gone astray, says a county official.

The mother of Hillsborough County's Moral Courage Award said Wednesday that county officials have forgotten the original purpose of the prize.

While praising this year's three winners, Commissioner Jan Platt said the award should go to residents who challenge misguided government power, not merely perform good deeds above and beyond the call of everyday citizenship.

The 1998 winners are the three finalists recommended by an advisory panel: Donald Hawkins, who sponsors children at summer camp; Russell Johnson, who gives away bicycles to youths in his north Tampa neighborhood; and Jamie Kelly, who inspires the poor to get out of poverty as she did.

"It's not to say these people don't have moral courage," said Platt, who got the county to establish the award. "But we need to get this back on track."

Platt said this year's winners, who will be feted at a commission reception, might be more deserving of a new county tribute called the "You've Made a Difference" award.

That award is intended to honor those whose energy or ideas improve the county.

This year's "You've Made a Difference" winners, also named Wednesday, are clerk's office employee Martha Bingham, an environmental activist who got the county to recycle Christmas trees, and NationsBank branch manager Davelis Goutoufas, who suggested captioning the cablecasts of county government meetings for the hearing impaired.

The Moral Courage Award is funded from the proceeds of liability bonds cashed out by the county after the FBI caught three Hillsborough commissioners in a 1980s zoning bribery scandal.

The first award winner in 1992, Seffner activist Cam Oberting, fit the original definition of moral courage because she challenged the county despite being repeatedly ignored during the era of the corrupt commissioners, Platt said.

Since then, however, the nominees have been safer choices. More controversial Moral Courage Award candidates, such as former Tampa Mayor William Poe, have failed to get serious consideration, Platt said.

Poe had to sue the county to bring to light what a trial judge eventually ruled was a somewhat one-sided stadium lease in favor of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which local officials had signed with the football team's owners.

Platt said there are plenty of other worthy possibilities for future Moral Courage Awards.

She mentioned the Northdale husband-and-wife team of Tom Aderhold and Barbara Dowling, who exposed county regulators issuing improper permits to telecommunications companies for cellular telephone booster towers.

For future Moral Courage Awards, Platt's commission colleagues voted with her Wednesday to limit the number of finalists to one a year.

Credit: of The Tampa Tribune

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