ANNA MARIA – It took one day for workers to bolt together the cell phone tower to its base in city hall parking lot, but the job is far from over.

Workers arrived at city hall last Thursday hoping to start, but the truck carrying the outer covering of the tower broke down and didn’t arrive until Friday morning. From there, it was a matter of erecting what was there.

First came the base, which went up quickly. Then came the outer covering, which slipped over the base and lowered to the ground. Next came a long pole with mounting brackets that made it look like something from outer space. Finally, after it was bolted on and balanced, an identical section went above it.

Staff and Mayor Dan Murphy came out to look at the work as it progressed and the mayor talked the contractor into adorning the top of the tower with an American flag and an Arbor Day flag he got during a tree planting.

The tower will be home for two carriers, Verizon and AT&T. Verizon is progressing through the process and will be the first one on, but not before it brings in the equipment and sets it up. After both carriers set up, they will lower another outside skin to protect the equipment.

On a personal note, the man who worked to put everything together, Kevin Barile, Ridan Industries, passed away earlier last week from a heart attack.

“His passing was tragic,” said Jim Eatrides, who worked with Barile under Florida Tower Partners.” He was one of quickest, most intelligent people I’ve ever worked with and he was easy to get along with.”

tom vaught | sun

It only took one day to get the cell phone tower
erected to this point last Friday. Workers
were able to top the 160-plus foot with an
American flag and an Arbor Day flag.

HOLMES BEACH – A room full of residents made their case for keeping post office boxes in Holmes Beach, and officials said they would take their input to headquarters in Washington, D.C.

At the meeting in city hall, called by Congressman Vern Buchanan, City Commissioner Carol Soustek told officials, “We’re losing our sense of community, and this is another piece.”

Carol Shirley, manager of retail for the Suncoast District of the U.S. Post Office (USPS), said there are 112 CPUs (contract postal units) in the district, of which Holmes Beach is one.

“The current contract owner wants to retire,” she explained. “That is the main reason for the post office box issue. We asked our headquarters if we could have a CPU again. We made a strong case that you really needed that location.

“They approved having a CPU, but they did not approve having the post office boxes. The reason I was given was because you have two post offices, and we offer street delivery.”

She said if residents are concerned about the security of street delivery, the USPS could offer a cluster of lock boxes. Other options would be to use post office boxes in Anna Maria or Bradenton Beach.

“I want a post office, not a box or a cluster of boxes,” replied one resident. “I want full service.”

Another wryly suggested that they put the cluster at the post office.

Done deal?

“Is it a done deal?” one resident asked.

“It’s not a done deal until we have a person vetted and ready to take the contract, but it won’t be the same operation as Peggy (contract holder Peggy Myers). It’s a whole different product; it is much more automated. I’ll tell you that from our headquarters level, they do not want post office boxes at CPUs anymore.”

Buchanan asked if having a CPU in Holmes Beach is still an option, and Shirley responded, “We never talked about trying to close the CPU.

Contract holder Jack Jackson said, “They want to take the post office boxes out of our post office. The new people cannot afford to run a post office if they remove the boxes.”

Manatee County Commissioner Carol Whitmore pointed out that the post office has been in operation since the 1950s and that Holmes Beach is the largest city on the Island.

Traffic and parking

Residents cited traffic and parking as two of their concerns.

“Have you ever been to Anna Maria or Bradenton Beach and tried to park?” one asked.

“Traffic is one of our biggest issues on the Island,” City Commissioner Jean Peelen stressed. “Our roads cannot take any more traffic. Closing those boxes will increase the traffic. It’s the last thing we need.”

Police Chief Bill Tokajer added. “It will take residents an hour and a half to two hours to drive to Bradenton Beach to get their mail in season.

“And you can’t park when you get there,” a resident quipped.

Others cited the expense to small businesses to change their addresses, and Shirley said they could keep their post office box addresses for a year, to which the members of the expressed amusement.

“Anyone with half a brain looking at Anna Maria Island would see that Homes Beach is the biggest part of the Island,” said another resident. “The whole scheme is so dumb to me I can’t believe it.”

Sense of identity

“When you screw with someone’s post office, you have a real issue,” Buchanan said. “It’s a sense of identity.”

“We will do everything we can to provide the service you want and deserve,” said Deborah Draga, manager of postal operations for the 342 zip codes. “We will look at central delivery on your streets. There are all kinds options.”

