5 things I think about the St. Pete city elections — 1.28.26

It was only two days ago that I launched this “I think” column about the St. Pete municipal elections this year, and issues or events surrounding them.

Purposefully, I didn’t say whether it would be a daily or weekly column because the nature of news doesn’t always lend itself to a set calendar.

And to that point, the past 48 hours since my first column have been eventful, with a Suncoast Tiger Bay State of the Bay forum Tuesday night shedding light on Mayor Ken Welch’s expected re-election bid, the Tampa Bay Rays throwing out a stadium deal number, a curious pitch video from the city, and more.

So, for the second time this week, I bring you five things I think about the St. Pete city elections.

Blaise Ingoglia in town

Chief Financial Officer Ingoglia is expected to visit St. Petersburg Wednesday to reveal his Office’s findings regarding the city’s budget, including efficiencies Ingoglia says are necessary to ensure St. Pete officials are good stewards of taxpayer funds.

His visit will no doubt be news itself, but politically, it’s also interesting.

There had been some chatter that Ingoglia’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency, which is not called that anymore, but that’s what everyone is still calling it) wasn’t going to DOGE St. Pete because Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t want to help Charlie Crist in any way.

For anyone whose memory needs jogging, Crist served one term as Governor, as a Republican, and then in 2022 challenged DeSantis as a Democrat. There’s no love lost there. And of course, Crist is now expected to challenge Welch for Mayor.

So it says something that one of the Governor’s attack dogs, Ingoglia, is being unleashed on Welch despite the potential to help Crist’s eventual election prospects. How bad must the city’s budget be, in Ingoglia’s view, to warrant a helping hand to a really big foe?

Pretty big. Expect Ingoglia to announce a 47% increase in spending under Welch’s leadership.

Welch says he’s running

Speaking at the Suncoast Tiger Bay’s annual State of the Bay forum Tuesday night, Welch said he will seek re-election and plans to file paperwork in the next two weeks. He also said he’s planning a campaign kickoff for Feb. 18.

None of that is a surprise.

But what is rich — and pretty ridiculous — is his assertion that he will “run on our record.”

He went on to lament that his administration has “faced challenges like no other administration,” listing COVID, the Gas Plant and four hurricanes as some of those challenges.

OK, let’s unpack those, shall we?

Welch took office at the beginning of 2022. By then, much of the world had largely returned to some semblance of normalcy following COVID lockdowns. Sure, people were still wearing masks in some instances (and St. Pete City Hall still required them at the time of Welch’s inauguration), but it was Welch’s predecessor, Rick Kriseman, who oversaw the city through the most challenging and uncertain parts of the pandemic.

As for the Gas Plant, it is an unsolved disaster. First, there was a stadium deal with the Rays and development partner Hine, but that fell through. Then there was a hurried 30-day proposal window for would-be Gas Plant developers, prompted by an unsolicited bid. But that window later got kicked down the road amid concerns it was too rushed. So it wasn’t exactly a smooth process.

And then those hurricanes. Welch isn’t exactly winning awards. His city’s slow response to debris collection led some frustrated residents to call the large debris piles growing mold and killing grass on their lawns “Welch piles.” Before that, Welch came under fire for going home to his family during Hurricane Ian even as his top staff remained at the city’s Emergency Operations Center.

But Welch didn’t stop there. He praised his administration for putting together, “I think, an incredible team,” adding that “we’re cited as the best run government in the state of Florida twice by WalletHub.”

First, there’s the silliness of citing WalletHub. The outlet puts together some fun listicles — things like the best and worst places to drive or retire — but these random accolades tend to be taken more as entertainment than fact.

Second, and much more importantly, by “incredible team,” is he referring to former Deputy Mayor Stephanie Owens? Remember her? She’s the one who was forced to resign in disgrace after Welch’s former Communications Director accused her of creating a hostile work environment, leading other complaints to quickly surface and Owens to bail almost as quickly. So yeah, great team!

And speaking of Welch’s team …

As of Wednesday morning, Yolanda Brown remains the registered agent on Welch’s affiliated political committee, The Pelican Political Action Committee.

That’s important, because Brown is accused of stealing $207,500 from the committee through what committee Chair Adrienne Bogen describes as “unauthorized transactions” making payments from the PC to a business Brown owns. A letter to state election officials notes that the committee has “demanded the return of funds” but “the funds have yet to be returned.”

OK, so why oh why have you not removed Brown as the registered agent? And before anyone jumps in to defend this by saying quarterly reports aren’t due until April, so maybe it just hasn’t shown up yet, campaign documents related to political committees are updated in near-real time.

For example, the letter notifying election officials of the unauthorized transactions and subsequent amended finance reports, dated Jan. 12, is available on the committee’s page. Had anyone sought to remove Brown as the registered agent, that paperwork would be there.

The Science Center promo video is (not so) curiously leaving out key details (and a person)

The city of St. Pete on Tuesday posted a video across its social media channels offering a recap of the groundbreaking ceremony Jan. 9 for the new St. Petersburg Science Center.

The video features Welch prominently, opening with him saying “we’re excited about the partnerships that have made this happen.” Hold onto that thought.

He goes on to say in the video that “what we settled on and agreed to is that, yes, the Science Center needs to move forward on this particular parcel, but we also, in the interim, have received some recommendations for how we can make our Northwest Water Reclamation Facility right next door more resilient.”

The “what we settled on” isn’t the flex Welch thinks it is. In September, the Welch administration was not supporting the Science Center revitalization project, arguing a land sale wasn’t feasible because the site was needed for a possible future wastewater resource.

Welch later came around after the City Council voted unanimously to support the project despite the Mayor’s opposition.

So essentially, the Mayor in the city’s video was taking credit for and promoting a project for which he had once been trying to block. And at the time he was trying to block it, it was especially curious. Former St. Petersburg City Council member Robert Blackmon, who was Welch’s opponent in the 2021 mayoral race, was one of the project’s biggest backers.

And about “the partnerships” that made the project move forward? One of those partners is none other than Crist, Welch’s likely 2026 election adversary who was integral in securing state funds for the project.

Want to guess who was barely visible in the video, appearing only in the background at two short points? If you guessed Crist, pat yourself on the back. We also would have accepted Blackmon as an answer, because he was also not featured in the video.

The entire thing was so rich that even Andy Oliver, a faith leader who has at times supported, and others rejected, Welch policies, called him out very subtly.

“Thank you Robert Blackmon for keeping this dream alive when others dismissed it,” Oliver wrote in a comment on Facebook.

New Rays stadium cost balloons to $2.3B

A new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays in Tampa could cost $2.3 billion, the Tampa Bay Times reported Tuesday, citing Tampa Sports Authority CEO Eric Hart. That’s $1 billion more than the stadium the Rays had been planning to build in St. Petersburg.

The now-canceled deal to build a stadium and surrounding mixed-use development included a public contribution of $700 million from the city and Pinellas County, a number that included infrastructure costs for needed roads.

The Rays’ new owners have not said how much they expect to receive in public financial commitments, but given that the cost of the stadium alone has nearly doubled — the $2.3 billion is only for the stadium, not a surrounding development — it’s reasonable to expect the ask will be larger.

That could create a headache for Tampa and Hillsborough officials, while offering a potential talking point for Welch as he attempts to recover from the original stadium deal’s breakdown.