Tampabay: Official accused of racial remarks

Pinellas County Commissioner John Morroni was driving with a photographer from the St. Petersburg Times about two weeks ago when their conversation turned to real estate.

Morroni, a Realtor, gave Carrie Pratt his business card and some advice, should she be considering a move to St. Petersburg.

"He said that black people were spread out throughout the city, and not in one area, so I could never tell about the neighborhood," Pratt said. "He said, now in Clearwater, all of the black people were in the Greenwood neighborhood, so therefore I knew where all the crime was so I knew where not to buy."

Monday afternoon, Morroni angrily denied mentioning race or where blacks live -- a statement that would violate state and federal fair housing laws.

"I didn't use those exact words, and let me make something perfectly clear: We were talking in generalities. I wasn't acting as her Realtor. The crime rate is higher in St. Petersburg than in the rest of the county," Morroni said. "If you look at that you'll see that's true."

Asked again whether he discussed race or where blacks live in the county, Morroni said, "Did I blame it on one ethnic group? No. I'm sorry she misunderstood. Or we both misunderstood each other. Or she misunderstood me."

Morroni made those remarks on the phone after walking out of an interview Monday morning without saying whether he made the statements.

"Anybody who knows me knows I'm not that way," he said.

The conversation with Pratt was "between her and I," Morroni said. He asked if the Times would write about his remarks if he were a doctor who gave Pratt medical advice.

Pratt, 26, has worked for the newspaper since June 1999. She wears a hearing aid in her right ear, and sometimes has difficulty hearing in large crowds or groups. Hearing in her left ear is not impaired, and Pratt said she understood Morroni clearly. Her hearing aid was turned on, there was no music in the car and Pratt was sitting in the front seat.

On Dec. 19, Pratt was working on a story about Morroni's move from state to local government when, she said, he commented about St. Petersburg's demographics. The commissioner's district includes a northern part of the city.

Pratt said she didn't respond to Morroni's remarks at the time because she didn't know what to say. She told no one at the Times about the conversation at first. But the exchange kept bothering her, and a few days after the conversation, Pratt asked her father for advice.

Don Pratt, who lives in Lexington, Ky., came to Pinellas to visit his daughter for the holidays.

"She had gone with this real estate agent, who's also a county commissioner, and she told me he suggested to her that she not move into certain areas of the county because they were racially unfavorable, and they would have crime and be low-income," Don Pratt said Monday.

"She had no idea of what to do," he said. "She doesn't like to be recognized except for her work."

He suggested that his daughter contact a state or federal housing agency.

On Friday, Carrie Pratt told her editors about the conversation. It happened the same day news broke that St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker had fired police Chief Mack Vines for comparing the actions of a black suspect to those of an orangutan.

As Morroni was driving his 10-year-old son to school, Pratt said, Morroni told his son about what happened and told him that Baker "had no choice."

The disputed conversation came later, after Morroni dropped off his son.

For a real estate agent to make such remarks would be a "total violation" of fair housing laws, said Cecil Howard, general counsel for the Florida Commission on Human Relations.

The commission investigates claims of housing discrimination, and if it finds sufficient evidence, a victim can sue in civil court. Usually, the victim in such cases is someone trying to sell his or her home, Howard said. Most investigations are prompted by a victim's complaint, but the commission can initiate them.

"What would be interesting is, how many people has this person steered away from a minority neighborhood?" Howard said.

Three county commissioners and the managing broker of Morroni's realty office said Monday that they had never heard Morroni make a discriminatory remark, nor heard complaints that he had.

"Usually I am not at a loss for words," said Calvin Harris, outgoing commission chairman and the first black person elected to the board. "But this has just floored me. I would never in a hundred years think that you would say that one of our commissioners said something like that."

Commissioner Ken Welch, who is also African-American, sits next to Morroni at commission meetings, where the two men frequently exchange jokes or quick side remarks.

"I'd be real disappointed if that turned out to be the case," Welch said. "It doesn't sound to me like something John would say. Why would he even say something like that to a person from the media? I'm just shocked."

Barbara Sheen Todd, the commission's new chairwoman, said she has known Morroni for about a decade as a "very giving and loving person."

"I just wonder if she misunderstood what he said, but I don't know," she said. "I wasn't there. John is not a racist. As long as I've known him, he's been supportive of minorities and women."

Virginia Lomagno, managing broker in Morroni's St. Petersburg realty office, Arvida Realty Services, said Morroni got his license about two years ago. She and Morroni said he does few direct sales, but refers clients to that office. Lomagno said any such remark would be "totally against" office policy and Realtor ethics codes.

"That doesn't even sound like John Morroni," she said. "The man is a hard-working, honorable gentleman, and I find it hard to believe this. But there would, I guess, be no reason for your photographer to make that up. . . . I will get to the bottom of it, because it's something, as a company, we do not tolerate."

-- Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this report. Staff Writer Lisa Greene can be reached at greene@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4162.

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