POWW ramps up signature drive

ST. PETERSBURG -- Preserve Our Wallets and Waterfronts, or POWW, has amped up its campaign to change the city charter and give voters more rights over future stadium construction.

The political action committee hired Peter Schorsch, a political consultant who led an unsuccessful campaign to replace Albert Whitted Municipal Airport with a waterfront park in 2003, to collect signatures. The group also launched a direct mail campaign and has plans to speak to neighborhood groups about its petitions.

POWW is circulating two petitions to amend St. Petersburg's charter. One amendment would require voter approval for any city funding for professional sports facilities. The other would require voter approval for substantial changes to St. Petersburg's waterfront parks.

Founder Hal Freedman said it is difficult to gather signatures now that there is so much uncertainty surrounding the stadium's future.

"We aren't getting the volunteer turnout that we would have gotten before," he said.

It's unclear whether Schorsch can make a difference.

He has had his share of legal troubles and was once charged with stealing money from former clients. He pleaded no contest.

He also has his own political ambitions. He's active in City Council member Jamie Bennett's mayoral campaign and is considering running for the council by 2014. Schorsch has even referred to himself as the "white Darryl," as in state Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, who overcame his own criminal history before becoming a respected politician.

Freedman said Schorsch was highly recommended by others who worked on the Albert Whitted campaign.

"He said 'I can get a bunch of people, I can get signatures,' " Freedman said. "That's what we are hiring him for. He is the guy in the trenches."

Meanwhile, former Council member Kathleen Ford resigned from the group's steering committee and is no longer involved in POWW in any official capacity. Speculators say Ford, an attorney, is separating herself from POWW in preparation for a mayoral bid in the upcoming St. Petersburg election.

Cristina Silva, Times Staff Writer

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Comments

[Thomas]

It's kind of sad that POWW has to circulate these petitions in order to prevent a back door deal.

[Cathy Wilson]

Boy, you said a mouthful there Thomas...
It's REALLY sad when you consider that POWW is doing what our Mayor and City Council FAILED to do. POWW now has to scrounge for donations to pay for help getting signatures on their two petitions. Our City Council could have put these two questions on the ballot themselves and saved POWW the trouble...

Well 'nuff said about THAT one!!!

It's also worth noting that the petitions DO NOT support POWW's platform of no waterfront stadium and/or no new stadium built with public funding. All they ask is that the public here in St. Petersburg actually be allowed to VOTE on questions of location and financing.
Even the pro-stadium types should want to sign them since their slogan was "Let us VOTE". This is truly grassroots citizenship in action.

I've signed both of them and hope each of you will too.

P.S. to City Council: It's not too late - you could still "man up" on this if you really tried...

[Nunya]

I signed my petitions, printed another 100 and handed them out to all my neighbors. I even made up self-addressed envelopes and bought 100 stamps so all they have to do is sign them and drop 'em in the mail.

More people should be doing this in their own neighborhoods. We can not rely on POWW nor our leaders to do this for us. They simply got the ball rolling.

[Mike]

Well, it was cute while it lasted POWW. Now go crawl back to your insignificant little holes/lives. No momentum, fleeing members, and a criminal as your political mastermind? Noooooooo thank you. I think I'll make up my own mind without your propaganda. How gross POWW has become!

[Clear Direction]

Dear Mike,

Am am so glad to hear that your existance is apparently so much more significant than those of P.O.W.W. members!

However, the issue of being able to "Make up your own mind" is exactly Why those pathetic folks at P.O.W.W. are endeavoring to get these referenda on the November 2009 ballot.

Currently, Neither Stadium supporters nor those who oppose a new ballpark would have any voice in the issue if the stadium was not on the waterfront.

So... if you want a voice in the process, the P.O.W.W. Wallets refferendum Gives you a voice where currently you have none!

So Mike, make your vote for a new stadium count and sign the Wallets petition!

LET US VOTE! wasn't that the Fans rallying cry?

It still should be!

