City of
Tampa TIITF Road Easements
Spins Lies To 40th Street Property Owners
We Ask Mayor Pam Iorio To Keep The Commitment
"If a property owner will accept the offer made by the City of Tampa we will pay the full value because we will not have to pay attorney fees. But if a property owner hires a lawyer to represent them we will assert the TIITF easement and property owners will be paid less" (Elton Smith, Director of Tampa Department of Transportation).
Now you know why a Pastor is involved in this matter? I am involved because the City lied! The Church hired a lawyer and got rid of him after some issues came up and we did not feel protected any more. We decided to not hire another attorney to see if the offer tendered to us would be for the full value of the property in the take. When the offer of the City was told to me by Mr. Daniels of American Acquistion, and they asserted the TIITF, I knew they were purposely discriminating against the Church. We had no attorney at the time of the offer and they should have applied their rule of payment to us. Within twenty-four hours of learning the City of Tampa was going to assert the TIITF road reservation contrary to their promises, we hired Tampa Attorney Jon Tileston of Tileston, Simon, and Hollaway, P.A. to protect our constitutional rights. In its offer, the City further discriminated against the Church by refusal to include a statement of our rights. In other words, they sent us a message they would not pay for any legal representation we hired. It took a letter to the City and to FDOT from Mr. Tileston to get them to say they would pay what ever cost a court determined. But, why would they make the Church go to court to obtain legal representation for an emenient domain taking? This should be a constitutional right without going to court. The City of Tampa has been adverserial against the Church for years and it has come full bloom now that they must deal face to face with the Church. This is why a Pastor is involved. We are tired of the discrimination and mistreatment by the City of Tampa.
As a Pastor, a friend to the community along 40th Street here in Tampa, I am tired of the Transportation Department lying to property owners along 40th Street where there is a widening project underway. The officials of the City came into our neighborhood and promised all property owners they would not suffer any loss or damage because of the TIITF reservations. They promised to pay the full market value. They did in fact pay many property owners the full market value under the scheme of their "early acquisition willing seller program." Then they approached a couple property owners and offered them $250 for their fee simple title to the reservation. When the property owners refused, the City filed suit. Then the City withdrew the suits and sent notice of using the reservation easement without any payment whatsoever. The City of Tampa has taken the course of action of beating up the property owners along 40th Street. Our Church is on the hit list I am told and they plan to do us the same way when it is time to deal with property owners in Segment C of the project. Part of this mistreatment of the Church is because I have been so out-spoken against these TIITF road reservations and have challenged the lies of Jim Burnside Project Manager and his boss Elton Smith City of Tampa Transportation Manager. Because I challenged these two liars they re-aligned the footprint of the roadway moving it west with a dog-leg into the proposed roundabout so they would not go through our Church. They thought to punish me and the Church members because we opposed the TIITF lies they were telling. The City can beat up the Church if it wants but I promise them to stand my ground and the Church members will stand with me in front of bulldozers if we have to, even if it means going to jail.
What were the lies of Smith and Burnside concerning the Murphy Act road easements?
When the City of Tampa first came out to 40th Street in 1995 to have community meetings concerning the new proposed widening, the TIITF easements came up. Jim Burnside P.E. and project engineer said the TIITF reservations could be removed easily and property owners had no real fears. He was asked how they could be removed. He told us there was a State Statute that allowed property owners who had paid taxes on their parcels to have the reservations released by having the Tax Collector file a certificate proving the taxes had been paid since 1971. After the meeting I went online and found the legislation he was talking about. Here is that legislation:
FS253.82 Title of state or private owners to Murphy Act lands.--
(1)(a) The interest of the state in any land which was acquired by the state under chapter 18296, Laws of Florida, 1937, but which is listed on a county tax assessment roll as being owned by a person other than the state and on which ad valorem taxes have been paid at least since January 1, 1971, is hereby released to such person. The rights that are released under this subsection are all rights in the land, including state-held subsurface rights.
(b) Upon request by any person, the county tax collector shall record in the official records of the county in which the land is located a certificate that the taxes have been paid since January 1, 1971, by the landowner or the landowner's predecessor in title, if in fact the taxes have been paid. Such certificate is conclusive evidence of that fact.
