March 7, 2025 • 6 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 Karen Love.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gordon Bird here Beyond the News. This coming Tuesday, March eleventh,
Gulfport voters will make their choices for mayor and for
a commission seat known in city elections. Several Padillas County
towns are holding elections. This is happening after many of
those communities were devastated by the impacts of hurricanes Aleene
and Milton. Golf Port, of course, has been particularly hard hit.
(00:22):
We're speaking with the candidates for mayor and Gulfport to
find out the issues they want to see addressed, and
also to talk about where Golfport is in its recovery
nearly six months after the hurricanes. In this podcast, we're
speaking with Karen Love, who's one of the three candidates
running for mayor. Karen Love, welcome to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
How do you think, First of all, how do you
think Golfport is doing with its recovery after the hurricanes
with homeowners, residents and businesses. How is the.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
City doing well? I would say in the last two
weeks that we've made great progress on the permitting and
though I think our homeowners were much prefer to be
in their beds and in their homes already and be
done with the whole process. They didn't even see light
at the end of the camp at the end of
the tunnel for a very long time. So just the
(01:11):
fact that permits are out, our existing mayor says that
he thinks that the all the all of the permits
will be out by the middle of March. I think
now there's a glimmer of hope. But we have had
we had like six hundred and thirty seven homes flooded,
and the process, because we're a small city and we
(01:33):
don't have a large staff in our community development, the
process has been painsake mistakingly slow. And then because we
ended up using the company that the state hired, there
have just been so many mistakes that have just cost
us precious time.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And of course that would go ahead. Oh no, I
was going to say. There have been complaints of course
about the damage assessment process and the permitting process and
the difficulty in working through the whole situation. What would
you like to see if you're elected as mayor, what
would you like to see done to advance that process
(02:13):
within your power as mayor?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, I think that we would never again agree to
go in with a company that maybe we didn't know
very much about, and I think that we need to
start immediately working on making sure that we have another
company or another way to handle the damage assessment letters
in the future. We went through the county, who then
(02:36):
went to the state, and I think that's what most
of the coastal cities did, and they ended up using
title basin. And there has just been so many heirs,
and I feel like our city was very slow to
acknowledge those heirs. Once they finally believed what the homeowners
were saying about the heirs, then they did assign one
(02:58):
of our good city workers to it, and he really
worked hard on the very very erroneous letters and was
able to get good results for those people.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Beyond the permitting and the damage assessment issues. Have there
been any other issues that have come up in the
process of hurricane recovery that you found to be very unexpected,
something that was not in the cards starting out.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I will say that our city did a fantastic job
on getting the debris off of our streets and out
of the yards, so I think they did a really
good job on that. I think our city did a
really good job of making sure that there was water
and food. There was a lot of food that came
into our area and this is not unexpected. But the
(03:44):
residents the heart of Gulfport, they were all out helping
each other and supporting each other. So in terms of
the other thing that maybe I was disappointed and surprised
with was that we didn't have regular communicys between our
city and our residents. And rather than maybe the city
(04:06):
council stepping up and maybe having meetings every single week
or town halls on a weekly basis to keep our
residents informed, instead we had a very very long gap
in our meetings. One time it was about four and
a half weeks between meetings, when I thought we could
have been using one or two meetings a week. So
(04:27):
I think the spread of communication from the city, who
may be knew what was going on to the community
was very lacking.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
What do you think Gulf Board residents need most right
now as they deal with this comeback from the hurricanes.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I would say the residents that were flooded, what they
need most is to know that our city is doing
absolutely everything in its power to get inspectors. Because now
that we've put out so many permits in a short
period of time, we're going to all of a sudden
and go from having one inspector to probably needing nine
(05:04):
or ten like, very very quickly, and to the best
of my knowledge, we have not been successful at this
point in getting those inspectors. So that would be if
there was anything that any of us could do, we'd
be saying our prayers to get some inspectors onto our
force to be helping as these permits are trying to
(05:27):
be closed out so people can move back in their homes.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Hurricanes are of course the number one issue recovery facing
Golf Court this year, but I presume there are other
issues as well. What are some of the issues you'd
like to address if you're elected mayor?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Oh, I'd like to change up a little bit away
that our city council operates and works with its residents,
as well as how it works with the city manager. Overall,
golf Coort is just a wonderful, wonderful place to live.
I mean, I think everybody would like to live in
Golfport if they could. I think that we need desperately
(06:06):
to start working on Plan B for the resiliency of
not just our residents who are going to be under
some FEMA guidelines, but also what we're going to do.
We have a lot of properties we meaning the city,
that are sitting right on the water, and at this
point we're rebuilding everything back to the way it was
so that we can get FEMA reimbursements. But if we
(06:28):
get another stormy season like we just had, we're going
to be in the same boat. So we have to
be looking down the road in terms of what are
we going to change up to better protect our waterfront
and our city properties.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Karen Love is one of three candidates running for mayor
of golf Boort. The election is Tuesday, March eleventh. Karen Love,
thank you very much for joining us on Beyond the News.
