Politics
Five-way race for Gina Driscoll’s District 6 seat in St. Pete centers on affordability, growth
Five candidates are vying to succeed term-limited St. Petersburg City Council Member Gina Driscoll, who is leaving office after eight years representing District 6.
The Aug. 18 Primary field includes five candidates — Terri Balliet, Linsey Grove, Doug Homeyer, Trevor Mallory and Jameka Williams — who bring backgrounds in nonprofit leadership, business and finance, affordable housing and grassroots organizing.
They are competing to represent a district that stretches from downtown into portions of South St. Petersburg, but much of the campaign has centered on challenges facing the city as a whole: affordability, aging infrastructure, storm resilience, utility billing and the future of the Historic Gas Plant District and Tropicana Field.
That overlap only goes so far. The candidates differ on what kind of housing the city should encourage, how growth and development should be managed, how closely City Hall should oversee major infrastructure investments and what residents should get in return when public land or money is used for redevelopment.
Balliet’s campaign emphasizes her experience managing large organizations and working in social services. She serves as CEO of the Children’s Network of Hillsborough County and previously served as Chief Operating Officer of Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services. She began her career as a child welfare case manager and helped launch St. Petersburg’s Community Assistance Life Liaison program, known as CALL, which sends trained social workers to certain nonviolent 911 calls.
The campaign emphasizes a need for more workforce housing and faster permitting, along with long-term planning for the city’s water, wastewater and stormwater systems. She has also called for better leak detection and faster investigations when residents receive unusually high utility bills.
Balliet has drawn support from former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman, Sen. Darryl Rouson, former Sen. Les Miller Jr., former Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandra Murman and former Hillsborough Public Defender Julianne Holt.
“My focus isn’t ideology — it’s results, collaboration, and restoring humanity to local government,” Balliet said in her Florida Politics candidate Q&A.
Grove’s campaign highlights her background in public health and civic advocacy. She is CEO and co-owner of The Hypatia Collaborative and previously served as President of the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg Area and Vice Chair of the Pinellas County Charter Review Commission. She has lived in St. Petersburg for 16 years and District 6 for 13.
Grove supports building and rehabilitating more affordable housing, allowing greater density near transit and expanding public transportation. She has also proposed limiting corporate purchases of single-family homes in areas such as the South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area. Grove has questioned whether the city should sell the entire 86-acre Tropicana Field redevelopment site to a single developer.
Her endorsements include Florida Rising, SEIU Florida, the Sierra Club, Stonewall Democrats of Pinellas County and the Suncoast Tampa Association of Realtors, along with former Pinellas County Commissioner Pat Gerard and other local leaders.
She was the only candidate to qualify for the ballot by petition, saying she canvassed more than 2,500 voters along the way.
“I will listen to residents and work hard on issues that matter the most to voters,” Grove said in her candidate Q&A.
Homeyer’s campaign has focused on the financial side of governing, arguing that long-term costs of infrastructure, redevelopment and growth need more scrutiny.
He is the founder and CEO of Benefits Plus Financial, and he has spent more than four decades in financial services and business ownership. His civic experience includes current leadership roles with the St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce, service on the St. Anthony’s Hospital Foundation Board and its Finance Committee, and the University of South Florida Economics Department Board of Advisors.
Homeyer supports preserving existing affordable housing and adding units where infrastructure can support them. He also wants major city projects publicly tracked and independently reviewed, and says development agreements should include measurable, enforceable benefits whenever taxpayers put land, money or incentives into a project.
His affordability platform goes beyond housing alone; it also emphasizes a need to address the high cost of utilities, property taxes, insurance, transportation, childcare and city fees.
“Success should be measured by whether working families, seniors, renters, homeowners, and local employees can actually remain here,” Homeyer said in his candidate Q&A.
Mallory’s campaign blends affordable-housing work with deep roots in the district. A St. Petersburg native and Lakewood High School graduate, Mallory was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays out of high school before returning to the city. He eventually became President of Neighborhood Home Solutions, and has also served on the city’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, Citizen Redistricting Commission and Affordable Housing Lot Disposition Committee.
Mallory supports efforts to expand access to affordable financing aimed at helping residents buy homes and build wealth, as well as investing in storm resilience, youth programs and protections for existing neighborhoods.
He has also earned endorsements from Driscoll herself and former District 6 Council Members Karl Nurse and Frank Peterman, giving him support from the three people to represent the district most recently.
“At a moment when affordability is front and center for families, I’m ready to step up and help my community handle the challenges in front of us,” Mallory said in his candidate Q&A.
Williams’ campaign focuses on tenant advocacy and neighborhood organizing. She works in marketing and community engagement and has been involved with Faith in Florida, the St. Pete Tenants Union, the League of Women Voters and the Uptown Neighborhood Association. She began organizing around rent control and tenant protections in 2020, and has made displacement and gentrification central to her campaign.
Williams’ housing plan calls for using publicly owned land near job and transit centers for mixed-income and workforce housing. She also calls for independent audits of major projects and public dashboards showing progress, spending and performance benchmarks.
Williams also argues that protecting artists, local businesses and commercial corridors is part of preserving St. Petersburg’s character as the city grows.
Her campaign also focuses on utility-billing transparency, clearer bills and leak alerts to catch unusual usage sooner, and proposes a dedicated advocate to help residents resolve disputes.
“Residents deserve to know where their money is going. Right now the utility system is neither transparent nor easy to navigate. I will tackle this,” Williams said in her candidate Q&A.
As the campaign heads into its final stretch before the Primary, the money race has also taken shape.
Balliet leads the field with just over $56,000 raised, followed by Mallory with nearly $43,000, Grove with about $40,000, Homeyer with about $16,000 and Williams with just under $7,000, according to campaign finance figures through July 31.
However, Grove leads the field with about $16,500 remaining on-hand. Mallory’s campaign reports about $2,000 on hand, Williams reports about $1,300 and Homeyer about $1,000 available. Balliet has spent more than she has raised through the latest reporting period, with her campaign reporting about $57,500 in cumulative expenditures against about $56,000 in monetary contributions.
The Primary is only open to residents of District 6. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top two advance to a Nov. 3 General Election decided by voters citywide.
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