I won’t be lectured on hard work by someone who has tried to quit nearly every job he’s ever held to chase the next one.

To my supporters – I’m excited about this election and the clear choice our city faces: continued progress, or a return to the politics of the past. One of my opponents – backed by significant out-of-town money flowing through a political committee that’s been sitting ready for three years since his last election – is using that money to attack my record and attempt to rewrite our history. That’s nothing new.

But the nature of the attacks and the falsehoods behind them say everything about my opponent’s sense of entitlement — and his willingness to say anything to win his next election.

As Mayor, I can’t be distracted by the political falsehoods and maneuvering. I’m focused on the work. I want to finish the job I’ve started, and I work every single day for the City of St. Petersburg. As I have even before I was even sworn in.

I want you to have the facts.

The first claim is that I have no executive leadership experience. The reality is that I have more than 30 years of executive and professional leadership with our largest corporations (Florida Power, Raymond James, St. Petersburg College) and a family accounting firm, combined with 20 years as a County Commissioner, including 3 years as Chair (which is the Chief Elected Official of the County). In the elected roles for example, in 2018 as Commission Chair I led the negotiations to hire the current County Administrator Barry Burton, and as Mayor I hired the current City Administrator Rob Gerdes. Those are just two examples of impactful executive experience and decision making that is benefitting our entire community.

The latest false claim is that I only work 34% of the time, which is ridiculous on its face. This attack cherry-picks data from the COVID era, when city government — like every workplace in America — shifted how and where we worked. Even so, a swipe card is a security device — not a time clock or work monitor. It doesn’t capture when I come in a different door, when staff or security swipe me through, or the hours I spend at the Police Dept, Fire Stations, or many other city sites, businesses and community meetings I show up to every week across our city and region. It also doesn’t count the Teams calls and Zoom meetings throughout my schedule alongside in-person meetings — or the nightly work reviewing of council agendas, correspondence, research, remarks, and reviewing staff documents, work that rarely concludes before 10 or 11pm nightly.

This isn’t the 1980s and we aren’t chained to our desks in one building. We’ve adapted how we work after COVID, use technology for meeting when it’s most efficient, and we’ve brought government to neighborhoods across our city with City Hall on Tour, Word With Welch and regular meetings with Neighborhood Associations.

St. Pete has a full time mayor, and then some. Anyone who’s been here and active in our community for the last 4 years, or simply follows my social media, would know that.

We’ve seen this playbook before. “Unqualified.” “Not hard working.” These aren’t new critiques — they’re the same old dog whistles floated by those who feel safe in their entitlement to utter them with a smile and a “God Bless You”, confident that they won’t be called on their tactics. Well, that dog just won’t hunt.

I stand on my record. The people who do the real work, and have worked under my leadership, including our Police, Fire and SEIU/FPSU employees – all of the unions representing our 3800 employees – have endorsed me. They are the ones on the front lines of municipal service delivery and public safety, and I’m honored to have their support.

That kind of leadership and partnership has produced a high level of service delivery. St. Petersburg has received many accolades from independent sources, and was named Florida’s Best-Run City three years running, 2022–2024 by Wallet Hub. That doesn’t happen without strong and effective leadership.

That’s not a made-up narrative based on security card swipes (which ironically covered the 2022 period when we were judged the best run government in Florida). That’s impactful progress.

Those are the facts. Thanks for your support, and let’s keep our work for Inclusive Progress.