Hillsborough County commissioners cannot remove Tampa Sports Authority board members mid-term, county lawyers concluded.
In an opinion requested by Commissioner Christine Miller, the legal staff cited the board’s fixed four-year terms with no process for removal in the state law that created the agency.
The county commission will receive a report from County Attorney Julie Mandell and her staff during Wednesday's meeting, according to the online agenda. Attached to the agenda is the "report regarding the board's legal authority to remove a Hillsborough County-appointed Tampa Sports Authority board member midterm."
Miller’s request was made June 3, a day after the sports authority voted to send a letter to local elected officials seeking to prioritize using nears $1 billion in public funds on Raymond James Stadium renovations over construction of a Tampa Bay Rays ballpark.
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The sports authority is an independent special district created under state law. The 11-member board includes four members appointed by the county, four by the city, one by the governor and two ex-officio members.
Citing statutes, Mandell's staff said the state does not give commissioners the authority to remove TSA members during their terms.
Hillsborough’s general appointment policy says the commission can remove appointees at any time unless another law says otherwise. In this case, that is “subject to and superseded by the TSA Act,” which sets specific terms and does not include a removal process, the legal staff advised.
“We just need to know our role and shut our hole, as far as an organization. That's the deal. You just got to stay in your lane, do what you're supposed to do and keep pushing forward.”Alan Clendenin, TSA board member and Tampa City Council chair, on the sports authority
The report noted that TSA members are still subject to Florida ethics laws, which govern issues such as conflicts of interest and other misconduct by public officials. The legal staff did not address whether any individual board member violated ethics laws.
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After her request, Miller said she wanted to ensure board members did not favor one team over another as negotiations on the $2.3 billion Rays’ stadium continued.
“Appointees take an oath to the Tampa Sports Authority, not a sports team,” she said.
Alan Clendenin, chair of the city council and an ex-officio member of the TSA board, was the lone vote against the TSA letter. He said some members were “acting outside their duties” and needed to “get put back into their space.”
“I felt like folks needed to go back and look at the charter and the mission and the direction that the TSA is supposed to run under,” Clendenin told Fan Stream Sports podcast host J.P. Peterson on Friday.
“We just need to know our role and shut our hole, as far as an organization. That's the deal. You just got to stay in your lane, do what you're supposed to do and keep pushing forward," he continued.
Clendenin said he voted against drafting the letter because it did not support the TSA’s mission.
The authority runs the county-owned Raymond James Stadium, three city golf courses and a county sportsplex, and is the landlord for Steinbrenner Field and Benchmark International Arena.
“You know, we manage these facilities. These decision points are not necessarily within the realm of the job description of folks that serve on the TSA. We manage county-owned facilities on behalf of the county. That's our job," he said.
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A week after Miller’s request for legal clarity, a prominent Tampa attorney sent a letter to sports authority CEO Eric Hart calling for the resignation of four board members — three appointed by the county and one by the city of Tampa.
The letter from attorney Jared Willis alleged the members had property ownership conflicts of interest tied to the Rays’ project.
The existence of Willis’ letter was made public by City Councilman Bill Carlson at a meeting of the Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency on Thursday.
