Front Porch group spars with critics

Council members quarrel with community leaders, who accused them of lacking ties to neighborhoods.

By LEONORA LAPETER and BRYAN GILMER

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 2, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- Some people complained that volunteers in charge of the governor's Front Porch program in St. Petersburg need to be replaced. Others defended those leaders, saying they've made a good start.

After a 90-minute meeting Tuesday that degenerated into occasional shouting matches, one thing was clear.

The governor's Front Porch program to improve poor city neighborhoods is suffering from a lack of consensus.

"It's a shame we have to meet here for something like this," said Johnny Roberson, a member of the Governor's Revitalization Council of South St. Petersburg. "This doesn't have to be. We can come together."

Chrisshun Cox, president of the Melrose Mercy/Pine Acres Neighborhood Association, called the meeting at 20th Street Church of Christ to issue the Revitalization Council an ultimatum:

Involve more people from the community or be replaced.

"Who is running this thing?" Cox said, pointing to a list of the 24 council members posted on the wall. "Who are these people? Do they live next door to you? Can you go over and borrow a cup of sugar?"

Some of the dozen or so council members who attended the meeting tried to stand up and explain their connections to the community, but Cox repeatedly asked them to keep silent.

"I'm part of the council you're attempting to disband," said Ironiff Ifoma, secretary of the Revitalization Council. "It's false and you mislead the people. I don't know the basis of your political ambitions."

Cox, who says she plans to run for City Council, believes too many members of the Revitalization Council live outside the six Front Porch neighborhoods south of Tropicana Field. In a memo announcing the meeting, she said residents would have the chance to replace members of the council.

She lacks authority to do that, and the meeting ended when the 50 people in attendance spontaneously stood up and left.

She never had a chance to take a vote, but when asked about it, she said she'd made her point.

Bush's Front Porch Florida ran into trouble the first time it tried to hand out money to community organizations.

The Department of Juvenile Justice tried to distribute $500,000 in June, a rushed process that resulted in questionable decisions and the community losing $142,000 to which it was entitled.

At Tuesday's meeting, one resident accused state leaders of setting up programs that divide communities.

"When Front Porch came to this community, I said, "We are once again being set up for the kill', " said Maria Scruggs Weston, a resident of 13th Street Heights. "We're pitted against each other. It was set up that way."

Rodney Bennett, chairman of the council that endured Cox's criticism, called for everyone to return to the church at 6:30 p.m. Thursday for the Revitalization Council's meeting.

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