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Tag: Dave Zaccagnino

Mayoral candidates discuss past experience, managerial style

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Featured.

 HOLMES BEACH – Holmes Beach mayoral candidates Dan Diggins and David Zaccagnino participated in a candidate forum hosted by The Sun and held at city hall on Sept. 23. Last week’s story focused on the candidates’ opening statements and why they want to be the next Holmes Beach mayor.

This week’s story focuses on the skills and experience the candidates would bring to the mayor’s office, their similarities with and differences from the current mayor, Judy Titsworth, and the management style they’d bring to city hall.

EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE

When asked about his professional experience and expertise, Zaccagnino said, “I’m in finance and I manage tens and tens of millions of dollars every day. I’ve been on boards. I’ve been chairperson for many, many nonprofits.

“There’s three ways to budget. You have a business budget, you have a nonprofit budget and you also have municipal budgets. They’re all totally different. And there’s a lot that needs to be corrected in our budget,” Zaccagnino said.

“You really have to get the most out of staff, and that’s the mayor’s job. You are the CEO,” he added.

“This is all about our quality of life. It’s all about us paying less and getting better services. The only reason you have to incorporate the city is because you think you can do better than the county. That’s why we have our own police department – because we feel like our police department can do a better, safer job than the county.

“It’s the mayor’s job to make that happen. It has not been happening in the last eight years. We’re being left out of the sunshine. We’re being left out of transparency. We’re not working with other municipalities, the state, the federal government and everything up here is being rubber stamped. I would change that,” Zaccagnino said.

Diggins, a current city commissioner and a retired FAA accident scene investigator, spoke about his experience and said, “Managing tens of millions of dollars at the federal level. Municipal government budgets are completely different. They’re completely different than a business budget. 

“And our budget is not so much out of whack if you really look deep down inside. Since 2019, we have raised about $8.8 million in grant money and reimbursement money, and that took a talented staff to apply for and get that money. I’m able to manage that type of staff and that type of activity.

“I’m a listener. I’m not much of a talker. And if you listen to people, they tell you what’s wrong, and how we could possibly fix it. If you spend all your time talking, you don’t learn much – and that’s the skill set that I’ll bring to this job. And I take a little issue with my opponent’s statement of the facts. I think they’re a little too inflammatory and inaccurate,” Diggins said.

SIMILAR AND DIFFERENT

When asked how his mayoral style might be similar to and different from current Mayor Judy Titsworth, Diggins said, “I’d be very similar. I’d be very kind to the staff. I’m very thoughtful. I’m a good leader. I’m a good manager of staff. We’ve got about 50 or 60 people here on staff and it would take a lot to manage all of them and manage the department heads. It’s a very complex city.

“In ways that would be different, I wouldn’t hesitate to use reserves to clean up after a storm. When Helene hit, the debris hung around here quite a long time, and this was very hard on you folks. It took a toll on all of us. It took a toll financially, it took a toll physically, it took a toll emotionally. To see your life’s belongings out there for a couple weeks when we had money in reserves that we could use to clean it up … I would think that’s what the reserves are for. That’s a tough decision that somebody will have to make it after the next storm, but I would not hesitate to use the reserves.”

Zaccagnino said, “Well, that’s the decisions you were supposed to make two years ago. As a mayor you have certain powers, but you’re supposed to go to the commission and ask what the direction is. The commission has the majority of the voters supporting them, and that’s your job, you can’t unilaterally do things, and that’s been happening the past eight years, without any transparency, especially within the budget. There’s a lot of decisions that need to at least to come to this dais so it can be discussed in the sunshine.

“That’s why we’re all here – not for me, not for Dan. We’re here for you guys. We’re supposed to be of service to you – to get your services and your quality of life to the best of our ability.”

MANAGERIAL STYLE

The candidates were asked whether they consider the mayor’s job to be a full-time job or a part-time job. They were also asked about the management style they bring to the mayor’s office. Zaccagnino also discussed his second living space and second workplace in St. Petersburg.

“I’m always accessible. I do that in my job currently,” Zaccagnino said. “I go to St. Pete a couple days a week and work out of St. Pete instead of Lakewood Ranch. It’s easier for me, but I’m always here raising two children out here. So, when they’re here, I’m here full time.”

