- April 19, 2024
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Candidates and audience members were a bit squeezed at the first major political forum of the season May 19, as about 110 audience members packed the chairs, and then lined the rear wall, in a room at the Hilton Garden Inn to hear a total of 16 candidates for three local government boards speak.
The forum was the first held by the United Public Employees of Flagler, a group representing major public employee collective bargaining units within the county. Candidates — for the School Board, City Council, and County Commission — answered a series of questions formulated by the group and asked by moderator Patrick Juliano, a former firefighter and a current regional manager for Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater.
All of the candidates for the County Commission, City Council and School Board seats were invited to attend, Juliano said. The 16 who did were kept to minute-and-a-half time limits.
Some questions were asked only of candidates running for particular boards, with education questions asked of the School Board candidates, and city and county-related questions asked of City Council and County Commission candidates.
Several times, City Council and County Commission candidates spoke of tensions between the city of Palm Coast and the Flagler County government.
Incumbent County Commission District 1 candidate Charlie Ericksen mentioned it at the beginning of the forum while answering a question about what issues would be on his priority list, saying, "I'd like to see the working relationship between the city manager and the county administrator improve."
School Board District 3 incumbent Colleen Conklin earned audience applause after she said she'd "make sure that the policies that are being pushed down at our level, that ... we have he ability to say, 'No, we’re not going do certain things,'" and School Board District 5 candidate Myra Middleton-Valentine was the sole candidate to mention student achievement when asked about the role of the School Board and the school district superintendent.
Each of the 16 candidates, answering a question near the end of the forum, expressed their support for unions.
Here's a sample of what each candidate at the forum said when asked about their priorities (edited for length):
Pam Richardson, running for City Council District 3:
"The city has six goals which they’ve set up, and I believe we’re doing very well among that system. Those goals are for good expansion, economic growth, finance, environmental, quality of life and workforce talent. There was a strategic plan back in 2011 which outlined the programs in which they wanted to do these things. I stand for unity in the community. We’re all together on this. This is a great community to live in. I never lived anywhere like this. I’m from South Florida, I was raised there, and I watched that city outgrow every square. I used to say, ‘There’s not a square to spare.’ And when I’d see the wildlife living on concrete, people running over each other rushing through the city, I thought, ‘This is no place to live anymore. My home is gone.’ So I chose to come here, and I fell in love with this place, and I've decided that I should come here and pioneer the city to make sure that we don’t have the same problems that we got in South Florida, with smart growth, and great, great people."
Anita Moeder, running for City Council District 3:
"There are three areas that I would look at addressing. The first one is jobs. What I would look to do is bring in more jobs to Palm Coast to support the growth that is happening in our community. I’m not just talking about fast food or retail. I’m talking about career-type jobs that will really help our families stay in Palm Coast, as opposed to having to commute to Daytona or to Jacksonville or even to St. Augustine. The second part of my proposal is, I support the people projects surrounding senior citizen centers. I also support extending the activities that we offer to our kids after school, as well as looking for an extensive summer jobs program that we can really keep our kids busy and learning new skills to make them productive in the near future. The final one is financial responsibility. And what I mean by that is that we need to live within our means. That means that we have to pay off the debt that we have today, and it’s big. It means that we don’t take out additional loans. It means that we don’t raise taxes. It means that we don’t put in new taxes."
Sims Jones, running for City Council District 1:
"My first three areas would be: One is senior citizens. We have a large contingent of senior citizens in Palm Coast, and they don’t even have a senior citizen center. So my first thing is seeing what I can do about getting them a senior citizen center, because that was dear to my heart, and I’ve been working on this for years now, and I’m not going to give up until we have one in Palm Coast. My other thing is: young adults. Young adults have been the forgotten people. Because we have a lot of things for the younger children, we have some things for the senior citizens, but the young adults are hanging our on the corners, they’re getting in trouble. So we need to find something to work with the young adults. And lastly, I want to see a large transparency between the government and the people. … I want to be the mouthpiece for you, the people. I want to hear from you. I want to know what you want and the things you want to do, and then I want to implement those things."
Troy DuBose, running for City Council District 1:
"Bringing new jobs and new businesses to Palm Coast. That’s fundamental with anything, because as those jobs come in, more and more families will come in. We need to find out what we need to do to ensure that, and we need to implement the changes in order to get those jobs here. The second thing, I would say, is continue to make Palm Coast a safe place to live and work. I chose to raise my family here. I want my kids to feel safe riding bikes down the street and playing in the neighborhoods and in the parks. As far as young people go, we need to find a way to attract young families to here. And we might need to look at some of the resources that we have. I mean, we do live on the beach. We need to use those resources in order to market to younger families to get them to move here. So those are the things I would look at doing first, and continue building on what Palm Coast already is."
