Sunday March 9, 2014 A Casual Conversation with CONA President Lisa Wheeler-Brown

On the campaign trail candidate Kriseman placed a strong emphasis on neighborhoods.

Under his predecessor Mayor Bill Foster the budget process had seriously eroded neighborhood support. By the end of Foster’s administration a lack of financial and staff support coupled with the city’s general disinterest in input from the neighborhoods had left St. Petersburg’s five decade old Council of Neighborhood Associations (CONA) at a very low point.

CONA has a new president, Wildwood Heights Neighborhood Association President, Lisa Wheeler-Brown. We sat down early in the morning at The Dome in downtown St. Pete for a casual conversation.

As of this writing CONA has about 24 member neighborhood associations, down from nearly 60 at one point. Lisa pointed out that former members are coming back and some new neighborhoods have joined CONA or are considering joining.

Lisa is an engaging woman, wife, mother and grandmother. She has been active in her Wildwood Heights neighborhood association for a number of years, and she has been active in CONA for the last couple of years.

I asked Lisa, "How did you find yourself in the CONA leadership position?"

Lisa responded, “When I saw the direction CONA was taking and it seemed everyone was looking for a change, I felt I was a strong leader and I could help lead CONA in the direction they wanted to go.”

“What direction do you think that is,” I asked?

“Getting back to their mission,” she replied, “advocating for the neighborhoods, and strengthening neighborhoods.

I asked Lisa to compare her experience with CONA’s relationship with the Foster administration and her expectations for the Kriseman administration.

“With the Foster administration we didn't really have a relationship,” she said. "With the Kriseman administration we have already have a relationship and I expect it to grow and we can work together side by side, and it’s already happening."

"What’s happening,” I asked.

"We will be meeting with the Mayor quarterly, the first meeting is on March 6th and in that meeting we will discuss our common goals and how we can work together," Lisa replied.

"Mayor Kriseman realizes how important neighborhoods are, and along with Neighborhood Affairs Director Mike Dove and his staff we are looking to strengthen that relationship by working together."

What are your plans for CONA as you get started?” I asked.

“We needed to set our priorities, and one of the things we have been talking about is Codes.” “I have had a meeting with Todd Yost (The Kriseman administration’s new Codes Director) and I am really excited.” “He is really going to get it done and the neighborhoods should be excited,” Lisa said. “This is a start to where you can tell the Kriseman administration cares about the neighborhoods.”

One of Lisa’s biggest problems will be to first reinvigorate St. Pete neighborhood associations and then convince them to become part of CONA.

"For many years CONA has been viewed as a “white” or perhaps even racist organization, but from my experience with CONA over the last two to three years I think that has been a misread by some of our community leaders," Lisa said.

Lisa’s election as CONA president should send a clear signal that everyone in St. Pete is welcome in CONA. That fact and the Kriseman administrations' announced focus on South St. Pete combined to together should help encourage all neighborhoods to step up.

To that end Lisa indicated that CONA and the Kriseman administration are going to be working on a mini grant project this budget year while planning the neighborhood support budget for 2015.

The mini grant program will provide small grants of up to nearly $500 for neighborhoods to use on organizational and planning meetings and small projects. The program will be administered from Mike Dove's Neighborhood Affairs department.

Our conversation turned to the Police Department and the selection of a new police chief.

Lisa is no stranger to the crime problems in St. Petersburg; she lost her oldest son to the violence.

Lisa turned even more serious during this part of our discussion, she said, “I feel the Police Department needs and is ready for new leadership.”

“Has there been any indication CONA will have a seat at the table in the selection process?" I asked.

Lisa’s response, “No, not yet, no, not at all.”

I followed up, “are you going to make that request?”

“We have a new CONA Public Safety Chair and he’s just getting onboard, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

Lisa went on, “This is a new year for CONA. We have been dealing with some inside issues, when a new leader comes in there will be a new direction and some adjustments in philosophy that have to be made, so that’s what we have been dealing with for now.”

When I circled back to question about the police chief selection process, Lisa agreed it would be a good idea to have some input, but indicated that is a conversation she has yet to have with the Kriseman administration.

Lisa Wheeler-Brown is an engaging individual, with an infectious smile. It would be very difficult not to like her right off the bat.

