Local leaders differ in views on security levels

By CURTIS KRUEGER, BARBARA BEHRENDT, EILEEN SCHULTE and BILL VARIAN, Times Staff Writers
Published February 9, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT Related links Wife can't grasp attack Shooter had long history with City Hall Safety Harbor Mayor Andy Steingold asked city officials Thursday to look into buying a metal detector for City Hall. Pasco County School Board Chairwoman Kathryn Starkey said Thursday she sees no reason to add an officer to School Board meetings.

The shooting at a council meeting in Kirkwood, Mo., on Thursday is leading some local governments in the Tampa Bay area to rethink the balance between open government and the need to prevent another tragedy.

Some officials want extra security, but others are worried about overreacting.

"No one wants to think our wonderful little town has to worry about this type of thing, but we have to look at the realities of the world," said Hernando School Board member Dianne Bonfield.

In the wake of the Kirkwood shooting, she plans to ask fellow board members to reinstate a policy of having an officer present at all School Board meetings.

Other local leaders are taking similar steps.

Safety Harbor Mayor Andy Steingold asked city officials Thursday to look into buying a metal detector for City Hall. He's also considering locking some doors during commission meetings.

Even people like Hillsborough School Board Chairwoman Jennifer Faliero, who strongly encourages public participation in meetings, occasionally is alarmed.

"I have had some times when I have had the hair stand up on the back of my neck sitting up there and I get up and leave," she said.

Several local governments, including St. Petersburg and Tampa, already use metal detectors to screen people coming into public buildings or attending public meetings, and also post officers at meetings. Most evaluated security after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But Pasco County School Board Chairwoman Kathryn Starkey said Thursday she sees no reason to add an officer to School Board meetings. "One incident in a million meetings a year is not going to cause me to do a knee-jerk reaction," Starkey said.

Brooksville City Council member Joe Bernardini knows what can happen when someone is upset at a government official. His ex-wife, a clerk at the Inverness Drivers License Office, had a gun pointed at her in 1996 and the trigger pulled multiple times by a man upset about failing a written test. The gun misfired.

Still, Bernardini doesn't want to clamp down on public access. "You just hope that people use common sense," he said.

Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation and chairwoman of the Florida Commission on Open Government, said governments must balance "the constitutional right of access with the concern for public safety.... It's not always easy and it's sometimes messy, but it's possible to do."

Petersen doesn't object to having law enforcement officers at government meetings or requiring people who plan to speak at a meeting to sign in so proceedings can be accurately recorded. But she opposes requiring signatures from those who just want to attend a meeting, effectively driving some of them away.

At the Pinellas County school district headquarters in Largo, a safety committee is looking at improving security. But School Board member Carol Cook said the district should not overreact. She suggested measures such as limiting who can enter unguarded doors or installing a bulletproof shield under the board's massive wooden dais, "so we could at least duck."

Times staff writers Jonathan Abel, David DeCamp, Tom Marshall, Letitia Stein, Jeffrey S. Solochek and Tom Tobin contributed to this report.

[Last modified February 9, 2008, 00:30:30]