Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has faced some tough lines of questioning in his five years as the city’s head honcho, so taking a few softballs from the second graders at Lawton Chiles Elementary in Tampa Palms on March 8 was something of a welcome respite.
Not that a few fastballs weren’t sneaked in there, however.
After talking to the children about how much he loved his job and how important it was, Buckhorn fielded questions asking him about his favorite food, color and his favorite sports.
Oh yeah…and a few about the traffic in New Tampa.
“We do need a train that runs from New Tampa to downtown Tampa,” Buckhorn answered to one traffic question.
Another student wanted to know why the red light by his house stayed red for so long. The exact location of that light was never pinpointed (and let’s be honest, we all have one of those lights we love to hate in New Tampa, don’t we?), but Buckhorn gave a quick wink said he would check it out.
He also was asked what he thought of Donald Trump.
“Oh, I think I’ll stay away from that one,’’ Buckhorn said. “But, I do not think he is good for the country.”
The event was organized by Linda Rosen, who was teaching her second graders about local government when she came up with the idea to try and get Buckhorn to visit her class. She had all of the kids write letters inviting him to Chiles, and the mayor ended up accepting.
Leading the second grade classes of teachers Ashley Mitchell, Elizabeth Horton, Tari Baldwin, Elaine Wilkinson, Michael Rehfus, Chelsea Bowen, Ami Egeland, Felicia Sell and Rosen into school’s media center was Alejandro Rodriguez, a mayor himself — he was elected by his classmates in Rosen and Bowen’s classes, a mock vote designed to teach the children about democracy.
The 8-year-old, decked out in gray slacks, a light green plaid shirt and a gray tie with white stripes, fidgeted in his seat with his hand thrust as high as he could reach, eagerly awaiting his chance for a question, like 150 of his classmates.
Buckhorn, who was elected to his first term as mayor in 2011 and then re-elected in 2015 while running unopposed, told the classes he caught the government bug as a fourth-grader growing up near Washington, D.C., when in 1968, he was helping out on the late Senator Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign.
“I used to have my mom drive me down to Bobby Kennedy’s headquarters, and I’d seal envelopes and put stamps on them,’’ Buckhorn said.
However, the kids seemed more interested in answers to the bigger, more important questions facing Tampa — such as his favorite color (blue), his favorite food (Italian), and his favorite sports (he played lacrosse and soccer in high school).
When he wasn’t playing sports, Buckhorn said, he was reading books or having crab apple fights with his friends.
“We didn’t have cell phones,” he said, drawing perhaps the loudest reaction of the morning from the gasping second graders.
“It was a much better life, I think,’’ he added. The lack of cell phones apparently made at least one child think Buckhorn was far older than his 57 years, because he was later asked if he had town criers when he was growing up.
Mayor Shares Governmental Info, Too
Buckhorn provided some civics lessons for the kids as well, explaining that he and the seven-member Tampa City Council operate mostly independently. “I meet with them once a year to tell them how much money they have to spend,” he said, referring to his annual budget meeting.
Asked if he can change the City Council’s decisions, Buckhorn told the class “sometimes,” explaining that he can veto items but “the City Council can override my veto with a 5-2 vote margin.”
“He added, “But, so far, I haven’t had to veto anything.”
The mayor, in case you were wondering (like at least one of the kids was), does not have a butler and maids. He told them, however, he was “rich in blessings with a great job, a great wife and great kids, but not rich rich, like Donald Trump.”
He jokingly bragged about having so much power, he could turn rivers green (which he did, again, on St. Patrick’s Day).
Buckhorn, who has two young daughters, also told the assembly “and none of you are ever allowed to marry them.”
Buckhorn impressed the crowd by telling the children he has been to President Barack Obama’s Christmas parties, and has even been to his office.
“Was his chair comfortable?,’’ one boy asked the mayor.
“Oh, I don’t dare sit in the president’s chair,’’ Buckhorn replied, grinning widely.
Buckhorn, whose second term is scheduled to end in 2019, said leaving the mayor’s office won’t be easy. “You’re going to have to pry my fingers off the desk,” he said.
He did, though, drop a hint about his rumored future plans, asking the kids if they’d like it if he came back to visit as Florida’s governor.
As for who Buckhorn, a Democrat (although all municipal elections in Tampa are non-partisan), is supporting for president, no surprises there.
“I am supporting Hillary Clinton,’’ he said of the Democratic frontrunner (see page 8) he introduced at her pep rally in Ybor City the following day. “Because I want my two little girls to grow up knowing there are no barriers. I want them to know that they can grow up to be president, too.”
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