March 7, 2025 • 11 mins
Several Pinellas County towns are holding city elections March 11th (Tuesday) for the first time since Hurricanes Helene and Milton. We focus in on the Gulfport mayor's election as that city was particularly hard-hit by the storms. This isn't just about an election but about a city's recovery from last year's history-making storms. In this podcast we interview candidate John Liccione.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird Beyond the News. This coming Tuesday, March eleventh,
Golfport voters will make their choices for mayor and another
commission seat in city elections. Several Panellas County towns are
holding elections on Tuesday, and this is happening after many
were devastated by the impacts of Hurricanes Helena and Milton
last year. Golfport is one of the hardest hit communities.
(00:20):
And we're speaking with the candidates. They're not just about
the election, to find out the issue is as well
that they want to see addressed, and also to talk
about where Golfport is in its recovery. Nearly six months later,
John Lichoni is a businessman who moved to Golfport a
couple of years ago and lived in the county for
several years before that, started a technology company that was
(00:40):
one of the first to use the cloud for recovery purposes,
and he's running for mayor. John Lichone, welcome to Beyond
the News.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hello, good afternoon, Well great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Let's start with this as well. I mean, you're a
candidate for mayor, you're also someone who lived through the hurricanes.
How do you think Gulfport is doing with recovery homeowners
and residents and businesses.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, it's been a long process. We're six months in
and we still got a long way to go. H
We the city's done some things right in terms of locally,
you know, with city local contractors and things like that
brush remoul and stuff like that. I give them, uh,
maybe an a minus on that, but as a whole,
it's taken way too long and UH to get people
(01:26):
you know back rebuilding their homes and things like that.
And the root cause of the delay, more than anything else,
is this UH state contractor named Title Basin Group or
Title Basin UH that has an office up in Tallahassee
whose director is Luke Strickland, and there they've been their
(01:46):
inspectors have been doing the substantial damage assessments of not
just in Golf Court, but up and down our beach
communities affected by the disaster double hurricanes, and they've been
filing UH at scale false substantial damage claims into the
FEMA calculator portal at the County hosts and that has
(02:08):
resulted in hundreds and hundreds of false substantial damage letters
being sent to affected homeowners claiming substantial damages greater than
fifty percent of the value on homes that are not
substantially damaged. And here in Gulfford alone, we've been our teams,
Here are our employees here in the city having going
(02:32):
back at having to go back out and deal with this.
What I figure is a quality is massive quality assurance
problem at scale by title basin, and so our folks
have had to reinspect these homes properly, go inside. They
don't know these title base and people aren't even going
inside inspecting internal damages. They're just in putting false data
into the calculator, causing all this heartache. It's like a
(02:53):
disaster recovery, disaster after the fact. And so it's placed
a burden on our cities. And I've talking to city
managers and mayors up and down the beach towns. It
isn't just here in Gulf Fort. So I have contacts
in the other communities and identifying the root cause of
that problem is taken way too long by the city manager,
(03:14):
the mayor, the current mayor. And I've been doing my
due diligence in my investigation.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And I'm going to break in right there, and you
have more information about that on your campaign website. I
wanted to also ask you about the permitting process as well.
Do you feel that that aspect has been handled satisfactorily
and any thoughts about how the FEMA and state emergency
(03:44):
managers have been dealing with you and how you would
like to see the City of Gulfport manage those relationships
upward if you're elected.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Mayor Well, I think that you know this. This I
don't know what quite you'd call it, but this is
flowing down from the state up in tallahad See, down
through the county and then down to the cities. And
so it's been a it's not been a consistent it's
over it's over time what has been happening. So initially
(04:12):
we were too slow to react and figure out why
this was happening to us, and then over time we
figured we sort of had learned and figured it out,
and we've hired more contractors of on our own, we've
deployed more employee resources, and over time we've gotten better
at it here at the city at a significant cost
to the city, hopefully reimbursable BYTHEMA. And so at this point, well,
(04:36):
you know, there's six hundred appeals that were filed, some
somewhere around six hundred, and the majority of those have
been processed by the city. Permits have been issued, but
there's still some out from outstanding homeowners that are still
waiting on those permits. So, so the permits are downstream
from the substantial damage inspections, right, So you can't get
(04:57):
a permit if to prepare if you're home is classified
as substantially damaged when it isn't. So it just it
just creates this huge bottle neck. So that bottle neck
is being worked. We're getting there, it's just taken six
months and there's still more to go, more to go.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
What do you believe can be addressed by the mayor
to help the city's recovery and and how would you
like to address those issues if you're elected.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, like I said, it starts up at the state level.
