The City of Bradenton continues to grapple with a shrinking tax base, falling revenue and spending priorities. On Nov. 3, city residents will decide three seats on the City Council, those in Wards 2, 3 and 4. Though the candidates represent a geographic ward, the election is a citywide ballot so voters will see all three races on their ballots.
Today, we look at Ward 3: Richard O’Brien versus Patrick Roff.
Patrick Roff
Roff, a self-employed arborist, serves as the city’s representative on the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, Manasota League of Cities and Keep Manatee Beautiful. He is co-chairman of Realize Bradenton and the city liaison on the Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway Committee. His past civic experience includes membership on both the Bradenton Police Chief’s Advisory Council and the board of directors of ArtCenter Manatee.
@BR Body bold Lede colon:On growth: Roff helped develop Bradenton’s new comprehensive plan, with its focus on smart growth. He is a proponent of New Urbanism, the movement that advocates mixed-use development, higher densities and walkable neighborhoods. He advocates more downtown residential units to boost retail growth. Roff envisions a vibrant, exciting small city with big-city amenities.
Beautification projects in Village of the Arts and along 14th Street West should help spur redevelopment once the economy rebounds, he says. A simple thing as allowing 7-Eleven to rebuild its burned-out store with a bigger building has boosted profits there, he notes. He suggests turning around Tamiami Trail one corner at a time. He calls Realize Bradenton, a cultural master plan for the city that holds economic benefits, a godsend that united arts organizations in the city.
@BR Body bold Lede colon:On crime: Roff cites the Bradenton Police Department’s success with community policing for driving the crime rate down again last year, a strategy other agencies are emulating. While the city chopped spending by double-digits in other departments over the past three years of budget reductions, law enforcement did not suffer nearly as much as officers get preferential treatment, Roff notes. Fourteenth Street West has become a safer place, and will even moreso once roughly half of the police department relocates to the old Manatee Glens facility there.
On city priorities: One of the reasons Roff is in the race for re-election is to complete the Wares Creek dredging project, still to get under way after several decades of false starts. He says he’s had to be vigilant to keep it on track, and it’s his full-time job now. Drainage improvements should start next summer. His other top priority is the recovery of Tamiami Trail and other urban renewal projects. He vows to continue to hold the line on taxation, noting that the millage rate has dropped by 9 percent during his time in office.
Richard O’Brien
O’Brien, a business owner who also teaches several courses at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, is a member of the Manatee Crime Prevention Task Force, Realize Bradenton and Village of the Arts task force. He also sits on the board of the Sarasota-based Humanity Working to End Genocide, an issue he also pursued in Washington, D.C. from 2000-2004.
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