MILTON — Election season is underway and, in Santa Rosa County, that means three of five districts are open for new commissioners.
Jayer Williamson vacated his District 1 seat to run for state representative. Three candidates — Mark Cotton, Sam Parker and Caleb Lee Boudreaux, a write-in candidate — qualified to take his place.
In District 3, incumbent Commissioner Don Salter faces two challengers, Marvin Fowler Sr. and Aubrey Penton.
Lane Lynchard, current commission chairman, is running unopposed for his District 5 chair.
Candidates responded to the Press Gazette’s questions on their background, platform, and what they believe are Santa Rosa County’s most pressing issues.
DISTRICT 1
MARK COTTON
Background: “I am a life-long resident of Santa Rosa County. I’ve lived in the same home in Pace for 26 years, Milton, and 24 years in Gulf Breeze prior to that, making 52 years total. I attended Gulf Breeze High School and Pensacola State College.
“I’ve been married for 28 years to Cindy Baxter Cotton. We have three daughters and four grandchildren, all in Santa Rosa County.”
“I am a real estate broker at Cotton Real Estate, Inc. and own Cotton Electric Inc. and various real estate investments.”
Community involvement: Served in numerous organizations in school, church, civic and business areas. Past president of Santa Rosa County Board of Realtors, past president of Pace Area Chamber of Commerce, and served 13 years in the appointed position of Santa Rosa County Planning Board of Adjustments, on the Contractor Competency Board and a State Department of Health Panel.
Why are you running? “I am running to continue over 30 years of service to our county. I have many years of experience working with and serving the people of our county. My youngest daughter has recently graduated college, which allows me more time to devote to working in our community.
“I want to protect the things that make our county special, our qualities of life here, which include keeping our taxes low, our crime rate low, our schools great and our economy healthy.
“I want to work to foster better job opportunities here, not only with new business, but also with our existing businesses. I have a lot of Santa Rosa County experience to offer as well as hopefully some wisdom.”
Platform: “…Protect what we love about our county, take care of what we have here and contribute to a future we will be proud to be a part of.”
What are two of the most important issues facing the county? “Those are the pressure for increased taxes and growth management. While we have a county to run and expected services to provide to our residents, I think we must be vigilant to not allow our property taxes to creep up. This happens too easily in other places, and it is how they got to where they are now with taxes.
“Santa Rosa County’s budget consists of several sources of revenue; but it is too dependent upon the property tax portion of revenue (twice the average across the state) and should be more broadly supported; I want to see fair taxes, not more taxes.
“Additionally, the individual county departments’ budget review process should start new every year, and every department should justify their requests and be held to a necessary budget, not a desired budget.
As to growth management regarding traffic and infrastructure, although most of our traffic issues occur along the state highways, there are ways we can work as a county to improve safety and efficiency. At each intersection, where a county road intersects a state highway, the county still has some jurisdiction and control. Adding turn lanes where needed, interconnections between certain roads and even lighting at some intersections can be helpful in improving safety and better traffic flow.
“We should insist on precise synchronization of traffic lights and pursue better north-south interconnectivity between highways and major collectors. For one example, it’s over 5 miles between West Spencer Field and Glover Lane, the two connector roads between Highway 90 and Berryhill Road.
“All traffic headed to places north from the major shopping areas must remain on 90 to the east or to the west in order to eventually be able to turn north; I think significant traffic could be filtered off 90 if they could turn north, where it makes sense, rather than going 5 miles out of their way, and being part of the highway traffic, to get to Berryhill and points north.
This would provide relief along 90 between Avalon and Glover Lane and along West Spencer Field Road near Hammersmith. Similar situations occur in the south parts of the county between 98 and 399.
“We can address better efficiency of our existing roads now, rather than waiting for the state to expand the highways.
SAM PARKER
Background: 32 years old, live in Pace, and grew up in Milton. Graduated from Milton High School and received an A.A. from Pensacola Junior College in general studies, a B.A. from University of West Florida in criminal justice, and a master’s in Public Administration from Troy University.
Owner of a real estate investment company, Second Chance 850 LLC, and work as a realtor for Main Street Properties Inc.
