The direction of Brooksville will be determined by the two candidates elected Tuesday and three new faces in 2006.
By DUANE BOURNE
Published October 29, 2004
BROOKSVILLE - With no incumbents on the ballot, the contests for Brooksville City Council Group 2 and 3 seats are wide open.
Five candidates are running for the two seats being vacated by council members Richard Lewis, who is prevented from running for a third consecutive term, and Vice Mayor Joe Bernardini, who chose not to seek re-election. Council members serve four-year terms.
Thus far the race has been without rancor. The candidates say they don't want to criticize each other, because most of them don't know enough about each other to form an opinion.
But the candidates - Pat Brayton and David Pugh Jr. for Group 2, Frankie Burnett, Brent Gaustad and Robert Osmond in the Group 3 contest - all share the opinion that this year's election will have a significant impact on the future of the city and the direction of the City Council, which because of term limits will get three new faces in 2006.
The five candidates acknowledge that the city's tax base will increase with the completion of the Southern Hills Plantation and agree on the need for infrastructure to support development in the city.
All five candidates pledge to balance the needs of an improving municipal budget while not increasing the burden of taxes and fees on city residents. They also applaud the City Council's plan to revitalize downtown as forward-thinking but criticized council members for poor planning in leaving poor areas untouched.
"If you drive up State Road 50, south Brooksville is the first thing you see, but they concentrate on the downtown area," Osmond said. "You've got to look at all communities, not just the tax base."
All of the candidates favor a referendum on annexation of areas on the southern portion of the city, although residents there may pay higher taxes.
"Look at the city's limits, it is all over the place," Brayton said. "It needs to be contiguous somewhere."
Faced with unprecedented growth, the city must prepare accordingly, the candidates assert.
For Pugh, the lack of long-term planning has forced city officials to become more reactive than proactive with regards to development.
Pugh wants to use his engineering experience to make capital improvements that would accommodate growth. He said he would make certain allowances in the comprehensive plan to do so. But some of those things, Pugh said, should have been done already.
"Decisions should have been made in the 1990s to address most of today's problems," he said. "The taxpayers would have spent less 10 years ago if the city had a plan."
Brayton, on the other hand, likes the present course of growth and its potential impact on the city's tax base. But he thinks roads, water and sewer lines should be in place before a developer can build in Brooksville.
Overall, though, Brayton wants to maintain Brooksville's small-town value system.
That's a sentiment Brent Gaustad shares.
"I have a feeling that growth is coming fast," he said. "I love the hometown feel in Brooksville, and I want to keep it that way."
Brayton and his opponent, Pugh, have considerable name recognition. What seems to set them apart is their experience.
Brayton, a 59-year-old self-employed accountant, served six years on the City Council.
During his term, he oversaw city purchasing and the widening of U.S. 41 S among other capital improvements. But after his defeat in 2000 to Bernardini, Brayton has also served on four advisory boards, where he said he gained more experience.
That, along with the seven years he spent as the city's clerk between 1973 and 1980, could prove beneficial especially when term-limits will hasten the exit of three council members next year.
Asked why he chose to run again, Brayton replied: "I love this city of mine. I have the opportunity to run, why not?'
That attitude doesn't sit well with Pugh, Brayton's opponent. Pugh said a career politician is not what Brooksville needs. The city needs fresh thinking, he said.
Pugh, a project manager with Civil-Tech Consulting Engineers Inc., is the son of former parks and recreation director David Pugh Sr. who is remembered for transforming the city's park system.
The younger Pugh was also a CAD technician/inspector with the city from 1999-2001.
"I hear a lot of people talking about legacy," Pugh said. "Our job is not to leave a legacy. It is to serve the city."
The Group 3 race features three candidates with less name recognition. None has held elected office.
Frankie Burnett is president of the local chapter of the NAACP and last year co-founded the Democratic Black Caucus of Hernando County. He also has helped organize community coalitions mostly in Brooksville's south side.
Of all the candidates for Group 3, Burnett is the only one who has run for the City Council before, when he lost to council member E.E. "Ernie" Wever. Burnett argues that for anything to change in how the city does business, it needs to start with grass roots support from the community.
"I am committed to putting the community over politics," Burnett said.
Gaustad is a teacher and coach at Hernando High School. Six years ago he was defeated in a Republican School Board primary that left a bitter taste in his mouth. But now Gaustad is back for another challenge having learned valuable lessons about what drives city residents, he said.
A relative newcomer, the third challenger, Robert Osmond, is the proprietor of a commercial printing press called Osmond Printing Inc. He used to be Gaustad's neighbor.
As the parent of young children and a small-business owner, Osmond describes himself as fiscally conservative.
"The city does a lot of things right," Osmond said, "You just need to change things to be affordable."
In recent years, unexpected expenses forced city officials to institute a series of rate increases, namely water and sewer and a 10 percent increase to residents' electric bills.
"Ten percent was a little bit of a bite," Gaustad said, who wants to trim departmental budgets to lessen the burden on taxpayers.
This year, with a better economic outlook, municipal officials lowered the tax rate from 8- to 7.87-mills, which does not translate into a big cost-savings for the average property owner.
On the campaign trail, the utility tax has been the No. 1 issue for all five candidates because of the burden it places on the poor families and those with fixed incomes, Pugh said.
Pugh and Osmond also want to lower the utility tax burden by trimming administrative costs. In fact, Osmond said he decided to run for City Council because of the disproportionate amount he pays in taxes.
Burnett said promoting a stronger tax base through breaks in the enterprise zone to attract jobs, for instance, might do the trick. He is the only one of the five candidates who would not reexamine the utility tax, he recently told the St. Petersburg Times .
Brayton, however, thinks that although the utility tax may not have been presented properly, it is equitable because it ensures that all residents pay their fair share. He doesn't support repealing the tax but would study it.
