Last week, several Pinellas County commissioners suggested that the St. Petersburg City Council should refrain from allocating more money toward the Lens Pier plan until after a referendum that could go on the ballot this August provides more clarity on the issue.
That attitude irked Tampa Bay Times reporter/editor/columnist Sandra Gadsden, who blasted the commissioners in a piece published this weekend. She wrote that the Pinellas board now wanted "a piece of the action" in the long drama regarding the Pier that continues to unfold.
Twice in her short take on the issue, Gadsden made note of the fact that four of the seven board members (Ken Welch, John Morroni, Susan Latvala and Karen Seel) have been challenged in a lawsuit that claims they have exceeded term limits by serving for more than eight years on the board (the case is being litigated, with a hearing scheduled for next month). Although Pinellas citizens voted for a referendum that approved term limits in 1996, the Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in 2002, with the county never establishing it in its charter. But a ruling a year ago overturned that decision.
In any event, she ticked off Commission Chair Ken Welch, who sent a letter to the Times that is accessible via his Microsoft SkyDrive page. Welch began his letter by stating that the Times reporter's column "is representative of much of the Pier debate — short on facts, long on biased rhetoric, and was apparently written in an attempt to silence the County Commission on this issue. Let me be clear – the Commission will not be deterred from our fiduciary responsibilities by such hyperbole in the guise of editorial opinion."
This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2013.