Gordon Bird here Beyond the News. This coming Tuesday, March eleventh,
Gulfport voters will make their choices for mayor and for
a commission seat known in city elections. Several Padillas County
towns are holding elections. This is happening after many of
those communities were devastated by the impacts of hurricanes Aleene
and Milton. Golf Port, of course, has been particularly hard hit.
(00:22):
We're speaking with the candidates for mayor and Gulfport to
find out the issues they want to see addressed, and
also to talk about where Golfport is in its recovery
nearly six months after the hurricanes. In this podcast, we're
speaking with Karen Love, who's one of the three candidates
running for mayor. Karen Love, welcome to Beyond the News.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
How do you think, First of all, how do you
think Golfport is doing with its recovery after the hurricanes
with homeowners, residents and businesses. How is the.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
City doing well? I would say in the last two
weeks that we've made great progress on the permitting and
though I think our homeowners were much prefer to be
in their beds and in their homes already and be
done with the whole process. They didn't even see light
at the end of the camp at the end of
the tunnel for a very long time. So just the
(01:11):
fact that permits are out, our existing mayor says that
he thinks that the all the all of the permits
will be out by the middle of March. I think
now there's a glimmer of hope. But we have had
we had like six hundred and thirty seven homes flooded,
and the process, because we're a small city and we
(01:33):
don't have a large staff in our community development, the
process has been painsake mistakingly slow. And then because we
ended up using the company that the state hired, there
have just been so many mistakes that have just cost
us precious time.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And of course that would go ahead. Oh no, I
was going to say. There have been complaints of course
about the damage assessment process and the permitting process and
the difficulty in working through the whole situation. What would
you like to see if you're elected as mayor, what
would you like to see done to advance that process
(02:13):
within your power as mayor?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, I think that we would never again agree to
go in with a company that maybe we didn't know
very much about, and I think that we need to
start immediately working on making sure that we have another
company or another way to handle the damage assessment letters
in the future. We went through the county, who then
(02:36):
went to the state, and I think that's what most
of the coastal cities did, and they ended up using
title basin. And there has just been so many heirs,
and I feel like our city was very slow to
acknowledge those heirs. Once they finally believed what the homeowners
were saying about the heirs, then they did assign one
(02:58):
of our good city workers to it, and he really
worked hard on the very very erroneous letters and was
able to get good results for those people.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Beyond the permitting and the damage assessment issues. Have there
been any other issues that have come up in the
process of hurricane recovery that you found to be very unexpected,
something that was not in the cards starting out.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
I will say that our city did a fantastic job
on getting the debris off of our streets and out
of the yards, so I think they did a really
good job on that. I think our city did a
really good job of making sure that there was water
and food. There was a lot of food that came
into our area and this is not unexpected. But the
(03:44):
residents the heart of Gulfport, they were all out helping
each other and supporting each other. So in terms of
the other thing that maybe I was disappointed and surprised
with was that we didn't have regular communicys between our
city and our residents. And rather than maybe the city
(04:06):
council stepping up and maybe having meetings every single week
or town halls on a weekly basis to keep our
residents informed, instead we had a very very long gap
in our meetings. One time it was about four and
a half weeks between meetings, when I thought we could
have been using one or two meetings a week. So
(04:27):
I think the spread of communication from the city, who
may be knew what was going on to the community
was very lacking.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
What do you think Gulf Board residents need most right
now as they deal with this comeback from the hurricanes.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
I would say the residents that were flooded, what they
need most is to know that our city is doing
absolutely everything in its power to get inspectors. Because now
that we've put out so many permits in a short
period of time, we're going to all of a sudden
and go from having one inspector to probably needing nine
(05:04):
or ten like, very very quickly, and to the best
of my knowledge, we have not been successful at this
point in getting those inspectors. So that would be if
there was anything that any of us could do, we'd
be saying our prayers to get some inspectors onto our
force to be helping as these permits are trying to
(05:27):
be closed out so people can move back in their homes.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Hurricanes are of course the number one issue recovery facing
Golf Court this year, but I presume there are other
issues as well. What are some of the issues you'd
like to address if you're elected mayor?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Oh, I'd like to change up a little bit away
that our city council operates and works with its residents,
as well as how it works with the city manager. Overall,
golf Coort is just a wonderful, wonderful place to live.
I mean, I think everybody would like to live in
Golfport if they could. I think that we need desperately
(06:06):
to start working on Plan B for the resiliency of
not just our residents who are going to be under
some FEMA guidelines, but also what we're going to do.
We have a lot of properties we meaning the city,
that are sitting right on the water, and at this
point we're rebuilding everything back to the way it was
so that we can get FEMA reimbursements. But if we
(06:28):
get another stormy season like we just had, we're going
to be in the same boat. So we have to
be looking down the road in terms of what are
we going to change up to better protect our waterfront
and our city properties.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Karen Love is one of three candidates running for mayor
of golf Boort. The election is Tuesday, March eleventh. Karen Love,
thank you very much for joining us on Beyond the News.
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