DAVE HASTINGS INTERVIEW

Questions for the Hastings March 2010 election

WD: Do you have an opening statement?

No

WD: How long have you lived in Gulfport?

Since 1999.

WD: Where did you live before that?

Indian shores.

WD: What is your profession?

I’m a CPA. Certified Public Accountant.

WD: Do you have any affiliations with any businesses, either in Gulfport or outside the city limits?

I have my CPA practice, that’s the only affiliation I have other then I’m married to my wife who has the Havana Cafe and the Havana Cigar Shoppe.

WD: What city boards and committees have you sat on?

In 2003, I was appointed to the employee pension board or committee and I served on that ever since.

In 2007, I was appointed to the Planning & Zoning Board and have served since then.

WD: What non city organizations do you belong to?

The Florida Institute of CPA’s. I’m a trained patient advocate for the Oral Cancer Foundation.

WD: Why are you running?

I thought I knew that, I want to see if I can help the city with my expertise. That’s the sole reason. When I was asked to be on the Employee Pension Plan Committee, I agreed to see if I could help the city. And of course they asked me to keep coming back because I’m supposed to be a financial expert, being a CPA. Obviously, I spend all my time in numbers. I am much more comfortable with numbers then a lot of people.  Planning & Zoning; I thought that would be an interesting thing because I‘ve gone up before planning and zoning.  I guess this is kind of like the next step. Do I want to continue to help the city? If so, this is the next step.

WD: Do you have any further political aspirations?

I have no political aspirations, none what so ever, I just want to help the city. That’s all. I don’t even know if I can help the city. If I can, I am certainly willing to put the time and the effort in there to apply my expertise to accumulate the necessary input from everybody.  And then hopefully they have the trust in me that I’ll make the right decisions.

WD: Will you be seeking election help from outside of Gulfport organizations?

No. I have not and I wouldn’t even know who that would be anyway, but no.

WD: What is you opinion of re-passing the city charter to make it only changeable by public referendum?

I really don’t have an opinion because I don’t know that I know enough of the background before I would make a call on that.  I really like to get into an issue and see what’s going on before an issue.  Talk to the current people involved and hopefully I have the wisdom to make the right decision at that point.  I am afraid I am going to be answering that type of response to a lot of these questions because I am not on city council right now.  I haven’t attended all of the city council meetings that you would need to really.  In the background when they meet with city manager, a lot of those city council people have been on the city council for years and years, look at the mayor. They have so much history back then. I don’t possess that history.  I don’t want to say something now that would be premature from getting the input.

WD: What is your position regarding examination and re-codification of our codes and ordinances to bring them into the 21st century?

My understanding is that process has already happened, the code review headed up by Emmett Walsh. I think that it’s kinda like in a holding right now. I was told that our city attorney, whoever that might be, needs to take the step further, so again, has that already been done?  What would be the conclusion of the attorney and the recommendation of the attorney? I’d rather sit back and wait. And the same thing for the charter, the Charter Review Committee that was not really commissioned.  They did they the work.  I don’t know what the Final step to that would be.

WD: Should ALL city meetings be recorded and available on DVD’s?

I think so; certainly the officials of the city should have nothing to hide.  That everything they would say they should be able to say it to you or to me. To further that end then why not make everything available?

WD: Do you feel that the videos of city meetings should be available on the cities web page on demand?

Tell me what you mean on demand?

WD: in other words, you go to it, click on it, watch it.

That would be a week afterward, or anytime?

WD: It should be anytime

Archive it for how long?

I don’t know what the cost involved of that to be.  I know myself that as a Planning and Zoning Committee member I wanted to go back and try to find the minutes of previous meetings.  And it’s difficult.  If it’s cost effective and we can do it, then yeah, I don’t see why not.

WD: What are your impressions of the public sessions at the city council meetings?

