Colorful candidates seek two Gulfport council seats

By RYAN CALLIHAN, TYLER GILLESPIE and DEVIN RODRIGUEZ
USFSP Student Reporters

GULFPORT – When voters go to the polls on March 14, they will decide whether to reward two City Council incumbents with another two-year term.

One of the incumbents has drawn token opposition. The other has drawn a crowd.

Linda Bailey filed paperwork to run in Ward 2 in November, then essentially disappeared.

She did not attend two candidate forums and did not respond to questionnaires that the Tampa Bay Times and a community weekly paper sent to all candidates. In an interview, she said she is running just to give people “another name” on the ballot.

That suggests clear sailing for incumbent Christine Anne Brown, a community activist and teacher who is seeking a third term in Ward 2, which covers the southeast quarter of the city.

In Ward 4, however, incumbent Michael Fridovich has three active opponents. They all criticize him for poorly representing the district, which stretches across the city’s northeast quadrant.

Although candidates must live in the districts they seek to represent, voting in City Council races is citywide. The council sets policy and the annual budget for the city, but day-to-day management belongs to a city manager appointed by the council.

Here’s what you need to know about the six candidates:

Ward 2

Devin Rodriguez | USFSP
Christine Anne Brown

Christine Anne Brown (incumbent)

In her campaign, Brown stresses her leadership and community involvement, calling herself “enthusiastic about the future, compassionate about the issues.”

Her husband is a descendant of a founding Gulfport family, and her community activism includes two decades at the Gulfport Historical Society, where she is now chairperson.

Brown, 56, a longtime math teacher at Boca Ciega High School, has a bachelor’s degree from Eckerd College, a teacher certificate from the University of South Florida in Tampa and a master’s from the University of Florida.

She lost campaigns for the City Council in 2005 and 2007, but ran unopposed for the Ward 2 seat in 2013 and 2015.

She ticks off the strides the city has made – in sewers, streets and parks and along the waterfront – and projects that are in the works, like a mooring field along the waterfront and improvements to Shore Boulevard.

“I find the hardest part of all the great stuff that’s coming is that it takes so long,” she said. “I didn’t know the wheels of city government churn so slow.”

She also said she would rather postpone or cancel a project than raise fees or the property tax.

Devin Rodriguez | USFSP
Linda Bailey

Linda Bailey

Not much is known about the elusive candidate who filed papers to challenge Brown, then dropped out of sight.

Bailey is 41. She said she moved here from Virginia a year ago, when she and her husband built a big house on 54th Street S. She identifies as a Republican and her email address has the words “LindaKTrump.”

In her filing papers, she says her husband is her sole source of income and his principal business activity is sales.

She used to be a tennis instructor and still plays a lot of tennis and pickleball, a cross between tennis and badminton that is played with a paddle and plastic ball with holes in it.

In an interview, Bailey acknowledged she is an unconventional candidate. “To be honest, I’m just putting my name (on the ballot) as another name” to vote for, she said.

She has no platform, she said, but if she wins she will develop one. “I plan to go around talking to people, as far as the community, to see what they want.”

Bailey also said she does interior design work and would like to help beautify the city.

“I want to overhaul what Gulfport needs; there are a lot of ugly homes,” she said. “I’d love to go through the neighborhood and put my vision on it.”

Ward 4

Devin Rodriguez | USFSP
Michael Fridovich

Michael Fridovich (incumbent)

This is the first time Fridovich, 69, has drawn opposition. He ran unopposed in 2013 and 2015.

A combat veteran of the Vietnam War who has lived in Gulfport for seven years, Fridovich said his income comes from Social Security and disability payments and a part-time job as a telephone salesman for a cigar company. He and a business partner are starting a small technology company, he said.

“I’m not ready to retire (from politics) and there are things I want to see get done,” said Fridovich, who has a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Georgia State University.

He said he is aware that some residents of Ward 4 consider it the red-headed stepchild of the city and that his three opponents contend he has not done enough for the district. He doesn’t buy it.

During his four years on the council, he said, the city has spent $1,520,269 in Ward 4. That spending includes improvements to Tomlinson Park, alley and road work, sidewalk replacement and storm water repairs.

He has endorsements from Mayor Sam Henderson and former Mayors Michael Yakes and Yvonne Johnson, he said.

If re-elected, he hopes to continue efforts to establish a mooring field along the waterfront, improve the city’s infrastructure and make government buildings more energy efficient.
His involvement in the community gives him an edge over his opponents, Fridovich said.

“I work with the constituents,” he said. “People don’t endorse you because you’re a nice person, and yard signs don’t vote.”

