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Florida This Week is made possible in part by support from the Tampa Bay Times.

- [Rob] Coming up next, the anniversary of George Floyd's killing is marked by peaceful protests and a divide in Tampa over the Police Review Board.

The governor moves to end extra unemployment benefits.

The St Petersburg mayoral race is getting crowded and the dominoes fall as Congressman Charlie Crist runs for governor.

All this and more next on Florida This Week.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back, this week mark the one-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis.

The killing that gave rise to nationwide calls for police reform.

- [Rob] The anniversary was marked by peaceful observations and marches across the country, including here in Florida.

However, the road to some sort of police reform in Tampa has not been easy.

Last week after almost a year of negotiations, the Tampa City Council voted to give itself the power to appoint seven members.

That's a majority to the 11 member Police Review Board.

However, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor blocked the move saying the city charter gives her office sole power over the board, more on that in a moment.

This week Governor Ron DeSantis' office announced it was withdrawing from the Federal Pandemic Assistance Program that offers a $300 per week addition to state unemployment benefits.

Those extra benefits have prompted some controversy.

Republicans and business groups have argued that companies especially in the low wage hospitality industry are struggling to fill job openings because the state's jobless benefits which max out at $275 a week, coupled with the $300 weekly and federal benefits discouraged people from reentering the job market.

The extra benefits in Florida will end in a month.

Democrats say, if employers want workers, they should agree to pay workers higher wages.

- Well that 11 members Citizens Review Board of the Tampa Police Department was created in 2015 under former Mayor Bob Buckhorn, this after complaints that the department disproportionately was ticketing black bicyclists.

Now the aftermath of George Floyd's death has brought calls for the board to have more power and prompted current Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to revisit the board.

But the makeup of the board has put her at odds with the Tampa City Council.

Yvette Lewis is the president of the Hillsborough county NAACP and she's been working to resolve any differences and Yvette welcome back to Florida This week.

- Thank you so much Rob, I really appreciate opportunity.

- The Tampa City Council really wants a lot of power to appoint the majority of members on the Police Review Board.

The mayor put her foot down along with the chief and they held a press conference on Tuesday and said no.

What do you think is the best idea?

The best way forward?

- Really the best thing is is that the city of Tampa, the mayor should go ahead and put accountability, trust, bike into the community by allowing the community to be in this board to help oversee what's going on and to ask questions.

If things are just not right, if someone has a concern, they should have the right to voice that concern and receive equal opportunity that their voice is being heard.

- Do you think that the Tampa City Council should appoint the majority of members?

- I think they should be allowed to appoint the majority of the members because they can appoint someone from their district and which will give accountability.

So the citizens of Tampa will have a right to have their voices being heard by someone who is not, someone who's unbiased.

- There's been some discussion about whether or not this Police Review Board needs subpoena power.

Where do you stand on that issue?

Is that an important thing to include in the Police Review Board?

- It is important but as of right now, it is off the table.

So we're not really talking about subpoena power.

We're just really talking about accountability.

And then maybe, hopefully in a couple of years we can bring back the conversation for subpoena power but we really need accountability when it comes to the Police Department , there is so many things that's going on with misjustice and injustice in the Tampa Bay area.

And if no one has nothing to hide then they should be okay with common citizens sitting on that board and asking questions.

- Ms. Lewis, how much progress do you think has been made in Tampa when it comes to bettering the relationship between the Police Department and the black community and in terms of police reform in the last year since George Floyd's killing.

- The conversations have been had.

So the conversations, yes but when it comes to progress really hasn't been much progress, you know?

But when it comes to like the Police Department and the community, I think they put aside a lot of their differences and a lot of the politics.

And they started jumping in and having conversations themselves.

But when it comes to, you know, the law, the charter, the city of Tampa, it really has not been anything.

So nothing at all - The mayor really put her foot down the other day and said, she holds the power to decide who's on this Police Review Board.

But I mean, would you point fingers?

Would you blame anybody for not negotiating in good faith?

I mean, who's been holding back the progress if you wanna tell us.

- So the problem that I have with what the mayor said was the fact that they have been negotiating this and talking about this for well over a year.

So why now at the end of the negotiations because everybody had a part of this.

So the ACLU, the NAACP, the City Council, each City Councilman and the mayor had a part, had a piece of this.

So they all came together in creating these changes for the Citizen Review Board.

