Final- Ronda Storms Public Profile

Ronda Storms likes to describes herself and her campaign in three simple words; Integrity, Accountability, and Trust. Can these three simple words possibly be the truth behind Ronda presently and in the past? To some, she has been described as a maverick from her time spent on the Hillsborough County Commissioner, and some find her to be somewhat “standoffish” towards the media and sometimes a bit antagonistic. She can be best represented and remembered by her strong views on gay rights and on the Dewy Decimal System in public school systems while on commission.

Mrs. Storms was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and moved to Brandon Florida. She graduated from the University of South Florida in 1988 with a English degree. She served in the Hillsborough county Commission from 1998 to 2006, where she then ran and won a Florida senate seat. She now resides in Valrico Florida with her husband David.

Ronda and her husband David own a total of 3 properties in Valrico Florida, but only one of which actually has a house built on the property. The house was built in 2003, but the land was purchased back in 1989.The house has just over three thousand square feet and has an assessed value of just under $284,000. The Storm’s own another piece of land directly to the left of their house. They also own a piece of land directly behind their house; which is labeled as “Plant nursery.” When searching a bit deeper, I was able to find the names Nathanial Storms and Alice Storms were also on the deed to the house, which I found were to be the in-laws. The Storm’s residents can be found at 2129 Crosby Road Valrico Florida 33594.

The Storm’s have two mortgages with two different banks for their house. Flagstar Bank, and Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union. When purchasing their house, the Storm’s took out an adjustable rate mortgage with the Credit Union starting at 5.27 percent.

When it comes to abiding by the law, Ronda is squeaky clean. No record of any arrest and no record of any traffic citations could be found; for her or her husband.

Ronda Storms and David Storms are good citizens do pay their taxes and on time. Since 2001, all taxes were paid in full and on time. She has yet to pay for her 2009 property taxes in which she owes $5, 217.47. For her other pieces of property, her taxes total to about $2000.

Before serving on the Hillsborough County Commission, Ronda Storms served as a private attorney for the court system. There are numerous amounts of court cases involving Ronda, one for example involved a local nail and hair salon.

Ronda Storms served on the Hillsborough County Commission for 8 years, her final year being in 2006. Alongside Kathy Castor, Brian Blair, Ken Hagen, Jim Norman, Thomas Scott, and Mark Sharpe; Ronda tended to vote to her own liking. For example on January 10, 2006, Ronda voted three times “no” against her fellow commissioners, all for zoning bills. Ronda has made media headlines with her aggressive voting and strong beliefs. Ronda brought attention to herself back in 2005 when she led the effort to ban gay pride on county property.

As a member of the Florida Legislature, Ronda Storms, makes just over $30,000 a year. This was quite a surprise to me because I researched what county commissioner’s salaries are, and most are upwards of $80,000.

In 2004, when Ronda Storms ran for County Commission District 4, she had 11 different contributions to her financial report. Her biggest filing for that year was contributions totaling $30, 7756.52 made by hundreds of different people. Some contributions were only for just $25, while most were made for $500.00. From Sam’s Club, to high schools, to cell phone companies; contributions came from many different people and many different businesses.

When Ronda ran for the state senate 10^th district in 2006, her campaign finance contributions arose greatly from her county commission contributions, totaling $807, 355.19. One of her biggest campaign contributions came from Bright House Networks with a $3,011 donation to her campaign. A lot of her contributions also came from insurance and real-estate groups from all over the state of Florida.

William “Windy” March, political writer for the Tampa Tribune, describes Ronda Storms as “conservative and sometimes controversial.” Mr. March has had a lot of experience dealing with local community politicos. He talked about Ronda being very standoffish with the media, and tended to think that the media was always against her. He described an op-ed article that she has written in the Tribune back in January where her first sentenced read “"The Tribune is nothing if not relentless in its determination to present a distorted picture of me.” Windy believes “It's not unusual for "social-issues conservatives" to believe that mainstream news organizations are biased against them.” Mr. March also said “Although she has been strongly on the conservative side of the political spectrum, she has occasionally taken stands that bucked conservative or Republican Party interests or supporters.”

