PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. -- With the election less than two weeks away, the three Democrats vying to win the primary in the Pinellas County Commission District 7 seat laid out their policy visions at a virtual Suncoast Tiger Bay Club forum on Wednesday. 

State Rep. Wengay Newton, Pinellas School Board Member Rene Flowers and former state legislator Frank Peterman are all battling it out this month, with the winner to face non-party affiliated candidate Maria Scruggs in November (who also participated in the debate).

Based on fundraising numbers and endorsements, the race seems at this point to be between Newton and Flowers. Newton appears to think so, as he has an ad on the airwaves attacking Flowers for her role on the school board by referencing the Tampa Bay Times 2015 series on “Failure Factories” about five south Pinellas County schools (Flowers told the Times recently that with the exception of one of the schools, the others have improved).

Education only came up at the very end of Wednesday’s forum, where Newton made a reference to the “school to prison pipeline” that he says still very much exists in Pinellas County schools. Otherwise the event was a relative wonky discussion taking on the homeless, affordable housing, the environment and economic conditions during the pandemic.

Flowers said the county would need to look at job retraining for those who work in the hospitality or tourist industries.

“We have a number of people with felony records, and they may have questionable backgrounds, but they can find a job in the hotel industry, in the motel industry or the restaurant industry. But as a result of those industries having to function at 30% capacity or lower, those jobs are no longer available to them,” she said.

Scruggs said the county commission needs to help small businesses expand their capacity so that they’re in a position to create more job opportunities.

Peterman, who, like Newton and Flowers, formerly served on the St. Petersburg City Council, twice mentioned the idea of having larger companies “partner” with small businesses who have suffered due to the pandemic to spur economic development. 

“I think we ought to still look at getting – thinking outside of the box - and go to manufacturing in a safe and responsible way, given the pandemic. I think we ought to get large members of people employed and make business opportunities for folks, and I think manufacturing is going to be very big at some point,” Peterman said.

Peterman and Newton both said that as former members of the Legislature (Newton is still a member until November) they would be able to leverage their relationships with state lawmakers to help the county.

When asked on what issues they can work with Republicans on if elected to the county commission, Newton noted his successes while being in the minority in the Florida House of Representatives.  

“You don’t do that with 73 Republicans and 47 Democrats, but I’ve worked across the aisle building relationships and building bridges, and bring home results,” he said. “Not just talking points. Results.”

When the issue of how to deal with the homeless was considered, Newton took some verbal shots at St. Petersburg officials, referring to high ticket items like the $85 million new police headquarters and $93 million allocated for the new Pier but “nothing for the homeless.”

“They pushed them up all Central,” he said, referring to a signature street in St. Petersburg. “There’s a whole gang of them there right in the bus station. They’re just pushing them out of downtown. They’re not in the conversation.”

Flowers said she would like to see more development of the tiny houses concept that was brought to St. Petersburg a few years ago by Michael Jalazo with the Pinellas Ex-Offender Re-entry Coalition.

Scruggs said a problem when contending with an issue like homelessness is that bureaucrats (which she considers herself to be) “rush to put a band-aid on a very deep rooted social, economic and political problem. This is not a problem that can be resolved with a quick, three-minute answer.” 

The candidates were also asked to address the possibility that St. Petersburg officials may be making a change to allow for increased residential density in what is known as the Coastal High Hazard Area (CHHA). That’s the area defined as below the elevation of a Category 1 storm surge line which the St. Pete’s comprehensive plan has long prohibited any additional residential density. 

If approved there by the city council, Pinellas County Commissioners would need to weigh in. 

“We’ve got to make sure that whenever we’re doing construction it needs to be smart. We need to know what our construction codes are,” said Flowers, who said she has been endorsed by the Sierra Club because of her stance on this issue.

“I would say with smart development, and making sure we are following hurricane standards, we can do that,” Newton said, referring to his endorsement from the Pinellas Realtor Organization.

Peterman agreed, while Scruggs said she was neutral on the issue.

Scruggs was asked by moderator Matt Lettelleir if she had a preference of who she would like to run against in November. Instead of the usual political response of being noncommittal, Scruggs said she’d like to take on Newton.

“I think that it’s more of a contrast between the two of us that the voters would have a clearer distinction on November third,” she said.           

Early voting begins at three locations in the county beginning on Saturday. That’s also the last day a voter can request a vote-by-mail ballot if they would prefer to vote that way. Election Day is August 18.