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A few months back, a news item in the dailies here in the Tampa Bay area brought a smile to my face and a frown - almost simultaneously.
Some background: The director of the Tampa Port Authority resigned, and the Port Authority's board named an interim director. It announced a plan to do a national search for a new director.
But the news stories that twisted my lips alternately up and down reported that during the Port Authority board meeting the previous day, a board member made a motion to name the "interim director" the "director," and the motion passed with two dissenting votes.
The "no" votes came from two Hillsborough County Commissioners who sit on the Port Authority board.
In the news stories, the commissioners railed about being bamboozled, left out of the loop, the lack of public scrutiny of the process and the injustice done to them and to their constituents.
They claimed they got ambushed.
Imagine my joy at hearing public officials moan about getting stiffed and left out of the debate - about thinking one thing was going to happen, and then quickly learning someone else devised a different plan and didn't bother to tell you about it.
Then imagine my anger at realizing that public officials hate getting stiffed and left out of the debate but rarely do they care much when they do it to the public.
Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth, the interim director now serves as the director.
Whether he would have prevailed as most qualified among a national...