As far as municipal elections go, Tampa's city elections are pretty low-key. After all, the mayoral race is pretty much in the bag for incumbent Mayor Bob Buckhorn (sorry Jose Vazquez), and the five city council races have largely been a yawner for all but the most immersed of local politicos.
Until now.
The three-way race for the open West Tampa District 6 (which covers you, too, Seminole Heights) seat has gotten a little interesting of late. It has to do with civil engineer Jackie Toledo's preferred methods of promoting her candidacy.
A photo she has been using, which features Toledo in front of the City of Tampa Seal and which the Tampa Bay Timesexposed as a bad Photoshop job months ago, has attracted a complaint from local restaurateur Joseph Procopio, who is in the camp of Guido Maniscalco, one of Toledo's opponents.
Using the city's seal without its permission, his complaint says, is off-limits to anyone who is not an elected official or city employee.
“The facts speak for themselves,” he said at a Friday afternoon press conference. “In the city charter it clearly states that no one other than city employees or city officials are to use the city seal. And she is not a city employee. She has not been elected to any office that I know of. So she has no authorization to have that seal behind her in a photo that she's made public. It gives the perception that she's somebody official. It's misleading.”
Compounding things, he said, is the fact that she filmed a 30-second campaign video at an active construction site on I-275, something the Florida Department of Transportation says was not sanctioned.
“You're putting people that work for you, because the people that were up there work for her ... you're putting those people at risk, you're breaking the law, you're not following the right procedures and again, as a professional civil engineer, she would know,” he said.
Toledo, a Republican (though this is a nonpartisan race), continues to use the image and run the ad on cable stations.
Maniscalco, a Democrat, said the two improper uses of public stuff demonstrate a pattern; a sense of, perhaps, entitlement.
“This is not the Tampa way. We live in the sunshine, put things in the sunshine," he said. "She didn't ask for forgiveness or say she made a mistake. Rather, she felt like she didn't do anything wrong. Now, as a professional engineer, you would know walking on a construction site as massive as that, the liability of that, God forbid that something had happened, putting people in danger, you have folks on that site, they're supposed to be working, she's walking there with the props, with the table, with the blueprint, and continues to deny it, it's wrong.”
Toledo's campaign could not be reached for comment, but she has in the past not given those criticizing her much thought, instead pointing to the fact that she has out-raised them financially. She has pulled in more than $105,000, while opponents Maniscalco and Tommy Castellano have raised $25,649 and $31,287, respectively.
Maniscalco said he's not trying to shed light on her perceived wrongdoing because of her advantage.
“It's not a money issue, it's an ethics issue at this point,” he said.