Rick Baker's new book--from TBO

ST. PETERSBURG - He's been a mayor.

He's currently involved with higher education.

Now Rick Baker can add the title of author to his list.

The man who led the city of St. Petersburg for nine years has written a book called "The Seamless City," which is available for $27.95 beginning this week.

With the subtitle of "A Conservative Mayor's Approach to Revitalization That Could Work Anywhere," Baker he got the idea for the book about two years ago when he was talking with another mayor.

"It struck me how there's no good how-to book on how to lead a city," Baker said this afternoon. "It sure would have been nice to have for me."

Former Gov. Jeb Bush wrote the foreword, and there's a contribution from presidential hopeful Mitt Romney as well.

There is also a chapter-by-chapter guide on how to formulate an approach for running a city. That includes how to deal with everything from public safety to neighborhoods to redevelopment to school programs, just to name a few.

Baker says the Florida League of Cities and the National League of Cities will be putting copies in members' hands.

"Hopefully, others will find interest in it, too," said Baker, who currently is the director of innovation partnerships at the University of South Florida.

In the book, he has high praise for former city administrator Goliath Davis, who was fired last month by Baker's successor, Bill Foster. Baker declined today to comment on the dismissal.

Talk about hypocrisy by a politician--even the title is bizarre!

[Tom]

After leaving his job as mayor Baker was given a job at USF for $200K per year. Apparently he was given enough free time to write this book.

Rick Scott says we need a 5% tax on public employees to pay for his corporate tax cuts. Schools can't find money to give teachers a raise while schools have money to pay politicians to write books.

After leaving his job as mayor Baker was given a job at USF for $200K per year. Apparently he was given enough free time to write this book.

Rick Scott says we need a 5% tax on public employees to pay for his corporate tax cuts. Schools can't find money to give teachers a raise while schools have money to pay politicians to write books.

Ain't American politics a great place to defraud the public?! Incompetent mayors get carried onto other political organization's payrolls, in created jobs that have no value, and are paid outrageous compensation.

You have to love Baker for gaming the system. First he tried to be the president of a college, for which he didn't have the advertised qualifications, and then he gets a created position at another college. You can't say he doesn't have hubris.
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