EDITORIAL
Brian Scott found the votes to cut Creative Pinellas. He could not find enough to keep his own job.
Democrat Tim Hughes defeated the Republican incumbent in the Nov. 3 race for Pinellas County Commission District 2. The seat is elected countywide and represents Lealman along with the rest of Pinellas. The result ends Scott’s bid for a second term.
The result does not tell us why each voter rejected Scott. But his record on arts funding and his choice of a zoning-board appointee deserve a place in any assessment of his term.
Start with Creative Pinellas. At an Aug. 28, 2025, work session, Scott proposed withdrawing county support from the designated arts agency. Part of its tourism-tax funding would go instead to a competitive arts-tourism grant program.
“And I don't really see that there's a lot of return on that investment. I really don't,” Scott said, according to WUSF. (Read the funding proposal)
He reduced the agency’s grant work to helping artists “buy easels and cameras and things like that,” according to Bay News 9. (Read Scott’s remarks)
Those tools help artists make the work the county puts in its tourism brochures. Dismissing them does little to explain whether a grant program succeeds.
For Lealman, the agency’s work was close to home. Creative Pinellas’ public accounting listed a $50,000 contract with the Lealman Community Redevelopment Area. The agency’s work included neighborhood murals, exhibitions and support for working artists. (Agency’s funding statement; Lealman mural coverage)
Scott defended the cuts as a way to reduce overhead while continuing arts support through tourism grants. Fox 13 reported that he called local arts “incredibly impactful” while contrasting tourism-related grants with helping artists “pay bills.”
That approach measures artists primarily by what they can deliver for visitors. Residents also have a stake in places where local work is made and shown.
The county’s Sept. 4, 2025, minutes show that the budget amendment carrying the cuts passed 5-2. Scott joined Chris Latvala, Vince Nowicki, Kathleen Peters and Chris Scherer. Dave Eggers and René Flowers opposed it. Eggers urged more discussion; Flowers supported putting Creative Pinellas back into the budget. (Read the meeting minutes, pages 15 and 16)
The effects of the arts cuts outlasted the budget vote. Creative Loafing reported Nov. 5 that Creative Pinellas had shed four staff positions and left its Pinewood Cultural Park gallery. The organization continued operating with fewer employees and less money. (Read the follow-up)
The county’s arts program continues in a different form. This November’s Art Everywhere effort retained $400,000 for programming and $100,000 for administration, shared by Creative Pinellas and the St. Petersburg and Clearwater arts alliances. (Read the November program details)
Scott’s push for government efficiency also paired him with County Administrator Barry Burton. Under the commission’s April 8, 2025, DOGE resolution, Scott was assigned the letter pledging cooperation to Gov. Ron DeSantis; Burton became the contact for the state’s Department of Government Efficiency, coordinating with Scott’s office. Call it the county’s version of BFFs.
Closer to home, Lealman residents have reason to examine the county’s relationship with the Florida Dream Center at 4017 56th Ave. N.
ABC Action News investigated a $1.8 million funding arrangement for the nonprofit’s purchase and renovation of a county-owned former fire station. The reporting examined why there were no competing proposals and the relationship between then-CEO Steve Cleveland and Assistant County Administrator Tom Almonte.
In ABC Action News’ neighborhood investigation, Brittany Pagan, who lived across the street, said she avoided taking her children outside at night. Her security camera recorded a stranger climbing her fence to hide from deputies, according to the report.
Kyle Witkoski, who lived behind the center, said people defecated in his yard and entered his backyard during gatherings. Jeremy Heath said a woman kicked his dog while his wife was walking it. Scott Dilley described stolen packages and litter.
“We just need a peaceful and safe environment and unfortunately, they’re not delivering on that,” Pagan said.
ABC reported 195 sheriff’s deputy and EMS responses to the center over four years. That figure combines police and medical calls. It is not a crime count.
Then-interim CEO Greg Schaeffer told ABC that only a quarter of the center’s food distribution happened at the building. He said staff investigated complaints, found some unfounded and referred others to the sheriff’s office.