[JudyToo]

Oh, Mike, how tacky you are - trying to cast dispersions on a very important campaign that will surely help EVERYONE by letting them VOTE on two very meaningful issues.

If passed, the first petition will amend the city charter so that you get the right to vote on the future of your waterfront parks: YES or NO to ANY major development in ANY waterfront park. Now what is so bad about that? You get to vote!

If passed, the second petition will amend the city charter so that you get the right to vote on whether taxpayer money is spent on ANY major sports facility: YES or NO.

These two amendments would allow ALL St. Pete voters to have a say in how their parks are developed and how their money is spent.

Do you remember the Trop? It was back-doored all the way through - taking the land and spending our hard earned money on a boondoggle that will ultimately cost us hundreds of millions of dollars. And everyone who wants a new stadium says it is worthless - so wouldn't you want the right to VOTE on where the new one goes and whose money is used to build it?

Actually we could all save a lot of time writing all these things on Aaron's blog and do what Nunya did - sign the petitions and mail 'em in! Go to http://www.stpetepoww.com/ and print the two petitions, sign them CORRECTLY and mail them in. No muss, no fuss. Nunya of course did the right thing and printed 100 of each for his/her friends and neighbors and even gave them stamped envelopes! Why? Because the RIGHT TO VOTE is a good thing!

Let's all get together behind this effort and stop throwing stuff against the wall or at each other. Let's get the right to VOTE and let the chips fall. Don't let City Hall do another secret deal - get it all out in the open!

This is so easy and it is very puzzling why this isn't a done deal. Why should anyone want to wage a camapign for or against a new stadium at any cost when they can take five minutes and sign a couple of petitions and have the right to VOTE on it? It takes longer than that to write one of these messages.

OK, Mike, I sent mine in. Do YOU have the courage to send in YOUR signed petitions? Or maybe you prefer whining to action? You say you will make up your own mind - that's kinda hard to do if you can't vote!

[Mike]

Your entire mission is completely and irrevocably undermined by having Schorsch on-board. The "purity" of the mission is tainted.

[Mike]

P.S. I use the POWW website to send comments to elected officials supporting a new baseball stadium, preferably on the underused waterfront where a baseball stadium currently exists.

[wildbill]

There is just one person in this entire city that has ever gotten a referndum question on the ballot via petition and that's Schorsch. You gotta give him credit where credit is due.

[Thomas]

Interesting that folks like "Mike" do not dare to put a new stadium funding plan to a vote.

Ever so loud in his support of a new stadium, yet so quite when it comes to the democratic process of getting those plans in front of voters.

Now why is that Mike? Surely it's not because you question the morality of one Mr. Schorsch. No, it's something quite different indeed.

It's because you know if a lopsided stadium financing plan ends up on the ballot it's going to get soundly defeated.

[Paul]

The best thing about this article is that the Times is finally running something about us citizens and our actions... seemed to be nothing more than regurgitating powerpoints or meeting minutes for the last year. Good job Christina Silva! I have given many of my neighbors petitions and envelopes as well as the tenants in my apartments. Time for us citizens to run our City again. POWWer to the people :P

[Stephen Fisher]

How pathetic, but not surprising that Hal Freedman has chosen to get in bed with the likes of Peter Schorsch. The question is, "Are Mr. Freedman's hands clean?" As a wealthy real estate broker, with a financial interest in a downtown St. Petersburg high rise condo, can Hal Freedman be regarded as being motivated by anything more than his own economic interest, to the extent that he would undermine the authority of our elected officials? Or does Mr. Freedman just oppose spectator sports because he thinks it attracts "the wrong kind of people' to his neighborhood?

[Frank]

Stephen: why would someone in West Hollywood California be interested in this issue?? And, how can you be so far off the mark?

How does it undermine the authority of elected officials to allow taxpayers to VOTE on issues so important to them... the use of their money and waterfront parks?

By the way, Mr. Freedman's only "interest in a downtown, St. Petersburg high-rise" is that he happens to live in one... the oldest and least expensive one down there. Wealthy? Not in this economy.