Married to Candace Parker for 11 years and have two children.
Served as property appraiser in 2001, Florida Department of Corrections officer from 2005-2007, a substitute teacher at Bagdad Elementary from 2006-2007, and an Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputy from 2007-2015.
Why are you running? “I am running because I’m concerned about the community where I am raising my children. I want to do everything possible to ensure that future generations enjoy a great quality of life and have opportunities to work at good careers and raise their families here.
“As a county commissioner, I want to work towards improving our infrastructure to meet the needs of our growing population.
“Working with small businesses to help them grow, promoting tourism, and attracting new industry to our industrial parks are some of my top priorities.
“I have four priorities: bring more high-paying job opportunities to Santa Rosa County’s industrial parks, improve existing roadways and build new roadways to alleviate traffic congestion, and support Naval Air Station Whiting Field, and work to boost tourism in Santa Rosa County.”
What are two of the most important issues facing Santa Rosa County? “Proper management of growth is going to be imperative in order for Santa Rosa County residents to maintain a high quality of life.
“Our population has grown rapidly during the past decade, and we continue to see unprecedented growth in the Navarre and Pace areas. Our infrastructure is struggling to keep up; our schools, roadways and storm water management framework aren’t being improved fast enough to keep up with the demands that are being placed on them.
“I will work to address our infrastructure needs, and properly manage the growth Santa Rosa County is experiencing so that it continues to be a great place for families to live.
“Another important issue facing our county is the need for our young people to have high-quality career opportunities here in Santa Rosa County. We need to take deliberate steps towards attracting more industry and manufacturing companies to our industrial parks.
“I am ready to put my education and work ethic to use in order to help our current business owners, both big and small, as well as attract new businesses that can offer high paying jobs to Santa Rosa County residents.”
DISTRICT 3
MARVIN FOWLER SR.
Background: Lifelong Santa Rosa County resident; the first 12 years in Jay, then in the Pace-Wallace Community since. Married to Patricia Smith; the couple’s combined family includes four children living and 11 grandchildren. After finishing high school, he drove a school bus for a year and then worked at Monsanto for three years. “After this, I worked for Southern Bell-AT&T for 22 years doing electrical work on side. Getting caught in downsizing of AT&T, I started my own communications business and retired (in) January 2015.”
Why are you running? “The main reason (I’m running) is, for the last 16 years, we haven’t gotten a lot accomplished. We are no closer on the courthouse than we were 17 years ago. That's not vision in my book. When they put it on the ballot last time, they put three choices. They should have had two, then one would have passed. All they did was muddy the water and confuse people. That's the main reason.
“We talked to people who moved here from Pensacola because of the quality of life. The schools are better, and they didn't have to put up with what they did in Pensacola. For years this was called a bedroom community. That's changing. We are getting places for people to work and, hopefully, better jobs.”
Platform: “I would say I’m conservative. There are a lot of things we could be doing to save money for the county and are not doing. One of the main reasons I got involved was nobody else would step up to the plate and run.
“We're saying we’ve got to balance the budget but the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office is saying they need more money. We’re not balancing the budget because we still have needs. We've got to get realistic. We're saying want to cut government, but we have to separate our wants from needs. We’ve got to take care of the needs first and the wants, we get them as we can.
“I'm for user fees. I know there are some things the county can get in and build. I think people who use those, like libraries, should keep them up. They're available. Everybody uses the roads.”
What are the two biggest issues facing Santa Rosa County? “The biggest issue right now is growth. You’d have to say that's number one. There are so many ramifications, like the way of life and quality of life, but on the same token, with the new people coming in we should be able to absorb them in and bring into the county without too much of a bind, should be almost transparent.
“The money they're spending to get here, not for an impact fee, when a subdivision comes in he pays for paving drainage water liens sewer lines, when that customer moves in they're paying for all that up front and financing it for 30 years, if pay 10k more then cost in the nbrhood of 30k for 30 years for same services, plus when they move in they pay the water tap fee, sewer and water double on that, you can't double charge these people, why I'm not for an impact fee because they already pay for this. Shouldn't make impact because already contributing
The courthouse is a big issues becuase of all the money that's been spent, $ put into it to make a reality, the two at the moment.
