County Connection

The entire Pinellas county government management team showed up at our last Friday Morning Group meeting. Well, OK, not exactly. However, we were joined by our old friend, Michele Tuegel from the Pinellas County Cultural Affairs Department. Michelle brought us copies of the slick new newsletter she has been working on. It was just over a year ago that the Pinellas Arts Council became a department in the county government with its new name - the Pinellas County Cultural Affairs Department. Thus this newsletter was Michelle's first collaboration with the County Communications Department. It was just about this time that Marcia Crawley, Pinellas County's Communication Director walked in to join us. Now Michelle and Marcia swear they didn't plan this, but I dunno...

Actually, it was a real treat to have Marcia join us. She has been active at The Studio@620 and has been wanting to be able to join us for some time. But that drive to Clearwater kept getting in the way.

Michelle also brought us news of a Cultural Tourism Workshop to be held in conjunction with the Convention and Visitors Bureau on February 8th. The workshop will focus on helping arts organizations better market themselves. The workshop will be held at the Collaborative Labs at the EpiCenter on 58th Street and Ulmerton. For more on county art happenings, be sure to check out the Cultural Affairs Departments' retooled website.

Another topic discussed last Friday was affordable live /work space for artists. The St. Petersburg City Council has placed a new emphasis on affordable housing this year with the creation of a Housing Services Committee. A committee meeting last Thursday impressed upon me that there is funding available from state and federal sources to assist in providing affordable housing. So why not try to have some of that money spent on affordable live / work space for artists? Peter Kageyama had gotten me some information on just such a project he is working on in Michigan, The Armory Arts Project. This is a very interesting adaptive reuse of an old National Guard Armory providing live / work space and a large gallery display space for artists.

Michelle Tuegel told us about something being worked on closer to home in Tallahassee. The Art on Gaines project there just received a $350,000 grant from Artspace , a Minneapolis based non profit whose mission is

to create, foster and preserve affordable space for artists and arts organizations.

The Tallahassee Democrat reported last week that

Arts on Gaines is envisioned as a mixed-use development where artists live, work and hold exhibits; where organizations and businesses devoted to the arts share space and ideas, an incubator for arts-related commerce and creativity; and where an eclectic collection of restaurants and retail stores serves a bustling clientele.

A model of neighborhood revitalization.

Just the sort of vision we could use around here. If we want to keep the arts buzz going in St. Petersburg, we are going to have to keep innovating. Standing still only gets you farther behind in the end.


Speaking of vision, Kudos to the artists of the former Gallery Royale for contributing equipment (lighting & such) to the burned down IMAAGO Art Gallery's reserection efforts.

Twas the Night Before Election

Yes, Virginia, tomorrow is Election Day in St. Petersburg. For the candidates and their families, the long ordeal of running for office will be over. There will be candidates who will be winners and candidates who will be losers.

But at the end of the day, will the City of St. Petersburg be a winner or a loser? The answer is, at this late date, not entirely clear. What is clear is that there has been a remarkable alignment of disparate candidates into what are effectively two distinct slates in this "non partisan" election.

On one slate you have Herb Polson, Ed Montanari and Gershom Faulkner. (For good measure, throw Jamie Bennett onto this slate as well.) These candidates could be considered the establishment or "insider" candidates. On the other slate are Bob Kersteen, Bill Dudley and Wengay Newton. These candidates could well be called the "outsiders" or the insurgents.

On the establishment side Herb Polson is an appointed incumbent who is now seeking election in his own right. Ed Montanari is the campaign manager for Bill Foster's last re election campaign. Gershom Faulkner is an integral part of the Democratic Party establishment in St. Petersburg. He currently works as Outreach Director for Congresswoman Kathy Castor. Prior to that, he spent 6 years as Legislative assistant to State Rep. Frank Peterman, and is seen to be a protege of County Commissioner Ken Welch.

Jamie Bennet is a 6 year incumbent, having been originally elected to fill the term of Larry Williams who resigned to run for Mayor in 2001. He drew no opposition to re election to a full term in 2003 and did not even appear on the ballot. This time, his opponent dropped out of the race after the Primary. This triggered a bizarre provision in the St. Petersburg City Charter that has Bennett now running against "New Election". That means if New Election were to garner the most votes tomorrow, the City will be forced to go back to square one in the election process for this seat.

On the insurgent side you have Bob Kersteen, who served on the City Council previously, but left to run for another office. (He lost.) Bill Dudley, a retired wrestling coach who was soundly drubbed for this seat by Bill Foster 4 years ago. And Wengay Newton is a neighborhood association president who's brother happens to be the head of the local firefighters union. Anyone want to take three guesses who the firefighters endorsed?

So here are the match ups. In District 1 it is Herb Poslon and Bob Kersteen. Polson was a long term employee of the City who for over twenty years was the City's lobbyist. He probably knows more about this City government than any other living human being. Kersteen was a member of what was described as the most dysfunctional City Council anyone could remember. Kersteen campaigns like an angry old man. Apparently this City has done nothing right in the time he has been off the Council and he is going to fix it all. Trouble is, everything he says he wants to do is solely within the purview of the Mayor. Bob, you are running for the wrong office.

District 3 gives us Ed Montanari and Bill Dudley. Montanri was Foster's campaign manager when they beat Dudley to a pulp last time. He was also Chairman of the Albert Whitted Blue Ribbon Task Force and by all accounts brought the disparate interests on that Task Force to consensus and the plan they brought forward is now being implemented.

