Is there a better way to run this railroad?

After two Tampa City Council members suddenly resigned in June so they could pursue seats on the Hillsborough County Commission, one of the replacement council members already has problems.

On July 19, Curtis Stokes, won a two-minute interview to beat out 38 other candidates for the citywide district seat previously held by Linda Saul-Sena.

Stokes, a former head of the Hillsborough NAACP, was not required to submit a financial disclosure form to the Supervisor of Elections, as he would have been if running for election to the council seat. And apparently none of the council members thought to ask if there were any financial skeletons in Stokes' closet.

Turns out, according to a St. Pete Times “Bay Buzz” story, that Stokes' nine properties near downtown Tampa are in foreclosure proceedings.

Though Coffee Talk doesn't suggest this needs to be a litmus test of candidates for public office — especially with so many in the same boat these days — such a revealed fact might have led to other related lines of questioning.

Now, it's been suggested by one spurned applicant that one way to address the problem is to change the city's election dates so there's time for a special election to fill a resignation.

That seems like a good idea to Coffee Talk, but how about requiring the financial disclosure? There's got to be a better way to run this railroad.

Until any of that happens — and as it happens — one of the first big issues being bandied about by the City Council is whether or not to pursue a high-speed rail station at Tampa International Airport. Mayor Pam Iorio and other officials oppose that idea for logistical reasons if nothing else.

A light rail link to TIA looks like a possibility for a first phase project if a sales tax increase passes in November, though that may upset those who thought the first line would run north to the University of South Florida and beyond. But some council members want a high-speed rail station at the airport as well.

In any event, it's hard to imagine that there won't be some real estate finance issues involved in sorting out all the rail issues, and it would be comforting to know that Stokes is up to the task.