ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — In Pinellas County, a project to bury powerlines along Gulf Boulevard has been in the works since 2012. $70 million has been allocated from Pinellas County's penny tax to put utility lines underground from St. Pete Beach to Clearwater. Each beach municipality manages its stretch of Gulf Boulevard.
In the southernmost cities burying powerlines, a city official says some of the county dollars have been mismanaged.
In the city of St. Pete Beach, taxpayers could be on the hook for $6 million. During last week's budget workshop meeting, the public works director told city officials the project and the money to fund it had been mismanaged by the city's former manager.
In the meeting, the mayor questioned why the public works director needed more money for this project to be completed.
"You can't just throw the number like six million and not explain what it is," Mayor Adrian Petrila said.
"I mean, I'm just curious if we're gonna be spending, you know, 10% of our budget on something. I kind of want to know what it is," the mayor pressed.
It was during the budget workshop meeting that city officials learned that a project that was fully funded by the county was now $6 million short. Public Works Director Mike Clarke pointed the blame at the former City Manager Alex Rey.
"The cost escalated because the city manager decided that he was a better negotiator than I was, and now we're sitting here with two-thirds of a project that was fully funded and doable from the beginning," Clarke said. "It's a very sad tale, but that's pretty much the bottom line. It was an incredible amount of mismanagement in the last couple of years."
However, in a statement from Interim City Manager Wayne Saunders, he says the funds were not mismanaged.
"The comments made by Public Works Director Clarke were regarding changes that were made by the previous administration in the management of the design and construction and how those changes increased the cost by as much as six million dollars. There is no indication of any misappropriation of funds. The project will take longer to complete than originally anticipated while the City looks for ways to fund the final phase," Saunders explained.
The project is funded through the Pinellas County one-cent infrastructure tax, more commonly known as the penny tax.
"So it's a work in progress and each town is working on their own area to try and get their undergrounding done. And they were given money by the county based on their linear footage of Gulf Boulevard," North Redington Beach Mayor Bill Queen explained.
The undergrounding will reduce power outages and make it possible for repairs to be completed quickly.
"Well, that's nice because when we have a hurricane, we'd have to wait for progress energy to come out here and fix the lines. And so underground, that's nice if they can just turn the power right back on," Barbara Nachman, a Redington Shores resident said.
All options are on the table for St. Pete Beach to sort out how it will make up for the $6 million deficit.
During the budget workshop meeting, officials said it'd be better to finish the project than throw away the millions that have already gone into it. One option includes asking the county for more money.
"Is there any more pennies from Pinellas or is it that we can't get any more money from Penny?" the mayor questioned. "I think the city manager alluded to the idea that perhaps we could open up that conversation with the county, given that we have had significant cost."
On the city of St. Pete Beach's website, this project is set to be completed by the middle of 2025.
The county says while it funded this — it didn't give beach cities and towns deadlines to finish their project.
Duke Energy is estimating all work for all of Gulf Blvd undergrounding will be complete in a few years. The company shared the following statement with 10 Tampa Bay.
"We are actively working with Belleair Beach, Indian Rocks Beach, the Redington’s, Madeira Beach, Treasure Island, and St Pete Beach to ensure residents and visitors are informed about the projects. Each project is in different phases and so timelines are difficult to provide at this time (crews have started construction on some projects, while others are still in the design phase). Overall, we expect the undergrounding work to wrap up in the next few years; however, work to improve our system along this route will continue. We do our best to estimate timelines for our projects based on the information we have at the time the project begins. This is always barring any unforeseen circumstances such as weather, or as in this case, traffic coordination and working around other utilities’ infrastructure. We appreciate our customers’ patience as we work to improve service in this area."
Malique Rankin is an Emmy award-winning general assignment reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. You can email her story ideas at mrankin@10tampabay.com and follow her Facebook, X, and Instagram pages.