Rick Kriseman over playing the strong mayor hand

Kriseman has continued to make unilateral decisions without City Council input.

St. Petersburg, FL

Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Coauthor of: So You Want Blog.

  

Rick Kriseman seems to have missed the fact he was elected Mayor of St. Petersburg not anointed. From the very outset, Kriseman has pushed the limits of the strong Mayor.

Immediately upon entering office, he appointed two of his top political aids Kevin King and Ben Kirby to highly paid staff positions, making him the first strong St. Petersburg Mayor to practice open cronyism.

Kriseman has continued to make unilateral decisions without City Council input.

His failure to respect the public's view of the Pier and deliberately manipulating the Pier selection process have left many with declining respect for the Mayor.

The poor handling and cover-up of the facts around recent waste water discharges into the Bay, and Clam Bayou have people questioning his honesty and integrity.

Kriseman is the first St. Petersburg strong Mayor to create his own "Communications Director" to distribute what at times could best be described as propaganda.

The problem is getting worse with City Council as reported by John Romano in the Tampa Bay Times article Tension between Kriseman, council becoming harder to ignore.

Kriseman's history is telling.

Kriseman's first City Council terms resulted in lackluster accomplishment along with some hijinks.

His terms in the State legislature were mostly marked by his failure to work with his fellow legislators and accomplish any significant legislative trail. The talk was he didn't work well with his fellow legislators.

Now, here in St. Petersburg, Kriseman and his Chief of Staff seem to be following the Kriseman pattern and alienating City Council and staff.

We are currently just about half way through Kriseman's first term.

If you read the Ben Kirby propaganda post SUNblast, you would come away thinking all is well.

However, on key issues like crime in south St. Pete, failing schools, job creation, the Rays, building a pier "the people want" and transparency on major issues like the waste-water spill the Kriseman administration is coming up short.

Kriseman has about six to eight months before he begins to consider running for a second term.

How long will the Mayor keep his two top political operatives on the City payroll as we head for the next mayoral election?

Will he work to improve relations with City Council?

Will any of the current or soon to be elected City Council members support a Kriseman second term?

Will he live up to his campaign promises of transparency?

Kriseman has a lot of work to do for the City and for his reelection.

E-mail Doc at mail to:dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook. See Doc's Photo Gallery at Bay Post Photos.

Disclosures:       

The Office of the Mayor – is it worth the money?

St. Petersburg, FL
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb, PhD
Coauthor of: So You Want to Blog

  

During last Thursday's St. Pete City Council meeting the Karl Nurse District 6 City Council member indicated that as part of the City Budget process he had asked Mayor Kriseman for a report on the accomplishments of the team of people hired to staff the "Office of the Mayor".

That would be Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin, Chief of Staff Kevin King, and Communications Director Ben Kirby along with some support staff.

All of that adds up to about $900,000 in salary and benefits including the Mayor and Council member Nurse was looking for information on payback for the public's investment in this new layer of administration.

Council member Nurse indicated he was disappointed because there had been no report or even a response from the Mayor's office.

The office of Mayor was a creation of Rick Kriseman probably before he ever set foot in City Hall as the elected Mayor. King and Kirby are longtime political cronies of the Mayor and these jobs are simply high paid political crony appointments.

King has no credentials for the position he occupies; he is careful to make sure his fingerprints are on as little as possible. Kirby, a writer and Blogger, is at least qualified for the position he holds, problem is one floor down in City Hall is a fully staffed marketing department that should be doing the communications job.

The concept of a loyal office of the Mayor might have been a good idea if Kriseman had staffed it with some qualified, experience people instead of political sidekicks.

Tomalin is a bit different in that the objective was to get a successful African American as high up in the organization as possible. Think Don McRea.

In reality after nearly a year on the job Tomalin has very little to hang her hat on in the way of significant accomplishments. I suspect that is more Kriseman's fault than hers.

Nurse indicated he had hoped the report could showcase some of the accomplishments of the office of the Mayor.

The reason Nurse didn't get his report is because there is nothing to report.

The taxpayers are not really getting much for the money being spent on the Office of the Mayor other than some political maneuvering, some cute posts in the Mayor's e-mail blast and keeping the reelection team well fed.

E-mail Doc at: mailto:dr.gwebb@yahoo.com or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook and Twitter. See Doc's Photo Gallery at Bay Post Photos

Disclosures:

Contributor: Waterfront Charter Amendment (Vote on The Pier), Carly Fiorina for President.