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Lealman's new fire board holds interviews with three applicants
By ANNE LINDBERG © St. Petersburg Times, published December 9, 2000 The new fire commission got off to a slow start Nov. 27, with members declining to organize until they have full membership and refusing to appoint anyone to the one open seat until all the elected members are present. Commission member Bob Carter was ill and did not attend the organizational meeting. The three members who were present interviewed three applicants for the open seat. A transcript of those interviews will be forwarded to Carter so he will be able to vote for one of them at the group's next meeting Monday, immediately after the Lealman Fire Board concludes its 6:30 p.m. meeting at Fire Station 18, 4017 56th Ave. N. The fire board has overseen fire service in the unincorporated Lealman area since 1963. The not-for-profit corporation contracts with Pinellas County to run the fire service. During that time, the county has set the area's tax rate for fire service depending on the budget submitted by the board. In the Nov. 7 election, voters approved a new fire commission that will run Lealman's fire service without county oversight. The commission also will set the area's fire tax rate. Until the transfer of assets and employees is made to the new group, both the board and the commission will exist simultaneously. The Nov. 27 meeting was the first step toward readying the commission to assume control. The first order of business was to appoint someone to fill Seat 2, because no one chose to run for it in the November election. Three Lealman residents want the job: Rebecca Harriman, Kathleen Litton and William Suddarth. Harriman, 43, has lived in the Lealman area for 18 years. She has no experience in elected office. She is a member of the Lealman Community Association, where she serves on a walk-around committee that has been set up to talk with residents about the problems they face and the goals they have for the Lealman area. "I am interested in the future of the Lealman area and the inner workings of the various governmental operations," Harriman wrote in her application. "I would like to take part on the Lealman Fire Board as a part of that." She has performed light industrial work and has owned her own ceramics business. She is interested in travel, historical study and showing American Eskimo dogs in American and United Kennel Club shows. Litton, 43, has served on the Lealman Fire Board since 1996. She decided not to run for the commission because she was nursing her father and thought she would not have the time to devote to the commission. Her father died recently, Litton said, and "my life is not as chaotic as it used to be." An employee of the U.S. Postal Service, Litton has worked as an events coordinator at Bayfront Health Systems. Before that, she was executive assistant to the chief financial officer at Bayfront. She is a 1979 graduate of Florida State University with a bachelor's degree in management. She has lived in the Lealman area for about seven years. Her greatest strength, Litton said, is the knowledge she has gained as a fire board member. "I have four years' experience," she said. "I know what the issues have been." Suddarth, 56, ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the commission against W.A. Adams in this month's election. He received 42 percent of the votes cast for Seat 5. He spent 261/2 years as a St. Petersburg firefighter. Suddarth has owned a used car and wholesale dealership for the past 35 years. Before that, he owned a parts and body shop. "Because I am a property owner and also a retired firefighter, I can understand and address both sides of the issues as they relate to the Lealman fire district," Suddarth said. Suddarth has lived in the Lealman area for about 18 years.
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From the Times North Pinellas desks |
