Expressway Board Agrees To Audit

By JOHN W. ALLMAN and RICH SHOPES The Tampa Tribune

Published: Sep 12, 2006

TAMPA - The Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority board agreed to a thorough top-to-bottom audit of the agency Monday but drew the line at ousting its executive director or its chief lobbyist.

In addition to the audit, which Gov. Jeb Bush strongly recommended Friday, the board voted unanimously to reconsider its Aug. 28 decision to award a contract for outside legal services to Gray Robinson.

It rescinded the contract offer, rejected the four bids it received and voided the request for proposals after an investigation last week by Bush's top lawyer found impropriety in the way bids were handled but determined no laws were broken.

And board members voted 6-0 to hire Fowler White, a Tampa law firm, as its interim general counsel. The law firm also will recommend whether the authority should retain its chief lobbyist, John Beck.

Other votes Monday did not go as smoothly, however, and revealed a board divided along political lines.

The board voted 4-2 against firing the authority's executive director, Ralph Mervine.

"I'm concerned about the relationship [between Beck and Mervine]," board member Tom Scott said in making a motion to fire Mervine. "Staff won't tell you. This agency is being run by John Beck."

Scott, a Hillsborough County commissioner, and Gwen Miller, a Tampa city councilwoman - both Democrats - voted in favor of ousting Mervine.

The majority, including three Bush appointees, voted to keep him - Chairman Thomas Gibbs, Alba Lopez-Isa and former state Sen. James Hargrett. They were supported by Don Skelton, a Florida Department of Transportation district secretary, whose boss is Denver Stutler Jr., the FDOT secretary and Bush's former chief of staff.

In another vote, which also fell along 4-2 partisan lines, the board fired its current outside general counsel, Steve Anderson of the law firm Ruden McClosky.

Key Board Member Missing

A seventh board member, Robert Clark Jr., also appointed by Bush, was absent Monday because of a planned vacation.

Clark played a key role in the controversy that led to Bush calling for an investigation. He has had a rocky relationship with Anderson, who questioned Clark in 2003 about selling steel to an expressway authority contractor. Anderson has said Clark wanted his firm fired.

Clark has said he asked Beck to meet with any firms competing against Anderson's firm for the legal contract. Beck met in late July with Gray Robinson to offer counsel about its bid.

Mervine also met with Gray Robinson, having dinner with one of the firm's partners five days before the board voted on the legal contract.

Those contacts, coupled with the board voting to change its bid rankings to place Gray Robinson first, sparked outrage two weeks ago. On Aug. 31, Bush got involved, but his role brought questions because his administration was linked both to Gray Robinson and to Beck's consulting firm.

Public records show a long history between Mervine and Beck. The pair talks almost daily, according to authority cell phone records. Mervine worked with Beck's wife, Katherine, as an engineering consultant for Global Rail Consortium. John Beck recommended Mervine for the executive director's job in 2004. Mervine is paid $208,000 a year.

Beck also has ties to at least two companies that have expressed interest in bidding on a proposed east-west toll road in New Tampa, a project worth millions to the winning applicant.

Bid Deadline Postponed

Monday, the authority said that it will extend the bid period to Oct. 26 for the general contractor for the toll road. Bids were due Thursday, but one of the contractors bidding for the project, OHL of Spain, asked for the extension, Mervine said.

Hargrett pointed to the east-west road bids as one reason not to fire Mervine during Monday's meeting. He said Mervine showed "poor judgment," but asked how many people have not done the same.

"I think the public interest is served by us continuing to follow the leadership of Mr. Mervine," Hargrett said. "The worst thing this agency can do now when asking people around the world to trust us is to have a dispute over leadership."

Beck's work as the authority's lobbyist has cost more than $575,000 since 2004, according to records. He recently charged the authority for time spent meeting with Gray Robinson on the legal services bid, and told Raquel Rodriguez, the governor's general counsel, that he planned to bill for other "hallway" conversations he had with two other firms interested in the legal contract.

Beck charges $175 an hour per his contract, which has never been competitively bid.

Late last week, Scott and the Hillsborough County Commission unanimously voted to ask the authority to fire Mervine or demand his resignation. It was a symbolic vote that held no leverage, and the authority seemed unfazed by it Monday.

Gibbs and Scott clashed repeatedly during the meeting, particularly when Anderson, Beck or Mervine were being discussed.

"All this is going to be investigated," Gibbs snapped at one point.

"Mister chairman, I have the floor," Scott replied.

"I'm really tired," Gibbs said, refusing to back down, "I've been through this all weekend!"

Miller tried vainly at one point to fight for Anderson to keep his job, asking that the board allow him to finish several pending legal matters while hiring an interim law firm to do everything else.

Gibbs all but ignored her motion, not calling for a vote and allowing Hargrett to offer a substitute motion to fire Anderson.

Legal Recommendation Pending

Rhea Law, president and chief executive officer of Fowler White, said she will recommend at the next board meeting whether Ruden McClosky should stay involved in 14 outstanding legal matters that involve the expressway authority.

Law said Fowler White will not bid for the outside general counsel contract. Her firm is charging $225 an hour as special counsel. Anderson's firm charged $205.

Senate President Tom Lee and House Speaker Allan Bense have agreed to have the state's auditor general perform the audit.

On Monday, their respective chiefs of staff said that Lee and Bense will meet this week with the auditor general to finalize details about when the audit will start and what areas it will include.

Bush said Monday that he "can't be micromanaging" the authority, and will leave issues such as deciding on Mervine's job to the board.

Further issues could bring consequences, he said.

"If there's continued problems with the expressway authority, I'll just give you a political speculative guess here," Bush said, "the Legislature will act and they will act to change the corporate governance of the [authority] in some fashion."

Reporters Lindsay Peterson and Jerome R. Stockfisch contributed to this report. Reporter John W. Allman can be reached at (813) 259-7915 or jallman@tampatrib

.com. Keyword: Expressway, to read documents from the governor's investigation.