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Hernando Today

Race Pits Mayor Against 2 Challengers

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: November 3, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - Mayor David Pugh Jr. admits he's had a rough first term on the council.

It was enough to make him think hard about whether he would run again or devote more time to family.

But Pugh says he's proud of the progress Brooksville has made and isn't ready to leave midstream.

"We've turned a corner, we're moving forward and to keep that momentum I felt like I had to run again," he said.

Pugh has two challengers who want their chance behind the council dais.

Yvette Taylor, 38, is currently a member of the Brooksville Housing Authority board and works as a dispatcher at the Wal-Mart distribution center in Ridge Manor.

Cecil Davis IV, 28, owns Cecil Davis Enterprises Inc., a machining business on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Pugh touts experience

Pugh, 36, was raised in Brooksville. His father, David Pugh Sr., worked as parks and recreation director for many years. The younger Pugh is a former project manager for an engineering firm and is now a first-year engineering and drafting teacher at Nature Coast Technical High School.

It was during Pugh's tenure as mayor that the city endured some painful purging, including the exit of the police chief and city manager.

He also presided over hearings that resulted in the ousting of several Brooksville Housing Authority members. He handpicked - and the council approved - new housing board members who are working to turn the authority over to the Hernando County Housing Authority.

It was a difficult time, especially in a small town where people talk and Pugh's decisions as a public servant sometimes crossed some personal allegiances. But he said he stands by the decisions he made and votes he cast.

"I've taken a lot of grief over the last few years for doing what I was thought was right," he said. "I thought it was best for the city."

While there is less drama at City Hall today, the city faces a crisis of a different sort, Pugh said.

He said he wants to be around to help guide Brooksville during the economic downturn and help ensure citizens get quality service despite reductions in revenue mandated by the state and by the council's own efforts to keep taxes low. He pointed to the council's successful efforts with the help of City Manager Jennene Norman-Vacha and other staffers to reduce the millage rate beyond what the Legislature and Amendment 1 required.

Pugh, a divorced father of two, said he would continue what has thus far been an unsuccessful fight to reduce the city's 10 percent utility tax.

The city and county have a functional relationship now, and Pugh said he can help keep that in place while also ensuring the city exercises its right to expand. He said he would support efforts to annex the parts of South Brooksville currently in the county if residents support such a move and the city can afford it.

He said he would work to encourage more commercial development, especially clean manufacturing jobs, to increase and diversify the tax base.

During the controversy over the exit of the police chief, some complained that Pugh was motivated by a desire to turn over police and fire services to the county. He denied that and still says he is skeptical that would save taxpayers money without causing services to suffer. Any decision like that, he said, should be made through a referendum.

"I'd feel more comfortable going to voters rather than the five of us (council members)," he said.

City should 'fight for right to exist'

Davis, who ran unsuccessfully for the council in 2006, maintains the city needs to do a better job standing up for its rights and worries Pugh won't do that.

"The city, in my opinion, has not stepped up to the plate and exercised its right to exist," he said.

Davis said he is wary of interlocal agreements with the county and would take a hard line against any mergers of police, fire or public works divisions. "If you don't have those, you don't have a city," he said.

He said he'd work "to put the city back together," addressing infrastructure improvements that have been put off for years. He proposes to expand the city's enterprise zone, which offers tax incentives for businesses that set up shop here, to the entire city and to offer impact fee deferrals for industrial firms.

The married father of two said the city should work to have more control over its housing authority, not less. The authority is funded and overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Taylor has firsthand experience with the housing authority. The single mother of four lives in Hillside Estates, the housing authority apartment complex on Continental Drive.

Taylor was born in Fort Myers, graduated from Fort Myers High School and spent four years in the U.S. Air Force. Her great-grandparents settled here, and her mother was born here.

Taylor moved to Brooksville in 1996, lived in Spring Hill from 2000 until last year, when she moved back to the city. She works as a dispatcher for the Wal-Mart distribution center in Ridge Manor.

Taylor, a single mother of four, said she has been pondering a bid for city council since friends asked her to run. She contends the city needs more programs for youngsters and seniors and should be more aggressive about bringing federal grant money here to help fund them.

"There is more we could do," she said, noting that a mentoring program for the city's children should be a top priority. "The people in this city are being neglected."

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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