The City of St. Petersburg started out the New Year with a historic swearing in ceremony. District 5 City Councilman Steve Kornell was sworn into office as the city’s first openly gay elected official. Kornell defeated Angela Rouson in the November election for the seat.
Kornell told voters he was gay toward the beginning of his campaign, when a reporter asked him during a debate. Kornell told the audience he was gay, and then took the next question.
“I think the citizens would rightfully get angry with me for talking about [being the city’s first openly gay politician] before I even take office,” Kornell told Watermark. “I’m truly focused on getting in there and doing the best job I can do and make the citizens of the city proud that they elected me to the position.”
While Kornell recognizes the historic significance of his swearing in, he says there are many other issues to focus on instead of his orientation.
“I’m thinking about how I’m going to get in there and figure out the budget and the best way to save money so we don’t have to lay people off,” Kornell said. “That sounds like a line a political consultant would tell me to say, but it’s true.”
Throughout his nearly two-year campaign, Kornell focused on economic diversity, high tech jobs, fighting crime and his long-time involvement with the city’s Parks and Recreation department.
“Children’s issues are very important to me,” Kornell said. “I’ve worked across the board to make sure we’re taking advantage of every resource out there to help us and to make sure all children are successful, including using the education we have in place in our city already. I want to make sure we take the resources we have and use them to leverage other dollars, grants and large corporations. The more resources we bring in and use to serve our children and families, the better city we can have.”
Kornell was sworn in along with new mayor Bill Foster and returning council members Jeff Danner, Jim Kennedy and Leslie Curran on Jan. 2.
Foster, who has said he would not sign a proclamation honoring St. Pete Pride, was often criticized for inserting religious rhetoric into secular debates during his campaign.
As a council member from 1998 to 2008, Foster opposed allowing alcohol sales to start at 11 a.m. Sundays and asked city attorneys to research a ban on all-night dance parties called raves. After he had left office, Foster wrote a letter to the Pinellas County School Board regarding the teaching of evolution. It said, in part, that Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution helped Adolf Hitler rise to power in Nazi Germany.
Foster insisted his religious beliefs haven’t and won’t overlap with his governing.
As a candidate, he promised to continue many of Baker’s successful policies, relentlessly pursue crime and streamline City Hall.
During his swearing in, Foster’s wife Wendy was at his side. Kornell’s mother stood by his side as he took the oath of office.
Kornell’s aunt and brother, Gabe, were also in attendance.
With a New Year looming ahead, Kornell, the rest of the city council and the city’s new mayor have several issues to address in the immediate future. The struggling business district of downtown, high crime rates and a growing homeless population have been issues most talked about in the news.
Kornell wants the council to meet with resource providers as soon as possible to see what impact government can have on the pressing problems.
“I want us to make the biggest impact we can with the limited money we have,” Kornell said. “I recognize the budget crunch, but it’s an opportunity. When things are really good you don’t always have that incentive. You always have to be the most efficient or effective.
“You can get by on a little bit when you have plenty of money to spend, but when you don’t have that money it forces you to re-evaluate things and do things in a much better way. This is an opportunity to reinvent government and its role in the community.”
