Temple Terrace residents will vote on a new mayor in a special election Tuesday.

  • Temple Terrace to hold special election for mayor
  • Former Mayor Kim Leinbach retired in May
  • Voters to choose from: Mel Jurado, David Gannessingh, Linda Ormsbee

Mayor Kim Leinbach retired in May.

Voters will have three choices for Leinbach’s replacement: industrial-organizational psychologist Mel Jurado, public accountant David Gannessingh and Linda Ormsbee.

"I believe my skill set is what my city needs at this point. We have had a lot of 'yaption' for the past 8 years, but not a lot of action,” Jurado, who has lived in Temple Terrace for 25 years, said. “Our redevelopment has somewhat stalled."

David Ganessingh has lived in Temple Terrance since 2001. He serves on the city’s Board of Adjustment.

"It looks like there are issues with the city that is preventing it from going forward,” Ganessingh said. “I decided I wanted to run for mayor because I bring a fresh perspective to issues that are facing Temple Terrance right now."

Both Ganessingh and Jurado agree the biggest challenge as mayor would be selling the property known as Downtown Temple Terrace. The city is paying interest on the $24 million it borrowed to buy the property and it still sits vacant along 56th Street.

"We really need commerce, we need business, we need retail,” Jurado said. “We need that to become that core and that center piece in our community."

"I would like to see basically commercial development,” Ganessingh said. "I know the city wanted to get apartments and if that is doable based on the bidders, if the economics are there, then that should be great, that would be fine."

Linda Ormsbee did not return requests for interviews.

The election is October 10 with a runoff election set for December 5 if necessary.