St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch took hits from all sides in the first mayoral debate of the year.
Four of the five candidates looking to unseat the incumbent attacked him on hurricane preparedness and response, transparency and leadership Tuesday night in a debate hosted by the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP.
On stage with Welch at a maxed-out President Barack Obama Main Library auditorium were former Florida Gov. and U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, two-term City Council member Brandi Gabbard, former St. Petersburg NAACP branch President Maria Scruggs and former Shore Acres Civic Association President Kevin Batdorf.
“I’m really going to push back on folks talking our city down, and of course they have to have something to run on, and they have to say how bad it is,” Welch said. “Our city is doing well two years after the most devastating storms that we have ever faced.”
Each candidate had two opportunities for a rebuttal, the most charged times of the evening. Welch and Crist used those chances on each other while Scruggs came out swinging against Welch.
“While media would have you believe everything in St. Petersburg is beautiful, I contend it is not,” said Scruggs, who stood up for every answer. “There is a lot of work to do.”
Candidates criticized Welch for a lack of preparedness, communication and response following the hurricanes.
“It looks like we weren’t prepared for a few of these hurricanes recently, and that’s a problem,” Crist said. “You deserve leadership that is prepared, that is ready, and will do the right thing, and will be at the emergency operations center when it’s necessary, and not leave it and go home.”
Welch spent the night of Hurricane Ian at home in 2022, nine months into his mayorship. He said Tuesday that the storm had changed direction, so he finished his shift and went home to check on family. A spokesperson for St. Petersburg police confirmed to the Tampa Bay Times in a text message hours after Hurricane Helene made landfall in 2024 that Welch slept at home.
“I just want Charlie to be more specific about how the response could be better,” Welch said. “You were not even in the state during these hurricanes, so what specifically are you talking about?”
The Times recently reported that Crist changed his voter registration to his fiancée Chelsea Grimes’ Minnesota address in April 2024 and was out of harm’s way during the hurricanes. Crist told the Times after the debate he was going back and forth between St. Petersburg and Minnesota.
“Chelsea’s here and we were on Shore Acres, that’s just the truth, and that’s my rebuttal, and I’m disappointed in you, mayor,” Crist said. “Gotta be more candid with folks, and be more honest, and be more straightforward, and take care of places like Shore Acres and southside.”
Scruggs had several back-and-forth exchanges with Welch. She hit him on how the city handles business contracts, giving his administration an F on transparency on that issue. She said she recently filed an ethics complaint with the state over public records she received showing the city’s Education and Youth Opportunities Director communicating with a Tampa vendor who ended up getting a $750,000 contract.
A moderator asked Gabbard why voters should expect a different outcome for her as she “consistently” voted in alignment with Welch. Gabbard said what she saw after the 2024 storms changed her mind.
“I think that we need to get back on track,” she said. “We need somebody who is going to lead this city from a place of accountability and transparency, and I believe that I have the record to show and the business experience to show that I am the right person in this moment.”
Gabbard said she was proud to be known as the “Dump Duke” candidate in favor of the council’s recent vote to more forward looking into severing ties with Duke Energy and setting up a city-owned power utility.
Welch, who worked for Florida Power, a predecessor to Duke, said he was “all for getting the numbers” on what it would take to acquire Duke’s assets, which could cost over a billion dollars. His administration, however, said it did not have a position on the feasibility study when asked Thursday by City Council chairperson Lisset Hanewicz.
Batdorf received boos from the crowd to his response to a question about St. Petersburg Police Chief Tony Holloway signing an agreement that his department would work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I believe that our Police Department needs to provide safety for all of our residents,” Batdorf said, “and if that means helping with taking criminals out of our city, then they have to do their job.”
All candidates were asked to share a professional or leadership decision that was a mistake in hindsight. Only Welch gave a relevant answer: His decision to dole out $250,000 in bonuses to 17 top city officials for their work on the Tampa Bay Rays stadium deal.
The bonuses ended up being ruled illegal and had to be returned. And the Rays ended up backing out of approved agreements.
“These folks put their heart and soul into a deal that was going to bring us $6.5 billion of economic input, jobs, housing, office, all those things that we’ve been working for for 40 years. If they were in the private sector, they would have been compensated with bonuses without a thought,” Welch said. “I should have waited until that was executed and the dirt was turned. I didn’t do that.”
Former St. Petersburg Fire Rescue Chief Jim Large, also running for mayor, said he didn’t participate in the debate because of negative comments repeated on social media by Esther Sanni, president of the local NAACP branch, after he announced his candidacy. Large said he will participate in other debates.
Sanni said she did not make any recent comments, but Large pointed to comments she wrote on Creative Loafing Tampa’s Facebook page under a story about his candidacy. Back in 2023, she called for him to be fired following accusations that he made sexist, racist and homophobic remarks while serving as chief.
“It speaks to who he is,” Sanni said, “if you want to run for mayor and be mayor of a city and you can’t put past relationships aside and show up for the community.”
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