{"id":117602,"date":"2026-01-14T10:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/117602\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:14:15","slug":"st-pete-mayors-pac-asks-law-enforcement-to-investigate-missing-200000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/117602\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete mayor\u2019s PAC asks law enforcement to investigate missing $200,000"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 City of St. Pete voters will head to the polls in August for the mayoral election. It\u2019s expected that Mayor Ken Welch will run for another term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Pelican Political Action Committee has already formed, raised, and spent money ahead of that potential announcement. Finance records show not all the money spent was approved by that committee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Adrienne Bogen is the PAC\u2019s advisor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/boy-dead-another-critical-condition-204915192.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Boy dead, another in critical condition after hole collapse in Inverness;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Boy dead, another in critical condition after hole collapse in Inverness <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cWe demanded the return of funds from our former treasurer. While we assumed the funds would be returned and the former treasurer provided us a transaction receipt for a wire transfer of the funds back to the committee, the funds have yet to be returned,\u201d Bogen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Records show $207,500 was given to an LLC connected to the former treasurer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The PAC said it has reached out to law enforcement to investigate. Her name is being withheld since she is not facing any criminal charges. The former treasurer was unable to be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link  yahoo-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/video-florida-deputies-k-9-172939141.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:VIDEO: Florida deputies, K-9 find missing 10-year-old boy lost in woods;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> VIDEO: Florida deputies, K-9 find missing 10-year-old boy lost in woods <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">State records show the former treasurer was also involved in the mayor\u2019s previous political committee that had its license revoked by the state in 2024. Documents show that PAC failed to submit two or more financial records.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The mayor has not released an official statement. When asked about it at a ribbon cutting event, Welch said he was unable to answer campaign-related questions at a city-sponsored event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As of now, Maria Scruggs is the only candidate who has submitted documents to run ahead of the August mayoral election. Former Gov. and Rep. Charlie Crist intends to file his campaign documents. City Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard also has expressed her intent to run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfla.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2014 City of St. Pete voters will head to the polls in August for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[58432,2346,59250,59251,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-117602","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-adrienne-bogen","9":"tag-ken-welch","10":"tag-mayoral-election","11":"tag-spent-money","12":"tag-st-pete","13":"tag-st-pete-headlines","14":"tag-st-pete-news","15":"tag-st-petersburg","16":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","17":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}