Former state Sen. Jim Sebesta dies at 88

Jim Sebesta, who spent much of his time in the Senate trying to keep Floridians safe, has died. He was 88 and lived in St. Petersburg. Sebesta served in the state Senate from 1998 to 2006 and chaired the Transportation Committee, where he introduced or co-sponsored numerous bills for highway safety.

Decades earlier, he was Gov. Claude Kirk’s pick to clean up the image of Hillsborough County’s elections office. In between, Sebesta sold real estate.

“He was a wonderful man,” said former Sen. Jack Latvala, who served alongside him in the late 1990s. “All around, he was the best human being that I’ve ever known.”

Born Aug. 24, 1935, in Pontiac, Illinois, Sebesta graduated from Loyola University in Chicago and then earned an MBA at DePaul University. He moved his family to the Tampa Bay area and, in 1970, was appointed by Kirk to serve as Hillsborough County’s Supervisor of Elections.

Sebesta replaced Jim Fair, who the Governor had suspended for alleged incompetence and malfeasance. Sebesta ran the supervisor’s office until 1974.

“He was absolutely a straight arrow,” Latvala said. “He was brought in to clean up the office and he did that.”

In 1974, Sebesta decided to run for Secretary of State. Latvala, who was just getting started in politics then, wanted to run the campaign. With a budget of just $50,000 and running in the shadow of President Richard Nixon’s forced resignation and subsequent pardon, it was an uphill battle.

Sebesta did lose to the Democrat, but not by a blowout margin.

Later, he combined real estate with his Catholic faith, serving as director of real estate and development for the Diocese of St. Petersburg.

Sebesta was back in politics in 1996, fighting vigorously for safety standards.

It wasn’t just about cars. Sebesta also tried unsuccessfully to put more stringent regulations on parasailing, an activity he himself enjoyed. But after seeing that the state allowed scores of operators to host parasail rides with “virtually no supervision or regulation,” he stopped participating and tried to tighten standards.

Legislators saw those efforts as too much government intrusion. It wasn’t until 2014 that the state finally passed parasailing equipment standards, seven years after 15-year-old Amber White died in an accident.

“I am pretty much a free enterprise guy,” Sebesta told a newspaper after Amber’s death. “And I do not like government regulation. But I thought, in this case, that was something that was pretty darn important.”

Sebesta founded a consulting service following his exit from the Senate in 2006. He will be remembered as a dependable public servant and a devoted family man.

“People need to know what kind of a guy Jim was,” Latvala said.