Now all of a sudden, the mayor throws a registers wall back up.

I have the authority to do that.

So I'm not understanding why all of a sudden now you have a problem with this.

And it just seems suspicious and disingenuous that she was really trying to work to figure this out to help better serve this community.

There is a huge distrust between the African-American community and the Police Department and the Police Department and the African-American community.

So I know the NAACP is on the forefront trying to bridge that gap but we need help.

We need people to step up and help us and not to run interference with this - Yvette Lewis, thank you.

Thank you for being on the program.

- Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Democratic Congressman Charlie Crist has thrown his hat in the ring once again to run for governor.

Back when he was a Republican, he was Florida's governor from 2007 until 2011 and currently represents District 13 in Congress.

The race to replace him has attracted several Democrats and Republicans and will be key in determining who controls the House of Representatives in Washington in 2022.

William March has covered politics in Florida and the Tampa Bay area for years and is keeping his eye on other possible contenders for the Crist seat.

And Windy welcome back to Florida This Week.

- Hi Rob, Nice to be back on the show again.

- Let's start with the governor's race.

Charlie Crist is in and also Nikki Fried, the Agriculture Commissioner is in for the Democratic primary.

Anybody else likely to get in running for the Democrats - At least one possibility is a South Florida legislature,legislator Annette Taddeo.

There has been discussion about some other potential candidates, including Sean Shaw but he is speaking negatively about the possibility - In terms of replacing Charlie Crist in District 13, which is St. Petersburg, that race is right now, four person race and tell us about who the candidates are.

- That's gonna be a donnybrook Rob.

Right now there are two Democrats.

One is the St. Petersburg legislator Ben Diamond.

The other is a former congressional aid in Obama administration official Eric Lynn but there's a pretty strong possibility of yet another big name Democrat getting in mayor Rick Kriseman who's torments this year has been letting his name hang out there as a possibility.

On the Republican side, it's likely we'll have a repeat of the 2018 Republican primary between Anna Pauline Luna.

A favorite of the Trump wing of the party.

She has already announced and Amanda Makki, who is a very conservative but somewhat more establishment Republican, who lost to Makki in the 2018 primary after Matt Gaetz and some other Trump aligned figures endorsed Luna.

- Now we don't know what the district's gonna look like exactly because it's gonna be redrawn like every congressional district in the country is gonna be redrawn and this is up to the state legislature.

What are you hearing about what the legislature may do in terms of redrawing District 13?

- It's extremely likely that they will try to make this district more Republican.

In the past, it's been generally fairly consistently Democratic.

It went for Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton both against Trump and it went Democratic in the statewide races in 2018.

Democrats are frantically trying to hang on to a small House majority and Republicans see a shot to take that majority back.

This is probably the most competitive district will be in Florida and one of the few truly competitive districts in the country.

So both parties will pile into this race.

Both national parties will pile into this race in a big way.

It will be heavily targeted.

And it's almost certain that the Republican legislature when they redraw the district lines will try to make it more Republican.

The problem is that the most likely way for them to do that would be very controversial.

And that would be taking a lot of democratic voting areas, minority areas in South St. Petersburg and moving those voters across Tampa bay and to Kathy Castor's district in Tampa.

- Well, then the question is, which courts?

I mean we have a Fair Districts Amendment here in Florida.

In which courts would Democrats likely challenge the redrawing?

Would they go to federal court or would they go to state court?

- Well, Florida's Fair District Amendment makes it illegal to draw district lines for the benefit of a political party and that's in the Florida constitution but it's not illegal at the federal level.

So the Democrats would have to try their luck in a state court.

Now in 2016, the State Supreme Court ruled that Castor's district could not go across the bay to take in parts of St Petersburg.

But now we have a very different court loaded with appointees of Governor Ron DeSantis.

Who are much more likely to go the Republicans way to defer to the Republican legislators and let the legislature do what it wants on drawing district lines.

We saw an example of this week, of that this week when the new court sided with the legislature upholding its medical marijuana regulations.

- So they're gonna show deference to the legislature.

Windy, it's always great to see you.

Thanks for coming on the program.

- I enjoyed it Rob.

(upbeat music) - Current St. Petersburg mayor, Rick Kriseman is term limited and will leave his office this year.

That spurred a number of possible candidates to enter the mayor's race.

