St. Pete City Councilmember Karl Nurse prompted a report questioning a City Councilâs candidateâs ability to reach consensus if he serves on council.
The Lisa Wheeler-Brown campaign has been fighting hard to maintain its footing in the race to replace Wengay Newton. Her opponent is his brother, Will Newton. Earlier this week, the Tampa Bay Times reported that Will Newton had an unimpressive track record as a bargainer for the cityâs firefighter union. Of the four bargaining impasses over 10 years, Newton served as president of the union for three of them.
Nurse requested the cityâs impasse history over the past 10 years in his official capacity as a City Council member sometime before March 18.
âSuccessfully being able to reach agreement on the many difficult issues that a councilmember faces is a critical skill,â Nurse wrote in an email asking what he thought the information meant in terms of Newtonâs ability as a leader. âWe have Washington, D.C., to show us what gridlock looks like.â
Asked whether he requested the information specifically looking for information about Newton, Nurse simply replied, âI have a well developed curiosity.â
“It is unfortunate that Lisa Wheeler-Brown’s largest campaign donor not only gave $4,000 to her campaign, but may have misused his City Council office to direct city staff to conduct his opposition research. The citizens of St. Petersburg deserve better conduct from Ms. Wheeler-Brown and her supporters,” a statement from the Newton campaign read.
Nurse has made two $1,000 contributions to Wheeler-Brownâs campaign and another two $1,000 contributions from his company, BayTech Label. Following reports that Wheeler-Brown had used campaign funds for dental work, reported the expense as office space and failed to report in-kind contributions, Nurse said he would continue to back her candidacy, dismissing the news as petty.
Wheeler-Brownâs campaign jumped on the information released back in March, calling the impasses in 2006, 2008 and 2011 âconcerning.â
âEspecially given ongoing negotiations with the Rays and now teams looking at bringing their spring training to St. Pete,â Meagan Salisbury, campaign manager for Lisa Wheeler-Brown told the Times. âWhile Lisa was advocating for families and bringing people together to make positive changes in St. Petersburg, Will Newton was following in his brotherâs footsteps, causing gridlock and delays without anything to show for it.”
The firefighterâs union also reached an impasse in 2012 after Newton left his post.
Newtonâs campaign says negotiating impasses are common in collective bargaining and should not be used as a reflection on anyoneâs ability.
And in two of the three years where there was an impasse, the St. Pete mayor was Rick Baker — the same Rick Baker who endorsed Newton.
The firefighter’s union also endorsed him.
A fifth impasse over the past 10 years occurred in 2011 between the Florida Public Services Union and the SEIU and the city over negotiations for St. Peteâs blue- and white-collar workers.
Wheeler-Brownâs campaign is reeling this week after several reports showed she used campaign funds to pay for dental expenses, reported that expense as office space and didnât report actual office space as in-kind contributions. It was later uncovered that the campaign lied about the mistakes, blaming them on a former consultant but admitting Tuesday it had actually been Wheeler-Brownâs own mistake.
Newton told the Times this information was being used as damage control over the damning reports over the past two weeks. The campaign finance issues cost Wheeler-Brown her Tampa Tribune endorsement, but the Times editorial board maintained its support, not once mentioning the finance issues in its endorsement.
