TAMPA — For a few minutes Thursday morning, Tampa's path to borrowing for the new Rays ballpark was dead on the dais.
City Council's first vote on a resolution letting the city seek court approval for up to $80 million in stadium bonds ended in a 3–3 tie. Council member Bill Carlson, the swing vote who supported the stadium deal in August, wasn't in the room. Under council rules, a resolution that can't get four votes either way comes back at the next regular meeting as unfinished business.
That set off a scramble. Then Carlson appeared on screen from home.
“First I want to apologize to everyone,” Carlson said, according to FOX 13. “I picked up some kind of stomach bug last night and you wouldn't have wanted me in the room today. I just happened to turn this on and saw that this was happening. So, I figured I would call in.”
The second vote passed 4–3. After casting it, Carlson told colleagues, “I'm going to go back to bed,” the Tampa Bay Times reported.
How the votes split
The lineup matched August's vote on the stadium funding agreement. Carlson, Naya Young, Luis Viera and Council Chair Alan Clendenin voted yes. Charlie Miranda, Guido Maniscalco and Lynn Hurtak voted no.
Hurtak didn't soften after the first vote failed. “This is still one of those things that it's not my responsibility to do,” she said, per FOX 13. “I'm so sorry that you all voted for it, and you're going to have to figure out how to pay for it. No, not my problem. I'm voting no.”
Supporters argued the city is already on the hook. “Whether you're for or against the Rays, we're in a position right now that we're obligated for the $80 million,” City Attorney Scott Steady told council members, according to the Times. Clendenin agreed: “The deal is done. It's already signed. This is just putting a tool into the tool box. As fiduciary stewards of this city, I think it would be almost a dereliction of duty not to put that tool in the tool box.”
Why the timing mattered
Waiting until the next regular meeting, Nov. 5, would have been a gamble. Thursday was Viera's last regular meeting before he steps down to run for a seat in the Florida House, and his replacement hasn't been chosen, the Times reported. There's no telling how that person would vote on stadium items.
Before Carlson called in, Viera pushed for a special meeting before he leaves, but members couldn't agree on a date, DRaysBay reported. Hurtak said she'd be out of town on one proposed date, Oct. 29, visiting her mother, who was recently hurt in a car crash.
The Rays have said they won't start construction until the public funding sources are approved, according to the Times. Rays CEO Ken Babby declined to comment.
What the vote actually does
As TBO explained in Thursday's preview, the resolution doesn't borrow any money. It starts bond validation, a court process that confirms the city is legally allowed to take on debt for the stadium's public infrastructure. Council would have to vote again before Tampa sells a bond.
The city owes its $80 million in four annual payments of $20 million. City leaders haven't committed to borrowing it, but Deputy Chief Financial Officer Michael D. Perry wrote in a memo this month that “it may be necessary and/or desirable to fund all or a portion of any or all of the four annual payments with debt,” the Times reported.
Next up, council set an Oct. 29 special meeting to approve the community benefits agreement the project requires, and the Hillsborough County Commission still has a vote of its own, according to FOX 13. The Rays are aiming to open the $2.3 billion ballpark on the Hillsborough College Dale Mabry campus for the 2029 season.
Charter changes: one big piece dropped
In the afternoon, council moved its package of proposed city charter amendments closer to the March ballot, but not all of it survived.
The most contested idea, letting five council members remove certain mayoral appointees for cause, was dropped on a 5–2 vote, Florida Politics reported. Clendenin, who had backed it earlier this month, switched sides, saying it could expose the city to employment lawsuits. “It's very difficult to train seven of us in HR and employment law,” he said. Carlson and Hurtak voted to keep it. Carlson's narrower version, covering only the city attorney, failed 2–5.
What's still in the package:
- An independent inspector general with power to investigate, audit and review city operations. Council went further than the citizen Charter Review Advisory Commission recommended, letting the office open investigations without a written complaint.
- Voiding executive orders with five council votes, and blocking the mayor from reissuing the same order that term without council approval.
- Midyear budget changes that council could start on its own, instead of waiting for the mayor to propose them.
- Council staffing that council could fund without separate mayoral approval, within budget limits.
- Tighter mayoral term limits, barring anyone who serves more than six years as mayor or acting mayor from returning. It wouldn't count former Mayor Bob Buckhorn's 2011–2019 tenure, and he's running again in 2027. Viera and Miranda opposed advancing it, with Viera questioning whether putting it on the same ballot would drag it into the mayor's race. Carlson and Hurtak are both running against Buckhorn.
Mayor Jane Castor has called the package a “power grab.” Carlson has said it restores checks on the mayor's office rather than undermining Tampa's strong-mayor system.
Thursday's votes don't put anything on the ballot yet. Each amendment comes back as a separate ordinance for a first reading Nov. 5 and a final vote Nov. 19. If approved, voters decide in the March 2, 2027, city election.