Gainesville voters will elect a new Gainesville mayor and a new member to the City Commission’s District 4 on Tuesday.
District 4 includes most of the UF campus.
The District 4 seat opened when current Commissioner Craig Lowe announced his resignation in order to run for the mayoral seat.
The mayor seat will be open when Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan completes her final term. She met Gainesville’s two-term limit.
The following are brief platform sketches for each of the five candidates running for the District 4 seat in the Gainesville City Commission.
For more information on the District 4 candidates, please visit http://www.elections.alachua.fl.us/.
Penny Wheat
Penny Wheat served two 8-year terms as a board member of the Alachua County Commission from 1986 to 1994 and from 1996 to 2004.
Wheat’s platform focuses on ecological sustainability and preservation. She said maintaining pure water in Gainesville a top priority.
She said cleaning the Cabot-Koppers Superfund site on Northwest 23rd Avenue is critical for maintaining a clean water supply in Gainesville.
Randy Wells
Randy Wells is running on a platform of sustainability and promotion of small businesses.
If elected, Wells said he will work to encourage UF students to remain in Gainesville after graduation. Promoting student-run small businesses in Gainesville will help the area economically, he said.
Wells also supports the Gig4GNV, a campaign to bring Google’s high-bandwidth pilot program to Gainesville.
Nathaniel Sperling
Nathaniel Sperling, the youngest candidate in the District 4 race at 24 years old, graduated from UF in 2008 with a degree in history.
Sperling said the Gainesville City Commission needs to learn from its mistakes to improve the local economy.
Sperling added he wants to work with UF’s administration to ease campus parking tensions.
He also wants to address the high cost of utilities and power in Gainesville.
Mason Alley
Mason Alley is running on a platform about employment.
East Gainesville is another important issue for Alley, who added permitting the status quo is unjust.
“Too many people are willing to keep Gainesville exactly as it is,” he said. “When you say you want to keep Gainesville exactly the way it is, you’re saying that you want to keep people exactly where they are. I want justice, so I want jobs.”
Pat Fitzpatrick
Pat Fitzpatrick wants to end poverty in Alachua County.
“Students should vote for me [so that] hungry children can eat,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick, who has been involved in social work for more than 40 years, said taking care of the poor should be the commission’s top priority.
His campaign platform centers on eliminating the St. Francis House’s meal limits, which has a limit of 130 meals per day.
