Kerry Smith: Candidate, Santa Rosa County Commissioner, District 2
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is an interview conducted via questionnaire by the Pensacola News Journal with Escambia and Santa Rosa County election candidates for their respective races. All of the answers were submitted to the Pensacola News Journal by the candidate and are available to our readers to show the candidates' position and priorities on the issues. Candidates were limited to 750 words. IF A CANDIDATE DID NOT RETURN A QUESTIONNAIRE BY DEADLINE, THEIR Q&A WAS NOT PUBLISHED.
Candidate: Kerry Smith
Office you're seeking: Santa Rosa County Commissioner District 2
Occupation: Realtor
Education: Pensacola Jr. College AA Degree
More about this race: Infrastructure key component in four-way battle for Santa Rosa District 2 Commission seat
Why are you running for this office? I saw a deficiency within the BOCC concerning the development of Santa Rosa County. There is a need for county commissioners to listen to their constituents' needs and concerns, and to stop paying more attention to the developers. The BOCC is continuing to approve more and more subdivisions with no roadway concurrency in place. Most of the major arteries in SRC are already scoring D or worse and if there were roadway concurrency in place, they would all be at F. Roadway concurrency is what is needed to have a proper highway count when considering new developments in any given area. Without concurrency, all approved developments are not taken into account when new subdivisions are proposed; therefore, the DOT grade (i.e. road is graded A to F-) of the road is never diminished until the houses are built and occupied. When a new subdivision is proposed the arterial road may have a C- grade but in reality, it is a D- or even worse an F.
What makes you stand out from your opponent(s)? I will never take any campaign donations from the developers.
Previous elective office/ elective office experience: President of my Rotary Club.
What are your three most important priorities if you are elected or re-elected? 1. Roadway Concurrency. 2. Impact Fees on new development. 3. Rewrite Land Development Code.
How would you implement Priority 1? Press to have roadway concurrency added back to the comprehensive plan. As one of five I would need to impress this upon two other members of the board, but I would press for this to be on the agenda and I would continue to do this until it is passed. This will be the measure that makes roadway expansion THE priority.
How would you implement Priority 2? I feel confident that I can garner the vote for this, however I am the only candidate in the District 2 race that has come out as a strong proponent of impact fees.
How would you implement Priority 3? Again, this will take the same amount of work and diligence as my first priority. These are not very popular with the builder/development sector, and it will take persistence.
How will you approach the growing infrastructure needs with the growth and development our community is experiencing? Without wasting too much of my word count allocation, refer to my three priorities.
In what ways will you work to promote civility among your colleagues and with the public, especially when dealing with divisive or controversial issues? There is not currently any divisiveness amongst the Santa Rosa BoCC, as they all tend to vote in favor of poorly planned development in the county with very little conversation. However, there is a very contentious atmosphere when you include the public, and I believe this to be rightfully so, as the current BoCC tends to put the desires of their constituents to side and focus more on the desires of their donors. There is a need for a voice for the people on the board at this time, otherwise the public will continue to raise their voices and disrupt the meetings with outburst and anger towards the BoCC. I have been in business for some time now and as a small business owner that has always had to deal with the public, I believe I possess the skills to bring a voice of reason to the table. There is a large contingent of citizens that believe they are not being heard, and that their ideas are falling on deaf ears. While this may not be entirely true, perception is reality.
What policy proposals do you have to increase the supply of affordable housing in our community? As a small government conservative, I believe we can accomplish this with limited government oversight and come up with a solution in concert with private enterprise. “If more government is the answer; it was a stupid question to begin with.” - Ronald Reagan