It also it also is over at the federal level
with our with our congressional representative and Annapolina Luna and
our two senators, Rick Scott and now Ashley Moody. So
advocating with our elected representatives at the state level. Uh,
(05:43):
you know, in our in the House and state and
in the Senator and the state, our federal congressional representatives
as well, and even all the way up to FEMA.
I mean, I have no problem flying up to d C.
Knocking on thema's door, Uh, do what I need to do,
putting myself in harm's way for the citizens of Golf
(06:03):
Court to get the response we need from the new
Trump administration all the way and down through TEMA, FDEM,
at the state level, at the county level, in in Congress,
you know, exercising all levers of government, including in the
courts if we need to.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
There are a lot of with what is the state
of homeowner and business recovery right now? And I'm thinking
particularly in terms of businesses that's something that affects the
city's property tax revenue and how how functional is the
city right now? And uh what uh what do you
think needs to be done to help businesses at this
(06:40):
point that they're still recovering.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Well, I'll talk about a couple of specifics. One for
the city bit revenue stream incoming that's that's been damaged
and the loss of revenue we're experiencing. And then just
a particular uh, a coffeehouse that I know is affected
by this. The I know the owner, so first as
far as the city goes, I was at the council
meeting last night where they actually put up for the
(07:04):
first time the financial damages that that the city has
been experiencing. And we're talking million, you know, more than
a million in lost revenue on an annual basis from
for example, our marina right uh, docking fees, the marina
uh uh, the the fueling station, those things all need repair.
We've got a we got a marina store down there
(07:25):
that that needs to repair. So so that's loss of
significant amount of revenue. And for the first time I
saw the numbers last night at the council meeting. Now,
as far as this uh private business golf perk, which
is one of the two downtown coffee houses, the the
golf perk owner told me Elliott that, uh, they they're
(07:49):
they're down towards short they're right down by the uh
Boca Bay, right and they got some damage but not
but not substantial damage. Uh. So they got a you know,
an improperly issued substantial damage letter that held up their permitting.
There's still not I believe, I'm not sure where it
is in the review process for the city, but they
(08:10):
still aren't repairing right and so he's operating a shoetering
operation out of the winehouse up the street. His revenue
is getting crushed. So as a businessman, you know, restoring
the revenue streams and growing revenue streams for our local
businesses and not just the ones that are damaged, but
for all of Golfwerk because we're a tourist in town.
So drawing tourists back to golf Court as a as
(08:31):
a prime destination in southern Padelas County, and growing tourism
revenue in the tax base. Those are the things that
I see is important. That are some of them are
non storm related, right, those are just making you know, promoting,
you know, the mayor should be the promoter and chief
for the city and going out and advocating Golf Court
(08:52):
as a tourist destination all across America, not just in Florida.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And to wrap it up, what pitch would you make
of the voters. I'm sure hurricane is the hurricane recovery
is overwhelming. Uh, there may be other issues as well.
What would be your pitch to the voters as to
why they should choose you for mayor on Tuesday?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Well, well, first and foremost of course it's it's my
expertise in the disaster recovery domain and what I've delivered
to the world in my career in the world's first
real time disaster recovery cloud service for corporate email and
blackberries back after nine to eleven. I did that patented.
So I think like an I am an engineer. I
(09:32):
solve problems like an engineer. I don't solve problems as
at with a politician's mindset. This will be my first
elected office, you know, my position and elective office out
of a long career in private industry turnaround companies, and
I'm looking to turn around the things that need improvement
here in Golfport, like our disaster resilience, recovery response time.
(09:56):
Financial controls is a big issue here. We've got some
lax financial internal financial controls in city Hall that need
to be rectified. And then as far as equal protection
under the law, fourteenth A Meeric guarantees equal protection for
all Americans and all residents in America, and so I'm
(10:16):
a strong, strong advocate for equal protection under the law,
equal treatment under the law. So all of Golfport residents
and workers that come here to live in the work
and enjoy the beautiful city here in golf Court, deserve
to be protected from hurricanes, from over from governmental overreach,
from discrimination regardless of their affiled party affiliation and background,
(10:41):
ethnic background and gender and the like. And so those
are the things that are important to me, and those
are the things that the strength that I bring to
the table for Golfport.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
John Lyn Jonny Kennedy eight four, Mayor of golf Court.