Worry about California, where they are holding back tax refunds, and leave Florida to those who live here.

[Scaramouche]

Yo, Stephen -- At least Mr. Freedman is not a carpetbagger who lives in the lap of luxury a long way from St. Pete, courtesy of "profits" from aiding the runup to the Big Bubble Collapse. And don't hold out arguments about "purity of motives:" the Rays owners are simply in it for the money, with their main motive being to sucker-punch the Pinellas taxpayers. Not a good idea to throw stones from inside a glass house.

And once again, we have the desperate lawyer's trick: No facts to argue? No law to argue? Well then, attack the honor of the other side.

And spare us the Rick K crap about "undermining the authority of our elected officials." Buddy, they REPRESENT us, they do not RULE us. The whole idea of "democracy" and "representative government" is not to hold the kinds of "elections" they have in Zimbabwe and the former Soviet Union, to "validate" the absolute power of the "elected." You might examine the activities of those "disinterested people" appointed to the UNELECTED ABC thing. Whose job it is to provide cover for the "elected officials" down the road to tell us that the "community" decided to put itself into a billion-dollar debt hole, and they were just follwoing the "community's" recommendation. And what I reasonably presume to be YOUR SIDE of this public-treasury debate was the one that whined about wanting to vote on the proposal, way back when.

As to "the wrong kind of people," I would guess you rate yourself as "the right kind." One of the Rays boys was honest enough to point out that "the rich will go to the stadium to be seen, and the poor will stay home and watch TV." So if all us taxpayers get screwed into buying a downtown MLB stadium for a billion dollars, which even in TARP-speak is still a lot of money, only the very special few who are "rich" and who will be hurt the least by any taxes or who are exempt or live outside the taxing jurisdiction will be "the kind of people who will be passing through the Freedmans neighborhood."

But keep throwing the mud, maybe some of it will stick.

[atrulyconcernedcitizen]

Props to Bobby Fenton. While I disagree with his position I am completely respectful of the fact that he comes to
this blog with facts and observations about stadiums and not simple insults for those who disagree with his position.

Unlike Mike and that idiot Stephen Fisher...yes Stephen anyone can hurl cheap insults..Bobby comes with points to refute what he believes to be inaccuracies without wasting our time on unrelated insults.

I completely understand Bobby's viewpoint even if I might disagree with much of it...he does try and maintain objectivity over emotion. I simply cannot figure out the Mikes and Stephens of the World.

What part of this do you not understand guys. Do you really believe a half billion dollar decision should be made by a group of wealthy business leaders and a a couple of powerful politicians?

To borrow from an old John Lennon classic...All we are saying is give the voters a chance..

I just returned from vacation where I ran into a couple of Steeler fans. The wife had on her Ben Roethlesberger Tshirt and they are real sports fans.
When the topic of stadiums came up and I mentioned they got not one but two new stadiums...they immediately replied...we had two referenda and BOTH TIMES THE VOTERS SAID NO! They were NOT impressed that the pols and rich folks managed to ram it home anyway.

All POWW is trying to do is to get the results of any referendum honored by having the results codified into law.

[atrulyconcernedcitizen]

Props to Bobby Fenton. While I disagree with his position I am completely respectful of the fact that he comes to
this blog with facts and observations about stadiums and not simple insults for those who disagree with his position.

Unlike Mike and that idiot Stephen Fisher...yes Stephen anyone can hurl cheap insults..Bobby comes with points to refute what he believes to be inaccuracies without wasting our time on unrelated insults.

I completely understand Bobby's viewpoint even if I might disagree with much of it...he does try and maintain objectivity over emotion. I simply cannot figure out the Mikes and Stephens of the World.

What part of this do you not understand guys. Do you really believe a half billion dollar decision should be made by a group of wealthy business leaders and a a couple of powerful politicians?

To borrow from an old John Lennon classic...All we are saying is give the voters a chance..

