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'Colorful' candidate adds to his resume
By AMY WIMMER, Times Staff Writer
REDINGTON SHORES -- One of Michael Glick's favorite phrases is "Don't Pick on Glick" -- a slogan he once had printed on a flag that flew in his beachfront back yard. But public records -- from court files to police reports to code enforcement complaints -- depict Glick as the man who picks on others, from his next-door neighbors to a clerk at the local Home Depot. Glick, a mayoral candidate in Redington Shores who faces competition from incumbent Mayor J.J. Beyrouti, is used to the criticism. It's becoming a bit of a biannual tradition. Every couple of years, Glick decides to run for office, and the stories run in the newspaper, detailing how he once fired a gun in a Redington Shores coin laundry and painted a dozen large frowning faces on the side of his house to show his disgust with some neighbors. He has been described as everything from a harmless jokester to an annoying menace to a dangerous and vindictive criminal. And in the years since his most recent run for office, he has created an even longer paper trail of public records for voters to consider: In 2000, a circuit judge ordered Glick to stay away from Leslie Briewahn, an employee at the Home Depot in Seminole. According to the court file, a Home Depot manager found several fliers in the store depicting a man bending over, an arrow pointing to his posterior, with the words: "Pucker up." Briewahn said in the court record that Glick admitted he was behind the fliers, and he once came into the store and, flapping his arms, shouted at Briewahn to "pucker up." "His attempts to make contact with me and to try to harass and upset me appear to be escalating, and I am concerned for my safety," Briewahn wrote in the complaint. Glick has continued to feud with his neighbors. Indian Shores police officers, who handle law enforcement in Redington Shores, have been called to his home more than six dozen times in the past 12 years. Among the many complaints, neighbors accused Glick of parking in front of their mailbox; hosting loud parties, including at least one with a live band that played outdoors; and of stealing a traffic cone from a Pinellas County utilities work site. Glick's other run-ins with the law have been well-documented. According to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records, Glick was fined $150 and given probation in a case involving harassing telephone calls, was cited for violating pollution control standards and was ordered to complete 52 hours of community service in a case involving a culpable negligence charge filed after he blew a hole in the wall of a coin laundry with a shotgun. Glick garnered just 23 percent of the vote in 1998, the last time he ran for mayor against J.J. Beyrouti. He fared a little better two years later, when he ran for District 3 town commissioner against Clell Miller. In that race, Glick won 37 percent of the vote. But now Glick wants to again take on Beyrouti, whom he once claimed as an enemy but now describes as simply "having a different style" than Glick. He has big ideas for the town. He says he will be a cost-conscious mayor who will work to reduce garbage and sewer rates. He is convinced that reporters write about his background only because he is so outspoken. "When you speak your mind, and you're as fearless as I am, you're going to get some press," said Glick, 52. "I'm just a colorful guy."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