Milissa Holland, running for Palm Coast Mayor:
"My three priorities are simple: One is to forge a better working relationship with the county government. As a commissioner, I understood, when I first ran, that they were suing each other over water. Now we’re having issues and discussions about emergency management. And I can’t think of anything more critical than the safety of our residents, and ensuring the safety of our first responders. So I want to make sure that we’re forging a better relationship with the county, first and foremost. I also want to make sure we’re balancing future growth with our current infrastructure. In order to make sure that we’re saving and not wasting taxpayer dollars, we need to form better working relationships with Tallahassee. ... And the third is our quality of life. Everybody that relocated here or came to this community did so because it’s a beautiful place to live. We want to make sure that we’re continuing that path. We want to make sure that we’re continuing to increase property values by doing so."
John Brady, running for Palm Coast Mayor:
"When I first started to get petitions, I asked a lady to sign one of my petitions. She said, 'I’m not signing it.' I said, 'Why not?' She said, 'Because this city is in debt, and my children and grandchildren are in debt.' So that made me think, and that's always a dangerous thing. So, I agree with everything that these folks have said, but I’m going to add one caveat. I’ve developed a pledge and I’d like to see every candidate for city office agree to sign this pledge. And it says, 'I will honor the will of the people and cast my vote on the issues that’s expressed by the people, support a forensic audit of the utility department to determine why the goal of reducing the cost of water never materialized and why this department is in debt in excess of $149 million, support a charter review, support all efforts to reduce the outstanding debt and reduce the cost of the various city departments, and serve my full term with the city.' That’s a commitment I'd like to see my fellow candidates sign."
Myra Middleton-Valentine, running for School Board District 5:
"My focal points, I have six: Provide all students, from preschool through graduation, opportunities that lead to success. Right now, we have about 62% of a segment of the population who are not achieving. We want all students to achieve. Support qualified teachers who value and respect engagement of all learners. The classroom is the most important place for all students, and we have to have qualified teachers. We want to support or sustain effective programs that lead to global preparedness. We can’t prepare students any more for just our community, because their future is the world. We want to boost student access to behavioral and health, mental health, resources. ... We also want to enhance community partnerships through collaborative strategies. We’re already working on that, but we can boost that a little bit through our parent involvement of all segments of the population. And also, focus on a system of results and accountability."
Sharon Demers, running for School Board District 5:
"As a School Board member, the priority is to enforce the policies and follow the rules and regulations set by the federal government and the state, first off. I myself would promote safety in the schools for the teachers and the students. There's so much going on — that I just heard about today, as a matter of fact — that is horrific. I would like to promote and get the parents involved in what’s going on in the schools. They have to be number one for advancing their children, and if they’re not helping the children at home, this is an important issue and we need to figure a way to encourage them. I believe we should have a strategic plan so that we can analyze the school district and figure out where we need to focus. And lastly, I’d like to also focus on any waste that might be in the school district. I have an MBA, and being in business you learn how to pinch the penny and cut the fat."
Colleen Conklin, incumbent for School Board District 3:
"Some of the priorities, I think, especially in the times that we’re going through at the moment, are to continue to fight to keep teachers and students at the center of educational decisions that are made. Continue to fight for the funding of our adults with disabilities program. We lost our funding last year, we were able to keep the program going this year, and we were able to — through the efforts of lobbying and working with other partners in the community — to regain our funding and restore that funding for this year for these critically needed programs. Be a voice in the middle of all of the insanity that is happening in education at the moment and to be an advocate for the voice, I think, that is often left out and not at the table — are the students, and at times, the teachers. To make sure that the policies that are being pushed down at our level, that we have the, if you will, we have the ability to say 'No, we’re not going do certain things.'"
Jason Sands, running for School Board District 3:
"I will weigh everything with two non-negotiables, meaning it has to meet two criteria; everything we vote on has to meet two criteria. The first criteria: Does it improve the quality of the education of our students in Flagler County, yes or no? The second: Is it fiscally responsible? If either one of these fail, it has to fail. I would work to set policies to instill best practices. Policies that we currently have, are they still in best practice? What we set five years ago may have been great five years ago. Is it still effective? Is is still effective today, or will it be effective in five years? We don’t know. I believe we need to increase community engagement. We can have amazing teachers, and we do here in Flagler County, who can do all they can until they leave the schools. And after that, if we don’t have community engagement and parental engagement, chances are they’re not going make it. I think we need more push for technical and vocational classes in the school and programs. "
Donald O’Brien, running for County Commission District 5:
"I have five priorities that I think that we need to focus on. I think we need to hold county staff accountable to the strategic plan, and make sure we have metrics to measure against that. There’s other municipalities in this county that do that on a regular basis and publish the results, and I think we need to be doing that. I think we absolutely need to promote cooperation and team work between Flagler County and its other governments. ... We need to engage fellow citizens. And you know, I’ve been out there walking every day, like a lot of other candidates are, and it’s just absolutely amazing, the things you find out when you actually ask people and you engage them. But there needs to be — the commissioners, and myself particularly — needs to conduct town halls and get citizen feedback and engagement. We also need to promote smart spending that’s in line with the strategic plan, and we need to support an economic environment that makes it easier for business to want to come here, and for those that are here to do the best they can to create jobs."
