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<\/a><\/p>\nDonna Miller had stayed on the island with a neighbor \u2014 a decision she said many residents made after weathering numerous storms without much damage and with no risks to safety. This time was different, as flooding impacted much of the island, leaving homes badly damaged.<\/p>\n
She told Florida Politics that she and others who had stayed behind were unable to obtain water, food or other supplies as the barrier islands remained closed because they were told they could leave the island, but would not be able to return until access was restored. Not wanting to miss out on time to address flood damage, many continued to stay.<\/p>\n
Instead, Miller and a friend hopped in her car to check on other neighbors. In doing so, they came across Petrila\u2019s home, where video Miller took shows a crew carrying several large fans into the home. The video is just 10 seconds long, but Petrila\u2019s address is visible in the footage and metadata on the video confirms it was taken the day after the hurricane. Petrila is also visible in the garage.<\/p>\n
Miller said she stopped filming to confront the homeowner. Said she didn\u2019t realize it was the Mayor until after the confrontation.<\/p>\n
Miller told Florida Politics that during the interaction, she asked Petrila, \u201cHow is it that you have workers cleaning out your house when people need food and supplies?\u201d<\/p>\n
He responded, according to Miller, that the men had already been on the island, a claim Miller said she doubts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seemed like he played the Mayor card to get them in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Petrila offered an explanation Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Mayor, I had no authority to allow anyone access across the bridge. That authority rested solely with the Sheriff. Like many residents, my home, which includes a basement, had three feet of water in it and catastrophic damage days after the storm. That damage included a gas leak. I called emergency response and they responded, thankfully. It was suggested that equipment was needed to expel the gas from the house and it is my understanding the Sheriff allowed supplies to mitigate the gas build up to come across the bridge as to prevent an explosion or damage to other property,\u201d he wrote in response to an inquiry sent Monday.<\/p>\n Miller, meanwhile, has sent letters to the Pinellas County Sheriff\u2019s Office and to U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna complaining about what she perceived as Petrila misusing his authority as Mayor for personal benefit.<\/p>\n \u201cA Mayor who puts himself before the people needs to find another career,\u201d Miller told Florida Politics. \u201cWhat he did was horrible. Instead of getting trucks on the island with emergency supplies, he got blowers and workers on the island.\u201d<\/p>\n Petrila, a Republican, is up for re-election this year. He faces<\/a> fellow Republican Scott Tate in what is expected to be a tight race. Petrila is the top fundraiser in the race, but only barely<\/a>. Tate has nearly matched Petrila\u2019s fundraising, with new fourth-quarter totals showing he has brought in\u00a0just over $14,000<\/a>, only\u00a0$1,300 less than Petrila<\/a>.<\/p>\n The tighter-than-usual fundraising in a beach town election cycle that is more often than not a quiet affair comes as Petrila faces criticism for proposing to impose tolls at the north, central and southern access points to the island to fund ongoing infrastructure repairs and improvements following back-to-back hurricanes in 2024 that devastated the island.<\/p>\n Despite his plan exempting residents, employees and business owners, it has been controversial, with some worrying such tolls would reduce tourism and other revenue-generating traffic on St. Pete Beach.<\/p>\n And Petrila, like neighboring St. Petersburg Mayor\u00a0Ken Welch, who is also facing intraparty opposition for his re-election, is also earning resident frustration over a permitting backlog following the hurricanes that is ongoing as residents continue to rebuild. While Tate has not directly weighed in on the tolling issue, he has lamented that the permitting red tape is a failure of leadership.<\/p>\n Petrila is facing his first re-election contest after first being elected in 2023, when he unseated then-incumbent\u00a0Alan Johnson.<\/p>\n The St. Pete Beach municipal election is March 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One day after Hurricane Helene skirted past the Tampa Bay area on Sept. 26, 2024, leaving devastating flooding,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[16826,62626,3125,28811,202,2149,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-126469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-adrian-petrila","9":"tag-donna-miller","10":"tag-hurricane-helene","11":"tag-scott-tate","12":"tag-st-pete","13":"tag-st-pete-beach","14":"tag-st-pete-headlines","15":"tag-st-pete-news","16":"tag-st-petersburg","17":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","18":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126469","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=126469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FPC_FL-POLITICS-DISPLAY_728x90_MAR.png\")
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