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We're stuck with official a handful of voters elected

The New-Age politics that the Republicans created to give us President Bush have arrived in local city politics. The party finds a smiling face with nothing inside to respond to all questions with "I am the family values candidate."

Largo's Mary Gray Black got elected and her first words were, "To God be the glory." You see, Mary speaks to God and she truly believes God speaks back to her. In this New-Age politics, the Bible supersedes the U.S. Constitution. Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people have no civil rights. Mary Gray Black based her whole campaign on taking away any antidiscrimination protections for these people.

With her weapon being the Bible, who will she go after next? Slaves should obey their masters? Women should obey their husbands? It is an abomination to eat shellfish and to touch the skin of the swine - as in a football?

Only 6 percent of Largo's registered voters voted. Of that 6 percent, 2.8 percent voted for Black. The good news is less then 3 percent of Largo's citizens voted for her. The bad news is we all are stuck with her for the next three years.

On a side note, candidate Gigi Arntzen won in the precincts, then lost the election based on absentee ballots. I sincerely hope that the state Elections Commission is going to ensure that non-Florida residents did not misuse the absentee ballot to get a "family values" candidate into an office in Florida.

"Sore winner' far worse than "sore loser'

Largo Commissioner Mary Gray Black is calling for an inquiry into alleged charter violations during the city election campaign. Black appears to be very knowledgeable about the city charter. She had a choice about what she chose to do with this knowledge. She could have used it to be a mentor to the other candidates, commissioners and city staff to help educate everyone on the city charter and build relationships with the city staff and community. She would have stood out as a true leader. This would have shown she truly had the best interests of the city of Largo, its residents and the staff at heart.

Instead, it appears she chose to use this information for her own agenda. Black should have pointed out the possible error in qualifying cards as soon as possible, but instead she waited until after the cards were due and qualifying for the election ended so she could use this "ace in the hole" to attempt to disqualify all of the other candidates. The same holds true of the commission/staff campaign contributions.

It appears that Black has already placed herself in an adversarial role with the city and its other elected officials. She will only communicate with the city manager in writing? I wonder how effective this will be. I, for one, as a resident of Largo, would appreciate it if Black would stop throwing stones and get on with what she is being paid to do, which is participate as an effective commissioner of the city of Largo, with the progress of our city as her primary goal.

There is only one thing worse than a sore loser and that is a sore winner.

Manager seeks to set record straight

Some inaccurate information has been distributed to the residents of Tarpon Springs and the city staff has asked me to publicly respond to these issues:

1. The city's comprehensive plan has received the following recognition:

Florida Growth Management Award, Florida Department of Community Affairs, for Best Local Government Comprehensive Plan for a Small Municipality, 1990.

Historic District Design Guidelines manual, Award of Excellence from the American Planning Association, 2000.

Historic District Design Guidelines manual, honorable mention, field of Preservation Education/Media, from the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation, 2002.

2. The last update to the city's comprehensive plan was conducted in April 1997. The next update is scheduled for 2007 in compliance with the requirements of state law.

3. There have been no increases in zoning density approved within Tarpon Springs over the last six years and none could be approved without a public hearing and public notice.

4. A photo of a highrise building of at least 14 stories has been distributed as a part of this inaccurate information. The city code places height limits of 30 to 35 feet on single- and two-family residential development, and 45 feet on multifamily and commercial development. This would prohibit any building of more than three to four stories. Approximately a one-block area on the Sponge Docks permits up to 75 feet as a conditional use.

5. Ed Armstrong, the attorney for Ceridian, the owner of the proposed Wal-Mart site, has publicly stated that based on all of the information he had, the county has never approached Ceridian about a possible purchase of the site. Mr. Armstrong also noted that had they done so, the pre-existing commercial zoning of the property would have most certainly made the asking price too high for development of a park. The county had already recently purchased a 64-acre parcel in Tarpon Springs known as the Olsham property on the gulf for designation as preservation lands.

6. To our knowledge, no one connected with the city ever approached or recruited Wal-Mart to develop the ABR site or any other site in the city. The attorney for Wal-Mart advised city staff that Pinellas County had in fact recommended that the company approach Tarpon Springs about this location.

7. The first steps toward water independence began in the summer of 2002 when the Board of Commissioners included $100,000 in the water and sewer enterprise fund to conduct a study. In-house staff performed the study, using consultants only for peer review. This significantly reduced the cost of the effort and accelerated the time line.

8. Both Clearwater and Dunedin have found an inverse relationship between the location of water and the location of sinkholes.

City staff members take great pride in their efforts to do everything possible to preserve and enhance the quality of life for all of our citizens.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The information to which Ms. Posivach responds was contained in a campaign ad for Robin Saenger, who was a candidate in Tuesday's Tarpon Springs election. The advertisement was not printed in the St. Petersburg Times.

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[Last modified March 9, 2005, 00:55:19]