St. Petersburg City Council<\/p>\n
The City Council is the city’s legislative arm and controls its purse strings. One member is elected from each of the city’s eight districts for a four-year term. Council members may serve only two consecutive terms. The job pays $68,957. The races are nonpartisan, and all St. Pete voters can vote in these two races.<\/p>\n
District 2<\/p>\n
Gallaty’s choice: Gabriel Hament<\/p>\n
Brink’s choice: Gabriel Hament<\/p>\n
![\"Gabriel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/tampa_bay_times_articles_917\/b5a7368761e083c8856b5c96517b00f1.jpg\"\/)
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This is an easy choice: Vote for Gabriel Hament.<\/p>\n
Hament, 34, is running a serious and thoughtful campaign to replace council member Brandi Gabbard, who cannot run again due to term limits. He’s a lifelong Floridian and University of Florida graduate who works as an assistant public defender in Hillsborough County. Before that, he was an investment adviser representative, mainly serving nonprofits and foundations. He also served on a financial oversight committee for a local school district.<\/p>\n
His blend of legal and investment experience would be an asset to the council. So would his gift for advocacy, combined with a straightforward, clear communication style.<\/p>\n
Hament has a strong understanding of the challenges facing District 2, which includes northeast St. Petersburg around the Gandy and Howard Frankland bridges. He’s also recently joined several weekend volunteer efforts, including pulling weeds at a butterfly garden and clearing invasive species from local lakes, to learn more about other parts of the city. He said he leans away from creating a municipal power utility unless analyses currently underway show that the substantial risk is offset by savings in customers’ monthly bills. One focus of his campaign is increasing the city’s resiliency to protect people and property \u2014 and to lower property owners’ insurance costs. He’d also encourage the city to bring on temporary staffing after tropical storms to handle the increase in permitting requests.<\/p>\n
“We need a Marshall Plan-level response to climate change, sea level rise and associated extreme weather events,” he said. “Increased resiliency can lower costs, which can help with our affordability issues.”<\/p>\n
For a first-time candidate, he’s piled up an impressive array of endorsements from across the political spectrum, including former Mayor Rick Kriseman, former council members Jim Kennedy and Ed Montanari, current member Gina Driscoll and the Sun Coast Police Benevolent Association. His boss, Hillsborough County Public Defender Lisa McLean, also endorsed him.<\/p>\n
If elected, Hament said he will resign from the public defender’s office and work part time in private practice.<\/p>\n
Hament faces Courtney Bermudez, 41, a property manager who also supports efforts to make the city more resilient. She favors the “Dump Duke” Energy movement and creating a municipal power utility.<\/p>\n
Hament has a solid grasp of the issues facing the city and the work and life experience to be a productive member of City Council. He’s the right choice for District 2.<\/p>\n
District 6<\/p>\n
Gallaty’s choice: Trevor Mallory<\/p>\n
Brink’s choice: Trevor Mallory<\/p>\n
![\"Trevor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/tampa_bay_times_articles_917\/1377e14835b5226d9a7f6203349e3905.jpg\"\/)
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Trevor Mallory and Linsey Grove advanced to the runoff to replace council member Gina Driscoll, who is leaving due to term limits. Voters have two good options in this race. As we did in the primary, we recommend Mallory.<\/p>\n
Mallory, 54, runs Neighborhood Home Solutions, a St. Petersburg nonprofit that offers first-time homebuyer assistance, pre-purchase counseling and foreclosure prevention services. Before his nonprofit work, Mallory had a different career path: The Toronto Blue Jays drafted him out of high school. After his minor league baseball career, he worked for the St. Petersburg Parks Department and ran a logistics and freight business.<\/p>\n
Mallory represented District 6 on the Citizens Redistricting Commission in 2022. He has also led the housing committee for the St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP and served as president of the Democratic Black Caucus of Florida. He’s endorsed by the previous two District 6 council members \u2014 Driscoll and Karl Nurse. Two candidates who did not make the runoff \u2014 Doug Homeyer and Jameka Williams \u2014 came out in favor of Mallory, too.<\/p>\n
Mallory has a deep understanding of the city’s housing needs, including what has worked and what hasn’t. To support affordability, he favors renovating existing homes rather than tearing them down. Mallory supports the police department’s stop, walk and talk program, where officers park their patrol cars, walk through a neighborhood and talk to residents for at least an hour each week. He’d like to expand it in the summer so officers spend more time talking with kids and teenagers.<\/p>\n