DON SALTER, INCUMBENT
Background: The Santa Rosa County native is married to the former Kaye Matlock and has one son, Donnie.
Salter graduated from Troy State University with a Masters of Science in Management degree.
Before becoming a commissioner, Salter worked for Gulf Power Company and retired in 2000 after finishing a 32-year career. His last 10 years, he was the Santa Rosa County district manager, and was responsible for all company operations.
Salter also served as a United States Army Paratrooper from 1965-1968. He served his last 15 months in Vietnam with the 173rd Airborne Brigade as a combat platoon sergeant and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
Salter was first elected to office in November 2000 and re-elected in 2004 and 2008. Salter is the most senior Commissioner of the Board of County Commissioners. He also served as Chairman during 2004 and 2009.
Why are you running? “First of all, I'm a native Santa Rosan. I've worked many years to improve the quality of life in Santa Rosa County, especially through job creation and providing recreational opportunities for our children.
“Most importantly, I'm running again to ensure the continued presence of Naval Air Station Whiting Field, to continue the buffering efforts around that base, and to make it more competitive in the next round of base realignment closure.
“In 1993, Whiting was strongly considered for closure or realignment and then in … 1995, Whiting was on the list to be reviewed and, through our local efforts, we were able to get it removed from that list. So as long as we have other areas who are performing primary training like Texas, Mississippi, and Fort Rucker Alabama, we're always going to be concerned.
“My platform is I've worked most of my adult life to improve SRC. I've been fortunate to bring my corporate experience from Gulf Power Company to the county to help better run it as a corporation and not just a government entity.”
What are two of the most important issues facing Santa Rosa County? “I think probably revenue parity. We have got to have a dedicated source of user revenue, like the sales tax, to take the pressure off of property taxes. We in Santa Rosa County depend too heavily on property taxes instead of having a good mix of revenue where everyone pays and not just property owner.
“Back in the late 90s there was a sales tax to build a new jail, but it sunseted (ended) when the jail was finished.
With our county's fast growth, it's imperative that we have another source of revenue to keep up with our infrastructure and the fairest way to do that is through a sales tax and once again take the pressure off that property tax.
Congressman Jeff Miller is retiring who is a strong advocate for our military and our veterans in Washington DC. It's going to be extremely important to have someone at the local level who truly understands the issues facing our military base in the future and I have 25 years of experience in doing that to be better able to work with a new congressman whomever that may be.
AUBREY PENTON
Background: 64; born in Brewton, Alabama and raised in Milton. After high school graduation from Allentown High School (now Central School) attended Nashville Auto-Diesel College and Pensacola State College.
Currently operates a small cattle ranch; retired from Cytec industries/Sterling Chemicals and Aubrey Electric LLC.
Married to Kathy Dozier Penton. The couple have four daughters and four grandchildren and reside in the Allentown Community.
Why are you running? “I decided to run for office after seeing how some elected officials appear to forget that they work for the people, and tend to pursue their own agenda.
“I decided to run a No Party Affiliation Campaign to avoid a three-way race, which tends to split the vote and make it very difficult for a challenger to win. I will be on the Nov. 8 ballot and face the winner of the Aug. 30 primary, which should have a large turnout, giving more people a voice in choosing their next county commissioner.
Platform: “If I am elected I will not vote for a property tax increase, nor will I threaten a property tax increase to push an issue on the electorate.”
What are two of the most important issues facing Santa Rosa County? “The two most important issues facing Santa Rosa County today, according to what I’ve heard on the campaign trail, are on the ballot for the Aug. 30 primary:
“Courthouse — The vote on the Local Option Sales Tax really is a vote for or against the downtown Milton location. If you want the courthouse in downtown Milton, you should vote for the tax. If you do not want the courthouse in the downtown location you should vote against the tax.
“Infrastructure — The half-cent L.O.S.T for infrastructure is written in such a vague language there is really no guarantee where the money would be spent. Santa Rosa is no longer considered a small county, which means we no longer qualify for certain state funding. We will need this tax at some point, but I do not support it the way it is written.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Get to know your county commission candidates