To his credit, Bill Dudley is a much better candidate this time around. He ought to be. He has been running for this seat for well over 4 years now. However, he is still running with the same chip on his shoulder attitude. Like Kersteen, he apparently thinks nothing good has happened here lately, and that he is the only one who can get the City back on track. Bill, see note to Bob above.

District 7 provides probably the most competitive race. It didn't always look like it was going to be that way. Gershom Faulkner was clearly the candidate favored by the political establishment (of both parties). He had wrapped up the endorsement of just about every elected official on the planet. OK, it only seemed that way. Faulkner raised a prodigious amount of money early on. He also spent a prodigious amount of money early on. And then along came the Stonewall Democrats.

Actually, the night before the Stonewall Democrats meeting in August, came the CONA candidate forum. CONA (the Council of Neighborhood Organizations) took questions from the audience and presented them to the candidates through a moderator. All the candidates were asked if they would attend the St. Pete Pride Festival (one of the largest in the Southeast US). Gershom Faulkner said that he would probably not go, but he went on to say that he would ensure that no one in this city was discriminated against. His opponent, Wengay Newton, who claims not to be a politician, saw an opening and jumped all over it. Wengay said that he probably would go. However, he was no where in evidence a few weeks before when the Pride Festival was actually held.

The following night's events qualify Faulkner as a finalist in the stupidest political move of the year award. The Stonewall Dems, as do many organizations, sent the candidates a questionnaire and invited them to their meeting. Not surprisingly, the Stonewall Dem qustioned the candidates on their stand on a number of hot button gay issues, none of which were ever likely to be raised at the City Council level. Faulkner, like many socially conservative African Americans, apparently was not a supporter of the gay issues. So here is where Faulkner went all stupid on us. He filled out the questionaire with all the "wrong" answers and then went to their meeting.

A more seasoned candidate, or one who was listening to better political advice, would have not answered the questionnaire, but would have responded with a letter employing many non discriminatory platitudes, and regretting that a schedule conflict precluded him from being able to attend the meeting. But Faulkner, a hard headed Marine if there ever was one, charged straight into the lions den. And he got his ass kicked. Not only that, he enraged the Stonewall Dems President, who put out an email calling Faulkner a "homophobe". Note to Stonewall Dem President: my dictionary says a hompophobe has an unreasoning fear of homosexuals. I would say Faulkner was probably too stupid to be scared of you, because he came to your f-ing meeting, moron. He just doesn't believe in your issues. As does about half the country. That doesn't make him a demon. What it makes him is not the guy who is going to champion your issues. But then you have plenty of those already.

So Faulkner, who had been cruising along as a shoo in for election, had now angered a vocal but politically weak constituency. Two State Representatives pulled their endorsements of Faulkner. But Faulkner appeared unruffled. He reached out behind the scenes to leaders in the St. Pete gay community for private conversations. But he underwent no conversion.

However, his opponent was in no position to worry him. What little money he was raising, Wengay Newton, who looks like he hasn't missed many meals, was spending on meals at Burger King and MacDonalds. About this time, though, the insurgent candidates seemed to sense their affinity for one another. Newton seemed to benefit from that and his long, rambling discourses became somewhat more focused long rambling discourses. The self proclaimed non politician began feeling his feet come under him on the campaign trail, exactly as a good politician eventually does. He used humor to good effect, both pointed at himself and his opponent. However, he, like the other insurgents believed that everything the city had done should be blown up so they could remake the City in their own image, whatever that is.

Newton began distorting information he found in the newspaper as facilely as the best politicians seem to do. Again, pretty good for a non politician. Newton's favorite distortion involved a cost comparison for lawn mowing in parks. Seems the County pays a lot less than the City to mow lawns in parks. And that seemed strange because the County has much more acreage of parks than the city does. However, what was not mentioned by Newton is that much of the County's park land is kept in a natural state which does not require mowing. Conversely, most of the City's park land is in active parks that do require mowing. Newton either knew that and chose not to disclose that salient fact or he didn't know. If he knew, he was playing politics with the truth. If he didn't know, he should have done his homework, something he would need to do on the Council.

The final fiasco in this district race came in the form of a newspaper endorsement. Seems Gershom Faulkner had some minor run ins with the law. Well not entirely minor, he did get arrested a few times. A few is more than one, but less than many. There is some dispute about the number of "arrests". In any event, two of the possibly three arrests were for traffic infractions, so maybe they are minor after all. This information came to the public when the St. Petersburg Times endorsed Fulkner. Perhaps in an effort to make up for their past non disclosures, the Times felt compelled to disclose information supplied to them by Faulkner about his past. None of these incidents is recent and Faulkner has since married, and become a Deacon in his church. None of that stopped Newton from beginning to refer to himself as the candidate who hadn't been arrested. Again, that's just exactly the way a politician handles a situation like that. He doesn't talk about the other guy's arrests. He just says nothing like that ever happened to him. Just what a politician would do.

In my humble opinion, things have been going fairly well in St. Petersburg up until lately. While I personally disagree with Mayor Baker on any number of issues, and I don't much appreciate the "Stealth Mayor" approach, this City has been moving forward. Much, much more has been done right than has been done wrong. And now with the shameful shenanigans of the Republican politicians in Tallahassee, this City is going to be facing some difficult challenges in the next few years.

It is therefore more important than usual that well qualified people with the proper temperament sit on the City council. The insurgents do not fit that bill. They do not show the temperament that will be needed to deal successfully with the challenges this City is sure to face.

