ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman on Friday announced the formation of a task force whose function will be to assist in planning the reopening of commerce and other activities related to daily living in the city.
- Restart St. Pete has 17 members
- Members include doctors, transit authority officials, small business representatives
- More Pinellas County stories
The "Restart St. Pete" task force will be composed of doctors, transit authority officials and small business representatives, according to Kriseman.
One of the task force's 17 members, Keep St. Petersburg Local founder Olga Bof, said she’s happy she was selected and that it would be a mistake not to have someone representing small businesses.
“Considering that small businesses represent the largest employer, this is what people don’t remember or they may not even recognize and know that small businesses are our greatest employers,” she said. “In the city of St. Pete to have them as the greatest concentration of employers, it would be wrong to have not put them into this conversation."
Her organization represents hundreds of businesses and she said she plans to be their voice.
“You have disparate views on this because we all don’t know what is the right answer,” Bof said. “So I’m not necessarily going to synthesize or distill — I’m simply acting as their voice and bringing all of their voices forward so that the mayor and his team could take that information and do the best for our city.”
Dr. Mona Mangat represents business owners, too, but she’s one of three physicians on the panel and she says she's also on the task force to talk about health and safety.
“I think that what I bring to the table, I’m a small business owner and so I recognize what it means to be closed,” Mangat said. “You know, I’m struggling to keep my business open and my seven employees employed and I’m also a physician caring for high risk patients that have asthma and immune deficiencies."
She said there are a number of things to consider before reopening.
“You know, we obviously have to consider what is our community’s capacity right now," Mangat explained. "What do our hospital beds look like? What does our availability of PPE look like? How much testing do we really have in our community?”
Full list the Restart St. Pete advisers
- Dr. David Berman, Board certified pediatric infectious disease specialist, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital
- Olga Bof, Executive Director, Keep St. Petersburg Local
- Amber Boulding, City of St. Petersburg Emergency Management Manager
- John Collins, Executive Director, St. Petersburg Arts Alliance Duggan Cooley, CEO, Pinellas Community Foundation
- J.P. DuBuque, President and CEO, Greater St. Petersburg Area Economic Development Corporation
- Dexter Fabian, Publisher, ‘I Love the Burg’
- Rene Flowers, Pinellas County School Board Member
- Rev. Watson Haynes, President and CEO, Pinellas County Urban League
- Dr. Mona Mangat, Member/Past Board Chair Doctors for America, Board-certified allergist & immunologist, Bay Area Allergy and Asthma
- Jason Mathis, CEO, St. Petersburg Downtown
- Partnership Brad Miller, CEO, Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority
- Scott Smith, President, St. Anthony’s Hospital
- Chris Steinocher, President and CEO, St. Petersburg Area Chamber of Commerce
- Dr. Kanika Tomalin, City Administrator and Deputy Mayor
- Michael Vivio, CEO-Owner, Corp Fitness Works
- Dr. Israel Wojnowich, City of St. Petersburg Physician, Board certified Family Medicine, Bayfront Health Medical Group