Gainesville City Commission 2015 Candidate Profile and Issue Questionnaire Part A: Candidate Profile 1) Candidate’s Name: Harvey Budd 2) Email Address: [email protected] 3) Campaign Website: voteharveybudd.com 4) Education: BSBA – University of Florida 1969, major accounting University of Florida Levin Law School – 2 years 5) Occupation: TV Broadcaster, Inactive CPA 6) Employer: Budd Broadcasting Co., Inc. 7) Previous Employment: Founded and operated WGFL-‐CBS4 TV station, Founder and CFO & Broadcast Division, American Communication & TV (publically traded company), Founder and Managing Partner Budd, Sisler and Company 8) Three Qualities Leaders Must Possess: 1. Creative problem solving 2. Decision maker 3. Strong moral compass 9) Civic Involvement: Sierra Club, NAACP, Equality Florida – Congregation B’nai Israel – Florida Museum of Natural History – Harn Museum of Art – Matheson History Museum – Thomas Center – Friends of the Library – Cotton Club Museum. Page 1 of 8 10) Board(s) I’ve Served On: A current member of Alachua County Planning Commission (14 years) Chair for 2 years Current member of the Alachua County School Board One Mill Oversight Committee Alachua County MTPO Citizens Advisory Board (2002) Served on the 2000 Charter Review Commission Served on the City of Gainesville Plan Board (5 yrs.) & Cultural Commission (3 yrs.) Accountant, Treasurer or Board Member of numerous not-‐for-‐profit civic organizations (Birth Place, SPARC, Gainesville Women’s Health Center, Hippodrome, Hillel, and B’nai Israel Synagogue) 11) Party Affiliation (If Applicable): Democrat 12) Political Involvement: None 13) Have you ever been a previous candidate for political office? If Yes, What office?: State House of Representatives Outcome of Race: Lost 14) Campaign Organization and Structure Manager: Connie Amidei Treasurer: H. Budd / Pat Bern Media: N/A Advisors: Too many to list Pollster: N/A General Consultant: N/A Website: VoteHarveyBudd.com Facebook Page Name: Campaign to Elect Harvey Budd for Gainesville City Commission At-‐Large1 Twitter Account: @HarveyBudd Instagram Account: Work in progress Page 2 of 8 15) Are you a current member of the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce? YES____X_____ NO_________ Through my wife’s business, I. Silverman’s Inc. D/B/A Ilene’s For Fashion 16) Why are you running for Gainesville City Commission? Because of the many issues facing the City Commission, the community needs a new face with new ideas to solve many of those pressing issues. The City needs a Commissioner with my experience as a CPA, businessman, and has served on numerous community Advisory Boards. I can use my skill set and problem solving ability to help Gainesville be a better place to live for all its citizens. 17) Why should members of the business community support your candidacy? Because of my vast and long business career in Gainesville, I can relate to all of the business community and their issues. In my nearly 50 year business career in Gainesville, I have helped in my CPA practice hundreds of businesses and created hundreds of jobs. As a broadcaster, I built and operated WGFL-‐CBS4. I have also helped start four radio stations in Gainesville and I built cable TV systems in the rural community of. 18) Are there any organizations/entities which you would NOT accept donations from? YES__X______ NO_________ If yes, please explain I am trying not to accept campaign money from corporations or PAC. I think the public has the right to know who is giving to me campaign donations. 19) Is there any additional information about you and/or your campaign that you would like to share? 1. I have been married to Ilene Silverman-‐Budd for 32 years. Ilene was born in Gainesville and owns Ilene’s For Fashion, which was originally Silverman’s started in 1935 by her parents Joe & Faye Silverman. 2. I was an accountant and CPA until 1990 – specialized in municipal and governmental auditing and tax preparation for small businesses. 3. I have served for 8 years on the Board at Thornebrook Village Shopping Center Page 3 of 8 Page 4 of 8 Part B: Issue Questionnaire {Each Answer Must Not Exceed 75 Words} 20) What is the role of local government? Local government role is to serve its citizens with necessary service (education, police, fire, etc.) and to enhance the quality of their lives, but not to hinder the creation of new employment. 21) If elected, what would be your top three (3) specific policy objectives and why? 1. To make it easier to build their businesses inside the City limits. 2. Try to reduce the utility bills for both business and residential customers. 3. To attract businesses to locate in East Gainesville. 22) What specific policies and/or programs should be advanced to promote economic development in the City of Gainesville? We need to create educated work force and help the public schools create major apprenticeship programs in the building trades 23) How would you promote small business growth in the City of Gainesville? Create a program for University of Florida students to help small businesses grow and market their business using social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) Improve the existing buy local campaign by the Chamber by using the government access Cox channel 12. 24) What is your philosophy towards utilizing public funds to finance economic development incentives in the City of Gainesville? Great idea! It would be helpful in attracting light medical manufacturing and other jobs to East Gainesville. 