George Hanns, incumbent for County Commission District 5:
"Many of the things in Flagler County that you all decided to move here for, I have my personal signature on — whether it be parks and recreation, the artificial reefs, almost every building has my name on it, and 17 commissioners, including myself, have come and gone on this board since I’ve been a county commissioner. Not all of them agreed with me; many are gone. But I will say this: We work together as a team. Not one individual’s going to showboat and take over a County Commission meeting. We all have mutual respect for each other. We hash out the problems that we're dealing with — currently, the budget: I’m proud to say that we’re probably in the top 40 of the state, having 67 counties — and it’s something that we’re very proud of. But the point is, later in life, I’ve had a full term with the carpenters’ union, being a builder, raising children; I really enjoy what I’m doing, I’m in my sixth term, I have energy, you won’t find me showboating at meetings, you’ll find me a very serious individual. … What we have today — people have relocated here, because of what we have. And I’m proud to say I’ve been a big part of it."
Barbara Revels, incumbent for County Commission District 3:
"We have a lot of challenges the county is facing right now. I came out of a budget meeting today, and of course, one of our issues is, I came into office during the downturn and we couldn’t shed employees and projects fast enough to try to get tax rates down and make ends meet. And now that things are stabilized, our good problem is, how to get back with our employees as far as giving the raises, giving them equity, looking at our health care insurance, and then replacing pickup trucks and bulldozers that are all failing. So that is our issue as we move forward, is to try to contain the taxes, the rise of the taxes as we know citizens are dreading and don’t want to see, but at the same time we’ve got to take care of our employees. ... We’ve got quality people, people on the county payroll that have done beautiful jobs and work for us. And we don’t need to lose them. We need them to hang in there and stay with us while we return to our great economy. My big hope is also that we can work together with the city. But I also want to continue some of the work that I’m doing ensure that there is a good service network for those that are less fortunate in this county."
Daniel Potter, running for County Commission District 1:
"When I was mayor of Oak Grove, Kentucky, I got heavy into economic development. I went to many many many classes through the University of Kentucky, and then I got back and I did the exact opposite from what they taught me and got big businesses in a little town outside of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I just do different approaches to things, and it definitely works. Now, I had no intention of running for office again once I’d left Oak Grove — I found a Goodwill on my way out of town with all my suits and everything in the back of it, and gave it to them — I got down here, and I’m looking at a lot of retail. Which is not bad. It’s not bad. But, retail is proportional is proportional to the demographics of the population, what people make, whatever; you can only have so much retail. Now, on the other hand, clean industry — we’ve got a beautiful setting down here, in Bunnell — clean industry is exponentially pliable, because what it does is it creates jobs, it brings people in, but it also helps retail. So what’s you’ve got is, bring in the clean industry, help the retail."
Charlie Ericksen, incumbent for County Commission District 1:
"My first one’s a little specific, and I think most of you will understand: I’d like to see the working relationship between the city manager and the county administrator improve. I’ve been here eight years, and seen very little improvement in that relationship. The elected officials in both Palm Coast and the county need to take the first step here to put those two talented gentlemen to cooperate much better with each other. We’ve already had some challenges, as Barbara (Revels) said, on the budget. I don’t like the way the budget is headed. It looks like a slight increase due to some of the problems that we’ve had — we’re a $1.5 million over in our health insurance — and I think we need to take care of our employees, with as little an increase in contribution as possible. … We’ve solved at least some of the temporary fire problems out on the west end by reopening the old station out there, but I’m ashamed of walking into Station 92 and seeing the inside of that. I think that needs to be immediately remodeled and/or replaced. We’ve had some discussions with regard to projects out there that just are not possible this year, one of which is a new southern library."
Jason DeLorenzo, running for County Commissioner District 1:
"In 2010, myself and roughly 20 other citizens spent two years rewriting the Flagler County comprehensive plan, and it was adopted in 2011. And very few of those strategies have been completed. A handful of them have. So I think we need to refocus our efforts on completing what was our plan, our 2035 plan, for the county. Also, we need to continue our economic development efforts. We still are too heavily reliant on residential real estate. We haven’t been able to diversify our economy good enough. We’re back to a construction economy, and that’s not good for the long-term health of our community. We need to continue our efforts to diversify and bring in a larger industrial and commercial base, tax base. ... I think we need to have a five-year capital budget plan, something that looks forward, that’s more proactive, also a 10-year lookout so you can identify future needs so they’re not surprises. We need to have a better understanding of what our community needs are so we can know how to pay for them in the future. And we need to continue to pursue funding for a fixed-route transit system."