“How can multiple central delivery boxes within this entire community be more economical than just maintaining the post office boxes we have?” a resident asked.

Going to the post office is a “very community feeling and something people look forward to,” Soustek said. “Take that along with your business plan and try to think about the community.”

Buchanan asked Shirley who would make the final decision, and she said officials at USPS headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“Get me the name of that person who can make a decision,” he responded. “People have used these services for 50 years. I’ll meet with the head person in Washington and make your case.”

ANNA MARIA – For West Manatee Fire Chief Andy Price, the fire service was not just a career, it was a calling.

“When you find something that’s right for you, you just know it,” he said. “I never really thought of it as a career; I just really enjoyed what I was doing.”

Price, who grew up on the Island, graduated from Manatee High School in 1978, and attended Manatee Junior College, before moving to Cordele, Ga., to work in a wholesale flower plant.

“The plant closed, and I called my dad to come home,” Price recalled. “Dad was chief of the Bradenton Beach Volunteer Fire Department and mom was president of the Women’s Auxiliary.

“Dad said I had to join the fire department or don’t come home. Obviously, I joined the fire department. Immediately, I enrolled in EMT school, and I really liked it. Then I went to paramedic school, and that’s when I decided that was what I wanted to do.”

His first job as firefighter/paramedic was with Sarasota’s Northeast Fire District, where he stayed for 3 ½ years. Then it was on to Longboat Key Fire Rescue for another 3 ½ years, all the while maintaining his status as a volunteer with the Anna Maria Fire District. In 1987, he became the third person hired by the Anna Maria district as fire marshal.

Becoming chief

“I was fire marshal until the chief’s position became available,” he said. “I became acting chief in the fall of 1991. The district did a nationwide search for a chief and then offered me the job. I became chief in March 1992.”

The district hired its first two full time firefighters, Jack Williams and Rich Losek in 1989 and a third, Dennis Dotson, in 1992. The three became captains over the more than 100 volunteers.

“Even thought we had lots of volunteers, property values started rising, and they couldn’t afford to live on the Island,” he pointed out. “Also many worked in town. It became harder to get response to calls, and that’s when we began transitioning to full time people.

“By 1996, we had four firefighters per shift and added inspectors and an accountant. Prior to the merger (with Westside Fire District), we had 17 employees and Westside had 11. The merger was complete in 2000 and now we have 42 employees and 30 reservists.”

Fire service changes

Price said in the last 23 years, the fire service has dramatically changed with regard to requirements, training, equipment and the job description.

“When I stated as a volunteer, we had two hours of training per month, which was mostly social,” he said. “Now we have 50 to 100 hours per month.

“And the level of care we provide has dramatically improved. In my first years as a volunteer, we had 100 calls per year; now we have 2,000.”

He said he is proud that the district has “never been afraid to embrace change” in a profession that “is totally resistant to change.”

In addition to leading the merger of the Anna Maria and West Side fire districts, some of the improvements he spearheaded were implementing a compressed foam system on the fire trucks, getting AEDs (automatic external defibrillators) on all fire trucks, implementing protocols for EMTs, getting a washer/extractor to launder protective gear and installing diesel exhaust capture systems and mobile data stations on fire trucks.

Job stress

“The thing about being in the fire service that people don’t understand is the amount of horrific you see on a daily basis – people dying in front of you, people losing loved ones,” Price said.

“When I first started, they said you had to be tough and internalize everything. There was no mechanism to deal with it. Now we have teams to help people through.

“But that is tempered by the all the wonderful things we see too. You take all the bad things and measure them against the positive. If you can’t do that, you can’t do the job.”

“You’re making decisions that could affect people’s lives. You have to have the strength and calmness to look at those situations and make a decision.

“The quicker you make a decision to do something, the greater ability you have to make a difference, and in this business, seconds make a difference.”

Goals accomplished

Price said one of his goals was to replace or update all the fire stations and when Station 4 is done, that will be accomplished. He also has purchased every piece of the district’s apparatus and hired 90 percent of the people.

“I’m leaving it in good hands and with the help of the staff, we’ve created a first class fire department. I never thought anything we did was to put a feather in our cap, but to make our job better and safer.

“I’m really proud that early on we recognized the need to make our guys the safest by providing them the best gear training and equipment to do their job. We were way ahead of the curve to provide that safer environment.”

The future

"It seems like just yesterday I signed the papers to retire in five years,” Price said and added that he doesn’t have anything special planned for retirement.

