Are you a Jerk?

When interviewing with Ken Lucas, Vice President and General Manager of WMOR-32, he may just ask you this question. Now, he knows that most people are not going to answer yes, however he will be looking at your reaction to this question. Your reaction can say a lot about your personality.

And speaking of personality, you gotta have some! And “you have to have passion”, says Lucas. Being excited about the business is a must. It has to run through your veins. And you have to have thick skin!

Ken Lucas has been at WMOR-32 since 1996 but this hard working man did not just start at the top. Like many people in the industry he had to work his way up. And like Dr. Flanagan, professor at University of South Florida, says, “If they want you to sweep the floor in the beginning, you be the best damn sweeper there ever was!!”

However, Ken Lucas knew that his personality was not an on-air personality, but rather a sales man. He understood that in every business you have to understand the sales aspect of it. And since he loved the television industry and sales, he combined the two and now Ken Lucas is top dog at WMOR-32. But a top dog with a personality and a great sense of humor!

WMOR has three station, one of them being, “This TV”. It is a 24 hour movie channel, and it’s FREE! Unlike HBO or Showtime where you have to subscribe, “This TV” is available on digital signals. (Or otherwise you can get it if you have an analog box, once know as bunny ears!)

But “This TV” is not the best part of WMOR-32, there are great shows on air for ages 18-49. So why is this so cool? Well because when most networks affiliates (NBC, ABC, or CBS) are showing news between 5-8 pm, WMOR-32 is showing awesome shows like American Dad, Family Guy, and The Office. Cool huh?! Now, watching the news is important, but if you want to flip back and forth, then I suggest flipping to WMOR-32.

And don’t forget the web-site. Lucas did not talk too much about this just because he only had two hours to talk to the Broadcast Programming and Management class at USF, but he did mention it. The internet holds a lot of information about the stations programming, events, and give-a-ways.

Overall, Ken Lucas made a great impact on me and others in the class. In part because he was funny, but in whole, he gave us a lot of information about the sales aspect of the television business. It is important to understand all angles of any business so in the end you can be that “Go-To” person. And remember, “Don’t be a jerk!”

For some more information about Ken Lucas, check out these websites:

http://psg2000.com/partner.html

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ken-lucas/5/705/357

Starting with her college years, Patricia Anna Collier was the first woman accepted to Georgetown University School of law. She attended in the summer of 1951 and after she got accepted, seven more women were accepted for the fall. A History of the Women at Georgetown University was a magazine article written with a mention of Pat. Once I found out this information I was able to do some more research.

I found another article "She's no one's patsy, but serves as one man's right arm" that said that Pat had met her husband, Richard Frank, of more than 50 years at Georgetown. Richard had married Patsy, that’s what he calls her, and they had three daughters. One is Attorney Stacy Frank, a former Hillsborough County phosphate mining zoning hearing master.

Pat Frank has received two degree’s a “B.S./B.A. degree, finance and taxation

Georgetown University School of Law and a B.S./B.A. degree, finance and taxation from the University of Florida”, according to a Web-site which has 466 online sources, which is called http://www.zoominfo.com.

Being a wife and a mother, and…a woman of politics, sometimes you wish some things were not public. But in 1993, her husband had a confrontation with the media and his job. Richard Frank became a Judge and tried not to apply his knowledge of a Judge to his daughter’s life. But that was really hard for Judge Richard as he was not well.

Pat’s husband Judge Richard Frank was brought to trial because of his daughter Stacey Frank. This hearing is interesting because Judge Frank had given an interview with the St. Pete Times and because of that interview he got into some deep trouble. This document is a copy of that hearing. http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/flsupct/sc92630/92630d.pdf

Here is just a little bit of this document:

“Judge Frank is presently 72 years of age and will formally leave judicial office at the beginning of 1999. In 1992, he had heart by-pass surgery and resulting cerebral anoxia. (T.158). He states that he believes he has lost significant memory as a result. (T.158). Due to his retirement, he is no longer receiving new case assignments from the Clerk of the Second District Court of Appeal.”

“Shortly before September 6, 1993, you were interviewed by a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times concerning a marital dissolution proceeding which had been pending in the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, between your daughter Stacy Frank and Mark Straley. In the course of that interview, you were questioned regarding the retention in that matter by Stacy Frank of George Vaka, Esq., a former partner of Judge Chris Altenbernd, a member of your court, to represent her in appellate proceedings in her case before the Supreme Court of Florida.”

