A moveable feast for eyes is assigned

By Compiled by Times staff writers

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 21, 2000

It was a tough decision, but somebody had to make it.

Since the five-member County Commission will expand by two after the election season, the county had to build two new offices on the fifth floor of the courthouse in Clearwater.

Six of the commission offices have windows facing north toward other county buildings. But the seventh, one of the new offices, features a picture window with a gorgeous view of Clearwater Harbor and the Memorial Causeway bridge to Clearwater Beach.

Who should get that office? Commission Chairman Bob Stewart wondered. What if the commissioners fought over it? Stewart, who is up for re-election this year, pondered the matter and came up with a solution.

The chairman of the commission should have that office, Stewart decided. Each January, when the chairmanship is up, that commissioner will trade offices with the new chairman.

Stewart plans to move into the office sometime in September. He will have to pack up and move again after the New Year.

"What we strive for on the fifth floor is window parity," Stewart said. "Now you know why I stay after 5 -- to think about these weighty issues."

JOYOUS ABOUT JOE: Jewish residents and leaders in Pinellas County had plenty to say last week about the nomination of Orthodox Jew Joseph Lieberman as Al Gore's vice presidential running mate. Clearwater resident Irv Shostak said: "We need somebody other than white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant males. It would be interesting to see Lieberman versus Powell."

Largo resident Ruth Bloomfield said that with Gore, the country has seen the office of the vice president take on real responsibilities.

"It has to be more than going to funerals," Bloomfield said. "You can't send a dumb-dumb to China because you're busy in Afghanistan."

Many said Lieberman was a good choice, not because he is Jewish, but because he is well qualified for the job. And, reasoned Rabbi Shalom Adler of Young Israel-Chabad, although devout, Lieberman should not pose a threat.

"There are those who will admire him because of his faith," Adler said. "There's no real sense of danger like there is with the Christian Coalition that he's trying to take over the country."

LOOKIN' GOOD: At last week's Suncoast Tiger Bay luncheon in St. Petersburg, each of four Republican candidates for Florida House District 54 was trying hard to make himself stand out from his opponents. But one candidate worried he might stand out a little too much.

Dan Curran of Clearwater apologized to the audience for dressing down a bit. While candidates John Carassas, Tony DiMatteo and Dave Miller wore suits and ties, Curran wore a short-sleeved knit top with a collar and slacks to the political forum.

"I do own a coat and tie," he said. "I attended a Republican event last night in my coat and tie and sweated my tie off, so I said I'm not going to do that again."

In the end, Curran said, he did not think the candidates' fashion sense would decide the election.

"We're all decent people," he said. "It's just showing our differences to the voters and letting them decide which of four slices of white bread they want to butter."

RISE AND SHINE: Cimos Angelis, a candidate for Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender, took some heat from a recent newspaper article that noted he sometimes fell asleep and snored in the courtroom while an assistant public defender.

The episodes happened in 1997 and were health-related. Angelis suffered from weight-related sleep apnea.

After he received treatment, the sleeping episodes soon stopped.

At a forum last week for candidates in various Pinellas races, sponsored by the Pinellas County Trial Lawyers and Criminal Defense Lawyers Associations, Angelis made light of the sleeping episodes.

He got a good laugh from a crowd of attorneys when he said, "And I want to point out I didn't fall asleep here at any time."

- Times staff writers Edie Gross, Deborah O'Neil and William R. Levesque contributed to this report.

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