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Budget excludes program for poor
By BRYAN GILMER
© St. Petersburg Times, ST. PETERSBURG -- Mayor Rick Baker has included no money in next year's city budget to support the University of South Florida St. Petersburg's Urban Initiative, the program established to help poor neighborhoods near the university where violence broke out in 1996. But City Council Chairwoman Rene Flowers says she intends to use a public hearing tonight on the city's 2002 budget to ask her colleagues to continue supporting the program, which has helped the city's Business Development Center, worked with the St. Pete Reads program and helped former Mayor David Fischer's Challenge program. "I'm really grieved by it," Flowers said about realizing that Baker's administration did not include money for the Urban Initiative in its proposed budget. The council has final authority over the budget, but it has already capped the property tax rate and may have trouble finding enough money in an already tight budget. The program received $50,000 in previous years. Goliath Davis will retire as police chief and begin working as deputy mayor for midtown economic development in October, when he will be responsible for improving the same neighborhoods southwest of downtown that the initiative focuses on. "I think the understanding is when he assumes this new position, he's going to look at the area, look at some of the projects and make some decisions about what's going on there," said USF St. Petersburg university relations coordinator Deborah Kurelik. Said Davis: "So far, I'm getting a lot of briefings and trying to ascertain what various city personnel are doing as it relates to projects in that area." Unless Davis decides he wants to team up with the initiative again, USF Vice President Bill Heller said, the university will continue the initiative on its own with programs the city was not involved in, such as SAT preparation for poor students. "The thing is, it's not the ending of the Urban Initiative," Heller said. "We feel very strongly about being a part of the fabric of the neighborhood that we're located in. This university I think has a responsibility to participate with its neighborhood." The city's funding for the initiative has been controversial before. Former council members Bea Griswold and Kathleen Ford opposed funding it last year. They were upset that former Urban Initiative staffer Doug Tuthill had worked with the National People's Democratic Uhuru Movement to apply to open a charter school. Tuthill's job was supported by the $50,000 the city had contributed. Instead of pulling the funding, the council signed a contract limiting the use of its money to the support of its reading, business and Challenge programs. Tuthill resigned a month later. Heller replaced Tuthill with Terry Bradley. Heller said Bradley's position must be eliminated unless the City Council restores funding. Council member Earnest Williams, whose district includes the neighborhoods the initiative serves, said he remains undecided about whether the program is worthy of continued funding. "Some of these things we are attempting to do are long-term things," he said. "But we have to do an assessment of value of what we have gotten so far." St. Petersburg budget hearingCity residents may lobby the City Council for any changes in next year's city budget at a public hearing that begins at 7 p.m. today at City Hall, 175 Fifth St. N.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • Tampa Bay Times
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