Signs at retail center lead to candidate complaint

Tampa Bay Business Journal - 4:37 PM EDT Thursdayby Michael Hinman

A complaint has been filed with State Attorney Mark Ober's office against Temple Terrace city councilwoman Linda Shattles after what one of her opponents in the Nov. 7 election said was an outburst she made last week at a local business.

According to the complaint, on Sept. 21 Shattles told employees of Salon One, a tenant of the Sherwood Forest retail center at 10935B N. 56th St., that the retail center had posted the "wrong political signs" in front of the building and that she would organize a "boycott of Salon One and other merchants in the shopping center" unless the center's co-owner, Paul Tomasino, removed the signs.

Shattles, who was elected to a non-partisan council seat in 2002, is up for re-election in a six-way race that includes Mark Knapp, owner of contractor Knapp & Sons Inc., and Ken Tozier, chief executive officer of International Computer Works Inc., candidates who have political signs in front of the Sherwood Forest retail center. Tozier, who also ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2004, said Tomasino posted his sign because they have been friends for 30 years and because Tozier had asked him to.

"Those kind of permissions don't come easily," Tozier said. "It [the outburst] is one thing if you and I did it. We're not sitting council people. But when you're a councilman, you're acting under the color of law. You cannot divorce yourself as a citizen from other public acts. It will always be construed as you acting in your official capacity."

State attorney's office waiting for complaint
After receiving a call from the management of Salon One, Tomasino asked attorney Ann M. Allison to issue a cease and desist letter to Shattles, saying that while she is free in her "personal capacity to boycott peacefully ... you have no such freedom under color of law to engage these same threats of future retaliation and interfere with individual speech rights and voting rights."

Allison, who also represents Tozier, then filed an elections complaint on Tozier's behalf claiming Shattles violated Florida statutes that prohibit elected officials or government employees to use their official authority or influence to interfere with an election or a nomination of office, or coercing or influencing another person's vote or affecting the overall result.

"She is in a position to retaliate against people," Allison said, adding that by her interpretation of election law such a charge, if convicted, is a third-degree felony and requires immediate investigation by a sitting grand jury.

Mark Cox, a spokesman of the state attorney's office in Tampa, said his office had yet to receive the complaint and was not able to comment on it.

Repeated calls to Shattles seeking comment are pending return.

Not everyone looking to complain
Tomasino, who also is a manager of IBI Group, an engineering firm known as Tomasino & Associates before its acquisition in July, said he has known Shattles for 20 years and once had Shattles as a tenant at one of his commercial properties. If she had asked him if her political sign could go up in front, Tomasino said, he would have given her permission to post it.

"If she would've called me, we could've figured out what her problem was," Tomasino said. "I can't do it now because I'd be doing it under threat. I have to protect all my tenants. If she was one to follow through with her threat, she could possibly hurt them. I had to put that before anything else."

Knapp said he had heard about the incident but wasn't interested in pursuing legal action against Shattles.

"I had absolutely no interest in that whatsoever," said Knapp, who previously served as a city councilman until 2002. "To complain about something like that, I'm way too above that."

Knapp said he hadn't spoken to Tomasino about what happened, but he said he understood Tomasino's decision to take action.

"I have no interest in slinging mud at any of the incumbents or people running for office," Knapp said. "I think they're trying to do the best they are going to do, and if I agree with the way they are moving forward, great. If not, I can just run for office."