Almost tens years later, Pat became Clerk of Court of Hillsborough County in 2004. On the Web-site it says this about Pat Frank:

“Pat Collier Frank has had a distinguished career in public service and elective office, commencing with her election to the Hillsborough County School Board in 1972. In 1976, she was elected to the Florida House of Representatives; in 1978, she was elected to the Florida Senate, where she served to 1988. During her legislative career, Mrs. Frank accomplished a number of firsts; she was the first woman elected "Most Effective First-Term Member" by the House and also the first woman nominated "Most Respected Senator" by her Senate colleagues.

Mrs. Frank has also been a member of the Tampa Hospital Authority and numerous other boards and agencies, where she was in a fiduciary position.

Elected to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) in 1998, she was elected Chairman by the BOCC for three consecutive years by her colleagues. She was re-elected to the BOCC in 2002. In 2004, Mrs. Frank was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court/Comptroller for Hillsborough County.

She has received over 50 awards for her public service and volunteer activities. In her present position, she was the recipient of the Chief Judge’s Award for the 13^th Judicial Circuit in 2006; in 2007, she was chosen Executive Woman of the Year by the Network of Executive Women.

Pat Frank has been married over 50 years to Richard Harlan Frank, retired Judge of the 2nd District Court of Appeal. They have three daughters and two grandchildren.”

However, not every job is perfect and she had an employee who was not happy with her. The outcome was that the Clerk’s office had to pay this employee $2,500 of which $1,250 had to be attributed to pay back. Here is that document:

http://www.justice.gov/crt/emp/documents/marshallsettle.pdf

This is just some of that document:

“October 12, 2007, Marshall, filed; Marshal v. Pat Frank, Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County (in her oflcial capacilyl, Case No.8:07 cv 01862

Alleging that the Clerk's Office violated the Uniformed Survices Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 failing to reemploy Marshall in her prior position as supervisor of the Clerk's County Clerk Il Section of the Felony Department upon ha return from active duty in October 2005; and (b) transferring Marshall from the Clerk's Felony Department to the Clerk's Traffic Department at a lower rate of pay because Marshall took action to enforce a protection afforded her under USERRA or to exercise a right provided for USERRA.”

Overall, Pat Frank cares about the people she works for. Recently she just wrote this letter.

And as Clerk of Court she is trying to secure her position for the people and has written to the Citizens of the State of Florida. This document that she has written includes a cover letter, other Clerk’s pleading for their jobs, and some statistics.

http://199.241.8.125/articles/PatFrank.pdf Here is just some of what that document says:

“There is no rational basis to take away this elective office from the people. For 170 years, the Clerks of the Courts in Florida have been answerable to the people of Florida. This accountability is vital because it is the people’s records and money that the Clerks maintain and administer. It is the Clerk’s office that you go to:

* For your public records, both court and official;

*To maintain the integrity of the court files and evidence;

*To pay your traffic tickets;

*To select judges for assignment (through a blind selection system);

*To call jurors to duty;

*To process domestic violence complaints and child support delinquency compliances;

* To handle the multitude of papers for foreclosures cases and evictions;

In short, it is the Clerk’s Office that keeps our court system running in a transparent, fair, and orderly fashion"

I have learned a lot this semester and from Pat Frank. That as a woman and as I citizen I have rights, and that I could doing anything if I put my heart and mind into it. Thank you, Pat Frank.

Women Who Have Made A Difference At Georgetown by Judith C. Areen

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Pat Frank, or back then Pat Anna Collier was the first woman accepted to Georgetown University Law school. She is Tampa's Clerk of COurt. Slide 18 has a picture of her!

Women Who Have Made A Difference At Georgetown by Judith C. Areen

View more presentations from Dahlgren Memorial Library.

Public Meeting: Luxury Motel

When Amanda I scheduled ourselves to go to a public meeting, we were not eager to really go. But… when we got there and it began, we were truly surprised at what we were sitting in on. It was a public Nuisance hearing Case NO PNAB2009-2. The hearing was about the Luxury Motel located on 4608 Hillsborough Avenue and the activity that went on at the motel. The lawyer had brought forth evidence of prostitution and drug activity and was trying to get the judge and committee to shut down the property all together.

