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Jan Kaminis Platt (September 27, 1936 - November 3, 2017) was a Tampa, Florida politician, environmentalist and strong supporter of public libraries, urban planning and cultural services in Hillsborough County.

Early Life and Education
Platt was born in St. Petersburg, Florida on 9/27/1936 to Peter and Adele Kaminis. The family moved to Tampa when she was young (date unknown - check City Directory). Her father loved to fish and frequently took her and her younger sister with him. She was a member of a Girl Scout troop. As a junior in high school she was selected to attend Florida Girls State where she was elected to the Supreme Court, which generated her interest in politics. She graduated from Hillsborough High School, where she was voted "Most Likely to Succeed," in 1954 and went on to Florida State University (FSU) where she majored in political science. At FSU she participated in Garnet Key and Mortar Board. The FSU President and the Florida Governor appoint Platt and three other students to visit the University of North Carolina for guidance on successfully integrating the campus. She was elected President of the Student Senate and the first woman to be elected Vice President of the Student Body. She was named "Most Outstanding Senior Woman" before graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1958. She followed graduation by attending Law School at the University of Florida for a year, where she was the only female.

Career
In 1960 she returned to Tampa and taught American History at her alma mater and at Plant High School. In ??? Platt left the school system and served as a Girl Scout field director and later as the President of the Suncoast Girl Scouts Council. She joined the Tampa League of Women Voters, where she co-founded a Junior Discussion Group for young women interested in government.

In 1974 she was elected to the Tampa City Council. Among the initiatives she successfully pushed on the Council were adoption of a city charter, the use of water revenues for water services only and the hiring of a city attorney.

In 1978 she was elected to the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). During her 24 years on the Commission (a record for a woman) she served at various times on the Hospital and Welfare Board, the Environmental Protection Commission Board, the Arts Council, the County Hospital Authority, the Tampa Bay Estuary Board, the Florida Aquarium and other public service boards as a member of the BOCC. She was elected Chair of the BOCC four times by her fellow Commissioners. The BOCC served as the Land Use Hearing Board and she came to be called "Commissioner No" for her votes against rezoning applications that she believed did not serve the residents well. She chaired the board that created the County Charter, and once out of office, chaired the Charter Review Board every five years.

In 1978 she was appointed to the successful Sunshine Amendment petition drive by then Governor Reubin Askew and later to his Florida Constitution Revision Commission.

In the early 1980s she helped bring together various agencies and corporations with shared goals to create the Agency on Bay Management in 1985. She proposed the program to use taxes to purchase environmentally sensitive lands which became the Environmental Land Acquisition and Preservation Program, which manages more than 63,400 acres of sensitive wildlife habitat..

She recommended that a committee be formed to determine how to best conserve historic materials, which resulted in the development of the Tampa Bay History Center, a Smithsonian Affiliate.

She initiated the zoning hearing master law passed by the Florida Legislature.

Platt was instrumental in having the County legislative delegation propose the bill that enabled Florida Statute 84.443, that authorizes the Hillsborough County Public Library Consortium, providing a uniform system merging the city libraries with the County libraries and  providing for funding. She successfully proposed that the library have its own taxing district within the ad valorem property tax, keeping it from having its funding swept for other projects.

She worked with congressmen Sam Gibbons and Bill Young to qualify for federal funding for a Tampa Bay Estuary Program in 1991.

Personal Life
Peter Kaminis took his daughters fishing throughout their youth and that remained a hobby of Jan's for the rest of her life. She liked not only to fish but also to crab and scallop.

In 1962 she married William R. Platt an Air Force aviator stationed at MacDill Air Force Base. Son Kevin was born ????

Platt's younger sister Bobbi Lou Kaminis died in 1973, at just 31 years of age, an event that Platt stated caused her to evaluate her purpose, and she decided to run for public office.

In ???? the 1987 Environmental Land Acquisition and Preservation Program (ELAPP) was named for Platt in recognition of her commitment to the environment.

After her political career, she became a full time volunteer, serving as chair of the Head Start Community Foundation, the Hillsborough County Cultural Plan, the Friends of the Library, and Keep Hillsborough Beautiful, among others.

In 2000 the Hillsborough County Library Board named the newest Regional Library in her honor.

In 2005 FSU named her Distinguished Alumna of the College of Social Sciences,