- April 23, 2024
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Jack Howell will run against former Palm Coast mayor Jon Netts for the Palm Coast City Council District 2 seat that will be vacated by Councilwoman Heidi Shipley, who is not running for re-election.
Howell, a retired Marine colonel and the founder of Teens-In-Flight — the organization that provides flight training to at-risk teens and to teenagers who have lost a parent or sibling serving in the active duty armed forces — made the announcement that he was running for the seat during Flagler Broadcasting's Free For All Friday program the morning of May 11, shortly after filing in his paperwork at City Hall.
"I’ve got a lot of background in leadership, being a former colonel of Marines, and I see there has been some stagnation in getting things done," he said on the radio program. "And I want to make sure that the city manager and City Council work together, and that the city manager is held accountable, and that we have a total, transparent look at what’s going on in the government — no filters."
He added that he's friends with members of the County Commission, suggesting that would make him able to help the city work through its tensions with the county government.
"Two of those (County Commission) guys are contemporaries of mine as Navy captains," Howell said. "We can work things out so that there isn’t this kind of head-butting deal that’s been going on."
He also said he'd like to work to attract good jobs to Palm Coast.
"You know, I see so many people working two or three jobs to make ends meet," he said. "We need now to really push for a job where you can start out at $18 or $20 an hour and have a living wage."