We will be winners in this City if we re elect Jamie Bennett and Herb Polson. And we will be winners if we elect Ed Monatanari and Gershom Faulkner. If we don't, someday soon we'll be wishing we had.

Experience Matters

Last week, the Friday Morning Group had Herb Polson on the hot seat. Herb is running for re election to the St. Petersburg City Council in District 1.

We actually started off with a discussion of the meaning of the term re election. That's because Herb was originally appointed to the Council last year to fill the vacancy created by Rick Kriseman's resignation upon his successful run for the State Legislature. Herb is now running for the seat in his own right. He also did his homework. Understanding the power of incumbency, Herb asked for and received a ruling from the state Division of Elections telling him that, as the incumbent, he was entitled to use the term "re elect" in his campaign material.

Well, Herb's opponent did not like that fact and complained to the St. Petersburg Times. The Times, which has had precious little coverage on any of these City Council races, decided that this complaint was newsworthy. However, as Herb was able to show us, the complaint was absolutely unfounded. So maybe the lesson is if you want to get into the newspaper, lodge a completely unfounded complaint.

OK, enough about that. Herb Polson has spent nearly his entire adult life in the service of the City of St. Petersburg and our country. Herb stared his career with the City as a civilian in the police force, and wound up for many years being the city's liaison to other governments - the city's lobbyist, if you will. Herb also is (was?) an officer in the Navy Reserve for many, many years.

When Rick Kriseman ran for the legislature, Herb retired from the City so that he could seek appointment to the vacated council seat. Herb was appointed last year and has been putting his knowledge of city operations to work as a council member since that time.

And what a year it has been! Of course the big issue for the City this year has been in dealing with the effects of the property tax "reform" effort in Tallahassee. This has caused the City to cut back their spending and initially led the Mayor to propose zero funding this year for arts and social services organizations.

In one of his roles as a City employee, Herb was actually responsible for arts and social services funding. He was also responsible for putting together the City's Cultural Plan that was the initiative of then and now Council Member (and Friday Morning Group member) Leslie Curran.

We had a discussion about the amount of tax relief we each actually received from the first round of property tax "reforms" in Tallahassee. Herb posed the question to us if for the amount of property tax relief we each received, did we think it was worth it in terms of the cuts the City was forced to make. Universally, we did not think it was worth it. However, Herb warned us that the next round of cuts that may come would even be much more painful for the City.

However, Herb also told us that there is a tremendous amount of money inside and outside the City available to fund some of the things we have indicated we wanted, if we just were creative in how we went about looking for it. To his credit, Herb has already found "outside the box" solutions to keep the libraries open on Saturday and with the help of the Devil Rays, to keep an exchange student program with our Japanese sister city alive. That's what experience can do for you.

We also talked about how the arts have had a tremendous impact on the City of St. Petersburg. That, in fact, the arts are a much more valuable economic engine than any of the professional sports franchises in the area. We also talked about how this all seemed to come about when St. Petersburg quit trying to be Tampa and just decided to concentrate on being St. Pete.

Herb also told us how he was a firm believer in asking people what they want and then delivering it to them. This would be as opposed to telling people what they should want and delivering that to them instead. Herb told us that the City used to regularly poll its residents to see just what it was the residents did want. In the early 90's, Herb was responsible for a questionnaire that went out to all 93,000 households in the City asking the residents what their needs and desires for the City were. Out of this came the city's extremely successful neighborhoods program and many other programs that make the City the success story that it is today. Herb believes that it is well past time to go back to the residents again asking them what they want the City to be.

Seems to me like experience does matter.

All in the Family?

Last week at the Friday Morning Group we continued our meetings with St. Petersburg City Council candidates. In the hot seat last week was Bill Dudley, candidate for City Council District 3. So far, no blood has been spilled.



This session started off a little differently. Rather than focusing directly on a candidate's feelings about art funding and appreciation of the arts, Bill Dudley was asked why he was running. This is a question that is more typically asked than the kinds of questions we usually ask candidates.



Bill handled this question with aplomb, as he has doubtless been asked it many times before. He related that he felt a calling to serve, and that he has been a public servant his entire adult life, having been a teacher at North East High until his recent retirement. He also described himself as an independent thinker, not endorsed by the Mayor.



Dudley went on to say that the first issue on his agenda was financial. He said people are suffering from taxes being too high and said that he wanted to streamline the way the City does business. He quickly sensed that that message was not being well received by a group that had just seen arts funding in this City cut to the bone due to tax cuts.



He told us that his daughter is a member of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay and also a music teacher; that he had fought for arts funding as chair of the art department at North East High. Dudley stressed that he thought the arts funding shortfalls could be met by reducing the number of high paid city management employees. Among those specifically mentioned for dismissal was the Deputy Mayor for Midtown Development and the Mayor's education initiative liaison.



Bill also suggested that we aren't being creative enough in seeking public / private partnerships for arts funding. He gave one example of a former student of his who now has a very successful business here in town. This person has never been asked to help fund the arts in the community.



We also briefly discussed the future of Al Lang Stadium (after the Devi Rays stop holding their Spring Training games there next year) and other issues relating to development. The new Land Development Regulations (LDRs) the city has just implemented created a new zoning district called Downtown - park. The Al Lang stadium site was not given this zoning designation. Many people are concerned that this would leave the site open fro redevelopment after the Devi Rays cease Spring Training there. Consensus was that the land needed to be protected as a park. Bill Dudley suggested that development be encouraged to spread west out the Central Avenue corridor.