I just returned from vacation where I ran into a couple of Steeler fans. The wife had on her Ben Roethlesberger Tshirt and they are real sports fans.
When the topic of stadiums came up and I mentioned they got not one but two new stadiums...they immediately replied...we had two referenda and BOTH TIMES THE VOTERS SAID NO! They were NOT impressed that the pols and rich folks managed to ram it home anyway.

All POWW is trying to do is to get the results of any referendum honored by having the results codified into law.

[Stephen Fisher]

If Hal Freedman, who, it should be noted, parachuted into St Petersburg from San Francisco, really thinks he and his fellow POWW supporters think so little of the St. Petersburg's duly elected government officials, then he should run for Mayor, where he could contribute to the city's growth rather than trying to tear it down.

[Paul]

What's with the personal attacks on Mr. Freedman? He isn't trying to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. Our City is. This is about us citizens getting a say on how OUR City spends money. That's all. And just who are you Fisher? You a St Pete resident, or just some nobody with an axe to grind?

[atrulyconcernedcitizen]

Sorry for the double post...ahhh technology.

Stephen..has Hal Freedman done something to you personally? Did the VAST MAJORITY of us PARACHUTE in since MOST of us are originally from somewhere else. Ironically the POWW steering committee had members serving whose families go back 3-4 generations in St. Pete.

And so Stephen could you offer some actual facts to supports your position ...whatever that is..who can tell since you waste ALL of your time posting the ad hominem attacks on a very nice gentleman. As Scaramouche pointed out we can already figure out your intellectual capacity when you bring up moral high ground and slam a person whose motivation might be protecting his community, in favor of a VERY, VERY wealthy NEW YORKER who is trying to get even wealthier at the EXPENSE of St. Petersburg's citizens. The MLB has already scammed the citizens of New York with two new stadiums...one of which WE ARE ALL subsidizing thanks to the Citibank bailout...the Mets new CITI field is now being financed by bailout dollars in the form of hundreds of millions of naming rights for the Mets new stadium But I'm sure Rick K can return and explain that's it's really an "investment" that will return megadollars for all of us all over the United States. I know I'm happy to see my tax dollars go to help bailout Citi so they can enrich already wealthy MLB
owners and players.

And so Stephen we realize you wish to make it a personal attack on Hal Freedman and POWW but what is your actual position on spending taxpayers dollars to make MLB's owners and players the biggest welfare queens, comparable to all those Wall Street gems who had the audacity to fail on a HUGE SCALE...literally jeopardize the economic health and therefore the security of our country and then give themselves BONUSES with taxpayer money earmarked to bail them out. Stephen really do you have a conscience?

[Jeff]

Why can't we just ask for funding from the Spendulus bill? Technically the stadium is already planned, therefore a "shovel ready project".

[Fiscal insanity]

Actually, it is not "shovel ready".

[Peter]

Let's not hamstring our elected officials, take action against sports or inhibit job creation, reduce the tax base and the growth of small business in St. Petersburg. That's the Hal Freedman/POWW agenda. Let's not kid ourselves otherwise.

[Scaramouche]

Peter -- how many lies, distortions, frauds, mis-statements and misdirections can one person cram into four lines of post? I would say you are approaching Olympic "10" level in that category. Kid yourself -- the large majority of us are tired of the kicking we've gotten from the privileged sneak-thieves of MLB and other scamming "entertainment providers."

[Peter]

Scaramouche,

Here is the dictionary definition of your name:

Scar·a·mouch also Scar·a·mouche (skr-msh, -mch, -mouch)
n.
A stock character in commedia dell'arte and pantomime, depicted as a boastful coward or buffoon.

You and the Hal Freedman - Willi Rudowsky-Freedman/POWW initiative have much in common.

[Paul]

Peter,

Shall we define your name? I can think of some 'things' called a Peter. Nah, that wouldn't be cool to do that. What gives Dick? ooops sorry, 'Peter'. You got an axe to grind with a person, so what, we don't care. We're about saving ourselves from the predatory, dirtbags from NYC, the Ray's owners.

I'm thinking you sound alot like a guy with multiple personalities, with one of them being Rick.

Over and out.