The property owner Charles Grubbs was arrested on 05/07/08 with charge being that of “Renting space for the purpose of prostitution.” The lawyer had a witness to help his case. On May 7^th, 2008 Officer Amy Jones was an undercover cop that posed as a prostitute and Jones’ statement was that she asked Grubbs if she could rent a room for 30 minutes because she had a friend coming through. Grubbs then told Jones that the room was going to be $35 but the Jones said she only had $20. Grubbs agreed and took the money. Then…he got arrested.

The lawyer, the judge, and committee argued for a bit about statue 796.06 and 796.07. The judge, Susan Long, questioned Jones and asked if Grubbs really knew what you wanted the room for. Jones replied, “Yeah, he knew. I was undercover, so if I just came out and said, ‘I am a prostitute and I need a room to go… he would have knew something was up. That’s not how is done out there, he knew.”

The lawyer then said that Grubbs had pleaded guilty to the charges on 05/07. The trial/meeting then moved into the narcotics part and witness Officer Vincent Layto approached the stand. July 27^th, 2008 Layto had sold cocaine to Joe Fason Anderson, who was temporarily living at the motel with his girlfriend for an extended period. The lawyer, judge, and committee began to argue again about statues so we had left.

But overall the meeting/trial was very disorganized. The judge and committee seemed to have no idea about this case. They had their own attorney on the panel looking up statues in a large book. And the questions that they were asking to establish Grubbs was just crazy. Grubbs did not show up or anybody to represent him, but yet they were trying to establish character for Grubbs.

I did my own research when I got home and I found:

· Charles Grubbs arrest report

· Article about trial and the Luxury Motel : http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/nov/24/tampa-goes-after-owners-run-down-drug-infested-mot/

· Public Records on Grubbs: http://publicrecord.hillsclerk.com/oridev/criminal_pack.sbn?pcRadio=actual&pcLastName=GRUBBS&pcFirstname=&pcMiddle=&pcBirthYear=1955&pnStart=1&pcCourtType=ALL&submit=Search

Purchasing Televisions

Tom Dea answered my phone called when I called The City of Tampa Television. I gave him the run down of what I needed for my blog and he answered a few questions. Dea does the purchasing for anything under $1000. He has a credit card that and is given a budget that he can use. However, there are only so many things you can buy under $1000 for a television station.

Therefore, the person in charge of purchasing items over $1000 is Dan Foglia. He does not have a credit card. Foglia is the buyer engineer for the station. He has to file bids and get them approved. Foglia told me that they are under the City of Tampa’s Budget but and that the City has there own Purchasing Department. The City of Tampa Television is given a budget from the City of Tampa and then the purchasing department at the television station, also known at CTTV, has to work within that budget. It is really quit complicated.

Finally, once the bid has been placed, it can only be accepted if Mayor Pam Iorio AND the Council signs off on it. The Web-site had a lot of good information including the Sensible Solutions in Tough Economic Times- Recommended Operating and Capital Budget. The PDF document has information for the 2010 year.

Something interesting that is said, “The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) presented a Distinguished Budget Presentation Award to the City of Tampa for its annual budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2008. In order to receive this award, a government unit must publish a budget document that meets program criteria as a policy document, as an operations guide, as a financial plan, and as a communications device. The award is valid for a period of one year only. We believe our current budget continues to conform to program requirements, and we are submitting it to GFOA to determine its eligibility for another award.”

Check it out of you want to learn more about the City of Tampa’s budget for 2010.

Public School Board Meeting: Urban Teaching Academy

Susan King, the Supervisor of magnet schools and programs, talked about the Urban Teaching Academy interdisciplinary project. There are three urban teaching schools, one at Blake High School, one at Hillsborough High School, and one at Middleton High School.

King introduced Theresa Windston, the lead arts teacher at Blake High School. She received a grant for $3,000 from J.P. Morgan Grace to incorporate the arts into the curriculum to particularly improve writing skills.

“I chose 9^th grade students at the Blake Urban Academy, under the direction of UTA teacher Ms. Gwen Williams. Can you believe that this photography was done by 9^th grade students? It’s just amazing,” said Windston.

She talked about the grant and its purpose to promote learning.

“The project is called Tampa Bay Treasures. Students connected to the history of Tampa by taking fieldtrips to historical places,” Continues Windston. “Each student was assigned a camera and a location to take pictures. They then picked their favorite picture and wrote about it in their journal.”

Teresa Windston wanted the board to consider continuing funding the arts departments of Hillsborough magnet schools. Three students from the program came to talk at the meeting. They were intelligent and persistent. They did not know a lot about what the meeting was about, they just knew they wanted to keep their program and that they had a voice.

