Peter Schorsch
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch and Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard will take the mic Tuesday, Jan. 3 at Suncoast Tiger Bay’s annual “State of the Bay” event, a historically well-attended luncheon that evaluates how the region’s three largest cities are faring into a new year.
The event comes as Suncoast Tiger Bay celebrates its 45th year serving as a civic-minded nonpartisan organization that features monthly luncheons with politically savvy guests and panels tackling salient topics in the region.
This year’s “State of the Bay” will be held at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg’s University Student Center at 11:30 a.m.
The Suncoast Tiger Bay Club serves as a “public square” for conversations surrounding policy, politics and civic engagement, and often hosts elected officials, business executives and community leaders as guests.
For 2023, former Pinellas County School Board member Nicole Carr will serve as president of the club, and J.C. Pritchett II has been hired as executive director. He comes on board with a stated leadership goal of adding diversity to the club’s membership and “innovation and creativity in programming.”
Expect several hot topics from 2022 to emerge at the luncheon, whose club slogan boasts of “carving a politician up for lunch.”
Castor may face questions about the recent resignation of former Police Chief Mary O’Connor, who departed the agency amid scandal over a traffic stop in which she flashed her badge and asked to be let go. Castor also may face questions about her own re-election campaign in 2023, as well as recent dysfunction on the City Council that has pitted a faction of members, all also facing re-election, against her administration’s agenda.
Welch, meanwhile, may be asked to answer to a rash of departures from City Hall during his first year in office, which included allegations of bullying against his former Deputy Mayor. Welch is also well underway in the selection process for a developer to redevelop the 86-acre Tropicana Field site, and may face questions about his future plans for the waterfront Albert Whitted Airport.
Hibbard’s city faces far less headline-grabbing issues, but after voters soundly approved a referendum in November paving the way for a new waterfront development, he’ll likely field questions about plans to revitalize Clearwater’s underutilized downtown, which has been plagued for years by Scientology land grabs that have stifled progress.
