Janelle Irwin Taylor
Former Tampa Chief of Police and current mayoral candidate Jane Castor released her neighborhood empowerment plan Wednesday aimed at addressing the needs of Tampa’s neighborhoods.
The five-part plan tackles community outreach, neighborhood leadership development, city service modernization, how to build future leaders and broader city budget participation.
“As your next Mayor, I will be a neighborhood ally for all Tampa citizens. Through visiting each of our neighborhoods during this campaign, I’ve learned even more about the needs of our communities,” Castor said. “This plan will ensure that we can bring city hall to the people, and make sure that everyone has a voice and you won’t have to shout for it to be heard.”
The plan would bring city government closer to the people by assigning City Hall staff to regularly connect with residents throughout the city. Castor, if elected, would also hold open office hours to meet with constituents to discuss their concerns.
Under Castor’s empowerment plan, city leaders would also collaborate with neighborhood leaders to develop a better understanding of their needs in order to help her administration create better and stronger neighborhoods.
Castor would also work to make city services more accessible by creating an interactive online tool providing live chat, texting and social media troubleshooting tools. The goal is to improve the city’s existing customer service tracking system to ensure requests are addressed quickly and effectively.
Castor’s administration would also publish interactive videos explaining how different departments operate, what services they provide and how to contact staff for help.
Castor’s “Future Leaders in Action” plan, under the broader empowerment plan, would broaden the city’s Mayor’s Youth Council for student residents in 9th, 10th and 11th grades to include education on how local government works. That would include opening City Hall offices to student tours for public, private and higher education students. In addition to increasing knowledge of local government, the program would also provide students with information about future career opportunities in the city.
The mayor and staff are charged each year with developing a nearly $1 billion city budget. Castor wants to make that an inclusive process by hosting a series of neighborhood listening sessions to share budget ideas and gather input from residents. In her plan, Castor vows that ideas shared by constituents at meetings or online will be heard.
Castor is considered one of, if not the front-runner in the seven-way race to succeed Bob Buckhorn who is leaving office due to term limits. She’s running against retired banker and prominent Tampa philanthropist David Straz, former Hillsborough County Commissioner Ed Turanchik, retired judge Dick Greco Jr., Tampa City Council members Harry Cohen and Mike Suarez and small business consultant Topher Morrison.
Castor served in the Tampa Police Department for 31 years including her final three years as its first female chief.
Candidates face off at the polls March 5 with a runoff scheduled for the top two vote-getters April 23.
