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Coffee Talk (Tampa)
Bank hunts for new CEO
Less than six months after opening, Liberty Bank has lost its president and chief executive.
David M. Vosen left the Clearwater bank after a reported clash with bank Chairman Richard W. Cope.
Vosen, 57, of Palm Harbor, has worked in banking for more than 35 years. Before helping Cope get Liberty operating with $12 million in startup capital, the University of Wisconsin graduate was Tampa Bay regional president of SouthTrust Bank from 1990 to 2004. Wachovia Corp. has since acquired SouthTrust.
J. Alan Grandoff, Liberty's executive vice president and chief financial officer, confirms Vosen's departure but says further comment would have to come from Cope. Vosen and Cope didn't return calls from the Gulf Coast Business Review.
Cope, president of Clearwater-based RCM Corp. of Delaware Inc., couldn't have been too disappointed with Liberty's start. The bank collected $18 million within a month of its February opening and had amassed assets of $30.6 million, as of March 31.
Liberty broke ground on Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard in May for a permanent office.
State gets Holder bill
Lawyers for Hillsborough Circuit Judge Gregory P. Holder, who was subjected to a recently concluded judicial ethics hearing, have delivered an invoice for their services.
Holder didn't get the bill, though. It went to the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, which charged but ultimately cleared Holder of plagiarism in a protracted proceeding.
As promised, the tab is a whopper. (See "Costly Innocence," the Review, July 15-21.) The lawyers want somebody to pay them about $1.8 million.
If the Florida Supreme Court goes along, state taxpayers could get stuck with the bill from Tampa law firms Bales Weinstein PA and James Hoyer Newcomer & Smiljanich PA as well as the Washington, D.C., office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP.
Bales Weinstein would get the bulk of the money, if the whole $1.8 million legal bill is approved by the court.
Holder, accused of lifting passages for a research paper that he wrote in the late 1990s for a promotion in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, also is seeking reimbursement for about $141,000 in costs associated with preparation of his defense before the JQC.
Rollercoaster ride
Cary Frounfelter and his 10-year-old daughter were enjoying Busch Gardens last summer when he was told to get off the Montu, an inverted rollercoaster.
Why? One of his legs is a prosthesis.
Frounfelter, who previously rode the Montu with his daughter, contends he told the Busch Gardens employee that his prosthesis was secure and made for swimming. But he was forced off the ride. The employee purportedly told Frounfelter he couldn't ride because he is an amputee.
To make matters worse, the man wouldn't let Frounfelter's crying daughter off the ride.
Frounfelter, represented by Colleen Flynn and Joan Vecchioli, both of Johnson, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel & Burns PA, accuses Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., which owns the amusement park, of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act in a July 22 complaint filed in U.S. District Court. Frounfelter has also asked the court to issue an injunction against the park, which has been in the news lately for its ride policies. The lawsuit asks that the park be enjoined from continuing its alleged discriminatory practices.
Name change is official
Just when Tampa Bay area residents thought they could stop asking: "What's a Fifth Third?"
Now they have to ponder another new name in local banking. Synovus Financial Corp. has completed its re-branding of three somewhat more familiar local banks that the Georgia holding company had strung together along the Gulf Coast in the past few years.
On July 25, Peoples Bank in Palm Harbor, United Bank and Trust in St. Petersburg and United Bank of the Gulf Coast in Sarasota all became offices of Synovus Bank of Tampa Bay.
David W. Dunbar, former president and chief executive of Peoples Bank, is the CEO of the combined local Synovus conglomeration, which has about $1 billion in assets.
You've got to believe
Tampa attorney Scott Tozian, who specializes in the defense of lawyers accused of wrongdoing, is defending Richard Albritton, a circuit judge in Panama City.
On behalf of Albritton, Tozian asked the Florida Supreme Court on July 26 to dismiss the formal charges or clarify them so the judge can properly respond. Albritton is accused of misdeeds, including making inappropriate comments to women and blacks and having lawyers pay for his lunch. In one instance, the judge told a defendant to attend church as part of his probation, even though a staff attorney told him it was an unconstitutional requirement.
All in all, Florida's OK
We always look forward to the Taxpayers Network's annual booklet ranking the nation's states on such characteristics as demographics, taxes, government, economy, education, public safety and health and welfare. Typically it reminds Coffee Talk that as bad as some of these categories may be in Florida (i.e. government, taxes and education), comparatively Florida scores pretty well. To wit, here are some of the key rankings in the 2005 edition (www.taxpayernetwork.org)
GOVERNMENT BURDEN
ON SMALL BUSINESS index
1. South Dakota 24.55
2. Nevada 26.89
3. Wyoming 31.52
5. Florida 34.33
U.S. Avg. 46.33
Per capita pers. income
1. D.C. $47,305
2. Connecticut $43,292
3. New Jersey $40,002
25. Florida $29,972
U.S. Avg. $31,459
% Population IN Poverty
1. Louisiana 20.3%
2. D.C. 19.9%
2. Mississippi 19.9%
21. Florida 13.1%
U.S. Avg. 12.7%
Max. Corporate Income Tax Rates
1. Iowa 12.0%
2. Pennsylvania 10.0%
3. D.C. 10.)
40. Florida 5.5%
U.S. Avg. 6.9%
State/Local Tax Burden as % of Income
1. New York 12.9%
2. Delaware 12.8%
3. Maine 12.3%
46. Florida 8.8%
U.S. Avg. 10.0%
Economic Freedom Index
1. Delaware 8.4
2. Tennessee 8.1
3. Florida 8.0
4. Arizona 7.9
4. Virginia 7.9
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