BELLEAIR BLUFFS \u2014 Three candidates will vie for two open City Commission seats in the March 10 election, city officials announced following the Nov. 24 qualifying deadline.<\/p>\n
Two incumbents \u2014 commissioners Joe Barkley and David Roberts \u2014 and political newcomer Ann Hale will appear on the ballot, City Clerk Alex Silcox told commissioners on Dec. 15.<\/p>\n
Voting will be held at the Community Center from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.<\/p>\n
Barkley was first elected to the commission in 2009. Roberts was selected by a 3-1 vote to replace Taylour Shimkus in March 2024 after she resigned over financial disclose forms.<\/p>\n
Hale, a former teacher, was among three candidates the commission considered for Shimkus\u2019 seat before ultimately selecting Roberts. She was unanimously appointed to the Belleair Bluffs Planning Board in June 2024 has attended nearly every commission meeting in recent years.<\/p>\n
Under the city charter, the candidates receiving the highest number of votes will win the seats. The winners will serve two-year terms.<\/p>\n
Silcox asked the commission to move its March meeting from March 16 to March 23 to allow time for official certification of results by the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections. The board unanimously agreed.<\/p>\n
Mayor honored for service<\/p>\n
Mayor Chris Arbutine was recognized Dec. 15 for his 25 years of service to the city.<\/p>\n
City Administrator Debra Sullivan said Arbutine was elected to the commission in 2001 and became mayor one year later, where he \u201chas been ever since.\u201d He is believed to be the longest-tenured mayor in the state, a distinction Sullivan said Arbutine earned through his dedication to residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe swore me into office one year later, and I\u2019ve watched him serve and grow as a dedicated leader,\u201d Sullivan said, adding he is \u201cadmired by other leaders, from small governments all the way to the governor of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sullivan praised Arbutine\u2019s accomplishments, including spearheading construction of major projects. She said she believed the mayor\u2019s proudest achievement was bringing four communities together to build Fire Station 43 in 2016.<\/p>\n
Sullivan became emotional while noting Arbutine \u201cis always hands-on,\u201d whether sitting for hours in the emergency operations center during storms, helping with storm cleanup or promoting local businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout his guidance, his unconditional support and his confidence in all we do, all these things could not have been accomplished,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Suzy Sofer thanked the mayor for spurring her political career when he appointed her to the Firefighter Pension Board and for his \u201cleadership and for setting a path\u201d for others to follow.<\/p>\n
A humbled Arbutine acknowledged the staff from his family\u2019s coin and jewelry business and City Hall employees.<\/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 he said. \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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BELLEAIR BLUFFS \u2014 Three candidates will vie for two open City Commission seats in the March 10 election,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[17283,29246,2811,596,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-94990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-belleair","tag-belleair-bluffs","tag-election","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\/94990","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=94990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}