Dubbed on the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club's website as (arguably) "the most powerful person in town," Tampa Bay Times Chairman and CEO Paul Tash was the featured speaker at the group's luncheon at the St. Petersburg Marriott Clearwater hotel on Friday.
The piece on Tiger Bay's website says, "As powerful as Tash is, is he powerful enough to withstand the tough questioning of the members of Suncoast Tiger Bay? This is not a group that will lob softballs at him like his own reporters do."
Perhaps they weren't softballs, but the questions fired at him weren't exactly Nolan Ryan style, either.
One of the most challenging queries came from Pinellas County School Board member Linda Lerner. She asked why, "with a divided (City) Council," the editorial board recently called for city lawmakers to approve funding for the demolition of the Pier — and limited design work for its replacement — despite the fact that a referendum that might make the matter moot is destined to appear on the ballot at the end of summer (the Times editorial board has been an unflagging booster of the Lens design).
"That's a lot of taxpayer money, and I just don't why the editorial board supported that," Lerner said, referring to the $869,000 that the board approved (though it was whittled down from $1.5 million that was originally proposed).
This article appears in Jun 6-12, 2013.