2 candidates emerge in controversial Clearwater mayoral race after former mayor's abrupt departure

CLEARWATER, Fla. - There’s a familiar name surrounding the Clearwater mayoral race, and he’s not even on the ballot.

Former Mayor Frank Hibbard abruptly quit during a city meeting last March during a discussion over funds for a new city hall. 

READ: Clearwater mayor suddenly resigns during city budget meeting

"I’m concerned where the city is going because this is simple math, and we’re not doing very well on the test," Hibbard said at the meeting.

He disagreed with other city council members’ opinions that a new $90 million city hall, already $60 million in deficit, was a priority. One of them was Council Member Kathleen Beckman.

"We wanted to consider a standalone city hall, and that was one of the options," Beckman said Wednesday. "We considered it, and we ultimately decided to go with a scaled-down version. That's the direction we gave is we would like to see multiple options. I feel very confident in that it was a unanimous decision with the four remaining people after Hibbard quit."

"We do need a city hall. We’ve been without a city hall for, I don’t know, five years or so," Beckman said. "We don’t have a standing building for city hall. We're at the mercy of a landlord to pay rent for our city buildings right now. It's not efficient operations for our city employees. We have had trouble attracting and retaining employees, and that might have been one of the reasons, our city government needs a city hall to operate efficiently and effectively for our residents and to attract the best, qualified, leaders for our city."

READ: Former Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard talks abrupt resignation, his hopes for city’s future

The topic is now proving to be a part of this mayoral race between Council Member Beckman and local attorney Bruce Rector.

Bruce Rector (left) and Kathleen Beckman (right)

"We have to be sensitive to what the people want at all times with our spending," Rector said. "You know, we've got an economy and inflation now that's really hitting Clearwater families hard."

"They care about streets and roads and neighborhoods and those infrastructure things. Primarily fire and police, that we keep the best fire and police and public safety officers, and so on. People are the things that they're more concerned about and roads and structures and less about buildings," Rector said.

READ: Clearwater City council appoint former Mayor Brian Aungst Sr. to be interim mayor

Hibbard said he’s throwing his support behind Rector.

"Having served three terms as mayor - almost three terms - I know some of the qualities that I want to see in who is going to be spending my money and leading the city going forward, and Bruce, to me, was the clear choice," Hibbard said.

FOX 13 spoke with Frank Hibbard just under a year after he abruptly resigned as mayor of Clearwater. 

Hibbard also put his choice in writing. He wrote a letter to residents paid for by Rector’s campaign. In the letter, Hibbard writes that the biggest reason he’s supporting Rector is the city hall issue. 

"[Beckman's] number-one priority for our budget was a $90-million city hall; I resigned over that issue," Hibbard said. "It is a wasteful, short-sighted monument to government. Fortunately, after my resignation, the press that followed informed our residents, and the outcry resulted in scaling the project down by 50 percent."

Hibbard also claims Beckman called him ‘evil because I was a Republican.’

"I had two employees tell me that, and I actually got an email from another one today, that she had said that to her," Hibbard said. "So, I fully stand by those comments. I didn't go 13 years with a spotless reputation by ever lying."

It’s something Beckman denies.

"That was a blatant lie. I did not call anyone evil. I would never categorize a group of individuals based on their political party [as] evil," she said. 

"There are much more important things to focus on. You know, we have a city of 117,000 residents. We have a budget capital improvement operating budget of over a half $1 billion. There are big issues in our city that deserve much more attention," Beckman said.

Beckman said she’s focused on the city’s transparency and strategic plan.

"We've got an amazing city manager and city attorney. We've got a new strategic plan, a new comprehensive plan that we're going to be modifying ordinances in accordance with. We've got great transparency that we're working through with dashboards … We’ve got phenomenal positive momentum and I want to continue to be a part of that," she said.

Rector, who ran for city council a few years ago but lost, said he hopes to bring more businesses to Clearwater to make it an even more competitive spot in Tampa Bay.

"I want to see Clearwater do better, do better for all of us here, and to help Clearwater play a pivotal role in raising the competitive levels of the entire Tampa Bay region," Rector said. "I just want folks to know here in Clearwater that I care, and I will continue to care as mayor about what they're thinking and feeling and how their lives are going here in Clearwater, not just through this campaign, but after I'm elected. I want to stay in touch and close to what the citizens of Clearwater want me to do," he said.

Hibbard also filed a complaint against Beckman with the Florida Commission on Ethics, alleging she used city staff and stationary for campaign purposes. 

Beckman said she paid for her own postage, sending letters to people who she met in the past at meetings and campaigning for her current position, about ways to fix flooding in their area.

"Council Member Beckman did not seem at all remorseful about using an internal secretary with internal letterhead to a very targeted group generated by the Democratic National Committee. That's campaigning, and it's fine to do with campaign dollars, but not city resources," Hibbard said.

"If somebody wants to file an ethics complaint, more power to them," Beckman said. "We can deal with that as it comes down. I'm confident in my record of interacting with residents how I do it and that I don't charge the city for that."

Election Day is March 19.