Lutz Realty Gainesville

Posted onDecember 10, 2011 - 4:12 am by Admin | 0 Comments

<p>The field for the 2012 Gainesville City Commission elections was set when qualifying ended at noon Friday, leaving voters with an unusually crowded group of candidates vying for a citywide seat and a three-way contest to represent District 1.</p><p>With 73 days left until the Jan. 31 election, which coincides with Florida's Republican primary, between qualifying and the election, several campaigns are already well under way.</p><p>But some candidates in the nonpartisan races filed within the past few weeks, leaving them behind in fundraising as well as establishing a foothold in the public arena.</p><hr /> <center> <a href="http://www.facebook.com/GainesvilleSun" target="_blank"> <img src="/assets/images/widgets/GSun/Teezers/GSFacebookTeaserSmall.jpg" /> </center> </a> <hr /><p>All of the candidates must campaign through Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, leaving only four weeks between the end of the holiday season and the elections. The last day to register to vote is Jan. 3.</p><p>There are eight candidates running for the At-large 1 seat, making it the most crowded local election field in recent memory.</p><p>There have been various races over the past decade, whether for city commission or sheriff, with five candidates. In 2001, six candidates ran for mayor.</p><p>The field of eight all but guarantees the contest will go to a runoff, as candidates must get more than 50 percent of the vote to win outright.</p><p>The incumbents in both seats, Jeanna Mastrodicasa in At-large 1 and Scherwin Henry in District 1, which is mostly east Gainesville, have served for two consecutive three-year terms, reaching the city's limit, allowing for wide-open races.</p><p>Here are the At-large 1 candidates:</p><p>Dejeon Cain, 27, a police service technician at the University of Florida Police Department.</p><p>James Ingle, 38, an electrician and union member who got 10.9 percent of the vote in the four-candidate 2011 District 2 race, finishing last.</p><p>Donna Lutz, 66, a real estate agent.</p><p>Darlene Pifalo, 69, a real estate agent and member of the city's Code Enforcement Board.</p><p>Lauren Poe, 40, an associate professor at Santa Fe College and former District 2 commissioner who lost his re-election bid this year in a runoff with Todd Chase.</p><p>Richard Selwach, 49, the owner of Best Jewelry and Loan Pawn Brokers.</p><p>Nathan Skop, 44, an attorney and a former member of the Florida Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities statewide.</p><p>Mark Venzke, 54, a former cab driver.</p><p>Here are the District 1 candidates:</p><p>Armando Grundy, 32, a Walmart employee and a member of the 2010 Alachua County Charter Review Commission who has run for a city seat before, finishing with 15.7 percent of the vote in the 2008 District 3 election.</p><p>Yvonne Hinson-Rawls, 63, a retired educator and member of the Alachua County Democratic Executive Committee.</p><p>Ray Washington, 56, an attorney and former Sun reporter who had been representing opponents of the city's contract to purchase biomass-generated power.</p><p>While city races are nonpartisan, parties do play roles in supporting candidates.</p><p>In April, Todd Chase became the first Republican to be elected to the City Commission in several years, and a number of Republicans are trying to become the second.</p><p>Lutz, Pifalo, Selwach and Skop all are registered Republicans, Venzke has no party affiliation, and the rest of the candidates in both races are registered Democrats.</p><p><i>Contact Chad Smith at 338-3104 or chad.smith@gvillesun.com.</i></p>

A plan to move county government offices out of downtown Gainesville seems to have been revived.

Instead of putting it up for sale, Hall County's Board of Commissioners is reconsidering a plan to renovate the Liberty Mutual building on Browns Bridge Road, creating a "one-stop shop" of government services.

Board members are scheduled to vote Thursday to spend $90,000 on architectural drawings for the building, a move County Administrator Randy Knighton said Monday was a "significant step" toward a potential relocation of government operations.

The move is also an about-face from six months ago when the projected high cost of renovating the building prompted commissioners to say they were going to sell it.

Now, county staff estimates the move to the building will no longer be a financial burden, and will actually save taxpayers money.

The county bought the building on Browns Bridge Road last year for $6.1 million, using a line of credit that would be repaid with revenue from the special purpose local option sales tax.

But in June, when commissioners were facing an
$11.5 million shortfall in revenue and scrutiny from their constituents, they announced an intention to sell the building, claiming there were already prospective buyers.

Shortly before the announcement, officials had learned they might have to pay between $5 million and $8.5 million to renovate the building, which was almost as much, if not $3.5 million more, than the cost of the original purchase.

Now, officials say that may not be the case.

An executive summary prepared for the commission states the renovation will cost one-third the original estimate. And Commission Chairman Tom Oliver, who in June said the county had a prospective buyer for the building, said Monday no one had offered to buy the building and selling it no longer seemed feasible.

"We looked at selling it, and the numbers were not comfortable for us," Oliver said. "...We think it's got a lot more potential than we ever realized."

Public Works Director Ken Rearden asked the commission at a work session Monday to approve the expenditure to finalize drawings for the building's renovation.

One impediment to passage might be the firm seeking the money.

The Atlanta-based Sizemore Group, which has estimated the design costs, is the same firm that projected the original cost to renovate the building, Commissioner Ashley Bell said.

"I thought they should have been fired when they came in with the $9 million (estimate for renovations)," Commissioner Billy Powell said Monday.

Bell, too, said he was skeptical about paying anymore money to the firm, which he said "presented an outrageous budget previously."

But Bell said "it may cost us more money to change horses at this point."

"My goal is just not to waste any more money on Liberty Mutual," Bell said.

Part of the design fee up for commissioners' approval includes $19,500 for "meetings and revisions" — a cost that Bell and Powell expressed displeasure about Monday.

The two commissioners are supposed to meet with the firm this week to see if that cost can be eliminated. If they can come to an agreement with Sizemore by Thursday's commission meeting, the commission will take up the issue, Bell said.

 


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