Candidates make pitch for Belleair Bluffs, Belleair seats

BELLEAIR — Voters in Belleair and Belleair Bluffs will decide four municipal commission seats and five charter amendments Tuesday.

Split evenly among incumbents and political newcomers, the races could bring changes to leadership and potentially influence the future of the tax rate, road projects and development strategies.

In Belleair, town Commissioner Tom Shelly, business owner Patricia Irwin and financial services professional Brad Ackerman will compete for the three-year seats of Shelly and Commissioner Karla Rettstatt.

Ackerman, 43, said he has worked in financial services for 16 years and oversees advisers managing $40 billion in assets as a senior compliance officer for Transamerica Asset Management.

Ackerman moved to town two years ago with his wife and four young children. His "big three" platform planks: continued work on the Belleview Biltmore resort; improvements to roads; and a thinner budget, a task he said would be a perfect fit for his experience.

"The financial background couldn't be more important in a time like this," he said. "I know a thing or two about the value of a dollar and how to squeeze every penny out of it."

Irwin, 52, moved to Belleair when in fifth grade and lives in the Bidwell Park neighborhood. A member of the town's civic association and historical board, she said her education in family and career counseling would help foster a "collaborative and cooperative" attitude.

She said she supports protecting green spaces, is an advocate of animals and the arts and said the "commission has done a good job" in planning the restoration of the resort.

She said her 15 years of experience running a small interior design company would also help her manage the budget and business affairs.

Shelly, 54, has lived in Belleair since 1995 and served on the commission since 2005. A real estate broker and director of the local district of the Florida League of Cities, Shelly is married with two sons and a granddaughter. In 2008, he filed for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy on about $85,000 in business debt.

He pointed to his involvement in the town's lowered budget, updated land use plan and construction of a recreation center as points of pride from his time in office.

If re-elected, he said, he would direct his efforts toward millions of grant dollars for infrastructure and continued development of the Biltmore, which his competitors also support.

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In Belleair Bluffs, Vice Mayor Hunt K. Brand and City Commissioner Joe Barkley will compete with Taylour Shimkus, a business co-owner and mother of two, for a pair of two-year terms.

Barkley, 61, joined the commission in March, filling the seat of Shimkus' husband, Dave Shimkus, when he ran unsuccessfully for mayor. A former U.S. Air Force captain and Rutgers law graduate, he worked in ownership and tax law for more than 30 years before starting a Largo insurance company in 2007.

Barkley said his experience on a League of Cities growth committee would help the city thrive as a "vibrant business community." Like other candidates, he said taxes were one of the race's most important issues, assuring that the city's tax bills went down during his term and would continue their descent.

Brand, 49, served over the last decade as mayor for two years and commissioner for six. He moved to the city in 1997, is married with a son and serves as a technology manager for a company in Tampa.

Appointed last year as vice mayor, he and other commissioners oversaw repair work on the roads, curbs and drainage of Renatta Drive and the planning of similar work on Los Altos Drive and parts of Bluff View Drive. Besides those infrastructure fixes, Brand said the city needs few big changes.

"Things are quiet, which is the way we like it," Brand said.

Brand and Barkley also oversaw the transfer of fire services to Largo last year, with most of the city's firefighters finding employment under the new contract.

Shimkus, 32, was not so confident in the current commissioners, pointing to their vote in September to increase the tax rate in the face of dropping property values.

She also said "a lot of people are very upset" about how the switch in fire services was handled, calling it a sign that the commission was ignoring its constituents.

"They make promises but they don't hold themselves accountable," she said. "It feels like it's just the same old stuff over again."

Shimkus, who runs the On Air Image TV promotion company with her husband, calls herself a "fresh face" in politics and said her husband has had no involvement in her campaign.

"I've been meeting my neighbors who I haven't yet met," she said. Even if the race is unsuccessful, she added, "at least I can say I know my neighbors."

Times researcher Caryn Baird and staff writer Lorri Helfand contributed to this report. Drew Harwell can be reached at dharwell@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4170.