The election is Tuesday, along with several other Penelas County communities.
Thank you very much for joining us on beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Thank you for having me. Take care
Gordon Bird Beyond the News. This coming Tuesday, March eleventh,
Golfport voters will make their choices for mayor and another
commission seat in city elections. Several Panellas County towns are
holding elections on Tuesday, and this is happening after many
were devastated by the impacts of Hurricanes Helena and Milton
last year. Golfport is one of the hardest hit communities.
(00:20):
And we're speaking with the candidates. They're not just about
the election, to find out the issue is as well
that they want to see addressed, and also to talk
about where Golfport is in its recovery. Nearly six months later,
John Lichoni is a businessman who moved to Golfport a
couple of years ago and lived in the county for
several years before that, started a technology company that was
(00:40):
one of the first to use the cloud for recovery purposes,
and he's running for mayor. John Lichone, welcome to Beyond
the News.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hello, good afternoon, Well great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Let's start with this as well. I mean, you're a
candidate for mayor, you're also someone who lived through the hurricanes.
How do you think Gulfport is doing with recovery homeowners
and residents and businesses.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, it's been a long process. We're six months in
and we still got a long way to go. H
We the city's done some things right in terms of locally,
you know, with city local contractors and things like that
brush remoul and stuff like that. I give them, uh,
maybe an a minus on that, but as a whole,
it's taken way too long and UH to get people
(01:26):
you know back rebuilding their homes and things like that.
And the root cause of the delay, more than anything else,
is this UH state contractor named Title Basin Group or
Title Basin UH that has an office up in Tallahassee
whose director is Luke Strickland, and there they've been their
(01:46):
inspectors have been doing the substantial damage assessments of not
just in Golf Court, but up and down our beach
communities affected by the disaster double hurricanes, and they've been
filing UH at scale false substantial damage claims into the
FEMA calculator portal at the County hosts and that has
(02:08):
resulted in hundreds and hundreds of false substantial damage letters
being sent to affected homeowners claiming substantial damages greater than
fifty percent of the value on homes that are not
substantially damaged. And here in Gulfford alone, we've been our teams,
Here are our employees here in the city having going
(02:32):
back at having to go back out and deal with this.
What I figure is a quality is massive quality assurance
problem at scale by title basin, and so our folks
have had to reinspect these homes properly, go inside. They
don't know these title base and people aren't even going
inside inspecting internal damages. They're just in putting false data
into the calculator, causing all this heartache. It's like a
(02:53):
disaster recovery, disaster after the fact. And so it's placed
a burden on our cities. And I've talking to city
managers and mayors up and down the beach towns. It
isn't just here in Gulf Fort. So I have contacts
in the other communities and identifying the root cause of
that problem is taken way too long by the city manager,
(03:14):
the mayor, the current mayor. And I've been doing my
due diligence in my investigation.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
And I'm going to break in right there, and you
have more information about that on your campaign website. I
wanted to also ask you about the permitting process as well.
Do you feel that that aspect has been handled satisfactorily
and any thoughts about how the FEMA and state emergency
(03:44):
managers have been dealing with you and how you would
like to see the City of Gulfport manage those relationships
upward if you're elected.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Mayor Well, I think that you know this. This I
don't know what quite you'd call it, but this is
flowing down from the state up in tallahad See, down
through the county and then down to the cities. And
so it's been a it's not been a consistent it's
over it's over time what has been happening. So initially
(04:12):
we were too slow to react and figure out why
this was happening to us, and then over time we
figured we sort of had learned and figured it out,
and we've hired more contractors of on our own, we've
deployed more employee resources, and over time we've gotten better
at it here at the city at a significant cost
to the city, hopefully reimbursable BYTHEMA. And so at this point, well,
(04:36):
you know, there's six hundred appeals that were filed, some
somewhere around six hundred, and the majority of those have
been processed by the city. Permits have been issued, but
there's still some out from outstanding homeowners that are still
waiting on those permits. So, so the permits are downstream
from the substantial damage inspections, right, So you can't get
(04:57):
a permit if to prepare if you're home is classified
as substantially damaged when it isn't. So it just it
just creates this huge bottle neck. So that bottle neck
is being worked. We're getting there, it's just taken six
months and there's still more to go, more to go.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
What do you believe can be addressed by the mayor
to help the city's recovery and and how would you
like to address those issues if you're elected.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, like I said, it starts up at the state level.
