TAMPA BAY, Fla. - Here are five things you need to know happening in Florida on Monday, June 20.
(1) Hillsborough County Commission redistricting meeting
The Hillsborough County Commission will meet on Monday to discuss changing the boundaries for the four non-countrywide commissioner districts.
Districts 1, 2, 3 and 4, currently represented by Sandy Murman, Victor D. Crist, Les Miller, Jr., and Al Higginbotham respectively, could altered to give Hispanics a greater say in county politics.
The commissioners will review nine different redistricting maps and take input from the public before voting on a final map at tonight's meeting.
Commissioner Kevin Becker recently asked country workers to prepare a map that would increase the Hispanic population in District 1 by 70 percent.
Other potential changes include diving Temple Terrace between two commissioners and putting southern Hillsborough county communities such as Apollo Beach, Ruskin and Sun City Center under the same commissioner.
If the district maps are changed, they each will have to have approximately the same population. That could mean districts 1 and 3 gain people, while district 2 and 4 lose population.
You can review all nine proposed maps in the Redistricting Hillsborough section at www.hillsboroughcounty.org .
Tonight's meeting takes place at 6:00 p.m. at the Frederick B. Karl County Center in downtown Tampa.
(2) U.S. Conference of Mayors economic report
The U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) wrap up their annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, on Monday where they will release an economic report.
The report forecasts when each of the nation's 363 metropolitan areas, including Tampa, will regain their pre-recession employment levels during the sluggish recovery.
The report has both good and bad news. The economy is recovery, albeit slowly. Many of the country's metro area will take another decade to get employment levels back where they were in 2005 and 2006.
The report is written by Global Insight in conjunction with the U.S. Conference of Mayors' economic team. It compares metro areas' gross domestic product with states' and other countries' GDP.
Incoming USCM President and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will release and discuss the report during a speech to hundreds of mayors from across the country at 9:00 a.m. today.
For more information, visit usmayors.org .
(3) Commissioner of Education candidate interviews
The six finalists for the Florida Education Commissioner position will be interviewed by the Florida Board of Education in Tampa on Monday.
The interviews will take place at the Tampa Airport Marriott beginning at 2:40 p.m. Each of the candidates will each get 45 minutes today to show the Board why they deserve the position.
The Board only learned who the six finalists are on Sunday night. The list has not been released publicly.
Among the twenty-five applicants originally under consideration were Virginia Education Secretary Gerard Robinson, former New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, Clark County (Ohio) Superintendent Stacia Smith, former Florida Education Commissioner Tom Gallagher, Duval County School Board Chairman William Gentry, Ocean Ridge (Maryland) education consultant John Murphy, and former Naples Superintendent Dennis Thompson.
The Florida Education Commissioner position is currently being held on an interim basis by former Commissioner John Winn. He took the job until the Board can name a permanent replacement for Eric Smith, who resigned this year under pressure by Florida Governor Rick Scott.
For more information, visit www.fldoe.org .
(4) HART federal funding hearing
Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) officials are holding a public hearing on Monday to given the public a chance to comment on the Authority's proposed application for federal funds.
HART is planning on applying for nearly $11 million in federal transit urbanized area formula funds. The money would be used to fund capital and operating projects.
Residents can present their views on the application during the meeting which begins at 3:30 p.m. at the Administrative Office at 1201 E. Seventh Avenue in Tampa.
Fore more information, call the HART Finance Department at (813) 384-6569 or visit www.goHART.org .
(5) Polytrauma Rehabilitation Unit ribbon cutting
James A. Haley Veterans Hospital's newly renovated Polytrauma unit will celebrate its opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday.
The Tampa center was designed in 2005 as one of four unique Polytrauma Centers where the most severely injured and disabled from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan come for treatment.
The renovated 14 bed unit consists of private bedrooms and bathrooms, flat screen TV's in each patient room and a state-of-the-art overhead patient lift system.
When a catastrophically injured patient arrives a team of rehabilitation, psychosocial and community re-entry specialists assess their needs and begins a specialized treatment plan.
Today's ceremony takes place
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