Happy New Year everyone! 2015 is in the books and 2016 is going to be a phenomenal year. I trust you enjoyed the holiday season and spending time with those you love. I’m rested, motivated, and ready to go this year.
Not sure about you but last year seemed to fly by. It seems like only a few moments ago, the kids were opening 2014’s Christmas presents, Amie and I were watching our kids play their first basketball game at church and Judge Hilliard was asking me to
“Raise your right hand and repeat after me, I Rob Williamson do solemnly swear.”
This first year in office and 2015 was a blur.
As we prepare for this new year, new life moments, and the new opportunities 2016 will bring; it is important we take a moment to reflect on the many things we have to be collectively thankful for that have taken place during the past year in District 4 and our county.
Please allow me to express my sincere gratitude for providing me the opportunity to serve.
I would like to thank all of you for taking your time to pass along the random, unsolicited messages of encouragement and inspiration. Texts, emails, post it notes from employees left on my desk, notes on my truck at Publix, FB private messages, hand written and one typed letter and the phone calls telling me to “keep doing what your doing,” “we support you,” “we believe in you” and “thank you.”
Your comments always seem to come at just the right time.
This was my first year to serve in elected office. I made mistakes, I’m learning each day and doing my best to make good decisions for the county as a whole. There are so many diverse issues that come up each week in this role as your county commissioner that, at times, it can be equally rewarding and maddening. I am working like hell to earn your trust every day. Trust is built with the passage of time and consistent decision-making. Stacking one good decision on top of another good decision helps build a foundation of consistency and trust you can count on. For me to make consistent policy decisions on your behalf, I believe it is important to come to this job with an established set of core values, an idea of what the role of government should and shouldn’t be and a commitment to represent those who elected me with honor, respect and integrity.
For me to accomplish this, it is important to keep my priorities in proper alignment. Faith, family, business and then community. We have seen what can happen when a public servant gets these priorities out of whack. They may start believing it’s their money their spending or getting a little to big for their britches as my dad would say.
As much as I love serving in elected office, it will never become the highest priority in my life. And because of that simple fact, I will never base my policy decisions on whether or not it will further my political career. I will continue to base my policy decisions on their alignment with my values and remembering daily those who give me this opportunity to serve, YOU the voters.
My identity and self-worth is not derived from being a county commissioner. It is derived from my relationship with God, the confidence in knowing there is a higher power directing activities and the comfort in knowing I’m living my passion every day.
Looking back at the year that was, we have much to celebrate in SRC and District 4 specifically.
If you choose to get your information exclusively from the local newspaper, you will likely be hearing about most, if not all, of these improvements for the first time. I have no idea why the owner of our local newspaper chooses to ignore the success stories we as a community have accomplished together this year. Or, why she continues to launch personal attacks against me. By continually publishing anonymous editorials and articles written with half truths, innuendo and lies, she is not hurting me, she is doing a disservice to the community that her newspaper is claiming to serve. To have any opportunity to regain journalistic integrity, please stop trying to create the news or distort the news to serve your personal agenda and just report the news.
You, the local readership, who before had no alternative source of information to learn the truth, now have numerous choices when deciding where they will get their news.
Times have changed. You know longer need to wait for a week to get your news. You can get real time updates from varied news sources. I truly enjoyed the interaction with PNJ, NWFLDaily News, SRPGazette, Navarre Newspaper, WEARTV, Studer Institute, Blab and others who reported events fairly and honestly.
As we start 2016, please continue to look for improvements and hold your elected officials accountable for the decisions we make. With that in mind, I challenge you to not give the local media a free pass on their responsibility to report the news honestly.
Here is just a few of the 2015 improvements to remember and celebrate as we begin the New Year and prepare for the first commission meeting of 2016.
Let’s start by talking about beach sand for a second.
You may read that if we allow beach renourishment from March -July our tourism economy will be ruined.
The reality is, no one knows what the impact will be, if any, on our bed tax collections. I have asked for data to get real answers not numbers someone pulled from their hind parts.
Here’s what we do know. If we delay, we may lose millions in FEMA funding and that increases costs to SRC taxpayers and leaseholders. Taking a chance that FEMA will agree to extending the funding when SRC has had the permit to begin but waited because we were trying to get funding from the state? That is a risk I’m not willing to take. The people asking for a delay now are the same people who told us to wait for funding to reduce the amount that would be required to pay.