There were seven candidates that race, this week, there was an eighth person announcing.

First term council member Robert Blackmon announced he was running.

Reporter Josh Solomon covers City Hall for the Tampa Bay Times and he is here to sort the field.

Josh, welcome to Florida This Week.

Great to have you here.

- Rob, it's my pleasure, thank you.

Before we go to the mayor's race I want to ask you about the Rays because there's so much Rays news this week.

You've been covering a lot of it.

Mayor Kriseman on Friday selected the two finalists to redevelop the Trop.

Who are the two companies that he selected.

- Yeah, the news is coming like out of a fire hose.

Today, the mayor announced that he picked a Miami's Midtown development and Sugar Hill Community Partners as the two finalists.

The picks come, I mean amid just considerable uncertainty.

The mayor this last week told City Council that once he made his picks, he wanted to schedule a meeting where the two finalists Midtown and Sugar Hill could make presentations but the City Council wrote back and said they're not interested in scheduling that meeting.

It's sort of the next step in an ongoing showdown between the mayor's office and council over whether it's appropriate to be moving forward with the Trop redevelopment while the Rays have yet to make their decision about whether they'd like to build a new stadium on that land.

- Well, that's the big question too.

Will the Rays be staying in St. Petersburg?

Because there was a meeting this week or a couple of meetings this week between folks in Hillsborough County and Tampa and Ybor City.

And the Rays, there's been discussion too about maybe the Rays are gonna move to Nashville.

What can you tell us about the future of the team in the area?

- Yeah I mean, it's a little bit mind-boggling what the developments have been over the last 24 hours.

I mean, this all comes, amid a lawsuit within Rays ownership.

So a group of minority owners have sued principle owner Stu Sternberg, alleging that he's basically tried to pry the team away from them.

And after news of the lawsuit broke mayor Rick Kriseman of St. Petersburg went on the radio and said that he can't negotiate with Sternberg while the lawsuit is pending and while Sternberg remains at the helm of the team.

And so while he's saying that, it turns out that the Rays had been having conversations with Hillsborough County Commissioners about possibly looking again to put a new stadium in Ybor.

Of course, they had three years to do that back in the end of 2018.

They said, that's not attainable right now but it sounds like Ybor is now back in play.

And then we found out today that Ray's leadership also floated the idea of moving the team to Nashville.

you know, honestly where they decided to build the stadium at this point is anybody's guess.

- Let's move back to the mayor's race for a second.

And that is that it's already a crowded field and one of the City Council members Robert Blackmon got in this race.

I think he's pretty upfront that he's a Republican.

How does that help him conceivably in the primary race for Mayor of St. Pete?

- Sure, I think that Councilor Rob Blackmon adds an interesting dynamic here because so far the three front runners, the ones with the most name recognition and who raised the most money that would be Council Member Darden Rice, former Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch and former State Rep Wengay Newton.

They're all registered Democrats.

And so Blackmon comes in as the, you know the first Republican with, you know a degree of name recognition.

I think there's a good chance that that'll help them in the primary where the top two vote getters move on to the general, you know at which point you would very likely face, you know, Rice or Welch or Newton.

You know, how he plays in the general as a Republican in St. Petersburg which is, you know, leans left, you know, we'll have to see.

I do think the way that the race works though, there's room for someone who's more conservative in this field to make it through the primary.

- So in terms of the endorsement race and the money race, tell us who are the leaders when it comes to endorsements and when it comes to money for the same-- - Yeah, it seems like Ken Welch and Darden Rice are sort of playing two different games.

Rice has raised an incredible amount of money between her campaign and her political committee.

She's raised something like $556,000 to Welch's roughly $282,000 total.

But, Welch's been playing the endorsement game.

He's been getting endorsements of local officials, Charlie Crist.

And so it seems like they're going after two different strategies.

- Well, Josh Solomon, thanks a lot.

Thanks for coming on Florida This Week.

- Rob, thank you for having me.

(upbeat music) - Dan Ruth is a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper columnist in the Honors College Visiting Professor of Professional Practice at the University of South Florida.

He's been a writer and reporter for the Tampa Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Tampa Bay Times.

And Dan Ruth, welcome back to Florida This Week.

- Thank you for having me.

- First of all, I wanna ask you about the decision by the governor this week that says, he's gonna end those extra federal backed unemployment paychecks of $300 a week for unemployed people.

