Lynn Hurtak

Lynn Hurtak is an at-large member of the Tampa City Council in Florida. She assumed office on April 7, 2022. Her current term ends on May 1, 2027.

Hurtak ran for re-election for an at-large seat of the Tampa City Council in Florida. She won in the general runoff election on April 25, 2023.

Hurtak completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Lynn Hurtak was born in Tampa, Florida. Hurtak earned a bachelor's degree and a graduate degree from the University of Florida in 1998 and 2002, respectively. Her career experience includes working as a consultant. Hurtak has been affiliated with the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association, League of Women Voters of Hillsborough County, Gainesville Area NOW, Tampa NOW, and the Hillsborough County DEC. Prior to serving on the Tampa City Council, she worked as an elementary school teacher and as a technical editor.^[1]^[2]

Elections

2023

General runoff election

General runoff election for Tampa City Council District 3 At-Large

Incumbent Lynn Hurtak defeated Janet Cruz in the general runoff election for Tampa City Council District 3 At-Large on April 25, 2023.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Lynn Hurtak (Nonpartisan)	60.3	15,447
	Janet Cruz (Nonpartisan)	39.7	10,173

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 25,620
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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General election

General election for Tampa City Council District 3 At-Large

Incumbent Lynn Hurtak and Janet Cruz advanced to a runoff. They defeated George Feshev, K.J. Allen, and Jose Vazquez in the general election for Tampa City Council District 3 At-Large on March 7, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Lynn Hurtak (Nonpartisan)	42.5	13,372
✔		Janet Cruz (Nonpartisan)	38.8	12,192
		George Feshev (Nonpartisan)	9.5	3,000
	Submit photo	K.J. Allen (Nonpartisan)	5.2	1,649
		Jose Vazquez (Nonpartisan)	3.9	1,238

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 31,451
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Campaign themes

2023

Ballotpedia survey responses

Lynn Hurtak completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Hurtak's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I was born at what is now St. Joseph's Women's Hospital in West Tampa to two USF alumni. I'm a former Title I elementary school teacher who has served as Tampa's District 3 city councilwoman since April 2022. Prior to my appointment, I served on Tampa's Variance Review Board and as the vice-president of the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association. I was also a member of the 2017 Tampa Charter Review Commission that produced 18 amendments to Tampa's city charter, all of which were approved by voters in 2019.

Before joining Tampa City Council, I worked as a consultant with more than 13 years of experience in editing, consulting, evaluating, technical backstopping, project management, data management, and logistics throughout Africa focusing on monitoring and evaluation, food security, and capacity building.

As a teacher, I served as my school's union representative. My involvement with women's rights activism stretches back 25 years, and I am proud of my work with Gainesville Area NOW, Tampa NOW, and the League of Women Voters of Hillsborough County.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I made it clear when I was appointed to Tampa City Council that affordable housing would be my top priority. The city doesn’t work without its workers, and any future growth without them in mind is both reckless and doomed to implode. Tampa’s future hinges on our ability to provide shelter for workers; we can provide safe, affordable housing that allows us to rethink the city’s infrastructure, reducing the amount of cars on the road and the amount of time cars spend on our highways. By searching through city and CRA budgets, I have nearly doubled our funding for affordable housing — and I don’t intend to stop there.
We have over $1 billion in backlog for transportation needs. Our traffic situation is, frankly, a crisis, with pedestrian deaths higher than anywhere else in the U.S. With a massive influx of people coming to Tampa, the city must evolve to better serve the people. The hard reality is that we know the right solutions and it takes a proper investment. There are some policy fronts we simply cannot afford to be cheap on, especially when we know statistically that better public transit & infrastructure connects workers & students to their communities, enriching them & allowing for the character of a city to actually flourish. We need to discuss how we can match funds at the city level, investing in broader transit options beyond just HART.
We need to initiate a conservation plan that starts with education—which costs money, but a lot less than the $6 billion projected PURE plan. I am hoping the SIX pilot will take out the nutrients, PFAS, & other contaminants harming waterways & my hope is we can clean the wastewater enough to qualify it to continue to be released into the bay. We have no idea what toilet-to-tap will do to the future potable water supply for the state; just because the aquifer filters water does not mean it can filter out "forever chemicals" we’ve created. There’s too much we don’t know for me to be comfortable with supporting injection, and I am concerned about the monied interests pushing so aggressively in spite of the broad spectrum of groups opposing it.

Community Question Featured local question

Did the COVID-19 pandemic change your approach to local policy issues? If so, please give us an example. If not, why?

No. I wasn’t in office during the peak of the pandemic.

Community Question Featured local question

Do you believe crime rates are changing? Where do you get your crime rate data from? Would you make any changes to existing public safety policy?

While crime rates are going down, violent crime is on the rise. I get crime rate data from the city’s police department as well as state and federal governments. I mentioned what I would like to do regarding safety policy in prior questions.

