ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – Hundreds of people attended a community forum hosted by the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce to meet candidates running for office.
The forum was held on Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. at the Solomon Calhoun Center in St. Augustine.
It was a rare opportunity and cars filled the parking lot so others had to park next to the sidewalk.
A lot of the candidates learned what voters cared about, including St. Augustine South resident Carol Gangi.
“I was going to the Board of Commissioners meeting, the fact that you go up there, and you talk for your 3 minutes, and they do not respond,” Gangi said. “I have sent 40 emails. They don’t even answer them. And then they have the audacity to come to a meeting and say, ‘Oh, we’ve already addressed all those issues,’ but they’ve never responded.”
Gangi said she did her research on the candidates.
“I read them all yesterday online, and I know exactly who I’m voting for Aug. 20 and it would be the two Anns and Clay,” Gangi said. “That’s who we’re voting for.”
Gary Howell has lived in St. Johns County for 70 years and feels the candidates currently in office are doing a great job.
“We have some newcomers and newcomers have good ideas, great ideas, but sometimes those ideas have already been presented to us by people who are in office and so sometimes it’s better to keep what you got,” Howell said.
Howell is hoping the County Commission addresses issues with traffic and roads.
“I think our county commissioners need to be aggressive,” Howell said. “They need to be proactive. I believe in being proactive. When a situation arises, you look into it right away. Or you even just keep looking and listen to the residents and they’ll tell you what’s going on, what your concerns are and address them.”
Howell talked about the current issue that county commissioners running for reelection are dealing with.
"They’re having to deal with the growth,” Howell said. “That’s not always easy to do. As I say, I’ve been here a long time. I’ve seen how St. Johns County has grown from, say 30,000 people to 300,000 people. And that’s difficult to deal with. And it’s come fast in the last 10-12 years. And that’s a tough job.”
Attendees had the chance to vote for their favorite candidate in a straw poll and the results will be posted on the chamber’s website.
Eight of the 10 candidates running across three districts for county commission were at the forum to meet voters.
District 1
In District 1, current County Commissioner Christian Whitehurst is facing Ann-Marie Evans and Weston Ferguson.
Ferguson was not in attendance.
Whitehurst said he wants to finish what the current commission started.
“We want to continue setting that expectation for new developments that come into the county making big investments into public safety,” Whitehurst said. “We’ve funded four new fire stations with sheriff substations. Continuing to ensure that St. Johns County is one of the safest places to live in the state is a top priority for me. And then quality of life enhancements, like the parks, like the trails, like the conservation efforts that we’ve made.”
Evans said she wants to slow the growth in the county, improve infrastructure, and keep taxes low.
“I think those are the three things that really matter to people -- slow the growth,” Evans said. “When you have overdevelopment. There are consequences to that. If you don’t have infrastructure, traffic becomes worse for everybody. Our kids go to school. There’s overcapacity, and they’re in portables. It also destroys our environment. I’d like to reduce clear-cutting as well.”
District 3
In District 3, current Commissioner Roy Alaimo is challenged by Clay Murphy, Heather Harley-Davidson, and Michael McDonald.
Alaimo talked about what he hopes to do if re-elected.
“Public safety is always going to be No. 1, managing the growth for the future, making sure projects are compatible and that we have the infrastructure, and then, of course, keeping our taxes low, and keeping the quality of life high,” Alaimo said.
McDonald said the county needs more representation, accountability, and less waste. He also shared how he plans to address voter concerns about rapid growth in the county.
“I’m hoping to move forward logically and consider the projects that come to fruition when they come to fruition. We’re not going to bend to them whenever. We’ll use the Development Review Board and the development code and emphasize on that,” McDonald said.
Harley-Davidson is hoping to address issues with overdevelopment if she’s elected.
“I’ve lived here 55 years, I’ve raised four children here, I surf, I hunt, we have lived off the land, we enjoy our natural resources, we’ve got to protect them,” Harley-Davidson said. “And we have to protect the rights of the ordinary people.”
Murphy hopes to put a cap on overgrowth and also address that overgrowth by building new schools if he’s elected.
“We’re jam-packing our schools,” Murphy said. “So we have to go into the legislature to the state legislature in saying this 150% rule where you can’t release funds until you build another school until you’re at 150% capacity. There needs to be an exception for that for the fastest-growing counties in the state.”
District 5
In District 5, Commissioner Henry Dean is facing Ann Taylor and John Higbee III.
Higbee III was not in attendance.
Dean said his focus if he’s reelected is creating a county housing authority, keeping beaches healthy and restored, and revisiting a tree ordinance that would strengthen protections of specimen trees.
“Well, I enjoy what I do,” Dean said. “I like helping people. I like restoring beaches. I like building new parks and fire stations. That’s underway now. And I would just hope people would see the things that I’ve been able to accomplish and vote for me.”
Ann Taylor hopes to slow the rapid growth of the county and preserve and protect county land.
“We’ve got to slow the residential growth and let our infrastructure catch up,” Taylor said. “So what I mean by infrastructure, that means our roads, that means our fire department, our sheriff, our schools, everything comes into that.”
Early voting in St. Johns County starts on Aug. 10 and runs until Aug. 17. Election Day is Aug. 20.
Click here to see the full list of candidates who attended the event.