LARGO – Commissioner Mary Gray Black faces one opponent in November’s city election while recently appointed Commissioner Robert Murray will be swept in to a full term without a challenge.
Black is being challenged for her seat by Joe Falanga, a local businessman. At the Aug. 5 City Commission meeting Black won top spot on the ballot in a public drawing by city Fire Chaplain Rev. Bernard Smith.
Black, now 68, was first elected to the city’s governing body in 1975. She served for nine years, choosing not to seek re-election in 1984. She regained her seat after five years on the sidelines but gave up her seat in 1991 in an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the state Legislature.
The retired city clerk from Belleair Beach won her current seat on the commission in 2005. She announced in May that she would seek another term. She announced this on the night Murray was seated to fill the six-month term vacated by former Commissioner Andy Guyette, who moved out of state to take a new job.
Before the Aug. 1 deadline for filing petitions, three had indicated they would be seeking Black’s seat: teenager Zachary Kurtz, former city employee Milagros “Millie” M. Cortez and Falanga. Cortez then withdrew from the election for medical reasons.
“I couldn’t see myself getting elected and then not being able to serve my constituents for several months,” she said.
She had retired from her city job in May to be considered for appointment to the seat vacated by Guyette.
Kurtz was the first to announce a challenge of Black but failed to qualify for the ballot.
Falanga, 52, filed his petitions July 29. He said he chose to challenge Black because he said she has voted against actions that would attract new business to the city. He pointed to her opposition to providing tax incentives to a business planning to bring 189 new jobs paying nearly $42,000 apiece and generate an estimated $38,000 annually in tangible property taxes.
An active member of the Largo/Mid-Pinellas Chamber of Commerce, Falanga owns the Pak Mail shop in the Largo Mall. He has been active in the chamber and serves on the city’s Finance Advisory Board and the Largo Library Foundation. He also has been a member of the city Planning Board.
Falanga is a graduate of Leadership Pinellas, a program to develop leaders who address area issues as a committee.
While Falanga says he will strive to attract more businesses to Largo, he also will seek more “workforce” affordable housing in the city.
“It’s no good to bring new business to the city if their employees have to drive all the way from Hernando County to get to work,” he said.
Falanga and his wife, Rebecca, have three grown children and a grand-daughter. A graduate of Grumman Data Systems Institute in New York, he has lived in Largo for six years.
Murray, 53, is Pinellas County Sheriff Jim Coats’ senior flight mechanic and an assistant adjunct professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Tampa.
Murray is a 30-year Largo resident and lives with his wife, Theresa. They have three grown sons. The new commissioner has also represented Largo on the Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization citizen’s advisory committee and was a member of the city’s Charter Review Committee in 2006. Murray will be sworn-in to a three-year term after the Nov. 4 election.
