A tense afternoon at Tampa City Council took a sharp turn Thursday when a stadium financing vote for the Tampa Bay Rays was rescued at the last possible second.
What looked like a clean failure at first - a 3-3 deadlock on the bond measure - briefly threw the Rays’ stadium plans into jeopardy. The swing vote was supposed to come from Council member Bill Carlson, but he was absent and appeared to be dealing with illness.
That tie, under council rules, was enough to sink the proposal for the moment. It also kicked off a scramble to keep the project alive before any key deadlines tied to the Rays stadium effort could hit.
Council member Luis Viera immediately called for a special meeting before Nov. 2. Viera plans to resign from the council at 11:59 p.m. on that date as he pursues a seat in the Florida House.
Supporters of the deal then tried to find a time that would work for the seven-member body, but scheduling problems piled up fast.
The no vote that helped force the tie came from Council member Lynn Hurtak, who told supporters they would “have to figure out how to pay for it, not my problem, no,” per Evan Axelbank of Fox 13, who live-tweeted the exchange.
A proposed Oct. 29 special meeting also drew pushback. Hurtak said rules generally call for such votes to happen at the next regular meeting unless a special session is properly called, and she said she would be out of town that day visiting her mother, who was recently injured in a car accident. Per Axelbank, she added that, “we should all be here for it.”
All of this was unfolding while the Rays were in the middle of Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, adding another layer of drama to a stadium saga that has already seen previous St. Petersburg plans collapse over bond votes.
Then came the turnaround.
Carlson joined the meeting via Zoom, the council voted again, and this time the bond measure passed 4-3.
What had been headed toward another public blow to the Rays’ stadium effort was instead undone in real time, before Griffin Jax had finished his starting performance for the Rays in ALCS Game 3.
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