Last Sunday, Jennifer Salmon, the Gulfport City Council Member from Ward 3, announced she would not seek a third term. From her blog, where she posted her letter to the Mayor, her fellow council members, appropriate city staff, and citizens:
I made this decision because being an elected official has prevented me from doing the work that I was trained for. This became evident when I found out that the city would be recruiting for a Social Services Supervisor at the Senior Center. It is a dream job, but, in order for me to apply, Council would need to change a line in Chapter 305(b) which was put there by ordinance. It states “No former elected city official shall hold any compensated appointive city office or employment until one (1) year after the expiration of the term for which elected.”
I wish Jennifer well, and I sincerely hope she gets the job. She has been great on council, and she will be missed.
At this point, it would be appropriate for me to note that Jennifer is my City Council Member (she lives one block south of us).
I didn’t always agree with her — particularly her support of Bob Worthington for mayor last year; I backed Sam Henderson — but I have always deeply appreciated her commitment to this community, this city, and this region. Back in 2012, I did a quick profile and Q&A with her, and found the depth and breadth of her knowledge to be refreshing.
Her leadership will be missed on council.
Read through some of her answers in that interview — really read them. It is an object lesson in municipal government. I am not the world’s greatest interviewer (or questioner, as the case really was; I emailed her the questions and she sent back answers). But she provided an abundance of information — from successes that may not necessarily seem like that big a deal, especially in the shadow of the third and fourth largest cities in Florida. But these things changed the face of Gulfport for the better. New bus stops upgraded for free, state dollars for VPK “tot-time” (which freed up city revenue), free library wireless, bringing hundreds of people downtown to the waterfront for free concerts.
Those successes were juxtaposed against the tough work of building a budget around core city services — done as property values remain low.
As I’ve said when writing about Gulfport, I am incredibly lucky to live here, to be raising my family here. I am also fortunate that people think so much of me. On a couple of occasions since Jennifer’s announcement, I have been approached by good people for whom I have incredible respect and admiration about running for the City Council seat in Ward 3.
I am deeply honored and humbled anyone would think of me.
There are a variety of reasons I can’t and won’t run, some “hard,” some “soft.” I am starting a new business, and I would like to see that through. My children are very young — one and a half, and three and a half. I take campaigning seriously. I take the work of government even more seriously. It requires a dedication I fear I would be unable to meet — and the people of Ward 3, and Gulfport, deserve more. So do my children.
Those are just a few of the “soft” reasons.
One of the “hard” reasons is something called the Hatch Act. Those familiar with service in the federal government undoubtedly know where this is headed. The Hatch Act explicitly precludes federal employees from participating in political activities. Duncan works for the General Services Administration in their Tampa office. It is a job she treasures — and, given that I’m something like three months into starting a new business, it is entirely fair to say she is our stable source of income and health care coverage.
Even though the City Council races are non-partisan, it is unclear — at best — how my being a candidate for public office would square with her job at GSA and the Hatch Act.
None of that means I don’t believe in Gulfport, that I don’t have my own vision for it. None of it — even the Hatch Act stuff (we wouldn’t be the first couple in history to have the spouse of a federal employee run for office, I’m sure of it) — means I wouldn’t like to serve some day. I believe in Gulfport, I believe in her people. I believe in my community, my city, my region. I believe in my state and my country.
I know that there is work to be done — big tasks, big decisions. I’m the kind of guy who believes that we can live in a unique community, but there is always a way to a better answer through other places. In other words, someone else has done it, and probably done it better. Gulfport is a small town, but since we’re juxtaposed against St. Petersburg, and just across the bay from Tampa, we have all the of baggage that comes with big city life. Just take a stroll down 49th Street some time.
From my view, the answer is to work with our communities to the north — St. Petersburg, Tampa, the beach communities. And even further north. Lealman, Kenneth City. I wonder if we sometimes forget that there can be regional answers to local problems.
There is nothing wrong with Gulfport that can’t be fixed by what is right in the telling of our great story, and telling it better. I was never more proud of Gulfport that when we became the first municipality in the region to approve a domestic partner registry. How can we leverage technology and — more important — the power of our own people to better tell our story, to better communicate who we are, why we are a wonderful community.
Maybe it is not so much a vision as a love letter to my town. Perhaps the next City Council member from Ward 3 will read it.
