The Tampa Bay Times published two stories Thursday that were bad for St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, and Florida Politics published a third. Most of the damage was self-inflicted, as it has often been throughout this election cycle.
First, there was a Tampa Bay Times article leading with the phone-banking and volunteer operation of Welch’s challenger, former Gov. Charlie Crist, speckled with factoids and quotes plenty damning to the incumbent Mayor and marked by at least one avoidable fumble. The Welch campaign denied a Times reporter access to its campaign operation.
Then, another Times article questioned why the redevelopment project at the former police headquarters site has been on pause for so long. “Pause” is a word Crist has used frequently throughout his campaign to describe St. Pete City Hall under Welch’s failed leadership.
Finally, there was DoorDash drama that, while dismissed by city staff as a personnel issue that was promptly addressed and leaves nothing to see here, is likely to be yet another cudgel against the sitting Mayor for the next month.
Here are four takeaways.
Good press for Crist was really bad press for Welch
A Times article authored by reporter Colleen Wright opened with powerful imagery of Crist supporters hitting the phones for their candidate. Accompanying photos showed several volunteers from all walks of life dialing for votes. Crist was there too, dialing away alongside his team.
It took just three paragraphs to get into Welch’s election predicament, with a line noting that Crist was the top vote-getter in the August Primary “by a wide margin,” and that he “has continued a steady drumbeat of momentum” since. The next paragraph gets even worse for Welch, noting that Crist has secured endorsements from every living former Mayor and has hauled in a record $2.3 million for his campaign, compared to Welch’s paltry $550,000.
Crist generously (or perhaps sarcastically) called the race “competitive.”
Former Mayor Rick Kriseman was quoted saying Welch has “significant challenges” to winning, adding that “the momentum certainly appears to be with Charlie right now.”
Former Mayor Bill Foster preemptively welcomed Welch to the “club of one-timers,” referring to his single term as Mayor and his expectation that Welch will also serve just one term. “I didn’t lose because I wasn’t an effective city manager. I lost because I was a lousy politician,” Foster said. He then described Welch as “a bit deficient on both counts.”
Foster, who lives in Shore Acres, one of the hardest-hit areas, told the Times he called Welch multiple times to offer help following Hurricane Helene but never received a call back.
That’s something we’ve heard over and over: Welch serves on an island, unwilling to accept help.
During a Tampa Bay Breakfast Club forum last week, Welch pointedly challenged Crist to give an example of someone who has called Welch and never gotten a call back.
Foster delivered a salient, high-profile example. Even Welch’s small army of keyboard warriors, led by Pinellas County Commissioner Rene Flowers, couldn’t deflect this one. When Shannon Ligon, an influential South St. Pete lawyer, posed the question on social media, Flowers responded, arguing Welch doesn’t meet with people because there’s a chain of command.
Sources with knowledge of City Hall proceedings have told Florida Politics that, at least in his first year as Mayor, Welch declined to meet regularly with Department heads, something his predecessor, Kriseman, did routinely. Sources said Departments felt like they had no direction and didn’t know which projects to continue or which to pause, so everything went on pause.
Here we are four and a half years later, and City Hall is as stuck as ever. Now Welch is facing the consequences.
What’s he hiding?
Also included in the Times article was a notation that “Welch’s campaign declined to allow a reporter to attend phone banking or canvassing.”
There is only one reason I can think of that a campaign would NOT want a reporter or photographer to view phone banking or canvassing activities, and that’s that no one is doing them.
The Welch campaign has, on some occasions, shown images of campaign activities, including canvassing neighborhoods. But in those photos, few people are included.
News outlets don’t just show up and say, “Hey, can I come in?” for things like this. They are prearranged photo ops, and the type of earned media a campaign that is broke 32 days out from the election should absolutely take advantage of. By saying “no” to free exposure, Welch showed his cards.
His campaign is running on fumes, and he simply doesn’t have enough people to photograph.
Another political vendetta, at residents’ expense
Also on Thursday, the Tampa Bay Times reported extensively on delays to “The Central,” a planned mixed-use redevelopment project at the site of the former police headquarters. Plans have been in place since at least 2019, predating Welch, to build a 12-story office tower, a luxury hotel, and some affordable apartment units. While the project was initiated under Kriseman, it has stalled under Welch, and not for good reason.
The Times doesn’t go so far as to lay blame at Welch’s feet, but we know what’s really at play. The chosen developer is Ellison, the same firm Welch snubbed when selecting a developer for the Historic Gas Plant District. ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood was the lead on that proposal, and on this one, she’s also included. Under Ellison’s development plan, ARK Invest would move its headquarters to the new office building.
I wrote in August that Welch’s selection of the Deuces Rising project for the 22nd Street South corridor “looks like retribution” against Wood. There, he selected Magellan Housing for the project, despite the pitch falling far short of others’, including Wood’s. After the selection, Wood appears to have channeled funds to Crist’s political committee.
Sources now tell us the delays afoot in the Edge District at the site of the former police HQ are also political retribution.
For residents and visitors of St. Pete, it means nothing has been built at the site except a parking garage. Read the article and pay particular attention to the quotes. Folks are annoyed, to say the least, and the city has very little explanation for the delay. That’s likely because Welch’s spokesperson can’t say, “We’re just screwing our political enemies.”
DoorDash debacle
Finally, late in the day Thursday, word got out that a local property manager had filmed a DoorDash delivery hailing from none other than a city vehicle, a Water Resources vehicle to boot.
City of St. Pete administrative policy dictates that “city vehicles are to be used for official City business only” and that “they can not be used for any type of personal business.” That feels like an obvious policy that doesn’t need to be pointed out, because obviously using a city vehicle to make extra cash delivering food is not an efficient use of taxpayer-funded resources.
To its credit, the city did the right thing and placed the employee using a city vehicle for the delivery on administrative leave. But it’s a symptom of a larger problem at City Hall, where chaos runs amok.
And the optics are terrible for Welch about a month out from likely losing his job.
If this were Parks and Recreation or just about any other department, it would be bad but forgettable.
Water Resources is the Department sending astronomically high bills to residents with no ability to explain them. It is seeking a rate hike. Its services often go belly-up at the first sign of a storm. It has been plagued by problems throughout this administration and even those before it.
Welch hasn’t commented on the issue. His spokesperson offered a vague response explaining that the employee had been placed on leave. If he were to comment, he’d likely deflect the issue as a one-off that has been addressed. He can’t control the actions of every single employee; he can only respond appropriately.
That sounds fair enough, except for one thing: He’s the boss, and the buck stops with him. Any quality leader knows that when something goes wrong in their organization, it reflects upon them. As Mayor, Welch sets the tone and the agenda, including for hiring. If the city is hiring Water Resources personnel who think it’s OK to use a city vehicle to drive for DoorDash, that’s a leadership problem.
Nothing so far has perhaps punctuated Welch’s inability to effectively lead a city more than the image of a city worker earning a dime using city property.
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Ed. note: Michelle Todd Schorsch is the Chair of St. Pete Shines, a political committee backing Crist for St. Petersburg Mayor. Todd Schorsch is married to Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics. This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.