One other area briefly touched on was the tax structure in the state and the country. Bill Dudley indicated he was an advocate of the so called "Fair or flat tax" idea which as I understand it is some variation of a national sales tax.



As I said at the beginning, no blood was shed and Mr. Dudley made it safely through his encounter with the Friday Morning Group. I hope the next politician is similarly fortunate. I know that we will all look forward to seeing you at the next meeting of the Friday Morning Group.

Economic Benefits or Quality of Life?

That was one of the questions that came up last Friday at the Friday Morning Group. We had Ed Montanari, candidate for St. Pete City Council District 3 in the hot seat.

To his credit, Ed came in reasonably well prepared. He was quite familiar with the economic benefits the arts have provided to this state, and particularly to our community. While that is something most of us are very well aware of, not that many political candidates get that fact. Unless, of course, we had beaten it into them.

Of course we talked about the art funding situation given the city's current budget constraints. Ed acknowledged that budget issues were the big issue for the City Council right now. Ed described a strategic view of the issue. He pledged to work to increase the City's tax base as a way to provide more revenue for arts funding for the City. He is looking forward to projects like the Chihuli museum creating more jobs. Also he wants to work with the City's Economic Development department to get some of the City's underutilized assets up to their full potential.

In that regard, one of our old friendly discussion areas came up - the Manhattan Casino. We kicked around ideas for the Manhattan Casino over four years ago at the Friday Morning Group. And still the building sits empty.

All that talk of economic development finally was a bit much for one of our members. She reminded us all that she is involved in and enjoys the arts for the quality of life that they bring to her and to all of us. The arts always make us richer. And it isn't always about the money.

We had a special drop in guest last Friday morning as well. St. Petersburg City Council Member Herb Polson dropped in at the beginning of the meeting. He wanted to let us know that the City is going to be updating its Cultural Plan. A presentation on the update is to be made to the Council's Policy and Planning Committee this Thursday, October 11, at 9:30 AM. The meeting will be at City Hall in the Community Resource Room. Herb urged anyone interested in the City's Cultural Plan to show up for this meeting. After all, it is the Cultural Plan. Seems like artists should have some input.

We extend our thanks to Herb Polson and also for Ed Montanari for sharing their Friday Morning with us. We hope you will do the same next Friday Morning.

Advocating for the Arts

St. Petersburg City Council Member Jeff Danner joined us last Friday morning at the Friday Morning Group. Jeff came in begging off speaking after using up his voice at the City Council workshop the day before. But some how he hung in there and filled us in on what is happening with the allocation of city funds to the arts, and some future plans as well.

Jeff Danner is the City Council member assigned to the the City's Arts Advisory Committee. In that post, Jeff worked with that Committee to present a coherent plan to the City Council for the allocation of the funds the City did manage to find for the arts and social services. Essentially the plan was to use last year's split of funding to arts organizations and social service agencies to split this year's available funds between the two. That ratio last year was approximately 60% to social service agencies and 40% to arts organizations. That concept to split this year's available funds was adopted by City Council at their workshop last Wednesday.

The next step was to get the Council to agree to let the Arts Advisory Committee plan to allocate that 40% share of funds amongst arts organizations. Jeff was successful in getting Council to agree to that proposal as well. This process will be occurring sometime later this month. The amount to be split amongst the organizations is $175 thousand. Considering that earlier this year the amount was going to be zero, that is something, anyway.

So that's the story of arts funding for this year. However, it pretty much leaves arts organizations in a pickle going forward given the budget pressures cities and counties are currently under. To alleviate that strain, Jeff told us about a couple of possibilities that are being looked at to provide a dedicated funding source for the arts.

The first of these involves some way of charging groups that use city parks for events such as concerts, for example, to pay the City for the use of the park. Currently these organizations pay for the cost of city services provided to their event, but they do not pay for the actual use of the park itself. The idea is that that money would then be used to fund arts and cultural organizations. This proposal is currently being examined by city staff.

The second idea is to establish a trust fund for arts funding. One of the ideas being considered is pretty interesting. The city has a pot of money that it received for the sale of City owned property in Weeki Wachie. The sale of this property had to be approved by voter referendum. As part of that referendum, the money from the sale was set aside in a separate fund. The income of the fund is to be used for recreational and cultural uses. The current idea being floated is that income from the Weeki Wachie fund could be used to establish a trust fund for arts funding. Stay tuned.

Jeff was asked what he thought would be the best thing that arts supporters could do to impress upon City leaders the value of supporting the arts. Jeff suggested a couple of things. One would be to make sure that the Mayor and Council members are invited to arts openings and other events so they will be reminded of the vibrancy and the importance of the arts to our community. The other idea is to come to City Council meetings and speak at Open Forum to extend those invitations and to talk to Council Members about arts events in the City. the advantage of that approach is that anyone watching the Council meeting on TV will hear about these events. Maybe they will attend themselves. Or maybe they would become more aware of the value of arts to our community. A couple of good ideas, in my opinion.

I want to extend my personal thanks to Jeff for coming to the Friday Morning Group last week; and despite having nearly lost his voice fighting for the arts the day before, speaking at length with us about the state of the arts in St. Petersburg.

And I want to extend to each of you my wish to see you this Friday.

Catching Up

I have a little catching up to do. I was a little busy last week, what with the election and all. What, you didn't know about the election on September 11th? That's OK, most of St. Pete didn't seem to know about it either.

