Five will vie for Democratic nod to succeed Hillsborough Commissioner Les Miller - Tampa Bay Times

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TAMPA — This might be an overlooked fact: There is a Republican running for the District 3 Hillsborough County Commission seat. Maura Cruz Lanz’s name will be on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.

It is easy for the GOP to go unnoticed in this race — nearly 56 percent of the district’s 171,000 voters are registered as Democrats. It makes the winner of the five-person Democratic primary on Aug. 18 the prohibitive favorite to succeed Les Miller Jr. as the District 3 commissioner after the Nov. 3 general election.

Ricardo "Rick" Fernandez, Democrat, running for District 3 Hillsborough County Commission [ Rick Fernandez ]

Gwen Myers, Democrat, running for District 3 Hillsborough County Commission [ Gwen Myers ]

Frank Reddick, Democrat, running for District 3 Hillsborough County Commission [ TIMOTHY HEALY | Frank Reddick ]

Thomas Scott, Democrat, running for District 3 Hillsborough County Commission [ JAMES E COLE | Thomas Scott ]

Sky U. White, Democrat, running for District 3 Hillsborough County Commission [ Sky U. White ]

Those Democrats are: Attorney and community activist Ricardo “Rick” Fernandez; retired government administrator Gwen Myers; former Tampa City Council member Frank Reddick; Thomas Scott, who served on both the Hillsborough Commission and Tampa City Council, and nurse and community activist Sky U. White.

District 3 stretches from Bearss Avenue south to Riverview and includes much of the city of Tampa. The district is 40 percent Black; every resident commissioner has been Black since voters approved the county charter in 1982.

In some ways, the race has been cast as new versus old, with one candidate nearly three decades younger than the rest of the field.

“Our community is in need of experienced leadership that can assure the residents of the district are not left out or left behind. .... We don’t have time for on-the-job training,‘' said Scott, 66, who served 10 years as county commissioner and four years on Tampa City Council.

White, 36, making her second run for the commission, offered a counterpoint.

District 3 is “the most marginalized district in Hillsborough County and also the poorest district in Hillsborough County. It also is the most neglected district in Hillsborough County,‘' she said.. “What the county needs to do is make sure we have someone on the Board of County Commissioners that’s advocating for this marginalized community. We can’t keep electing the same people that’s had the opportunity to build equity and chose not to.‘'

Reddick, 64, believes he has an advantage — timeliness. Much of his majority-Black district on the City Council overlapped the District 3 commission seat, and his eight years on council just ended in May 2019. He said he still has solid name recognition and his former constituents still remember the things he helped accomplish, including leading efforts to reopen closed swimming pools at Williams Park and Cuscaden Park, getting crosswalks installed on Hillsborough Avenue and successfully pushing for a Walmart to locate in East Tampa.

Meanwhile, Gwen Myers, 66, can point to her experience in county government and her grass-roots support, noting she was the only candidate to qualify for the ballot by collecting petition signatures. She retired in 2013 after 25 years as contracts manager and healthcare supervisor for Hillsborough County. During her career, she worked for community revitalization in the University of South Florida area including the Community Development Center, worked on flood drainage and housing renovation in Progress Village, and designed and managed a program for first-time home buyers.

Fernandez, 65, and White share similarities beyond being the candidates coming from outside government. Both serve on the citizens committee advising the Metropolitan Planning Organization — the county’s transportation planning agency — and both strenuously object to state plans to widen Interstate 275 and rebuild the Interstate 4 interchange through the urban core, saying it will be detrimental to Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, Historic Ybor City and other neighborhoods.

“More cars, more pollution, more noise to the neighborhoods,‘' said Fernandez.

“You’re going to decimate an entire community,‘' said White.

It is a common theme.

“They are doing a disservice to those people in that community, I couldn’t support that expansion,‘' said Reddick.

There is commonality among the candidates elsewhere, too. They all paint a bleak picture of District 3 as an area that has been underserved — even neglected by government — where residents need affordable housing, better transportation options. access to health care, more job opportunities and even better access to food.

“We have food deserts in District 3. A lot of people don’t realize that,‘' said Fernandez.

Transportation is the motivation for Fernandez’s entry into the political arena. He moved to Seminole Heights in 2012, became active in the neighborhood association and then became an outspoken opponent of the I-275 expansion that is now called Tampa Bay Next. He said investing in better transit, the centerpiece of his platform, will lead to enhanced neighborhoods, more employment opportunities, a healthier environment and eventually to a reconfigured grid system in which the I-275 corridor becomes Boulevard Tampa from the interchange at I-4 northward to Sligh Avenue.

All the candidates agreed that better transit is key to a better District 3.

“We need far better transit,‘‘ said Myers. “Hillsborough County is the most underfunded metro area in the U.S. for mass transit.”

Transportation, affordable housing, health care “in that order are the three top primary concerns for District 3,” Myers said.

White, who finished second to now-Commissioner Kimberly Overman in a four-person primary for the countywide District 7 seat in 2018, concurred on transportation but lists affordable housing as the leading issue to her.

“The sudden onset of COVID-19 shined a light on the fragility of not only our local economy, but also the housing situation for our residents,‘' she said.

Too many residents are spending too much of their income just on housing, she said, setting “an unprecedented opportunity for residents to find themselves homeless should any small emergency occur.‘'

Scott could be considered the front-runner in the race, picking up the endorsement of the current office-holder, Miller, and raising nearly one-third more in campaign contributions than Myers, his next closest competitor. He served 10 years on the commission ending in 2006 and then four years on City Council ending in 2011. Like the others, he cited transportation, affordable housing and health care and added economic redevelopment and better child care as concerns for the district.

Scott, too, can point to a litany of accomplishments, including development of the 40th Street road improvement project between Fowler and Hillsborough avenues, and pushing creation of the largest 30-year Community Redevelopment Area district in the county and state to support the economic redevelopment of East Tampa.

“I am that person who is most ready,‘' said Scott.

Reddick said the race could well be decided by the public’s perception of who served more effectively in elected office.

“It will come down to how the constituents feel about whether they grade me as doing a superb job as city councilman or they grade the former commissioner, who served there 10 years on the commission, whether they feel (he) could do a better job,‘' Reddick said.

Early voting begins Monday, Aug. 3.

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