Volume 7, No. 3 | Summer 2018
Policy Institute Digest
Director's Report
As the summer vacation season begins, we at the Institute are looking to fall, preparing a full agenda of new programs to kick off when classes resume. Because this is an election year, the emphasis will be on clarifying who and what voters will find on their ballot on Nov. 6. You’ll have a chance to meet the candidates for local office and to clarify the impact of the many amendments proposed for the Florida Constitution, always a challenging exercise in democracy. But we’ll also be addressing other topical issues relevant to public policy, including the seemingly continuous refrain of “Fake News,” actual and imaginary. We’ll try again to add clarity to the debate over guns, going deeper into the cultural and constitutional aspects of that sensitive issue. Read the articles below for details on these upcoming programs as well as other news about the Institute. Have a great summer, and I’ll look forward to seeing you as fall approaches.

David Klement
Executive Director 
Upcoming Summer Programs
Politics Will Dominate Institute’s Fall Season
The Institute will help Pinellas County voters learn about the candidates and issues on the November ballot with a series of forums this fall. For the first time, we’ll employ a town-hall-style format for the Candidate Debates, tentatively set for October 4 in the Conference Center on the Seminole campus. In this format, members of the audience will pose the questions, and the candidates will engage with one another, guided by a moderator.

There are four seats up for election on the Pinellas School Board, two for the Pinellas delegation to the Florida Senate, seven for the Florida House, and three for the Pinellas County Commission. Of these, three are open seats: one each on the County Commission, the Senate and the House. So expect those to be the most contested races.

We’ll partner with the Pinellas Education Foundation and the Pinellas County Council PTA to stage three separate forums for candidates for the School Board – one each in the south, central and northern sectors of Pinellas County. Since this is a primary election vote, these will be held in late July/early August at our St. Petersburg/Gibbs, Seminole and Clearwater campuses. See below for dates.

There are expected to be one or two vacancies on the 6 th Circuit Court bench this year, and we’ll offer candidates a chance to introduce themselves to voters at a forum on July 25.
In addition, voters will decide the fate of 13 proposals to amend the Florida Constitution, eight of them containing multiple issues. We’ll have a separate forum to discuss the pros and cons of these ballot issues, likely in late September.

Final dates and times for all of these events will be announced after the races are firmed up.

Fall Dinner Series to Focus on Guns, Fake News
The Institute plans two programs in its Dinner Series this fall that will address issues that are making headlines on a daily basis. With a renewed outcry over gun violence following the mass shooting last fall in Las Vegas and on two high school shootings – in Parkland, Fla., and Santa Fe, Tex.- the forum titled “Guns in America: Public Safety vs. the 2 nd Amendment,” will take a comprehensive look at the gun issue. A panel will dig deeply into the historic setting for America’s love for guns, the role of mental illness in gun violence, the technology of rapid-fire assault rifles, and the guarantees of the Second Amendment – all in the context of reducing the incidence and severity of gun violence.

The second program in the series will address the politically-charged issue of Fake News. The concept of “fake news” has gained enormous significance since its employment by Donald Trump in the 2016 election campaign to denigrate press coverage that he considered unfair. Though not a new concept, it has become a force that undermines honest debate and casts doubt on every account with which a news consumer might disagree.

The forum, titled “Fake News: Seeking Truth in a Post-Factual World,” will define what is “fake” news and what is just “bad” news, explore the impact of fake news on mainstream journalism and geopolitics, and offer tips on how to identify fake news.
Times, dates and full details for the forums will be announced in the next edition of this newsletter.

Action Plan Next for Age-Friendly St. Pete
The Age-Friendly St. Petersburg initiative enters a new phase this summer after the Institute and its partners completed gathering data from the community in the spring. The partners held the last of four Listening Sessions in late February at the Lake Vista Recreation Center. These sessions added qualitative and quantitative data to two separate surveys previously conducted by the partners, AARP Florida, Area Agency on Aging of Pasco-Pinellas, and the city of St. Petersburg.

Next the team will utilize the findings of that research to begin crafting an Action Plan of recommendations to make St. Petersburg more age-friendly. This project is allied with the World Health Organization’s Global Age-Friendly Cities and Communities initiative, which is designed to help cities prepare for a future of increased longevity. The program targets eight environmental, social, and economic factors that influence the health and well-being of older adults. Globally, some 400 cities in 37 countries are making a commitment to make their community a better place for all ages.  To read more, visit Age-Friendly St. Petersburg .

