Letter to TampaBay Times from Vote on the Pier:The Misinfo Coming from the St. Pete Mayor's office.

Tampa Bay Times



Waveney Ann 



Please let me be CLEAR. I NEVER agreed to any new and improved process  as the Mayor outlined to a few members of our group last April.



I really wish he would stop telling people that ALL groups agreed with his plan. That is a TOTAL material misrepresentation of the facts.



In FACT  when Mayor Kriseman called me about 4 days ahead of that presentation Mr. Kirby is referring to in your story of this afternoon  to ask if I would stand beside him at his photo-op down in SpaBeach Park last April  I told him there was NO WAY I was going to represent that I supported (just by being there) something that I ABSOLUTELY did not.



Among other reasons  our conversation centered in on our groups STRONG opposition to using ANY of the Pier funding  to develop ANYTHING on the uplands  when ALL of the funds from the TIF Funding Agreement with the County  dating back to 2009  were SPECIFICALLY to be used from the seawall eastward  for the refurbishment of the inverted pyramid building  and the replacement of the bridge leading out to it. PERIOD. Please refer to table 2-B in the original TIF Funding Agreement with the County.



He responded to me by stating  that IF he were to take potential development on the uplands (in particular  to begin on what is today the Pelican Parking Lot) off the table  he would also be forced to remove REFURBISHMENT  as an option in the new upcoming Pier Design RFQ and RFP Process.



I CLEARLY told him that one had ABSOLUTELY ZERO to do with the other. He disagreed.



He told me that he hoped I would reconsider. I told him that it was not likely  as I feel I have a commitment to the hundreds of hard working volunteers  that had worked tirelessly to complete the largest grass roots petition drive in the Citys history  collecting more that 23,866 valid petitions from City Voters  and an additional 2,900 from voters that were just outside the City limits  to stand firmly on our position  without compromise.



In addition  lets remember that it was not even announced by Mayor Kriseman until late summer / early fall  who HIS hand picked committee members of HIS new Pier Selection Committee would be. Now really  do you think ANYONE from our group would have EVER supported or approved of Mike Connors (as just one example) to even be on that committee  let alone Mayor Kriseman appointing him as chairman? PLEASE.



Mike Connors has been STRONGLY in favor of demolishing that building for as long as anyone can remember  so it did not surprise me  from watching the entire 12 hours of nonsense from up here in Safety Harbor on Friday  HOW he planned to eliminate several other viable proposals  and even TRIED to convice other committee members to not allow the most publicly popular proposal (Destination St Pete Pier) to get anywhere beyond 3RD place ranking.



Then  LATER  he tried to get them to rank  by offering up Destination to be in 2ND place  behind ALMA.



He was SO ridiculously obvious  IT WAS DISGUSTING TO WATCH!



THEN  a couple of committee members openly asked Mike Connors what would happen  if Council rejects their #1 pick  and he reluctantly THEN explained to them  the whole process must start over. It was then  and ONLY then  a few members realized the magnatude of their decision. They realized there was a VERY GOOD chance that Council WOULD NOT accept ALMA  due to the Citywide support for Destination  that was blatantly and DELIBERATELY being misrepresented by Mike Connors to achieve his agenda  resulting in the whole entire process starting over.



A couple of members also realized ALL of their time and work would go the way of a power flush  thanks to one inappropriate vote by any one of them  as a potential result of the continual prodding of their Chairperson  Mike Connors.

This is when they realized they could not make a final ranking decision Friday evening.



What this has now culminated into:



The public is OUTRAGED AND DISGUSTED to NOW realize HOW BADLY they have been lied to  regarding the Mayors initial promises to listen, learn and lead when he was running for office of Mayor. He OBVIOUSLY was not (and still is not) listening  he OBVIOUSLY has not learned anything from the last Mayors bully tactics  when he closed the entire Pier on May 31, 2013  putting more than 400 full and part time employees out of work unnecessarily  and fencing it off to ready it for demolition  to make his point: That if the community did not support the LENS proposal in the upcoming 8/27/13 referendum  they would be looking at a closed down Pier  well into / or after 2018.

Well  we can all see today  how well that all worked out for him. Voters decided it was time to fire him just a couple of months later.



