Mitch Perry
It was over in less than a minute.
The much anticipated vote for Tampa City Council chairman was decided quickly Wednesday afternoon, as the newly sworn-in council picked Frank Reddick to be their chairman for the next year.
As expected, it was a close vote, with Reddick defeating current chair Charlie Miranda on a 4-3 vote. Voting for Reddick (besides himself) were Yolie Capin, newly elected Councilmen Guido Maniscalco and Mike Suarez, the man considered to be the swing vote on the seven-member board.
Miranda received votes from Harry Cohen and Lisa Montelione to go with his own vote.
“I would hope that I can count on my friend and colleague, Mr. Miranda, to help guide me through this process as we move forward in the next year,” a humbled Reddick said after the vote.
Reddick said he was surprised at the outcome, not certain anyone would nominate him: “I feel good about it. I always believed that we should rotate the chair, and that’s why I was pushing for that.”
The council plans to hold a workshop this spring on possibly rotating the council chairmanship annually, and Reddick said he still supports that idea. “I’m not fascinated by serving in one capacity for the next four years. If someone else wants to run for chair? Fine with me. I’m not selfish in that respect.”
Based on a vote last month, however, it appeared the council might maintain its current form of leadership. Reddick, Capin and now former Council member Mary Mulhern argued in March that it was time to create a vehicle to open the process and add diversity to leadership.
There is already considerable interest in who will lead the board in 2017 and/or 2018, as Mayor Bob Buckhorn contemplates a run for the Democratic nomination for governor. That would make the chair at that time in a great position as the 2019 mayor’s race rolls around: At least two members of the current board are strongly considered likely mayoral candidates.
Reddick made it clear last month that he won’t be one of them, perhaps allowing others on the board to freely elect him in 2015 to open the process.
Miranda served as council chair the past four years, and wanted to keep the job. It brings no salary increase in salary (the board members make slightly more than $42,000) but is considered a leadership position. Going into Wednesday’s vote, the election was considered to be between Miranda and Reddick, with Suarez as the swing vote.
Suarez said Reddick’s comments about how the council should rotate chairs were “stirring” and convinced him to support a change in council leadership. “This is the first time I think we’ve had a race for chair since the first one we served on back in 2011,” he said.”This may be a tradition to keep working together, (to) find people that want to keep leading and be part of the chairmanship.”
When asked whether he really was more concerned about being chair in 2017 or 2018, when being in that position could present a leg-up in the race for Tampa Mmayor in 2019, Suarez demurred.
“I look forward to every day on Council,” Suarez said. “I enjoy it, it’s fun. Regardless of what happens. I know there’s been a lot of things in the press about ‘we want to make sure about how the next chair could be the next mayor’: We have to make sure that we serve the people first. That’s our first goal always, every single day. If we think about other things, I think we lose of the things that we were elected to do, which is to serve the city of Tampa.”
Outgoing board member Mulhern tried to light a fire behind her now former colleagues at one of her last council meetings recently, saying she couldn’t understand why they were OK with the status quo continuing another year.
“I just was glad to see that they voted for a new person to re-energize and change the dynamic and not have a four-person voting bloc, so that’s very encouraging,” she Wednesday.
Councilman Cohen was voted Council Chairman Pro-Tem, meaning he’ll fill in for Reddick when necessary. Capin was voted chair of the Community Redevelopment Agency, and Montelione was voted co-chair.
