Catherine Robinson, the longest-serving elected official in Flagler County, is about to serve three more years: the Bunnell mayor was re-elected Friday, when once again the qualifying window for candidates in March’s election found her without opposition.
But for a two-year break Robinson has been on the Bunnell City Commission since her appointment in 1994, winning every election she’s run in since, all but one without opposition.
“I certainly feel blessed,” Robinson said today. “I’m excited to get to work with Dr. Jackson because he brings so much experience to the table and we made a really god decision with him.” Robinson was referring to Alvin Jackson, the city manager she and her colleagues appointed late last year.
But by the time Robinson takes the oath of office for her next term, she may face a very different commission, certainly with two new commissioners at the table, and possibly three.
Two of her colleagues are or will be off the commission: John Sowell resigned in late November when he moved out of Bunnell, in preparation for a run for a county commission seat. He’d been on the commission less than two years. Elbert Tucker, Bunnell landowner, owner of Tucker insurance and a mainstay on the commission since 2008 (he won four successive elections), chose not to run again this year. Commissioner Bill Baxley’s seat is also up. Baxley, first elected in 2013, is running again.
Normally there would just be three seats up in the March election: the mayor’s and the seats Elbert and Baxley occupy. With Sowell’s resignation so close to the election, the commission opted to hold a special election concurrent with the regular election. That resulted in four seats, including the mayor’s, being up at the March election. Robinson’s unopposed status took one of those seats out of the equation.
Three candidates are vying for Baxley’s and Tucker’s seats: Baxley, Beulah McClendon-Johnson, who is retired, and Donald Nobles. Nobles owns Hot Diggity Dogs, the restaurant and catering business in Bunnell, and is an equipment operator for Flagler County government. He was born and raised in Bunnell. “I just have a lot of people come tell me and ask me if I’d run,” Noble said. “They needed somebody who’s been here all their life, I’ve been here 58 years.”
The top two vote-getters will be seated.
Three candidates are vying for Sowell’s seat in the special election: Daisy Henry, the pastor who used to be a city commissioner for many years starting in 1998 (Baxley bested her by four votes in 2013), Jan Reeger, a Realtor and a member of the Bunnell planning and zoning board who ran for a commission seat in 2016, and Tina-Marie Schultz, the operations director at Starace Total Balance in Bunnell. Henry and Reeger are a frequent presence at commission meetings and often make their voices heard on various issues.
“I don’t believe there’s anyone running that has ulterior motives against the city of Bunnell or would be harmful against the city of Bunnell,” Robinson said. “That’s a good thing. There’s some unknowns, and if they win we’ll find out what those unknowns are.”
Tucker said he was “weary” of the job. “I just don’t have time for it,” he said, noting his insurance and cattle-running duties. “I need to let somebody else take it and not get in their way.” Asked if he was endorsing anyone, he answered by saying who he’d be voting for: Baxley, his colleague of six years, and Noble, a long-time friend.
As Bunnell Turns says
Donnie Nobles doesn’t have the sense the good Lord gave a goose.People asking him to run must have asked everyone else first and when they all declined, they figure well, heck, Donnie’s dense enough to try it. If he’s elected, prepare for Kindergarten shenanigans.