Eight years ago, Kathleen Ford finished second to Rick Baker for a shot at being the mayor of St. Petersburg. The former city councilwoman now wants another opportunity to sit at the best desk in City Hall. And while some of the issues are different, a lot hasn't changed in two terms of the Baker administration.
"I think the city is a little bit younger, but other than the physical changes, the desires to see our wonderful city preserved and protected, that's still there," Ford said in an interview with Creative Loafing, part of a series of talks with the major mayoral candidates running this year.
Ford sat down for nearly a half-hour with me at our CL studio in West Tampa to discuss how she views the police department, the quest for a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium and her reputation as a fiery reformer (among her supporters) or a rude, unfriendly councilwoman (to some of her opponents).
Ford, a lawyer by training, was measured and cautious, more so than her reputation would have you expect, declining to directly criticize Baker. Here are the highlights of our conversation:
CL: Why run now?
Ford: We have experienced some incredible changes here locally, and the concern I have is the city finances, frankly. We have a current city policy that has allowed the gambling of our payroll. A lot of folks really don't know about that yet, and i think there will be more in the press as more of the information is revealed as to what those policies were and what the ramifications were to the city of St. Petersburg.
How did the city do that?
There's a concept called securities lending, and basically, the city had 39 loans out for $194 million of our operating revenue, and as you know, our operating budget general fund is approximately $200 million, more or less. So that's the entire amount of our operational funds that were being allowed to be invested in some riskier investments, and we still have not seen publicly the report that was written by KPMG over a year ago [that audited those investments].
Do you suspect the city lost a lot of money in those investments?
$15 million to $30 million, and the fact that they can't tell us how much is lost or where these funds are or how it happened is extremely troubling. …This is an additional layer of irreponsibility, carelessness and a lack of due diligence, and it still has not been addressed.
You favor reinstating community police officers in the neighborhoods and laud their work. But you don't trust everything you are hearing from the department about crime?
I know from personal experience not everything that has been called in has been reported [on FBI uniform crime reports statistics]. You can't rely on that data at all, Although i am a data-driven person … there's just been a longstnding distrust of the information we're receiveing because I know it's been manipulated, based on conversations I've had with folks in the police department.
Will you replace Police Chief Chuck Harmon?
I will be evaluating every position and making decisions at that time, No decisions have been made, but every position will be evaluated.
You have this reputation as being rude to staff, of being pushy. Is that deserved or is it an exaggeration by political opponents?
I don't know what it is. I think folks deserve to be respected, and that is how I've always tried to approach the folks that I've dealt with. That is what we are entitled to expect from any public official serving the public, is that they treat folks with the dignity and respect that they deserve.
By the same token, any elected official who is serving in office deserves a straight, honest answer and not to have facts misrepresented. Undoubtedly I've been impatient with staffers who've misrepresented facts or frankly given us untruthful things; I used to like to call them lies, and folks didn't like to hear that. That's the bluntness you talk about. Those folks who had something to hide, I'm sure they did feel threatened.
What happened to BayWalk?
That's a travesty, a lack of leadership. The public safety issue's have got to be addressed. it's really pretty simple. Public safety is important.
So you think this administration has not been visible enough in helping BayWalk?
The foreclosure pretty much answers that question.
Are you trying to be more diplomatic and not criticize Mayor Baker directly?
Rick Baker's finished with his term and we're looking to the future, understanding what we've got on the plate ahead of us and trying to deal with it. We don't have time for that. We need to move forward and figure out how we're going to get through this downturn in the economy.
You can download the entire interview in a podcast at cltampa.com/politicalwhore. (Just type in the search phrase "Kathleen Ford.") In the next few weeks, I'll feature similar one-on-ones with the other candidates as we get closer to the Sept. 1 primary election in St. Petersburg. Next up: Scott Wagman.
This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2009.