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Health & Fitness

What's Up at St. Pete City Hall?

Things have been a bit quiet at City Hall. Not a whole lot of communication coming from the Mayor's office.

Lot of effort going into getting the entire organization gathered back up and headed in a unified direction. You can see the current St. Petersburg Organizational Chart here. Expect some more changes in the next few months.

We are 25 days into the first 100 days of the Kriseman administration. Key issues on the table are getting the effort started to find a new Police Chief, see my thoughts at Picking a New Police Chief and getting the Neighborhood effort rolling.

Find out what's happening in St. Petewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Some things to watch this week

Monday

Find out what's happening in St. Petewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

CONA Leadership Meeting with Mayor Kriseman at City Hall Room 100 at 6:00PM.

Thursday

Council Workshop following the 1:30PM Agenda Review, allocating $124,000 for Neighborhoods

On the campaign trail candidate Kriseman indicated he would be taking a seat on the PSTA Board. With the sales tax initiative and the growing opposition it will be interesting to see if and when the Mayor decides to fulfill this campaign promise.

Given the state of mind of the City organization Mayor Kriseman inherited, it is going to take a while to get things really moving.

The Mayor and his inner circle have made some very good calls on staffing changes, and with Gary Cornwell, who is well respected and trusted by City staff, as interim City administrator rebuilding organizational confidence should be a lot easier.

The new Mayor, his new staff and the Office of the Mayor are rapidly burning through that critical first 100 days. Some more information about what's going on at the working level and a win or two even if they're small would be a big help.

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

Comment From the Mayor's Office via e-mail

Hi, Dr. Webb --  

Just wanted to pass along a couple of notes on your latest piece, just for reference.

 First, Mayor Kriseman never said he would have a seat on PSTA Board. He said the TBARTA Board, and they recently just had their first meeting. 

 I think we've had a number of "wins" -- starting on swearing-in day, which was generally well received. Specifically, the opening of the Pier and removal of the fence was quite well received. I know Mayor Kriseman and several staff are still hearing about it from folks pleased with the accessibility to the Pier head.

 Since he's taken office -- just a little over three weeks ago -- Mayor Kriseman has had the Chief change the police chase policy, and has had also had the Chief change the policy with respect to police running red lights and red light cameras.

 It got good coverage on TV and in several other media outlets when the mayor signed on to Mayors Against Illegal Guns.   

 We also did a quick piece for Bay News 9 about the Mayor's Action Center.

 I'm not sure if you would agree the Times/PolitiFact "Krise-O-Meter" is a good measure of what is getting done and what's not, but I might point out that of the twenty-five things listed, Mayor Kriseman already has two listed as "promise kept." (Hire someone to oversee Midtown, and change the chase policy; I am arguing that "support Greenlight Pinellas" should be a promise kept, too -- he talked about his support of it in his swearing-in address, and as I said, is sitting on the TBARTA Board. We'll see what the PolitiFact people say.)

 I would also point out that you were 100% right about Gary Cornwell -- he has been really fantastic (as has everyone else who has been around; these are truly dedicated, amazing people, and just knowing the city is in their capable hands ought to make everyone sleep a little easier.) 

 I will be sending out the Mayor's calendar regularly starting this week, and you're on the list. You'll get a clearer idea, maybe, of what the mayor has going on throughout the week. Hope that'll be helpful for you.

 Thanks. Talk to you soon.

 Ben K.

 Actually I'm pretty sure the Mayor said PSTA, at the meeting I was at, since the comment was in the context of making sure public transportation works in ST. Pete, and TBARTA really is not all that influential in street level decisions. 

TBARTA is a much safer place for the Mayor to be. 

As to PolitiFact - not high on my list of credible sources.

 All the rest of the responses are on target. 

 Doc

 

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