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!

A new look on nasty tax collectors...

So when I first heard that we were having someone from the tax collectors office come and speak to us, I have to admit...I was a little well....bored about it. But to my surprise Mr. Trigg was one of my favorite guest! I learned so much from him!

Mr. Trigg's enthusiasm and awesome public speaking ability made him very easy to understand and listen to. He was able to keep my attention the entire time, and he opened my eyes to the tax collectors business.

Mr. Trigg started off his presentation by telling us what he does, and what we as citizens can have done if we go to the tax collector's office. I was very surprised to learn how much he had to do with the improvement of customer service at the office, just by adding in chairs, cross-training people for different departments, and adding a numeric system just as you would find at any Publix deli. I never actually believed that a tax collector's office would care about customer service. I always thought all they wanted was my money and they didn't care how they had to get it.

Mr. Trigg then walked us through all the records that are public file that we can reach at the tax collector's office.

I loved loved loved loved loved...loved.....how he told us how every reporter should go about finding the information that we needed. What we need to ask for, and what we should do in order to make it cheap for us.

In conclusion, I believe that Mr. Trigg was able to offer us the most information of how to, and what we can and cannot obtain from public records. I also felt that after Mr. Trigg's left that if I were to ever need anything figured out, that he would be happy to help, and I am thankful for that!

William March Visit

Last Thursday our class was lucky to have William March, who is the Tampa Tribune's chief political reporter, pay us a visit. And if I ever thought that I wanted to every MIGHT report in politics, I am not certain, I will NEVER DO SO!

It takes a certain type of person to be able to reporter and interview and deal with politicians, and I have come to the conclusion that I am not that type of person; and Mr. March was able to open my eyes to that.

Mr. March took the class period to walk us through how he goes about finding out information on candidate spending, and fundraising. He offered us great resources that included opensecrets.org and leg.state.fl.us. With these sites, we learned how to track politcal spending and how much each candidate profits from big time companies who donate to them. He told us how often policical laundering happened, and how stupid political canidates can get to think that they will never get caught. I was very impressed by how much Mr. March has a passion for what he does, and the fact that he took the time to answer and comment to all of our comments were very nice.

No offense to Mr. March, but I personaly can't stand the way of politcs and the deap down evilness that comes with it. Yes these people are all out for the same thing "we hope anyway"..to help the public and serve the people...but these people are willing to do ANYTHING to get there, which is why I just do not pay attention to it. I vote because that it my public duty; to vote for who I think lied the least, and will do his or her best job.

I grew up in Washington D.C., my father was a police officer and worked directly with the presidental staff for President George Bush Sr. So needless to say, poltics have always surrounded me, and I just have never caught onto it. and I really apprecitate everything Mr. March was able to teach us, but politics is not for me now..and will never be.

Scared Straight...That is for sure!!

So Tuesday, we all took a trip down to the Orient Rd Jail, and boy o boy was it "interesting" to say the least.

We learned a lot of really neat facts that day. Why the jails use wooden doors now, how many inmates does the jail house, what facilities the inmates can use and not use, and how the jail is broken up into different sectors called "pods."

Throughout the entire tour, I found myself with just wondering eyes. Everything just amazed me; from the security precautions taken to keep everyone in line and safe, to the organization kept throughout every part of the jail.

I was surprised to notice that no officer in the jail carries a gun with him or her. The officer told us that the main weapon used throughout the jail was that person's brain. Being able to make the right choices at the right times to keep everyone safe.

My favorite part of the tour was the booking room. Although at the time I felt very uncomfortable standing there being watched by all of the soon to be inmates, afterwards I was very happy to be put in that situation. It opened my eyes FULLY to what can happen if you make the wrong decisions in life, and where you will end up. That, my friend, is something I do not every want to have to experience, and will avoid it all costs.

After the trip, I went home and looked up on the internet some of the people we had been standing in the booking room with that day to see what they had been charged with. I was surprised to find that me and my classmates had been standing in the room with drug addicts, homeless drunks, child porn addicts, and domestic abusers.

I chose the topic "Scared Straight" because of the fact that this tour of the jail really opened my eyes to something that I think everyone out there should see. To see how miserable those people were and how I would take all measures to make sure I did not end up as one of them. I want to end on a somewhat humorous quote that the officer of the tour had told us "We do not discriminate, everyone gets arrested."

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Visit

Tuesday our class took a field trip to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office to talk with public information officer J. D. Calloway. This visit was not only informational, it was very interesting as well.

