Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

The St. Petersburg city election was held Tuesday and almost no one showed. A paltry nine percent of the registered voters bothered to cast ballots. Only 14,500 of you showed up. That’s a record low, by the way.

Turn-out was so sparse that as I walked in to my precinct at about 2 p.m., a poll worker dozed in a chair in the warm sun.

I asked him if he were having an exciting day.

He opened his eyes, looked at me and deadpanned, “What do you think.”

I thought not.

Turns out, there were more members of the firefighters union outside campaigning for a couple of candidates -and more poll workers inside waiting to assist than there were voters for them to help.

Maybe it was a sign that St. Petersburg residents are completely satisfied with city government. Or maybe it’s because we’re a city full of lazy asses who don’t understand the importance of exercising something called a franchise which, by the way, in this context has absolutely nothing to do with sports and everything to do with democracy.

Tom at the New Southside wants to know: “Do you want the Saint Petersburg City Council to give your tax money to the Uhuru movement?”

He says the Baker administration has offered too much support to the violent group, and the St. Pete City Council has kept that support to a minimum. With the upcoming city council elections, keeping that check on the administration is a good idea.

This waste of scarce public money adds insult to the injury of their incitement of violence. I don’t agree with them but I respect their right to promote their views in a free market of ideas.

Where they loose me is with their close connection to throwing rocks, bottles and molotov coctails at police and law abiding residents and businesses. Were they to renounce violence they could use their influence to help bring criminals into law abiding society and lift the curse of violent crime that holds the southside down.

What will next Tuesday’s elections bring? What will you do about this? You can ask the candidates where they stand on this issue, and tell them where you stand. You can support southside residents who want to be free of Uhuru violence.

We think that many folks in St. Pete don’t even know there is an election. Or care.

Use the comments to let us know who you endorse for St. Pete.

City of Tampa elected officials were sworn in yesterday. Directly following, the city council chose Gwen Miller as the chairwoman, again.

Mayor Pam says mass transit will be her focus for this next term.

Not so fast…

Linda Saul-Sena has been on the Metropolitan Planning Organization for 20 years. Gwen Miller decided that’s long enough. Her first order of business was denying Saul-Sena a spot on the MPO. Miller appointed three newcomers to the MPO board, including Joe Caetano, who doesn’t give a rip about mass transit.

With the last of the Tampa City Council elections finally over, we can now move on to the speculation of just where the city is heading.

We have to discuss Joe Redner at the start. The interest that he helped garner in this race was significant. His efforts to focus on the environmental, transportation, and development issues were with vision and direction. The political baggage he carried as a “strip club owner” was repeated so often by the local media that his issues were usually ignored by the media and by the voters. Just as Al Gore is being recognized now with global warning, Joe Redner might be Tampa’s own harbinger of problems of our own making. We hope those issues stay in the front of public awareness. This was very likely his last campaign for public office.

New council members include Joe Caetano from the New/North Tampa area and citywide winner Mary Mulhern. Caetano has been an outspoken critic of the city in the past. While he has sometimes been a little too “out there” - suggesting New Tampa’s secession from the city? - his points about the need for more attention to District 7 is based on real needs and the abundance of tax revenues the area provides. Mary Mulhern is the new member to watch. She is progressive, open minded, and a newcomer to elected office. Her concerns for environmental related issues have been well articulated. While Charlie Miranda is newly elected, he has served on council before. His pet issues have addressed deteriorating infrastructure needs - roads, water, drainage, sewage issues. Additionally, Miranda is a strong voice for West Tampa, an area on the verge of a significant renaissance.

Tom Scott has a clear record of development issues and concerns about roads and transportation. Gwen Miller indicates she has heard the voters and will address more issues during this term. John Dingfelder is known as being someone that sometimes flips on issues, but it is usually because he has done continuing homework that has lead him to a different conclusion. His low key style has been one of his trademarks. Can he deliver needed goods and services for his district? Only time will tell.

As with many government bodies, Tampa’s City Council has frequently been split between the business / development side versus social concerns. Linda Saul-Sena has an acute sensitivity to historic preservation and a long term approach to city planning. She is outspoken when she has felt the need and is probably the most political member of the current council members. While she has sometimes not been consistent on development issues, she has been a tireless officeholder. With the failed election bid of Shawn Harrison, Saul-Sena may be the heir apparent for Tampa Mayor.

And speaking of the Mayor, Pam Iorio seems more enthusiastic about her second term than ever. She showed great pride of accomplishment at the recent announcement of Ikea opening a store in Tampa. Her plans for a mass transit plan, the riverwalk project - including the Tampa Museum of Art, financial restraint, and improvement of the neighborhoods remain to be realized - or not. She is a strong leader but has shown callousness on some issues. At an Ybor Chamber of Commerce meeting she almost openly challenged the night businesses of Ybor.

