ST. PETERSBURG — Every December, a routine City Council meeting to elect a chairperson and vice chairperson for the coming year opens a window into alliances, feuds and where the power lies at City Hall.
This year’s vote, in particular, illustrated how the Tampa Bay Rays stadium ordeal has affected city politics. And the leadership tussle could be a harbinger of next year’s council dynamics.
It took five rounds of voting Dec. 12 to pick Copley Gerdes as chairperson. Newly elected council members Corey Givens and Mike Harting backed Lisset Hanewicz, who has consistently voted against the Rays deal. Other members threw their votes to Gerdes, the current vice chairperson and a supporter of the deal.
Givens said he pushed for Hanewicz in part because he sees her as independent of the mayor’s administration. But others took issue with Hanewicz’s questioning of the stadium deal.
“Just because you can put a sentence together, you can talk loud, you may be the smartest person in this drawer, does not put you in a guaranteed leadership position,” current chairperson Deborah Figgs-Sanders said to explain her vote for Gerdes over Hanewicz. “This has been a very rough year.”
Gina Driscoll, who has been seen as a tiebreaker on the Rays deal but ultimately has voted in favor of it, eventually flipped her vote from Hanewicz to Gerdes for chairperson.
She then nominated Hanewicz for vice chairperson. Brandi Gabbard nominated Richie Floyd. Another five rounds of voting ensued before Hanewicz won out.
Hanewicz, the only attorney on the council, has picked apart the stadium deal’s legal agreements. She was the only council member to recently press Rays president Brian Auld on whether the team was still a willing party in the deal.
“I led the charge in asking questions that I thought needed to be answered,” Hanewicz said during the vice chairperson vote. She added, “People may take issue with how I may ask questions, but I’ve never attacked people personally. It’s on the facts. It’s always on the facts.”
Gerdes switched his vote from Floyd to Hanewicz to avoid flipping a coin to decide who would be vice chairperson. He told a reporter he hopes the council comes together to focus on what’s best for the city of St. Petersburg.
“If we diverge … a little, that’s OK. That’s healthy,” he said.
Floyd, who nominated himself for chairperson but didn’t receive any other votes for that position, said he doesn’t think the coalitions behind either Gerdes or Hanewicz push hard enough against the interests of corporations.
This year, Floyd voted against the Rays deal and a benefits package for Foot Locker to relocate its headquarters to St. Petersburg, both of which were approved by the council.
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“Ultimately, I don’t think the agendas of either of those groups of people are really all that different,” he said. “Neither of them are pushing for the agenda I think is best for the city.”
Being the council chairperson isn’t just ceremonial. It comes with the power of placing council members on committees and boards, calling for special meetings and having a say on what goes on the agenda. When the chairperson is absent, the vice chairperson fills in and usually becomes chairperson the following year — if colleagues vote that way.
Givens and Harting will be sworn in as new council members at 11 a.m. Thursday at City Hall. Figgs-Sanders, who was reelected, will also be sworn in as will Gerdes and Hanewicz as chairperson and vice chairperson for 2025.
Colleen Wright is a reporter covering St. Petersburg. She can be reached at cwright@tampabay.com.
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