With just three weeks left before the March 1 election for mayor in Tampa, rarely have we had the opportunity to really see the five candidates actively think in real time and eschew the talking points that have defined them so far.
That ended Tuesday night as expected in the only candidate forum so far that has been televised, raising the stakes considerably. Although it may be hard to detect a winner, one candidate who lost a little stature at the end of the evening was presumed front runner Dick Greco, who admittedly had every candidate taking verbal shots at him at one time another.
The debate started out relatively conventional, as the candidate were asked to discuss job creation, public subsidies for sports teams, what to do with older buildings in town, and how to make life safer for bicyclists.
But things started to turn more dramatic when panelist Adam Smith of the St. Petersburg Times started asking specific questions of individuals candidates – beginning with asking Ed Turanchik where he thought the state of race relations were in Tampa (the first time that we've seen the question posed during the campaign).
Turanchik was put on the spot – but responded gamely, saying that they've “dramatically improved” in the city, before reflecting on the fissures that still exist with some in the black community and the police. “I’m sure there’s some rawness there,” he continued.
As the only black candidate in the contest, Thomas Scott seemed to be measuring his words, saying that it was “painful" for him to hear that he cannot win because he's black.
But Dick Greco badly miscalculated when he called a Tampa race riot in 1967 to a "panty raid-type thing."
Smith then came back and hit Dick Greco on one of his major vulnerabilities on his C.V., Steve LaBrake, the former Housing Director under Greco in the last years of his last term in office. LaBrake went to prison on multiple bribery counts, but at the time of his troubles, Greco stood by him and kept him on the city's payroll, where he earned $105,000. His opponents pounced on that Tuesday night, with Turanchik saying he would have canned LaBrake earlier, and Scott said he would take appropriate action to fire "anyone who brings (the ethical standard) into question."
When asked where they’ve show leadership, nobody packed more into his sixty seconds than Turanchik, who mentioned starting regional transportation plans, solving regional water wars, creating a bid for the city to host the Olympics, trying to rebuild a central part of downtown Tampa (his Civitas plan) and leading an effort to bring high speed rail to the region.
Buckhorn said he “literally spent four years working to save MacDill Air Force Base to get it off the BRAC list,” referring to the commission created in the 1990's to determine which military bases in the country should be shut down in the wake of the end of the Cold War. Thomas Scott referred to helping to create the largest Community Redvelopment Agency (CRA) in East Tampa.
And Greco? His 15 years of experience speak for themselves as to what he's done in the past, but he's seemingly content to not lay down to many specifics about the future.. At one point, he dismissed the achievements that the other candidates said they've been responsible for, saying that as members of the Tampa City Council or Hillsborough County Commission none of them could do anything single handedly, whereas he already has as the city's chief executive.
At a recent taping of the mayoral candidates for the League of Women Voters (and still being shown in rotation on the City of Tampa Television's station), Ed Turanchik began to pick at Rose Ferlita on a couple of issues. Ferlita came back at him on Tuesday night, as the tension between the two became evident. Ferlita said "Ed is great on dreaming, but his implementation falls short." That came in response to Turanchik criticizing her for not supporting his Civitas plan when she was on the city council. She responded, "it’s not for me to implement a bad vision…it failed."
Things got really interesting when the candidates were allowed to ask one question of a specific other candidate: Turanchik blasted Ferlita for walking out of a a board meeting during discussion of the transit plan on light rail. "Where were you and why were you missing in action?" he asked.
Ferlita scolded him in response, saying, "I was there when you were not there."
Tampa City Council Chairman Thomas Scott then challenged Greco on what he had done as mayor for Tampa's inner urban core. Greco threw out a figure of $350 million, and specifically mentioned a Sweetbay grocery store on MLK and Nebraska, and a shopping center on 22nd and Hillsborough, as living proof of his accomplishments there.
Greco then turned around to ask a question of Scott, but then somewhat bizarrely referred to the suicide of former Hillsborough County State Attorney Harry Lee Coe back in 2000. Then he referred back to Steve LaBrake. In his answer to Greco, Scott pivoted back to East Tampa, saying it had been neglected for years, which is why he (Scott) helped create a CRA there. He said the new development had happened because of Pam Iorio, not Greco.
Things got weird when Rose Ferlita then asked Greco how in his own way, he's circumvented term limit restrictions by running for mayor every 10 or 20 years (This is his fifth time running). Greco, who has campaigned on decrying those who criticize public servants like himself for being "career politicians," didn't take it well.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.
