Rep. Kathleen Peters, R-South Pasadena
Date of Birth: February 27, 1961
Birthplace:Northbrook, Ill.
Residence:South Pasadena
Education:Eckerd College, B.A., Human Development
Occupation: Public affairs
Previous Public Offices: Elected to the South Pasadena City Commission 2008; elected Mayor 2009-2012
Family: Husband, four sons, four grandsons
Did you know?Proudest public service accomplishment is the development of her local YMCAs award-winning Youth Enhancement Skills (YES) program.
Pinellas County's newest Republican representative isn't new to public service, and she has an ambitious agenda that includes tax cuts for coastal homeowners, tuition breaks for veterans, and the enactment of a new law that would prohibit minors from operating vessels that tow people across water.
Rep. Kathleen Peters, R-South Pasadena, hails from Democrat-leaning District 69, which includes the west coast of Pinellas County. She won her race with over 52 percent of the vote, despite her district having gone for Obama in the very same election and in 2008.
Her overcoming of those odds was probably due in no small part to her name-recognition as a local community leader. She sat on the South Pasadena City Commission from 2008 to 2012, and as mayor for the last three of those years. Before that she served on that citys planning and zoning board, on the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, and on the YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg. At present she is vice president of public affairs for the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce.
I am very involved in community work, particularly with youth, Peters says, when asked what motivated her to first run for public office."When I worked for the YMCA, we placed many community centers in high-risk neighborhoods to make those communities and families stronger, and for the successes I had, I was strongly encouraged by so many people to get actively involved at a different level."
Those successes included the development of the YMCAs award-winning Youth Enhancement Skills (YES) program, which provided life-skills and conflict-resolution training to pre-teenagers in six Pinellas County middle schools. Peters was inspired to research and develop the program after reviewing statistics that showed skyrocketing juvenile crime rates during school hours. She was particularly infuriated by what she says were a disproportionate number of middle-schoolers being arrested for doing the kinds of things normal kids do.
Police were arresting kids for horse-playing in hallways, or cursing at the teacher, she tells the News. If you were flirting with someone, the way kids do, lets say, taking their cell phones to get them to chase you were talking nanny nanny boo-boo type of behavior here you would be arrested for strong-arm robbery.
Earning criminal rap sheets for childish behavior did nothing to improve students morale, or to mitigate more serious conduct violations, so one key component of the YES program included the training of student mediators whose task it was to monitor the school rumor-mills, and mediate conflicts before they escalated into violence. The program was so successful that in at least one neighborhood, Peters tells Sunshine State News, gang members were mediating conflicts between rival gangs.
Middle school is critical; its the area where we are losing our children, Peters insists. Weve accomplished a lot of good reform for our elementary schools, but the high-school teachers are telling me over and over again that the kids coming in are not where they should be: were losing them in middle school.
Though shes been placed on the important Education Committee by House Speaker Will Weatherford, an assignment she specifically requested, Peters says shes in no rush to advance legislation this session which would realize some of her ideas. Instead, she is looking into putting on workshops for her fellow members and working with House leadership to commission studies on best practices.
We cant fix the states unemployment if we dont fix our education system, she insists. So we really want to make sure that when we do legislation, were doing it right.
That's not to say she wont be proposing legislation. From her seat on the House Veteran & Military Affairs Subcommittee, she plans to introduce a law that would award in-state tuition benefits to members of the military who serve in Florida, even though they may officially reside in a different state.
We have a large coast guard contingency here in Pinellas County; they get transferred every three years, she explains. So long as they are living here while theyre protecting our country, I believe they should be able to get in-state tuition without having to change their official residence.
One bill she has already filed would provide some tax relief to multifamily coastal dwellings, whose owners currently pay higher rates than owners of single-family units. Another bill, titled Deviny's Law, would prohibit minors without adult supervision from operating marine vessels with persons in tow. (The proposed law is named after a 15-year old Redington Beach girl who died last year in a boating accident.)
Peters also sits on the subcommittees for Ethics & Elections, Government Operations Appropriations, and Healthy Families.
Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.
