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A lie of omission? More like just a lie

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published November 27, 2007

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No to the city of St. Petersburg.

No to its government. No to its mayor. No to its deputy mayors and assistant pooh-bahs.

They do not get to run the government like this. They just don't.

For much of 2007, the citizens of St. Petersburg, also known as taxpayers and voters, believed that they were taking part in actual democracy.

They thought they were taking part in a public process to decide the future of the city's waterfront.

They showed up, they signed up to speak, they testified, they pleaded. The city pretended to be listening.

We now know it was a sham. Since March 2007, the city had a signed confidentiality agreement with the Tampa Bay Rays concerning plans to use the waterfront for a 35,000-seat, $450-million baseball stadium.

And all of those voters, and citizens, and taxpayers, who thought they were Making Their Voices Heard and all of that kind of civics-class nonsense were just being suckers.

But they weren't the only suckers. All of us who live in St. Petersburg are suckers as well.

That's why the all-wise City Hall decided it was best to keep this proposal concealed from the city's voters even during the city election.

To which a sane person can only ask, in amazement:

Are you kidding me?

The biggest, most important decision the city will make in a generation, and the city believes it is none of the voters' business even while they are choosing the next City Council?

I want a do-over.

I want a new election. I want the mayor and entire City Council recalled so the voters can have an honest election about the future of the city based on the truth.

Tell me, now, how many other secret deals does Mayor Rick Baker have going? What else don't we know? Can we trust the water department? The parks? The heads of police and fire?

How many other times has the city abused this state law that allows Florida government to cast secrecy over anything labeled "economic development"?

We are not talking merely about a new widget factory coming to St. Petersburg, which is the kind of thing for which this secrecy was intended. (Even that loophole is sleazy, if you ask me.)

Neither are we just talking about the need to give the Rays a little elbow room and breathing space before their plans became public.

No. On top of all that, the city actually went through the charade of holding a public process of rewriting its land-use codes, and of pretending to be taking public input.

So why, now, should citizens believe anything that this city government says in a public process?

It will be interesting now to see how much "public input" the city intends to allow as this baseball deal proceeds.

It will be fascinating to see exactly how the sale of the existing Tropicana Field is supposed to produce a pot of gold.

It will be downright transfixing to learn who is supposed to be on the hook for any shortfall.

Oh, and I am even mildly curious as to whether the city really intends to allow an election that gives the voters the last say. The City Charter requires one, but we can see how much "democracy" actually matters in St. Petersburg.

[Last modified November 26, 2007, 23:39:23]