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Five in contest for City Council seats
By MAUREEN BYRNE AHERN SEMINOLE -- Dig out your voter identification card. There will be an election here on March 5 for three seats on the City Council. Seminole voters have a month to decide which three of five City Council candidates will spend the next two years making decisions about the city's future. Carol Hajek and Bob Matthews are incumbents whose terms expire next month. Council member Jim Dunn is stepping down. The challengers are political newcomers Janet Long, John Counts and Ed Dobyns. All five met the requirements for candidacy before the qualifying period ended Friday. The top three vote-getters will become council members, who serve two-year terms and are paid $5,400 annually. Counts, 35, was born and raised in St. Petersburg. He moved to the Quail Ridge neighborhood in Seminole in 2000. He is a bank manager, is married and has a 4-year-old daughter. Counts said no particular issue propelled him to seek a seat on the council. Rather, he said, it's a matter of civic duty. "It's long been my belief if you have a commitment to your community, then you should contribute the best way you can based on your resources," he said. Dobyns, 85, is a retired career diplomat and has lived in Seminole Lake Country Club Estates since 1975. He said after working with politicians for years, he wanted to run for office himself. Yet he wasn't able to seek a seat on Seminole's council because his neighborhood was unincorporated. It wasn't until Seminole Lake Country Club Estates joined the city in 2000 that he became a resident. "Finally, it came to pass because of annexation," said Dobyns, who has three children, one granddaughter and two great-grandsons. Long, 57, may be a newcomer to Seminole politics, but she is no stranger in Seminole. She regularly attends City Council meetings and serves on the board for the Greater Seminole Area Chamber of Commerce. The owner of a consulting company, she is married and has three children and two grandchildren. Matthews, 57, said his experience and commitment to the community are his strong points. A council member since 1990, he said he listens to residents' concerns and tries to solve them. An instrument technician with Florida Power Corp., Matthews is married and has two grown children. Hajek, 67, says she wants to remain on the council to see the completion of city projects, mainly the joint-use library. If she retains her seat, she will serve her fourth term on the council. She is a real estate agent and serves on the chamber's board of directors.
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