ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — (UPDATE) Three seats filled, one more to go.

The St. Pete Beach city commission on Wednesday appointed Nick Filtz as a new member.

The commission suddenly found itself with four openings last week after four commissioners said they would resign over a new financial disclosures law.

During meetings this week, the commission has appointed three new members starting with Former Coast Guard commanding officer and rescue pilot, Rich Lorenzen, who has lived in St. Pete Beach for 31 years.

At a special meeting Tuesday, commissioners voted to appoint business owner Karen Marriott to the District 1 seat.

Another seat is expected to be filled at a meeting on Thursday.

Despite filling another seat Wednesday, Mayor Adrian Petrila criticized the selection, saying Filtz was the least qualified.

What You Need To Know

  • St. Pete Beach city commission rushes to fill seats by the end of the year 

  • 4 commissioners plan to resign over new financial disclosure law 

  • District 1 seat filled during Tuesday's meeting; District 4 filled last week

  • MORE: St. Pete Beach fills 1 of 4 commission seat vacancies

While the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is usually a slow one in local government, the city of St. Pete Beach is racing to fill three city commissioner seats.

After only receiving a few applications for appointees by last week’s deadline, the current city commissioners decided to extend the deadline to getting more interested applicants.

At a special meeting Tuesday, commissioners voted to appoint business owner Karen Marriott to the District 1 seat following Christoper Graus’ resignation. While saying goodbye, Graus mentioned he was first elected in March 2020, just before the COVID shutdowns.

“This was not how I envisioned starting this situation here, and this is not how I envisioned ending it,” Graus said.

The commission planned to interview three candidates for the seat, including Marriott. She told members she’s lived in St. Pete Beach since 2009 and serves on the library advisory and beach stewardship committees. Marriott said the biggest issues facing the city going forward are hiring a new city manager and conditional use permits for the Sirata and Trade Winds resorts.

“Those are all big issues that are going to require a lot of time to get it right, and they’re three issues that we can’t afford to get wrong,” Marriott said. 

Tensions rose during the meeting between the remaining commissioners and Mayor Adrian Petrila, the lone official who’s not stepping down from the commission. 

“I’m having a hard time with this because we’re here at the eleventh hour, and now we’re scrambling to make decisions over the Christmas holiday,” said Petrila, who joined the meeting remotely. “We’re working nonstop to make this happen, and frankly, I am troubled and beyond disappointed in this process.”

At the beginning of the meeting, Petrila said he thought Marriott and another candidate, Lisa Reich, should withdraw from consideration. They’re running for the district one seat in March’s election, and Petrila said he thought appointing one of them would essentially make them the incumbent, giving them an unfair advantage. Commissioners disagreed and moved forward with the meeting. Reich did withdraw.

“I applaud the other candidate for stepping away. I wish Ms. Marriott would do the same. I think that would be the right thing for the voters,” Petrila said.

Marriott is the second appointment since four city commissioners announced they were resigning earlier this month due to a new state financial disclosure law required for all elected officials. Last week, commissioners chose former Coast Guard commanding officer and rescue pilot Rich Lorenzen to fill the District 4 spot.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Petrila also took issue with the departing commissioners.

“The irony is that the reason that we’re here today even having this discussion is because we have four individuals who do not want to uphold the laws of the state of Florida, but rather they want to remove themselves from that law,” Petrila said.

“Please don’t disparage my character or how I approach this job. That is not what is happening,” Vice Mayor Mark Grill said during the meeting. 

Afterward, he told Spectrum Bay News 9, “I completely disagree with that. We are upholding the law.”

Grill said he looked at ways to comply with the new law but couldn’t find one that fit his personal situation. He also said during the meeting that the commission was following the process laid out in the city charter.

“I think that the process is as open and fair as it can be. These are extenuating circumstances. Nobody planned for this to happen,” Grill said.

If the city commission doesn’t fill the remaining seats by Jan. 1, a special election could take place in August.