Tampa citizen files complaint about Jackie Toledo's use of Tampa seal in campaign photo

Last summer when she first announced her candidacy for the Tampa City Council District 6 contest, Jackie Toledo was taken to task for taking a campaign portrait in front of the city of Tampa’s official seal. According to some photography experts, the seal was photoshopped in. It was a minor embarrassment after the story was reported in the media, but it hasn’t been an issue in her campaign against Guido Maniscalco and Tommy Castellano in the March 3 election. Until now.

After Toledo was again chastised this past week for filming a campaign ad in a construction zone off of I-275, criticism has mounted. And late Friday afternoon a Tampa businessman and close friend of Maniscalco announced that he was filing an official complaint against Toledo for “continued unauthorized and illegal misuse of the Official City of Tampa Seal” over the past 11 months.

“It is completely unprecedented and blatantly illegal for any candidate, person, business or organization to use the City Seal without expressed written permission of the Tampa City Council and the City Clerk’s Office,” said Joseph Procopio, a Tampa restauranteur and admitted close friend of Maniscalco.

Under the the City of Tampa Charter, a violation of using the official city seal is liable for a fine of up to $500 per offense.

In the press release that Procopio and Maniscalco distributed to reporters at the press conference, the headline read, “Candidate Jackie Toledo to face potential six figure fine.”

The two men spoke a Guido Morana Jewelers, the West Tampa jewelry store that Maniscalco’s family has run for decades.

“It’s a pattern,” Procopio said when asked why he was filing a complaint now, just 10 days before the March 3 primary election. “And we want the people of District 6 to see this pattern.”

Toledo’s campaign consultant, Anthony Pedicini, was dismissive of the complaint.

“If this is all they have to talk about 10 days before a city council election, I would urge the voters to look at the candidates talking about the issues,” he said while greeting reporters outside the jewelry shop.

Pedicini claims that Toledo hasn’t used the photo on her Facebook page since the campaign first became aware that it wasn’t appropriate last year. “We’re not propagating the picture,” he said. “We haven’t used it in any print material or any advertising that’s been paid for by the campaign.”

But Carrie Henriquez, a Democratic political consultant and friend of Maniscalco, approached Pedicini and reporters outside of the jewelry store and said she had received a recent campaign flier of Toledo’s with the same controversial photo of the city seal placed behind Toledo’s head. She promised to scan the flier and sent that to this reporter (we had not received that as of this posting).

Maniscalco was critical of Toledo for her most recent transgression -filming a campaign ad at a Florida Dept. of Transportation construction zone without getting the agency’s approval.

“She didn’t ask for forgiveness and said she made a mistake; rather, she felt like she didn’t do anything wrong,” Maniscalco said. “As a professional engineer, you would think that walking on a construction site as massive as that, the liability on that, God forbid something should happen there….is wrong. If this is the way it’s going to be campaigning, what can we expect on City Council?”

The Tampa Bay Times also weighed in on the controversy late Friday, publishing an online editorial that read,” If you want some idea of how a candidate would govern, look at how she campaigns. It’s not a pretty picture for Jackie Toledo.”

Toledo was unavailable for comment Friday evening.