PORT RICHEY, Fla. – From a packed city council meeting that was standing room only to an online petition that garnered more than 1,100 signatures as of Monday afternoon, Port Richey residents came out in force the past two weeks to try to stop state legislators’ efforts to dissolve the city.
- Port Richey residents push to stop dissolution plans
- State legislators wanted to dissolve the city
- Residents packed city council meeting, signed online petition
"It’s huge, because that’s what, really, it’s all about," said Mayor Scott Tremblay. "It’s all about the people and what the people want, so I’m happy to see this outcome."
Tremblay said it was decided at Friday’s meeting of the Pasco Legislative Delegation that any action on dissolution is on hold until an audit can be conducted to determine if the city’s finances are in order. He said that could take up to a year to complete, and he’s confident that once it’s finished, dissolution will be a dead issue.
"There was just such a strong feeling that couldn’t have been recorded. It was just amazing the sense of community, the sense of togetherness, the sense of the fight among us all to save our city," said resident Lisa Burke of the atmosphere at the delegation meeting.
Burke started a Facebook group now titled "PORT RICHEY STRONG Since 1925" dedicated to opposing dissolution. She also created the petition.
But efforts didn’t end online. Residents also invited State Rep. Amber Mariano and State Sen. Ed Hooper, the legislators who planned to submit the dissolution bill, to an open forum. Mariano and Hooper didn’t show, but Burke said the event was well attended by the community. That response didn’t surprise her.
"The citizens have become much more aware over recent months in putting the city back into the place where we wanted it to be," she said.
Former council member Bill Colombo said community involvement has been up and down through the years.
"In recent years, we’ve had newer people who just weren’t paying a whole heck of a lot of attention, which is not uncommon anywhere, for people not to follow municipal government," he said.
Colombo said he noticed engagement growing after he created a Facebook group of his own a year and a half ago, "City of Port Richey Town Hall." "I realized there really wasn’t many places for folks to get news about what’s going on in the city, what meetings are happening, what’s on the agenda, what’s interesting, what should we be paying attention to," Colombo said.
Colombo said activity on the page picked up after the arrests of the city’s former mayor and vice mayor, Dale Massad and Terrence Rowe, earlier this year.
Five candidates, including Tremblay and Colombo, stepped forward to run for the mayor’s seat, but they weren’t the only ones who wanted to serve.
"There are so many people now that are getting involved. We have folks who are now applying to be on our city committees and boards, which have had empty seats for a long time," said Colombo.
"We’re one of the small communities where people fight to get on those boards. We have a lot of involved citizens, and they’re not paid positions," Tremblay said.
While not every council meeting can have a standing room only crowd, Burke, Colombo, and Tremblay all said they have the sense that residents want to remain engaged going forward.
"It really takes citizen participation and being involved to make your community strong and to know what’s going on and to watch," Burke said. "We will be watching everything – not just here in this building, but all the way up through the state."