For families beside the center, these complaints come down to whether children can use their own yard and whether a fence keeps strangers out. Food assistance does not cancel the county’s responsibility to protect the people living next door. The nonprofit’s supporters should answer the complaints as directly as they praise its programs.
Neil Brickfield, a former county commissioner and former executive director of the sheriff’s PAL program in Lealman, is one of those supporters. In a Lealman Exchange profile, he praised the Dream Center’s Adopt-a-Block program for providing “direct help to residents. Something we never saw before!”
Brickfield also knows what it means to be voted out after one term. Elected in 2008, he became known for his anti-fluoride stance and joined the 4-3 vote on Oct. 11, 2011, to stop adding fluoride to the county’s drinking water. Janet Long defeated him in 2012, ending his only term on the county commission.
“And I will never vote against fluoride again as long as I live,” Brickfield said after losing, according to the Tampa Bay Times’ election report, reproduced by the Fluoride Action Network.
Brickfield also supported Scott’s reelection campaign. Scott’s campaign finance report lists a $100 contribution from Brickfield dated March 5, 2025.
The county can support the Dream Center’s work and still enforce the rules that protect its neighbors. Political support should not change that obligation.
Scott, too, praised the nonprofit’s work. “I understand and recognize all of the great things you guys do in Lealman,” he said, according to the St. Pete Catalyst. He proposed allowing renovations and continued leasing while the county kept the building. (Read Scott’s position at the sale hearing)
Scott and Dave Eggers voted against selling the building on Nov. 14, 2023. The sale passed 5-2. Scott said affordable housing was the property’s best use, according to the county’s minutes. That vote does not settle what happened afterward. (Read the recorded vote, page 5)
That later record includes Deborah J. White, Scott’s appointee to the Board of Adjustment and Appeals. The board decides requests for special uses of property. (County board roster)
On Oct. 1, 2025, White joined the 5-2 vote approving changes to the Dream Center’s permitted use. County staff said the center had expanded its operations beyond its 2018 permission without approval. Staff documented increased traffic, outdoor storage and truck loading, as well as heavy-equipment training that increased the effects on adjacent properties.
Staff recommended denying the request as submitted, while supporting a more restricted alternative. Attorney McAteer said an initial motion would leave a required finding to a later process. The motion was withdrawn.
The revised decision let the center seek waivers for parking, sidewalks and buffering. Those requests still needed approval. It also limited forklift use and training to weekdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Andrew Hunsicker and Robert Warner voted no.
The center’s attorney, Katie Cole, a shareholder at Hill Ward Henderson, disputed staff’s assessment and said the services fit the county’s comprehensive plan. (Read the hearing record, pages 11 through 19.)
The dispute also involved refrigeration units and the county’s enforcement decisions. At the Oct. 1 hearing, Heath alleged that permanently installed refrigeration units lacked proper electrical and plumbing permits and changed the building’s footprint. He accused code enforcement of leaving those issues out despite repeated complaints and called for a full site-plan review. (Read the hearing transcript.)
The county had opened an enforcement case. Its May 12, 2025, special magistrate agenda, case CCM-25-00026, alleged departures from approved site plan 8709W, including shipping containers and accessory structures, along with parking and equipment outside designated areas. The agenda did not specifically address electrical or plumbing permits for the refrigeration units.
At the October hearing, county enforcement officers said the coolers and containers fell within the site-plan case. Officer Hughes said the magistrate had found violations and directed staff to work with the center toward compliance, as staff did with other property owners. That account describes an enforcement process but does not resolve Heath’s separate allegation about installation permits.
The county owes neighbors a written account of the refrigeration units’ permits and inspections. It also owes them a determination of whether installation required a full site review or additional building-code compliance. The expanded-use approval does not answer those concerns in the records cited here.
A nonprofit’s mission cannot substitute for a workable site plan. Residents should not have to wait until operations expand to learn whether the county will enforce protections for their homes.
Neighbors were entitled to insist that limits meant something. The board gave the center a path forward after it had exceeded its permission. Scott’s appointee supported that decision. Her vote was her own, but his choice of a representative belongs in his public record.
Brian Scott's term as our commissioner ends on Monday, November 16th, 2026 at 11:59pm.
Updated Nov 6, 2026