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Several places won't hold elections because their candidates lacked opposition.
By AMY WIMMER and KATHY SAUNDERS
© St. Petersburg Times, published January 31, 2001
Candidates are lining up to run for the five seats open in this year's Gulfport and St. Pete Beach city elections.
Elsewhere, elections in Treasure Island, Madeira Beach and Redington Beach have been canceled because none of the candidates -- mostly incumbents -- had any opposition. In Redington Shores, voters will vote only on referendum questions because only one city resident filed to run for each of the two commission seats open this year.
Qualifications, the time in which people can register to run for office, opened just last week in St. Pete Beach, but already three candidates have stepped forward:
Augie D'Alessio, 74, lives in Vina Del Mar and has filed to run for the District 4 City Commission seat, vacated by Rachel Crepeau, who is not running for re-election.
D'Alessio is a New York retiree who is active in several community associations, including the Vina Del Mar Island Association, the Presidents Council of Neighborhood Civic Associations, the St. Pete Beach Sister Cities Association and the Pass-a-Grille Shuffleboard Club, among several others.
He ran unsuccessfully against Crepeau for the District 4 seat two years ago.
Sherry Travis, 42, also lives in Vina Del Mar and is running for the District 4 seat. She has lived in St. Pete Beach for 10 years and is a newcomer to beach politics. She owns a home on Vina Del Mar and a condominium on Pass-a-Grille.
Travis works in real estate and is a member of the Vina Del Mar Island Association, the Pass-a-Grille Community Association, the Bay Area Apartment Association and Friends of Gulf Beaches Historical Museum.
Jim Myers, 72, is seeking a third term as commissioner for District 2. Myers, a retired engineer, has lived in St. Pete Beach for 11 years.
Myers lives at the Silver Sands Beach & Racquet Club and represents St. Pete Beach on the Barrier Islands Governmental Council. In his first two terms in office, he has worked on such issues as the renourishment of Upham Beach and construction of a new city hall.
Residents canfile to run for office in St. Pete Beach until noon Tuesday. The election in St. Pete Beach is March 13.
In Gulfport, where the mayor and two City Council members are up for re-election, five city residents have stepped forward to challenge the incumbents. In Gulfport, two candidates filed late last week just before the qualifying period ended. John Freiberger, 58, a longtime critic of the Gulfport City Council, has been a fixture at city meetings and even started a community activist group called VOTE, or Voice of the Electorate.
Two years ago Freiberger ran against Michael Yakes for mayor, and Yakes won with 82.8 percent of the vote.
Ernest Stone, 53, a taxicab dispatcher, has also run for office previously. He lost a race to current City Council member Larry Cooper two years ago, and the two will again be the only candidates in the field this year.
Stone, like Cooper, has been involved in the redevelopment of the 49th Street Corridor.
Those candidates join Mayor Yakes and former Gulfport police Officer Lawrence Tosi, who are both running for mayor; current City Council member Jack Olsen, auto mechanic John Hamilton and Gulfport Arts Council member Dawn Fisher, who are running for the Ward 2 seat; and City Council member Larry Cooper, who faces Stone in a race for the Ward 4 seat.
The election in Gulfport will be March 6.
Treasure Island will have no election this year. Commissioners Mary Maloof and Stephanie Lavino were automatically returned to office at noon Tuesday when no one filed papers to oppose them. They will be sworn in to their new, two-year terms at 3:30 p.m. during the March 13 commission meeting.
Lavino, 47, was appointed to the commission in 1994 and elected to the District 1 seat in 1995. She lost her re-election bid in 1997 to George Makrauer and won her seat back from him in 1999.
"This is the first time ever that I've had nobody run against me," said Lavino of the Isle of Capri.
A freelance paralegal and owner of a lampshade business, Lavino lives with her husband, Ron, a machinist, and their dog and 26 cats. She has lived in Treasure Island since 1977 and serves as chaplain of the Islettes service club and St. Petersburg Garden Club.
Mary Maloof, 62, will begin her third term as commissioner for District 3, representing Paradise Island and the downtown business district. Maloof, who designed and manufactured clothing, has lived on Treasure Island for 21 years and is married to stockbroker Eddie Maloof.
"I think people are very happy with the direction the city is going in and nobody sees the need to make any major changes," said Maloof.
Maloof and Lavino said they are looking forward to watching the city's downtown beautification and redevelopment efforts proceed.
"Everybody loves this newness and freshness they are seeing," said Maloof.
In Redington Shores, incumbent Deborah O'Connor will continue to represent District 2, while Larry Foerster takes over the District 4 seat vacated by Joe Connor, who did not run for re-election.
Yet even without competition for the commission seats, voters will still go to the polls March 13 in Redington Shores to vote on three referendum questions.
Voters will decide whether to sell the old town hall property and whether to change the number of signatures required to run for office in Redington Shores.
Monday night, the Town Commission approved on first reading a third voter referendum question. If approved, this referendum would increase commissioners' salaries from $250 a month to $450 a month and increase the mayor's salary from $500 a month to $800 a month.