There were primary elections for St. Petersburg City Council on Tuesday, September 11th. However, only about 11% of the registered voters in the two districts with elections bothered to show up to vote. In Council District 5, incumbent Council Member Jamie Bennett received 67% of the vote. He will face Chris Kelly in the general election in November. Kelly received 19% of the vote in the District 5 primary.

In the District 3 Primary, Cathy Harrelson failed to advance. Harrelson received 23% of the vote in the four person primary. The top two vote getters were Ed Montanari (42%) and Bill Dudley (30%). These two advanced to the general election, to be voted on city wide, in November.

So much for the election results. At the Friday Morning Group meeting on September 7th, we were joined by Barry Rothstein of the Maddux Report. In his spare time, Barry is also President of the Downtown Business Association. Barry filled us in on the Downtown Business Association's plans for a holiday window display program, themed to "Holiday Music". Downtown businesses will be teaming up with interior designers for some eye catching window displays (a la New York city) in the hopes of turning the downtown into a window viewing (and shopping ) destination this holiday season. The kickoff will be the day after Thanksgiving and the displays will run through New Years.

And for those of you who don't know, Barry is also a painter. In fact, Barry has a show opening at the Finn Gallery (176 4th Ave NE) on October 19th. You'll want to check out the bottom of this little ditty for a real treat.

On September 14th, we were joined at the Friday Morning Group by the inimitable Tony Collins. Tony, one of the founding members of the Friday Morning Group, is going on the Board of Directors of the Tampa Museum of Art in October.

We also got all the low down on the Friends of Photography dinner for Herb Snitzer at Redwoods. This sold out event was half tribute and half roast. Herb also sold eight photographs at the dinner. And the Museum of Fine Arts extended his show for one week. To top it off, Herb is now a member of the faculty of Eckerd College.

In other news that made the rounds last Friday Morning:

• Mike Conway received an Honorable Mention at the Arts Center Member Show. Congratulations, Mike!


• Rave reviews were given about the rave review received by Gem of the Ocean by August Wilson now playing at American Stage. Here is a snippet from the St. Petersburg Times:

"It is a brilliant production that goes to the heart of why Wilson was an American playwright to rank with Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. ... Sharon E. Scott heads the outstanding cast of Gem of the Ocean, expertly directed by Bob Devin Jones. ... Gem of the Ocean is so rich with humanity, and this production is so fine, that it virtually demands American Stage return to the other plays of Wilson's cycle in seasons to come. "

• Bravo, Bob!
• Salt Creek Art Works will be hosting the Art of Healing on September 28th. This show is a benefit for the Bayfront Medical Center Foundation.

Finally, the City of St. Pete has found an additional $200 thousand for arts and social services funding in the upcoming budget year. Yet to be determined is how it will be divvied up. The level of arts and social services funding is still only about 25% of what it was a year ago.

And for a little treat, here is the invitation to Barry Rothsteins's show at the Finn Gallery.

St. Peterburg Votes Today: Primary Edition

Today is Primary Election day for City Council races in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, I had one candidate ask me last night if I thought voter turn out would exceed 15%. On September 11th, what could be a more patriotic thing to do than to go out and exercise your right, and duty, to vote?

There are 2 races on the ballot today. Primaries are being held for Districts 3 and 5. Districts 1 and 7, with only 2 qualified candidates each, skip the primary and will be on the ballot for the city wide General Election in November. Today, only voters in Districts 3 and 5 can vote to winnow down the number of candidates for the Council seat in their districts to 2 each. The top two vote getters within these districts today will go on to the city wide voting in the November General Election.

The District 5 race features one of only two incumbents on the ballot this cycle. Acting Council Chair Jamie Bennett is seeking re-election to a post he first won in 2001 in a special election to fill the seat of Larry Williams who had resigned to run for Mayor. Bennett drew no opposition in his bid for a full term in 2003. The widely held belief that Bennett will run for Mayor in two years has drawn at least one candidate to challenge him this time.

Chris Kelly, a community activist, appears to be running with 2009 in mind. Kelly is a former President of the Roser Park Neighborhood Association. He did move to Pinellas Point a few years ago, but has not been civicly active within the district. His campaign seems to be aimed at establishing himself as a viable candidate in 2009 should Bennett vacate the seat to make his Mayoral bid. Bennett's other challenger is little know school teacher Debra Woodard. Ms. Woodard has run a perfunctory campaign at best.

The much more competitive race is for the District 3 council seat. This district, encompassing Snell Isle, Shore Acres and other neighborhoods in northeastern St. Pete will see Council Member Bill Foster leave the seat due to term limits. We will probably see Foster again in a Mayoral bid in 2009.

Meanwhile, 4 candidates are vying to replace Foster. Ed Montanari is Foster's anointed heir apparent. Montanari, an America Airlines pilot, was Foster's campaign manager in 2003. Montanari was groomed for this run by being appointed Chair of the Albert Whitted Airport Advisory Board. Prior to that, Montanari, who has been heard to say that "the Mayor's the boss", had no civic involvement. Montanari's connections have enabled him to lead the pack in fund raising. However, as befits a good airline pilot, no one will mistake Montanari for Mr. Excitement.

Returning from his unsuccessful 2003 bid to unseat Foster is now retired Northeast High teacher Bill Dudley. Dudley got through a 3 way primary in 2003, but was drubbed by Foster in the citywide general election. To improve his chances this time, Dudley is President of the Snell Isle Neighborhood Association. Much like John Edwards, Dudley has been running for this seat since his defeat 4 years ago. The experience shows. Dudley is a much better candidate this time around, and has managed to raise substantial dollars as well.

