Montelione Re-Elected To City Council, Caetano Fails To Qualify

By Matt Wiley

As campaigns gear up for the City of Tampa municipal election on Tuesday, March 3, the City Council member who currently represents our area on the panel has been re-elected to another four-year term because of lack of opposition.

According to the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections office, as of noon on January 16, Councilwoman Lisa J. Montelione, of Terrace Park, had secured another four-year term as the representative of District 7 (which includes Temple Terrace, the University area, Tampa Palms and New Tampa) by paying the qualifying fee of $2,415 to appear on the ballot for the election. Although her name won’t actually appear on the ballot in March, she already has been named our area’s representative, as the only candidate for the seat. District 5 incumbent Frank Reddick also faced no opposition.

Montelione’s would-be opponent, Grand Hampton resident Joseph Caetano, filed to run for the seat (which he previously held from 2006-10) in June of 2014, but did not gather the minimum 868 signatures (0.25 percent of the city’s population) to petition to appear on the ballot by the January 2 deadline or pay the fee before the deadline to qualify on January 16. As a result, Montelione was elected because she was unopposed.

“I couldn’t raise enough funds and I didn’t want to pay for all of (the qualifying fee) myself,” Caetano explains. “So, I decided not to pursue (the City Council seat).”

Records show that, as of January 9, Caetano had raised only $700, while the councilwoman had raised more than $20,000. 

“I’m honored that I didn’t have to launch a full-blown campaign,” says Montelione. “I’ve had people come up to me out in the District and say that (running unopposed) is a testament to the hard work and decisions that I’ve made during the past four years. I guess the community feels that I’m doing a good job.”

Montelione says that she did not expect to end up running opposed and that she fully expected Caetano to qualify after seeing his campaign signs along Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. just a few weeks before the deadline to qualify. But, Caetano isn’t the only person that she was worried about.

“I filed and paid the qualifying fee just before noon on the last day to qualify in 2011,” Montelione explains. “It was very possible for somebody to do that this time, as well. All morning long on January 16 I was sitting at the edge of my seat.”

Montelione says that she plans to keep working on the causes that she has been pushing for her entire first term. Among those are transportation improvements in New Tampa and communication between the public and local government through community outreach.

“I hope that during my next term, Pasco County (officials) will come to (their) senses and we (the City of Tampa and Pasco) will be able to come to a reasonable agreement to connect Kinnan St. (in New Tampa) to Mansfield Blvd. (in Wesley Chapel),” she says. 

Montelione explains that she also will be staying on top of the needs within New Tampa’s planned communities that sometimes go unmet, such as the deterioration of roads, bike paths and street signs in West Meadows. Montelione says she recently was able to help address those issues within the community by helping concerned residents get in contact with the proper city departments.

She also says that in order to get more people involved in city government, she has held several “office hours” meetings, during which she makes herself available to residents, at both the New Tampa Regional Library (10001 Cross Creek Blvd.) and at the New Tampa Recreation Center (17302 Commerce Park Blvd. in Tampa Palms). She says she also plans to attend more New Tampa-area homeowners association and community development district meetings. If you would like her to come to your association’s meeting, give her office a call at 274-7073.

“I just want to continue to work on outreach,” Montelione says. “That’s one of the big things I worked on (during my first term). I’m trying to help you get to know that government is here and is someplace you can go and get help. The only way I can really improve communication is by showing up.”

Although the race for the New Tampa area’s City Council seat already has been decided, voters in our area still will vote for the three “city-wide” seats, as well as for mayor. 

“People still need to get out and vote even though District 7 isn’t going to be on the ballot,” Montelione says.

Current Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn only has one opponent, write-in candidate Jose Vazquez, whose name will not appear on the ballot, as is policy with write-in candidates. Published reports state that Vazquez has previously run for Tampa City Council in 2006 and for State House District 58 in 2012 and in 2008, while he was incarcerated for driving with a suspended or revoked license. 

For more information about New Tampa’s city government representatives, please visit TampaGov.net.