Beneath that warm exterior is a strong heart and mind, a real love for all of St. Pete and a genuine desire to serve her community.

Rick Kriseman is serious about South St. Pete. I know because he looked me straight in the eye and told me that BEFORE he ever announced he was running for Mayor.

With Lisa Wheeler-Brown the Mayor has an ally that may very well help him accomplish what his three predecessors could not, a serious move toward a seamless St. Petersburg.

E-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net. Or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook and Twitter.
Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks

Kriseman Confirms it Red Light Cameras are All about the Money

Mayor Rick Kriseman, in a pretty slick political move, has over hung today's City Council meeting with an announcement that if revenues continue to drop he will end the program in September, probably when the new fiscal year begins.

What is the Mayor really saying? If enough money does not come in to support the camera vendor and off set expenses he will shut the program down.

All of this red light camera crash safety justification is really a bunch of bunk. If enough of you don't run the red lights to pay for the system we'll just shut it down. Intersection safety is really not important enough to take general revenues away from programs to keep the intersections "safe".

Therefore, it's all about the money.

As long as enough people break the law to pay the cost of enforcing it, plus a little more, we will enforce it.

When you don't---we won't.

The real objective of the Mayor's announcement seems to be to give some political cover to Karl Nurse and Darden Rice, so they can vote for a motion to defer the decision, motion likely made by Charlie Gerdes and seconded by Jim Kennedy, to give the administration time to figure out how to jack this program back up and improve the cash flow.

Nice piece of political theater, you can tell Kriseman did learn something from his years in the state legislature.

Probably the most disheartening part of the Mayor's announcement was this quote as reported in Saintpetersblog

“Kriseman said. “I want to thank our Transportation & Parking Staff for their continued due diligence with respect to the safety of our citizens.”

Really? See my Post: Matt Florell Takes another Public Beating this Time Thanks to Jim Kennedy

These are the people that, snuggled up to ATS, the system vendor, shortened the yellow lights, withheld crash information from City Council and treated citizens who called them out like second class members of our community.

I guess if I was still a manager or assistant director in the Kriseman administration I would now know what is expected of me.

Let's hope City Council doesn't buy his charade and votes to kill this program once and for all. 

e-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net, or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb)Friend request. See More of Doc at Bay Post Internet and St.Pete Patch, Gulfport Patch, Clearwater Patch, Palm Harbor Patch, Largo Patch.

Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks

Red Light Cameras and How Will St. Pete City Council Really Work?

On Thursday's City Council Agenda, once again is the issue of continuing the City's highly controversial red light camera program and refunds for short yellow light tickets.

Here is a FACEBOOK invite to the meeting from Matt Florell St. Pete City Council to Vote on short yellow refunds.

The whole issue will be on the Council agenda Thursday as a new business item. The Council members in favor of RLCs, Dudley, Kennedy, Gerdes, Nurse, the Council members opposed to RLCs, Newton, Kornell, Foster, Rice maybe"

With Kornell constantly moaning about how he doesn't want to deal with the red-light issue any more, Dudley waving his driver's ed teachers manual, Kennedy, responding to his only campaign supporter that really seems to matter, ATS the red light camera vendor, and Rice desperately looking for a way out of her campaign rhetoric against red light cameras and also dealing with a campaign contribution from ATS this thing has all the trappings of a three stooges movie.

There is however a bit more at stake here than the red light cameras.

Karl Nurse needs to take a look down the dais and figure out his best course of action for the future. His fellow red light camera supporters have not really returned the favor by helping Karl out with south side issues. In fact they have been, for the most part, his biggest hurdle to get past.

Kennedy, Dudley and to some degree Gerdes have been the biggest roadblocks to moving south side initiatives forward.

Sooner or later the City Council will fracture into at least two coalitions. Those who are willing to dedicate resources to the neighborhoods and south side issues and those that would moderate these efforts.  This could well be the vote that sets up the City Council coalitions going forward.

This red light program which is the poorest managed, implemented and justified effort of the City in a long time simply needs to go as do the people managing it.

If Nurse really wants do the City and the Mayor a favor, he will cast a vote that ends the program which will end the discussions, end the time being wasted by City Council and give the Mayor a chance to clean house over in the Transportation Department, an opportunity the Mayor should not miss.