The significant new face in this race belongs to Cathy Harrelson. Harrelson is a financial professional whose long civic involvement has been focused on environmental concerns. Harrelson is immediate past President of the 3,000 member strong Suncoast Sierra Club. She has also been recently appointed to the County board advising on the Booker Creek preserve. There she was elected Policy Chair by her peers. Harrelson brings the rare combination of business acumen and enviromentalist to the race. She also has the most realistic chance of maintaining the two woman minority on the Council. With Renee Flowers leaving the District 7 seat due to term limits, Leslie Curran is the only other woman on Council. Also, in this allegedly nonpartisan race, Harrelson is the only Democrat.

Mortgage Broker Cliff Gephart rounds out the field in District 3. Gephart has not run a substantial campaign, but speaks well in forums. Hopefully Mr. Gephart will stay involved in civic affairs and try again sometime in the future.

The District 3 race is really too close to call at this time. Dudley, Montanari and Harrelson are closely bunched and each has run a vigorous campaign. Which two advance to the General Election in November could literally come down to a hand full of votes. So if you are reading this in District 3 today, be sure to get out and vote. Your vote will definitely matter in this race

Bennett Gets His Ear Bent and Bends Right Back

St. Petersburg City Council Member Jamie Bennett got his ear bent in our hot seat last week at the Friday Morning Group. Jamie is running for re election to the District 5 seat he has held since 2001. He joined us last Friday.

Jamie was immediately taken to task about a mail piece he brought with him. The mail piece talked about "Protecting Our Quality of Life". Yet nowhere did the arts get mentioned as a part of that quality of life. Jamie, to his credit, stated that when the mailer gets redone for the city wide general election, the arts would be included in the quality of life being protected.

Jamie related that this is going to be the battle for the next 10 years. He told us that the arts are as much of an economic driver in St. Petersburg as anything else we have here, if not more so. Jamie told us that to be a real city that you had to have more than just police and fire service. You need the arts and the social services that go hand in hand with making St. Petersburg the wonderful place we all believe it has become. Jamie agreed that to a very large extent the arts are the quality of life in St. Petersburg.

When asked how he might turn around the mind set that puts the arts and social services on the front of the chopping block, Jamie was blunt and forthright in his outlook. He suggested that some organizations will have to be funded out of emergency contingency funds to keep them from shutting their doors. Jamie explained that under our strong mayor form of government, the Mayor sets the tone and those that the Mayor controls end up dancing to his tune. He told us if we want to see this changed, the arts community would have to go get its political mojo and elect the right people.

Jamie explained that there is a great philosophical war going on between those who bleieve that the government has a role to play in the arts and social services and those who do not believe the government has a role. Right now, in St. Petersburg, the non believers are winning, Jamie said. He also had a rather interesting suggestion about what might be done to help stem the tide - partnering with big business. Currently the Mayor is getting corporate sponsors, or partners, for the public schools in St. Petersburg. Jamie suggested that we could be doing that for some of the smaller arts organizations. He also cautioned that for the arts to maintain their independence, that a variety of sponsors would have to get involved.

Herb Snitzer reminded us that Sandy Freidman, when Mayor of Tampa, would hold her cabinet meetings at the Tampa Museum of Art. This resulted in a very large increase in the number of memberships in the Museum. Jamie asked Herb to keep reminding him to hold meetings at the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts.

Here is a correction that most of you probably already know. The Arts Center Member Show opens this Friday, Septmeber 7th, not last Friday as previously reported. But, we hope to see you all this Friday morning at the Friday Morning Group.

St. Pete Council Money Race - PrePrimary

The September St. Petersburg City Council Primary Election date is rapidly approaching. As it does, the money race is starting to get hot too. Not surprisingly, the hottest part of the track in the money race is the crowded field for the open District 3 seat being vacated by Bill Foster. Stay tuned for the real surprise here, however.

In the contest for the other open seat, Renee Flower's District 7, the first reporting period leader, Gershom Faulkner's torrid fundraising pace slowed remarkably. The most recent reporting period is a short period from July 1 through August 3rd. Faulkner has now reported raising a total of $12,598. However only $1,575 was raised in the most recent period. and Faulkner has spent most of the money already, having spent $11,933.

Faulkner's only opponent, Wengay Newton is not in any better shape financially. Newton has reported raising only $2,900 so far and has spent $2,100. Faulkner's fundraising pace is expected to pick up. His bipartisan support is starting to kick in. At a recent fundraising event hosted by a high profile financial services executive, it was announced that Faulkner was receiving support from an unlikely confluence of sources that will ensure that he will have the funds necessary to compete vigorously for this seat. Stay tuned.

The District 1 seat is currently held by Herb Poslon, who was appointed to fill State Representative Rick Kriseman's seat. Polson has picked up his fundraising pace dramatically. Polson now reports raising a total of $14,455, with nearly $11,000 raised in July. Polson has been a relative piker when it comes to spending that money, having expended only $2,503 to date. His only opponent, Bob Kersteen has raised only $2,500 and has spent $1,600. Looks like Polson is in good shape here.

Incumbent Jamie Bennett's fundraising continues to lag in his bid for reelection to the District 5 seat. Bennett who eschewed raising money when it was uncertain he would be opposed, has raised only $3,300 so far. However, neither of his opponents have demonstrated any fundraising prowess to date. Between them they have only raised about $1,100 and have spent about half of that. Jamie needs to pick up the pace to avoid any nasty surprises, however.

