{"id":179933,"date":"2026-03-05T22:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179933\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:56:11","slug":"tampa-councilwoman-hurtak-says-mayor-castor-is-limiting-her-ability-to-ride-along-with-city-departments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179933\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Councilwoman Hurtak says Mayor Castor is limiting her ability to ride along with city departments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GroupIn response to Hurtak\u2019s comments, Tampa City Council chair Alan Clendenin made a motion asking the administration to \u201crescind its position on open access to members of Tampa City Council to City of Tampa facilities including ride alongs. Credit: City of Tampa<\/a><\/p>\n

Tampa City Councilwoman Lynn Hurtak is no longer allowed to schedule ride alongs with various city departments \u201cduring campaign season,\u201d according to communications between her office and the administration of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We] were told yesterday in a meeting with the mayor that we are no longer going to tolerate us interrupting their work,\u201d Hurtak\u2014who recently announced a run for mayor<\/a>\u2014added from the dais at Thursday\u2019s city council meeting.<\/p>\n

The news came to light this afternoon at the end of a meeting<\/a> where Hurtak added, \u201cThe decision by this administration to block our access to city government is anti-democratic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

Emails<\/a> obtained by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay show Hurtak\u2019s aide communicating with former police officer Sal Ruggiero, now Deputy Administrator at Neighborhood & Community Affairs. In them, the aide attempts to schedule a ride along with code enforcement for March 24.<\/p>\n

The next email in the chain is Hurtak\u2019s aide trying to confirm the date and time. The third is another from the aide to Ruggiero saying, \u201cSal, Thank you for the phone call. Just to confirm, during \u2018campaign season\u2019 I am not able to schedule any ride-alongs with Code Enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruggiero responded, \u201cCorrect.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the dais, Hurtak told fellow council members that her office had received \u201ctons of complaints about code enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019s already ridden along with code compliance for the building department and sat through code enforcement hearings at The City Center at Hanna Avenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was going to do this code enforcement ride along. So it\u2019s just, it\u2019s unfortunate that now they really want to prevent city council from doing city business,\u201d Hurtak added. \u201cIt\u2019s very funny, because I never talk about these. I don\u2019t politicize them at all now, now they want to make this political.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis policy was not put into place during the last election cycle, so it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s arbitrary and capricious. It\u2019s intended to harm me, but instead harms all of Council and all of the residents of the city of Tampa, Hurtak added from the dais.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tampa\u2019s Code Enforcement recently saw the departure of its leader, Keith O\u2019Connor, who in December 2022 was seen in a video driving a golf cart with his wife, now-discraced Tampa Police Chief Mary O\u2019Connor. That video first obtained by CL shows Keith and Mary getting pulled over before she uses her position to get out of a traffic citation. \u201cI\u2019m the police chief from Tampa, I\u2019m hoping that you\u2019ll just let us go tonight,\u201d she said<\/a> as Keith smiles.<\/p>\n

Keith was fired in December 2025 following an investigation that revealed he cashed a $20,000 lottery ticket for one of his employees. The employee, as WTSP<\/a> reported, \u201cowed more than $70,000 in unpaid child support, meaning the winnings would have been seized if he cashed the ticket himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the City of Tampa\u2019s January 2026 organizational chart, Ruggiero<\/a> oversees code enforcement as part of his job at Neighborhood & Community Affairs. He began his career in public service as a police officer in 1982, In 2009, Ruggiero was promoted by then-Police Chief Jane Castor to the rank of Major and commanded Police District 1 until he retired in 2011.<\/p>\n

Ridealongs, as fellow city councilmembers detailed in response to Hurtak\u2019s comments, are common. They involve elected officials tagging along with various departments, including the fire and police departments, among others.<\/p>\n

Tampa City Councilman Charlie Miranda said that at one ride along, he and the office even caught a robber in West Tampa. Councilman Guido Maniscalco said his ride alongs have opened his eyes to the trauma that first responders experience.<\/p>\n

In her comments from the dais on Thursday, Councilwoman Hurtak invoked Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter\u2019s comments from a 1953 ruling about the right of elected officials to monitor the government on behalf of citizens (United States v. Rumely<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just fundamentally wrong,\u201d Hurtak added as she read from Frankfurter\u2019s opinion. \u201cIt is the proper duty of a representative body to look diligently into every affair of government and to talk much about what it sees, because unless these elected officials haven\u2019t used every means of acquainting themselves with the acts and disposition of the administrative agents of the government the county or the country must be helpless to learn how it is being served.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to Hurtak\u2019s comments, Tampa City Council chair Alan Clendenin made a motion asking the administration to \u201crescind its position on open access to members of Tampa City Council to City of Tampa facilities including ride alongs\u2014 that open access ensures fiscal responsibility and transparency amongst the decision makers of the city of Tampa.\u201d<\/p>\n

The motion passed without opposition.<\/p>\n

In a text message to CL, Adam Smith, Communications Director for the city, \u201cThere is no edict to rescind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMayor Castor told Lynn that council members need [to] be more cognizant [of] city employees\u2019 time, and city staff members no longer can spend hours\u00a0 in council meetings or writing memos about issues council members\u2019 aides can research themselves,\u201d Smith wrote.<\/p>\n

He added that Castor\u2019s administration is formulating a policy for ride alongs and informational meetings for candidates for city office, given the well over a dozen people who have announced campaigns or potential campaigns.<\/p>\n

Smith said officials are planning two informational meetings for the public and potential candidates to meet with key city officials, promising one \u201cin the near future and another after qualifying ends next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect to limit ride alongs during this campaign year,\u201d Smith added, noting that he did not know if there was a precedent for this policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be fair to everyone and be mindful of employees\u2019 time, as they are busy serving the public. Council requests are in addition to that work,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

But in his response to Hurtak from the dais, Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera noted that voters are still a year away from the 2027 Tampa municipal election.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo long as it\u2019s not interfering with the function of that public servant,\u201d\u00a0 Viera\u2014who is termed out of council, but running for state house<\/a>\u2014added. \u201cEverybody is up for election or re-election in one way or another. And that doesn\u2019t preclude us from going on ride alongs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a phone call, Smith told CL that Hurtak has done a good job of monitoring city activity and noted that the councilwoman did mention her ride alongs in a campaign launch video.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour years ago, I went from being on my neighborhood board to being on city council and immediately got busy figuring out how this city really works. Doing ride alongs with departments like code enforcement, police, solid waste, and fire rescue to see how those who serve us can be better served,\u201d Hurtak says in the clip<\/a> before diving into her work on the city budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I mentioned a lot of things I do as a councilmember,\u201d Hurtak told CL. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to restrict me from doing my job just because I\u2019m running for another job that\u2019s just ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith could not give exact dates for \u201ccampaign season,\u201d but told CL, \u201cOur thinking is generally, we\u2019re in a campaign year now. The next year is going to be campaign season,. We need to have some way of watching out for our staff, so they\u2019re not suddenly appearing in somebody\u2019s Facebook campaign picture, or having to spend countless hours educating candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a developing story. <\/p>\n

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This article appears in Mar. 05 \u2013 11, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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