After a sometimes tense meeting that included a standoff between Mayor Ken Welch and council member Brandi Gabbard, the St. Petersburg City Council delayed a vote Thursday to approve LGBTQ+ and Black history variations of the city flag for two weeks.
The decision followed a week's worth of controversy that came in response to the state's move to erase five city street murals that honored those issues.
If the vote had passed, it would mean the flags would be flown at certain times of the year. The Harmony and History flags would put the city’s seal over the LGBTQ+ pride colors and Black history colors, respectively.
Creation of the flags
District 6 council member Gina Driscoll proposed the idea, saying she was inspired after seeing five of the city’s street murals painted over by the state.
“The flag of a city is a representation of its values. It really speaks to our identity,” she said. “It is seen as something that brings us together and gives everyone a sense of belonging.”
Driscoll said she worked “quickly and quietly” on the flags, even using her money to commission the art. She also said she didn't add the proposal to the meeting's agenda until a week ago over concerns over the state's response to the flags.
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“There are levels of the government where they have a tendency to squash certain things in the dead of night and squash things as a work in progress,” Driscoll said. “But the administration wanted to take a different approach, and was not able to move quickly. So, I knew that I was going to be on my own with this, without any city resources.”
The flag art was created by Andrea Pawliz, a St. Petersburg artist. Pawliz said during a public comment portion of the meeting that she designed and led a team to paint the rainbow intersection on Central Avenue and 25th Street. The intersection has since been painted over after a state initiative to remove politically charged ideologies from street art.
“It was important to me to design these flags when the intersection was censored and erased,” Pawliz said during the public comment portion of the meeting. “Our city is changing as our country changes, and if we truly want to be called 'the City of the Arts,' we need to support artists. We need to provide foundation for individual artists, not censorship. Art has power. Artists are documentarians. Art is a great communicator of culture and value.”
The state also painted over a Black History Matters street mural in front of the Woodson African American Museum of Florida.
Public Comment
During the public comment portion of the meeting, four people, excluding Pawliz, spoke in favor of adopting the flags while one person spoke against it. Many supporting the initiative said that the flags represented unity and belonging.
One of the people that spoke in favor was Kyandra Darling, a fourth-generation St. Petersburg native.
“Those murals were not just art, they were reflections of our values, a message that everyone who lives, works and plays in St Petersburg is seen, valued and welcomed,” Darling said.
Holly Noah has been living in the city for over 25 years. She spoke against the adoption of flags, arguing they excluded other sections of the community.
“I just feel like the terms harmony and history are not inclusive of everybody,” Noah said. “And in fact, I love our flag with just the St Petersburg seal…let's look at actual terminology and consider, really, whether or not it is inclusive, unifying, etc.”
Tension in the city council
The discussion on the flags went over an hour.
Council members spoke both in support and against the flags, with District 3 member Mike Harting saying he would vote against the proposal.
“That flag, like this body and the mayor's office, represent the 280,000 people who are citizens of St Petersburg,” Harting said. “And we're a diverse group. We're as diverse as the rest of the country. And in this city, you'll find all religions, you'll find all races, you'll find veterans, you'll find wounded veterans, you'll find folks in wheelchairs, and we represent them all equally.”
ALSO READ: State officials will remove St. Petersburg's street murals
District 2 member Brandi Gabbard indicated she would need to leave the session early for a personal meeting — but she stayed long enough to express her frustration with what she called the lack of communication over the issue.
“I don't want to sit here any longer and continue to feel like we're pitting one council member against administration, pitting the administration against all of council, and pitting our community against each other,” Gabbard said.
She said she felt the council was working against members who weren't in favor of the resolution.
Gabbard singled out Driscoll for not bringing up the topic with her colleagues in previous meetings before calling out Welch.
“This is a request of him, and he obviously is running in his own direction on this issue. So, what's going to happen if this passes?” Gabbard said.
Enter the mayor
Gabbard was in the middle of speaking when she abruptly stopped.
“Oh, Mayor, hello,” Gabbard said.
In a somewhat unusual move, Welch entered the meeting after hearing Gabbard speak about him. He walked up to the podium to defend himself.
“Since you made some accusations, I just want to set the record,” Welch said. “... I'm going to push back when you say I'm running with a plan. The only plan was to listen to the community, listen to the ideas, listen to council when that meeting happened and find the most sustainable way forward.”
Gabbard pushed back, saying that no real conversation or information was shared about the new flags at a previous meeting.
“The memo was released the day before that meeting,” she replied. “And there was no real conversation at that meeting. And I don't want to argue with you.”
The mayor ended the conservation by saying that if Gabbard wanted to speak with him, she could have easily done so.
“We've talked many times,” Welch said. “If you want to talk about this, give me a call and we'll do that. But the theatrics up here, I'm not going to deal with it, OK, you're setting up division.”
After a bit more back and forth, Welch left the meeting. Gabbard followed a short time later for her appointment.
A vote to postpone
Driscoll then pulled her proposal from Thursday's agenda, instead moving to discuss it at an Oct. 23 meeting after seeking more comments from the public and information from city attorneys and others about possible state retaliation.
“I share (the) concerns with repercussions,” member Corey Givens Jr. said. “But it's as (City Attorney Brett) Pettigrew (said), they can do it with just about anything. This is big brother micromanaging a little brother. So it's either we flex our muscles and we use our voices and we wait until they tell us no, or we'll sit here and wallow in our pity and wish that we did something.”
Driscoll and Givens were joined by Deborah Figgs-Sanders, Richie Floyd, Copley Gerdes, and Lisset Hanewicz in voting to move the resolution back.
Harting was the only no vote, while Gabbard was marked absent.
The Associated Press reports a spokeswoman for Gov. Ron DeSantis' office said Thursday the flags are unnecessary.
“We already have a flag that represents everyone,” Molly Best said in an email.
While she did not specify to the AP whether that was the state or U.S. flag, the governor's office specifically said it was the state flag in a similar email exchange with Spectrum Bay News 9 this week.
Best did not say if DeSantis would challenge the St. Petersburg flags.