That brings us back to the District 3 donnybrook. The big surprise here is that Ed Montanari is not leading the fund raising in this district. Montanari, who ran Bill Foster's campaign last cycle, is raising serious money, having raised $12,695 to date. However, Bill Dudley, who ran against Foster 4 years ago, is leading the money race for this seat. Dudley raised $16,705 in July bringing his total to $17,524. Cathy Harrelson is trailing the field here, having raised a total of $7,772 so far.

Montanari is leading this district in expenditures so far as the campaign signs springing up around town would seem to indicate. Montanari has reported spending nearly $7,000 to date. leaving only about $5,500 on hand. The Mallard Group continues to be a big drain on the Montanari campaign funds, raking in over $2,300 in July alone. Signs costs for Montanari were over $3,100.

Dudley has spent nearly $5,000 to date, almost all of it in July. Dudley has also spent heavily on signs, about $2,600 in July. He also spent nearly $700 on an ad in the St. Pete Times and another $500 plus on T shirts. Cathy Harrelson , as behooves a financial manager, has spent the least so far. Harrelson's total expenditures are just $3,800. The vast majority of her spending has been on campaign literature and signs.

The District 3 race will be by far the more competitive of the two primary races. Coach Dudley seems to be in very good shape with over $12,000 in the bank and signs proliferating throughout the district. Montanari's spending on the Mallard Group will be showing up in a mailbox near you soon. But he better raise more than the $5,000 he has on hand to pay for the printing and the mailing. If Harrelson wants to get into the general election, she is going to need to pick up her pace in a big hurry.

City Council Money Race

Now that the match ups have been settled for the St. Petersburg City Council elections this year, it is time to take a look at how the fund raising race is going. Money does not always equate success in local elections (see John McQueen in 2003, or Darden Rice in 2005), but it can provide some clues.

Leading the money race at this point is Gershom Faulkner running for Renee Flowers seat, District 7. Faulkner has raised an astounding $9,933 in the reporting period ending June 30th. Faulkner started raising money in earnest in April when he garnered over $2,000. Much of this money was raised from connections he had made in Tallahassee during his tenure as legislative assistant to State Rep. Frank Peterman. This money can also be viewed as the high regard Faulkner is held in by his Tallahassee contacts.

In May and June, Faulkner turned to his fund raising ability in St. Petersburg. Supporters such as State Senator Charlie Justice, and State Reps. Bill Heller and Rick Kriseman helped him raise the balance of the $ 9,900. The good news for Faulkner, he has yet to tap the fundraising assistance from many more of his high profile supporters including County Commissioners Ken Welch and Calvin Harris. Also, Rep. Frank Peterman has yet to tap his fundraising base for Faulkner.

The bad news for Gershom Faulkner? He spent $8,700 this past quarter. Much of this money went to his high profile Campaign Manager, Mitch Kates. However, a substantial portion also went into campaign literature most of which is still in inventory.

Wengay Newton, Faulkners' opponent in the general election in November has raised only $2,300 to date. Like Faulkner, he has already spent most of it. Newton has spent over $1,600 to date. This doesn't leave him with a lot of cash on hand either.

The other big money raiser is Ed Montanari. Montanari will be facing a September primary in the race for the Distrcit 3 seat being vacated by Bill Foster. Montanari raised $6,400, the vast majority of it in June alone. Unlike his counterparts in District 7, Montanari has spent only a paltry $743 to date. Most of that ($500) went for consulting fees to the Mallard Group in Clearwater. Montanari better hope Mallard will break out of the losing streak they went on in 2006.

In contrast, Montanaris' opponents have raised only $2,300 combined. Bill Dudley, who lost this race to Bill Foster in 2003 has raised only $819 to date. This despite the fact that he has been running for this seat for the past 4 years. Cathy Harrelson contributed the $500 that her campaign reported raising this period. She did not officially get into the race until June. The fourth person in this race, Cliff Gephart, has yet to file a campaign finance report.

In the District 1 race, Herb Poslon, appointed to the Council to replace Rick Kriseman, raised $2,625 this period. $1,000 came from the Polson family. Herb's wife wrote a $500 check to the campaign and Herb loaned $500. Polson spent a considerable amount already on campaign start up costs, but still had $1,300 cash remaining at the end of the reporting period. Polson's opponent, former Council Member Bob Kersteen, loaned his campaign $100. This is the total extent of Kersteen's fundraising so far.

In District 5, incumbent Jamie Bennett was waiting to see if he was going to draw an opponent. He has only loaned his campaign $500 so far. He wound up drawing two last minute opponents, Chris Kelly and Debra Woodard. Neither of the challengers have had to file a finance report as of yet.

Sociology of Art

I guess you are getting somewhere when a social scientist is interested enough in what you are doing to want to study you. We were joined last Friday morning by a sociologist from Eckerd College who also happens to be a potter. Unfortunately for him, he joined us about half way through, so here's what he missed.

We started off talking about the Music of the Harlem Renaissance show at The Studio@620 the previous night. All who attended gave it rave reviews. Thanks to sponsorships from the Florida Humanities Council, The Studio@620 and the Al Downing / Tampa Bay Jazz Association, the event was free to the public. Way to go guys!

Herb Snitzer informed us that seven of his photographs have been hung in the Mayors outer office in City Hall. Also, Herb's show went up Friday at the Museum of Fine Art. Herb gave an informal talk Saturday afternoon on his fifty years in photography. Interestingly enough, he gave it to about 50 people.

