TAMPA, Fla. — While the strained relationship between Tampa Mayor Jane Castor’s administration and some members of city council has been building for months, the tensions erupted after a press conference Wednesday where mayor Jane Castor announced new transparency and accountability measures for city employees.
Castor began the news conference addressing the most recent upheavals on city council: the resignation of former city councilman John Dingfelder over a lawsuit related to alleged public records abuses and a sexual harassment investigation into former Chairman Orlando Gudes. Gudes resigned his position as chair but has refused to give up his council seat.
"As you all know, we've had a turbulent few weeks on city council," Castor said.
She said those turbulent weeks led the city to introduce new measures so all city officials and employees’ actions are more transparent to the public. Changes include new software to retain public records on employees' cell phones and a plan for the city’s ethics commission review requirements for lobbyist disclosures and registrations.
"There should be no uncertainty about city employees and elected officials' obligation to maintain and produce records when asked by the public," Castor said.
CITY QUESTIONED ON TRANSPARENCY
Speaking to the press immediately after the press conference, Councilman Bill Carlson turned the issue of accountability back on the city.
“The mayor had a press conference today about transparency and about accountability, which I’ve been calling on for three years. In fact, city council has been calling on that from the mayor’s office,” said Carlson. “But in telling the public and the city council about this press conference, they didn’t tell us what it was about. How is that transparent?”
Carlson went on to say city’s problems with transparency reach far beyond that.
“What about Hanna Avenue? When last week, we asked why a contract went from $1 million to $108 million without an RFP, and nobody on her staff would answer the question about why that happened,” Carlson said. “Why is it that on Toilet to Tap, despite significant scientific evidence, the city is still pushing forward to spend $2 billion to $6 billion on a project the taxpayers don’t want and don’t need? But they won’t answer the questions as to why they want that.”
COUNCILMAN: ‘WE’RE ALL UNDER ATTACK’
Carlson, Gudes and Dingfelder have all been critical of significant matters supported by city administration or related to development.
Dingfelder sided with constituents, fighting developers who pushed for rezoning a W. Gandy property into apartments that would increase the density in the area. That property became the center of the public records investigation that ultimately led to Dingfelder’s resignation. He was accused of using his wife’s personal email address to conduct public business.
Gudes pushed back against city administration on a $108 million contract for a new city center on Hanna Ave. after community members and business leaders raised questions about how a 2015 contract from a previous administration ballooned to more than ten times its original amount without developer qualifications being reconsidered.
Government experts say it is an industry standard for contracts to go out again for new requests for qualifications whenever a project changes significantly in scope and price.
Both Gudes and Carlson voted against the mayor’s pick for police chief in March. After the vote, Carlson sent an ominous warning predicting that those who went against the mayor’s administration could be attacked.
Days later, the city released documents connected to a harassment investigation into Gudes from several years back.
“We're all under attack. All city council members who vote against the mayor are attacked constantly,” Carlson said Wednesday.
“This is a divisive and terrible environment,” he continued. “…It's not the problem with city council. It's a problem with the mayor's office that attacks city council constantly. They're constantly leaking information. They're constantly attacking us. They need to stop.”
City spokesperson Adam Smith denied Carlson’s allegations of politically-motivated “attacks.”
“The city council's absolutely not under attack. You heard what the mayor said, that these incidents were isolated…The city administration and the city council should be working together for the best ethics and transparency the city can possibly have,” he said.
MAYOR: ‘…THESE INCIDENTS WERE NOT CAUSED BY THE CITY OF TAMPA.’
When Mayor Castor addressed media on Wednesday, she said the fallout on city council has nothing to do with city administration.
“These incidents, these scandals were the work of John Dingfelder and Orlando Gudes," Castor said at a press conference Wednesday.
“These are two isolated incidents. One of them caused inexcusable misery to a city employee, cost taxpayers significant money and time, distracting from our mission of improving quality of life in Tampa. But they did not reflect the majority of our good, hardworking councilmembers,” she said.
Castor went on to say the Gudes and Dingfelder incidents were catalysts for the new transparency measures at city hall.
In addition to new methods for processing public records and a review of ethics standards, Castor also said employees will be required to watch and/or attend a Sunshine Law refresher class to "ensure no one is ignorant of the law."
"We must never stop working to improve the public trust in city government and the public should never have even a shadow of a doubt that their public officials are working for the public good and not their own personal benefit," Castor said.
She added that while potential conflicts of interest are inevitable, they must be clear since residents deserve the most transparent and ethical government possible.