County Mayor? One Man Said No Way

James Shirk is a Democrat who has helped local politicians with their campaigns.

He is a self-employed civil engineer with about a half-dozen clients.

At 64, he is an avid bicyclist with a blog, though he really hasn't kept up with that whole blog thing very much.

Shirk also is the man who essentially derailed the county mayor effort by filing a lawsuit against Elections Supervisor Buddy Johnson.

"I can scarcely take credit for that," Shirk said last week over a cup of coffee in downtown Tampa. "I feel like the innocent bystander."

After all, he said, a judge ruled against him on two counts. But the judge ruled in his favor on a third count, enough to strike the referendum from the ballot.

Some advocates of the county mayor form of government say someone put Shirk up to it, that he wouldn't file a lawsuit on his own.

"We tend to think it didn't, quote, just happen," said Bob Samuels, who is leading the pro-county mayor effort with Mary Ann Stiles. "I have no idea who he is. None whatsoever."

Yet Shirk's friends say he is the type of person who would fight for something he felt strongly about.

"He's an activist. He supports what he believes in," Councilwoman Mary Mulhern said. "It would be surprising to people who don't know him because people always think someone has an ulterior motive. From my knowledge of him that's not the case."

It appears both sides are right.

Worked On Bill Clinton's Campaign

Shirk was born in Little Rock, Ark., to a military family. The family moved often when he was young but eventually settled back in Arkansas, where he attended high school, college and graduate school. He studied civil engineering and spent two years in the Army.

Shirk moved to the New York City area and lived there for more than 20 years before work brought him to Tampa in the early 1990s. He lives in a condo by Tampa International Airport.

An ardent Democrat, he admits his first vote was for a Republican: Winthrop Rockefeller, running for governor of Arkansas.

"My next vote was for Lyndon Johnson," Shirk said. "I never looked back."

His first foray into politics came in 1992, when he worked on Bill Clinton's campaign in New Jersey. He talked to environmental groups and knocked on doors.

He volunteered on Kathy Castor's campaign for state Senate in 2000; Bill McBride's gubernatorial race in 2002; and Pam Iorio's mayoral bid, among others. Mostly, he knocked on doors and put up yard signs. He also used his computer savvy to help candidates build voter databases.

He also gave money. Through the years, Shirk has contributed several hundred dollars to campaigns of local politicians, including Castor, Iorio and Mulhern.

Along the way, he fell in love with bicycling and serves on the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee for the Metropolitan Planning Organization. He wears a yellow "Livestrong" bracelet.

'Mayor Brian Blair'

Shirk doesn't remember when in 2006 he signed the petition in favor of creating a county mayor form of government. He didn't think much of it when he signed. The idea sounded reasonable enough, he thought, and he generally doesn't mind signing petitions, figuring democracy will take its course.

There are some petitions he won't sign, however. Nothing having to do with modifying the state's tax system, and nothing that discriminates against gays.

But as he learned more about the county mayor form of government, the less he liked it.

"The first three words that flashed in my mind was Mayor Brian Blair," he said. Shirk is not a fan of the District 6 county commissioner.

Shirk says he worries about centralizing power in an elected mayor. That's not to say he likes all of the members of the current Board of County Commissioners, but, "I'd rather have them fighting it out than having one person make decisions for everybody," Shirk said.

"There needs to be some check to ambition."

Then he got a phone call from someone - he won't say who - asking him if he was unhappy with having signed the petition in 2006 and whether he still supported the county mayor form of government. Then he was asked whether he would lend his name to the lawsuit.

He said yes.

"The attorneys were looking for someone who signed the petition and was not happy with the idea," Shirk said. "That was me."

The lawsuit was filed against Johnson, the elections supervisor, who certified the petitions were valid. The pro-county mayor group became the second defendant.

In the lawsuit, Shirk argued that the language of the ballot summary and petition weren't clear. Circuit Judge James Arnold ruled otherwise on those counts.

But Arnold still kicked the referendum off of November's ballot. It came down to wording. The petition said the county mayor would be elected in even years, "beginning with the general election held in the year 2008." The judge ruled that that was a "self-imposed limiting condition that cannot occur in 2008."

The county mayor group initially planned to put the referendum on the November 2006 ballot but didn't collect enough signatures to make that happen. The group is appealing Arnold's ruling.

The attorneys handling the case for Shirk are Jennifer Blohm and Ronald Meyer of Tallahassee. Shirk won't say who is paying their fees.

He's not a particularly litigious person, he said, but he was drawn into the lawsuit by "the fact I had a chance to do something about it."

It's 'In His Character'

That sounds like him, say those who know Shirk.

Barbara Heineken, a former city employee, met Shirk about a dozen years ago through mutual friends. She knows how passionate he is about biking, always working to get more bike lanes in Tampa. She also knows how passionate he is about politics.

That he filed the lawsuit surprised Heineken initially, she said, but only because she didn't know he had strong opinions on the county mayor issue. Getting involved, though, "is in his character," Heineken said.

Iorio said most of her discussions with Shirk focus on bicycling, so Shirk's interest in the county mayor issue caught her off guard.

"I had no idea he had an interest in this particular issue," Iorio said. "It's not an issue I ever heard him discuss ... but he's the type of person who likes to see something done right."