Pinellas County Commission candidates talk jobs, budget and equity amid pandemic

Pinellas County Commission District 7 candidates tackled jobs, the budget and equity during a virtual candidate forum for the Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce. 

Incumbent Ken Welch is not seeking reelection and is running St. Petersburg Mayor in 2021.

Pinellas County School Board member Rene Flowers and Rep. Wengay Newton discussed their plans to adjust the county’s workforce to the pandemic.

Flowers focused her approach on supporting small businesses, particularly minority-owned. She emphasized the need for innovation and modernization to adjust to the changing world businesses are facing during a growing pandemic.

“Small businesses are still the heart and crux of many communities,” Flowers said. “We want to make sure that those people who may not be able to be employed in some larger corporation functions certainly can be employed by small minority and women-owned businesses.”

Newton, on the other hand, prioritized pandemic job loss by suggesting the county use leftover federal funds from Congressional aid packages like the Heroes Act, which has yet to pass, to start infrastructure projects. He also supports training for federally funded job opportunities resulting from the pandemic, like contact tracers. 

“If and when the Heroes bill goes through it’s going to be $340 billion of additional revenue for local governments,” he said. “That money left over can be used for infrastructure projects, and we can start building on some infrastructure that we need, thus creating living wage jobs rather than sending money back to D.C.”

Also running are former Rep. Frank Peterman Jr. and Maria Scruggs, a public administrator and NAACP St. Petersburg president. 

Scruggs seeks to increase job opportunities within the public sector by eliminating contract work, and preparing to aid communities that will be affected the most. 

“Nobody can predict what the fallout will be,” Scruggs said. “What we can definitely say is the residents in District 7 are going to be more adversely impacted.”

Peterman supports innovating and modernizing to expand and help small businesses function during the pandemic.

As far as the Pinellas County budget, the candidates split into two areas of priority: Newton and Scruggs want to tackle affordable housing and home ownership, while Flowers and Peterman want to increase social services and resources for families in need. 

“People are talking about this rent thing but that has nothing to do with equity,” Newton said. “Affordable home ownership creates wealth.”

Flowers also emphasized a need for more active mental health services, a nod to calls to reprioritize police funding for social services. Supporters say doing so would free law enforcement officers to handle work more in-line with their public safety skill set. 

“Police officers are not mental health counselors, they’re not case managers,” Flowers said. “We’ll have those things in place that can certainly provide the services that they need for transitional housing referrals and directives, rather than having the police do that.”

The candidates also tackled the issue of equity in Pinellas County, with Flowers and Scruggs voicing support for small minority owned businesses.

“There is no reason why 22nd Street in St. Petersburg. Florida looks the way it looks versus Central Avenue,” Flowers said. “It’s because of inequity when it comes to supporting small businesses, especially minority businesses in minority neighborhoods.”

Peterman touched on a need for more oversight in county government to address and prevent discriminatory practices. 

“I think there is systemic and institutionalized discriminatory practices, and racism, quite frankly, in county government,” Peterman said. 

All of the candidates are Democrats, except Scruggs, who is running with no party affiliation. The winner of the Democratic primary will face Scruggs in November.