One-on-one with Mayor Ken Welch: Data center caution, the Moffitt deal rejection and Flock camera surveillance

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Managing a $1.2 billion operating budget while navigating post-hurricane recovery, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch is defending his record ahead of a runoff election against former Governor Charlie Crist. In a one-on-one interview with Fox 13 Political Editor Craig Patrick, Welch addressed key decisions from his tenure—from his rejection of the Moffitt Cancer Center proposal to conceding the city could have done better turning around home repair permits after recent hurricanes.

Data Centers and the $1.2 Billion Budget

Loudoun County, Virginia, generates $1.2 billion in annual tax revenue from data centers—roughly matching St. Petersburg's entire operating budget. Asked whether St. Petersburg should court AI data centers for additional tax revenue, Welch urged restraint, noting that current city and Pinellas County codes prohibit data centers.

Welch pointed to energy consumption and water usage as significant feasibility concerns that require thorough study.

"Feasibility is going to be a tough haul given what we've heard about energy consumption and water use," Welch said. "There are a lot of important questions that need to be answered before we rush into saying we're a data center-welcoming community."

Public Safety, Surveillance, and Flock Cameras

Under a $730,000 contract, St. Petersburg operates 50 Flock Safety license plate readers. When pressed on whether he would suspend the program pending a review of mass surveillance concerns, Welch declined to pause the contract, committing instead to a future city council discussion on privacy guardrails.

Welch defended the cameras, citing their use in tracking a suspect's vehicle following the murder of a St. Petersburg city employee. He added that the system captures license plates rather than individual faces and does not grant access to federal agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Rejection of the Moffitt Cancer Center Proposal

Standing by his 2022 decision to scrap the Moffitt Cancer Center development proposal, Welch maintained he would make the same choice today.

Welch said the proposal paired Moffitt's outpatient clinic with private developer TPA Group, which sought a $19 million discount on city-owned land to construct a hotel and residential apartments. Welch stated he could not justify giving a private developer a land discount of that size for commercial development.

Welch added that St. Petersburg secured major cancer care with another provider, pointing to Orlando Health's downtown cancer center. He noted the facility spans two city blocks and delivers full surgical oncology care.

Tangerine Plaza and Food Access

Addressing the ongoing saga of city-owned Tangerine Plaza, which has sat without an anchor grocery tenant since Walmart departed in 2017, Welch acknowledged the historic difficulties of sustaining a full-size supermarket at the site. The current developer, Sugar Hill Group, faces a January 2027 deadline to secure financing for a mixed-use plan that includes more than 100 units of affordable housing.

While the current plan still includes a grocery store, Welch indicated a willingness to pivot if the traditional model continues to struggle, pointing to alternative food access initiatives like neighborhood kiosks, co-ops, and the St. Pete Free Clinic.

"Having grown up here, I've lived through all of the grocery store attempts there, and it has failed under Walmart, under Sweetbay," Welch said. "That can't be our only answer to the food desert issue. And it's not our only approach to doing that."

When asked about exploring New York’s "Mamdani model" on city-owned land, Welch noted that both his administration and the City Council have already researched public grocery store concepts and found little evidence of success.

"We've looked at that, City Council has looked at that," Welch said. "City-owned grocery stores have not been successful, and we work with council looking at models where it has worked and it really hasn't."

Economic Development and Corporate Relocations

When pressed on major employer shifts—such as Jabil expanding manufacturing in North Carolina and job cuts at the Home Shopping Network (Qurate)—Welch defended the city’s economic retention strategy while drawing clear boundaries around targeted industries.

Regarding Jabil’s expansion outside Florida, Welch pointed out that the company retains its corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg, but noted the North Carolina facility was built specifically to manufacture data center infrastructure—a sector he remains cautious about courting locally.

"They've got a beautiful facility here, which is their headquarters," Welch said. "And what they brought to North Carolina was a center that helps build data centers. It's the robot that builds the robot. And so I'm not sure, again, with our whole data center conversation, that that's something we would have aggressively gone after."

Welch maintained that the city’s Economic Development Department, Chamber of Commerce, and Economic Development Corporation maintain ongoing contact with major employers. Asked whether a specific city incentive package had been put together to retain Home Shopping Network jobs, Welch acknowledged he would need to check the records.

