St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Maria Scruggs on affordability, 'economic clusters' and more
By Meleah Lyden, Matthew Peddie
May 5, 2026 at 5:00 AM EDT
On "Florida Matters Live & Local," Maria Scruggs described wanting to form a livable wage task force, the importance of collaboration and other topics.
After over 40 years in nonprofit leadership and public service, St. Petersburg native Maria Scruggs is running to be the city's mayor.
She got on the ballot by petition — not by paying a filing fee. Scruggs said her campaign is focused on community, access and affordability.
The election is on Aug. 18, but if no candidate wins a majority, there will be a runoff on Nov. 3.
Scruggs is facing off against incumbent Mayor Ken Welch, former governor and congressman Charlie Crist, St. Petersburg city councilmember Brandi Gabbard, former Shore Acres Association president Kevin Batdorf, former St. Petersburg fire chief Jim Large and previous mayoral candidate Paul Congemi.
On "Florida Matters Live & Local," Scruggs touched on several topics, including how she wants to form a livable wage task force, the importance of collaboration, and creating "economic clusters."
"One of the things I think we have seriously lacked in St. Petersburg is the use of our talent — our assets, our people."
The interview below is edited for clarity and brevity.
You're promising a brighter future for every neighborhood in St. Pete. What does that look like? What does your city need right now?
St. Petersburg is in an affordability crisis.
One of the primary reasons I decided to run against Mayor Welch was because the focus had become very clear about developers, and there was no discussion about the people.
Things were consistently getting out of reach for everyday working people.
ALSO READ: St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Brandi Gabbard on affordability, Gas Plant District and more
Everyday working people were being priced out of St. Petersburg. And there was nothing being discussed about ... you know, what?
There's certain factors of cost that we can't control but how do we get more money into the hands of the people? Nobody's talking about that.
How would you start?
The place I would start is one of the powers that the mayor has is the power of convening.
And one of the first things within the first 10 days is forming a livable wage task force.
And the idea of that task force is to convene stakeholders, primarily from the private sector, public sector and institutions to talk about how we create or can come to a consensus on a livable wage.
And then, if we can do that, can we figure out how government can support that?
Do you have some ideas about how you think government should be supporting that?
I have ideas, but one of the ways in which I manage is through collaboration.
One of the things I want to do is put it out there with the various stakeholders to say, first of all, conceptually, can this work?
And then, if it can work, what are the specifics? I'm not a business owner — I'm not a major corporation owner, but having those stakeholders to the table to figure out the specifics of how it works, the goal is to be able to come to consensus on a higher wage for people that live in St. Pete.
St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Maria Scrggs appears on "Florida Matters Live & Local on April 29, 2026. (4032x3024, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
But if you were the mayor of St. Petersburg, that's a fairly powerful position, right? You would have some influence on this. What would you do as mayor?
As the mayor, I believe it would be political suicide to try to form any kind of livable wage, tax or livable wage solely on the power of the mayor.
That is something that you certainly want to have consensus on from other stakeholders to agree that's something we can do. And then look at what are the resources in which we could actually support that concept.
ALSO READ: St. Petersburg mayor on his focus to fulfill a promise to the Historic Gas Plant District and more
One of the other issues is business owners. St. Petersburg is built out. We won't be bringing in major corporations, but what we do have is a plethora of small businesses in various industries, in healthcare, beauty, the arts.
We claim that we're [an] arts community.
You don't think St. Petersburg is an arts community?
No. From the artists that I'm talking to, many of the issues that they face is they can't afford to live there.
While I believe that we have made great strides over the years to bring our arts community to a higher profile, I think there's a lot more we can do as it relates to allowing artists or creating an environment that support artists to the point that they can actually afford to live in St. Petersburg.
ALSO READ: Charlie Crist officially files to run for St. Petersburg mayor
The concept that I'm exploring with various industry leaders and really actually going live with it are called economic clusters.
It's a concept where you look at how you build support around certain industries.
About two weeks ago, I did a live segment with representatives from the beauty industry. I presented the concept of an economic cluster. Talked about what the ultimate goal is: How do we increase their revenue?
Is it like a business park?
It's a business support hub. But not with formal borders, because for it to work across the city, you could have cluster districts.
For example, one of the districts I see possibly building is on 16th Street, south in South St. Petersburg.
"I don't believe when an individual is elected as mayor, they all of sudden become the king and queen of knowing everything."
But in order to expand these clusters across the city, it doesn't necessarily have to be physical boundaries. It's about bringing these businesses together and then developing the strategies on how can we continue to support you?
For example, the city of St. Petersburg has an awesome marketing department. That's one of the major issues that small businesses struggle with is being able to brand themselves.
How can we utilize city services in order to support a cluster of that. How can we use city support to help purchase bulk in certain industries?
When we talk about small businesses, one of the major issues is the cost of things going up. Well, we can create a collective purchasing power that would reduce your cost as an individual business owner, and then we know that if we're reducing their costs, we're actually increasing their revenue.
The business owners are the individuals who are actually forming the ideas on how their cluster would work.
Then the city, through its various funding sources, would say, based on what these business owners are saying they need, how can we support you through small grants? How can we support you through the South St. Petersburg CRA? How can we support you through small business loans?
The ones whose driving how these clusters work are the actual businesses themselves.
One of the things I think we have seriously lacked in St. Petersburg is the use of our talent — our assets, our people.
I don't believe when an individual is elected as mayor, they all of sudden become the king and queen of knowing everything.
