BRADENTON BEACH – Mayor John Chappie will seek reelection in the 2019 city elections.
“I do plan on running for a second term as mayor. I’ll be filling out my initial paperwork this week and my final paperwork during qualifying week in late August,” Chappie told The Sun on Sunday.
“During the last couple years, our community has been faced with difficult challenges that go to the core of good government and our city has risen to the challenges. We have defended people’s constitutional right to an open and transparent government,” Chappie said.
“In the past two years, we’ve corrected financial issues experienced by past administrations and we received the highest positive comments during our most recent financial audit thanks to our great administrative department led by City Clerk Terri Sanclemente.
“In recent years, we have received over $3.5 million from numerous sources other than our property taxes for capital improvement projects such as stormwater, the floating dock, the boat lift we’ll install for our police boat, seagrass mitigation and storm hardening for our city buildings,” Chappie said.
“Our CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency) board is moving forward with major projects using incremental tax dollars the county would have kept had we not had a CRA district,” he added.
“Much has been done in the past two years, there’s much to be done and I want to be a part of it. Hopefully, the people of Bradenton Beach will choose me to continue as the mayor of our city,” Chappie said of his desire to serve another two-year term.
Spooner files paperwork
On Thursday, Aug. 8, Vice Mayor and Ward 1 Commissioner Jake Spooner opened his campaign checking account and deposited $5,000 as a loan from himself to his campaign.
Spooner then drove over to the Supervisor of Elections Office in Bradenton and filed the form stating he will serve as his own campaign treasurer. He also filed the statement of candidate form that acknowledges he understands the campaign finance requirements contained in Chapter 106 of Florida Statutes.
Commissioner White
Incumbent Commissioner Randy White has not indicated whether he will seek a second term in office. White has missed several city meetings in recent months. He has also participated in several meetings by phone during the past six months.
White is a commercial airline pilot based out of New York. In 2018, White told The Sun his wife is a Canadian resident who lives in Toronto and occasionally visits Bradenton Beach.
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