Alachua Voter Guide

The Savannah Grande on North Main Street was the place, and the turnout was weak, compared to past League events. Of course, it was competing with a Florida Gators home game, which could not have helped. And, for the purposes of this website, it also didn’t help that I forgot to charge my voice recorder. This leaves us all at the mercy of my rather terse notes and their further debilitating handwriting. However, I will do my best in reporting back to you about this event.

First, there was a very civil debate between Lorraine Sherman and Denise Ferrero about their qualifications for being an Alachua County Judge. It set Ferrero’s rather mountainous legal experience against Sherman’s life experience. Sherman has frequently said she had “a life before the law” which included raising four children. It all depends on what the electorate’s criteria for a good judge is: expertise, or empathy. Both are good candidates, as far as I can tell, but they do bring something different. Listen here for the complete audio.

The next two races were for the State House, Districts 11 and 23. In District 11, first termer Debbie Boyd, a Democrat, had to go on without her challenger, Republican Elizabeth Porter. Porter’s campaign had told the League of Women Voters that she would be there, but she never came. Boyd talked about her work in the Florida Legislature and made sure that her audience knew that she was a fiscal conservative.

In District 23, Democratic incumbent Chuck Chestnut went on without his opponent, Republican Bernie DeCastro, whose campaign had begged off, saying they had somewhere else to be. Chestnut blamed all the state’s woes on the current Republican majority in the Florida House and Senate.

In the Alachua County Commission races we had some actual candidate comparisons to make. In District 1, Democratic incumbent Mike Byerly squared off against newcomer Kevin Riordan, a Republican. In their opening statements, Byerly stated that his chief concerns were environmental and growth management issues and the local government’s greatest challenges are rising energy costs and decreasing tax revenues. Riordan believes the most important tasks are boosting economic development, taxes and how they are spent, and improving education.

Both candidates expanded on their positions as questions were put to them. Riordan believes we must combine solving traffic problems with economic growth by pursuing the construction of a local beltway. This road system would decrease congestion in the city while creating enterprise zones along the route. He also thinks the county’s comprehensive plan should be business friendly in its creation, as opposed to having to get exemptions all the time. Byerly thinks the comp plan should be rigid and hard to amend, so that business has to play by the rules of the people who made it. He also points out that growth leads to higher taxes to pay for more services. That is why his vision for the future includes less change.

In District 5, Repubican challenger Ward Scott came armed with lots of research and a copy of the county’s budget to challenge Rodney Long, a Democrat who has been on the county commission since he was elected in 2000. Long said that he believes that serving as an elected official is his calling.

When asked how to ballance the budget, Scott pointed out that property taxes have increased 100% from 1998 to 2007, while the population has increased by only 16%. Commissioner Long said that it is our first priority to take care of those who are the least among us, and that the problem is that our criminal justice system accounts for 42% of the budget. I didn’t catch an answer to the question from either of them.

When asked if the candidates favored county/city government unification, they stayed on the topic of unifying fire service. Long is for it, has fought for it for years, and plans on putting a binding referendum on the ballot in 2010. Scott says that the small municipalities have tired of waiting for it to get done and created a workaround agreement. But, according to Scott, the county has refused to recognize it. He says the county government is actually paying out-of-county fire services to serve Alachua County’s unincorporated area rather than honor the local agreement.

In the ever-popular realm of traffic and congestion, both candidates are miles apart. Long favors creating park and ride situations for out of county commuters, and better traffic flow management. He opposes wider roads. Scott believes we need to get rid of the Metropolitan Transportation Planning Orgnaization (MTPO).

This is all for now. I will return later with information about ballot initiatives that were presented by Joe Little.