HOLMES BEACH – The Sun hosted a Holmes Beach City Commission candidates forum at city hall on Thursday, Oct. 1.
The forum featured first-time candidates John Azzata and Mark Hebden, and incumbent Commissioner Carol Whitmore.
The three candidates seek the two commission seats and two-year terms to be filled during the city election that concludes on Tuesday, Nov. 3. The candidates spent about 90 minutes discussing the issues that impact Holmes Beach residents, property owners, business owners and visitors.
The forum was livestreamed on the Anna Maria Island Sun Facebook page and will remain there for 30 days. The YouTube video can be viewed at amisun.com.
This is the first in a series of articles The Sun will run regarding the candidate forum. This story focuses on the candidates’ opening remarks, why they want to serve as a city commissioner and what skills and experience they’d bring to the commission.
OPENING STATEMENTS
Hebden said he’s a Philadelphia-area native who earned an architecture degree at the University of Virginia. He and his wife, Carol, raised three daughters and have six grandchildren. Carol’s parents retired to Bradenton, and the Hebden family vacationed in the area for about 20 years. Hebden said he moved to Holmes Beach full time when he retired in 2020.
“My whole life has really been about servants and servant leadership. I’ve been engaged in church leadership and school board leadership,” he said.
“I don’t want to ever be a candidate that gets elected and then becomes someone who pretends that they know everything suddenly. I am a person who will be serving you,” Hebden said. He noted he served with the Save Florida Home Rule group that pushed back on the county’s proposed parking garage and state legislators’ discussion about consolidating the three Island cities.
Whitmore said she’s been on the Island since 1969. She arrived as a teenager. Her parents were far from ideal, and she was kicked out of the house at 15. With the community’s help, she couch-surfed for a few years, found places to live and attended high school without missing a day. She credits the community with raising her into who she is today.
“I have no special interest in me for running for office. I believe in public service and I’ve committed my entire career to it. I’m a registered nurse, I still have my license,” she said.
“And I’m still involved in politics. As you all know, I was city commissioner and mayor maybe from ’91 to ’98. I was city commissioner ’98 to 2006 I was mayor. Then I wanted to go and do something different, so I moved on to county commission, and now I’m back home again. I have no special interests. I want transparency, which I haven’t seen in the last two years since I’ve been here. Communication with the board has not been the best it could be and my job is to make sure that it does improve.”
Whitmore said she’s prepared to fight for the city using her state and federal connections and relationships.
Azzata said, “My name is John Azzata. I was born in Brooklyn, New York. ‘How you doing?’”
He and his wife, Karen, recently celebrated 49 years of marriage.
They began visiting the Island in 1998 and bought property here in 2013, after paying for their three sons’ college educations. The couple has four grandchildren and a fifth on the way.
Regarding his time with the Nassau County Police Department, Azzata said, “I was in law enforcement for 34 years. I rose to the rank of detective captain. My last assignment was nine years with the homicide squad. During that time, I was also the lead negotiator for the department. I was in the peer support group and I wore many other hats.
“I was awarded law enforcement person of the year in 2012. I went to St. John’s University.
“I went to the Nassau County Police Academy and I was one of the very few people in the United States that attended the FBI National Academy,” he said.
Azzata said he volunteered with the Police Athletic League and served as president for 14 years. He also served as a trustee with the Catholic Youth Organization.
“We live on a beautiful Island and I want to keep it that way with improvements, with your help. I’m working for you and that’s what I want. ‘Working for you,’ that’s my motto,” he said.
WHY AND WHAT?
The candidates were then asked why they want to serve on the commission and what skills and experience they’d bring to it.
“Because I want to give back to my community,” Whitmore said. “Now that I’ve grown with the city, previously and as mayor, and then 16 years as county commissioner. I’ve grown a lot and I feel like my experience can really help our city. It has helped since I’ve been in office.
“People may not like to hear this, but I’m able to call any of our state and federal legislators, or leaders, and at least get a return call back representing the city.
“I think I’m the most prepared up here. Again, I don’t have any agenda.
“My job is to keep our city as a chartered government and home rule, and I feel I’m strong enough in my relationships with all the people that can make that decision that we may not like. I feel that I’m strong enough to keep that going,” Whitmore said.
Azzata said, “I think the obvious answer is because I think you can do the job. That’s number one. 34 years in the police department, I’ve dealt with many characters. Not only in the police department, but outside the police department. And to rise to the rank of captain at the executive level of the police department you have to have leadership. If you don’t have leadership, you’re not going to be the head of the homicide squad.
“I’ve been coming to the commission meetings for months now. And I appreciate all the work these people do. They certainly have a hard job. The job would be easier if they got along.
“I intend to talk to the citizens of this city. My idea is to have citizen groups along with business groups involved in that, and those citizen groups because they’re part of the community. A big example of what went wrong is right now at 56th Street and Marina, the business people are hurting. No one brought them into the loop and explained to them what was going on and how to deal with it.”
Hebden said, “I want to be a commissioner because I believe that can make a difference. And I believe I already have. I’ve been participating in the meetings for years, but I’ve also offered myself my expertise as an architect and planner as a resource to the city. And that’s been an asset in terms of drainage issues. I’ve also participated in looking at the Gloria Dei property to help the city evaluate how we can best utilize that property.
“We can’t be as reactive as we’ve been. We need the commission to be participating and engaging the citizens so they can bring issues that we can be more proactive about.
“My professional expertise was 40 years as an architect, so I understand codes. I understand good developers and bad developers. I understand government contracting. I know I can help us be more efficient with that.
“I was 20 years on the board of directors and also six years as president of a 300-person design firm. As president, I had to be the one that set the strategic vision for expansion. But I also had to be the person that held the line in terms of budgets and making sure that as a company we were on target in terms of how we spend money, how we prioritize money. I was also overseeing HR management, so I understand the issues,” Hebden said.
To be continued…
View the forum video here
