Naivety of Some Electeds Shown in Fire Service Actions in the BluffsBy Leo Coughlin BELLEAIR BLUFFS - Typical of the neophyte elected officials the small jurisdictions around here run the risk of getting is Joe Barkely in Belleair Bluffs, newly elected in March. The least talented officials are to be found in the smallest jurisdictions - just not enough talent pool, no doubt. Imagine someone elected to public office who has no sense of the responsibility undertaken who just operates in total naivety. That was seen recently when the ousted fire chief here, Patrick Competelli, seeing his job disappear and with no prospects in sight, tried to persuade Belleair to back out of its fire service contract with Largo. Some legal beagles call that "tortuous interference with a contract," but Competelli, a naif himself apparently, most likely did not know that. Nor did Suzy Sofer, elected to the Bluffs commission in March along with fellow innocent Barkley. But what astounded one and all was that Stan Sofer, equally a naif despite many years on the Belleair Beach City Council, accompanied the group that went trudging over to see Mayor Gary Katica and Town Manager Micah Maxwell in Belleair. Katica and Maxwell, as is their wont, received the contract wreckers politely but with some bewilderment and dismissed them just as politely. Barkley, evidently desiring to show that he is as naive as anyone going, tried to get into the act at last week's commission meeting here. At the end of the session he requested of Mayor Chris Arbutine, a skilled official on the other end of the scale from the naifs, that time be reserved for him at the next meeting because he wanted to take something up. And what might that be? Arbutine asked. The matter of the fire situation, firing of Competelli and so forth, Barkley said. Already been decided, Arbutine said. Wanted to bring some fresh information, Barkley said. From whom? Arbutine said. Well, don't know exactly but wanted to look at some numbers, Barkely said. What numbers? Arbutine wanted to know. Don't know exactly what numbers, Barkley allowed. Of course that attempt to revisit a subject that is res judicata, as they say at the court house, dwindled down to nothing and Barkley demonstrated just how naive he is. Whatever the motivation, a couple of the Belleair Bluffs electeds just can't get it through their heads that the fire department situation has changed. The September 1 referendum will ask voters in the Bluffs to approve authority for the commission to contract for fire services. Unnamed, but certainly the vendor is Largo. That is a foregone conclusion and it makes sense. There were lots of folks on hand last week to get a rundown from Largo Chief Mike Wallace and Mike Cooksey, the county official who coordinates fire services, on how it would all work. Fears in the Bluffs of losing the fire station it now has because of long range plans to build a station at Anona, given a preliminary green light by the Largo City Commission, are too remote to get excited about now, one observer opined. Pinellas County is on the road to the consolidation of fire services one way or the other.
|