“It’s never been a 9 to 5 job,” he noted. “When the call comes in the middle of the night, you go. It was a 24-hour a day job.

“The first part of my career, I couldn’t go on vacation because it was too hard to be gone for a week. And because I grew up here, people would call me to find out what happened every time the fire truck went by.”

With that in mind, Price said he and wife Lin plan to leave it all behind and take a two-week vacation to try out that new camper by visiting four Florida parks.

“We want to see if we like it,” he concluded. “I have no other plans, but if something comes along, I’ll look at it.”

Price and Lin have three children, Whitney, 27, a physical therapist; Sean, 25, and Tommy, 21, both of whom work at Galati’s. However, both sons are carrying on their father’s tradition. Tommy is a reserve firefighter/EMT with the district and Sean is in fire school.

ANNA MARIA – Armed with a new ordinance to control vacation rentals, talk at city hall centered around whether the city’s moratorium on building permits for homes with four or more bedrooms would stay in force.

The answer was yes, but not in its present form.

The moratorium, which spurred one developer to notify the city he would seek damages for delayed rental home projects, was enacted to give the commissioners time to put regulations into effect for renters and rental agents. Many thought the new ordinance would do the job.

Commissioners talked about the purpose of the moratorium. Nancy Yetter and Carol Carter said it was to control new construction. Commission Chair Chuck Webb said he was uncomfortable with the moratorium.

City Attorney Becky Vose said it appeared to her the wording of the moratorium was unclear about the purpose. She said in the future they need to make the purpose clear.

City Planner Alan Garrett said there is a problem with the Living Area Ratio (LAR), enacted last year to limit the physical size of the homes. The LAR allows up to 50 percent of the lot area to be covered by impermeable construction. He said the city’s comprehensive plan limits it to 40 percent. Vose said they need to change the LAR regulation.

Commissioner Doug Copeland asked if the city might face Burt Harris lawsuits of they lower the limit.

“The property owner should look that up before making plans,” Vose said. “If they didn’t, they would likely lose a lawsuit.”

Webb said they would change the limit and only enforce future construction. The agreed to amend the comp plan that have the recent LAR of 50 percent to 40 percent.

Garrett said he found out why some of the new vacation rentals seem larger than allowed.

“When they measure a living area for air-conditioned space, they measure to the inside wall since the space behind the wall is not air-conditioned,” Garrett said.

Webb asked him to change the LAR to include the inside of the wall.

Webb also said he wants bedroom limits on rental houses.

“They might have 12 bedrooms, but only eight people are allowed in the building,” he said.

Webb asked if these items pertain to the moratorium or should they rescind it. Copeland said they adopted the moratorium to slow down rentals, and he thinks the vacation rental ordinance makes the moratorium unnecessary. Yetter said she wants to keep it.

It would take two meetings to rescind the moratorium because commissioners need to pass an ordinance to do so. They could draft another ordinance for another moratorium. Commissioner Carol Carter reminded them the vacation rental ordinance begins January 1, so they have time to work on it.

“Why drop the moratorium now?” she asked.

Finally, Webb asked for a consensus to do away with the moratorium and work on a new one. The commission agreed. Webb brought a list of reasons for a moratorium to use when drafting a new one, or changing the present one.

Vose said they have the vacation rental ordinance to rely on as a backup.

“I think it’s a good one and would stand up in court,” she said.

They approved Webb’s list and Vose will use it to fashion a new ordinance.

More code enforcement

Mayor Dan Murphy spoke about tightening code enforcement to preserve peace and quiet and to make sure the building laws are followed.

He said he wants a fulltime code enforcement manager and two part-time inspectors so they could have enforcement during weekends and after hours.

“I’ll have a code enforcement manager by April 28,” he said. “It will take six months to implement the vacation rental ordinance plan.”

The Chiles Restaurant Group will host the Fifth Annual Food and Wine on Pine, this Saturday, May 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on Pine Avenue in Anna Maria. The annual event features the best food, wine, art and music the area has to offer.

Guests can expect local and seasonal Florida foods by more than 20 of the area’s locally owned and independent restaurants. The culinary experience will showcase locally sourced farm-to-fork produce and tide-to-table heritage seafood from the Gulf waters. More than 30 wines and a variety of craft beers will complement the food creations.

