TOP OF THE WEEK:

First, a blessed Easter to all.

The five year reign of county administrator Bob LaSala has ended. For many, this comes as no surprise. Quite a few Pinellas residents remember that LaSala, hired by the county in 2009, had been passed over as a candidate for the job of Clearwater city manager just a few years earlier – mainly for some of the same reasons surfacing now – abrasive, dictatorial and not a forward thinker. This led many to question why a guy who was deemed lacking for managing a city of 110,000 was qualified to run a county of well over 900,000? The kicker was a member of the county commission who voted to hire LaSala in 2009 was a part of the Clearwater city commission that found him wanting a few years earlier – and then voted to fire him last week. Go figure. 

THIS WEEK’S TEN:

1. Ok Clearwater, go ahead and charge up to three dollars an hour for beach parking but in exchange, get rid of about three quarters of those weekend races that do little or nothing for the beach economy but make it impossible to get to the beach, its attractions and its three dollar an hour parking.

2. So long Alex, it’s been good to know ya. Drop in again sometime.

3. It has been a couple years since they closed their doors, but we still miss Butler’s in St. Pete and their great eastern Carolina BBQ. It was a St. Pete treasure.

4. Speaking of St. Pete treasures, for the book collector or vinyl collector, it doesn’t get much better anywhere in the country than the city’s Haslams and Bananas.

5. A Rants and Raves trio – three sports announcers who make you hit the mute button. Ours in alphabetical order are Troy Aikman (NFL); Ron Darling (MLB) and Len Elmore (NCAA basketball). The White Sox’ Ken Harrelson is not mentioned here as he owns a lifetime achievement award in this category. And the three that make you reach for the earplugs?

6.  Our rants and raves focus group (which consists of three old, cranky people) says the best book of the 20th century was Lewis Grizzard’s “I Haven’t Understood Anything Since 1962” – and they haven’t. Margin of error: 50 per cent or so.

7.  Jabari Parker is leaving Duke for the NBA. A great many Duke fans are not shedding tears over his decision. As for the teammates he leaves behind, they may actually get to touch the basketball next season.

8. Add Hess to Target and others who have to rebuild trust with their customers after they were hit for the second time in the bay area by so-called skimmers that steal credit card information at the pump.

9. It is often said that sports teams play up or down to those around them. That happens in other walks of life as well. Channel 8’s Rod Carter was a solid newsman in his first stint at WFLA-TV. Since returning and being surrounded by those characters on the morning news show, Rod has lost a step or two.

10. When posed with the question “Hero or zero” in relation to Johnny Football’s NFL prospects, our crack sports prognosticator Mohammed Walled (pronounced wall-ED) firmly says “hero.” Although much depends on what team drafts Manziel.

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IN CLOSING:

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, here we go again. “Florida’s best newspaper” scalds Rick Scott for dumping a state funded plane and using a plane on his own dime. All he did was save the state a bunch of money. Seem to remember another former gubernatorial candidate used a state plane for part of her vacation. Same source gives Scott heat because he’s only been a resident of the state for a little over a decade. That same source chose to look the other way on the recent District 13 candidate who moved to Pinellas County about two weeks after Bill Young’s funeral.