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Frank falls just short of getting back fire board seat

Becky Harriman 's slim victory indicates voters' take on John Frank's residency.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published November 12, 2006

Last spring, board members kicked John Frank off the Lealman Fire Commission.

Last Tuesday, voters almost put him back on. He lost his bid to unseat incumbent Becky Harriman by 106 votes, or less than 2 percentage points.

That's pretty impressive for a man suspected of not even living in the fire district, a requirement for serving. That's the reason Frank was kicked off the board and the only issue Harriman pressed in her re-election campaign.

Harriman, who responded to an interview request via e-mail, answered a question about the closeness of the race by again referring to Frank's residency.

"He didn't tell voters the truth," Harriman wrote. "That he does not live in Lealman, that is fact. According to public record, he has not had water-sewer service at the 44th Avenue vacant lot since Oct. 5th, 1986. Pinellas County housing codes state that you must have water-sewer as well as other health related items such as heating, sanitary facilities, cooking appliances (installed, not a hot plate) etc."

The issue obviously did not resonate with almost half of the 6,964 people who cast votes in the race.

Shaw Giovannetti lives across the street from Frank's Lealman property and insists Frank lives there.

"He's been living there all along," Giovannetti said. "He's been my neighbor for seven or eight years."

Sure, it's a "shack" that is rather rundown, but "John lives by means of a simple life," he said.

Giovannetti said he voted for Frank. "He's a good old guy. I like him. I don't care what they say about him," Giovannetti said.

Another who voted for Frank is his longtime friend Tony Clark, who lives around the corner. He agrees that Frank lives in Lealman.

"John has always been a Lealman resident. He's been a Lealman resident longer than I have and I've been here for 28 years," Clark said. "When I see him leave for work in the morning, that's where he's coming from. When I see him getting home from work in the evening, that's where he's going to. That's all I need."

Frank got his vote, Clark said, because "I think he's honest and he's fair. I think that he would be best suited for (expressing) some of the voice of the Lealman residents as opposed to having just the voice of the firefighters on the board ...We vote on a representative board for the fire district that's supposed to represent (us)."

Frank, who has always maintained that he lives in Lealman, said he thinks there were several reasons the vote was so close.

"I think a lot of people are displeased with the way the commission functions," he said. "(I think) a lot of people honestly believed the commission overstepped its bounds when they suspended and dismissed me without any credible investigation."

The real problem, said Frank, was not his residency, it was the fact that he does not think and vote like the rest of the board.

That, he said, is what resonated with voters.

[Last modified November 11, 2006, 19:47:34]