LARGO \u2014 On a Tuesday afternoon 10 days before Christmas, Chris Arbutine was busy fielding a flurry of questions and requests behind the counter at Belleair Coins Gold and Diamonds, the family business on West Bay Drive in Largo where he is president and CEO and has worked since childhood.<\/p>\n
Two men asked for a price on silver coins. A woman accompanied by her young daughter wanted to sell gold jewelry. A television reporter was there cover a story how skyrocketing precious metal prices have affected businesses like Belleair Coins and its sister store, The Silver Queen, which Arbutine\u2019s parents, Art and Pat, founded in 1972.<\/p>\n
Watching him navigate the pre-holiday rush offered insight into how Arbutine has managed his other job for the last 25 years: serving as mayor of Belleair Bluffs, technically a part-time position.<\/p>\n
During the December 15 commission meeting, staff from City Hall and Belleair Coins recognized Arbutine\u2019s silver anniversary as mayor, presenting him with a plaque, a ring and offering words of appreciation for his contributions since his 2001 election to the commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got my staff out there that supports me when I\u2019m away from the business, and I\u2019ve got my city staff up here, and I can\u2019t take credit for everything,\u201d Arbutine said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t ask for a better work team or a better commission team, and I want to say thank you very much because I\u2019m just the guy that\u2019s getting things moving along. So, thank you all.\u201d<\/p>\n
The longstanding mayor has been using his platform to speak out on hot-button topics, from the dangers of legalized online sports gambling to what he sees as inefficiencies in Florida\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency efforts.<\/p>\n
Arbutine recently drew attention for opposing a legislative proposal to eliminate state property taxes.<\/p>\n
During that December afternoon, Arbutine took time to expand on his views and explain why he believes more leaders need to speak out.<\/p>\n
The following interview was lightly edited for continuity and clarity.<\/p>\n
Has being the reported longest-tenured mayor in Florida caused you to be more vocal about issues?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m the longest-tenured mayor or not. But I can tell you I\u2019m at a point now where I\u2019ve matured as a person, and I\u2019ve matured as a business owner, and I\u2019ve matured as mayor. And I\u2019m at a point now where I feel like there\u2019s no common sense out there anymore. And to sit back and pretend something is correct when you know it\u2019s not correct, you\u2019re not doing yourself any good! Bad things happen when good people sit back and say nothing!<\/p>\n
Is that what led to the property tax elimination talk?<\/p>\n
I think so. I don\u2019t ever want to cry wolf or be an alarmist. But when we see something happening in society right in front of us, and people are telling us there\u2019s nothing to worry about, people need to speak up when they see something wrong. And I\u2019m at the point now where if I see something nonsensical and people tell you don\u2019t worry about it, I believe if you hide your head in the sand like an ostrich and pretend the problems are going away, you\u2019re only fooling yourself.<\/p>\n
The state is trying to claim they\u2019re lowering property taxes without touching their revenue stream; they\u2019re only touching the local governments. But, unbeknownst to residents, local government is where the rubber meets the road. This is where you see your tax dollars working for you the closest, fixing streets and getting police, fire and ambulances to your house, making sure the streetlights are on so you\u2019re safe at night. This is it.<\/p>\n
So, I think local leaders have to hammer state legislators and say, “What are you guys doing?\u201d and they have to educate their residents and let them know this is not a positive change of events they\u2019re signing up for.<\/p>\n
How do you choose your topics to discuss, which have run the gamut from silly to serious?<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t have an agenda. I just feel like I need to start speaking out and use the platform I\u2019ve developed and speak about what I believe to be true and stick to the facts, and I have consciously noted that no one else is really doing that around here. I always joke there\u2019s not enough grandmas around pointing fingers and saying, \u201cYou know that\u2019s not right!\u201d<\/p>\n
