CLEARWATER - Despite objections from one Largo resident, the Board of Pinellas County Commissioners approved, 6-1, on Nov. 17, a resolution opposing oil and gas drilling in Florida’s waters.
Commissioner Nancy Bostock voted no.
Before the vote, Thomas Rask told the board he believed the resolution contained an “unstated purpose of allowing the CVB (Convention Visitor’s Bureau) to expand its funding on issue advocacy.”
Rask said he based his opinion on the spending of taxpayer’s money to organize a Sept. 14 rally at Sand Key Park to oppose expanded drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. He said he had been corresponding with County Attorney Jim Bennett and was not happy about how the “unlawful action” was handled.
Bennett said the Sand Key rally was done in support of the board’s position but was not issue advocacy in the sense that Rask was talking about. He said he would review what happened.
“But every time the board gives policy to staff to go out and solve a problem, to implement a policy we have to talk to people who might have answers,” he said.
Commissioner Karen Seel said the commission might want to get an opinion from the attorney general if the CVB was going to be involved in issue advocacy.
Commissioner Susan Latvala said she didn’t believe passing a resolution opposing offshore drilling was any more than taking a position on one item included in the county’s legislative program.
Bostock questioned why the board needed to pass a resolution when it had already approved the issue as part of its legislative program.
Seel said the Barrier Island Governmental Council and the Mayor’s Council had taken a position and asked that the county do the same.
“It’s part of our legislative package,” Bostock said. “Did they ask us to do more?”
Most cities have passed resolutions and for the county to approve its own just added “more beef,” Seel said.
Commissioner Ken Welch said passing a resolution opposing expanded drilling was nothing more than updating the commission’s position taken in 2006 when it passed a resolution opposing efforts by the federal government to drill for oil and gas offshore Florida’s coast.
“We need to do an update in response to the state’s actions,” he said. “No other county has more to lose than Pinellas County if there’s an accident that causes an oil slick.”
He said the resolution had nothing to do with the CVB.
Commissioner John Morroni also said it was important for the county to make its position known.
“It’s so important to our livelihood and the number of people who work in tourism,” he said. “Passing a resolution just says we’re all together on this.”
“It shows uniformity throughout the county,” Latvala said. “When 24 municipalities and the county all agree and we all do the same thing: Pass a resolution.”
Commissioner Neil Brickfield said he had studied the issue and found that the “down side was much greater than the up side.”
However, he questioned Rask’s statement about DT Minich, executive director of the St. Petersburg - Clearwater Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, attending a hearing in Washington D.C. on the issue.
“Are we empowering our employees to promote what we pass,” he asked. “Are we giving them permission to go out and advocate or not.”
Commission Chairman Calvin Harris said Minich was asked to attend the hearing. He said he brought the invitation to the Tourist Development Council which voted unanimously that Minich should attend.
Bostock said she wanted to hear more about the Sand Key rally and how the money was spent.
When questioned about CVB organizing and spending money on the Sand Key rally, County Administrator Bob LaSala said “We don’t organize activities.”
However, no one at the Tuesday meeting seemed to know who might have done the organizing.
Minich explained the CVB’s involvement in the rally in a phone call interview on Friday, Nov. 20. He said the rally had been organized by people in the tourism industry to call attention to an oil slick in Australia.
He said no taxpayer money was spent. The CVB, along with other industry partners, used their e-mail lists to publicize the rally, and Minich along with several others spoke during the event.
He also explained his trip to Washington D.C. to testify before Congress. He said several local hotels had been contacted by congressional representatives looking for someone to testify. Minich was recommended as the best person to represent the industry in Pinellas County.
While the CVB did pay for the trip, Minich said he also spent time at the agency’s Washington D.C. office working on marketing.
“The resolution was not sponsored by the CVB,” he said. “It originated with the board of commissioners.”
Minich said the CVB had done nothing unlawful. He said the issue of offshore drilling was important to the county’s tourism industry and thus important to the CVB.
“Our mission is not only to promote tourism, but also to sustain it,” he said. “Our view and the view of the TDC and the board (of commissioners) is that it (drilling) could be a detriment, so to sustain tourism we’re taking a proactive approach.”