The decimation of architecturally significant Kiley Gardens in downtown appears to have come at her instruction well ahead of any reason to do so. She is conspicuously absent in the looming disaster of traffic issues on Gandy as the incredible rate of development proceeds SOG - South of Gandy.

However, she is usually a good reader of public sentiment and has been focusing more attention to the Drew Park, New Tampa, and East Tampa areas. Her understanding of the downtown core has helped lead to what will be an incredible downtown revitalization on a broad scale by the end of her new term. We believe you can watch for more direction of attention in the short term to the old West Tampa area as it starts to become increasingly significant to the downtown core. Tampa is one of the most exciting places in the US to be. Mayor Iorio has her challenges ahead, but we can’t think of anyone better to lead and direct our city. Along with the 2007 City Council, now the real work begins.

We thank everyone that seeks any public office. Your sacrifice of time, money, and more helps to shape our quality of life.

9:02 pm - The results are in. Gwen Miller has won re-election to the City Council. There were 297 more votes cast in this election than the total cast in District 1’s primary. Almost as many as were cast in the Mayoral election (91 votes short).

Turnout was indeed higher.

City Council, District 1
112 of 112 Precincts Completely Reporting
		Percent	Votes
Gwendolyn ”Gwen” Miller		56.47%	15,383
Joe Redner		43.53%	11,587
			27,240
City Council, District 7
19 of 19 Precincts Completely Reporting
		Percent	Votes
Joseph P. Caetano		59.54%	2,589
Frank J. Margarella		40.46%	1,759
			4,348

Congratulations to Councilman-elect Joseph Caetano and Councilwoman Gwen Miller.

I decided to live blog the runoff election results - mostly because it was so much fun to do the first time.

PoHo has a report that turnout would be around 14% - about the same as for the primary.

7:07 pm - Miller takes the early lead with the early voters, by an almost two-to-one margin: 61.4% to 38.6%. Caetano has a slightly larger lead at 66% to 34%. More than 4,700 votes were cast city-wide, almost 800 of them in District 7.

City Council, District 1
0 of 112 Precincts Completely Reporting
		Percent	Votes
Gwendolyn ”Gwen” Miller		61.42%	2,891
Joe Redner		38.58%	1,816
			4,707
City Council, District 7
0 of 19 Precincts Completely Reporting
		Percent	Votes
Joseph P. Caetano		65.97%	508
Frank J. Margarella		34.03%	262
			770

7:19 pm - The votes get closer. Miller’s lead down to just 57.3% to 43.7% over Redner. Caetano is down to 59% to 41% over Margarella.

(more…)

Today is the run-off election in Tampa. There are two seats on the ballot. District 1 pits incumbent Councilwoman Gwen Miller against the infamous Joe Redner. District 7 has two New Tampa residents Frank Margarella versus Joseph Caetano.

District 7 is easier to predict than District 1. Caetano has the better organization, including the support of Charlie Perkins, who finished a close third in the primary election for this District. I think Caetano will win this race.

The one thing that Tampa’s politicos have been watching is the Redner campaign. I have heard from my sources that the South Tampa machine — the one that propelled Mary Mulhern over Shawn Harrison and John Dingfelder’s significant victory — is pushing Redner.

Redner is also the better campaigner. He consistently shows his grasp of city issues and he clearly has a vision for what he thinks is the right course for the city.

However, he can not escape what he does for a living.

In the primary, 60% of votes cast came from Democrats, who traditionally do not have the same social concerns about adult businesses. If the turnout in the runoff is lower, and I believe it will be, the proportion of votes from Democrats will probably be higher.

Will that be enough to push Redner over the top? We have about 10 hours to find out.

The Miller vs Redner Tampa City Council Race has sure generated a lot of interest.

Of course, the well known and controversial Joe Redner has helped bring real focus to the seat. When the St. Pete Times endorsed Joe, I was somewhat surprised, but when the Tampa Tribune endorsed Gwen Miller, I was shocked.

Only last week the Trib said of Gwen: “During the weeks leading up to the March 6 election, Miller provided at least three opinions on the property tax issue to the Tribune, the St. Petersburg Times and the public at candidate forums. She first said she would support a tax cut, then said she would not, then said she would wait for the state Legislature to develop a plan.”

In the endorsement they say: “Miller rarely takes a lead on an issue, but she’s done a respectable job and her voting record is solid.”

Seems to me they simply couldn’t bring themselves to endorse Joe Redner.

In today’s paper, the Tribune includes a very thorough article about the life of Joe Redner on the front page of the A section. The story is about as nice as you could get.

We have kept our Forum with Miller and Redner posted at TampaGold.com for you to watch and compare. For one hour you can see them handle questions on many topics. Have a look, then you decide.