Zaccagnino, who last served as a city commissioner in 2014, said, “I’ve always been responsive to the voters, the residents, the neighbors, even the visitors that have questions. I think that is very important as a mayor, to be responsive, to be transparent and bring things to the commission. That’s how our charter works.”

“It’s a full-time job,” Diggins said. “This is a very complex operation now because we’re managing tens of millions of dollars, and a good part of that is grant money and reimbursement money for stormwater.”

Diggins said there are a few key issues that affect Holmes Beach residents the most.

“Number one: Traffic. Number two: Stormwater. And number three: Tourism. Managing these things require a full-time job and requires a decent staff, talented staff that have the skill set necessary out here. The people on our staff don’t live here, they have to come to the Island every day. And you know as well as I do, driving to the Island every day is not an easy task. To retain these people, we have to pay them the going salary that they would make over in town.

“We have some people that drive over an hour every day to come here, so we have to be understanding to those people and understand that they deserve decent pay and deserve decent working conditions to get the job done, because these jobs are very complex,” Diggins said.

To be continued…

Related coverage: Diggins, Zaccagnino debate mayoral issues 

View the mayor’s candidate forum video here

Diggins, Zaccagnino debate mayoral issues 

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Community News, Holmes Beach.

HOLMES BEACH – Holmes Beach mayoral candidates Dan Diggins and David Zaccagnino shared their views on a multitude of city issues during The Sun’s candidate forum held at city hall on Wednesday, Sept. 23. 

The winner of the race to succeed departing Mayor Judy Titsworth will be determined during the municipal election that concludes on Tuesday, Nov. 3. 

The two candidates spent about 90 minutes discussing city issues and their desire to serve as Holmes Beach’s next mayor. Diggins and Zaccagnino answered questions posed by The Sun’s editor, and many of the questions were submitted by Sun readers. 

The mayoral candidates’ forum was well-attended. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

The discussion topics included the city budget and city expenditures, the size of the current city staff, stormwater and drainage expenditures, paid parking, Second Avenue, the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church property, vacating a city-owned beachfront alley and more. 

The forum was livestreamed on the Anna Maria Island Sun Facebook page, and the archived video can be found there or at The Sun website, amisun.com. 

This week’s story will focus on the candidates’ opening statements and why they want to serve as mayor. Additional coverage of the forum will continue weekly until it has been fully covered. 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

The forum began with opening statements, and Zaccagnino went first and said, “I’ve been here in the city for almost 30 years. I grew up in Tampa and I went to Florida State for an undergraduate in chemistry. I was a chemist for the state of Florida at the Department of Law and Protection, Central Laboratory for five years. 

“I taught at Florida State and I decided that wasn’t my calling. And then I went back to school, business degree, masters of business, and I started working for Morgan Stanley. 

“25 years ago, I’m sitting there watching the television when the plane hit the first tower, it was tower one. I worked in tower two just three months before that. That changed everybody’s world,” Zaccagnino said. 

Dave Zaccagnino explained why he wants to be the next Holmes Beach mayor. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

“For the past 25 years, I’ve been in over a dozen nonprofits and boards on this Island. I’ve been highly involved in the school and the community center. I helped a lot of my neighbors too, especially during the last storms that we had. I stayed through those storms. 

“I grew up Catholic, went to a Jesuit high school, and my calling’s always been ‘a man for others.’ And that’s what you need in this job, you can’t do it for money. You can’t do it for ego and you can’t do it for power. This is truly a service to others. 

“I remember when I started as commissioner for nine years – vice mayor for a couple years. We didn’t get paid, we just got a reimbursement, and I think it was like $300 a month. And now I think the mayor’s job is like $25,000, which is insane to me because we should be doing this for you guys,” he said.

“I’m not asking you to vote for me. I’m asking you to vote for you. Because this is important. I know how to lower taxes. We had the lowest millage in the whole county before.

