Flagler County Commissioner Greg Hansen had somewhat of a surprise for his colleagues and the public at the end of the commission meeting Monday evening: he announced that he will not run again. His term ends in 15 months, and he intends to fulfill it “with a bang.”
“After a lot of thought, I’ve decided not to run again. So I’m not going to seek re-election,” Hansen said at the end of a two-and-a-half-hour meeting. “There’ll be plenty of time to talk about why I did this, and how much I’m going to miss it. But it’s just time. It’s time for me to let somebody else do it. And I’m doing it early, one year early before the primary, so that hopefully we’ll get some good candidates to run.”
That was it. Nothing more dramatic, though you could hear a touch of emotion in Hansen’s voice: he’ll be leaving something he’s loved wholeheartedly, and often done well. He thrived more at it as he learned, and as the occasional rancid or unfit colleague underscored the importance of the pragmatism and salty-tongued civility Hansen reflected.
Then-Gov. Rick Scott appointed him the seat in January 2017 following the death of Commissioner Frank Meeker the previous July. “There was a morning when Greg looked at me and said: what would you think if I applied for Frank Meeker’s seat on the county commission?” his wife Linda Hansen recalled. “I looked up at him and said, why would you want to do that? He said I could make a difference,” especially with smoothing out relations between Palm Coast and the county. “‘If I send in my resume, I’m going to get the nod, because nobody else has a resume like mine,’” he’d told Linda, “and he was right.” (Jon Netts and David Alfin, the once and future Palm Coast mayors, were among the applicants.)
Scott had liked Hansen’s pledge to hold the line on taxes, though it probably helped–a lot–that Hansen, through his younger sister, is the brother-in-law of Sen. John Cornyn, then as now one of the more powerful Republican senators in Washington. (An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the connection as being through Linda Hanse.)
Linda has always worked closely with Greg and has a long political background of her own (mostly in Washington, D.C.). She said they’d been talking for a week bout what would be Greg’s third retirement.
“If you were Greg and you were going to be 79 in December and you were going to be 80 when you took office, do you think you’d be giving people the best of you?” Linda said. “And most people say, Gee, I had no idea you people were that old. They think we’re in our 60s.” It’s nice to be told, she said, but there are other lives to live. “I’m about as relieved as he is. If he had said he wanted to run again, I’d have been fine with it, although I have less and less interest in it. I spent my life doing this on the federal level.”
As the local political atmosphere got more polarized, Hansen over the years became more pragmatic and moderate (he’d been more ideological before the commission), aligning especially with Commission Chair Andy Dance in the last two years to try to get a long-term beach-management plan in place. They fell short, which played into Hansen’s decision somewhat. But Hansen’s departure will be a particular blow to Dance’s kind of governance by consensus.
“There was some frustration and inability to get the beach funding this year, that’s kind of nagging at me, and the problem with the two new commissioners,” Hansen said in an interview this morning, referring to Commissioners Kim Carney and Pam Richardson. “They just haven’t figured it out yet. Maybe they will this next year. But the real driving thing is, I’m staring at 80.”
Hansen wants to pick up golf again, see Montana and Wyoming and a few other places in the United States he hasn’t seen yet. But he repeatedly says that his announcement in no way diminishes his intention to continue pushing hard for certain projects. He still has another budget season to go through. He intends to try to secure beach funding again next year.
He’s been approached by two people interested in his seat. He hasn’t developed an opinion about them. Linda was more candid: she didn’t think they’re qualified. (Neither mentioned names.) “They’re not right for this job,” Linda said. “I would have said they were, but they’re not. I learned that with Pam Richardson.” Several candidates “can win an election but they have no idea what they’re supposed to do, what their boundaries are,” while better qualified candidates won’t step out and expose themselves “because of the nastiness, and we’re hurting because of that.”
Dance was absent from Monday’s meeting, having spent part of the day in surgery. Carney and Richardson made no reference to Hansen’s announcement, though they spoke after him in their closing comments, and Richardson spoke appreciatively of members in the audience, the staff and the new attorney.
Leann Pennington, who was chairing the meeting, alone dignified the announcement: “You were there to coach me in the beginning when I was clueless on maneuvers,” said Pennington, who unseated Hansen’s nemesis in 2022 (Joe Mullins) to win her seat and representation of the county’s West Side. “I can’t think of anything you have not supported in District 4. You pushed hard for Bull Creek. You pushed hard, you helped me with the special assessment” in Daytona North, an assessment that was repealed at Pennington’s insistence. “You helped me frame arguments up here. You were attentive and helpful. And I know that you have done a lot for your district as well, and it is something we need to get together and push forward to get the beach funded.”
If there was a hint there that Pennington, who had opposed funding the beach with an addition to the sales tax, could be an ally on that score in Hansen’s final year, Hansen was sure to have picked up on it.
Soon after the announcement, Joe Saviak, who continues to lead the county’s leadership academies, congratulated Hansen on his Facebook page for his “leadership, dedication, and accomplishments on the Flagler County Commission!” Saviak added: “You have given a lifetime of service to others and your leadership has had a very positive impact whether in the U.S. Navy, the halls of Congress, the private sector, or on the county commission. Best wishes for many years of continued happiness when you leave the county commission next year!”
In the interview this morning, Hansen had been imagining what life would be like after the commission, then said: “I have to say this: I absolutely love being a commissioner. Absolutely. Probably one of the best jobs I’ve ever had outside of commanding my own ship.”
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