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Politics & Government

'The Voice of God' Retires April 1

Dunedin City Attorney John Hubbard steps down from the post he has held for 37 years, leaving his fingerprints every where you look.

Most people don’t get a day dedicated to them when they leave a job.

But after 37 years of service, Dunedin City Attorney John Hubbard does. And it’s well-deserved, those who know him say. The City Commission declared April 1, Hubbard’s departure date, John Hubbard Day.

Hubbard, 70, has been advising city commissioners and staff, and crafting ordinances for the city since 1974 – or 1971 if you count the times he filled in for the then city attorney. He’s known as a top-notch municipal attorney who has practiced preventative law in protecting the city from lawsuits, and has always kept current in identifying trends in law and amending ordinances accordingly.

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“He always enjoyed his job working for Dunedin. That made it enjoyable for us,” said Mayor Dave Eggers who has worked with Hubbard for eight years while on the commission.

He said there were moments throughout the years when things seemed contentious, much because of Hubbard’s passion, but nothing they couldn’t work through. No matter what the issue, though, Hubbard provided “dog-tired protection” to the city of Dunedin during his nearly four-decade tenure, Eggers said.

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“It was always a job for his firm, but I suppose that’s what law firms do. But with John, it was always a sense that it was much more than that in Dunedin,” Eggers said.

City Manager Rob DiSpirito said quite simply that Hubbard is the best city attorney he has ever worked with.

“I have worked for a lot of cities and I have worked with plenty of good city attorneys but none as fine as Hubbard,” he said.

One of the first things DiSpirito noticed about Hubbard when he came to about four years ago was his booming, announcer-like voice that commands attention in any public forum.

“Everyone refers to it as the 'Voice of God',” DiSpirito said.

It’s also highly unlikely anyone reads an ordinance at a public hearing faster than Hubbard, much like an auctioneer.

“He’d be a great game-show host,” the city manager joked. “I admire that voice.” But it is the attorney’s work and the man he is that he admires most, he said.

DiSpirito says any good city attorney must have a total commitment and love of the community “that just flows.”

“Certainly John has that in buckets,” he said.

When people speak about Hubbard, they can’t help but talk about his heart. While he has extremely good judgment, is a forward thinker and an exceptionally skilled negotiator, they say, everything he does comes from within soul.

“He wouldn’t be doing any of that if he didn’t have an honest-to-God love of this community, and it all stems from there,” DiSpirito said.

Hubbard was born in Carroll, Iowa, in 1941 and earned his bachelor’s degree at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., and received his juris doctorate from the University of Florida. He took a break from city law, serving as a U.S. Air Force captain from 1967 to 1971. He’s been dedicated to municipal law – though he does work in other areas such as trusts and will at his practice – ever since.

In addition to working as the city attorney in Dunedin, he has held that position in several other cities including Oldsmar, Tarpon Springs, Belleair Bluffs and Belleair Beach. Twice in recent years – 2006 and 2008 – he was a finalist for the annual City Attorney of the Year Award handed out by the Florida League of Cities and was a recipient of the Paul S. Buchman Award of Excellence from the Florida Municipal Attorneys Association.

“He is passionate about his work and has a reputation for speaking out strongly on issues at city commission meetings, regardless of the potential reaction, exemplifying the adage about ‘speaking truth to power',” a nomination form for the Florida League of Cities award states.

As a nearly lifelong resident of Dunedin, he has held his work here close to his heart. It’s difficult to take a look around the city and not see something that Hubbard hasn’t touched. At the direction of commissions past, he is behind the landscaped parking lots, absence of billboards in the city, camouflaged cell phone towers and saving the city’s trees, all ordinances he has written and were among the first of their kind. He wrote the impact fee ordinance, the first in the state that relieved city taxpayers of the burden of paying for infrastructure required when new developers built new homes and communities. And he wrote the parkland dedication ordinance, one of the first in the nation that allowed the city to receive many acres of parkland for public enjoyment.

Part of what Hubbard has loved most about working in this community is that he was able to take something that was so underdeveloped all those years ago and help mold it into the quaint, close-knit community it has become.

“I’m very proud of this community and what it has become,” he said hours before his last commission meeting on Thursday.

While law partner Tom Trask takes over his city duties, Hubbard will continue doing some work at his law firm but he plans to cut back little by little. Eventually he will enjoy the people and things he loves most: spending time with his wife, four daughters and five grandchildren.

“I want to be able to wake up in the morning and say, ‘I think I will read a couple of chapters in a book, or I think I will throw the kayak in the truck and head out',” he said.

But no matter what, he said, he will remain entrenched in the city he loves. As he walks away from being city attorney, Hubbard hopes that he has left his mark on Dunedin.

This is what he wants his legacy to be: “(That) the overall impact that my efforts and my beliefs of making a better community, have made it a better community,” he said.   

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