Clearwater mayor election: Attorney Bruce Rector wins mayoral seat

CLEARWATER, Fla. - A year after former Clearwater mayor Frank Hibbard quit abruptly during a city council meeting, the city has a new leader.

Attorney Bruce Rector is the new mayor of Clearwater.

Rector defeated Clearwater City Councilwoman Kathleen Beckman.

One of the biggest issues of the race was the discussion of a new city hall and how much it would cost.

Clearwater has been without a city hall for nearly five years, after outgrowing the old space and dealing with occurrences of asbestos, according to city staff. City council meetings have since been held in the public library, and they have rented out office space downtown. 

Hibbard resigned over the subject last year, saying he had deep differences with how most city council members wanted to spend taxpayer money. He stated that one of the city council’s top priorities was to build a $90M city hall and when it was being discussed during a city workshop last March, he packed up his things and walked out.

"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," he added.

Hibbard threw his support behind Rector. He claimed Beckman called him evil because he was a Republican, which is something she vehemently denied. He 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.

"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.

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

Hibbard also put his choice in writing. He wrote a letter to residents paid for by Rector’s campaign. In the letter, Hibbard wrote 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."

There was more to the election than a new city hall, which is now set to cost $45 million. 

READ: Clearwater shares plans for new $45M city hall with residents

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 the Bay Area. 

"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.

Rector said public safety, low taxes, and road improvements are at the top of his list.

"We need the best fire and police forces that we can possibly have right now for many reasons. With so much going on in the world across the United States, we just need to make sure that our folks here, typically our families and our children, are protected," Rector said.

"Many folks are having a hard time paying their daily living expenses, living paycheck to paycheck. So, we need to be very sensitive to that and how we spend government money," he said.

Both Rector and Beckman said revitalizing downtown Clearwater and the entire city is also important.

"Clearwater has always played a pivotal role in the success of the entire Tampa Bay region economically. So, we need to partner with lots of different agencies and organizations and private companies throughout the region to help us revitalize our entire city," Rector said. "We need to address all this property that they've been purchasing and try to figure out a better balance between non-Scientology businesses and residents and Scientology's presence in our downtown," he said about Scientology’s impact on downtown. 

Rector says his experience in the private sector will help him lead the city. 

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