Holmes Swamps Woods in Only Confrontation of Largo Candidates by Leo Coughlin LARGO - The reason Rodney Woods has avoided any debates with Curtis Holmes, his challenger for Seat 3 on the City Commission in the November 3 election, became eminently clear Tuesday at a forum held by the Largo/Mid-Pinellas Chamber of Commerce at a private luncheon. Where Holmes was full of ideas and innovative remedies for the laundry list of problems besetting the city, Woods offered only vague generalities and betrayed an apparent lack of fundamental knowledge of the issues. Woods said at the luncheon meeting that he was not "dodging" Holmes and was not "afraid" of his November opponent. The evidence would indicate otherwise, as Woods has avoided any kind of public debate with Holmes. While there would not be anything to fear from Holmes certainly, Woods obviously has avoided two opportunities for debates that have been traditional election fare in Largo for years. One was the traditional confrontation of candidates at an open, public meeting sponsored by the Republican Club of Largo. That affair has always been non-partisan despite being sponsored by party faithful in the city. Woods turned any appearance by him down. He said he would only do it if the "Democratic Club" participated as well. There is no such club. Another traditional debate has taken place in City Hall and has been broadcast on the city's television station and then made available on the city's web site for perusal by the public. Woods turned that down, too. Some folks in City Hall are spinning that, saying the sponsor, the Clearwater Gazette, never called the city to make arrangements. Thus another incident enters the realm of mythology. The process was ordained to go like this - Candidates were invited to participate. Once invitations were accepted, City Manager Mac Craig was to give permission for the use of city facilities. At that point, the Gazette was to step forward as sponsor and the Chamber president would moderate. This failed when Woods refused to participate. So the only meeting of the candidates took place Tuesday at a private gathering and the public was deprived of hearing the views of the candidates in other forums that were available. As it turns out, however, as was learned at Tuesday's Chamber event, the public would have learned much from Holmes who had specific answers to the questions that were raised, but would have learned next to nothing from Woods who had no specifics and kept falling back on "following the Strategic Plan," even when it didn't apply. On the question of Amendment 4 which will face state voters in November Wood said he would go along "with whatever the commission recommends." He obviously had no knowledge of the subject of the amendment which would, among other things, require a referendum at the municipal level when zoning changes are contemplated. Holmes, on the other hand, vigorously opposed the idea and displayed a keen knowledge of the subject. While Holmes urged that the city must be more friendly to business, Woods weakly said that in encouraging business in Largo he would rely on the Community Development plan and Strategic Plan. In fact, there is no element of stimulating business growth or of attracting commercial ventures in the city in the Strategic Plan. "Hey," one observer said, "if someone sat Rodney down and just concentrated questions on the Strategic Plan, which seems to be his answer to everything, it would be apparent he doesn't even know what is in it."

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