Want a seat on Tampa's City Council? Applications due Monday

Dust off your resumes, Tampa. The District 7 City Council seat is up for grabs, and Tampa residents have until noon Monday, Nov. 9, to apply for the job without having to run for office. 

After a decade on Tampa’s City Council, Luis Viera resigned from the District 7 seat under Florida’s resign-to-run law the day before voters elected him to represent District 67 in the state House of Representatives. Democrat Viera defeated Republican Lisette Bonano with 66.4% of the vote, according to unofficial state election results. 

Now, the six remaining members of Tampa’s City Council are set to hire a replacement for Viera at a meeting Nov. 17. The District 7 seat represents residents in New Tampa, Forest Hills, Terrace Park and the University area. 

It’s a short stint. The appointee will serve out the rest of Viera’s term, which ends April 30, and Tampa’s voters get the chance to elect a new District 7 representative during the March 2 municipal election. The next four-year term in the seat begins May 1.

To apply, send a signed copy of the city’s online application and a professional resume to [email protected] or deliver them in person to the City Clerk’s Office on the third floor of Old City Hall, 315 E. Kennedy Blvd., by Nov. 9 at noon. Applicants must have lived and been registered to vote in Tampa for at least one year before taking office, and have lived in District 7 for at least six months to be considered.

City Council will hold a special meeting Nov. 17, starting at 1:30 p.m., where applicants have the chance to give a two-minute pitch and take questions from council members. Then, the council will vote by ballot, with a simple majority vote required to win the job. If no applicant gets at least four votes, the council will hold a runoff vote, the city says. 

The city clerk will swear in the new member Nov. 19 at the start of a city council meeting, and the job starts immediately after. City council is scheduled to hold final adoption hearings that day on a series of proposed amendments that significantly expand its authority, giving the council power to overturn mayoral executive orders, initiate midyear budget changes and have greater control over the council’s staffing. 

Three candidates have already filed to run for the seat in next year’s election: former television journalist Alan Cohn, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Division Chief Morris Lopez III and Patricia Altagracia Alonzo, a certified medical interpreter and director of strategic partnerships at Equiti Health, a medical technology company.