- April 24, 2024
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The first rule of medicine is ‘Do no harm.’ Jon Netts, who is up for re-election as mayor in 2011, said, ‘That’s good advice for an elected official.’
Long before Jon Netts was elected mayor of Palm Coast, he was a schoolteacher, administrator and City Council member in New Jersey. His wife, Priscilla, said they often spent evenings playing games with friends.
“They used to call him, ‘The Univac,” Priscilla said, referring to one of the first computers. “You could not play games with him. He new every answer — any trivia … He is the smartest person I have known in my life.”
That praise could be biased, considering it comes from his wife, but others back it up.
As CEO of the Northeast Florida Regional Council, Brian Teeple has dealt with dozens of elected officials for more than two decades.
“The mayor is one of the brightest elected officials I’ve ever known in my career,” he said. “He understands issues. He grasps them, and he’s the first one to ask extremely insightful and probing questions.”
Teeple also said Netts bucks the typical politician stereotypes.
Another regional leader, David Roach, executive director of the Florida Inland Navigation District, agreed.
“He’s a very intelligent person,” said Roach, whose organization deals with representatives from almost 300 municipalities. “He tells you exactly what he’s thinking … There’s not a back story with Jon, in terms of what he’s trying to accomplish. He’s doing it for the right reasons. He’s doing it to serve, to make his community and where he lives better, and I don’t think it’s really gone to his head like I see with a lot of other politicians who end up in it for their own personal gains.
“He’s one of the finest I’ve met in my 27 years here.”
Teeple and Roach praised Netts for working to keep an open line of communication with the Flagler County government, as well. Teeple said that, while Palm Coast and Flagler have their disagreements, the relationship is more cooperative than most.
Netts said he believes in looking at the big picture, and that’s why he serves on regional boards, such as the Northeast Florida Regional Council and FIND. He also is on the Regional Transportation Study Commission and the Regional Community Institute. In each case, he said, Palm Coast can plan all it wants, but many decisions are subject to regional agencies for approval, so it pays to have representation.
“If we don’t have a voice there, the rest of the region is going to make decisions for us,” he said.
One related example is the city’s water utility company, which Netts favored purchasing several years ago, despite its price tag, because he felt it would help the city determine its own destiny, as far as water is concerned.
He also was the only City Council member to vote against the City Hall proposal five years ago, saying it was too costly and the design unreasonable.
This year, City Hall is once again a hot topic, and Netts knows it can be a defining issue in 2011, when Netts will have to campaign to be re-elected for a second four-year term as mayor.
As of now, with the information available, he favors building a City Hall this time around because construction costs are low, the building industry needs jobs, and he likes the idea of moving into a space that will be better suited for government workflow — and more energy efficient — than the current city office location, in City Marketplace.
And so, he is prepared for the campaign season this year. He has been in government for about two decades, one in New Jersey, and one in Palm Coast.
“Somebody has to do it,” he said. “By virtue of my experience, I’m equipped to do it.”
His goal is simple: Make Palm Coast a better place to live.
“I don’t have the ability or the inclination to pack up and go somewhere else,” he said. “I know what brought me here. I know what I liked about Palm Coast when I decided to locate here, and I’m absolutely committed to making sure it persists.”
JON NETTS
Age: 68
Title: Mayor of Palm Coast
Number: 0 — socks on his feet. He only wears socks “in weddings and funerals, where the lack of socks may be seen as disrespectful,” he said.
