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Residents want Bush to intervene
By AMY WIMMER and SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
© St. Petersburg Times, SOUTH PASADENA -- Dismissed by the State Attorney's Office and the State Ethics Commission, the complaints of three South Pasadena couples now are headed to a higher power. The six neighbors -- Al and Phyllis Friend, Lou and Claire Ippolito and Pat and Barbara Candeloro -- have asked state Rep. John Carassas, R-Belleair, to get Gov. Jeb Bush to intervene in this city of 6,000, best-known for its towering condominiums and higher-than-average median age of 71.6. The couples, describing themselves as "messengers for a well-informed and outraged constituency," say city officials conspired to allow the mayor to run for an extra term, even though his term limits had expired, and allowed a former finance director to defraud the city, among other allegations. City officials responded as they have before, confronting the allegations point by point, laying out how other agencies have already dealt with the complainants. "I am sorry that your valuable time is being wasted having to become involved with responding to unfounded complaints," Mayor Fred Held wrote in a letter to Carassas. Carassas said his office has not received such a complaint about a city in the nine months he has held a seat in the state House. As a result, he and his staff are being "very careful" about how they handle it, he said. "I'm going to look at all of these documents together and try to get a better grasp on the situation and see if there is anything we need to do at this level," Carassas said. Al Friend and Lou Ippolito, both former city commissioners, have levied similar complaints in the past. Ippolito ran for mayor against Held this year purely because he felt Held's candidacy was illegitimate. And Friend has taken his accusations against Held or other city officials to the State Attorney's Office and, more recently, the State Ethics Commission. Both agencies dismissed all complaints. This time around, the city considered not responding at all. Frustrated by the myriad of complaints, Commissioner Wayne Barr told Held that the mayor should ignore his critics. "All of this isn't going to end as long as you are in office," said Barr, adding that Held's retorts to his enemy's comments were "like throwing gasoline on a fire." But Held argued that asking the governor to intervene in city matters is a serious step, and he felt obligated to respond. "This is an official complaint, and we have to answer it," Held said. "When it comes to complaints to the state and asking the governor to intervene, we have to respond. South Pasadena is doing fine. There is nothing wrong with the city of South Pasadena." For a city with "nothing wrong," South Pasadena has more than its fair share of turmoil. The complaints outlined in the group's letter to Carassas are similar to those city commissioners have heard before. They insist that the mayor was illegally elected for a fourth term in office this year when the city charter allows only three terms; that a cellular phone tower ordinance was written to benefit "a single special interest in the city"; and that commissioners illegally created a special election in May 2000 to fill the seat of a deceased commissioner. In his response, Held called all the allegations "ridiculous charges" and implied they are the result of longstanding political grudges. "Mr. Friend, who is not an attorney, fancies himself as a municipal attorney and spends a great deal of time and effort challenging the competency of whomever is serving as city attorney," Held wrote. "The governor's attention is compelling, as is your help in achieving that result," the group wrote in its plea to Carassas. "We're studying it carefully and trying to determine what, if anything, we should do," Carassas said. Held hopes Carassas doesn't take the claims seriously. "They have cost the taxpayers thousands of dollars in answering allegations," Held said at a city meeting. "Nothing was ever found in any investigation they have made. We know we haven't done anything wrong. As long as you know that, you don't have to worry." Added Barr: "It's like the Hatfields and the McCoys."
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