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Activist plans to run for mayor

The candidate has a personal stake in trying to rein in development.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published June 30, 2006

SEMINOLE - Leo Plenski doesn't think the city is doing enough to control developers. So he's running for mayor.

Plenski, head of the Bay Pines Homeowners Association, says he's tired of the city not doing enough to protect mobile home park residents.

Plenski also helped start Floridians Against Injustice to Residents of Mobile/Manufactured Homes, or FAIR, an activist group that promotes the interests of mobile home owners across the state.

He had lobbied for the Seminole City Council to place a moratorium on development, but officials' refusal to do so helped push Plenski into running for office.

He hoped a moratorium would at least temporarily prevent developers from razing mobile home parks to build condos and townhomes.

"I'm definitely going to run for mayor, and we're going to take on Jimmy Johnson and the bird flu man, Dan Hester," said Plenski, who is 68.

The reference to council member Hester concerns a question Hester raised a few weeks ago about the threat of bird flu striking Pinellas.

Hester is up for re-election in March, as are Johnson and Patricia Hartstein.

Plenski told Hester after the council dismissed the possibility of a moratorium that mobile home activists would target him in the next election.

Johnson is frequently mentioned as a candidate for mayor in next March's race. The seat is being vacated this year by Dottie Reeder, who is running for state House District 51.

Johnson said Monday he had not decided whether to run but welcomed Plenski's interest.

"It's still in limbo," Johnson said. "I think it's wonderful that Leo's running. That's the American way."

Johnson said he will decide in the next two or three months. "We have plenty of time," he said.

There is a possible question of residency for Plenski.

If the association's lawsuit does not prevail, Plenski will have to move out of Bay Pines Mobile Home Park by the end of this year, three months before the election.

Plenski maintained that it would not be a problem. The courts, he said, will enable him and other residents to stay in Bay Pines.

But if the courts do not side with him, he said he will move elsewhere in the city so he will remain eligible to serve as mayor.

[Last modified June 30, 2006, 00:00:33]