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PETERSBURG — Paul Congemi skipped the first mayoral forum because he said he didn’t “go to things at 9 o’clock in the morning like that.” For the second, a 7 p.m. event, he left after his opening statement. “On behalf of the homeless and the hungry in the city, I’m going to step down from this panel tonight,” Congemi, 52, bizarrely announced to a crowd of 300 at Studio620 in downtown St. Petersburg. As Congemi, dressed in a powder blue turtleneck and khaki pants, made his way to leave, the event moderator interrupted: “You might want to introduce yourself.” “I’m Paul Congemi.” Congemi, a high school graduate with no political experience, is running a different type of campaign for the city’s highest office. He says he won’t accept campaign contributions and will donate his first year’s salary to homeless charities. And he says he wants to start a charity hospital in St. Petersburg.
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