Community Question Featured local question

Do you think the downtown area is healthy? What is your definition of a healthy downtown? What changes, if any, would you like to make?

I think it's healthy, but can be healthier. Before anything, we have to plan now for another population spike with stronger investments in our public safety; this is why I’ve brought back the public safety impact fee, because a public safety apparatus that doesn’t have what it needs can’t function, and people won’t come to a city that doesn’t function. It is also critical that our downtown development takes into account both currently planned and future prospects of transit options. Downtown Tampa has gone through rapid change in a short time, and we have to ensure that its development is equitable and accessible, to better serve the people and businesses in the area.

A healthy downtown is vibrant, safe, prosperous, but above all reflects the history and culture of that city.

Community Question Featured local question

How important is it to involve residents in the government’s decision-making process? What plans do you have regarding resident involvement in this process?

My entire approach to public service is to solicit public input and make decisions based on the voices of the public. I believe that's my obligation as an elected official, and the decisions I have made as a City Council member have been directly informed by public input.

I intend to continue meeting with residents and groups representing the full political spectrum to gather input on my decision-making going forward.

Community Question Featured local question

How should record requests from the public be handled? Do you have any policies around transparency and accountability you want to enact?

Record requests from the public should be fulfilled as soon as possible while keeping in mind the cost in time from city staff to fill them. The city does a great job of filling these requests in a timely manner with minimal cost to requestors.

Community Question Featured local question

How would you address crime and public safety? Do you have a different stance than current city council policy?

Tampa is far from the only U.S. city to suffer from a spike in violent crime, but our situation is exacerbated by decisions made in Tallahassee; the net result is that despite our governor’s insistence that New York is a “violent hellhole,” Tampa’s murder rate in 2021 was twice that of the Big Apple—and Tallahassee hasn’t even passed the law allowing open, unlicensed carry that they’ve pledged to do.

I’m proud to have stood with my fellow City Council members in opposing that law. And, after a series of violent incidents in Ybor City, I joined Tampa Police officers at 3 a.m. on a recent Saturday night to see for myself how we’re attempting to mitigate that violence—and what role City Council can play, including in creating an effective enforcement mechanism for the city ordinance requiring private parking lots in Ybor to be staffed Thursday through Saturday nights.

The research literature consistently shows an overall decrease in violent crime can only be accomplished through community engagement; to this end, I endorse both a continued focus by Tampa police to increase their presence and visibility in prioritized areas while also understanding that residents’ faith in their public institutions and servants can only be solidified through greater transparency and accountability.

Community Question Featured local question

How would you balance the needs and desires of existing business and housing communities with new development? Would you take gentrification and displacement into consideration when planning neighborhood development?

Development is doomed if it doesn’t consider its neighborhood. We encourage developers to meet with neighborhoods when bringing projects before council because it often improves the project—for both the developer and current residents. Gentrification must be considered when approving projects, which is why I have focused on affordable housing programs that keep people in their homes and am working to make sure affordable housing is required in developments looking to increase density.

Community Question Featured local question

How would you set priorities and develop plans in a way that will reflect community values and goals?

I listen to the community. When I joined council in April 2022, the community was talking about affordable housing. I didn’t know much about affordable housing, but I immersed myself—visiting affordable housing communities, learning about additional types of housing, working with housing staff on new programs to keep people housed, and focusing on getting more money in the budget focused on affordable housing—and now consider myself extremely well informed about the issue.

Community Question Featured local question

What do you think about the city's current approach to public safety? Would you take any different positions?

I believe that the Tampa Police Department is making healthy strides toward developing a sustainable program for addressing officers’ health, both mental and physical. Too often when we criticize police forces for their misconduct, we avoid the reality that the city is overburdening them and often dumping the fallout of its policy failures on their shoulders, and this can take a toll; public safety officers have to be able to keep the public safe. I intend to ensure that no matter who is confirmed as our next police chief, this program will continue to thrive.

Since taking office, I’ve had the privilege to go on several ride-alongs with Tampa’s police officers, and nearly every officer I’ve spoken to is in agreement that a community policing approach works. I believe this is a great start to a more proactive rather than reactive strategy from the department, valuing transparency with the people; trust has to be reestablished and earned.

I believe that these ideas, taking more mindful care of our public safety officials and better integrating them into the city, are the best strategies for tackling violent crime.

Beyond that on a smaller scale, Tampa can enforce the city code better to require private parking lots in Ybor City be staffed with attendants during high-traffic periods, to ease the burden of police; this has been a consistent issue I have gathered during my time spent with our officers.

Community Question Featured local question

What do you think about the city's environmental health? Would you make any changes to current policy?

I don’t believe we have reason to be immediately concerned about the city’s environmental health. Many aspects of it are already being addressed (albeit after years of being ignored). However, I’m a strong advocate of planning for future mitigation including development of a robust conservation plan, an increased focus on stormwater resilience, and a rejection of any plan that involves putting wastewater in the Florida aquifer.

