Janelle Irwin Taylor
St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman fielded questions from members of a local non-partisan political club Thursday. Questions from Suncoast Tiger Bay members circled mostly around two key issues Kriseman faces – figuring out what to do about the Tampa Bay Rays and building a new pier.
It was no surprise the two topics dominated conversation. They were both the butt of jokes during an introduction by Pinellas County Commissioner Janet Long who asked, “will there ever be a design for that pier that everyone likes?”
She also told a story about Kriseman breaking his leg during a Republicans verses Democrats softball game and joked no one expected him to break his leg to break a deal done with the Rays.
Kriseman had reached a deal with the baseball team’s leaders to allow them to look outside of St. Pete in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties for new stadium sites. The team and the league are getting itchy with poor attendance records at Tropicana Field. City Council, however, rejected the agreement, sending Kriseman back to the drawing board.
Before answering any questions, he offered one clarification – there has not been a new time frame on beginning new negotiations. In fact, Kriseman said his only correspondence with Rays’ president Brian Auld has been to wish him a Happy New Year.
Many baseball fans and city officials and, of course, the Rays, had cautioned that a no-vote by council on the Memorandum of Understanding struck between Kriseman and the team could spell the end of baseball in Tampa Bay.
Immediately following council’s rejection, a visibly distraught Kriseman took to a podium to address members of the press where he chastised council members for not taking leadership. But during the Tiger Bay luncheon he took on a new tone.
“I think their hearts are in the right place,” Kriseman said referring to city council. “We’re not always going to see eye to eye.
Kriseman said he plans to meet with his legal team before meeting with the Rays for continued negotiations.
The mayor was also asked about plans to build a new pier. After voters rejected the previous design known as the Lens, Kriseman vowed to come up with a better process – one that included more public input.
One of the biggest complaints about the Lens was that it wasn’t what the public wanted. Numerous people spoke at dozens of meetings about how they felt the public wasn’t involved in the process. Kriseman’s goal was to avoid that perception.
He created a task force comprised of people on just about every side of the issue – pro-Lens, anti-Lens, pro-inverted pyramid, anti-inverted pyramid. He included a tool for St. Pete residents of voting age to be able to vote on which design they like best – there are eight on the list as of now.
Despite his attempts at inclusivity, there are still concerns that a new design will be chose, critics will rally and petition and the Lens scenario could play out all over again.
“That’s making an assumption that’s going to happen and I’m not going to own that assumption,” Kriseman answered when asked about that possibility. He said he’s confident that won’t be the case.
“If you don’t weigh in on this one, you’re going to miss your chance,” Kriseman said emphasizing that there won’t be another go around.
But Kriseman has also been criticized for not living up to his campaign promise to have a pier built by the end of this year. The revised timeline is 2017. But Kriseman points out those campaign “promises” were really just goals and sometimes goals have to be tweaked.
Other issues that came up were parking in downtown as development continues to boom. Kriseman said people should do something they aren’t already doing – walk – after encouraging more visitors to park in parking garages.
Kriseman is giving a State of the City address on January 24 at City Hall. While these topics are likely to come up, Kriseman is also expected to talk more about accomplishments this year rather than things still in the works. Some of those include an increased minimum wage for city workers, an updated leave policy that creates paternity leave and the city’s first perfect national ranking as a good place for people in the LGBT community.