When funding is in place for large multimillion dollar projects like this, you move forward. You don’t try to appease everyone, delay the project, risk losing millions in Federal and State funding and passing an even greater cost on to YOU the taxpayer. Like most issues I have faced this year, each decision has support on both sides and, regardless of the decision, some will disagree.
When putting out the survey last year, you placed beach renourishment near the top of the list for District 4 importance. Based on this survey, my efforts have been directed toward beach renourishment and other areas you identified most important to you. Now that we have the funding in place, jeopardizing that funding by waiting is not smart.
Economic Development/Tourism/Beach related-
After 12 months in office, beach renourishment IS funded and it will cost beach leaseholders half as much as last time. SRC lodging partners just ended the best year in SRC tourism history, for the first time ever there is now one lease fee for ALL leasehold property on the island and construction has begun on a new Navarre Beach Hotel.
One of my goals upon taking office was to add lifeguard protection west of the pier making our beaches safer. I’m proud to say we accomplished that goal and for the first time ever we now have lifeguard protection west of the pier.
Quality of Life-
Another personal goal upon taking office was to improve the quality of life and access for all county residents regardless of their abilities. I’m so proud we could take a big step toward achieving this goal and deliver the first all inclusive playground in SRC history which opened in District 4 this year. And, the first county playground in Holley is now under construction.
Other park improvements include: 12 new trees were planted in county parks, new trash receptacles have been added throughout, new fencing to shield dumpsters from view, new bleachers at NYSA, new scorers areas at all baseball fields, new maintenance equipment purchased, drainage improvements to improve field conditions, removal of unsightly portable toilets and the addition of newly renovated ADA compliant restrooms at NYSA Sportsplex and Navarre Parks. While these improvements were reported by other local media, none of these improvements were ever mentioned by your local newspaper.
Infrastructure/Environment/
We worked closely with DOT and county staff throughout the year to finally relocate the “Welcome to Navarre Sign” from in front of a vacant convenient store on Hwy 87 to the more recognizable start of the Navarre community several miles to the north. Hwy 98 Median beautification was expanded by $120,000 and begins this month. County Code Enforcement was strengthened doubling fines to penalize chronic code offenders, the sign pollution along 98, 87, 399 and throughout District 4 has been greatly reduced. A first of its kind HBTS drainage study and south Santa Rosa Bike/Ped Plan is complete. We have funding to begin the first phase of Hwy 98 and Community Access Road capacity improvements. RESTORE funding was approved for a water quality project to improve Santa Rosa Sound (not “target” turtles and ducks as was reported) by cleaning untreated storm water before it enters the sound to eliminate health advisories. Improving SR Sound water quality was a top 5 survey request.
A $50,000 grant was approved to resurface the Navarre Park basketball court and add ADA Kayak launch.
Approved the ADA launch for Navarre Marine Park to improve Gulf Access. Approved funding for Discovery Center design to bring world class marine conservation center destination place to SRC. Implemented “Sidewalk Gap Project” to connect gaps in our sidewalk infrastructure.
Our Visitors Information Center now is recognized by VISIT Florida as a Tourism Information Center and we just had the best year in SRC Tourism history.
If you would like to meet with your district commissioner, you no longer need to drive to Milton to do it because you can now come visit me your in your Tourism Information Center. Just call my cell at 529.2525 and let’s get together.
Transparency/Accessibility/
In an effort to improve communication, I requested staff conduct a District 4 Improvement Plan survey and we held public town hall meetings at various times of day to discuss the results you requested. I also held a listening tour in each district throughout the county to hear about your concerns and priorities before the budget was finalized.
We added Video newsletters and published newsletters. I provided consistent updates on Facebook and other social media outlets as well as providing accessibility to every credible Northwest Florida news media outlet. Unlike the pre social media days of the past when you would wait to read one week old news from the only local newspaper, now there is numerous information outlets to receive up to date information about District 4 and your county.
As you can clearly see, there has been many improvements in 2015. I look forward to the challenges, opportunities and improvements to come. Most of all, I look forward to learning, listening and serving with you to build a community of amazing possibilities. As always, thank you for the opportunity to serve as your local elected representative.