He's gonna end them next month.

And we hear a lot of businesses complaining that, well, we don't have enough workers especially in the service trades.

So this is a way I think the governor and not just this governor but governors in other states are going to try to get people to go back to work and quit staying home.

What do you make of this?

- Well, these benefits were gonna expire eventually anyway.

And so it's probably not a bad idea to encourage people, the job market is plentiful currently.

And, you know, if I was unemployed and I was getting those kinds of checks and I was reading story after story of employers that were begging for workers, I'd go back to work.

Because once those benefits fully expire nationwide, there's gonna be a huge glut of people entering the workforce.

And then there'll be the leverage shifts to the the employers to pick and choose who they wanna work for them.

Now, you got a pretty good chance of getting a job if you wanna go out there and get one.

So it may encourage that.

- So some Democrats in Washington are saying if these businesses would just pay workers a higher wage they'd flood back into the market and they wouldn't stay home receiving five or 500 bucks a week or whatever, you know, the numbers-- - (indistinct) Are increasing wages.

And so, you know, like I said this was inevitable that this benefit would end and I'd rather be at the front of the line getting a job right now than at the back of the line and another two months or so.

- So Dan, our governor and legislature are going after the social media giant companies and are putting a fine on them.

If they don't allow candidates who are running for office to post whatever they want.

There's already lawsuits about this.

What do you think about this lawsuit that says that Twitter and Facebook have to have to accept all comers when it comes to candidates running for office?

- No, they don't not, any more.

This show that you're doing, you pick and choose, you want to appear on this show and Facebook and Twitter and these other social platforms.

They have every right to monitor the content on their platforms and to deep platform someone who is you know, anti-Semitic or racist or violent or whatever.

Harvard University should ask Ron DeSantis when its water will be back.

Because most legal experts are saying the law is, the constitution is on Facebook and Twitter.

Just for the fun of it.

If I was Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey I would deep platform Ron DeSantis just for the fun.

- (chuckles) Let me ask you about a new poll and something that Congressman Matt Gaetz said.

According to a new poll, the Q-Anon Conspiracy Theory has significant traction with a segment of the public, especially Republicans and Americans who consume far right-wing news sources.

The poll by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core found that 15% of Americans say they think that the levers rather power of government are controlled by a cabal of Satan worshiping pedophiles.

A core belief of Q-Anon supporters.

The same share said it was true that American Patriots may have to resort to violence to depose the pedophiles and restore the country's rightful order.

And then let me play something that north Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz said this week - Silicon Valley can't cancel this movement or this rally or this Congressmen.

(audience applauding) We have a Second Amendment in this country and I think we have an obligation to use it.

- So, Dan, are you worried about where this country is headed based on the numbers and based on what Gaetz just said?

- Sure, we all should be worried.

Matt Gaetz actually should be more worried about his Miranda rights and his Gun rights right about now but you know, I teach this stuff out at USF.

We have a huge civic literacy and public discourse problem in this country.

And a lot of it is fueled as you know because our social media has expanded and our media availabilities have expanded.

We've become a nation of these individual silos of news and information.

And people are attracted to those silos which report with their worldview to the exclusion of something that may run contrary to their belief system.

And so we have this increasing or polarization among the public, which doesn't listen to or wanna hear from anybody that has an opposing view.

And so getting straight to fix that is very, very difficult because what it does breed is an incredible civic illiteracy that is running rampant across the United States.

And it is this sort of Q-Anon stuff that feeds into that illiteracy.

And it also bolsters a lot of people's delusions of paranoia that the government is out to get them that there's this deep state, if you will, that's plotting against them.

And it's a very dangerous environment that we're living in.

And people like Matt Gaetz are grotesquely irresponsible for fanning the flames of that ignorance and that illiteracy.

- Well Dan, on that note, happy Memorial Day.

- You too, thank you.

(upbeat music) - Thanks for watching.

You can view this in past shows online at wedu.org or on the PBS App and Florida This Week is now available as a podcast.

You can find it on our website or wherever you download your podcasts.

Finally, Sergeant Benjamin Shofstaff of the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps perform "Taps" at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC.

We want to remember those who've given their all over this Memorial Day weekend.

Stay safe, take care of each other.

We'll see you next week.

("Taps") - [Announcer] Florida This Week is a production of WEDU who is solely responsible for its content.