Candidate Motivations

Steve Kornell is an active member of the community as a practicing social worker and member of many boards and civic groups which affect the lives of many Saint Petersburg residents. He does not consider himself a politician, rather a concerned citizen willing to put forth the time and effort to improve the city he calls home.

Currently the Saint Petersburg City Council district five is held by James Bennett who has opted to run for Mayor of Saint Petersburg leaving district five with an open-seat. Open-seat contests are seen as the best opportunity to seek public office because any opponents in the race would not have the incumbency advantage. As a school social worker Kornell sees the daily struggles of the children and families of Saint Petersburg. He is already an active member in many different organizations whose purposes are to promote the advancement of the underprivileged. Kornell wants to take this a step further by becoming an elected official in Saint Petersburg so that he may help in the policy making process as well as be an active and supportive voice for the families in his community and the city as a whole. It may not be Kornell’s personal hardships which motivate him to run for office, though he feels that problems within his community are as much his own and are not only problems for those who are personally experiencing them.

Kornell is running a multi-issue campaign with a focus on reform Kornell’s campaign is similar to a tripod; it has three legs which all connect to one another: education, public safety and job creation. While Kornell’s version of reform is not overly dramatic; he is looking to make a few key procedural changes which he feels will greatly help the community, mainly dealing with the youth. It is important to not only tell the youth to “just say no” to drugs and violence but to also give them something to say yes to. Time and effort has to be put into prevention programs for the cities youth so that they want to become active and accountable citizens. If the youth can effectively enter the workforce and become productive citizens Kornell feels that the other issues the city faces will become easier to fix.