Driving Miss Pat: Administrator has driver and car allowance

Tampa, Florida - She has been on the hot seat for several months, but now we have discovered the Hillsborough Administrator, Pat Bean often not in the driver's seat when she rides in County vehicles.

In a scene from the Oscar winning movie Driving Miss Daisy, Jessica Tandy playing Daisy Werthan yells at her drive Hoke Colburn, played by Morgan Freeman and tells him he is driving too fast.

While Hillsborough Administrator may never yell at her driver, Justin Glover, she is the star in the local version of Driving Miss Pat.

We asked Bean if it is frivolous to have a driver and she told us no.

Justin Glover who is a courier for the county drives Bean to several events in a county vehicle which allows the Administrator to avoid putting wear and tear on her own car.

Bean says Glover doesn't driver her everywhere, but she does occasionally use him. However taxpayers are also giving Bean $295 a month for a car allowance.

We asked Bean why she should have a driver as well as a car allowance and she told us that when she has to run from meeting to meeting it is a good way to be productive during the trip.

But compare Bean to Tampa Mayor, Pam Iorio who seems just as busy. Iorio says in these tight economic times a driver isn't necessary.

Iorio says she doesn't have any problem driving herself and it saves on the expense.

Meantime when Glover is driving Miss Pat she can avoid those nasty parking problems.

According to Bean, if she has to go some place and is not sure how the parking is going to be, Glover can drop her off at the door, go someplace else and then pick her up later.

And it is not just during business hours that Glover is driving Miss Pat who has the car allowance.

Several of the trips are made in a county vehicle after hours, which racks up overtime on your tax dollar for driving Miss Pat.

Bean says she does a lot of stuff on weekends and nights where she drives herself.

But the overtime records we obtained show Glover drives Bean Around on weekends and nights. But County Administrator who makes 226,366 says she isn't wasting taxpayer money because she doesn't get the same $540 a month car allowance that commissioners get.

Bean told us if her car allowance was higher she would agree with us that she was wasting money.

So for now she'll have to get by on the measly 295 dollar a month car allowance and run up overtime bills for someone who is Driving Miss Pat.

Since we started investigating Bean being driven around, Justin Glover has been taken off the driving detail.

Instead, Bean's administrative aid who makes close to $60,000 a year drove the Administrator to a ribbon cutting.