As for future races, Ronda is already a head of the game to gain back her 10^th district senate seat. Ronda has already totaled $117,000 for campaign contributions. Ronda is yet again the republican candidate and is up against Jen Greenfield who is the democratic candidate. Jen however is a bit behind Mrs. Storms totaling just $327.77. Needless to say, I think that it is obvious that Mrs. Storms as this one in the bag, because with more money, she will be able to campaign and advertise herself to the extreme to win the vote.

Purchasing Process Assignment

To do the purchasing process assignment, I turned to my great county, Hernando County, once again. I decided to simply just type in “Hernando County Purchasing” into Google, and that lead me to the Hernando County Purchasing department. From there I was able to contact someone, (For give me, but I never caught their name, but the phone number was (352) 754-4199.

The whole purchasing process is quite a blur to me. It was a ton of information to take in all at once, but I tried my best to understand it and how it goes about. Like you said in class today Professor Thelen, it is a lot of checks and balances. A person, department, or group of people, such as the board of county commissioners must put in a bid in order to obtain whatever equipment or service that they need and or want. The must submit the form and signed contract to the clerk of court. The paperwork also includes guidelines that layout the procedure to accepting the bid, and the conditions of the equipment or services requested.

As for my document, I was able to get a print of an active bid. The bid was issued by the county commissioners and it was for 4 solid waste compactors, and 6 yard compactors. The document goes in to detail the style and types of compactors wanted, and then have a long checklist on the last page for the vendor to check before submitting the bid.

A trip to my local school board...

I live in Hernando County Florida, which is about 45 miles north of Tampa. I decided to go on over to the Hernando County school board for my public meeting. I myself am a product of the Hernando county school system, so I found it very interesting to see how much things have changed since I left.
The meetings are held on Tuesday’s, usually twice a month, and the school board members meet to talk about zoning, current issues, future ideas, and then they open the floor to listen to the people who have come to speak.
I arrived about 10 minutes before the meeting began, and needless to say, it was a small crowd. I was one of about 15 people that attended the meeting. I found this to be quite shocking considering the fact that the Hernando County school system is not very small. I took my seat and waited for the meeting to begin.
How can I act surprised? First topic of the evening… swine flu update. Board members gave updates of enrollment it schools and any different precautions, if any, different schools are taking. From my point of view, the board members did not seem to worried about the situation, but I think being in the times we are, it is just standard measures for every meeting.
The meeting then turned to talks of a new high school that the county is building. The school board allowed students, teachers, and faculty members to name the new school. As of the day of the meeting, the voting has been closed and the board will then vote on the name by December 15th.

Other topics later included the budget and then the boards search for the district’s new superintendent. They then broke topic to listen to the small group of parents and faculty members who wanted to talk. Usual topics, swine flu, budget costs

At the end of the meeting, I ran into two third grade teachers who has attended the meeting. I had a quick chit chat with them. I asked them why they came, and they stated they always like to try and attend as many meetings as they can. After a little more small talk I learned that these were not just any normal third grade teachers. They were inclusion class teachers. Inclusion classes were classes mandated by the federal government to give students with mental disabilities a chance to learn in the same classroom as regular students. It was very interesting talking with them. They told me how stressful it can get for them to be able to get these students with mental disabilities to pass the FCAT. I spoke with Mrs. Teresa Young (352)650-5362 and Mrs. Debbie Torres (Who did not supply me her phone number).

Over all I really did learn a lot about how public meetings are held and configured. And overall school board meetings are rather fascinating.

Let's go see a trial!

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post with my public record search, my father is a court security officer at the federal court house. So needless to say it was not very hard for me to find a trial and to sit in on it unlike like most of my classmates who had problems.

My Father was able to get me into a trial being judged by James Moody, who has been known for hosting some very high profile cases such as Al-Arian case. This case I was viewing today was sort of a everyday occurrence. A drug trial. The United States vs Demetrium Silas Shaw. This man was charged with three things, two counts of drug possession with intent to distribute, and the third count of knowingly possessing and affecting interstate and foreign commerce ammunition .