A TOTAL BETRAYAL of trust (now, again) by this Mayor  as handed out to City residents by his corrupt partner in this newly created Citywide crisis  Mike Connors.

There is likely NOTHING he is going to be able to say or do at this point  that is going to change the embarrassing nonsense that seemed to be never ending - Friday in Council Chambers.



It was nothing short of a train wreck  led by two of the Citys least respected employees (Mike Connors & Chris Ballestra)  with the Mayor DIRECTLY responsible to City residents for their deplorable actions. Isnt it just amazing how he was nowhere around for that entire deplorable circus? And even today  he is just nowhere around. He has spokespeople to cover for him while he tries to figure out what his next steps could be.



If this were any business  Mike Connors would have been FIRED immediately  for the damage he as caused  by making HIS favorite choice  and HIS least favorite choice  SO obvious. He even went on in a lengthly dissertation  as to how people need to move on from that building  and that it makes no sense to renew a building that HE believes is not worth investing the money on.



This was clearly HIS opinion  and it should NOT have been a part of trying to persuade others to support HIS position.



NOW  Mayor Kriseman OWNS this mess he created. It appears he must have had a lot more confidence in Mike Connors pulling off his plan for demolishing the inverted pyramid  by TRYING DESPARATELY to put STRONGLY DISLIKED  LAST PLACE ALMA into the #1 ranking  CLEARLY AGAINST the majority of City residents that took part in SEVERAL polls over the last few weeks.



So now here we are today.



I have enlisted the services of several good attorneys over the past weekend  to put the finishing touches on  you guessed it  our next petition  that we plan to actually launch in the next few days. A DRAFT Copy  Not For Circulation (until we are ready to launch)  is attached for your review. We are now also in the process of updating our entire website  and creating the online downloadable and printable version of the Petition for our website  and preparing our 18 petition drop boxes  for deployment across the City.



Unlike the earlier petition drive I started in November of 2010  we are beginning this very important petition drive  with much more hard earned expertise and knowledge  in addition to having literally tens of thousands of really mad City residents at this time  many have even signed up over this past weekend  to assist us in completing our new petition drive very quickly.



We have already received offers to assist us financially to get things moving even quicker this time  which is encouraging.



While it was not my original plan to do another Citywide Petition  this new Mayor  and his staff of mostly the same bad actors  as leftovers from the Foster administration  have left us NO CHOICE  but to proceed forward  and put the VOTERS back in charge of their downtown waterfront  finally  and once and for all.



While I DO plan to do a formal Press Release in the next couple of days  I am just too busy right now  to compose that  or schedule any press conference.

I will announce plans for that  when I have the most important aspects of our new Petition drive completed and up and running.



That is my priority. I expect that to only take a few days.



It was just VERY important  as a priority  that I clarify directly to you  the misinformation that is now apparently flowing from Mayor Krisemans office  through his spokespeople.



It CLEARLY appears that Mayor Kriseman has now lost any credibility for either himself  AND his half-baked plan of trying to push the ALMA Pier design off onto City Residents  by trying to move ALMA  from LAST to FIRST position ranking with his committee - via his appointed Committee Chair  Mike Connors. While I DO NOT believe City Council will support ALMA moving forward  IF that is the way the Selection Committee recklessly decides to rank the remaining contestants  we will all just be in for another long and protracted fight  while the closed Pier sits their as a very obvious example of ignorance and stupidity of the last Mayors inability to listen to his constituents!



I WILL NOT BACK DOWN. I am tired of elected (and hired) City employees blatantly and repeatedly lying  in their reckless attempts to accomplish their objectives.



St. Petersburg, Florida is NOT a monarchy  and nobody elected Rick Kriseman King. The Pier does not belong to him  it belongs to every single taxpayer of the City  so it is only appropriate that City VOTERS should select the next Pier as the centerpiece of the Citys downtown waterfront for the next 100 years.



This entire process  under BOTH Mayors Foster and Kriseman  CLEARLY demonstrate why City electors need more say in the future of their downtown waterfront.



Our new Petition will provide exactly that.



HOW VERY SAD  we have to go through all of this again.