It also it also is over at the federal level
with our with our congressional representative and Annapolina Luna and
our two senators, Rick Scott and now Ashley Moody. So
advocating with our elected representatives at the state level. Uh,
(05:43):
you know, in our in the House and state and
in the Senator and the state, our federal congressional representatives
as well, and even all the way up to FEMA.
I mean, I have no problem flying up to d C.
Knocking on thema's door, Uh, do what I need to do,
putting myself in harm's way for the citizens of Golf
(06:03):
Court to get the response we need from the new
Trump administration all the way and down through TEMA, FDEM,
at the state level, at the county level, in in Congress,
you know, exercising all levers of government, including in the
courts if we need to.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
There are a lot of with what is the state
of homeowner and business recovery right now? And I'm thinking
particularly in terms of businesses that's something that affects the
city's property tax revenue and how how functional is the
city right now? And uh what uh what do you
think needs to be done to help businesses at this
(06:40):
point that they're still recovering.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Well, I'll talk about a couple of specifics. One for
the city bit revenue stream incoming that's that's been damaged
and the loss of revenue we're experiencing. And then just
a particular uh, a coffeehouse that I know is affected
by this. The I know the owner, so first as
far as the city goes, I was at the council
meeting last night where they actually put up for the
(07:04):
first time the financial damages that that the city has
been experiencing. And we're talking million, you know, more than
a million in lost revenue on an annual basis from
for example, our marina right uh, docking fees, the marina
uh uh, the the fueling station, those things all need repair.
We've got a we got a marina store down there
(07:25):
that that needs to repair. So so that's loss of
significant amount of revenue. And for the first time I
saw the numbers last night at the council meeting. Now,
as far as this uh private business golf perk, which
is one of the two downtown coffee houses, the the
golf perk owner told me Elliott that, uh, they they're
(07:49):
they're down towards short they're right down by the uh
Boca Bay, right and they got some damage but not
but not substantial damage. Uh. So they got a you know,
an improperly issued substantial damage letter that held up their permitting.
There's still not I believe, I'm not sure where it
is in the review process for the city, but they
(08:10):
still aren't repairing right and so he's operating a shoetering
operation out of the winehouse up the street. His revenue
is getting crushed. So as a businessman, you know, restoring
the revenue streams and growing revenue streams for our local
businesses and not just the ones that are damaged, but
for all of Golfwerk because we're a tourist in town.
So drawing tourists back to golf Court as a as
(08:31):
a prime destination in southern Padelas County, and growing tourism
revenue in the tax base. Those are the things that
I see is important. That are some of them are
non storm related, right, those are just making you know, promoting,
you know, the mayor should be the promoter and chief
for the city and going out and advocating Golf Court
(08:52):
as a tourist destination all across America, not just in Florida.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
And to wrap it up, what pitch would you make
of the voters. I'm sure hurricane is the hurricane recovery
is overwhelming. Uh, there may be other issues as well.
What would be your pitch to the voters as to
why they should choose you for mayor on Tuesday?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Well, well, first and foremost of course it's it's my
expertise in the disaster recovery domain and what I've delivered
to the world in my career in the world's first
real time disaster recovery cloud service for corporate email and
blackberries back after nine to eleven. I did that patented.
So I think like an I am an engineer. I
(09:32):
solve problems like an engineer. I don't solve problems as
at with a politician's mindset. This will be my first
elected office, you know, my position and elective office out
of a long career in private industry turnaround companies, and
I'm looking to turn around the things that need improvement
here in Golfport, like our disaster resilience, recovery response time.
(09:56):
Financial controls is a big issue here. We've got some
lax financial internal financial controls in city Hall that need
to be rectified. And then as far as equal protection
under the law, fourteenth A Meeric guarantees equal protection for
all Americans and all residents in America, and so I'm
(10:16):
a strong, strong advocate for equal protection under the law,
equal treatment under the law. So all of Golfport residents
and workers that come here to live in the work
and enjoy the beautiful city here in golf Court, deserve
to be protected from hurricanes, from over from governmental overreach,
from discrimination regardless of their affiled party affiliation and background,
(10:41):
ethnic background and gender and the like. And so those
are the things that are important to me, and those
are the things that the strength that I bring to
the table for Golfport.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
John Lyn Jonny Kennedy eight four, Mayor of golf Court.
The election is Tuesday, along with several other Penelas County communities.
Thank you very much for joining us on beyond the news.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Thank you for having me. Take care
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