Institute Welcomes New Team Member
Sharon Panov is the newest member of the Institute team, assuming the position of Senior Administrative Services Specialist formerly held by Shonta é Williams. She is a 15-year employee of St. Petersburg College, transferring from the St. Petersburg Gibbs campus where she was an Accounting Support Technician for Business Services.

She began her career at SPC in 1988 as a staff assistant to the Registrar on the Gibbs campus. Other positions she has held include administrative assistant in the Corporate Training Department, Client Account Representative, and test proctor for Learning Resources.
Recent Institute Programs
U.S. Not Passive on Cyber Security Threats
There is a great deal going on behind the scenes to protect the United States from cyber attacks. That was a reassuring message brought by speakers at the Institute’s March 27 forum titled “Hacked: Can We Win the Cyber Security Battle? ” The message was brought by Col. John Burger, Vice President for Threat Management at ReliaQuest and former Chief of the Joint Cyber Center at the U.S. Central Command.

That message was echoed by two other panelists, Paul Vitchock, Special Agent for the Cyber Squad for the FBI, and Marty J. Smith, Supervisory Protective Security Adviser for the Department of Homeland Security. The three cyber security experts gave brief reviews of efforts by their respective agencies to counter cyber attacks and prosecute those responsible for them.

And all three offered tips on how ordinary consumers can protect themselves from cyber attacks and identity theft.
Advice to Caregivers: Care for Yourself
The more than 150 attendees at the Fourth Annual Caregivers Conference on March 23 got plenty of helpful advice on how to better fulfill their mostly thankless role of being a primary caregiver for a loved one suffering from dementia. Perhaps the most reassuring advice was offered by Eileen Poiley, Director of Education at the USF Health Byrd Alzheimer's Institute in Tampa. Her advice: “Take care of yourself first in order to care for your loved one". “See your own doctors, she advised. Join a support group. See a counselor. Don’t ignore your spiritual health if that has been an important factor in your life. Go to choir practice; attend services – even if it’s via live-streaming. Accept offers of help. Maintain your personal network of friends via email and texts.

The conference was presented in partnership with AARP Florida and Maria’s Adult Day Care Center . Attendees also got advice on estate planning and learned details of the Florida Department of Elder Affairs’ Dementia Care and Cure Initiative, which seeks to establish task forces to promote Dementia-Caring Communities. To view a video record of the conference sessions, click here .
Extent of Plastic Pollution
in Oceans Shocks Audience
Many in the near-capacity crowd attending the Institute’s screening of the documentary film “ A Plastic Ocean ” on April 26 had a visceral reaction to discovering the extent of pollution of the oceans by plastic debris shown in the film. In the post-screening conversation led by Lara Milligan, Natural Resources Agent for UF/IFAS Extension Pinellas County , audience members expressed concern for the safety of eating fish that become tainted with toxins after consuming microscopic particles of plastic adrift in massive debris fields larger than Texas. They also worried about how to prevent pollution of coastal waters and fouling of beaches from carelessly discarded plastic objects.

Assisted by Prof. Maura Scanlon of the SPC Natural Sciences faculty, Ms. Milligan offered tips on proper disposal of plastic and reducing reliance upon plastic as food and drink containers. Slides created by the Institute staff also offered tips on how citizens can get involved in upcoming beach clean-ups in Pinellas County. To review informational slides shown at the event, click here . 

Save the Date!
July 23, 6 - 8 p.m . : Forum for candidates for Pinellas School Board, Clearwater Campus, 2465 Drew St., Clearwater.
July 25, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m . : Forum for candidates for 6 th Circuit Judicial Bench. Clearwater Campus, 2465 Drew St., Clearwater.  Registration opens in late June.
July 30, 6 - 8 p.m . : Forum for candidates for Pinellas School Board. Music Center, St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus, 6605 Fifth Ave. N.
August 2 , 6 - 8 p.m . : Forum for candidates for Pinellas School Board. Digitorium, Seminole Campus, 9200 113 th St. N., Seminole.
October 4, 5:30 - 9:00 p.m .: Candidate Debates for Local Office. Conference Center, Seminole Campus, 9200 113 th St. N., Seminole.

Advance registration requested for all programs. Please check our website for updates and registration details.  http://solutions.spcollege.edu/
St. Petersburg College | P.O. Box 13489 | St. Petersburg FL 33733 | 727-39 4-6942 [email protected]
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