Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Politics

Candidates in Oldsmar vary in backgrounds

By Tamara El-Khoury
Published March 12, 2007

OLDSMAR - It could have been a busy election season in Oldsmar this year, but a lack of opponents has already filled three empty seats.

There's one to go.

Two very different candidates are vying to fill the remaining two years of Seat 1, which will be vacated when council member Jim Ronecker slides over to the mayor's seat. He is running unopposed.

For Seat 1, longtime resident and past council member, Loretta Wyandt, 76, faces high school science teacher Greg Rublee, 42, who has lived in the city for 2 1/2 years, in Tuesday's election.

Wyandt, a part-time real estate broker who has served on the City Council twice, declined to be interviewed for this article.

Rublee hasn't held public office. Last year he briefly ran for the 9th District congressional seat but dropped out before the primary. His campaign has been endorsed by the Palm Harbor/Oldsmar Professional Firefighters, Local 2980, and the Florida Professional Firefighters,

He said he's a fiscal conservative with small-town roots.

Both candidates have addressed issues that have come up in past Oldsmar elections: traffic, growth and development.

Both agree that the city needs to manage its growth.

"High-rise, multi-use is not consistent with Oldsmar's character as a small town," Rublee said.

Wyandt has said that the city, which is building a library and a water treatment plant and developing a town center, needs to be careful about how many projects it is taking on.

"We need to step back and assess where we are going," she said at a candidate forum Feb. 27. "We have too many irons in the fire."

She also said that city should create more parking for the new businesses coming to town by re-evaluating its parking ratio.

Rublee said he wants to clear miscommunication between residents and the building department. He said residents have complained that they have a hard time getting a straight answer from the department.

He wants to work with the county and Department of Transportation to address traffic and safety concerns particularly at the entrance to the Bay Arbor subdivision.

"We're going to have to find ways to calm traffic," he said.

Council member Suzanne Vale is running for another term unopposed for Seat 2, and businessman Eric Seidel is running unopposed for Seat 4, the spot he filled in January after council member Don Bohr died.

Fast Facts:

The candidates for Seat 1

Greg Rublee, 42, is a science teacher at Northeast High School. He is a member of the board of directors for the Friends of Brooker Creek. Before coming to Florida, he worked in government management positions in Washington, D.C. His latest job was as a policy analyst for the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security. He is married to Maria Rublee, an assistant professor at the University of Tampa.

Assets: House, retirement accounts

Liabilities: Mortgage, student loans

Sources of income: Teaching salary

Loretta Wyandt, 76, is a part-time real estate broker. She has lived in Oldsmar since 1967. She served on the City Council from 1979 to 1981 and from 1988 to 1990. Wyandt is an officer in the Top of the Bay Garden Club and the Oldsmar Historical Society. She was widowed in 2003 and has two grown children.

Assets: House, stock

Liabilities: Loan

Sources of income: Social Security, pension, annuity, real estate business

Seat 1 candidates will fill the remaining two years of the three- year term. Council members earn $8,400 a year.

[Last modified March 12, 2007, 07:11:49]