I think that so far that, every thing that I have heard people comment on I think represents their attempt to help the city.  I’ve seen some of the same comments coming back, meeting after meeting.  Every time someone speaks, it appears that the Mayor or someone will get back you.  Another two weeks goes by and the same comment is made.  The same thing. Well, “someone will get back to you”. It doesn’t appear that that is happening; that someone is getting back to somebody.  So they are having to come back and make same statement or ask the same questions.

You know you certainly can’t make these meetings last forever.  When a person asks a question, it seems like somebody could give them kind of a quick response and then say, “We’ll get back in touch with you”, AND then follow up.

WD: What can you see the city doing to achieve green city status?

I don’t know!  I am a big conservationist.  I conserve as much water as I can, I recycle.   I do everything possible.  One thing that’s always kinda baffled me, as a homeowner, I have a recycle bin, I put out my plastic, I put out my paper.  As a business owner for instance, the restaurant, we have tons of recyclable stuff but there is no avenue for it.  We have to really make an effort to take that stuff off-site and find a recycle source. Again, it probably all comes down to dollars and cents, how much more would it cost to do business?  You would think a business would have more recyclable material then an individual.  If you have to choose between one of the two, let’s do the businesses, and let the individuals discard recycle material.  Which is going to be worse?

WD: What is your opinion on allowing smoke pollution in Gulfport?

Meaning what?

WD: we are talking about the smoker scenario over on 49th Street.

That’s one of the things that I have been criticized for was my vote on the  Planning and Zoning to allow that smoker operation on 49th Street, but I really think without the ability to go back and review everything that I said in the minutes…I can tell you that staff presented this smoker to us as already been checked out.  Staff told us that this owner had a previous business relationship with the same smoker on 22nd Avenue, right down from my restaurant.  I didn’t have any smoke problems from the restaurant, ever.  I didn’t even know it was there, so to speak.

The owner assured us that this would not be a pollutions aspect.  No one at the meeting spoke against his smoker from his previous business or saying we don’t want it in the neighborhood.  In fact, we had people that gave, to the best of my recollection, that gave favorable comments about this owner and his operation with previous businesses.  I know I questioned this.  I know I did.  And we were also told in the language that if it was a nuisance, that the city can come in and stop it.  I think that, furthermore, we want to encourage business on 49th street.   So, it was like well everything’s OK, everything’s positive lets give it a shot.  If it doesn’t work the city has that right to come back in and shut him down.  I am surprised that it has gotten to this point where it doesn’t seem that the city has been able to close it down if he’s gotten all these complaints.

WD: Do you feel the sound ordinance is consistent with today’s needs?

This is Florida. We do have a tourist relationship here. We certainly depend upon tourists. We have a Tourist Season. If you’re a tourist, you think of Florida; you want come down, you want to sit outside, and you want to enjoy music by the water. That’s kinda like the image that we want to project.

If we try to sell Florida in that light; where people want to come down and sit outside and watch the water and listen to music that’s all well and good but, unfortunately; we have businesses that are within earshot of residents, so it becomes complicated.  The County has its sound ordinances which are supposed to go to the property line and certain decibels.  If you even have an air conditioner sitting on the property line, so to speak, that can violate the county noise ordinance.  We have adopted the county ordinances within the city.  I know where I live, I can walk outside some evenings and I can clearly hear the music coming from down here.  I don’t know where it is, but I can clearly here it.  And that’s a little annoying to me as a homeowner. It’s a tough issue.

From a business side, I would love to have the ability to have outdoor music if I was near the water.  It does attract, it does attract.  But, then from the property owner; if I live right next door to the guy I say hey, you got to turn it off.  I would not want to be the judge in that court case

WD: Do you have any solutions for the parking problem in the downtown Art District?

