Thorpe quits commission race

The chairman of the County Commission says he wants to devote more time to his career.

By BRIDGET HALL

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 16, 2000

INVERNESS -- County Commission Chairman Brad Thorpe announced Monday that he will not seek a third term for the District 5 seat covering the northeastern corner of the county.

Thorpe, a financial aid counselor at Central Florida Community College, said he wants to devote more time to his career in education.

He received his master's degree in educational leadership last year and said he wants to pursue an administrative role at the college.

"Being a commissioner, it's been difficult to have the time to seek my educational professional goals," he said.

"I always intended to serve for eight years, and I'm basically going to follow through on that commitment," Thorpe added. "I never intended to be a career politician."

Thorpe said he has no plans to run for a different political office.

His departure leaves four candidates vying for the District 5 seat: Republicans Scott Adams and Millie King, and Democrats Dick Kaufman and Timothy Lamontagne.

Thorpe joined the commission in 1992 as a Democrat, but he leaves as a Republican after switching parties in 1995. Commissioner Vicki Phillips, a Republican who also joined the board in 1992, remembers giving Thorpe the form he used to change his affiliation.

"I always told him for the first few years, "You're a Republican in disguise,' " she said. "Most of the time, we voted the same on issues."

Thorpe said the switch came over his support for privatizing the ambulance service. Since then he has supported other efforts to privatize government functions, such as contracting with a private agency to run the jail, and he has voted to give tax dollars to support the Economic Development Council, a corporation charged with helping businesses move and expand here.

His fellow commissioners said they were surprised and saddened by Thorpe's decision to leave the board at the end of his term this year.

"He'll be sorely missed. He's a two-time chairman, and he played a great leadership role," Commissioner Roger Batchelor said. "That's a lot of experience going down the drain."

Although praised by his colleagues for his leadership and sense of humor, Thorpe also received his share of criticism from some constituents.

Residents in Arrowhead, for example, have complained that Thorpe was slow to respond when the private subdivision needed emergency road repairs after flooding in 1998.

Phillips and Thorpe have never agreed on government funding for the EDC -- Thorpe supports it and Phillips doesn't -- but Phillips said Thorpe never took the disagreements personally.

"Sometimes we have issues where we're not in agreement, but when we leave (the meeting), we don't begrudge each other or hold any hard feelings," she said. "He's always been easy to work with that way."

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