Food and Wine on Pine features actors dressed in period costumes strolling Pine Avenue acting out scripts and telling tales of Anna Maria’s storied past and street performances. There will also be artwork from half a dozen or so Manatee County students and pieces created by local artists available for purchase – clay works, jewelry, photography, oil/acrylic paintings, glass, wood, fiber, leather pieces and more.

The event will have more than 30 unique, live musical performances featuring genres of bluegrass, Indie rock, jazz, folk and everything in between. Music will fill the air throughout the day-long event.

The event offers an interactive children’s tent where kids can tap into their inner artist by creating an art project or helping to paint the Tom Sawyer fence. There will also be plenty of kid-friendly food such as hot dogs, chicken tenders and ice cream.

Free parking is available at the Anna Maria Island Community Center, 407 Magnolia Ave., Anna Maria, and CrossPointe Fellowship, 8605 Gulf Drive, Holmes Beach with free trolley shuttles from CrossPointe or anywhere on Anna Maria.

New for 2015 is the Pine Avenue Downs, a fully loaded Kentucky Derby tent sponsored by the Rotary Club of Anna Maria, Jim Beam and Tito’s Vodka. The tent is outfitted with two big screen TVs televising the races with great prizes for win, play and show. The Pine Avenue Downs tent will be serving Kentucky Derby inspired cocktails. There will also be a Kentucky Derby Hat Contest.

In the event of bad weather, Food and Wine on Pine has an alternative rain date of May 3.

There is a $2 entry fee. Tickets for food and beverages are available for $1 each, cash only (ATM access available). Most food items will be priced between 2 and 10 tickets. Purchase of a wine glass and food tray is $1 for the set, with wine and beer tastings $1 each. Wine by the glass (6 oz.) is five tickets and beer by the glass (12 oz.) is three to five tickets.

For more information, visit http://www.foodandwineonpine.com.

Food & Wine on Pine musical line-up

Music Tent 1

11:30 a.m. Myakka Band, rock

1:30 p.m. Braden River Pipers, bagpipes

2:30 p.m. KoKo Ray and Karma, saxophone/vocal/percussion

4:30 p.m. Savannah Brady Duo, rock

Music Tent 2

11:30 a.m. Carl and Barbara, folk

12:30 p.m. John Rinell, guitar/vocals

2:30 p.m. Erol Ozever, classical/guitar

4:30 p.m. Blue Echo, bluegrass

Music Tent 3

11:30 a.m. Mike Sales, guitar/vocals

12:30 p.m. Ishael Katz, guitar/mandolin/vocals

1:30 p.m. Pam and Jeff Graham, violin/guitar

2:30 p.m. Nick Haas, guitar/vocals

4:30 p.m. Debbie Hood, guitar/vocals

Music Tent 4

11:30 a.m. Preston Boyd and John Reynolds, guitar/vocals

12:30 p.m. Tommy Bush, guitar/vocals

1:30 p.m. Jim Gromko, guitar/vocals/folk

3:30 p.m. Josh Michael, guitar/vocals

4:30 p.m. Charli Warn Duo, guitar/vocals

Music Tent 5

11:30 a.m. Ron Bopp, Dutch street organ

1:30 p.m. Magic of Manatee, choral group

2:30 p.m. Maine Hatch Motley’s, Sea Shantys

3:30 p.m. Robin String Ensemble, violin/cello

4:30 p.m. David Smash, guitar/vocals

Music Tent 6

11:30 a.m. Manatee Concert Band, 45-piece concert band

1:00 p.m. Manatee Swing Band, 21-piece jazz/swing band

3:30 p.m. Manatee Players Drama

4:30 p.m. Elephant in the Room, Indie rock/blues

Music Tent 7

Washboard Willy

Music Tent 8

11:30 a.m. Chuck Caudill, guitar/vocals/percussion

12:30 p.m. Howie Banfield and Scott Blum, guitar/vocals/percussion

1:30 p.m. Bill Vinhage & Scott Blum, guitar/vocals/percussion

3:30 p.m. Kid Red, guitar/vocals/New Orleans

4:30 p.m. The Three Howies, bluegrass

Music Tent 9

11:30 a.m. Loraine Baker, jazz

1:30 p.m. Trevor Bystrom, guitar/vocals

3:30 p.m. Barby Holder, dulcimer/vocals

Olive Oil Outpost Porch

11:30 a.m. Joe Bonfiglio, guitar/vocals

2:30 p.m. Larry Wilhelm, guitar/vocals

Gary Reinstrom, strolling bagpipes

ANNA MARIA –After a contentious meeting, the owners of two Island fitness centers agreed to meet with a committee of Island Community Center board members to determine if they can collaborate.