25) Please discuss any specific ideas you may have to promote job creation from the “GED to the PhD” levels of education in the City of Gainesville? 1. Increase the size and scope of apprenticeship programs throughout the community. 2. Help make start-‐up companies raise the needed capital by using crowd funding sources. 3. Recruit companies to relocate to Gainesville, specifically from Europe Page 5 of 8 (we are 2 hours from Orlando airport) 26) What is your view on education across the “cradle to career” continuum? If our goal is to achieve a 100% graduation rate from high school, more needs to be done for our at-‐risk students. Every person has the potential for marketplace skills. What is needed is to identify the individual’s talent and how to get the best result for each student. Talent is not truly measured in traditional tests. School administrators and teachers are in a better position to provide individualized programs to provide a path to. 27) What are your views on skilled career pathways? I am a strong believer in apprenticeship and internship programs. My father had an 8th grade education in England and became a master tailor by being first trained as an apprentice. Creating career pathways by retraining workers for in-‐demand jobs in Gainesville is an effective way to help workers find a path to sustainable employment. Partnering with employers to develop career pathways for individuals which will build skills that will result in higher wages, better. 28) What (if anything) should be changed about the City of Gainesville and Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) development review process? Making the process easier. The process has become bogged down with too much red tape, which has become an obstacle to creating jobs. When I served on the City Plan Board, I tried to make the process easier. 29) What (if anything) should be changed about the City of Gainesville Land Development Code? I would like to see a simple unified development code for the City and the County for small parcels less than one acre. In the City there are many small in-‐fill properties that could be developed, but because of too many restrictive ordinances these properties become economically unbuildable. 30) Please discuss any specific ideas you may have to enhance the growth of the technology and manufacturing sectors in the City of Gainesville? I would like to attract to the east side of Gainesville, light medical manufacturing jobs from companies that are located in Europe. These Page 6 of 8 companies can then market their United States made products to North and South America from a convenient location in Florida. (2 hrs. to Orlando airport) 31) What are the greatest infrastructure challenges facing the City of Gainesville and how would you address them? I would like to see the change in how GRU is managed. We need a 5 or 7 member non-‐paid Advisory Board appointed similar in design and scope to other municipal utilities. The second issue is the large amount of poverty and working poor in our community. The solution to poverty is education for the unskilled poor with more hands on learning (apprenticeships) and for the working poor we need to recruit to Gainesville more. 32) The cost of electricity in the City of Gainesville ranks among the highest in the State of Florida. Please discuss any specific ideas you may have to reduce the cost of electricity and make Gainesville more competitive. We have an oversupply of generating capacity. Either we sell off our extra electricity in long term contracts or we reduce the size of our generating capacity. 33) The Gainesville City Commission currently governs Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU), which has approximately one-‐third of its customer base outside of the City of Gainesville corporate limits. Do you support changing the current GRU governance structure? YES __X_____ If yes, why? NO ____________ If no, why? I support a 5 or 7 member non-‐paid Advisory GRU Board, which exists with other municipally owned utilities. If the Legislature passes another type of GRU governance board, I would be happy to let the voters decide which board system would be better. I am confident if I am on the Commission by then the voters will defeat this Legislation. 34) Do you support a Special Legislative Act by the Legislature of the State of Florida to provide for a voter referendum giving City of Gainesville registered voters the opportunity to amend the City Charter and create a Page 7 of 8 separate utility authority to govern Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU)? YES _X________ If yes, why? NO ____________ If no, why? I would like City voters to decide the best type of governance of GRU. I am confident by March of 2016 that they will decide that the City Commission run utility with an Advisory Board is the best way to manage GRU. 35) Do you support moving City Commission elections from the spring to the fall and being non-‐partisan? YES _________ If yes, why? NO _X________ If no, why? I would like to let the voters decide the best time of year to have an election. Having the election in March allows the community to best meet and analyze all the candidates including the candidates’ key issues. Most elections in the fall are every 2 years and City elections would take place at the same time as the primaries. There are no guarantees of a higher turnout in a primary election. However, every odd. I hereby certify to the veracity and completeness of the information herein and that no other party other than myself completed this questionnaire. Original or Electronic Signature Page 8 of 8