I am not that familiar.  I’ve heard that we do have a parking problem and that’s a great thing.  When we first opened Havana café, Cars parked all up and down 54th Street and my neighbors were just infuriated.  They put railroad ties In front of the car’s wheels even though it was not on their property.  The city, at that time, came to me and said, “David can you help us out?”  The only way they said I could help them out was to buy an adjacent property and put more parking in.  They said that, (pointing to the property to the west), would not work, the property right there.  That property had already been sold recently for a high price at that time.  She had done all these renovations and everything, so I didn’t want that.  The property across 54th street, they said that was too dangerous. For all the traffic, they didn’t want my customers walking across 54th Street. So this was the only property available and I was lucky enough to acquire it.  I don’t know.  Certainly I have heard of Talk of expanding the parking right in front of O’Maddys, in from the Casino down there.  I don’t know what the environmental impact of that is.  I don’t know all the ramifications. I don’t see where they would do it.  You’re right there at the sand and I certainly wouldn’t want to go into the beach to do that.  I have heard talk that maybe behind there you could put a parking garage or something like that.

WD: Do you feel we should allow alcohol in the streets during our Spring- fest, Geckofest and similar events?

I don t see why it wouldn’t be worth a try.  We have the concern about over drinking anyway and we have a lot of people that seem to be riding bicycles because they don’t have driver’s licenses because of previous problems like that.  But again, I would want to hear some of the pros and cons from everybody that would be affected before I want to make my decision.  I’m more inclined to say, well lets give it a try.  You can always say no, rather then never giving it a try and seeing what impact it might have on us.   Favorable, hopefully.

WD: Do you think that the Chamber of Commerce, possibly for economic gain, exerts too much influence within the city over the interests & concerns of the citizens of Gulfport?

Well, do they have that undue influence right now?   As a business owner, I have never really witnessed that.  At this point I would have to say no.

WD: Where do you stand on the mooring field?

Again, it’s a matter of economics to me.   I want to sit there and study the numbers.  It would be nice to have a place to attract people to come up there, but if that’s going to be a problem, where people are just going to abandon their boats.  We read about that all the time; these people come in there and abandon their boats and they wash up on the shore.   Is that less likely to happen, if they’re moored properly?   Any storm right now could take a boat that’s not properly anchored or even properly anchored out there and just send it right into the streets or the houses behind there.  I think I am in favor of it if the economics work.

WD: What are your feelings about Clam Bayou?

I’ll have to admit, yesterday was the first time that I went down and tried to find Clam Bayou.  When I heard about all this at all these meetings, how polluted it was, and everything else, I was down there expecting to find tires floating in the water, everything.  The part that I found, and again that I am not sure I found where everybody’s  talking about, it really seems to be nice. That whole area down there seems to be nice.  I was shocked about that park down there.  I had never seen that before.  That’s a really a nice area.  Of course, I’d like to see it in the spring or in the summer because right now a lot of things have been browned up.

I don’t know what the main issue is.  I would love, for instance, to visit Al Davis’s home because he obviously is the one that seems the most interested in this thing  I’d like to really meet with him at his home and say, “OK show me what is this problem?”  Is it just the dredging, is it the pollution, is it everything?  I understand that there’s a lawsuit pending, so I don’t know if that may tie some of the hands, so to speak, that people aren’t going to be willing to do things till the lawsuit is settled.  I am all for clean water.  I am all for un-polluted waters.  I just need to know more about that.

WD: How do you feel about police activity regarding victimless crime.

Can you give me an example?

WD: That’s the next question. Can you name some victimless crimes?

Without knowing what the definition of what a victimless crime is, it’s kind of hard to answer that question.

I personally like our response time in the city for police.  This is probably not a victimless crime, but I know that on occasion we’ve had employees that have done some evil things at the restaurant and I’ve called the police and they’re here in five minutes.  I like the fact that living in the city where I feel I can call the police and I can have a quick response.

WD: What is your position on the Gulfport to St. Pete Beach trolley?

