I originate from Newark, New Jersey and am married to Tanya, a wonderful woman, great mother and West Point graduate, who currently works with the Palmetto Community Redevelopment Agency.  We have raised four children together. We moved to Florida almost a decade ago to find a community where would could plant our roots and give our children a future that would include a good education, abundant employment opportunities and a superior quality of life, in a place where they might eventually settle and raise their own families.

I started my career in government at the age of 16. I have had only three jobs in my life, and I am proud to say that they were all for government entities. Although I have had opportunity to work in a more financially lucrative environment, this has never been a driving force in my life. I have never regretted my decision to serve my community and attempt to make a difference. 

Throughout my career I have worked my way up “through the ranks”.  While this means that I have held less than glamorous jobs, it also means that I have a good understanding of how all aspects of City government should work.  I have never had to ask my employees to do something I couldn’t – or wouldn’t – do myself. 

I hit the ground running once arriving in Palmetto.  First and foremost, I recognized that the City suffered from years of flooding in many areas, and had major problems with storm-water infiltrating the sewer system – over-stressing the system and causing backups and generally unhealthy conditions.  I’m pleased to report that we addressed most of these problems, alleviating the worst, and continue to chip away at the list of priorities.  While working underground, we have attempted to make all required improvements at once, to include extending the reclaimed water system, which served only 30% of the City five years ago, but now serves about 70% of our residents. It makes good sense, when possible, to make long-lasting improvements while the streets are cut open, and to pave and finish the street only once, knowing that those improvements are complete and will last for decades.  In the course of completing these comprehensive projects, we have also updated our computerized records to better locate & manage our underground infrastructure. 

I have led the Department in developing performance-based budgets.  We don’t decide how to spend an available amount of money.  Instead, Division Managers provide a draft budget that starts with a list of what services we intend to provide, and then calculates the costs associated with those levels of service.  I am currently developing additional criteria for evaluating annexation and development requests, based upon our infrastructure capacity and a financial analysis.   I anticipate that such a “growth ordinance” will provide easy-to-understand guidelines for builders so that their time and money is well-spent, while limiting growth to that which does not overburden our infrastructure and is fiscally advantageous.

I work very closely with the North River Fire Department, especially with regard to emergency preparedness.  Having worked with police departments throughout my career, I am familiar with many of the challenges faced by law enforcement.  Accordingly, I have attempted to increase community-building recreational programs and to improve infrastructure so as to include public safety best practices.   We now include police along with the fire department in the review of proposed development, to ensure the safest possible construction in our city.

Tanya & I are proud members of the Gold Star Club, and are pleased to have the opportunity to help support Manatee County law enforcement.  I serve as Vice-President of the Board of the Palmetto Youth Center, recognizing the importance of supporting our youth as they grow into our future leaders.

I strongly believe in the development of sound relationships.  Trust and good communication is essential, not only amongst the leadership of the City of Palmetto, but also with staff & elected officials in the county and in surrounding municipalities.  Comfortable relationships and responsiveness are important between Palmetto residents, businesses, visitors, City staff, elected officials, and representatives of relevant regulatory and funding agencies throughout the state and the nation.  I have developed many of these relationships and value each and every one of you.