CLEARWATER, Fla. — While it’s been a quieter primary season around Tampa Bay, there’s still a major race at play in Clearwater this Tuesday.
City council member Kathleen Beckman and attorney Bruce Rector are facing head-to-head in the race for mayor. The election falls nearly a year after former Mayor Frank Hibbard abruptly resigned
Together, both candidates are nearing record fundraising numbers, so it’s clear there is a lot of interest in who’s going to lead the city in the near future.
10 Tampa Bay's Aaron Parseghian asked both candidates the same 5 questions. Transcript and full videos of their interviews are below:
What’s the number one issue facing the city and residents right now, and what’s your plan to handle it?
Beckman: “I think the number one issue that we have is it's really actually two-fold. But it's housing. We have we do not have housing affordability in Clearwater. Our workforce is primarily tourism and hospitality. And we need more housing options for the people who work here. That's the big one. And we are looking into different options. In fact, this council has just given direction to our planning and development department to work on an ADU ordinance for accessory dwelling units. What do we want to see? Where do we want to see them? What are some of the parameters? So we're working on that? We also are committed to incentivizing affordable housing developers to come in, we have a number of projects that are queued up. And I'm also interested in pursuing, we have Pinellas County homeshare, there are some different options of matching people who need housing with those who may have more space in their house. So there's some potential out there looking outside the box that I'm really interested in pursuing."
Rector: “Taxes, keeping taxes low. So many Clearwater families are really struggling with our household expenses, from groceries, car insurance, and definitely property insurance. So it's the most important thing to most residents here right now. It is helping them, helping them get by each day, by keeping their taxes low, making sure we're working on government spending that's efficient and serves them best.”
Drew Street’s been a hot topic here for residents, what’s your take on the now-delayed project that would make a number of safety changes there, would you advocate for it moving forward? Why or why not?
Beckman: "I've been committed to having Drew street move forward. I honor studies, I honor repeats of studies, I honor looking at the numbers and statistics. But when we come at it, when the results show a decrease in crashes, I think 57% And you know, crashes might not all be deaths. But boy, when you have a crash, it impacts your household, your family, it can have lifelong health effects, insurance cost, mobility, being able to get to and from work if your car is totaled or impacted. So I'm absolutely for that . Those residents that Drew Street cuts through that 2.2 mile section cuts through neighborhoods, and people want safe neighborhoods, and they deserve them. And the studies show that the overflow in any parallel roads is not significant. So I'm firmly in favor of moving that forward and taking that $12 million or $12 million plus a federal funds and making that street safer."
Rector: "We have to consider the thoughts and concerns of all Clearwater residents, not just those who may live directly in certain parts of the street that are immediately affected by it. But even then, it's a very unpopular proposal among Clearwater residents, even many I talk with along Drew Street to reduce it from four lanes to three, that the citizens tell me that they believe there are other ways we can make Drew Street safer, without restricting it to three lanes and making traffic congestion even worse."
We know of Scientology’s large footprint here, what would be your strategy for handling the impact of Scientology on downtown Clearwater?
Beckman: "I think handling the impact of revitalizing our downtown means talking with all property owners, whether they're Scientologists, or whether they're the church that owns property, we must have conversations, we must be true to our word. We must be diligent with those conversations. And I believe we should take small steps on agreements. We agree about potential property swaps or what we want to see for activation. We institute that and we verify that that's been enacted. We're acting in good faith. And then we move on to the next step and the next step, but nothing's going to improve without conversations."
Rector: "The residents I speak with throughout Clearwater tell me they just want to see a balance within our downtown area. They understand that Scientology has been here for a long time, and will continue to have a presence here. But they just like to see a balance in something else, something else not Scientology-focused. So we need to work hard to try to find that balance. And that means attracting private investment, public investment to do some things over there, not just in our downtown but throughout Clearwater to make Clearwater as a whole city more vibrant than ever before."
Now to the coast, hurricane season is approaching, what more should or could the city be doing to mitigate flooding and threats from storm surge?
Beckman: "Number one, we have a hard time controlling storm surge or hurricanes. But what we have done is we've looked at we've got more lift stations there. We are cleaning regularly the infrastructure, helping that flow we have a weir that we are re-designing to prevent some of the flooding in a particular part. So we are being proactive. We're getting updates on that North Beach stormwater issues every council meeting work session. And so we are on top of it, it is a huge investment, $75 million to $100 million over three to five years. But we are working on it. We are taking short-term actions, mid-term actions and long-term actions and we are looking for allocations and help from the federal and state government as well."
Rector: "We've got flooding problems in certain parts of Clearwater just like they have flooding problems in parts of Tampa and St. Petersburg, and it has nothing to do with our proximity to the coastline has to do with our stormwater drainage and our ability to move water out of neighborhoods during heavy rains. So there are parts of Clearwater that we need to work on that for sure. I think we need to make sure that we keep our capital reserves strong because we have been very fortunate not to have been directly affected by a hurricane. And those reserves can be very important if we were impacted by a significant hurricane. Any city in Florida needs to plan appropriately and continue to anticipate sea level rise. And so there are whether it's our roadways or sea walls, we need to anticipate that sea levels are rising and make sure that we're mitigating damages to not just homes and businesses and to city assets."
What’s the biggest difference between you and your opponent, and why should voters elect you on Tuesday?
Beckman: "Voters should elect me, I hope because I have the experience. I've been a leader on the council in, in making positive improvements in our city with transparency and with reducing costs, we're saving our taxpayers money. And I've also been a leader, regionally. And I will tell you, I am a nonpartisan leader. I look at our city residents, as we are all we all have a voice we all need to be at the table. And I don't make my issues are issues at the city level about partisanship and my opponent does. And it's been a nasty race. It's been mean-spirited; it's been full of lies. It's divisive. His most recent mailer paints, the city and blues and reds. It's just unbelievable how divisive that's been and how much money he's poured into it. And it makes you wonder why I mean, I'm proud of my voting record. I'm proud of the questions I asked, I advocate for good governance and transparency. And I think my opponent and the people who support him, don't like that. And that's unfortunate, but I think it's part of good governance. It's what our residents deserve."
Rector: "Well, I've shown the experience over 30 years in and nonprofit leadership and, and private business leadership to be able to pull people together. And to me, that's what Clearwater needs the most right now. They need a leader who can pull the entire community together. I've through my various endorsements and support I've gotten throughout this campaign. I've shown a broad group of different organizations, different leaders that I'm able to communicate with regularly and to pull them get together to find ways to make Clearwater better."