*Do political CEOs, such as mayors, get too much credit and too much blame – not unlike head coaches? “Mayors do set a tone and that tone can affect progress one way or another. We all build on what has been done in the past – coaches and mayors. But ultimately, you (to continue the sports analogy) build your own team, set your own tone and call the plays every day.”
*”Sure, this is a referendum on me. It’s the nature of re-elections.”
*Key lesson learned: “There is such diversity here – from West Tampa to East Tampa to Bayshore to New Tampa. No two neighborhoods are alike. One size doesn’t fit all. It’s a real balancing act. You have to make sure that all parts of the city are paid attention to.”
*Working with the Hillsborough County Commission (which would be critical, for example, in making mass transit happen): “I don’t like rancor. I’ve seen change. I’m hopeful that the Commission can come to that (transit-tax-on-the-ballot) consensus.”
*Future political plans: “County Mayor? I don’t know. I’m not sure how that would work. Certainly I’ve never put my name out there.
“Statewide? No plans in that direction. I’m really not active statewide. I don’t travel much. I’m not sending any signals. But people will say things.”
*Non-partisan races: “I represent everyone. Party labels prevent problem-solving.”
*Personal: The first two years Iorio maintained a semblance of a workout routine at a local gym. No more. She calls it “muscle tone down.” Daughter Caitlan is now away at college, and son Graham isn’t far behind. Husband Mark Woodard “is still OK with all this mayor stuff.”
*Memorial: The mayor and her husband will participate in the Mother’s Day weekend bike ride in honor of fallen police officers that ends in Washington, D.C. They will do the last 20 miles and ride into Washington, where the names of those fallen officers, including Tampa Police Department’s Detective Juan A. Serrano, will be placed on the permanent memorial. Detective Serrano, the mayor’s driver-body guard and friend, was killed in a hit-and-run accident last February.