Liar Liar

How many times will the Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority get caught lying?

Ralph Mervine resigned from the THEA after it was revealed he owned the gay porn company Coast Productions. He failed to list his company in his background check. Mervine was recommended by John Beck.

Lobbyist John Beck billed THEA and was paid tax dollars for political fundraisers. Beck was paid $175 an hour. Shockingly, the THEA voting to rehire Beck. The lobbyistviolated Sunshine laws by having private meetings with David Hendrix and Ralph Mervine.

The Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority appoints Jim Drapp as temporary interim executive director. Krapp as a major conflict of interest. Krapp was vice president of HNTB. The company was a contract with THEA.

But Rhea Law, the Expressway Authority's interim general counsel, is quoted in the report providing this explanation: Drapp didn't have a conflict because he had been asked to merely continue his regular contractual duties as the agency's general engineering consultant.

Yet the report contradicts Law's explanation.

"The audio tapes of the board meetings demonstrate a clear intention of appointing a person to temporarily perform the functions of an executive director," it states.

Tape is a great way of catching someone lying.