Largo man keeps commission seat

Commissioner Marty Shelby, 43, wins re-election after no one files to oppose him in the March 6 election.

By ERIC STIRGUS

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 6, 2001

LARGO -- Marty Shelby was automatically elected to a third three-year term as city commissioner Monday after no one challenged him for the seat.

"I am grateful for the support I've received, and I shall continue to do my best," Shelby, 43, said Monday, the last day for candidates to qualify for the March 6 election.

Commissioner Harriet Crozier was not as fortunate. She will have to take on Code Enforcement Board member Sal Gattuso.

"It's a challenge," Gattuso, 50, said Monday. "It's tough to beat an incumbent, but I'm up for it."

Crozier, 56, was first elected to the commission in 1993. She served two terms before being defeated in 1999 by Mary Laurance. Crozier re-emerged last year and won election to a yearlong term on the commission.

Gattuso, who has been thinking about running for the commission for about a year, said the city has ignored residents of the east side.

"They feel left out," said Gattuso, president of the Pineforest Homeowners Association, a subdivision near the southeast corner of Largo. "I feel like I can represent them."

He cited a case in which he called city officials to find out whether a sidewalk could be built upon a stretch of 126th Avenue N. Gattuso, who lives near the road, was worried that a neighbor who is blind might get hurt walking along the street because there is no sidewalk.

City officials said that Largo allocates $50,000 a year toward sidewalk improvements and that 126th Avenue N was slated for sidewalks in two years, Gattuso said.

"That's not service," he said. "People in the city are paying taxes. We're supposed to be taken care of, and I don't see that."

As commissioner, Gattuso said he would push for single-member districts within the city so residents would have a representative who is responsive to their needs.

"You can't represent everybody," he said of the current commission structure. "You'd like to and you want to, but it is very difficult."

Although Crozier has been on the City Commission for seven of the past eight years, she, too, thinks Largo could do more for its citizens.

Crozier said she recently met with the city's Environmental Services director, Norton "Mack" Craig, to discuss ways Largo can provide reclaimed water for more of its residents. Largo officials estimate that 3,500 to 4,500 residents live close enough to existing lines for the city to connect them to the service. Largo has about 70,000 residents.

"The people are clamoring for it," she said.

Crozier also wants to find additional ways to help Largo's oldest and youngest citizens.

The commissioner wants to create a task force to see how the city can become part of the Elder Ready Care Initiative, a state-sponsored program that encourages Florida cities to prepare for the growing elderly population.

She also wants to push for more programs and services for teenagers who live in Largo. Crozier mentioned with some frustration an unfulfilled promise of a skate park.

"We cannot keep saying it's coming down the road," she said. "We need to step up to the plate."

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