Buckhorn tells CL that the InterBay pool had been functioning fine, "but for budgetary reasons it was open only in the winter and closed for the summer," with users directed to use Bobby Hicks pool instead. He says the decision to keep it open in the was "merely a function of paying for lifeguards."
The city originally closed both pools three years ago after they couldn't meet a federal anti-drowning law requiring drain covers. But as Elisabeth Parker reported in the St. Pete Times last month,
Interbay Pool, needed minor modifications to bring it into compliance with federal law. The pool at Williams Park still needs significant repairs.
Mayor Buckhorn tells CL that "for anyone to infer that these were comparable situations is completely wrong."
Meanwhile, it was all smiles among some members of the black community who appeared at the Tampa City Council meeting Thursday morning, and nobody was happier than Council member Frank Reddick, who threatened to vote against the mayor's proposed 2012 fiscal year budget unless funds were found to pay for repairs at Williams pool.
Speaking to CL before the meeting, Reddick said he learned of the news about the pool being funded not from the administration, but the Times' Parker.
"I was very excited, and I just think the mayor decided to do the right thing." Reddick reiterated that he was disappointed by the mayor's initial reaction to Reddick's comments about not supporting his budget (The Mayor said simply that he "only needed 4 votes.")
He also said he was surprised to learn that the consultants study had been completed, because city staffers told members of the City Council last week that it would be a number of weeks before it would be ready. "That kind of surprised me too because Just last week we had a report that it would be late August, and then to turn around and see that the report was done in just a day or two...sent a mixed message to me,, about whether they were being truthful to us from the very beginning." (But the mayor's chief of staff, Santiago Corrada, said there are two different studies being undertaken).
Some members of the black community spoke at the council meeting in praise of Reddick and other council members who were pressing for specific information from city staffers about what was required to repair the pool.
Sam Kinsey, who had been outspoken about not getting straight answers from either the Iorio or Buckhorn administrations for several years about the plight of the pool, was a happy man, saying the Buckhorn administration "appears to be visionary," adding that he was thankful for the council providing leadership to "get a much needed problem solved."
Jarvis El-Amin said he supported Buckhorn but said the mayor's response to Reddick last week that he just needed four votes to pass the budget. "I think he needs to take a more conciliatory tone..this is not a dictatorship," he said of the mayor's comments.
Chief of Staff Santiago Corrada briefed the council this morning, and said that he would not give a specific date now on when the pool would be functioning, as a request for proposal now will go out for companies to bid on working on the reconstruction of the park. It will be a number of months before he said he will come back to them to approve a contract for that vendor.
