The surprise immediate resignations of City Council Members Linda Saul-Sena and John Dingfelder lead to plenty of confusion, name calling, and frustration throughout the city.
The usual routine has been to have your resignation take effect on the day you are to be sworn into your new position should you be elected. That would have meant Saul-Sena and Dingfelder would have stayed as City Council members until November. The confusion came on trying to determine as to exactly when they had to announce their planned resignation. We are not going to guess that since various lawyers from Tallahassee to Tampa and beyond will probably be arguing that in court of the next few weeks.
There has been plenty of concern that neither seemed to know the rules. Dingfelder is a practicing lawyer. Challenges will be made to have their names removed from the ballot. Obtaining votes and the money to run a campaign is challenging enough, but for now the legal questions will remain as to whether they can remain as candidates. Dingfelder has already withdrawn but could return as an appointed candidate by the party, or could even re apply to be on the City Council
Their resignations did not help many in City Hall and especially those with business before City Hall. Mangroves Restaurant, a fourteen year old restaurant in SOHO, applied to change their restaurant restricted liquor license to a full liquor license due to declines in food sales versus alcoholic beverages. Their application came before the City Council hours after Saul-Sena and Dingfelder resigned. Mangroves offered to provide increased security, the elimination of any outdoor amplified music, full meal service at all hours alcoholic beverages are sold, and a guaranteed minimum in food sales. These restrictions would be transferred to a new owner if the business were ever sold.
The 7 member council that should have voted on the issue was now a 5 member City Council. Approximately 5 residents spoke against the proposed license change while over 100 appeared and/or spoke in favor of the license change. The five members of the Council voted 3- 2 in favor. Sounds easy doesn’t it ?
Well, not so fast. For the change to pass it had to have 4 votes in favor. Not exactly a sounding endorsement of a democracy.
Mary Mulhern and Charlie Miranda voted against the license change, but even Miranda questioned the City Attorney as to whether it was not appropriate to approve the change due to the majority 3 – 2 vote. The requirement for 4 votes was verified. Miranda indicated his opposition was due to a fear of establishing a precedence for that type of license. The lack of consistency of operating hours in SOHO for restaurants and bars has been commented on many times before.
The Mangrove’s issue is not over. The Council is required to appoint the two new council members within 30 days of the resignations. Applications are being accepted. When the last vacancy occurred, over 50 applied. The Mangrove’s issue will be before Council again on July 29th. This time 7 council members should be on hand for the vote. The two new members will not have the luxury of a public hearing but rather will have to read the transcripts from the June hearing to make a decision. Council member Mulhern made it clear that she had already had too much public input on this decision and did not want any of the public to contact her regarding this issue. The City Attorney supported her stance by making it clear that the July 29 meeting would be a vote on the matter without public participation.
The current state of the economy and the amount of restaurant restricted licenses throughout the city of Tampa potentially means that the City Council’s actions could result in the closing of dozens of restaurants, the elimination of hundreds of jobs, and plenty of newly vacant commercial buildings though out the city.
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