Six days after she garnered the most votes in the race to become Tampa's next mayor, Rose Ferlita held a tele-town-hall meeting Monday night with potentially thousands of registered voters in the city.
The event, which lasted a little over 45 minutes, was hosted by Hillsborough County State Attorney Mark Ober, who was on point in continuing to remind listeners in between calls of who he was and why he was supporting Ferlita for mayor. In that respect, it could be interpreted as a long ad for her candidacy.
As she acknowledged on election night that she would need to get more specific about her plans in the runoff campaign against Bob Buckhorn, Ferlita jumped at the chance on the first call of the night to mention a variety of different initiatives when asked her plan on creating jobs in Tampa. She said she was looking at suspending transportation impact fees for a year or two, as well as providing home improvement tax exemptions. She mentioned how when she was on the Hillsborough County Commission she supported the ordinance voters approved last fall (and which Tampa voters similarly voted on a similar measure last week), that would give tax exemptions to certain businesses that move to Tampa or expand their operations here.
Of course, in such a format, just as at a live town hall meeting, not all of the questions posed are ones that a potential mayor can address. A self described 75-year-old senior living on Social Security complained about the cost of living and property taxes going up, and what could Ferlita do to cut seniors a break? Ferlita mentioned how she always was lobbying to reduce property taxes while serving at City Hall. She promised the caller that she wouldn't be raising fees or taxes.
Several of the callers were passionate supporters, and sounded like they went way back with Ferlita, who established herself in the city for decades as a pharmacist in Seminole Heights.
Remember panhandling? It was the biggest issue in the city politic back in January, but certainly stopped being a focal point in campaign forums over the past few weeks. One caller wanted to know Ferlita's opinion. The former city councilwoman and county commissioner repeated her standard response — that is, she believes "we have to ban it totally," meaning she didn't support any partial ban, as was proposed and rejected by the City Council weeks ago. She said it was a public safety and economic development issue, while emphasizing that "we will work with social services, we will have to take care of it." She acknowledged that the City Council would have to legislate such an ordinance, "but I plan on having a good relationship with them. I'll lobby them."
The weirdest call was from a woman named Regina who mysteriously asked what a Mayor Ferlita would do for somebody like herself. Regina said that she had to go to a hospital recently because of a "criminal act" that was done against her. But she said her alleged assailants were never apprehended "because they have money." Regina then asked, "What would you do for me?," complaining that nobody has helped her, and wondered what it would take to stop "this " from ever happening to her again, whatever that was.
Ferlita handled it like a pro, advising the woman that she could get representation from Bay Area Legal Service. She then segued into discussing how she would make sure the police and fire departments have all the tools they need to do their jobs.
As a Republican, Ferlita has shown a reluctance to criticize Rick Scott in a way that her mayoral opponents (all Democrats) did when it came to the governor's rejection of federal money for a Tampa-Orlando high-speed rail route. And last night all she said about Scott's stunning decision to eliminate the Office of Drug Control was that "I was very disappointed," when discussing the epidemic in Florida of prescription drug abuse. She said she couldn't add police officers to the force, "but we will redirect" officers to address the problem.
Speaking to a Realtor at one point, Ferlita happily mentioned that the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors had endorsed her earlier in the day.
Ferlita and Buckhorn will engage in a televised live one-hour debate tonight from Blake High School in Tampa beginning at 7:00 p.m., arguably the biggest night of the campaign to date.
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2011.