Jen Crady, owner of AMI Health & Fitness, and Brenda Canning, of Island Fitness, have protested the board’s plans to build a fitness center on the second floor of the Center, maintaining that it would endanger their businesses.

“You don’t realize what this this Community Center is going to be doing to our businesses; it will severely impact us,” Canning told Center board members at their meeting last week.

Many Island residents have rallied around the two, and Holmes Beach city commissioners have spoken against the project. The mayors of Homes Beach and Anna Maria have sought further information on the project, the Center’s finances and non-profit status and the vacation rental membership program, which is a part of the project plan.

“We have support from the community who wanted to show up but couldn’t because this is a closed meeting,” Canning said. “Due to the lack of community and financial support, we feel this will have a negative financial impact on the Community Center’s finances.

“You have a board that has taken it upon yourselves to do what you feel you need to do to save the Community Center, which in fact is benefitting most of you board members – builders, developers,” she continued.

“This is where I have to take exception,” board member Mike Coleman exclaimed. “You don’t get to sit here and attack our character. You don’t get to attack people who I know have written checks and devoted themselves and their time to better things here.”

Canning said the Center should focus on programs for youth and residents, and a community center should be a place where people gather for activities, “not destroying the community and putting people like ourselves out of business.”

Crady said she has raised her kids in the Community Center and stressed, “This is heartbreaking for me. This isn’t an attack on anybody’s character. This is how the community feels, and I’m expressing what people have told me.

“I’m pissed because I never would have thought the Community Center would shut me down. Shame on you. Shame on the community for not stepping forward when you were in need.”

She said she and Canning have been accused of spreading false information, which is an attack on their character.

She said board members should get out in the community and survey people, asking what they want offered at the Center.

“Nobody wants to support the Center because they think, you, the board, will do whatever you want to do regardless of community outcry.”

She said the plan would violate non-profit regulations and give the Center an unfair business advantage because it doesn’t pay taxes and rent.

However, board member Diana McManaway noted that the Center is “$250,000 a year in the hole” and also has a substantial mortgage.

“Why are you worried?” Coleman asked the two. “You have demonstrated very effectively the loyalty of your clientele.”

Coleman said people are manipulating the two and “trying to stop vacation rentals,” and board member Ed Chiles added, “This issue has now been captured by people who want to outlaw Island rentals. And now it’s character assassination of people who are trying to help this Center.”

Willing to cooperate

“Why didn’t you come to us first?” Crady asked. “We had to read it in the newspaper.”

Chair Blair Schlossberg said the board never thought about contacting the fitness operators, but is willing to work with them.

“We’re willing to cooperate, but that means you have to come in and work this out together,” Chiles pointed out. “Not come in and say we’re the enemy. That’s not going to work.”

“You can’t call us a bunch of pocket-lining, self-serving bastards and expect us to want to help you,” Coleman added.

“There has to be common respect to try to work together, not come in and have a war,” said board member Shawn Kaleta. “We had to decide how to overcome our deficit. We discussed options and programs that we needed to improve.

“We had a gym and were told we need to improve it. We did not sit here and consider what it would do to other businesses. We looked at our businesses and what the Community Center needed to be self-sustaining to take care of all residents.

“In any business, there will be competition and changes. We want to work together and see how we can help each other, but it’s hard when it becomes a war.”

“The only way it would work for you to have a fitness center is if you had something we don’t have,” Crady stressed.

“We’re willing to collaborate,” Schlossberg said, “but we need you to make the leap. Let’s see what works. We have to do something to save the Center. We’d like to do it with you and help you if we can.”

ANNA MARIA – Island Community Center board member Mike Coleman last week reported to the board a change in the previous plans for a fitness center.

In February board members gave board member Shawn Kaleta the go ahead to proceed to permit for a state of the art fitness center to be built on the second floor of the Center. In March they agreed to proceed as soon as possible with the project.

“In every meeting we talked about the concept of the enhanced facilities,” Coleman said. “Some things got ahead of where they should have. All along the way, it was a concept.

“All along the way, we were waiting to get input from Cindy and Kristin (Directors Cindy Thompson and Kristin Lessig) about everything that is required to meet the objectives, and now we have that.”

