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Activist will seek city post

Joseph Caetano says he wants to serve on the Tampa City Council to give New Tampa its due.

By DEMORRIS LEE
Published July 29, 2005

NEW TAMPA - Longtime New Tampa activist Joseph Caetano plans to seek the District 7 City Council seat being vacated by Shawn Harrison in 2007.

Caetano said this week that he planned to file the necessary paperwork by today. He plans to hire a consultant to help in his efforts. Because a contract hasn't been finalized, he declined to name the consultant.

"I feel I can do a great job with my business experience," Caetano said. "I took a business that had zero in 1988 to a level of $2.5-million gross receipts a year. That's a lot, and you only do that through due diligence and doing things right."

Caetano owns two hair salons in New Tampa.

Because of term limits, Harrison can't run for a third term in the District 7 seat. He has chosen to run for an at-large seat on the City Council in the upcoming election.

Caetano has been a strong advocate in the New Tampa area. Recently he successfully lobbied to get a second ambulance for the area, and a traffic signal at the Bruce B. Downs and Tampa Palms boulevards intersection is the result of his efforts.

But as recently as this year, Caetano has led an effort that would allow New Tampa to incorporate and become its own city, separate and apart from the city of Tampa.

"That has nothing to do with why I'm running for City Council," Caetano said. "That's not my intent for running. My interest for running is to see that we out here in New Tampa are getting what we are supposed to be getting. Right now, we are getting shortchanged."

[Last modified July 28, 2005, 08:19:13]