“I know how to run big organizations. I’ve run big businesses. I’ve bought and sold them. I’ve managed a lot of employees. The mayor’s job is CEO. The commission’s job is board of directors. The commission is supposed to set policy and the mayor’s supposed to follow it as best as possible.

“That has not been happening right now. And that’s causing the problems we’re having right now. I want to change that. I want to change directions of what this current commission has been doing. It’s against our charter,” Zaccagnino said.

During his opening statement, Diggins said, “I first came to the Island in 2010. I was on assignment over in Afghanistan, where I lived for four years, advising the military and the ambassador there from the U.S. because airplanes were flying through an active war zone at the time. I designed the airspace so we wouldn’t shoot down friendly people, and it worked pretty well. Never shot anybody in an airline down.

Dan Diggins explained why he wants to be the Holmes Beach mayor. – Joe Hendricks | Sun

“My daughter came here, she was a wedding planner, and she came down here and did a destination wedding. My wife and I lived in the D.C. area at the time and she says, ‘You’ve got to see this place. It’s really amazing.’ So, I came home on leave right after Christmas for a few days and my wife and I drove down here. And we went, ‘Oh, this is a pretty nice place.’ So, we contracted with a contractor and we built a house. We moved here in 2011. I continued living in Afghanistan until 2014.

“I have executive leadership at the federal level. Like I say, I’m out of D.C. I was an aircraft accident investigator for major aircraft accidents around the world. I was in charge of the Go Team out of D.C. I’ve been to 43 countries investigating major accidents. I investigated the Space Shuttle Columbia accident. I was the lead investigator about the cause of that in 2003.

“I spent six months at Ground Zero going through all the wreckage, trying to find airplane parts and body parts. We didn’t find too many airplane parts. We never found the black boxes.

“I testified to the 9/11 Commission about the events of September 11 and I just have a very unique background, technical background, in executive leadership and crisis management. I’m pretty good at crisis management.

“I’m a very good listener, but I’m not much of a talker. I’d like to harness the collective wisdom of all our residents because I’m really shocked at the amount of talent that we have here on the Island. There’s people from all different levels of skill and knowledge, and I would like to see more resident advisory committees to help advise us what to do,” Diggins said.

WHY MAYOR?

When asked why he wants to be mayor, Diggins said, “I want to be mayor because I think I bring the skills, the knowledge, the wisdom and the temperament to this job – and I know how to do this job. I’m familiar with the city. Terry Schaefer probably knows more about the city than I do as a fellow commissioner, but I’m a close second. I know how the city operates.

“The city is not the city it was when my opponent was here. It’s almost double the tourism. We have a very large organization. It’s a very complex operation and I have the skill set to do that; and the temperament to do that, and I think the temperament is very important,” Diggins said.

Zaccagnino said, “We went through two category four hurricanes in 11 days. The city to the northwest did a remarkable job. The city to the southwest did a remarkable job. We did a horrible job. I think Dan was vice mayor at that time. I think Terry was on the board too.

“I can’t tell you how crazy it was, how many people were just in crisis situation. We were out here. We were managing the crisis. The community center was open the next day to provide food, water, supplies, power. That should have been us. We shouldn’t have been waiting around, and we shouldn’t have been waiting around two months for our trash to be picked up and our garbage everywhere.

“I would change that. I would change that immediately, and there’s ways to do that. Transparency is huge. As a mayor, I’d be transparent. There’s commissioners up here that don’t even know that word. The current mayor has not been transparent with the commissioners. That’s the way our charter is set up. The mayor’s supposed to talk to the commissioners. The commissioners are supposed to talk to the mayor so that everyone’s on the same page and so we can solve some issues in the sunshine.

“Some people are getting 20% raises. Some people are getting 5% raises. Some departments are getting more money. Some departments are getting less money.

“There’s even commissioners up here that don’t know what kind of grants we’re getting. There’s not any communication with the local representatives on the Island, or the city, the county, or the state or the federal government.

“I personally got calls from people at the federal government, our representatives and the state, that said, ‘Thank God that you’re running because we can’t talk to the current commission and mayor right now because they just don’t want to work together.’ I would change that,” Zaccagnino said.

To be continued next week…

To video of the Sept. 23 forum can be viewed here.