• We have a unique opportunity in 2026. The city's 30 year agreement with Duke Energy expires. Richie will fight to ensure we do not renew the agreement, and instead move towards the creation of a public power utility. This model is common across our country and on average provides lower bills, and less outage time than corporate owned utilities. With local control of our energy grid, we can make community based decisions about upgrades, and finally move towards renewable energy!

• Our stormwater system has been exposed over the last few years, with many homes flooding from an inability to quickly drain rain water during climate change fueled storms (including Richie's home). It's hard to believe, but right now our property tax dollars are not spent on our utility infrastructure. Richie will push to use tax dollars to fund large scale stormwater projects instead of only using utility rates by creating a fund that captures tax dollars from new development, issuing general obligation bonds, and more. He will also fight to update our stormwater regulations to ensure new development is not contributing to the problem.

• Richie will fight to rapidly upgrade every water meter in the city to digital meters so that residents can have a meter that they trust, with real time data updates.

• Richie will fight to continue to make improvements to our wastewater system, particularly by protecting our facilities from storm surge.

• Richie will push to raise impact fees in every place legally allowed so that developers pay their fair share.

• Richie will push to invest more in our permitting department so that residents and businesses can get back on their feet faster.

Is $2800 in rent per month for a two bedroom apartment affordable? Because that's what developers who create so called "workforce housing" are currently allowed to charge. We need to end this absurdity and institute an affordable housing program that makes sense for working people in our city.

• Richie will fight for housing to be treated as a public good, not just a profit generator for large developers. He will push to invest in the creation and purchase of mixed income, city owned, social housing. This model creates vibrant integrated communities and is used across the world to create the most stable housing markets, and is crucial to lowering the rate of homelessness.

• Richie will push to continue our efforts to expand housing options like garden apartments (accessory dwelling units or ADUs) and other small scale multifamily housing throughout the city, and he will fight to continue to make it easier for more people to live a cheaper, car free lifestyle should they choose.

• Richie will fight to protect renters in the city by:

  • • Pushing to expand legal assistance to tenants during evictions.

    • Pushing to get the city staff to actively enforce our short term rental ordinance to protect our neighborhoods

    • Ensuring tenants with bad landlords are supported and their homes are maintained

The Federal and State governments are out of control. They are blatantly corrupt and pushing a hateful ideology upon our city. Richie will stand up for our city's values every chance he gets, and work to keep St. Pete a place that welcomes everyone.

• Richie will look for all legal avenues to end collaboration with ICE, beginning with the 287(g) policy. ICE is breaking the law and eroding the freedoms that America was founded on.

• Richie will push to ensure all communities have visual representation following the attacks on our murals because he believes our students, neighborhoods, African-American, LGBTQ residents, and EVERYONE deserve to be represented in this city.

• Richie will continue to push for unity against division and show people that it's not your neighbor who threatens your well being, it's the extremely wealthy and their constant search for profits. Richie believes all people want the same thing, a safe and dignified existence. He will focus on human needs and not private profits, so that we can build a city for all.

• Richie will fight to end the practice of providing large subsidies to corporations that seek to move here, or threaten to move away. He believes this money is much better spent on improving our quality of life and supporting our local businesses.

• The overwhelming majority of jobs in our city are provided by our small and local businesses. Richie will fight to support these businesses and connect them to our residents by using our economic development budget to expand events like Halloween on Central and other street fairs.

• Richie will fight to ensure that our city jobs set the standard for employment in the city, and that all city employees receive great pay and benefits. He will work to expand internship and entryway opportunities so that we can give everyone a chance at quality employment.

• With the creation of the Community Assistance and Life Liaison (CALL) Program St. Pete has been a leader in providing the appropriate response when our residents call for help. The CALL program sends mental health professionals to nonviolent calls to provide assistance to residents in need. It has been widely celebrated and handled thousands of cases without incident. Richie will fight for continuing this program and expand its reach to include aide to homeless residents, and more, as well as continuing to invest in youth services and out reach that can reduce crime before Police intervention.

• St. Pete Fire Rescue department does incredible work everyday for our residents for all of our emergency needs, but very often patients are transported to the hospital using ambulances run by a private operator. This private operator has a history of failing to meet appropriate response times and acceptable staffing levels. Richie will fight to ensure that every resident of the city receives the fastest and best possible emergency care by having St. Pete Fire Rescue handle all responses and patient transportation.

• Our region has a pedestrian safety problem on our roads. Richie will fight to make our streets safer by increasing funding for the City's Complete Streets Plan and he will push for projects to be completed on an accelerated schedule.

• Richie serves on our county's award winning transit agency, and will push to make our transit system truly work for everyone. He will fight to enhance public transit by:

  • • Working to increase the frequency of our most popular transit routes

    • Fighting for more fare free bus routes

    • Pushing to combine our Downtown and Central Ave routes to make it easier to access our businesses and attractions