The St.Pier Selection Committee

Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD

Coauthor of: So You Want Blog .

The Pier Design Final Selection Committee meeting is set for 8:30 AM Friday March 20, 2015 in City Hall Council Chambers.

In the public on-line survey, leading contender in the design competition Destination Pier, received significantly more votes than its nearest rival The Pier Park.

The Survey was not without controversy as the Destination Pier design team used a social media site to promote its Pier concept which was forbidden by the City rules. This issue has not really drawn a great deal of attention so far, but if the Selection Committee is looking for a reason to throw Destination Pier out or rank them lower than the Survey, The destination Pier design team handed it to them on a silver platter.

There is also a reasonable concern about handing over a project this big to a group of people that apparently cannot follow even the most basic rules.

The Committee, which has been a bit tentative at times, is unlikely to make any significant statement at this point.

Look for a moderately long meeting, with some conversation about the whole social media fiasco, It would be reasonable if the Selection Committee ranked the Destination Pier proposal second simply for not following the rules, thus allowing both City Council and the Kriseman Administration a little leverage in the final decision process.

Given the kumbaya nature of the Committee an unlikely outcome.

It will be interesting to see if and when the City Legal Department weighs in on the whole social media flap. Given the amount of money and prestige involved, at some point I would expect a challenge or protest from one or more of the lower ranked participants about the inappropriate promotion of the Destination Pier design team.

Right now everyone seems to be playing nice, but look for that to end sometime Friday.

If you can't make the meeting in person, you can catch it on the St. Pete cable channel.

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