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Chairs of Tampa Bay’s 3 largest government agencies celebrate historic roles

"... these are not ceremonious positions. We work hard."

TAMPA, Fla. — For the first time ever, Tampa Bay’s three largest government agencies are all chaired by African Americans. On Friday, the weekly community affairs forum Café Con Tampa highlighted the achievement with an open discussion.

10News reporter Emerald Morrow sat down with Hillsborough County Commission Chairman Les Miller, Hillsborough County School Board Chairwoman Tamara Shamburger and Tampa City Council Chairman Frank Reddick to discuss the historic moment, what it means to them and what it means for the community.

NOTE: This conversation has been edited for clarity 

Reporter: This is a very historic moment. What does it mean for each of you?

Frank Reddick: It feels good. It proves you can have African Americans in key positions and provide leadership and generate the respect that most people would not give us credit for.

Tamara Shamburger: I think it's absolutely phenomenal to sit with these gentlemen as chair. We have a chance for some unprecedented collaboration, and so I'm certainly honored to have them be chairs along with me. It really talks about the diversity in the community and the leadership that we have in this community. And so again, I'm just super excited to be in this position. A historic position.

Les Miller: We've never had this happen before. We have the three largest government agencies in this county: the county commission, the school board and the city council, chaired by African Americans. We are here because our colleagues felt the time was right for us to be here. It just happened to be that the Lord put it where the three of us are here at the same time. We have some of the largest budgets in the state that we have to deal with. We're dealing with some of the most complex issues.

It's not by happenstance that the tax passed that's going to affect all three of us: the school district, the city of Tampa and Hillsborough county under our watch. And so, it's an honor to be here. But it's an honor to do this and it shows our colleagues have put the onus on us to be the leaders at a time when some of the most difficult issues we have faced are with us.

And these are not ceremonious positions. We work hard.

Reporter: Mr. Miller, during Café Con Tampa, you discussed the racism you endured growing up in Tampa. How have times changed?

Miller: I grew up in Tampa during segregation times. I went to all black schools. I graduated from all black schools. I remember when they had the colored and the white water fountains. I remember when they had the pigeon hole for restaurants for food. I remember all those vividly.

We’ve made some progress. The three of us are sitting here as chair of these agencies is progress. But are we going backwards? Yes. The rise of hate groups in this country is prevalent. You see the hate that’s been demonstrated by the some of these hate groups when we talk about taking down some of these Civil War Confederate statues and things along those lines.

Shamburger: I think Chairman Miller really laid it out perfectly. We still have a long way to go. In the Hillsborough County School District, we still deal with issues. Chairman Miller fought the Confederate statue/monument issue, and I took a similar battle with the renaming of Lee Elementary, and it was monumental, resulting in me getting death threats, my personal information being put out. All just because we’re asking for respect for the community. And so, we are working hard in the district to really eliminate a lot of the systematic and institutional racism that still plagues our classrooms.

Reddick: When you look at the $3 billion project that is going on downtown-- $35 million Julian B. Lane park, when you look at West Tampa and East Tampa and you got less than $5 million invested into those communities, that’s a problem because the majority of those people are African American. Low-income African Americans. Some of them just going from paycheck-to-paycheck. So, the disparity is there.

There’s no investment in those communities. Can you imagine what we could have done in East Tampa with $35 million Julian B. Lane park. It just hurts when you don’t see the type of investment in the African American sections of town.

Reporter: How do you balance the needs of the black community with the responsibility of having to serve everyone?

Miller: We have to look at the entire area that we represent, and by doing that, we just can’t focus totally on black issues or Hispanic issues or minority issues or white issues, we have to look throughout the board. But because of our upbringing, we have the empathy they need.

It takes that wherewithal to be able to juggle those balls in the air to make sure you’re doing the right thing and not be pigeonholed as an African American.

You have three blacks in a county that’s growing like mad. The diversity is important. But no one says anything about it. Now you have. Thank you for that.

Emerald Morrow is a reporter with 10News WTSP. Like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. You can also email her at emorrow@wtsp.com.

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