The Pier is Kriseman's problem and it needs to stay that way
St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
St. Pete City Council batted round how to pay for the Pier they
thought they were getting in Thursday’s Council meeting.
If you have been following the blogs and local newspapers, you
know by now what was proposed cannot be built from the amount of money in the
budget.
It looks like the whole project is short $5 to $10 Million give or
take a few bucks.
Kornell is totally against any more money, Gerdes and Kennedy want
more info and the rest of City Council seems to be inclined to throw in the
towel and give Mayor Kriseman the money.
City Council needs to give Kriseman all the money he needs to
build the new Pier.
They need to make sure this whole mess stays Kriseman’s problem.
Over the public’s objection Kriseman and his team forced this
design on the citizens of St. Pete, the total responsibility for Pier project
is his and it needs to stay that way.
Republicans and Democrats on City Council need to make sure that
the Mayor and his team stay in the responsibility seat.
Kriseman’s comment that we can “sharpen the budget pencil” is code
for we are going to prune your pet projects so we can build a downtown
playground.
It may be tough to stomach, but unless City council wants to pull
the plug on the Pier the reality is they have to agree to make the money
available. Otherwise Kriseman will hang the failure of the Pier around their
necks.
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Disclosures:
Contributor: Bob Gualtieri for Pinellas County Sheriff
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