Thanks Waveney Ann -



Tom Lambdon

Founder & Chairman



Email: tom@voteonthepier.com

Website: voteonthepier.com



Waveney Ann MooreTampa Bay TimesWaveney Ann Please let me be CLEAR. I NEVER agreed to any new and improved process  as the Mayor outlined to a few members of our group last April.I really wish he would stop telling people that ALL groups agreed with his plan. That is a TOTAL material misrepresentation of the facts.In FACT  when Mayor Kriseman called me about 4 days ahead of that presentation Mr. Kirby is referring to in your story of this afternoon  to ask if I would stand beside him at his photo-op down in SpaBeach Park last April  I told him there was NO WAY I was going to represent that I supported (just by being there) something that I ABSOLUTELY did not.Among other reasons  our conversation centered in on our groups STRONG opposition to using ANY of the Pier funding  to develop ANYTHING on the uplands  when ALL of the funds from the TIF Funding Agreement with the County  dating back to 2009  were SPECIFICALLY to be used from the seawall eastward  for the refurbishment of the inverted pyramid building  and the replacement of the bridge leading out to it. PERIOD. Please refer to table 2-B in the original TIF Funding Agreement with the County.He responded to me by stating  that IF he were to take potential development on the uplands (in particular  to begin on what is today the Pelican Parking Lot) off the table  he would also be forced to remove REFURBISHMENT  as an option in the new upcoming Pier Design RFQ and RFP Process.I CLEARLY told him that one had ABSOLUTELY ZERO to do with the other. He disagreed.He told me that he hoped I would reconsider. I told him that it was not likely  as I feel I have a commitment to the hundreds of hard working volunteers  that had worked tirelessly to complete the largest grass roots petition drive in the Citys history  collecting more that 23,866 valid petitions from City Voters  and an additional 2,900 from voters that were just outside the City limits  to stand firmly on our position  without compromise.In addition  lets remember that it was not even announced by Mayor Kriseman until late summer / early fall  who HIS hand picked committee members of HIS new Pier Selection Committee would be. Now really  do you think ANYONE from our group would have EVER supported or approved of Mike Connors (as just one example) to even be on that committee  let alone Mayor Kriseman appointing him as chairman? PLEASE.Mike Connors has been STRONGLY in favor of demolishing that building for as long as anyone can remember  so it did not surprise me  from watching the entire 12 hours of nonsense from up here in Safety Harbor on Friday  HOW he planned to eliminate several other viable proposals  and even TRIED to convice other committee members to not allow the most publicly popular proposal (Destination St Pete Pier) to get anywhere beyond 3RD place ranking.Then  LATER  he tried to get them to rank  by offering up Destination to be in 2ND place  behind ALMA.He was SO ridiculously obvious  IT WAS DISGUSTING TO WATCH!THEN  a couple of committee members openly asked Mike Connors what would happen  if Council rejects their #1 pick  and he reluctantly THEN explained to them  the whole process must start over. It was then  and ONLY then  a few members realized the magnatude of their decision. They realized there was a VERY GOOD chance that Council WOULD NOT accept ALMA  due to the Citywide support for Destination  that was blatantly and DELIBERATELY being misrepresented by Mike Connors to achieve his agenda  resulting in the whole entire process starting over.A couple of members also realized ALL of their time and work would go the way of a power flush  thanks to one inappropriate vote by any one of them  as a potential result of the continual prodding of their Chairperson  Mike Connors.This is when they realized they could not make a final ranking decision Friday evening.What this has now culminated into:The public is OUTRAGED AND DISGUSTED to NOW realize HOW BADLY they have been lied to  regarding the Mayors initial promises to listen, learn and lead when he was running for office of Mayor. He OBVIOUSLY was not (and still is not) listening  he OBVIOUSLY has not learned anything from the last Mayors bully tactics  when he closed the entire Pier on May 31, 2013  putting more than 400 full and part time employees out of work unnecessarily  and fencing it off to ready it for demolition  to make his point: That if the community did not support the LENS proposal in the upcoming 8/27/13 referendum  they would be looking at a closed down Pier  well into / or after 2018.Well  we can all see today  how well that all worked out for him. Voters decided it was time to fire him just a couple of months later.A TOTAL BETRAYAL of trust (now, again) by this Mayor  as handed out to City residents by his corrupt