“It’s very important that we bring back the level of collaboration and accountability we are missing in City Hall today,” said Brandi Gabbard, who last week officially filed her candidacy paperwork for St. Pete’s mayoral race.

Gabbard, who is running against incumbent Kenneth Welch, has served on St. Pete’s City Council for nearly a decade, representing District 2, a role that lends her a “unique perspective into local politics,” she told Poliverse.

“… remember that City Council is a legislative body. We work hard every single day to voice residents’ concerns. In the City Council role, I’ve been a staunch advocate for resiliency, infrastructure and planning redevelopment.”

As for the latter, that is, planning redevelopment, Gabbard has criticized the current administration for what she called “reactive decision-making” instead of “proactive leadership,” pointing toward the terminated Hines and Rays deal, a plan to redevelop the sprawling blacktop around Tropicana Field, formerly the Historic Gas Plant District, into a mixed-use district.

“Had we hit the ground running after the Rays/Hines deal, I think we’d be in a better place today to redevelop that site.”

This is where Gabbard underscores her point about reactive decision-making, suggesting the city is now responding to proposals rather than setting the direction.

“I have been very vocal on the need for a planning framework for the Gas Plant. Had we spent the time last year, we would not have left ourselves in the position to just respond to proposals. Before any developer is selected at this point, we must have a community-led discussion and implementation plan so we can select the right developer.”

There are currently nine distinctly different redevelopment proposals submitted, and Welch has yet to select one, though he has publicly insisted on moving forward with redevelopment as soon as possible.

Conversely, Gabbard has made headlines for calling for a pause on Gas Plant discussions altogether, arguing that moving too quickly could force redevelopment at the community’s expense. Still, she emphasized that “pressing pause does not mean stopping progress.”

“That’s one example of where we were merely reactionary. We need to be proactive instead of waiting on things to happen.”

If elected, Gabbard said one of her first priorities would be overhauling the city’s permitting process to help resiliency efforts. “If we are going to get to the vision of being a resilient city,” she said. “We need to be building up, and safely.”

What “building up and safely” would look like as a strategy comes down to a fast-track permitting system, specifically, building permitting. “It’s antiquated,” she said. “There are a lot of permitting hurdles. It’s a drain on city staff, too.”

Affordability, the perennial issue in St. Pete and across Florida, is expected to be a central topic in the race, too. Gabbard pointed to her record working on the Employee Assistance Housing Program, which helps city employees afford to live in the communities they serve. The program provides benefits to employees earning under $60,900 annually, including stipends of up to $500.

As of now, six candidates have filed to run for mayor: incumbent Kenneth Welch, Brandi Gabbard, Maria Scruggs, Jim Large, Paul Congemi and Kevin Batdorf.