{"id":311922,"date":"2026-06-18T16:25:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/311922\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T16:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:25:10","slug":"tampa-sports-authority-board-ethics-review-requested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/311922\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Sports Authority board ethics review requested"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hillsborough County commissioners learned Wednesday that only the governor can remove one of their four appointees to the Tampa Sports Authority. They also learned the agency, which manages Raymond James Stadium, has no authority to police itself.<\/p>\n

Left without recourse and concerned about the authority\u2019s inability to enforce its own code of ethics, the commission then took a step that could get Gov. Ron DeSantis involved.<\/p>\n

Commissioners unanimously passed a motion requesting the county attorney gather for review the sports authority\u2019s meeting minutes, financial disclosures and members\u2019 property and financial records.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers as a funding entity of the Tampa Sports Authority, before we send them another dollar, that they are acting in accordance with proper ethical standards and within the bounds of the law,\u201d Commissioner Christine Miller said.<\/p>\n

The motion by Miller also calls for staff to draft letters expressing the county\u2019s concerns to DeSantis, the Hillsborough State Attorney\u2019s Office and sports authority itself.<\/p>\n

The motion comes in the wake of Miller\u2019s June 3 request that the county attorney rule on how Hillsborough\u2019s TSA appointees could be removed midterm. On Wednesday, Miller suggested she \u201copened Pandora\u2019s box\u201d that brought up \u201cserious ethical issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few days after Miller\u2019s request, a local attorney and state-registered lobbyist sent a letter to the sports authority alleging that four board members owned property that created a conflict of interest tied to a proposal to build a Tampa Bay Rays stadium.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Tampa Sports Authority rejects local attorney\u2019s claims of conflict of interest<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way that this can even be reviewed is a letter by a body or concerned citizen directly to the governor,\u201d said Miller, who was appointed to the commission by DeSantis in 2024.<\/p>\n

No commissioner has accused a TSA board member of wrongdoing, but Miller said she was astounded to learn the agency cannot provide its own oversight.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy their attorney\u2019s own admission, there has been no mechanism to enforce ethics, ethical rules or to punish members who may violate them,\u201d Miller said of a June 14 letter from the TSA\u2019s general counsel.<\/p>\n

At the minimum, the county review could pressure the sports authority to improve its policies and processes, said Ken Hagan, the commission chair and an ex-officio member of the sports authority board.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Tampa Sports Authority members accused of conflicts as tax vote clouds Rays stadium plan<\/a><\/p>\n

However, he did not consider it necessary to send a letter to DeSantis, who has publicly supported the Rays\u2019 stadium plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think anything will come of it, particularly when you understand the underlying issues \u2014 which is the Rays\u2019 ballpark \u2014 which with the governor\u2019s endorsement \u2026 I\u2019m quite sure the TSA is already on his radar,\u201d Hagan said. \u201cAnd knowing (DeSantis\u2019) willingness to remove folks from office, he really doesn\u2019t need a letter from us to bring this to his attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hagan\u2019s greater concern was the Legislature getting involved if the TSA didn\u2019t \u201ctighten up some of their rules and policies\u201d and the issue was ignored at the local level.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we do nothing, we\u2019re likely not going to like the alternative,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That could include lawmakers amending the TSA structure to give the governor control over most of the appointees, and \u201cthe county and city are left paying the bills without adequate representation,\u201d Hagan said.<\/p>\n

The 11-member TSA board has four appointees from the county, four from the city of Tampa, one from the governor and two ex-officio members. Its role is solely to manage facilities.<\/p>\n

However, the \u201cchaos\u201d \u2014 as Miller called it \u2014 followed a June 2 decision to step outside that role.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the TSA board voted to send a letter to local elected officials that stated its priority for the use of public dollars was proposed renovations to Raymond James Stadium, not the Rays\u2019 project. The four accused members voted in favor of the motion. So did Hagan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s lost in a lot of this,\u201d Hagan said, \u201cthe reality is the TSA has no say or vote on the Rays\u2019 financial framework or definitive documents. The only bodies that will determine whether a financial agreement is approved (are) this board, the city council, and the city council sitting as the (Community Redevelopment Agency) board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rick Mayer is a reporter for WUSF, the bay area\u2019s NPR affiliate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hillsborough County commissioners learned Wednesday that only the governor can remove one of their four appointees to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-311922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}