Community Question Featured local question

What plans do you have regarding infrastructure?

As chair of Public Works, I’ve seen firsthand what the city is doing to ensure sustainability amidst development, but am extremely aware that these infrastructure needs were neglected well past the time they needed to be addressed. That City Council is finally, now, addressing them is a “better late than never” scenario in which residents within the areas of infrastructure improvement are experiencing substantially more severe impacts to their daily lives than would have been the case if these improvements had been addressed, say, a decade ago.

I believe the current makeup of City Council is far more aware of the need to balance planning for the impacts of development against approving that development itself, and anticipate being able to take on an even stronger role in managing that balance if elected to retain my position.

Community Question Featured local question

What plans do you have regarding the police department? Would you make any changes from current policy?

In general, I am an advocate of community-based, non-police interventions to nonviolent incidents. I have definitely taken note of a similar program in St. Petersburg, where their CALL program has been in place for almost two years now and has been considered positive. CALL staff have no recorded on-the-job injuries and can call in law enforcement when needed, which cuts down on unnecessary police action and eases the strain on dispatchers. A program like that, given a modest budget, could actually support our police by freeing them up to focus on the aspects of public safety that truly require them, while also being fiscally responsible. It’s not about taking away police power, it’s about easing police burden, and that’s where community power comes in.

Community Question Featured local question

What policies would you have implemented in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic? Why did you select those policies?

I was not in office when COVID-19 struck, and the ability of the city to set policy regarding it or future pandemics has been significantly restrained by decisions made in Tallahassee. In this, as with many other areas of policy, I support recognizing Florida's constitutional Home Rule that allows communities autonomy to make their own decisions about how to stay safe.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

It’s no secret that I have a passion for trash, and Tampa has a lot of room to grow in its solid waste policy! We can save significant money in solid waste by directly addressing waste practices of residents and moving toward more efficient and sustainable practices; there’s no better way to achieve this than by working directly with the people, providing workshops and materials that improve education around our garbage, including how to recycle and compost. I'm proud of my work to see first-hand how our current waste-to-energy plant works, and have traveled as far away as Copenhagen, Denmark, to see what options exist to put Tampa on a carbon-neutral path like that city has accomplished.

Too often, larger development projects ignore the neighborhoods they’re in, breaking the “lived in” aesthetics of their surroundings. There has to be a balance stuck between promoting density and ensuring that Tampeños’ cultural identity remains intact and respected; we can craft an ordinance that would require large-scale developers to meet with community members before the rezoning process, ensuring that our people feel enriched and not colonized by growth.

In the face of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, I am dedicated to ensuring that women and doctors in Tampa will not face prosecution for seeking or providing reproductive care.

What qualities does this office possess that makes it a unique and important part of the state government and legal system?

City council serves as a check and balance to the mayor’s administration in our divided government, and thus it’s important that each member of city council be an independent voice and not connected in any way to the city administration.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Honesty, a commitment to listening to residents and neighborhoods, and dedication to the job are the most important characteristics of a successful elected official.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

A true passion for fairness and equity. My personal mantra is from Pope Paul VI, who was known for his focus on social justice: “If you want peace, work for justice.”

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The Challenger explosion. I was in the third grade.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job as a child was also my first business. I started a company in the early 1990s called Sticky Scissors that put double-sided tape on tax stamps for cigar boxes. I had the company for about two years.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

“January Hymn” by The Decemberists

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

I think it is helpful to understand how government is run before joining a governmental body. I sat on the City of Tampa’s Charter Review Committee, Variance Review Board, and was a trustee for Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association, which deals with the city on various issues impacting residents’ quality of life.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

Familiarity with the city charter, city ordinances, and city code is vital to effectively perform the role of city council member. That’s why my previously mentioned experiences are so helpful to assist me in executing my duties.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

West Central Florida Labor Council (AFL-CIO), Tampa Bay Sierra Club, Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, Hillsborough Coutny LGBTQ+ Caucus, La Gaceta, Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners member Pat Kemp, Florida House Representative Dianne Hart, former Tampa city council members Linda Saul-Sena & Mary Mulhern

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Candidate

Tampa City Council District 3 At-Large

Officeholder

Tampa City Council District 3 At-Large

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Footnotes

↑ Tampa.gov, "Lynn Hurtak," accessed April 15, 2022
↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 14, 2023

Political offices
Preceded by John Dingfelder	Tampa City Council District 3 At-Large 2022-Present	Succeeded by -

[1] Tampa.gov, "Lynn Hurtak," accessed April 15, 2022

[bio2-2] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on February 14, 2023

[1]

[2]

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Lynn Hurtak

Contents

Biography

Elections

2023

General runoff election

General runoff election for Tampa City Council District 3 At-Large

General election

General election for Tampa City Council District 3 At-Large

Campaign themes

2023

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

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2024 Election analysis

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