How To Proceed With Rays: 8 St. Pete Mayoral Candidates Discuss

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — How to proceed with the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site, and whether the project should start over, was one of several topics eight candidates discussed Tuesday in the Decision 2021 St. Petersburg Mayoral Debate.

Other topics included gun violence, systemic racism, and privatizing marinas. Patch will post a series of stories with candidates' views from the June 22 debate.

All candidates were virtually present for the debate: City Council members Darden Rice and Robert Blackmon, former Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch, former city council member and state representative Wengay Newton, entrepreneur Pete Boland, former political operative and marketer Marcile Powers, University of South Florida political science student Michael Ingram, and non-partisan St. Petersburg resident Torry Nelson.

How to handle the Tropicana Field site and what the future holds for the Tampa Bay Rays are unsettled at this point. Two final Trop development plans were chosen this year by Mayor Rick Kriseman, whose final term as mayor is nearly done.

Also crucial in the decision is the primary owner of the Tampa Bay Rays, Stu Sternberg, who was accused of depriving the minority owners of their profits from the team while simultaneously requiring them to pay taxes on potential income, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

The minority owners filed a lawsuit against Sternberg in May, and accused him of having private discussions with Canadian investors. The city and the Rays are deadlocked over how to proceed as the lawsuit against Sternberg goes to trial, Kriseman said. The city's contract with the Rays terminates at the end of 2027.

All mayoral candidates outlined how they planned to move forward with development for the Tropicana Field site.

If you were elected as mayor, would you be compelled to stick with the two finalists for Trop redevelopments selected by Mayor Kriseman, or could this entire process start over from scratch, Bay News 9’s Holly Gregory asked.

Torry Nelson: “We need to start fresh. ...We don’t know what bridges have been burned between Mayor Kriseman and the Rays. We don’t know what deals have been cut. We need to start fresh, and let the community have the say-so to start fresh and have a fresh start.”

Wengay Newton: “As mayor, I would want to make sure there’s no ill-will, there’s no backward deals that have been done to make sure that the people who is impacted by that--Remember, that was our Black Wall Street. All the Black businesses down there, every domain that had been dropped on top of the Trop had killed the entire Black business community, so I wanna make sure whatever we do is going to include everybody because the locals can get those jobs, and that money can stay here in this community. And that’s important to me."

Marcile Powers: “I’d also like to open that up to the public again. Have them make the final say of what development companies are going to go to, whether that’s a formal election, or that’s an informal poll done online. I also want to do a stakeholders survey with the burial grounds there, and figure out how is the proper way to honor the ancestors buried on that land."

Check back with Patch Wednesday, June 23, to read each St. Petersburg mayoral candidates' views on systemic racism.

Darden Rice: "I think that it was a mistake to start the master developer RFP (request for proposals) process without knowing what the Rays are gonna do. We’re married to the Rays until the end of 2027. They do have a part in this whole process of deciding what happens next. So I led the effort to tap the brakes to ask the mayor to talk to the Rays first before we take one step further. That is really what makes sense to me, and it’s really what’s there to the developers. Many of them came up with some great ideas, and great plans, but we simply need to hear from the Rays now going forward."

Ken Welch: "I’m not compelled to stick with those two finalists, but I do want to say that a lot of foundational work has been done. And laying out the 21 principles and speaking to housing and equity and jobs, so I don’t think that is lost work. It’s not like the Pier, when I served on that committee, and we ended up with the lens of the eye, and we had to start over. I think this is different, but we do need to get the community involved, some council back involved, the county and the Rays, and start that discussion anew."

Robert Blackmon: "We need to start back over. Council said multiple times that they were not comfortable moving forward without the Rays. And I know the council hasn't had a seat at the table, and the Tampa Bay Rays haven’t had a seat at the table, so I know that the community hasn’t had a seat at the table, so I know that at the end of the day, we need to make sure that this development is community-minded, and keeps the citizens first mentality about this. So we need to start back over because we’re wasting time, emotions, and money on a project that will never come to fruition in its current state."

Pete Boldon: "I think we definitely need to have the Rays a seat at the table. I think this is one of those things that we all kind of agree about that we shouldn’t go forward and let this...mayor make the final decisions about something that is going to affect us for generations to come. I think that it needs to be split up into some different parcels where we have specializations I think Al Lang needs to be a big part of this discussion, too, about whether or not the Rays want to be there. That’s where they wanted to be 14 years ago, so I might say to start over the process...and move forward for a permanent solution."

Michael Ingram: "This decision should definitely be made by the incoming mayor, but that doesn’t mean the consideration for the two that have been narrowed down by Kriseman should be taken away. But the new mayor should evaluate all options, and not just what they’ve been given by the previous mayor. And as many people said, this is a decision for the people of St. Pete. But also, it needs to have the city council and Rays at the table because without them then we don’t have a full solution."

St. Petersburg primary elections are scheduled for Aug. 24; The two candidates receiving the most votes in each district will be placed on the Nov. 2 municipal general election ballot.

The registration deadline for the primary elections is July 26. Visit Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections website to register or update your address.

Tuesday's debate was hosted by Bay News 9and the Tampa Bay Times. Each candidate was allotted times that ranged from 15-60 seconds to answer a question.