Devin Rodriguez | USFSP
Richard Fried

Richard Fried

Richard Fried, 51, says he got lost in Gulfport on his way to Tampa and decided to stay.

“I had a feeling that this was it,” he said. “There’s a certain energy – a funkiness – to Gulfport.”

The self-styled progressive has lived in Gulfport for nearly 10 years. He decided to make his first foray into local politics after Donald Trump was elected president.

“I’ve elected to run (for office), not protest,” he said. “I’ll do my bit at the local level.”

In campaign filings, he lists his duplex and job as a medical technician at a St. Petersburg assisted living facility as his sources of income. He worked previously in the fast print business and retail pet food industry, he said.

He said he has attended Pinellas Technical College, the University of Southern Maine, Florida International University and Miami Dade College and studied health care, communication theory, hospitality management and liberal arts.

Fried, who describes himself as a “Bernie Sanders kind of guy,” is a former activist and street performer who brings a certain theatricality to his campaign. He has drawn attention by wearing an elf costume to a City Council meeting and reading from “Horton Hears a Who” by Dr. Seuss.

Fried said one of the main issues he wants to address is tenant rights for the people who live in an apartment building that would be displaced under a proposal to put a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through on the southwest corner of 56th Street S and Gulfport Boulevard.

Asked how he’s different from Fridovich, Fried said, “I’m less establishment, I think. If I have an opinion about something, I’m going to tell you no matter who you are.”

Fried does not seem well-versed on city issues, however.

“His comments at the podium (at City Council meetings) make me think he is unqualified,” said Mayor Henderson. “A lot of the things he’s stated … are impassioned but have no basis in fact.”

Devin Rodriguez | USFSP
Bobby Reynolds

Bobby Reynolds

Reynolds’ campaign grew out of his concerns about the park near his home.

Tomlinson Park, at 54th Street S and 19th Avenue, is a jewel of Ward 4. But a skate park there was closed by the city, and Reynolds contends that more than $200,000 in improvements in playground and fitness equipment was slow to arrive.

“The plans have been in the works for a while, but that’s not the issue,” said Reynolds, 49. “They should’ve been done earlier.”

He contends that Fridovich didn’t begin to stress improvements in Ward 4 until he decided to seek re-election.

“Ward 4 needs help,” he told the Gabber, a weekly newspaper that serves Gulfport. “It doesn’t need ‘tweaking.’ It doesn’t need a ‘team player.’ It needs someone who will truly advocate for its residents.”

If elected, Reynolds said, he would speak up for his ward during budget meetings. His ideas for Gulfport include increased beautification efforts, speeding up sewer system repairs and improving recreation opportunities.

Reynolds, a self-described military brat as a boy, spent six years in the Navy. He has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and a law degree from Stetson.

He is married with three young children and works for a Largo security firm. He also runs a virtual law practice from his home. He has lived in Gulfport for 11 years.

Devin Rodriguez | USFSP
Ernest Stone

Ernest Stone

No candidate has lived in Gulfport longer than Stone, a resident for 40 years.

He settled in the community a couple of years after graduating from high school in Jacksonville. Over the years, he drove an ambulance, served as a dispatcher for the Largo Police Department and worked as a security officer at Stetson University College of Law. In retirement now, he lists Social Security as his source of income.

Stone, 69, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 1985, 1999 and 2001, said he got into the race out of frustration with the performance of Fridovich, the incumbent.

“I just don’t see him getting anything done,” Stone said, pointing to photos of broken fences  and derelict houses. “There’s been a lot of infrastructure problems and I don’t want to see us spending our money stupidly.”

Stone said he wants to step up the city’s code enforcement and add another officer to respond to complaints. He also wants to see the police department utilize its patrol boat more often.

“I’ve got ears; I listen,” he told voters in a recent meeting. “I’ve got a mouth; I talk. If you’ve got a problem, then bring it to me.”

In the 1980s and 1990s, Stone had several brushes with the law, according to Pinellas County court records. In 1980, he was sentenced to six months’ probation and a fine after arrests for disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest without violence, and in 1985 he got 10 days in jail, six months’ probation and a fine after arrests for DUI and misdemeanor criminal mischief.

Stone acknowledges problems in the past, and Don W. Howard, the public safety chief at Stetson, said he was aware of them when the school hired Stone as a security officer.

“We all make mistakes, and we can’t allow our mistakes to define us,” said Howard. Stone, who worked at Stetson for nine years, “is a truly decent Christian man who has a tremendous sense of community and family,” Howard said.

Information from the Gabber, a weekly newspaper that serves Gulfport, was used in this report.

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