In first televised debate in the race for mayor of St. Petersburg, former Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch – the front-runner in the race according to a just released poll - took verbal shots from two of his opponents during the hour-long forum.

When asked by Tampa Bay Times reporter Steve Contorno if there was systemic racism inside the St. Petersburg Police Dept., former councilman and state legislator Wengay Newton began his response by calling out Welch, without elaborating.

“I don’t think it’s a problem with our police department as it is with one of our mayoral candidates, Mr. Welch,” Newton said, before decrying racism and saying that the police disproportionately get criticized.

Welch declined to engage with Newton, and instead said that with an increase in murders on the Southside, he had recently taken part in six different “community conversations” hosted by the NAACP to hear the concerns from local residents, and “a lot of folks on this call didn’t come to one of those meetings.”

“You can’t lead if you’re not with the people,” he added.

That led to St. Petersburg City Councilman Robert Blackmon, one of only two registered Republicans in the nonpartisan race, to blast Welch as being ineffective during his two decades that he served on the Pinellas County Commission.

“I went to a number of the NAACP community conversations, but Commissioner Welch was a commissioner for 20 years, and the problem got no better under his leadership in South St. Pete. So why should we expect any different now?” he said.

Welch responded that he helped create the county’s Adult Pre-Arrest Diversion program (APAD) that has seen more than 4,000 juveniles move through the system, which he quoted the Tampa Bay Times as saying it was the “most effective juvenile diversion” program in the state.

“I don’t know where Mr. Blackmon has been, but I’ve been in the trenches, working with the people in the community. This isn’t the first time that they’re seeing me.”

Councilwoman Darden Rice said that while systemic racism “most certainly does exist, it doesn’t mean an individual is a racist.” She went on to say that that the criminal justice system retains “vestiges” of racism.

“I will tell you as mayor, there will be absolutely no corner that a white supremacist can hide in our police dept. They aren’t there now, nor will they ever be, and we’ll continue to work to make everyone safe in our city,” Rice said.

Debate moderators Contorno and Bay News 9’s Holly Gregory began the forum by asking the candidates questions about the long-running saga regarding the Tampa Bay Rays stadium issue and the redevelopment plans at Tropicana Field.

While most of the candidates don’t appear to have an issue with the Rays unconventional proposal to play half of their future baseball games in the Tampa Bay area and the other half in Montreal, Michael Ingram, at 20 the youngest candidate, does.

“A split team between Montreal and here is not beneficially for our city due to the amount of cost moved to invest in building them a stadium to be used only half the time,” he said. “If the Rays want to stay in St. Pete, they have to stay in St Pete.”

When it came to the question of how the candidates feel Mayor Rick Kriseman  handled the coronavirus pandemic, Pete Boland unloaded.  Boland owes several restaurants in the city, and he received several citations from the Kriseman administration for violating coronavirus restrictions regarding facemasks and social distancing. 

“The idea of evading corona for the rest of your life wasn’t practical,” he said. “We needed to have a public health moment and we failed our people by not telling them how they could better equip their own body to encounter this microbe. We did things like add the air purification systems that was proven by science to work. We didn’t participate in the mask theatre. Individual responsibility needs to rule the day.”

A new St. Pete Poll survey of the mayor’s race that was published just before the debate shows Welch leading the contest with 20 percent support. Newton comes in second with 13 percent, and Rice and Blackmon are right behind them at 12 percent.

Ingram is next with 3 percent. Boland and newcomer to the race Torry Nelson are at 2 percent, and Marcile Powers is at 0.8 percent.