Harold Briley and Brian Nave to face off in Ormond Beach City Commission Zone 4 race
ORMOND BEACH — With three of the four City Commission races already decided, Ormond Beach residents have one more spot to fill.
Harold Briley and Brian Nave are vying for the Zone 4 seat.
Lori Tolland in Zone 1, Travis Sargent in Zone 2, and Susan Persis in Zone 3 have already been elected. Bill Partington and Rob Bridger will face off in the mayoral race.
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Both races will be decided on Nov. 8.
The News-Journal posed the following questions to each candidate with a request to limit responses to 100 words. Answers that exceeded the word limit were edited for space; otherwise, answers are presented as they were submitted, save for minor corrections to punctuation.
The candidates
Harold Briley
Age: 50
Occupation: Real estate agent
Political experience: Ran for Ormond Beach City Commission Zone 4 in 2016 (lost to Rob Littleton).
Top three priorities:
1. Maintaining and enhancing our quality of life.
2. Keeping our city fiscally responsible by maintaining a low tax rate and utility rate.
3. Protecting and preserving our environmental and historic resources.
Why are you running?
I am running for city commissioner because I love my hometown. Having been born and raised in Ormond Beach, I appreciate the special city that we have, and want to preserve and enhance everything we can. I appreciate that we have a tremendous quality of life in our city – from our rich history and historic preservation, to our beautiful parks and natural settings. I will never take these things for granted if I earn the chance to represent our residents.
What is a life accomplishment that illuminates the kind of city commissioner you will be?
My many years of service on city advisory boards in Ormond Beach. I began on city advisory boards in 1994 when I was 21 years old, primarily because I felt if you wanted to make a difference in your city, you had to be involved. Serving as chairman and past chairman of three city boards and past president of two organizations, you learn to listen to people, hear their concerns and facilitate solutions. This perspective has taught me that no one person has all the answers, and that dialogue and compromise are what gets things done for our citizens.
What is something about Ormond Beach you treasure and will fight to protect, and conversely, what is something you will fight to change?
As a city commissioner, I will always treasure the quality of life and our small-town charm in Ormond Beach. Our environment is fragile and must be protected. We are seeing development in all around us at a rapid pace – much of it in neighboring jurisdictions and planned developments in those jurisdictions that have not yet come to fruition. As a city commissioner, I will encourage our city commission to reach out to those jurisdictions that have development projects on Ormond Beach’s doorstep, to negotiate all possible ways that would reduce and mitigate the impact our city receives from those projects.
Brian Nave
Age: 59
Occupation: Engineer
Political experience: Quality of Life Board; Leisure Services Advisory Board; vice chairman for the Board of Adjustments and Appeals; past president of Citizens for Ormond Beach.
Top three priorities:
1. Increase efficiency, decrease cost and reduce waste, thereby keeping our taxes low.
2. Continue to maintain or even increase our green space requirements and ensure developers abide by them without cutting corners.
3. It's time to bring common sense back into government. It's been shown quite clearly the last few years that we need more engineering and business solutions to these problems.
Why are you running?
I keep asking myself why are THEY making these crazy decisions? Why are THEY wasting this money? Why are THEY doing what they're doing? Then I realized that I am THEY. If I don't get involved and make a difference myself, then I have no justification to complain about the decisions. It's clear to me that politicians who have no practical experience cannot make the logical and efficient decisions that we need to keep our government costs down and our government effectiveness up. They are just too out of touch. We need real people, regular people running government.
What is a life accomplishment that illuminates the kind of city commissioner you will be?
I grew up in a two-bedroom trailer out in the woods where my bedroom was a screened-in porch that I shared with my brother and two dogs. No heat. No air conditioning. I joined the Air Force and earned my college education, I worked at a local business for 18 years and earned the opportunity to start my own business, I brought that business from nothing to $15 million in sales in five years and earned the chance to now contribute to my chosen community of Ormond Beach. I'm not afraid to work and I have a record of proven success.
What is something about Ormond Beach you treasure and will fight to protect, and conversely, what is something you will fight to change?
Ormond Beach has always felt different than other cities. More trees, more grass, fewer buildings in your face, less concrete, fewer signs. As the areas around us turn into concrete jungles, I think it's important for Ormond Beach to stay the shining star that it is. The community that everyone admires, the community that we are proud to live in. I will continue to fight to ensure that Ormond stays the green city that it is, and I will fight against poor decisions in handling congestion that just ends up with bigger and wider roads.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Ormond Beach election 2022: Candidates for City Commission Zone 4
