Clearwater city manager seems to favor Scientologists?

Letters to the Editor
St. Petersburg Times
February 14, 2000

Re: How much oddity can one town take? story, Feb. 6.

After reading about the controversy surrounding the Church of Scientology and Robert Minton's efforts to peacefully protest, it becomes clear to me that favoritism is possibly being given to the Scientologists by our city manager, Mike Roberto.

How much thought did he give to changing the direction of traffic on Watterson Avenue? Was he appeasing church officials by enabling them to shield their members from any protesters? Did he call or visit the businesses that border the street to discuss ramifications? Was there a commission meeting for anyone to protest such a change?

Kudos to Scott Brauer, who sold Minton his building near church property despite being offered $275,000 more from the church. Isn't it interesting to see how fast such offers become news to the Scientologists and how quickly they come back with a counter offer? And how about that phone call in the night to Brauer from Roberto to ask him if he was sure he wanted to sell the building to Minton?

I hope our neighborhood can have some traffic measures implemented with the relative ease that the direction of traffic was almost changed on Watterson Avenue. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a personal visit by Roberto.

I won't hold my breath!

-- Scott Freeman, Clearwater