I personally showed Mr. Burnside this Statute and asked him if it was the correct one? He replied yes! Thereupon, I went to the Tax Collector of Hillsborough County and had him to draw up a Certificate per the Statute and verify the taxes were paid and I filed this with the Clerk of Circuit Court. A couple other property owners did the same. But when Mr. Jack Wolf of the EP Department heard about this, he called Melvin Smith the Tax Collector and told him not to file any more of these Certificates. He told Mr. Smith they were worthless. I called Mr. Wolf about this and he confirmed he had talked to Mr. Smith and told him they were worthless. I told him Mr. Burnside of the City of Tampa was the one who told us to file it and it would release our properties of the TIITF easement. He said he would call Mr. Burnside and I presume he did, because when I asked him why he was telling us things that were not true and what Mr. Wolf had said, he stared at me. He then said there are other ways to take care of the reservations. I ask how? He then said that according to the Murphy deeds there had to be ten or more acres conveyed or they were not valid. So we put our faith that deeds containing less then ten acres did not carry a valid reservation. He told me if my deed had 10 or less acres conveyed on it the reservation was not valid. We had several meeting on 40th Street to discuss these reservations and some were attended by City officials. Councilman Scott Paine came to one meeting where he was briefed. He told us the City would commit in some way to make sure the property owners were treated fairly.
Later at another public meeting, Elton Smith addressed the community at the Temple Crest Civic Club and again the TIITF easements came up. Mr. Smith said there had been much talk about this with City Officials. He promised us that no property owner would be penalized if they had a TIITF reservation on their property. They would find some way to make sure all property owners were fully compensated.
This promise was repeated verbatim in the June 2000 40th Street Corridor Community Revitalization Plan, Summary Report of Prior Work, Prepared for the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Beth Malaby of the Planning Commission presented this Summary to the MPO and the Planning Commission. I was there. She gave me a copy of the Report which I have to this day. Click the link above and look at an image of page 24 that verifies in an OFFICIAL DOCUMENT of the City of Tampa's commitment that property owners would be compensated without penalty.
Mr. Burnside and Mr. Smith both approved of the Summary Report and so far as I know never contradicted it in any public meeting in the community. In 2002 I saw Mr. Smith at a Long Range Transportation Plan meeting and mentioned to him about the TIITF easements again. He told me the decision had been made to purchase property at no penalty and this would be demonstrated during the "Willing Seller, Early Acquision Program." Indeed so far as I know this took place without a hitch. I personally tried to keep abreast of the property owners with TIITF easements and how they were compensated by the City. I did not speak with all of them but it seemed all were paid the full value of their property with no deduction for the easement. There was much discussion about this at the Temple Crest Civic Club among members and among the property owners on the street. Looks like the City of Tampa is going to make good on the lies and misrepresentations and fully compensate those affected by the road project.
Then a bizzare thing occurred. Mr. Japhath Sampson
who owns property at 8910 40th Street received a pre-suit offer of
$250.00 for the swath of land across the front of this property. He
refused the offer and asked why he was not going to be paid the full value
like all the others who had previously sold to the City? He was told
the City of Tampa was now going to assert the TIITF reservation. Mr.
Sampson refused the offer. In time, the City withdrew its suit and said they
would take the easement and not give him a penny. They did just that.
Today there is construction in front of Mr. Sampson's property. Now
why did the City of Tampa default on it's commitment?
The answer may lie in the Mayor herself. She seems to be a good Mayor in so many areas but in the area of fair treatment of 40th Street property owners she has allowed different treatment of property owners. For what reason are some property owners to be better treated then others? What advantage do those handpicked to be in the "Early Acquisition Willing Seller Program" have the rest of us not handpocked DO NOT HAVE?
Now we can't blame it on Elton Smith and Jim Burnside, they are GONE! Whatever legacy they left behind with the way they plotted and handled things, the Mayor owes the neighborhood and property owners EQUAL FAIRNESS. So who is at the steering wheel of this change in policy if the Mayor is not? Is it her "new" 40th Street appointees carrying on Smith and Burnside plotting and unfairness?
As I have said elsewhere, the Mayor touts this as her "pet project." We do not mind being pets, just treat us all as equal pets and not some better then others. What will it take for the rest of us to be treated the same way as property owners in the Early Acquisition Willing Seller Program? Honorable Mayor we ask only that you keep the committment and see to it that all property owners are compensated without penalty. You have all of our addresses out here. Mail us a letter. We will wait for it.
There is time for the Mayor to act before to many of us get offended and start marching in the street! I will schedule a meeting of 40th Street property owners in the month of September all else failing to get a response.
I am herewith asking our Honorable Mayor to gather together her 40th Street team and announce the keeping of the commitment. It is the only honorable thing to do. A public service servant who is called "Honorable" should qualify the title!
Pastor G. Reckart