HART board member Kathleen Shanahan makes her presence felt

Being the Secretary of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority doesn’t come with many frills. The main job of this particular position is that he or she will preside over all board meeting in the absence of both the chair and vice chair. In other words, it’s heavily symbolic.

But the question of who was to fill that position today provoked an unusually high level of discussion at today’s HART board meeting, and showed the gravitas that newbie board member Kathleen Shanahan carries with the agency.

After Tampa City Councilman Mike Suarez was unanimously selected to maintain his role as chairman of the board and Karen Jaroch was voted vice chair, the board appeared poise to vote and approve Temple Terrace City Councilman Eddie Vance as board secretary.

But Sandy Murman objected. The Hillsborough County Commissioner Chair said she was not okay with the three-member executive committee not including a county commissioner, referring to how integral the board is to the agency’s future. “We are the primary funders of what happens in HART,” she said, adding that “I do feel pretty strongly about this.”

Enter Shanahan, who replaced Fran Davin as a representative from Tampa by Mayor Bob Buckhorn in late October. She backed up Murman’s nomination.

But almost concurrently, Murman said she was withdrawing from the position, ceding it to Vance. “My remarks have fallen on deaf ears,” she said in sorrow.

Shanahan then advised to Murman to not withdraw.

Watching the exchange, Vance withdrew his nomination. “I understand Commissioner Murman’s concerns,” he said, trying to maintain the peace.

Several other board members then chimed in.

Jaroch, who is a citizen appointed member representing Hillsborough County, said it was important to have non-elected officials in high level positions on the HART agency.

But Shanahan thought otherwise. “Elected officials have a very different voice,” the Tampa businesswoman told her colleagues. “I think having a County Commissioner on the leadership team is an important sign to send to statewide or federal officials,” she said, insisting it wasn’t a political move. “I just think it’s smart.”

Shanahan’s extensive C.V. include stints with some of the nation’s most prominent Republicans. She was a chief-of-staff to former Governor Jeb Bush in the early aughts, a special adviser to Vice President George H.W. Bush in the 1980’s and was Dick Cheney’s chief of staff during 2000 presidential campaign and transition. She also served on the Florida Board of Education, where she said back in 2013 that Rick Scott should get an “incomplete” grade on education.

Later in the meeting, HART CFO Jeff Seward told board members that finally, the agency is ready to solicit bids from companies to provide wireless connectivity on HART buses. Though critics (like former HART board member Mark Sharpe) have chastised the agency for its failure to offer free WiFi on buses until now, Seward said that the agency was benefitting by not moving on this amenity until now, saying it would also provide for an automatic vehicle locator for real time data, provide live streaming on buses, and will assist in the agency’s plan for a new fare box. He estimated the cost to be between $800,000-$1 million.

“Have you asked for one-time money from the Legislature?” Shanahan asked him, saying that with budget surpluses finally occurring in Tallahassee the agency would be remiss in not requesting such funds.

Seward said that the board is including that request as part of their funding projects that they intend to submit to the state Dept. of Transportation.