Public Figure Profile- Phyllis Busansky

Phyllis Busansky, recent winner of the 2008 election for Hillsborough County’s Supervisor of Elections, has had a long career in public service. Busansky’s successful career started with a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College in Illinois and an MBA in Mission Driven Management from the Heller School at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. While she had previous dealings in public service in Massachusetts, Busansky began her career in Hillsborough County in the early 1980s with a gig as the Hillsborough Director of Aging Services where she contributed to the community by securing a grant to help seniors so they could live independently instead of in nursing facilities.Phyllis Busansky records:

Busansky’s first major stint in government was her election to the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners in 1988 where she was elected as a “change” candidate on the platform of ending corruption in government. In 1991, Busansky served as the BOCC Chairman and was re-elected without opposition. Busansky served eight years on the county commission and was awarded Governing Magazine’s title of ”public official of the year” for her role in changing Hillsborough County health care and making health care more affordable to the working class in the county.

More recently, Busansky served as executive director of the Florida Work & Gain Economic Self-Sufficiency (WAGES) Board where she helped decrease the welfare caseload by 80% and saved the state $500 million in welfare payments. In 2006 she ran for congress, but was defeated by Gus Bilirakis, and in the 2008 election she defeated Buddy Johnson for the position of Supervisor of Elections by 17,800 votes.

Busansky is married to Sheldon Busansky, an attorney and a former Honeywell Corporation executive. The couple has 3 children and 9 grandchildren. With a look at the property appraisers website ,I found out they have a home in Carrollwood that they purchased August 1st, 1979. I found the deed to their home on the Hillsborough Clerk website along with a satisfaction to the Busansky’s mortgage showing they paid off their mortgage this year. The Busanskys’ home is located on Schefflera Road and is a single family residence with a just market value of $241,466 and an assessed value of $130,697. The house is one story and was built in 1969. Also, according to the tax collector’s website , the Busanskys have not suffered too much in terms of taxes. In 2001, they paid $2,446.80 and in 2008 they paid $2,563.42 in property taxes.

Busansky has a clean record. I searched for both her and her husband on the Sheriff’s website along with the FDLE website and found nothing, but while checking with the Hillsborough clerk I also found some interesting tidbits from Busansky’s past. In official records, there is a court record available about a lawsuit filed by Arthur and Paula Yambor against Busansky along with other members of the Board of County Commissioners she served on in the late 80s and early 90s. Apparently, the Yambors tried to file a lawsuit in regard to workman’s compensation against the board, but the case was dismissed by the judge because each commissioner could not be held individually responsible. In addition, a lien was filed by Tampa General Hospital against Busansky in 1994 when she did not pay outstanding hospital bills followed by the satisfaction of that lien.

On www.campaignmoney.com, I found a few contributions made by Busansky in the 2008 election cycle. Busansky contributed $250 to the Hillary Clinton for president campaign and $250 to the Democratic Executive Committee of Florida. In 2007 Busansky paid $2,000 into her own congressional campaign and $500 to the John Dicks for congress campaign.

As far as Busansky’s run for Supervisor of Elections goes, I found information on her campaign contributors which included $10,945.26 from 70 private individuals. Busansky’s highest expenditures were in local media advertising and she spent a total of $17,798.35 for her 2008 run in the last quarter. All of these numbers were from are from the 10/11/2008 to 10/30/2008 cycle. Information from all parts of the election cycle is available on www.votehillsborough.org

Busansky was seen in a positive light by the media when she decided to run for Supervisor of Elections. The incumbent supervisor Buddy Johnson was seen as shady in the public light when he made some controversial decisions such as moving two polling places without written notice to voters and dealing with a special interest group seeking to put a controversial initiative on the ballot. In an article by columnist Sue Carlton of the Saint Pete Times, Busansky was being encouraged by the media and the public to run and restore confidence to the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections. Carlton also mentioned that 70-year-old Busansky might have trouble getting elected because of health issues she faced. According to Carlton, Busansky was open about her battle against lung cancer and has been issued a clean bill of health from her doctors since she underwent surgery. Instead of sulking over her health problems and recent congressional loss in 2006, Busansky picked herself up and turned her troubles into ways to help others by starting an anti-smoking cause in her consulting business. According to the article by Carlton, when asked about her 2006 race Busansky only offered positive responses and refused to show any dismay over the loss saying “I loved that race- the speeches, the people, the energy.”

In researching Phyllis Busansky, I honestly could not find anything negative about her. She has been an advocate for her health care and a hard working public official most of her adult life, and her recent win for Supervisor of Elections was an important one. On the night of the 2008 election a situation erupted at the University of South Florida where students waited in line for hours to get their votes in and Buddy Johnson was of little help to the crisis so while Busansky’s win was not unveiled right away, her win was worth the wait for many in this community. It is good to know we have such a strong community advocate in the Supervisor of Elections position now. I only have one qualm about Mrs. Busanksy. While attending the Joe Biden rally on campus, I met Busansky waiting in line at the USF Sun Dome. She walked by me with fliers and asked if I would vote for her. I answered honestly and told her I was a Hernando County voter and not a Hillsborough resident. With that, she snatched her flier back out of my hand and said I could not have it if I was not a Hillsborough voter. In that moment I could not help but think she was rude, and it took lots of deep researching to change my mind. Word of advice to politicians: be careful when interacting with others-even measly college students.

1. DEED to home

http://pubrec3.hillsclerk.com/oncore/showdetails.aspx?id=3255173&rn=9&pi=0&ref=search

2. Satisfaction of Mortgage: just paid off

http://pubrec3.hillsclerk.com/oncore/showdetails.aspx?id=1120489&rn=5&pi=0&ref=search

3. Lien on Busansky for unpaid hospital bills

http://pubrec3.hillsclerk.com/oncore/showdetails.aspx?id=6353278&rn=1&pi=0&ref=search

Satisfaction of lien: http://pubrec3.hillsclerk.com/oncore/showdetails.aspx?id=6465674&rn=0&pi=0&ref=search

4. Land Holdings: http://www.hcpafl.org/perl/re2html.pl?strap=18281611Q000036000110U&c0=1&c1=1&c2=1&c3=1&c4=1&c5=1&c6=1

5. Lawsuit from Arthur and Paula Yambor against BOCC

http://pubrec3.hillsclerk.com/oncore/showdetails.aspx?id=6557181&rn=3&pi=0&ref=search

6. Campaign Contributions by Phyllis Busansky in 2008.

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/phyllis-busansky.asp?cycle=08