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TAMPA — Mayor Pam Iorio is taking pains to stay out of the race to replace her, but she says a recent comment by former Hillsborough County Commissioner Rose Ferlita concerns her.
With the economy down, Iorio balanced the city's $787 million budget "by being woefully dependent on reserves," Ferlita said at a Jan. 14 candidates forum in Ybor City. "That's not a good, healthy way to do things."
The remark came two days after Ferlita, one of five candidates for mayor in the city's March 1 elections, spent an hour or more in the mayor's office talking about city finances, according to Iorio.
Told of Ferlita's statement, Iorio said it "kind of disturbs me" and "doesn't bode well for an understanding of the issues."
"She just said that after she met with me?" Iorio said. "Well, that was a wasted meeting."
Iorio said she told Ferlita that when she took office, the city's general fund and utility tax fund had a total of about $50.8 million in reserves. That was equal to about 15 percent of its annual expenditures.
Looking at the destruction wrought by the hurricanes of 2004, Iorio decided that wasn't enough. So she spent years building up the city's reserves.
Now she expects the city to end the 2010-11 fiscal year with general reserves of nearly $105.5 million, or a projected 25 percent of expenditures.
Recent spikes in reserves came from the Iorio administration's telling city departments not to spend money they had been allocated, as well as from eliminating positions, consolidating city operations, reviewing contracts and vehicle purchases, and selling obsolete city property on line.
That saved nearly $30 million that the city parked in its reserves and used to balance this year's budget.
"I sat right here and explained all of this to (Ferlita) for an hour and answered her questions, and when she left the office she seemed to understand it," Iorio said. "In fact, at one point she even said to me, 'Well, I've always heard that you've had to use reserves to balance the budget, but it doesn't seem like that's the case.' And I said, 'Right.' "
On Monday, Ferlita said she understands exactly where the money that balanced this year's budget came from and that she applauds Iorio and meant no criticism.
"I got it loud and clear," Ferlita said.
Iorio has been smart and "very creative" about city finances, Ferlita said. Moreover, she said, Iorio will leave City Hall in better shape financially than it was in when Iorio took over in 2003 from previous Mayor Dick Greco, who is running for the office again.
"I believe, given the situation, it would have been better if there was the ability to balance (the budget) with pulling less dollars from reserves," Ferlita said. But Iorio "had no choice.''
As mayor, "I will chose any alternative before looking at reserves or before raising taxes," Ferlita said.
For example, Ferlita said, she would try to boost city revenue by encouraging businesses to move to Tampa. She also floated the idea of offering property tax breaks to the owners of non-historic houses who expand their homes.
That way, the work of contractors and craft workers would grow the economy and city revenue "without taxing or fee increases or using dollars from the reserves," Ferlita said.
Iorio said she is not taking sides but wanted to set the record straight — and will do so again.
"I'm staying out of the mayor's race," she said, "but if people say something wrong about our record, and particularly if they say something wrong about our finances, which I'm extremely proud about … I will definitely speak up."
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