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I was on the phone with Pam Iorio the other day. Where had I been, she asked. Truth was, I hadn't seen the mayor of Tampa, or talked to her, since her election in March. I had hardly written of her. If word counts counted, you'd think she no longer existed.
I have an explanation. I swear I do.
By the screwy standards of journalism, we typically only write when the news is bad. When the news is good, we don't know what to do. We get tongue-tied and go silent.
I haven't written about Iorio because so far, the news has been good.
Soon after taking office, she dispatched police and code enforcement to the neglected neighborhoods of east Tampa and won the approval of the people who lived there.
She picked a police chief widely liked by the Tampa ranks and the department he ran in Fort Walton Beach.
She said all the right things about turning around Tampa's long-languishing downtown.
She issued her first city budget.
How much more perfect could she be?
Her father, John Iorio, gently complains that he misses the weekly Sunday dinners he and his wife are so used to having with the mayor, her husband and two children.
His daughter's schedule just doesn't allow them as regularly as before. "Tampa gained a mayor, but I lost a daughter," he says.
This is as bad as it gets?
I confess to missing the old days. There was always something to write about.
There was Dick Greco and his felon of a friend, Eddie DeBartolo Jr.; Dick Greco and his deal for the Bucs; Dick Greco and his lovestruck housing chief Steve LaBrake and that pesky grand jury; Dick Greco and all that kissing.
There was so much news about Greco that it spilled over, post-election.
In May, his wife got the boot from her health club after pitching a fit at a manager and hurling coffee at him.
You can never picture Iorio losing her cool. What you see is Iorio trying super-hard to do what she thinks is right - trying even if it hurts.
You can't convince me that her recent daytime visit to St. Joseph's Hospital for chest pains was due to anything but the self-imposed pressure that perfectionists are known for.
Honeymoons like this never last.
People like me will have more to say about this mayor who means so well. She won't be crazy about some of it.
Iorio will have to learn to accept being less than perfect. She'll have to learn to live with the bad days that inevitably go with the job and the criticism of people who want her to reach out beyond her small group of trusted advisers and listen closely to community groups.
She'll also be faced with some explaining. It's likely Iorio will be forced to raise city fees for stormwater, after recent increases for other city services, like parking.
Nobody will tell her thank you.
Her hide ought to be thick enough, after a generation in politics. But the Hillsborough County Commission, though contentious, was more a deliberative job than an executive one. Serving as elections supervisor called on her to be highly organized, but for a singular event.
Now Iorio is the master of everything she touches. She barely has to nod in the direction of the City Council to accomplish what she wants.
I write this like I know completely what I'm talking about, but I can't fully imagine the burden of the mayor's job and the struggle to take control of the office when you are new to it.
Iorio won't succeed unless she has vision, but the devil is in the details. She has to balance the big picture and the close-up view. She has to learn to let go of some of the work and hand it to trusted others.
I have faith it will happen, if it hasn't already. This may mean I'm still stuck in the honeymoon, but so what? Iorio has the capacity to be an exceptional mayor, even if it does keep her now and then from dinner at her father's house.
- You can reach Mary Jo Melone at mjmelone@sptimes.com or 813 226-3402.