I mean, legalizing gambling is absurd. Eliminating property taxes is absurd. They\u2019re just things that don\u2019t make any sense, and if your little grandmother was looking at you, she\u2019d be pointing at you and saying, \u201cIf you\u2019re not paying property taxes then how are they going to fix the roads?!\u201d And then you\u2019d listen!<\/p>\n
If you had to select one nit to pick right now, what would it be?<\/p>\n
The next thing I think is going to be these ICE raids. I mean come on, man. Everyone agrees that the borders were not being operated properly. So, when the current administration ran and said they were going to get all the terrible criminals across the border and out of the country, that was OK. But to go where they\u2019re going now, they have given up going after the criminals, and they\u2019re going for the low-hanging fruit. They\u2019ve got a quota system, and they\u2019ve got to catch people. And if it gets much worse, I might have to speak up about it.<\/p>\n
(Note: This interview was conducted prior to the fatal ICE-related shooting in Minneapolis in January 2026.)<\/p>\n
With your willingness to discuss important issues, do you ever envision running for higher office?<\/p>\n
Well, local politics is nonpartisan. People always say what\u2019s the biggest difference between local politics and state and federal politics? And I say, in local politics, there there\u2019s one rope, and everyone is pulling on that rope in one direction to solve the problem. In state and federal politics, there\u2019s one party on one side, and one party on the other, and they\u2019re pulling on that rope, and nothing\u2019s happening. And until that changes, nothing\u2019s going to get done.<\/p>\n
I am very happy to run the city. I appreciate the opportunity I\u2019ve been given, and I try to do it the best I can, and I try to do it as evenhandedly as possible. And I try to consider everything that\u2019s going on. Politics is such an exhausting game. My hope is that if I continue to be a good leader, a good steward of the responsibilities of running the city, that someday, when all of this pandemonium at the federal level dies down and they\u2019re not going to be looking for who\u2019s got the best smile or who\u2019s the sexiest person to vote for, they\u2019re going to start thinking, who\u2019s made good decisions and where can we get someone who can make positive changes?<\/p>\n
Would I love to be governor? Sure. Am I planning to be governor? No. Could I? In my opinion, yeah. I run this business. I run the city. So, am I qualified? Yeah, I am. But I\u2019m not going to fight that battle. I understand that you can\u2019t just be bland and in the middle. I\u2019m strong in the middle. I see things on both sides of the aisle that I believe in. But I\u2019m not in politics so that I have a title or prestige or position. I\u2019m in politics to do good. So, to have me run for office where I have to pull a lever for whatever the party says, that is a waste of my time.<\/p>\n
But my mom used to tell me there was an old saying you have to be ready to grab the brass ring, and it had to do with winning a free ride on a carousel. So, I guess I\u2019ll be ready to grab the ring if something appears. But until then, I\u2019m going to do the best I can here, and if it leads to something more, I\u2019m in. If it doesn\u2019t, all I can do is the best for my residents.<\/p>\n
So, can the residents expect to hear more Mayor Arbutine hot takes in 2026?<\/p>\n
Ten years ago, I saw an ad, and they were putting Fritos on top of a pizza. And I said, why in the world would you put Fritos on top of a pizza? So, when I see these politicians telling me to put Fritos on a pizza and to eat it because it\u2019s healthy for me, I\u2019m going to spit it out and say, \u201cNo!\u201d<\/p>\n
So, someone has to stand up \u2014 everyone has to stand up \u2014 and say enough is enough. They\u2019re basically trying to tell us what\u2019s good for us and because we don\u2019t want to get involved and don\u2019t speak up, we\u2019re just going with it. And that\u2019s got to stop. That\u2019s got to stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LARGO \u2014 On a Tuesday afternoon 10 days before Christmas, Chris Arbutine was busy fielding a flurry of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[29246,59616,59615,4085,596,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-118601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-belleair-bluffs","tag-belleair-coins-gold-and-diamonds","tag-chris-arbutine","tag-largo","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118601","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=118601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}