Politics
Special delivery: St. Pete Water Resources SUV caught DoorDashing as rates rise; employee on leave
A City of St. Petersburg Water Resources vehicle was spotted making a DoorDash delivery Thursday morning, according to video and a delivery-app screenshot provided by a downtown St. Pete building manager.
James Grove, building manager at Satoshi Hideout Living, recorded the marked City vehicle outside his building after a food order was delivered. He then sent the photos and video to all seven Pinellas County Commissioners.
“Can someone tell me why Water Resources employees are driving around in City vehicles, paid for by taxpayers, delivering food for DoorDash? They just delivered to my building today. Photos and video attached. Someone needs to be fired,” Grove wrote in the email, sent at 11:51 a.m.
The photos show an Explorer bearing the St. Petersburg Water Resources logo parked outside the building.
The 46-second video, time-stamped 11:13 a.m., shows two people in the vehicle. A woman in the passenger seat hands a Jollibee bag out the window while a man sits in the driver’s seat. The vehicle then pulls out of the lot.
A City of St. Petersburg Water Resources SUV is seen outside Satoshi Hideout Living during an apparent DoorDash delivery Thursday. Image courtesy of Satoshi Hideout Living Building Manager James Grove.
A separate screenshot from the video shows the delivery arriving and identifies the assigned Dasher as “Anna,” a “Top Dasher” with a 4.9 rating and more than 700 deliveries.
It is not known how many of those deliveries, if any, involved a City vehicle.
Grove’s email was sent to County Commissioners rather than City officials. By Thursday afternoon, City spokesperson Samantha Bequer confirmed to Florida Politics that the employee in question had been identified and placed on administrative leave while the City investigates.
Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley also reached out to Grove to provide an update and thank him for alerting the City, according to Bequer. The City declined to comment further.
The City has not released the employee’s name, nor has it said whether the second person in the vehicle is also a City employee or whether the employee was on duty at the time. The City also has not clarified whether the vehicle is assigned for take-home use.
The City has not specified which policy governs personal use of Water Resources vehicles. A general policy on take-home or personal use of City vehicles does not appear to be publicly available. Florida Politics has requested the policy but had not received it as of publication.
The St. Petersburg Police Department has a publicly available take-home vehicle policy that allows some off-duty personal use. Employees who live within city limits may use assigned take-home vehicles while off duty for certain personal activities, including patronizing businesses or visiting relatives and friends within the city.
The policy bars commercial use: vehicles “will not be used for any commercial or business purpose.”
That policy applies only to police personnel. It is unclear whether the City’s general policy includes a similar restriction.
Florida’s Code of Ethics also bars public employees from corruptly using property or resources within their trust to secure a special privilege or benefit for themselves or others. Complaints under that section go to the Florida Commission on Ethics.
New City utility rates also took effect Thursday. Water rates increased by 7.5%, wastewater by 6.5%, reclaimed water by 9.75%, stormwater by 8.5%, and sanitation by 6% under the fiscal year 2027 package proposed by Mayor Ken Welch’s administration.
City Council approved the rate package on August 27. The increases for water, wastewater, and reclaimed water passed 5-3.
The City has been addressing water billing problems since the 2024 hurricanes. Hurricane Helene left 3,000 water meters inaccessible, while Hurricane Milton left 10,000.
The City’s billing system, which had not been upgraded in more than 25 years, produced estimated bills that sometimes exceeded $1,000. In one case, a bill for a vacant home owned by a woman in her 90s topped $10,000, though no leak was found.
In March 2025, Council revised its adjustment rules and brought in a consultant to review the billing irregularities.
By June, the City reported to the Tampa Bay 28 I-Team that it had installed 25,000 new meters, completed an advanced-metering pilot, and started an internal audit of its Billing and Collections Department. Mayor Welch was not made available for an interview after a week of requests.
The Water Resources Department has also faced a series of sewage releases in recent years.
In August 2023, a 24-inch force main the City said had “exceeded its useful life” released roughly 10,600 gallons of untreated sewage into Riviera Bay.
During Hurricane Debby in August 2024, more than 429,000 gallons of untreated wastewater spilled in four north-central neighborhoods, with about 152,000 gallons reaching waterways. The City posted public notice on Facebook two days later.
During Hurricane Helene in September 2024, the City reported nearly 1.5 million gallons of spills, more than a million gallons from the Northeast Water Reclamation Facility after the City cut power to the plant as floodwaters rose.
“We’re not happy that we discharged a million gallons, but it could have been a lot worse,” Tankersley said at the time.
During Hurricane Milton two weeks later, water main breaks led the City to shut off drinking water citywide overnight. St. Petersburg, Gulfport, South Pasadena, and Lealman were under a boil-water notice for four days.
During the storm, lift station outages sent more than 885,000 gallons of wastewater out of manholes. In March 2025, Council approved $7 million for flood protection at the two treatment plants.
In 2015 and 2016, the City released about a billion gallons of sewage, with roughly 200 million gallons reaching local waterways after the closure of the Albert Whitted treatment plant. Those releases resulted in a state consent order and a federal Clean Water Act lawsuit filed by Suncoast Waterkeeper.
A federal judge ended oversight of the City in June 2025. The City reports spending more than $400 million on its wastewater system since 2016.
On November 3, voters will see Question 1 on the ballot, which asks for approval of $600 million in drainage and water treatment bonds. The bonds would be repaid by a new property tax of up to about $96 per $100,000 of taxable value, aimed at accelerating a $2.7 billion list of projects.
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