During last Thursday's St. Pete City Council meeting
the Karl Nurse District 6 City Council member indicated that as part of the
City Budget process he had asked Mayor Kriseman for a report on the
accomplishments of the team of people hired to staff the "Office of the
Mayor".
That would be Deputy Mayor Kanika Tomalin, Chief of
Staff Kevin King, and Communications Director Ben Kirby along with some support
staff.
All of that adds up to about $900,000 in salary and benefits
including the Mayor and Council member Nurse was looking for information on
payback for the public's investment in this new layer of administration.
Council member Nurse indicated he was disappointed
because there had been no report or even a response from the Mayor's office.
The office of Mayor was a creation of Rick Kriseman
probably before he ever set foot in City Hall as the elected Mayor. King and
Kirby are longtime political cronies of the Mayor and these jobs are simply
high paid political crony appointments.
King has no credentials for the position he
occupies; he is careful to make sure his fingerprints are on as little as
possible. Kirby, a writer and Blogger, is at least qualified for
the position he holds, problem is one floor down in City Hall is a fully
staffed marketing department that should be doing the communications job.
The concept of a loyal office of the Mayor might
have been a good idea if Kriseman had staffed it with some qualified,
experience people instead of political sidekicks.
Tomalin is a bit different in that the objective was
to get a successful African American as high up in the organization as
possible. Think Don McRea.
In reality after nearly a year on the job Tomalin
has very little to hang her hat on in the way of significant accomplishments. I
suspect that is more Kriseman's fault than hers.
Nurse indicated he had hoped the report could
showcase some of the accomplishments of the office of the Mayor.
The reason Nurse didn't get his report is because there
is nothing to report.
The taxpayers are not really getting much for the
money being spent on the Office of the Mayor other than some political
maneuvering, some cute posts in the Mayor's e-mail blast and keeping the
reelection team well fed.
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