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Mayor's delivery is low-key on high notes

By ERNEST HOOPER
Published March 13, 2007

If Mayor Pam Iorio had come out in a cheerleading uniform waving pompoms and doing cartwheels, I would have been a little taken aback.

When any mayor stands to deliver a state of the city address, as Iorio did Monday, you expect a little rah-rah, followed closely by sis-boom-bah.

Iorio, however, presented the city's list of accomplishments in the past year and then concluded that the state of the city is "good."

Good?

Coming off four largely successful years and a convincing re-election, Iorio could have used "excellent" or "great" without drawing critics. "Outstanding," "unbelievable" and "butt-kicking terrific" may have been something of a stretch, but she wouldn't have been the first elected official to dig into a bag of superlatives.

Instead, she opted to be as understated as one of her business suits.

"Each year I've said the city is good," Iorio said. "I think good really sums it up. Good is good. People really want their lives to be good.

"I think sometimes when you get into the more exaggerated words ... it loses a little credibility because you always have problems. You always have your challenges."

To me, the word choice says a lot about Iorio. Of course, she is not shy about pointing out accomplishments that often slip under the radar. That would make her something other than a politician.

So the presentation at the Tampa Convention Center included a litany of neighborhood improvements many of us miss as we ride into downtown on the interstate.

But good means she's still eager to do more. Good means when she gives her inaugural address April 1, the goals will be attainable and the expectations will be manageable.

Hopefully, good means an improving relationship with the business community while continuing to provide for neighborhoods. Hopefully, good means a disparity study at the end of her second term that will indicate minorities are gaining greater access to city contracts. Hopefully, good means a solution for the homeless that works for all.

More than anything, good means Iorio is not satisfied. In the next four years, she's going to expect more of her staff and more of herself. Inside City Hall, some say she's a taskmaster, but my guess is her self-evaluation is as critical as any she has done for subordinates.

This is a fine trait most of the time. I just hope she concludes she can take a few more chances and risk a little bit more of her political capital in her second term.

After a campaign that drew one opponent named Serious but no serious challengers, Iorio has to know she can be bolder and still be seen as wiser. Stepping out to increase discussions about regional transportation and possibly mass transit suggests she has that awareness. An error may occur if she takes a gamble outside of her own demanding nature, but we should be willing to live with a mistake because her intentions are in the right place.

In the end, all the good things can add up to one great city.

That's all I'm saying.

Ernest Hooper can be reached at hooper@sptimes.com or 813226-3406.

[Last modified March 13, 2007, 06:18:03]