Historic Gas Plant District and Inclusive Progress

Framing his overall administrative goal around the concept of "inclusive progress," Welch pointed to the redevelopment of the Historic Gas Plant District as the primary model for his vision.

"My grand vision is spelled out in a simple term called inclusive progress. That as we move forward, as we develop as a city, that everyone has an opportunity to move forward," Welch said. "When I came in, that was called the Tropicana Field Redevelopment. As you know, I renamed that to what it originally was, which was the historic gas plant district... going back to the promises that were made to that community when I was a boy in high school."

Addressing the 86-acre site’s future, Welch defended the city's direction under the selected developer bid, "I'm excited that after forty years of just pure asphalt, that we now have a chance to move forward," he said. 

Mahaffey Theater Management

When asked why the Mahaffey Theater hasn't performed at the level of other regional venues, Welch cited location, competing venues, and management, while crediting the late Bill Edwards for bringing "real energy and life" to the facility. Welch added that the city budget accounts for capital improvements over the next two to three years.

"Location is part of it. I think competing venues is part of it. Management is part of it," Welch said. "We are now working on some capital improvements that need to be made over the next two or three years. That's in our budget... but I think we're in a very competitive area in Tampa Bay."

When asked why the city wouldn't open an international bid for a top-tier theater operator, Welch explained that the city is currently managing the venue in-house after Edwards declined an extension and ended the agreement. He noted the city is actively speaking with other groups, including the Florida Orchestra, to navigate the transition.

Hurricane Recovery and Permitting Bottlenecks

Addressing complaints regarding long wait times for home repair permits following the 2024 hurricanes, Welch acknowledged that the city "could have done better," but pointed to the sheer scale of destruction and a regional shortage of qualified examiners.

"The impact of 15,000 damaged structures can't be ignored," Welch said, noting that the state helped by bringing in six additional examiners to support city staff. "All those things combined caused those delays, and every jurisdiction had those kinds of delays."

Welch also attributed permitting delays to the city's outdated technological infrastructure, specifically a 30-year-old mainframe system supporting permitting and water billing. He noted that a $9 million software upgrade is underway.

Opposing Amendment 3 and Potential Fire Fees

Welch voiced strong opposition to Amendment 3, a proposed property tax cut, warning that its passage would create an immediate revenue shortfall of $35 million for St. Petersburg in its first year and over $50 million in its second year.

Because property tax revenue currently fails to cover the entire cost of the city's police and fire operations, Welch cautioned that absorbing such a massive cut would force difficult trade-offs between public safety and discretionary community programs.

"All of those dollars go to police and fire. If you're gonna cut that by $35 million, then you're going to cut potentially police and fire," Welch said. He noted that other community priorities could also be on the chopping block: "Arts funding, complete streets, housing, homeless programs, mental health, all those things that are discretionary that the community comes and asks us to fund in our budget meetings are subject to be cut."

When asked what he would strike first, Welch stated that "life and safety comes first," but confirmed the city is evaluating alternative revenue sources to buffer the loss, including a dedicated municipal fire fee.

"A fire fee, for example, is something that we are looking at as well as many other cities to try to buffer some of that impact," Welch said, noting that EMS funding tied to county property taxes would also take a hit.

While stating he supports property tax relief in principle—pointing out that he reduced local property taxes during his first three years in office—Welch called Amendment 3 "a very poorly put together piece of legislation."

The $600 Million Stormwater Resilience Bond

To accelerate long-overdue infrastructure upgrades, Welch urged residents to support a $600 million general obligation bond referendum aimed at hardening the city’s stormwater, wastewater and drinking water systems against severe weather.

Pushing back against concerns that transient residents might not live in St. Petersburg long enough to see the bond's long-term returns, Welch pointed out that voters are already benefiting from recent surge mitigation efforts.

"You're seeing benefits right now. I mean, we had to shut down two of the three sewer plants during 2024 because we'd never faced seven feet of storm surge ever in our history," Welch said. "We have now hardened the Northeast plant, we think, to be able to handle 15 feet…We need to do that at our other two plants. So, no matter what neighborhood you live in, having those three plants hardened is gonna benefit the entire city."