Bradenton has transformed since Mayor Poston was elected in 1999. Who gets the credit?
The city doesn’t look the same as it did 20 years ago when Wayne Poston was first elected mayor. Since then, the city of Bradenton’s improvements have been constant, but local leaders don’t all agree on who can take the credit.
Poston announced Wednesday that he would he was ending his re-election bid. The move came right after the Poston vetoed a proposed charter referendum question that would have taken away the mayor’s role as commissioner of police, if approved by voters.
Now that the charter amendment debate has been settled, Poston says he’s ready to hang it up.
“I think I’ve had a good career,” Poston said in an interview with the Bradenton Herald. “It’s been very positive and the city’s better off. It’s just really time.”
Local leaders praise Poston’s contribution to Bradenton
Councilman Gene Gallo, who has served on the Bradenton City Council for the entirety of Poston’s tenure, said he was also proud of what the mayor has accomplished since 1999.
“If I compare him to other mayors I’ve worked with, he’s a top-shelf person. He’s been fair with the council. He’s been open and above the board. We haven’t been kept in the dark,” Gallo said of Poston’s leadership.
Poston’s achievements when it comes to improving Bradenton’s image are undeniable, according to Jacki Dezelski, president and CEO of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce.
“Mayor Poston’s leadership has made a significant impact in the city and beyond. From the nationally-recognized Riverwalk to city-wide infrastructure improvements to downtown redevelopment, his vision and ability to build public-private partnerships will benefit our area for many years to come,” Dezelski said.
“I have worked with the mayor for more than 20 years and know that he has had a deep commitment to ensuring our area is a sought-after destination to live, work, play, raise a family, and own a business,” she added. “I share my gratitude for his public service and wish him and (Poston’s wife) Micki the very best.”
Former Councilman Gene Brown also believes Poston has been instrumental in moving the city forward.
“He’s always been for the good of the city,” said Brown, who announced his bid for the mayor’s office after Poston’s withdrawal. “We’ve been able to get a lot of projects done while keeping taxes low and not putting a mortgage on the backs of our citizens.”
Even with Poston’s guidance, Gallo noted that the city’s major projects like the new CityCentre parking garage abd the Riverwalk expansion were the result of collaboration by the mayor, council members and city staff.
“This city has come a long way because of teamwork, not one individual. That’s (City Administrator) Carl Callahan. That’s the mayor and that’s the council working together,” he explained. “We take credit for all the positive, but we need to take credit for the negative because we’re all involved.”
“I think Mayor Poston’s done a great job and accomplished a lot of the things he set out to accomplish. I think he’s always been for the good of the city,” said Brown, who officially resigned from City Council on Wednesday to run for mayor.
In the past few months, however, some council members and residents have directly expressed concerns with the mayor in public meetings — some going as far as shouting over the mayor as he tried to speak.
A rift forms on Bradenton City Council
“Even back in the day, I’ve never seen these personal attacks and the language used during that,” Gallo said, describing contentious City Council meetings. “They have not cut the man any slack, and the sad thing about all of this is that 95 percent of the time, the things they accuse him of, he doesn’t vote. When you say something is done wrong, you’re saying we did it wrong.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, Councilman Patrick Roff said he was disappointed in the mayor and called his decision to veto the police charter question hypocritical.
“I’m disappointed. I find this action completely hypocritical. The last time the charter was changed was two cycles ago when you were running for mayor. You gained another year and you eliminated the runoff. This was your want, your wish, your benefit,” Roff said at Wednesday’s meeting.
“This action you just vetoed was to not allow the citizens to share their opinion. So you say you wanted more participation when your re-election was in need, but you don’t want participation now,” he added. “That is hypocritical completely.”
Roff could not be reached for comment.
Councilman Harold Byrd Jr. also said he recently lost some of his confidence in the mayor’s ability, arguing that Poston didn’t always make his positions clear on city projects or advocate for the city in community meetings.
“With the powers of the mayor, you lobby the rest of the council. Some of the different ideas that came about, I voted on different things and, personally, I didn’t know what vision the mayor had for anything,” said Byrd, who previously announced a bid for the mayor’s seat with a “fresh vision” for Bradenton.
