St. Petersburg City Council Member Gina Driscoll is accusing fellow Council Member and mayoral candidate Brandi Gabbard of taking credit for two of her initiatives.
Driscoll took issue with claims made during Thursday evening’s mayoral forum in a post on social media, criticizing Gabbard for taking credit for her work on housing and artist support.
Driscoll told Florida Politics her post after the debate was aimed at Gabbard’s remarks about the city employee rental assistance program and the Artist Sustainability Fund, two issues Gabbard referenced while making the case that her experience on Council has prepared her to lead St. Petersburg as its next mayor.
“Watched the livestream tonight. I will say this: Anyone who runs for office out of genuine love for our city is to be commended,” Driscoll wrote on social media.
“I will also say this: I’m somewhat flattered that a mayoral candidate would try to take credit for two of my major initiatives, but it’s wrong to do that and voters should be concerned. Character matters. Receipts matter. More on that very soon.”
In a follow-up with Florida Politics, Driscoll confirmed she was referring to Gabbard’s remarks.
“It was not the first time that I had heard this candidate claim credit for the city employee rental assistance program,” she said. “On top of that, this time she tried to take credit, or claimed credit, for the Artist Sustainability Fund. Both of these initiatives are things that I’ve worked my butt off to bring forward, and to see someone else trying to claim the credit for my hard work is really concerning. It’s dishonorable and just unbelievable to me that a mayoral candidate would bend the truth like that.”
During the debate, Gabbard cited her work on the city’s employee-assisted housing program while answering a question about housing affordability. She said she has been “building the affordable housing toolbox in St. Petersburg” since she was elected and described the program as one of the accomplishments she is most proud of. Her record and a detailed platform has been a staple of her campaign against incumbent Mayor Ken Welch, former Gov. Charlie Crist, former St. Petersburg Fire Chief Jim Large, jail administrator Maria Scruggs and former Shore Acres Neighborhood Association President Kevin Batdorf.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that I passed the employee assisted housing program, which gives a stipend to our employees who are the lowest paid within our city, but are required to still live here based upon their union contracts,” Gabbard said. “That is an example of the work that I have done to really impact the everyday people of this city.”
But Driscoll says the rental assistance idea was hers.
According to a timeline Driscoll provided, Gabbard introduced a new business item in September 2018 called employer-assisted housing, which was sent to committee. The first committee discussion, held in August 2019, focused on home-buying assistance — an effort Gabbard, a Realtor, had pushed.
Rental assistance did not enter the discussion until later, Driscoll said.
The second committee discussion, in April 2022, included a staff presentation laying out a menu of housing options, including rental assistance. Driscoll said that was when she introduced her “hand-up” rental assistance idea, arguing the city should help employees with rent while requiring financial fitness training so they could eventually be in a better position to buy a home.
Driscoll provided a video clip from the 2022 meeting where she spoke on the topic as evidence of her claims. She said the City Council unanimously approved funding to begin the employee rental assistance program that year.
Her comments came immediately after staff presented information about the employee down payment assistance program to a city committee, during which Gabbard said “I’ve been working on this for four years” before Driscoll made her pitch for employee rental assistance.
“There are a lot of folks who would like to buy a home, would like to take advantage of that, but they need to strengthen their financial fitness first. So they’re not there yet where they can go shopping for a home. They have to get their credit in order, they have to learn how to save, and if you are a renter you are more likely to be rent burdened — which makes it very difficult to save,” Driscoll said during the 2022 meeting.
“So I have asked ‘is there something we can put together where we assist with rent?’ But in exchange for that the employee has to go through financial fitness training with the hope that, after two years, they will be in a position where they will save because we have been helping with rent, they’ve been learning how to save, manage finances, learning how to be ready to buy a home. So at the end of the two years they would be ready to go. That would be the hope.”
Driscoll also disputes Gabbard’s claims about artist support.
During a question about arts funding, Gabbard said she had been working with the development and arts communities “for the last year” on a development bonus program that would create affordable live-work space for artists in new developments. She also said she supported and requested that the city look into a private-donor fund that could help the city purchase more art from local artists.
“They need us to buy the art, but they also need places to be able to live and make their art and sell their art,” Gabbard said. “I believe that a city that’s committed to the arts can make that happen.”
Driscoll said that work refers to the Artist Sustainability Fund, which she introduced as a new business item in January 2025. She provided city agenda materials showing Driscoll introduced the dedicated fund idea as a new business item as evidence of the claim.
Driscoll told Florida Politics she also introduced the Artist Sustainability Fund. She provided materials showing discussions on funding options to support the arts were first entertained in an Economic and Workforce Development Committee meeting in April of this year, where Driscoll served as Chair and Gabbard was not present.
The proposal would add an art funding option to the city’s existing downtown density bonus system, allowing developers to contribute financially to an arts fund in exchange for additional development bonuses, according to minutes from a March 26 meeting.
“Committee Chair Driscoll clarified that the current action would establish the funding mechanism, while the details of the grant program would be developed subsequently with input from staff and the arts community,” according to the minutes.
Driscoll said the text amendment is expected to go before the Development Review Commission on July 1, before heading to City Council for final approval in August.
The episode highlights a challenge for Gabbard as she runs for Mayor from inside City Hall.
Her Council record is one of her clearest contrasts with the rest of the mayoral field, but many city initiatives move through committees, staff work and full Council votes, creating space for disputes over who deserves credit for the work.
It also shows that Driscoll, who is facing term limits, is more than willing to protect her own record as the mayoral campaign intensifies.
“I would hope that moving forward we see candidates running on their own record,” she said. “We need a Mayor that can stand on their own record, and not someone who takes credit for other people’s hard work just to make themselves look good.”
Gabbard initially declined comment on this story, but responded to Driscoll’s criticism after publication.
Gabbard defended her role in the employee-assisted housing program, which she filed in 2018, nine months after taking office.
“I’m not going to banter back and forth through the media on a historical record,” Gabbard said. “It’s very clear that the employee assisted housing program was started from a (New Business Item) in 2018 that was mine.”
Gabbard said her remarks reflect a shared interest in housing affordability.
“Council Members collaborate all of the time on the dais over policy, that’s part of the beauty of what we do on City Council,” Gabbard said. “Shared interest and shared support for initiatives and ideas to make things better that are part of our process. So I always welcome when my colleagues have anything that makes policy ideas stronger, but employee assisted housing is an issue that I was proud to champion in 2018 and was glad to finally work with City Council to bring it forward.”
On the Artist Sustainability Fund, Gabbard said she has met with artists, developers, and both groups together.
“I have met with the artist community, I have met with developers, I’ve met with the two together, and I’m sure that they’ve met with a lot of people. I hope that they have,” Gabbard said. “I talked about that last evening as an initiative that I support, I do support that. Council Member Driscoll has done incredible work in the artist space, in the space for the arts, creating funding for the arts, creating support for the arts. I admire the leadership that she has shown in the arts, and when I’m Mayor I look forward to continuing to carry on her legacy.”
Gabbard said she views the situation as a result of collaboration among Council members.
“Quite frankly, I don’t really know what the complaint is,” Gabbard said. “What I see is collaboration of City Council members on numerous shared goals. This happens quite frequently, and that is the joy of working with seven other people who are highly engaged and have great ideas for how to move our city forward.”