He said board members would get a new rendering of the fitness center and said, “It’s still a very significant health and fitness center, and it now makes room for all the things that we knew they were going to need that we didn’t know what they were yet. What we have is an evolution.”

He said if the fitness center makes $200,000 per year that would be 20 percent of the budget.

Original concept evolves

“Originally when we did the first drawing, it was a quick effort to draw our first concept,” said Kaleta.

“At the time, it was a great concept, but it didn’t fully utilize everybody’s experience and an understanding of the programs we have in place. We’ve scaled the project back and updated the drawings.”

He said on the first floor they plan to bump out the back wall of the kids’ area to include the office space behind it, which he projected would be about $15,000.

“Operationally, it will be a big help,” he said.

“We have a comprehensive idea for the whole children’s program, but in terms of facility, we’ll stick to where we’re at right now,” Thompson added.

On the second floor, he said the counseling and board rooms would remain intact, as would the performing arts studio, which would be enhanced. The walls of the teen room and office space would be moved to accommodate the fitness center, and the restrooms that are there would be used instead of adding locker rooms with changing rooms an showers.

“It’s a huge decrease in cost, and it gives us the goals for all of our existing programs and to add programs, still maximizing our previous programs and yet grow,” Kaleta said.

Chair Blair Schlossberg said they would have the plans at the next board meeting.

BRADENTON BEACH – The lawsuit filed last week in an attempt to have Vice Mayor Jack Clarke removed from the recall ballot has generated impassioned responses from many in the community.

On Sunday, Metz, the plaintiff, said “My lawsuit does not seek to delay or stop the recall election. It will proceed as scheduled. My wife and I only are spending our hard-earned money and effort to insure that the recall election has legally qualified candidates on the ballot.”

According to the court website, Metz paid a $430 filing fee to submit a suit that challenges whether Clarke complied with state law in regard to his pending resignation not being submitted 10 days before qualifying began.

Citing the city charter, City Attorney Ricinda Perry said last week that the recall election cannot legally take place if Clarke is removed from the ballot. Supervisor of Elections Mike Bennett expressed a similar opinion.

Metz pointed out that his suit names Clarke as an individual seeking to qualify for election and not in his capacity as a public official, but the suit does mention Clarke was elected to the commission in 2013 and later named vice mayor.

Metz also said his suit does not name the city of Bradenton Beach as a defendant, and he feels the commission majority’s decision last week to fund Clarke’s legal defense is a “gift of public funds.”

Voter concern

Bradenton Beach residents Sue and Jim Peterfeso are among those who already received and returned their mail ballots. Friday night, they discussed the possibility of the lawsuit suppressing their votes.

“I’d be extremely upset. I want this to be determined and over one way or the other,” Sue Peterfeso said.

“I’d be upset too, because I filled out my ballot, it’s in the mail and I voted,” Jim Peterfeso said.

“This has been going on for a long time. Let the election happen, let the people speak and move on and not through technicalities, let them vote,” he added.

When discussing these voters’ concerns Saturday morning, Shearon said, “I would have the same concern.”

He then added, “The recall election is going to happen. The ballots are out. No judge is going to stop it.”

A citizen’s right

Shearon was asked if he played a role in Metz’s decision to file the lawsuit.

“Mr. Metz is a citizen exercising his right and using his own money and resources. I don’t tell Mr. Metz what to do, and he doesn’t tell me what to do. He’s doing this on his own accord and if people don’t like it they need to talk to Mr. Metz. I’m sure if Mr. Metz got a number of phone calls, I would imagine he would drop this case,” Shearon said.

Although he and his significant other have in the past filed lawsuits against the city, Shearon would prefer to see a city free of lawsuits.

“I don’t want to see anybody file a lawsuit against the city, an elected official or a staff member. That’s a totally no-win situation,” he said.

Vice mayor not sold

Clarke is not convinced that Shearon played no role in a lawsuit that if successful would guarantee Shearon remains in office until November.

“To say he wishes Mr. Metz hadn’t done it is not the same as saying he had no knowledge of him doing it,” Clarke said, noting that the mayor has proven to be adept at providing himself with a layer of plausible deniability that prevents the actions of others from being attributed directly to him.

As for the lawsuit’s potential impact on the recall election, Clarke said, “I cannot speculate on a judge’s actions, but obviously the suit was filed with expectation of success on the part of the plaintiff.”