We again talked about the idea of getting community art programming on WEDU. We kept coming back to the funding stumbling block. It costs about $250,000 to produce 12 1/2 hour episodes. Maybe the Pinellas Convention and Visitors Bureau would have an interest in underwriting something like that?

And speaking of money, we got a report from the St. Pete City Council. It seems the City Council has not yet decided how to allocate the $500 thousand that it has put back in the budget for arts and social service agencies. One proposal floated by a Council Member is to give all $500 thousand to the homeless. That would be none to the arts and none to any other social service agency. Stay tuned on this one.

See y'all on Friday.

St. Pete Council Races Set

Yesterday was the close of qualifying for St. Pete City Council races. There will be two primaries in September. In District 3 where Bill Foster is term limited out and in District 5, where Jamie Bennett is running for reelection.

District 3 is the only seat up this cycle that is currently held by a Republican. The Democrats only chance to pick up this seat rests on the shoulders of Cathy Harrelson. Harrelson is an investment advisor and financial professional. She is also a past President of the Sierra Club, although that is not prominently featured on her web site. Also, her campaign is being run by Darden Rice, another Sierra Club leader. Rice ran and lost against Ernest Williams in 2005. This despite raising $50,000.


There are two Republicans running to keep this seat on their side of the ledger. Bill Dudley, a retired high school wrestling coach is running again after losing to Bill Foster in the general election in 2003. Ed Montanari is the remaining candidate. He ran Bill Foster's campaign in 2003. Ed is a commerical airline pilot and was Chair of the Albert Whitted Advisory Task Force. This is going to be the toughest race in the City this cycle.


Jamie Bennett has drawn 2 opponents in his bid to retain the City Council seat he first won in 2001. Bennett was unopposed in 2003 and was hoping to get a campaign this time. Bennett has aspirations to run for Mayor in 2009 and wants a platform to start that campaign. Well, he certainly got one. Chris Kelly, another Democrat has filed to run. Kelly is co-founder of Pinellas Heritage and is a former President of the Historic Roser Park Neighborhood Association. Also running is Debra Woodard. Woodard is a 55 year old African American Democrat. Unfortunately not much else is know about Ms. Woodard at this point. The Republicans apparently were unable to come up with a challenger despite the rantings of Dave the Appraiser. Well, better luck next time Dave (not). One would have to give the early edge to Jamie Bennett right now. However, one would also be careful about what you ask for. Jamie may have gotten more than he bargained for.


In District 1 Herb Polson, who was newly appointed to fill the seat vacated by State Rep. Rick Kriseman, will face off against former City Council Member Bob Kersteen. Kersteen is a 70 year old Republican who last served on the City Council in 2000. Polson is one of the most qualified people ever to run for a City Council seat. He retired from the City of St. Petersburg last year in hopes of being appointed to fill Krisemans seat as Rick ran for the state House. Herb's hope was fulfilled when the Council appointed him over, you guessed it, Bob Kersteen. Because elections are about the future and Herb is superbly qualified, I'd have to say that this will be a laugher.

That brings us to District 7 where Rene Flowers can not run again due to term limits. There will be no primary here as only 2 candidates qualified. In November Wengay Newton will square off against Gershom Faulkner. Wengay Newton is president of the Westminster Heights Neighborhood Association. His brother Winnie also happens to be president of the local fire fighters union. Faulkner was the long term aide to state Rep. Frank Peterman and is currently Outreach Director for Congresswoman Kathy Castor. Faulkner certainly has the inside track on endorsements from elected officials. This starts with the Dems in the Pinellas legislative delegation, runs through the Dems on the County Commission, includes Mary Brown on the School board and several other local elected officials. Faulkner was also Deputy campaign manager for Kathy Castor's successful primary election for the Congressional seat vacated by Jim Davis. He knows what it takes to win elections and seems to be doing most things right. This should be a big win for Faulkner who is a real up and comer in the Democratic Party.

Turnout is likely to be extremely low in the primary elections. It will be only slightly better for the general election in November. It is pretty safe to say the Dems will at least hold on to their 5-3 majority on the council. It is also possible that they might gain a 6th seat, although that is looking like a pretty tough proposition right now.

We'll have something on 2nd quarter fund raising soon. So stay tuned. This could be interesting.

A Quiet Week

It may have been the 4th of July hangover effect, but last Friday Morning was a quick, quiet meeting at the Friday Morning Group. It was an interesting one nonetehless.

The talk on Friday centered around the looming budget cuts for local governments. But this one had a twist. Almost all local governments are saying that they have to cut social service and arts funding to protect law enforcement functions. That includes the City of St. Petersburg. But it turns out that there is one law enforcement function that St. Pete has no qualms about cutting.

So, which function is this you ask? St. Petersburg is eliminating its Human Rights Office. This function is going to be handed off to Pinellas County. There is one slight problem with this, however. Pinellas County does not have the authority to enforce St. Petersburg's Human Right Ordinance. That little factoid has the practical effect of killing off the Human Rights ordinance that the Mayor didn't support in the first place. That's because no one will be around to enforce it. So, in effect, the Mayor is cutting law enforcement.

There was also some discussion that the City Council was likely to restore some funding to Arts and Social Service organizations. The question was, how much. The number $500,000 was floated previously by Council Member Leslie Curran. It turns out that was the number that was restored in yesterday's City Council Budget workshop. That's still an 80% cut from last years levels. At least it is not a 100% cut. Stand by now for the scramble as organizations make a mad dash to get some of that money.