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Safety Harbor board fills vacancies curiously fast

Less than a week after longtime Safety Harbor Mayor Pam Corbino resigned unexpectedly, the city has a new mayor and a new city commissioner.

The speed with which the City Commission filled its vacant seats was almost as surprising as Corbino's resignation. So was the unanimous agreement on the choices.

Didn't any sitting commissioner feel this was an issue important enough for a little debate or at least an attempt to gather opinions from the community?

Corbino, who was under substantial political pressure for some recent mistakes, wrote a resignation letter delivered to City Hall on July 19 and effective that day. The four other City Commission members and many in the community expressed shock about her sudden departure, especially since the city was in the midst of budget discussions and preparing to lose its longtime city manager.

Yet five days later, in a previously scheduled Saturday morning budget meeting, commissioners unanimously named Vice Mayor Andy Steingold the new interim mayor and appointed Safety Harbor resident Claude Rigsby to Steingold's vacated seat. Both were immediately sworn in. The two will hold those offices until the next election, in March.

Rigsby apparently was so confident he would be appointed that he showed up at the 9 a.m. meeting in a nice suit, ready to be sworn in. Sure enough, he was immediately nominated and sworn.

Because elected officials cannot talk to each other about such city business outside a public meeting, how did the commissioners unanimously decide not only on the process to use for these appointments, but whom to appoint?

Perhaps Steingold was an obvious choice for mayor. He was, after all, vice mayor, and had led recent commission meetings that Corbino skipped. Everyone knew that Steingold likely would be a candidate for mayor when Corbino's term expired.

But Rigsby? Rigsby is a former commissioner and mayor of Safety Harbor, but he left office in 1986. Safety Harbor has a number of residents who served as commissioners or mayors more recently than he, as well as other active residents who have no government experience but might be interested in serving an eight-month interim post.

Some commissioners told the Times that Rigsby came to them and asked for the appointment, so they gave it to him.

To her credit, Commissioner Kathleen Earle did hesitate at Saturday's meeting before voting for Rigsby's nomination. She said it would be an honor to have Rigsby onboard, "but I just have concerns about the process."

Her instinct was correct. Commissioners were not appointing an interim mayor and interim commissioner to serve them, but to represent the people of Safety Harbor, who elected Corbino and Steingold to the positions they have now vacated.

Commissioners should have delayed these decisions at least a couple of weeks in order to receive other nominations from residents. Had they done so, no one would have reason to question the process or wonder what went on behind the scenes.

[Last modified July 27, 2006, 06:50:09]