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Year in review: Port Richey’s mayoral saga threatened city’s extinction

The mayor was arrested, as was his successor, and a legislator called for disbanding Port Richey.
 
Ex-Port Richey mayor Dale Massad smiles as he is escorted from court after a March 14 court hearing at the West Pasco Judicial Center in New Port Richey. TAILYR IRVINE   |   Times
Ex-Port Richey mayor Dale Massad smiles as he is escorted from court after a March 14 court hearing at the West Pasco Judicial Center in New Port Richey. TAILYR IRVINE | Times
Published Dec. 28, 2019

PORT RICHEY — Police officers went to the same Hayward Lane address more than 50 times over the three years Dale Massad served as mayor of this west Pasco city. But it was their final visit to the mayor’s home on Feb. 21 that thrust the city into the national spotlight after authorities accused Massad of shooting at SWAT deputies raiding his house.

The fallout was immediate. Massad, while sitting in jail, resigned after Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended him from office.

And the fallout was prolonged. The city tussled with a legislative attempt to disband Port Richey in October. And less than a month later, city officials accused Massad’s political friend — Pasco County Commissioner Jack Mariano — of sabotaging federal funding for a planned dredging project. Mariano denied a vendetta and said the city could dredge more channels if it followed his advice.

In the interim, the bizarre, but very real events around city hall could have been pulled from the writings of Elmore Leonard or Carl Hiaasen. To wit, Massad’s immediate successor, Terrence Rowe, also was arrested after a jailhouse phone call from Massad led police to charge both with obstruction of justice and conspiring to tamper with a witness, a Port Richey police officer.

A jury convicted Massad of those charges and Rowe is scheduled to face jurors in February. Massad, a former physician who surrendered his license in the 1990s, also is scheduled to go to trial in 2020 on charges of attempted murder of the law officers and practicing medicine without a license — the accusation that started a state investigation in 2018 and let to the raid at Massad’s house.

The release of Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigative documents took the public inside Massad’s sordid world. They included accounts of nightly crack smoking and regular use of crystal methamphetamine that the mayor called "jet fuel,'' witnesses told investigators. One man said Massad traded him the hormone testosterone for illegal drugs. Witnesses also said they watched the then-mayor suture injuries and perform other medical procedures in his kitchen.

Despite the unsavory portrayal of Massad, it was Rowe’s arrest that triggered the long-term political implications for the city. Rowe’s suspension by DeSantis left the three-member council unable to fill a vacancy and brought a call from state Rep. Amber Mariano, the commissioner’s daughter, to dissolve the city.

She also asked for a state investigation of what she suspected were financial irregularities in Port Richey, even though she told investigators she couldn’t remember the city manager’s name and she provided unsubstantiated numbers on city debt from a utility bond issue. City Manager Vince Lupo’s denials included his own assertion that Rep. Mariano should be charged with filing a false police report. The state isn’t pursuing either criminal claim.

Meanwhile, voters took stock of the past administration and in June picked attorney and former prosecutor Scott Temblay as mayor. The crowded field included Council member Richard Bloom, a Massad ally. Three months later, in another special election, voters tabbed John Maklary and retired sheriff’s sergeant Tom Kinsella as council members.

But the civic optimism of a full, working council evaporated quickly when Rep. Mariano went public at the end of September with her push to revoke the city’s charter. The idea was similar to her father’s earlier suggestion from the commission dais for Pasco County to take over the municipality.

The city portrayed it as a heavy-handed attempt by Tallahassee to diminish local control, while Rep. Mariano touted the cost savings to city taxpayers who would be relieved of paying for municipal services. But by the Oct. 11 legislative delegation meeting, Mariano retreated and said her bill would require a local referendum on the city’s future. She couldn’t convince her colleagues, however, and agreed to table the proposed bill and wait for a legislative audit on Port Richey’s finances.

On Dec. 12, the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee voted unanimously to order the Auditor General’s Office to do an operational audit of the city.

In asking for the audit, Rep. Mariano put her focus on the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency spending that is supposed to fight blight.

"City leadership has demonstrated hostility and shown itself incapable of producing an evaluation of their own activities that the public can trust,'' Mariano said.

But Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, a member of the Pasco delegation and the auditing committee, recalled for his colleagues the strong showing from the Port Richey citizenry to keep the city intact and the support from Mayor Tremblay for the outside financial review.

"They are fully supportive,'' Lee said. "They want to get to the bottom of what past administrations have done. They want to try to do the right thing.''