Council members disagree on how to run police department
The charter veto is the final note in a year-long discussion centered on whether to set up a citizens review board that would investigate complaints into the Bradenton Police Department.
Last summer, the local NAACP chapter urged officials to implement the system, but council members couldn’t agree on a single approach.
Legal experts said the power to instill a new citizens oversight committee rests with the mayor. If the charter amendment went to the ballot, Bradenton voters could have changed that.
For Gallo, the suggestion that City Council should have any say in how the police department conducts itself is out of the question.
“As an ex-department head, it frustrated me when council people would come to me and ask me to do something another way,” said Gallo, who served as fire chief for 11 years. “I think it’s a good thing to have one person — the mayor — have that kind of connection or authority over the police department.”
“If someone didn’t like Chief Melanie (Bevan), they should have said so when we approved her appointment,” Gallo continued.
By vetoing the ballot question, Poston is telling resident that he doesn’t want reform for the police department, said Councilman Bill Sanders.
“This is a bad time to challenge reform. Almost every city in the nation wants reform,” Sanders said. “We’re the first to say that we don’t, and it doesn’t send a good message to citizens.”
Poston and Bevan have said that they are still conducting research into which model of oversight would work best for the agency, but Byrd noted that the discussion began last year and the city still hasn’t advanced new policies.
“I still can’t believe we’ve toyed around with a citizen review board for the past year,” Byrd explained. “And now with everything going on in the world, we’re looking reactive instead of proactive.”
Brown didn’t support the City Council’s attempt to override the mayor’s veto, but said he supports an oversight committee with true public input, echoing the mayor’s concerns.
“There can be improvements on everything we do, but it’s got to be done in the right way,” Brown said. “It’s got to be something that’s going to truly weed out the bad apples and make our police department the best in the country and be proud of that.”
The mayor’s veto ‘doesn’t look transparent’
For some councilmen, the timing of Brown’s mayoral campaign announcement, which came hours after Poston dropped out of the race, is questionable.
“It doesn’t look good and it doesn’t look transparent,” Sanders said. “It was just too obvious that Poston jumps out and Brown jumps in. They can deny it all they want, but it’s cronyism.”
“The veto comes down and it came down with a strong vote from Brown,” he continued, referring to the City Council’s attempt to override Poston’s veto, which failed without a super-majority because Brown and Gallo voted against it. “An hour or two later, the mayor withdraws and then Brown files. That, to me, was suspect — that this was planned. That seems like a Florida Sunshine Law violation.”
Byrd agreed that the timing of both announcements was suspicious. Brown filed to run for mayor just two hours after Poston withdrew, according to the Manatee County Supervisor of Elections Office.
“It’s a little suspect the way it was handled,” Byrd said. “The same day as a veto, the same day as an override of the veto and the same day as the announcement of a person who had a vote for the override.”
Poston, Brown deny coordination
Brown and Poston both denied any coordination in their announcements or plans in interviews with the Bradenton Herald on Friday afternoon.
“I never planned to be mayor, but this was the opportunity. If this was two weeks earlier, I wouldn’t have given up my council seat,” Brown explained. “Do you think I would’ve waited until the qualifying week so that I had to give up my seat? This was not a coordinated thing between Wayne and I.”
“No matter what I’ve done, they’ll say it’s suspicious,” Poston said. “The reason I did not announce earlier is because I wanted to make sure I got the veto in before I left office. I didn’t do that for me. I did it for the best interest of the city.”
Poston has defended the veto, arguing that the Bradenton Police Department runs best with one police commissioner that oversees the agency. He believes an entire council would be less efficient. Poston, a former executive editor of the Bradenton Herald, also shrugged off the comments about his lack of vision or leadership, as well.
“The people of the city have known me since I’ve been mayor. Ask them whose leadership sparks things in the city,” he said.
Shortly after he was elected, Poston recalls looking out at Bradenton’s infamous Sandpile along the Manatee River and beginning a push to create a recreational area that would become known as the Bradenton Riverwalk.
“That was on my original list of things to get done. I feel very good about my qualification and what I got done and a whole lot of people are giving me credit,” Poston noted. “I’m not bragging about it, but I’ve got the leadership to get it done.”
This story was originally published June 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
