This Monday morning beginning at 9 a.m., the five current members of the Tampa City Council will hear from the 66 applicants to the two interim positions on the council for the next seven months plus.
A total of 66 people have applied to fill one of the two vacancies, that became open after both John Dingfelder and Linda Saul-Sena stunningly resigned literally overnight to insure that they would still be viable to run for the Hillsborough County Commission, which was known to everybody in the world, but both candidates submitted paperwork to the supervisor of elections office after the legal deadline to do so, leading to lawsuits filed against them in the past week that they should be ineligible for the November ballot.
On Monday, those 66 applicants will get all of two minutes to try to make a first impression – though in fact several of them are not unfamiliar faces coming before council (Spencer Kass, I'm talking about you).
Ideally the Council members would debate who they think are the strongest candidates, but there is no indication that in fact they'll do that. Instead, most likely they will list their top choices for the two positions.
Inevitably, there will several "instant run-off" situations where the members then vote on those who were named, before ultimately choosing who will represent the entire city of Tampa, and South Tampa, respectively, for over the next half year.
What will be their criteria? Who knows? The best "qualified"? And who's to judge that? Will there be any consideration along ethnic or racial lines (both departed council members are Jewish). What about ideologically? Both Dingfelder and Saul-Sena represented the liberal wing of the council, a wing that now only includes Mary Mulhern. Don't bet any money that that will be the criteria.
Anyway you review it, it will end up disappointing people, and not just the 64 who'll be left out in the humidity. Frankly, we don't think this is the way to select these members, but it is the current law. That's why we still behind the plan we wrote about last week advocated by one of those 66 applicants, attorney Seth Nelson.
But that's to review in the future (and no doubt this will happen again, as why wouldn't a Tampa City Councilman or woman wants to aspire to an office that gives one more power and more money that meets three blocks away?). Monday the five current members of the board will be representing the city in their selections in a way that is significant as any vote they've ever committed to.
And let's face it, personal relationships may play a part. Or maybe not. But as the Council members perhaps take this weekend to review the applications and resumes of the perspective candidates, one would presume that they'll be going into Monday's meeting with clear ideas on who their favorite candidates will be.
(Too see a complete list of the candidates, please continue to read).
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2010.