Why the Mayor continues to support a department management team that has been proven by members of the public, to be untrustworthy, deceitful, capable of withholding information, and generally disrespectful of the public and City Council is beyond me.

Karl Nurse may not only hold the key to the red light program, but his vote may also go a long way toward establishing a City Council that can get things done rather than one that remains generally deadlocked.

e-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net. Or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook and Twitter.
Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks

Who Says Campaign Contributions Don't Pay Off?

It sure looks like ATS (American Traffic Systems), the Red Light Camera Vendor to the City, is getting their money's worth from the $1000 contribution to Council Member Jim Kennedy and $500 to Council Member Darden Rice.

In Friday's red light camera workshop, Mr. Kennedy continued his steadfast support for the system that over 50% of the public seems to want ended, has been fraught with mismanagement and outright deception by the City Department managing it, and statistics continue to point to its questionable effectiveness.

Mr. Kennedy is so enamored with the system; he wants the Mayor to expand it.

Darden Rice, who steadfastly said on numerous times on the campaign trail when directly asked, said that she would vote against continuing to red light camera program, and now seems to be searching for some socially acceptable way to justify the systems existence by wanting to dedicate the money to some benevolent civic cause.

Perhaps this pandering effort would provide cover for supporting one of the most flawed, poorly managed and unpopular programs in the City.

The problem with Darden's approach is, as Council Member Nurse pointed out, the whole program is at or near a breakeven point where the City's share of the revenue, is going to zero and there will be no money to divvy out. So I guess Darden will have to look for some other reason to support the program.

She may have an ally in the Mayor; he thinks the solution to the revenue problem is to move the cameras to intersections where they will catch more red light runners. Read that create more revenue.

There was a great deal of concern expressed by Council members regarding the program's turn to negative cash flow, and is it "cost effective"..

If saving lives is as important as the supporters say it is, then the fact it costs money should not be the consideration, unless of course stopping all of those red light runners is important as long as it doesn't negatively impact the City budget.

But then it's never been about the money.

e-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net, or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb)Friend request. See More of Doc at Bay Post Internet and St.Pete Patch, Gulfport Patch, Clearwater Patch, Palm Harbor Patch, Largo Patch.

Disclosures: Contributor to No Tax for Tracks

The Sunday Post - A Casual Conversation with Todd Yost St. Pete's New Codes Enforcement Director

That name, Todd Yost, may sound familiar. Todd was the St. Petersburg Codes Enforcement Director starting in the Baker Administration and the Foster Administration, until he was unceremoniously forced out of the position under the Foster Administration. That's another story.

Todd took over Codes Enforcement in 2007 with a mandate to improve both efficiency and results and to become more responsive to the needs of neighborhoods. I had the good fortune of working with Todd and providing some technical input as he began to automate the administrative side and the field operation of the Codes Enforcement operation.

The primary objective of a municipal codes enforcement department is to assure that the properties in the municipality conform to the standards that the municipality has established. The goal is compliance.

Todd and I settled into a booth at Midtown Sundries in downtown St. Pete to talk about what he had been doing, why he came back to the City and what he sees as the future of the Codes Enforcement Department.

Todd is an intelligent and engaging man with a really fast mind. When you set down with him to talk you better be ready to focus.

Todd shares that feeling that there is something special about public service. Once you have worked in the public sector and it really sinks in what you are doing, it is one of the most rewarding jobs you can have.

We all know that working in the private sector can be financially and personally rewarding and frequently comes with a lot less exposure to criticism than the public sector.

When I asked Todd what he had been doing he quickly responded he had been working for one of the large financial institutions here in the Bay  area and doing a lot of volunteer work.

He said when Mike Dove, the new Director of Neighborhood Affairs,  called to offer him the job, Codes Enforcement now reports to Neighborhood Affairs, he was flattered and shocked but politely declined. "It would be so difficult to leave his current position," he said

Often that is the first reaction when you have left public service and the phone rings and someone is asking you to come back. Why would I want to go back to all that hassle?

But, as also often is the case, in a day or so that whole public service thing starts nagging at you and you find yourself on the phone asking: "when you would like me to start?" Such was the case.

Todd has been back as of this conversation about three weeks. I asked him what had changed, and his