‘SHELL-SHOCKED’

Mayor of Clearwater, Florida, Up and Quits in Middle of Budget Meeting

“I’m concerned where the city is going,” Clearwater’s Frank Hibbard said.

The mayor of Clearwater, Florida, abruptly quit in the middle of a City Council budget meeting on Monday, after pushing back against plans to spend $90 million the city doesn’t have on a new municipal complex. “I’m not a quitter, but I’m not the right leader for this council anymore and I’m concerned where the city is going,” Frank Hibbard told his colleagues. “Because this is simple math and we’re not doing very well on the test.” Hibbard is in the last year of his term and did not plan on running for re-election but his resignation left Vice Mayor Kathleen Beckman—with whom he has often clashed, according to the Tampa Bay Times—“shell-shocked.” Clearwater is a city of 116,000 where the Church of Scientology has its headquarters.