I was very surprised at the look and feel of the courtroom. Sort of a classroom feel if I would say. There were overheads, and pull down screens, and podiums and desks with papers and files everywhere. The defendant sat on one side and the state attorney's sat on the other.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get to the trial till the end of the day, so I was only able to witness about 15 minutes, but I can say that I was very intimidated by those 15 minutes. The courtroom can be a very scary place, and for some people, that can be the last place they visit for the rest of their lives.

I found a new one!

So I thought about what should I get for my public record? Who did I immediately think of? Believe it or not my father. He is a court security officer down at the federal courthouse. So when it came time to do a trial..well..that was easy...but I was still confused about the public record. Did I want to drive down to the county clerks office? No..not really... I had already heard a bunch of people were doing the M.E's office...so did I do that? No....So I simply asked my father.."Dad, is there any place in this building I can obtain a public record?" He quickly responded.."Sure let's go to the 2ND floor to the clerk's office."
To my surprise I had no clue that the federal court had their own clerks office. There I was able to obtain the indictment for the court trial that I had just sat in on, and lucky for me with my own connections...I did not have to pay a dime! Luckily my father has a lot of friends. Immediately I thought, is it okay that I did this? Will I get in trouble for having my father help me? But I thought to myself...If I were a reporter...I would still use my father as a reference, and as a tool, so I do not think there was a problem with that. And It was needless to say...it was all a very pleasant experience!

M.E Office visit....

Tuesday’s visit to the medical examiner’s office was a bit of an eye opener for me. Literally … I never thought I would see someone’s eye lain out on a counter. I really learned a lot of different things that I did not know before visiting the M.E, and I certainly won’t forget it for a long time.

Dr. Adams is an extremely smart individual, and it was an honor for him to show us around his new facility. Without people like Dr. Adams in the world, people who can deal with death in such a professional way, I would really be afraid of death.

Dr. Adams started our tour by showing us the documents room. Here thousands of files line the wall with brightly colored labels to differentiate between the different types of death. Homicides and traffic accidents are just a few of the types of death that are in this archive.

I was very impressed by the measures taken by Mr. Adams to ensure a happy healthy working environment for everyone that works at the M.E. He made sure to have plenty of windows in the office area for all the employees working at cubicles. He also installed a super ventilation system for the chemical area to make sure no odors or fumes stick around for the doctors to breath in.

The morgue was by are the most interesting part of the tour. This is where I saw my first dead body, besides family members who died of old age. Since I work in the food industry, the entire morgue reminded me of a industrial kitchen, with all the stainless steel and the pots and pans and sinks everywhere.

Dr. Adams was a very professional man, and to be honest, half of the medical terms he talked about when right over my head, but from what I could understand; the M.E’s office is defiantly there to help the family members of the dead to figure out what happened. With them, they are able to further their knowledge and information for medical purposes to hopefully one day help us all live a little bit longer.

Steve...what can I say? You are the man!

Since the first day of class and Prfoessor Thelen passed out our syllabus, I had been waiting for this field trip. Not to be a suck up or anything, but I have been watching Steve on News Channel 8 for as long as I can remember. I do believe when you think of investigative reporting in Tampa Bay, Steve is the face you think of. His credability and overall understanding of how to report and uncover things is something every person can learn from.

Steve is such a down to earth person. He has done a lot to uncover things in Tampa bay, and he does not boast about it. He stated "you need to know how to work with people, and that does mean you need to be a jerk about it." He stressed that we need to remain respectful no matter what case or people we may deal with.

He went on to tell how how to go about investigating a story. He used the theory of everything is a "puzzle" and all we need to do are find the missing pieces. He told us that we should always have 3 strong questions to fire off at the beginning of any interview, and we have a bad memory as he does, to write them down!

He encouraged us to listen what the people have to say, because that way we can open people up to us and what we are doing, and possibly get them to say things they wouldnt necessary say if they feel as if we were attacking them.

Overall, I was extremely happy with the field trip and I really learned a lot. For me, being a broadcast news major, this field trip really helpped me to really see what I could be doing one day. Thanks a lot Steve!