The Last Ten Months

Hello Everyone,

Ten months have passed since my last post - the night before the November 2009 Elections.  If anyone does not remember, I lost the election.  While I would have liked to serve as a Commissioner that is not how it worked out.  It takes a lot to run for public office and I'm proud that I was willing to step up and be an option.  I learned a lot about the community and don't regret any part of the experience.  

I don't know why anyone else ran but I did it because I thought I would be a good Commissioner.  My agenda was to pledge to make good choices for the community and provide leadership in difficult times.  Not winning did not change these goals; it just meant that I would not be doing it as a Commissioner.  I've continued to attend City Commission meetings, was re-appointed to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, continue to volunteer in the community and been a voice at the meetings when I felt strongly about an issue.  I'd like to think that is all called good citizenship.

The North Florida Herald reported on 11/13/2010 the results of the election.  There were seven candidates for the two open seats.  Here were the results as reported:

364 Votes   Dean Davis

297 Votes   Eric May

253 Votes   Jim Gabriel

249 Votes   Byran Williams

208 Votes   Jessica Hall

189 Votes   Ross Ambrose

 69  Votes   Mike Kearney

Voters were permitted to vote for two candidates but could have voted for fewer (including none).  Looking at the numbers the two winning candidates (Davis & May) received 661 votes.  In my opinion, Dean and Davis were two similar candidates who advocated making government simpler, reducing taxes and focusing on small town values.  The other five candidates were more liberal to moderate in thinking (in my opinion) and received a combined total of 968 votes.

While many won't agree, one of my perspectives is that there was no "mandate" for the winning candidates.  In fact, since more votes were actually cast for the candidates who did not win one could argue the vote was anything other than a clear mandate.  For me, this fall, what I found important about these numbers is that widely splitting a vote in a small town may not provide the community the voice it wants.  Therefore, I elected not to run for election this fall so that I would not contribute to "splitting the vote".

I'm supporting two candidate - Byran Williams and Sue Weller (http://rsueweller.com/).  Sue has so much experience she can bring to the City as a Commissioner.  Please take a few minutes to learn more about this wonderful citizen of High Springs.  Byran is a past Commissioner and I support his effort to be reelected.  If elected Byran and Sue won't always share the same view.  That is fine.  What they both will offer citizens is a voice that can speak to the community and neither will have the learning curve that Commissioner's May and Davis have had this past year.

Our community is in a world of hurt because of what I feel has been an absence of leadership.  Commission meetings continue to get longer and longer (often going five hours or more).  Frequently matters brought before the Commission are not acted upon and "tabled" until another meeting (just look at number of "Old Business items on recent agendas - (www.HighSprings.us) The Commission is constantly meeting for "workshops" to address matters that might be better delegated staff.  

I'll be posting more and shaping what could go on to be a long list of issues.  But rather than just complaining I'll be pointing out possible actions that could address the complaint.  Some issues just don't have clean answers.  What I won't do is simply complain because I don't like the answer I've been given.