We Can Be Fiscally Responsible and Forward Thinking; We Do Not Have to Choose

Thank you all for being here tonight. It is customary at campaign events like this one to begin by talking about your proven record in elective office. I might ask you to remember for instance that I was an honest and capable city commissioner and mayor who delivered better, faster, cheaper government services, who balanced budgets in both good and bad economic times, and who preferred crafting solutions to real problems rather than engaging in partisan politics. 

It would be usual then to follow with an attack on my opponent's record and an accounting of his shortcomings on the dais.

But I'm going to forego that approach. Because while I am justly proud of my record in Dunedin, both my leadership and the contributions I made to good government during the years I served, and while I do have some strong disagreements with the policy positions Mayor Eggers has pursued during the last four years, I want to instead focus on why I'm running again and why I think it's important.

And I can do that best by sharing with you a story.

As Deborah Kynes and I left office in 2009, one of the really important events that went largely unreported was that the Florida League of Cities named Dunedin, out of more than 425 other municipalities in the State of Florida, The Florida City of Excellence in recognition of our great community and our devoted commitment to public service and our ongoing efforts to improve the quality of life in our city.  And it was a really big deal. 

All of us here know how exceptional and unique Dunedin is, but it was nice to hear that others too recognized it.

And as I accepted that very prestigious award, I correctly acknowledged that it was the result of decades of hard work by many former mayors and community leaders who had built a great community and that our role as the current elected leaders had been more in both honoring that legacy and protecting and preserving what they had done.

And so I spoke of visionary mayors through the years who had played not just an important but an often critical part in the shaping of our great town.

I pointed to the tremendous effort Mayor Rehm made, when I was just a kid in school, to protect and preserve the barrier island we can all see behind us, our beautiful Caladesi Island. What a bold thing to do that was. And preserving just one barrier island was not enough; Mayor Rehm and the dedicated and farseeing members of our community he represented thought two would be even better, so Honeymoon Island was saved from further private development as well.  What an effort against the prevailing forces of unfettered development then at work all around us and throughout the state. Because of Mayor Rehm's willingness to lead, in cooperation with a passionate public, Dunedin today boasts two of Florida's most beautiful state parks.

And I talked about other great partnerships that shaped our city into the scenic and cultural jewel it is today. 

My next-door neighbor growing up 40 years ago was Syd Entel, who I'm proud to say is still my neighbor today. She and a group of determined women from the Junior Service League went to the city with their request for a gift of land for the building of a fine arts center. They firmly believed the arts were an integral component of a thriving community. In a city with a population of less than 20,000 residents, in the middle of the deep recession of the early '70s, Syd and her friends won the support of Mayor Rehm and later Mayor Linville and city commissioners for that ambitious project and broke ground on a building in 1974. 

Today the Dunedin Fine Arts Center is regionally acclaimed and thousands of residents and visitors attend its classes and exhibits, children's museum and summer camps, art shows and special events.

Again and again through the years, strong bold mayors in partnership with their fellow commissioners, city staff and committed residents kept on doing exceptional things. Think about the effort to bring Spring Training to Dunedin in 1976, the crafting of downtown redevelopment begun in the '80s (so spectacularly successful), the move to contract with the Sheriff's Department that saved our city millions of dollars without compromising safety. All of these initiatives were controversial and none of them were easy. 

These accomplishments are the legacy of strong bold mayors in Dunedin.

Though it's clear to us today how vital our island parks and art center, our vibrant downtown and baseball are to our community, and what a beneficial economic impact they have for all of us, back then it wasn't so clear to everyone. It required real foresight and pragmatism to make it all happen. It required fortitude in the face of long odds. It required the careful shaping of priorities and a view to the long term. It required leadership.

So again, what I believed was most important when I previously served as your mayor was to honor that legacy, to be bold about protecting and preserving it, and to build upon it whenever I could. When the opportunity came to add parklands, we did it!  When the art center proposed an expansion and asked for partnership funding, we did it.  We helped fund special events downtown and we celebrated our diversity.

We also honored our Charter city manager form of government, let management manage and stuck to our jobs as policy makers.  And we respected and showed appreciation to those city workers who served the citizens in our community with dedication, commitment and honor.

We had a formula that worked and I, for one, wasn't going to screw it up.

But there's a far different response coming from city hall and the mayor’s office today. Today you hear talk of ideology, but no talk of vision, pragmatism and foresight. You hear misleading economic rhetoric and small-minded thinking about near-term needs. You don't hear or see much leadership.

I can't believe, in fact, some of what I've seen and heard:  the lack of respect for arts and culture and what the DFAC means to this community, the attack on preserving more green space, especially the killing of our Land Dedication Ordinance, and the idea put forth that we have too many acres of parks in this town. Should we reduce the ratio of parks in Dunedin to become more like Pinellas Park or Largo?  

It confounds reason to limit our vision now.  It makes no sense to deny adequate support to those cultural institutions, downtown special events, and parks and recreational facilities that make Dunedin Dunedin!  It's wrong too to treat city employees and firefighters with disrespect and even downright disdain. We can be both fiscally responsible and forward thinking; we do not have to choose between the two.

And so, here we all are today. I'm fired up and motivated to take back the mayor's office! I hope you are too, and that you'll help me get Dunedin back on the right track.

For more information, visit my website at www.BobHackworth.com.