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Beach crusader

An activist attorney has been helping Pinellas County beach city residents fight the good fight to control development.

By CRISTINA SILVA
Published October 29, 2006

Attorney Kenneth L. Weiss spoke politely in an earnest voice. The city should withdraw a motion for a hearing challenging the legality of petitions circulated by his clients.

But his pleas went unheeded and when the St. Pete Beach City Commission's special meeting adjourned that steamy August afternoon, he was not happy.

"You were just lied to," he called out to the room as Mayor Ward Friszolowski banged his gavel signaling the end of the meeting.

The astonished commissioners looked away as Weiss raged on about how they were trying to cheat residents out of their right to vote. They silently pushed stacks of papers into their purses and briefcases.

As they watched the meeting on their television screens at home, some residents wondered, who was this screaming man?

In his 58 years, Weiss has played many roles: corporate lawyer, artist and neighbor. But his most recent reincarnation as an activist fighting growth and clamoring for voters' rights has made him one of the most widely discussed attorneys along the Gulf Coast.

Friends and foes note his forceful dedication and occasional hotheaded outbursts. Residents whom he has helped fight city hall praise him as a generous defender of the little guy, often offering his services pro bono. His critics portray him as a carpetbagger who likes to stir up trouble for personal gain.

Since 2002, Weiss has been involved in antidevelopment efforts in Belleair, Clearwater, and Treasure Island.

In St. Pete Beach, he has helped get a city charter amendment on the November ballot.

The amendment would require voter approval on any changes to the city's comprehensive land use plan. If the measure wins, it would make St. Pete Beach the first in the state to take some power away from a government body and give it to the people.

For business owners and developers, even more alarming is Weiss' casual friendship with Ross Burnaman, a founder of Florida Hometown Democracy, a group that is trying to put a measure similar to St. Pete Beach's on the ballot statewide in 2008.

If it passes, every municipality in the state would have to hold an election if it wanted to change the look of the city or town.

Weiss, a Clearwater native who has lived in Treasure Island for almost 20 years, says he is simply a reluctant organizer who just wants to offer his help to people who would be defenseless otherwise.

"I just do not like to see people in power take advantage," he said. "I think that is what keeps me going. It is the outrage. It is the arrogance of power and wealth."

Weiss is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he earned honors in the top 10 percent of his law class in 1972. He has worked as in-house counsel for large corporations such as Checkers Drive-In Restaurants and the Home Shopping Network.

His friends say he has never been very political. He is registered as an independent voter.

He started a private practice from his home in Treasure Island at least a decade ago. Imagining a life more fulfilling than his former corporate one, he tried photography, played with graphic art, and pondered the plot of a potential novel.

In 2002, he was watching a televised Treasure Island City Commission meeting when something inside him became unglued. Residents on the screen were yelling at the commissioners about the 10-story buildings that had been proposed. They didn't want them. Ever.

Weiss agreed and for the first time, he decided to go to a City Commission meeting.

Weiss quickly became a leader in the fight against taller structures. He spent endless hours poring over Florida statutes searching for a legal solution.

With the help of friends, he dreamed up a referendum that asked voters whether they wanted the right to decide how tall buildings in their city should be.

They worked tirelessly to get it on the ballot. It overwhelmingly passed.

Things settled down. Weiss returned to his home office and his art.

In 2002, he met Vickie Audette on www.Match.com. They had their first date at the Museum of Fine Arts. She would later become his strength during much of the ups and downs of the St. Pete Beach campaign. More than once, she would tell him to calm down.

In the mornings, Audette and Weiss read the St. Petersburg Times to each other. On many days, Weiss would compose a letter to the editor in response.

In 1992, he sent in a letter urging voters to back Ross Perot's campaign for president.

"Could you sleep at night two years from now if you thought the wrong man was in the White House, and you didn't vote?" the letter asked.

In 2002, he published a letter rallying Clearwater residents to organize against their City Commission.

In March 2005, Weiss published a letter in the Times urging St. Pete Beach to organize and start a petition drive.

That month, a Treasure Island friend asked him to meet with a small group of St. Pete Beach residents who were unhappy with a new development plan their city officials were proposing. It involved 15-story buildings.

Weiss stills remembers that evening. They sat on someone's couch no one seems to remember whose and discussed possible strategies.

"Vickie said, 'Don't do this,'" he recalled. "And I said, 'Well, but no one else is going to do it.' "

Weiss helped organize a political action committee called Citizens for Responsible Growth so that they could raise money.

That same March, Weiss read about residents in Belleair who were upset at the possibility that the Belleview Biltmore Resort would be demolished and replaced with a condominium building.

Weiss called and offered his help.

Since taking on local governments, more than once, Weiss has said or done things he later regretted.

In a 2006 e-mail exchange, Weiss called Thomas Pelham, a lawyer hired by St. Pete Beach to challenge the petitions, a "crybaby." Pelham had complained to the circuit court judge that Weiss had not given him enough notice to prepare for a hearing, according to court documents.

"Take it like a man and grow up," Weiss wrote. He said he later apologized.

Several months later, it was the time he called the St. Pete Beach commissioners liars.

Blowups like these have given his critics round after round of ammunition.

"He doesn't care who he hurts or what he says," said Michael Cohen, a St. Pete Beach resident. "He has proven in the past that facts do not mean anything to him."

Keith Overton, vice president of the TradeWinds Island Resorts in St. Pete Beach, said Weiss "thrives" on suing local governments.

But to those he has helped, Weiss is celebrated for acting professionally in spite of the wrongdoings they feel their elected officials have committed.

"We just wish we had more of him," said Ralph Lickton, a founding member of Citizens for Responsible Growth.

When November has passed, whether St. Pete Beach makes a landmark decision in the name of home rule or not, Weiss said his days as a small town crusader are over.

He is looking for a publisher for his novel. He also has his art.

But Audette knows there is a possibility Weiss might one day hear of a small town facing off against its government.

"If they really needed him, he would be there," she said.

Cristina Silva can be reached at 727-893-8846 or csilva@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 29, 2006, 07:53:35]