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Call to aide keeps an edge on St. Pete Beach politics
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer ST. PETE BEACH -- Minutes after election results were announced Tuesday night, someone using Paul Skipper's cellular phone called a campaign worker from the opposing camp and left a message one St. Pete Beach police officer said had "threatening overtones." Skipper, a developer and city resident who is building the new City Hall, denied making the call to Michael Cohen, even though it came from his cell phone and the caller's voice sounds like Skipper's. "Hello, Michael. I just wanted to call and tell you about what a crummy race you guys ran, and you got exactly what you deserve," the voice said into the answering machine. "The only thing you can do now is maybe just pack up your bags and move out of our community. "In just a few weeks, we're going to get your other slug, and he'll be gone, too, and have a bad life," the voice continued. The ballots are in, the votes are counted. But days after the end of the St. Pete Beach race for mayor, rage and hurt still simmer at the surface among the city's most politically active. Skipper, who was accused of leaving a similar message for former District 4 City Commissioner John Bailey after the 1998 city election, insisted on both occasions that several people were at a party and any of them could have used one of his cell phones. Cohen worked for the campaign of Steve Gordon, the mayoral candidate who lost to incumbent Mayor Ward Friszolowski. During the campaign, Gordon frequently criticized the unique deal that allowed Skipper to build City Hall without publicly bidding the project. Skipper supported Friszolowski, who voted in favor of the new City Hall. Cohen said he assumes the "other slug" the caller referenced was Bill Allard, who will compete against incumbent City Commissioner Pete Blank in the runoff election scheduled for April 2. Blank and Skipper are friends; Allard, like Gordon, has criticized the City Hall deal during his campaign. Cohen filed a report with St. Pete Beach police, though Officer Vincent Marsilia said in his report that the city will not investigate any further because Cohen "was satisfied with the action taken and did not wish to pursue the matter at a criminal level." "I've got the right to vote and back anybody I want to in an election," Cohen said last week. "I don't care to be intimidated." Cohen said he has asked several people to listen to the message, and they agree the voice sounds like Skipper's. He is convinced that the developer made the phone call. "There's several people around that sound like me on the cell phone and sound like me, period," Skipper said. "It's not me, regardless of what anybody else says." Skipper said he recognizes how divisive this year's election was, and he plans to contact some people on the opposing side and invite them to meet together. On the top of his list are Allard and Ralph Lickton, a Pass-a-Grille resident and house designer recently credited with noticing that proposed new land development rules would have allowed developers to build higher buildings, even though city officials insisted no height changes were included in the proposal. Skipper said he was personally harmed in this year's election, as Gordon publicly called Skipper a "parasite" on the city. "They're our enemies, and they're out to do harm," Skipper said. "I've just taken a beating, but I'm willing to let bygones be bygones with any of these people." Skipper said Cohen isn't the only one who received harassing phone calls during this election season. He said he has received threatening calls himself from people saying "they're going to get" him. One time, while sitting in his car at his office, Skipper said, someone walked up and opened his passenger side door. "He got in my car and says they're going to get me," Skipper said. Throughout this year's campaign, candidates constantly complained about the sizes, locations and wording of other candidates' campaign signs. A few days before the election Gordon, the mayoral candidate, said he received a tip that someone planned to tamper with the ballots. He asked the city to position sheriff's deputies at the polls throughout the day, but the police chief sent a city officer for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