It doesn’t seem to be working.  It does pass by my wife’s restaurant here.  I do see it a lot, and I hardly ever see any body riding in it.  We’re coming up on its second tourist season maybe, we’re already here, it’s already the end of January.  Let’s give it another couple of months and see what happens. We’re also in a period of time where the economy is pretty rough both on locals and on tourists.  That may have affected (the ridership).  If we had put the trolley in service four years ago, what would have happened as a scenario?   I’m willing to give it a couple more months just to see.  I understand there are ridership numbers.  Someone’s tracked these things so it’s an easy enough thing to put it in there.   If, in fact, at the end of this tourist season, that we still don’t see any improvement whatsoever, and we can take the money that we would have spent it on the continuation of the trolley and use it someplace else in the redevelopment district, I think I want to explore that.

WD: Have you ridden the trolley?

No

WD: Do you know any one who has?

No. It doesn’t stop at Havana Café.  I always wondered why.

WD: Are you concerned that code enforcement is not dealt with evenly within all parts of the city?

I haven’t really experienced that.  I know that was one of your concerns.  But, I haven’t experienced that.  If it is being applied inequitably or unevenly, sure it should be uniformly applied.   The same circumstance should warrant the same response.  So if it is being applied un- uniformly, then yeah, that should be addressed . I personally like code enforcement.  We have rules. We should, one, be made aware of them if we don’t adhere to them.  And we should be given the opportunity to correct it.  If we don’t correct it, then something should be done.  People can always change the rules, but if the rules aren’t changed, then we should all try to live by them.

WD: What do you think should be done about the Winn Dixie Property?

Let’s hope that something is going to happen.  I go down there to the oriental restaurant, the take out spot, probably once a week.  It’s usually when the restaurant is closed Sunday night.  When I go down there, especially now with the nights getting dark sooner its pitch black and when you turn off of 22nd Avenue and you’re going right past Winn Dixie there are no lights whatsoever.  Hopefully, the city has tried to get the owner of the property to keep those lights on.  I understand that they made the request and the owner is not cooperating.   I understand that there is some negotiations involved right now between the owner and some potential buyers or renters. Let’s hope something that can get resolved quickly that’s probably been sitting there vacant far too long.  But again, the economy, pardon my expression, sucks right now.  You got to find the right economic circumstances to attract a person to come in there to either buy that.  Let’s hope something happens soon.  You hear about Sam’s Club perhaps going in where the Office Depot is right there at 22nd avenue north.  That would be a great place if we had the land to put a Sam’s Club right there.  Let’s hope something can get resolved quickly.

WD: What is your vision for Gulfport?

I personally was attracted to Gulfport in 1997 when we opened up the restaurant.  I was attracted to it because of it’s, I want to say, its small town appeal.  It just seemed like a nice homey place not only to live but to even have a business in.  I haven’t seen much deterioration in that comfort that I feel living here and having businesses here.  I’d like to try to maintain this. We need to keep the city alive.  We need to Support its tax base in those efforts, trying to improve the 49th Street corridor.  That’s only a positive thing.  The downtown redevelopment can only be a positive thing.   When I first came here in 1997, the Downtown was just as nice as it is today.  But, hardly anybody was down there and now with all these improvements and ideas that people have come up with, we have a parking problem.  That’s a good thing.  I like the small town atmosphere that Gulfport has.

WD: What would you like to accomplish during your term in office?

Just to try to help the city, whatever that would be.  Whatever decisions the city council has to make to further the end of maintaining Gulfport as it is right now. That’s my goal,   Just to help

Whether I will be any good at it, I have no idea.

WD: Any final comments?

I like Gulfport.  I wouldn’t have put a business here, my wife’s business, when we lived in Indian Shores at the time.  That was a horrible commute.  It was 30 minutes one way.  I think we had to go through seven different cities to get here and invariably with the restaurant, they always call you up and say we’re slammed or the kitchen’s on fire or something.  Thirty minutes, that ain’t going to help.  If it takes you thirty minutes to get there, the place is either burned down or the problem has been solved.  That’s why we moved here.  We built a house here.   I like Gulfport.  I love the fact I can drive to my work in one mile, one stop light, if I choose to take the stoplight route.  I just like it.

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