I know Mr. Calloway had to kill a lot of trees in order to pass out his handouts to us, but I am glad he did! Every single packet he gave us was very helpful and provided us with a lot of information. My favorite packet he gave us was the "Standard Operating Procedure" packet. I know for sure that I will hold on to this packet for future reference. I love how it shows which information the police is allowed to give the reporters during certain situations and how they can obtain the information.

Besides all of the information gathered from the packets, Mr. Calloway was able to share some wealthy information. I was very surprised to find out that police departments are allowed to put a hold on traffic accident records for 6 months after the accident has occured. The reason why they do this is to keep "ambulance chasers" from pursuing clients who need representation. This surprised me very much because it shows me that police really are protecting the public not just from harmful sitations, but afterwards from nasty situations that can occur afterward.

I was also surpised to find out that police officers and fireman are exempt from having personal information on public records.

I was also very happy that we got to see where we need to go to pick up public records from the sheriffs office. Of course we can just go online and search for ourselves, but in order to obtain the in depth information we may need as journalists, we needed to know exactly where to go.

Overall I really enjoyed the information we were able to gather from this field trip. Mr. Calloway and his assistant did a great job preparing for us, and I really learned a lot. I did some researching on the Hillsborough County Sheriff's website and found this link that may help some students and others if they have forgotten anything they need to know to obtain a public record.

http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/hrd/records_section.htm

Chris Davis Visit

On Tuesday, Chris Davis from the Sarasota Herald Tribune came by my class to talk about some of his investigative reports that he accomplished with the help of public records.

I was very impressed by Chris and all the work he has accomplished. The most interesting thing I found to be was all of the information Chris had gathered in order to make his render of the 1950's murder of a Sarasota family. Chris explained that since the murder case was so old, he and his colleges had to rely on public records to report his findings. Although their ultimate goal was to find the person who brutally murdered this family, they ended up using the information from the police records to render the crime scene. From finding where certain fingerprints were located, to finding how and exactly where a hat had fallen off a head to land 3 feet from a door. Public records break down crime scenes so that the media and journalists can make a picture for viewers and readers.

Another thing I found to be very interesting was the work that Chris and his co-workers researched for his story on teacher abuse. He explained to us that it took years to gather all of the information about every public school teachers and the incidences that occurred whether it be sexual abuse, or a drug and alcohol related incident. It amazes me that they were able to created this amazing databases for people to search and see who is teaching their students. All of this is thanks to public records that Chris said was just stored in a warehouse somewhere.

Overall, I very much enjoyed Chris's visit. To be honest I never knew that journalists would go to such great lengths to show the public a side they have never seen. To have such patience to wait for all of these public records to be sorted in a way that they can use them is amazing. I have to say kudos to Chris and the investigative reporting staff at the Sarasota Herald Tribune. I have already saved their website to my favorites and plan on watching them in the future to see what they can uncover next!!

Mr. Nickens Visit

I can honestly say that I have learned something new and very useful every day I have come to public affairs reporting, and I really learned a lot from Mr. Nickens from the St. Pete Times.

One of the most shocking tings that I learned from Mr. Nickens was that the main reason autopsy photos are no longer public records are due to the Earnhardt family and the death of Dale Earnhardt. That is just mind-blowing to me. If this one family with a lot of money, can change a law like this just because they didn't believe in it, then what is stopping other rich families from doing the same thing? Why can't the Hogan's ban jail conversations they had with their son from public records? I'm sure if they were willing to spend a little bit more money, they could have easily done that!

Another surprising fact I learned was how much it actually cost to obtain some public records. Before entering this class, I thought it was just going to be looking up records on the Internet or going places to search for things on my own. I guess that I never thought that someone would have to do the work for me, and then I would have to turn around and compensate them on the time he or she had lost.

Mr. Nickens also talked about the incentives and tax breaks that are given to some businesses are not public records. Which makes me wonder what Hillsborough County, Pinellas County, Pasco County and others would do to bring a certain store to their area? It seems to me that these counties must go to great length to bring these stores, and it would probably make the average tax payer angry to find out what is going on behind this closed curtain.

All in all, I would say that I very much enjoyed Mr. Nickens visit. He offered a great deal of new information to the class that I am sure we can all use for the future. He taught us a lot about certain public records, and what we need to do to obtain them, and I was extremely happy with his presentation. It would be of great interest for him to come back and speak with future classes.