partner in this newly created Citywide crisis  Mike Connors.There is likely NOTHING he is going to be able to say or do at this point  that is going to change the embarrassing nonsense that seemed to be never ending - Friday in Council Chambers.It was nothing short of a train wreck  led by two of the Citys least respected employees (Mike Connors & Chris Ballestra)  with the Mayor DIRECTLY responsible to City residents for their deplorable actions. Isnt it just amazing how he was nowhere around for that entire deplorable circus? And even today  he is just nowhere around. He has spokespeople to cover for him while he tries to figure out what his next steps could be.If this were any business  Mike Connors would have been FIRED immediately  for the damage he as caused  by making HIS favorite choice  and HIS least favorite choice  SO obvious. He even went on in a lengthly dissertation  as to how people need to move on from that building  and that it makes no sense to renew a building that HE believes is not worth investing the money on.This was clearly HIS opinion  and it should NOT have been a part of trying to persuade others to support HIS position.NOW  Mayor Kriseman OWNS this mess he created. It appears he must have had a lot more confidence in Mike Connors pulling off his plan for demolishing the inverted pyramid  by TRYING DESPARATELY to put STRONGLY DISLIKED  LAST PLACE ALMA into the #1 ranking  CLEARLY AGAINST the majority of City residents that took part in SEVERAL polls over the last few weeks.So now here we are today.I have enlisted the services of several good attorneys over the past weekend  to put the finishing touches on  you guessed it  our next petition  that we plan to actually launch in the next few days. A DRAFT Copy  Not For Circulation (until we are ready to launch)  is attached for your review. We are now also in the process of updating our entire website  and creating the online downloadable and printable version of the Petition for our website  and preparing our 18 petition drop boxes  for deployment across the City.Unlike the earlier petition drive I started in November of 2010  we are beginning this very important petition drive  with much more hard earned expertise and knowledge  in addition to having literally tens of thousands of really mad City residents at this time  many have even signed up over this past weekend  to assist us in completing our new petition drive very quickly.We have already received offers to assist us financially to get things moving even quicker this time  which is encouraging.While it was not my original plan to do another Citywide Petition  this new Mayor  and his staff of mostly the same bad actors  as leftovers from the Foster administration  have left us NO CHOICE  but to proceed forward  and put the VOTERS back in charge of their downtown waterfront  finally  and once and for all.While I DO plan to do a formal Press Release in the next couple of days  I am just too busy right now  to compose that  or schedule any press conference.I will announce plans for that  when I have the most important aspects of our new Petition drive completed and up and running.That is my priority. I expect that to only take a few days.It was just VERY important  as a priority  that I clarify directly to you  the misinformation that is now apparently flowing from Mayor Krisemans office  through his spokespeople.It CLEARLY appears that Mayor Kriseman has now lost any credibility for either himself  AND his half-baked plan of trying to push the ALMA Pier design off onto City Residents  by trying to move ALMA  from LAST to FIRST position ranking with his committee - via his appointed Committee Chair  Mike Connors. While I DO NOT believe City Council will support ALMA moving forward  IF that is the way the Selection Committee recklessly decides to rank the remaining contestants  we will all just be in for another long and protracted fight  while the closed Pier sits their as a very obvious example of ignorance and stupidity of the last Mayors inability to listen to his constituents!I WILL NOT BACK DOWN. I am tired of elected (and hired) City employees blatantly and repeatedly lying  in their reckless attempts to accomplish their objectives.St. Petersburg, Florida is NOT a monarchy  and nobody elected Rick Kriseman King. The Pier does not belong to him  it belongs to every single taxpayer of the City  so it is only appropriate that City VOTERS should select the next Pier as the centerpiece of the Citys downtown waterfront for the next 100 years.This entire process  under BOTH Mayors Foster and Kriseman  CLEARLY demonstrate why City electors need more say in the future of their downtown waterfront.Our new Petition will provide exactly that.HOW VERY SAD  we have to go through all of this again.Thanks Waveney Ann -Tom LambdonFounder & ChairmanEmail: tom@voteonthepier.comWebsite: voteonthepier.com 4 Tweet