Kelly Hayes
Current Belleair Beach Council Member and Vice Mayor Dave Gattis won election to the town’s mayoral seat Tuesday night against incumbent Mayor Joseph Manzo.
Gattis collected a whopping 77% of the vote, all precincts reporting, according to the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections. Manzo, on the other hand, only mustred 23% of the vote.
Gattis, who was first elected to City Council in 2019, works as the vice president of engineering at Ditek Surge Protection in Largo. Gattis ran on the platforms of addressing infrastructure and environmental needs for the waterfront city, as well as bringing order and decorum back to Council meetings, his campaign site states.
He also made clear a personal goal: to improve communication with the residents of Belleair Beach.
As for Belleair Beach City Council, only one incumbent Council Member ran for re-election — Robyn Ache, who was first elected to the City Council in 2019.
However, Ache lost election after only garnering 10% of the vote. The three top vote-getters among the six candidates took the seats — Lloyd Roberts, Mike Zabel and Jody Shirley.
Roberts collected the most votes at 28%, followed by Zabel at 25% and Shirley at 24%. The three will replace Council Members Ache, Gattis and Rita Swope, who did not seek re-election.
Over in Belleair Bluffs, a similar election occurred, with the two top vote-getters — Taylour Shimkus and Joe Barkley — taking the Council seats.
Shimkus collected 39% of the vote, and Barkley took 33%. A third candidate, Darlene Kavanagh, trailed with 28% of the vote.