You can listen to the full interview in the media player above. This story was compiled from an interview by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
https://www.youtube.com/live/-65XCCT4wP0?si=TgC4pOWve0gTPPfH
She got on the ballot by petition — not by paying a filing fee. Scruggs said her campaign is focused on community, access and affordability.
The election is on Aug. 18, but if no candidate wins a majority, there will be a runoff on Nov. 3.
Scruggs is facing off against incumbent Mayor Ken Welch, former governor and congressman Charlie Crist, St. Petersburg city councilmember Brandi Gabbard, former Shore Acres Association president Kevin Batdorf, former St. Petersburg fire chief Jim Large and previous mayoral candidate Paul Congemi.
On "Florida Matters Live & Local," Scruggs touched on several topics, including how she wants to form a livable wage task force, the importance of collaboration, and creating "economic clusters."
"One of the things I think we have seriously lacked in St. Petersburg is the use of our talent — our assets, our people."
The interview below is edited for clarity and brevity.
You're promising a brighter future for every neighborhood in St. Pete. What does that look like? What does your city need right now?
St. Petersburg is in an affordability crisis.
One of the primary reasons I decided to run against Mayor Welch was because the focus had become very clear about developers, and there was no discussion about the people.
Things were consistently getting out of reach for everyday working people.
ALSO READ: St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Brandi Gabbard on affordability, Gas Plant District and more
Everyday working people were being priced out of St. Petersburg. And there was nothing being discussed about ... you know, what?
There's certain factors of cost that we can't control but how do we get more money into the hands of the people? Nobody's talking about that.
How would you start?
The place I would start is one of the powers that the mayor has is the power of convening.
And one of the first things within the first 10 days is forming a livable wage task force.
And the idea of that task force is to convene stakeholders, primarily from the private sector, public sector and institutions to talk about how we create or can come to a consensus on a livable wage.
And then, if we can do that, can we figure out how government can support that?
Do you have some ideas about how you think government should be supporting that?
I have ideas, but one of the ways in which I manage is through collaboration.
One of the things I want to do is put it out there with the various stakeholders to say, first of all, conceptually, can this work?
And then, if it can work, what are the specifics? I'm not a business owner — I'm not a major corporation owner, but having those stakeholders to the table to figure out the specifics of how it works, the goal is to be able to come to consensus on a higher wage for people that live in St. Pete.
St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Maria Scrggs appears on "Florida Matters Live & Local on April 29, 2026. (4032x3024, AR: 1.3333333333333333)
But if you were the mayor of St. Petersburg, that's a fairly powerful position, right? You would have some influence on this. What would you do as mayor?
As the mayor, I believe it would be political suicide to try to form any kind of livable wage, tax or livable wage solely on the power of the mayor.
That is something that you certainly want to have consensus on from other stakeholders to agree that's something we can do. And then look at what are the resources in which we could actually support that concept.
ALSO READ: St. Petersburg mayor on his focus to fulfill a promise to the Historic Gas Plant District and more
One of the other issues is business owners. St. Petersburg is built out. We won't be bringing in major corporations, but what we do have is a plethora of small businesses in various industries, in healthcare, beauty, the arts.
We claim that we're [an] arts community.
You don't think St. Petersburg is an arts community?
No. From the artists that I'm talking to, many of the issues that they face is they can't afford to live there.
While I believe that we have made great strides over the years to bring our arts community to a higher profile, I think there's a lot more we can do as it relates to allowing artists or creating an environment that support artists to the point that they can actually afford to live in St. Petersburg.
ALSO READ: Charlie Crist officially files to run for St. Petersburg mayor
The concept that I'm exploring with various industry leaders and really actually going live with it are called economic clusters.
It's a concept where you look at how you build support around certain industries.
About two weeks ago, I did a live segment with representatives from the beauty industry. I presented the concept of an economic cluster. Talked about what the ultimate goal is: How do we increase their revenue?
Is it like a business park?
It's a business support hub. But not with formal borders, because for it to work across the city, you could have cluster districts.
For example, one of the districts I see possibly building is on 16th Street, south in South St. Petersburg.
"I don't believe when an individual is elected as mayor, they all of sudden become the king and queen of knowing everything."
But in order to expand these clusters across the city, it doesn't necessarily have to be physical boundaries. It's about bringing these businesses together and then developing the strategies on how can we continue to support you?
For example, the city of St. Petersburg has an awesome marketing department. That's one of the major issues that small businesses struggle with is being able to brand themselves.
How can we utilize city services in order to support a cluster of that. How can we use city support to help purchase bulk in certain industries?
When we talk about small businesses, one of the major issues is the cost of things going up. Well, we can create a collective purchasing power that would reduce your cost as an individual business owner, and then we know that if we're reducing their costs, we're actually increasing their revenue.
The business owners are the individuals who are actually forming the ideas on how their cluster would work.
Then the city, through its various funding sources, would say, based on what these business owners are saying they need, how can we support you through small grants? How can we support you through the South St. Petersburg CRA? How can we support you through small business loans?
The ones whose driving how these clusters work are the actual businesses themselves.
One of the things I think we have seriously lacked in St. Petersburg is the use of our talent — our assets, our people.
I don't believe when an individual is elected as mayor, they all of sudden become the king and queen of knowing everything.
You can listen to the full interview in the media player above. This story was compiled from an interview by Matthew Peddie for "Florida Matters Live & Local." You can listen to the full episode here.
https://www.youtube.com/live/-65XCCT4wP0?si=TgC4pOWve0gTPPfH