Three sign up to replace Billiris

With Beverley Billiris on the way out next month, the businessmen announce plans to try for her seat on the Tarpon Springs City Commission.

By KELLEY BENHAM
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 10, 2002

TARPON SPRINGS -- With one election just over, a new round of campaigning is under way.

Before City Commissioner Beverley Billiris handed in her resignation letter Friday, candidates were lining up to replace her. Billiris will leave office Dec. 5 because she wants to be mayor in 2004 and term limits require her to sit out a year first.

The lineup for that mayoral race is so far only rumor.

But three candidates have announced plans to run for Billiris' commission seat, to be filled in a Feb. 4 special election. Qualifying for the election has been scheduled Dec. 9-11.

Peter Nehr, Roger Sellew and Spanos Harding are all businessmen who say they want to help guide the city in roughly its present direction.

Nehr, 50, wants to make the city more fiscally responsible, control growth and preserve its small-town charm, he said.

Nehr acknowledges a division in city politics between what Billiris calls the "new guard," represented by Mayor Frank DiDonato's five years in office, and an "old guard" that came before. But he wants voters to know that he isn't part of either group.

"I call myself the change of the guard," he said. "I'm not running against the commission. I just have different views."

He thinks the commission has been progressive, but he said it paid too much for a University of South Florida study that will guide that progress. He would set up a citizens advisory committee to track residents' concerns, he said.

He supports some development, particularly the apartments proposed for a 19-acre lot the city owns near Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital. But the city should make sure it preserves open space and recreation areas, and it could have made that land available to more buyers, he said.

"I believe in progress," he said, "but I also believe in tradition."

Nehr ran for the City Commission in March, finishing second to Jim Archer. He ran unsuccessfully for School Board in 2000.

Born in Austria, he has lived in Tarpon Springs for 12 years. He owns three local businesses and has been active in community groups such as the Kiwanis Club, his homeowners association, the Guardian Ad Litem program, the Upper Pinellas Association for Retarded Citizens, Egypt Temple Shriners, Rotary and the Upper Pinellas Republican Club. He has a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of South Florida. He is married and has three children.

Roger Sellew, 64, ran DiDonato's 2000 re-election campaign. He likes the current city administration, and his decades of business and management experience would help the city move smoothly in the same direction, he said.

"I'm not looking to change where we're going," he said. "I think we're doing very, very well."

His business experience taught him long-range planning, he said. So did his grandfather, a carpenter who taught him to"Measure twice, cut once."

He wants to attempt to build the city's tax base while preserving its small-town feel. He would continue redevelopment efforts such as those in the Union Academy neighborhood.

The city developed ties with the rest of the county in the last five years, and he would work to keep them strong. "It's critical we become integrated," he said, "or we're destined to live here in a very dark world."

Sellew moved to Tarpon Springs in 1998. He worked for a plastics company for almost 30 years and then was president and CEO of a joint venture between that company and Exxon Corp.

Sellew has never run for office. He is active in Rotary, is president of the Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital Trust, serves on the city's civil service board and is a representative to the Pinellas Assembly. He cooks for a program at the Citizens Alliance for Progress and mentors a student at Tarpon Springs High School. He has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is studying the Reformation and Renaissance at St. Petersburg College.

He has a wife, a daughter and three grandsons.

Spanos Harding, 38, went to junior high school in the building that is now City Hall. A Tarpon Springs native, he said he wants to preserve the city's best qualities for his two young children.

"I've watched the city grow in fits and spurts, backwards and forwards," he said. "I see some things we can improve."

He emphasizes his fresh, youthful approach to issues and, like the other candidates, says he is not part of an "old guard" or a new one.

He praises the city's redevelopment efforts and its improvements to its infrastructure.

He would like to see more parks and open spaces, and he would like to see youth programs and facilities promoted better.

The city could also improve its communication with residents, who often are not aware of what happens at commission meetings, he said.

"The most important thing is listening," he said.

He is still studying the issues facing the city and developing his campaign platform, he said, as the opportunity to run came unexpectedly.

In junior high, Harding unsuccessfully tried out for wrestling on the stage where the commission now meets. He has twice run unsuccessfully for City Commission.

He has run both large and small businesses, he said. He owns a propane business on U.S. 19 and a construction company. He is married with two children.

-- Kelley Benham can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or benham@sptimes.com .

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