Position Sought: City Commissioner of Flagler Beach (Incumbent)1. Please tell readers about yourself.Grew up in the Northeast part of the country. Graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy and College. My career has been in Real Estate and Business Management. Before moving to Flagler Beach, I was a Regional Director for a Fortune 500 retailer, responsible for 500mm P&L and 1500 employees. Looking for a change of lifestyle, I purchased the 7-Eleven on A1a in Flagler Beach. I’ve been living and working on the island for almost 7 years now. I have participated in scores of volunteer projects such as beach cleanups, Feed Flagler, Flagler Co Assist REACT, and the Green Dunes Project. Looking to make a larger impact, I have been serving as Flagler Beach City Commissioner for 3 years now, helping the City navigate thru Hurricane damage, A1a closure and repair, a pandemic, and the hiring of a new City Manager. I have successfully worked with Commission to make Flagler Beach more supportive of the business sector thru ordinance changes and staff interactions, been a large voice for fiscal responsibility and this last budget pushing for and achieving the roll back millage rate which saved taxpayers from paying any tax increase vs LY, spearheaded the cities aggressive stance and demands concerning The Gardens development and our standing with this item concerning Flagler County, and been a outspoken voice for the City concerning addressing misinformation.I greatly enjoyed my time as Commissioner and feel I have made a large and consistent impact. There is still much more to address as hurricanes, the pandemic, and the loss of our city manager has slowed progress. I look forward to increased productivity and solid, long term decision making during my next 3-year term serving the residents as City Commissioner.
2. What experience makes you uniquely qualified to hold the position you are seeking?
First and foremost is community involvement. I am a full time resident and business owner. If I am not working at my public interaction retail business, in my spare time I am usually volunteering with a group here in the city. All of this interaction with so many members of the public enables me to have a unique perspective that is always freshly updated as to what is important to the citizens. This allows me to be a strong voice for the community with issues brought to the city and be in tune with the desires of the citizens.
3. What do you think are the Top 3 issues facing Flagler Beach in the next five years and how will you address each?
1 – Long term planning. Our city needs to get long term strategic planning in place. It currently does not exist. The current strategic plan only addresses 1-2 years out. There is a lot of issues facing the city in the coming years and solutions need put in place now. Many of the challenges can be met by having a clear, concise plan in place. I plan to make this my highest priority when the new city manager starts and work with Commission to get this process in place and active.
2 – Aging infrastructure. Over the last few decades, the City has not completed the maintenance and upgrades needed to keep our infrastructure updated, current, or reliable. This is a problem that will require a multi-year solution. I plan to have this worked into our strategic plan and in addition, ensure all grant possibilities are being pursued to expedite the fixes and keep the financial impact as low as possible to the taxpayers.
3 – Cost burden of tourism. While tourism is a good economic driver for the business sector, it comes with a high cost burden to the city. I plan to work with the new city manager and new mayor on ways to capture additional funding from the county and state.
4. Local, state and federal officials must work together to ensure the community is successful as a whole. What qualities do you possess that make you a consensus builder?
I have been a proven consensus builder for decades. My experience as a successful executive this skill was utilized daily. I am a strategist and a tactician. I utilize calm, fact driven, data rich, arguments in my interactions to gain by-in from other parties. I also very good with follow up. Part of getting alignment, is consistent, small, incremental steps. I have the drive to see those thru. Engaged citizens have been able to view my consensus building talents in action at our city meetings with numerous topics but most recently lowering the proposed tax mill rate, and Flagler Beaches stance regarding the Gardens development.
5. What is the number one issue you hope to address as an elected official?
As stated above, it would be implementing solid and comprehensive long term strategic planning. This city must clearly define and understand its upcoming challenges and have a rock solid plan in place to meet them in the coming years. There is nothing more important and nothing more lacking. I plan to fix that. We owe it to our future generations to manage current affairs correctly.