Their presence there made it hard for the chair members to say no to the grants. The students showed us examples of their photographs that they took at The University of Tampa, The Columbian Restaurant, and The Tampa Theatre. The work of these 10^th graders was amazing. The photographic capabilities of the students took me by surprise. The project brought the students together, and it brought them closer with the community and history.

One student said, “People walk around The University of Tampa like it’s a regular school. For me, it was a place where I could take pictures.” The students were able to expand their knowledge and creativity, which proves that the program is effective. The students combine their visual creativity with their writing creativity.

An article was written by Courtney Cairns Pastor on TBO.com about the program.

“The Hillsborough County School District is training future teachers through a new magnet program that introduces students to the education field in ninth grade. If the students do well, they can get college paid for and, maybe best of all, possibly jobs in Hillsborough schools when they complete their degrees,” according to Pastor.

APPLICATION FOR ADMISSION must be filled out by the students and gives them an opportunity to improve on their writing skills.

In the application is states, “Students will complete three levels of exploratory field experience electives in grades nine, ten and eleven (respectively); then, as seniors, students will participate in a culminating experience called a Clinical Internship. Students will be paired throughout the program with practicing master educators recognized as highly qualified by the No Child Left Behind guidelines. These master educators, in most cases, will be qualified to serve as adjunct professors at partner institutions which enables students to connect theory with practice.”

And finally The St. Pete Times also covered this story back in January of 2008. Just click on the link and the article gives you some insight on the wonderful program.

http://www.sptimes.com/2008/01/13/Hillsborough/Reaching_deep_for_tea.shtml

So out of the entire meeting, why did I JUST talk about this program? First, the students that were there had greatly impacted me. To come to a meeting and plea with the board members to continue to fund their program, is pretty impressive to me. Education is so important and for these kids to learn that at such a young age, it gives me some assurance that our future leaders will have a strong head on their shoulders.

Bailey doesn't Bail

On Friday October 30th, Amanda and I went to the Clerk of Court to obtain public records. We went to Charlotte County to visit our parents that weekend so decided to obtain records from there. A big news story was aired early October about a 26-year-old mother who was having sex with her 18 month old daughter. I chose to get the arrest records for the mother, Melissa Bailey.

However, if this story wasn’t bad enough, the mother’s boyfriend, Glenn Nelson, was also having sex with the baby (Amanda pulled his arrest record, so check out her blog!)


Amanda and I pulled into the Charlotte County Clerk of Court and we were really eager and interested to get the public records of these two criminals. Upon reaching the front desk, we were greeted by a nice lady named Donna. We had told her that we were there to obtain public records. She directed us to some computers that were lined up in the reception area. She asked how old the case was because if it was over a year old we would have to go to the file room. Since it wasn’t, I was able to looked up Melissa Bailey and found her case number (0910-001006).





We then took our case number back to Donna and she said it was going to be $1 per page. My total came out to $4. And in 30 minutes, Amanda and I were in the car reading our public records and we were amazed at was in the report.



In the report, it discussed some details of the sexual abuse. The report was written on October 7th, 2009 by Detective Keith DePersia. There was a search warrant executed for several child pornography images. The Detective found photographs that were taken with the baby and Nelson during the sexual crime. These photos were also uploaded to two computers and saved on flash drives. However, in the end the detectives seized six computers total.



“Melissa Bailey made statements that she and her boyfriend Glenn Nelson had been performing sex acts on her child since she was born until about one month ago. Melissa would put her mouth on the babies vagina and Glenn would put his penis into the baby’s vagina,” according to the report.



The report continues to talk about Glenn Nelson and an interview that he had given.



“During the interview Glenn Nelson advised that he had received the video, photograph and e-mails from Melissa Bailey which depicted Melissa Bailey giving oral sex to the baby and inserting the pacifier into her vagina and rubbing her vagina with her fingers. Glenn also admitted that he saw Melissa Bailey rub the baby’s vagina and stomach after he ejaculated on her,” according to the report.



My overall feeling about this is “OH MY GOD!” And “OH MY GOD!” After reading the arrest report there are more very explicit details but I just can not post them. There were twenty pornographic pictures and six computers that were seized. And the investigation is still on going. And also, I am hoping that the baby has been placed into a good home with family or in a good foster home. My overall opinion on these two sexual offenders can also NOT be posted!