{"id":302668,"date":"2026-06-10T15:23:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302668\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T15:23:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T15:23:23","slug":"st-pete-mayoral-candidates-have-spirited-debate-over-hurricane-recovery-gas-plant-district-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/302668\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete mayoral candidates have spirited debate over hurricane recovery, Gas Plant District"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2013 Mayor Ken Welch faced four challengers at a debate Tuesday night<\/a> hosted by the NAACP St. Petersburg chapter.<\/p>\n

A former Shore Acres neighborhood president, Kevin Batdorf, was not happy with efforts following Helene and Milton. That\u2019s when he started considering running for mayor.<\/p>\n

St. Pete mayoral candidates square off in debate <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you piss of the mayor, you\u2019re going to feel it. So yeah, Shore Acres suffered because I was very critical of the process,\u201d Batdorf said.<\/p>\n

Throughout the night, Mayor Welch continued to defend his efforts following the hurricanes in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust be patient. We will get it all done in 90 days. More debris than we\u2019ve ever moved,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n

Batdorf also took aim at Councilwoman Brandi Gabbard over an informational meeting in her district after the storms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not in secret, it was widely available online for everyone to see and yes, Mr. Batdorf was invited and he was there,\u201d Gabbard said.<\/p>\n

The councilwoman said she decided change was needed in the mayor\u2019s office following the hurricanes.<\/p>\n

Former Gov. and Rep. Charlie Crist told the crowd of about 125 people at the President Barack Obama Main Library that he was disappointed in the mayor\u2019s response during a crucial time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like we were not prepared for a few of these hurricanes recently and that\u2019s a problem. You deserve leadership that is prepared,\u201d Crist said.<\/p>\n

Welch accused Crist of living in a different state. Crist responded by saying he was in the city during recovery efforts.<\/p>\n

Former NAACP St. Pete President Maria Scruggs gave overall city operations under Welch\u2019s leadership a failing grade.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were to grade the City of St. Pete in the areas of transparency and when it comes to procurement, I would give them an F,\u201d Scuggs said.<\/p>\n

The mayor also responded to critics blaming him for the Tampa Bay Rays deal going sour and those who are expressing concerns over current plans for the Historic Gas Plant District redevelopment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Rays signed the deal and backed away from it, and wanted up to $300 million more, I stood on principle and said not another dime,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n

Former City Fire Chief Jim Large was invited but did not participate in this debate.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another debate coming up on June 18 at St. Pete College and it\u2019s scheduled to start at 5 p.m. The League of Women voters in St. Petersburg will host that debate.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WFLA. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) \u2013 Mayor Ken Welch faced four challengers at a debate Tuesday night hosted by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[3300,3347,2346,72295,126967,53789,27339,15377,1639,202,204,203,199,201,200,3815],"class_list":["post-302668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-brandi-gabbard","tag-charlie-crist","tag-ken-welch","tag-kevin-batdorf","tag-pete-president-maria-scruggs","tag-president-barack-obama","tag-recovery-efforts","tag-running-for-mayor","tag-shore-acres","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302668","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=302668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}