They are nice to each other. But city council candidates do have their differences

The Ward 3 race between incumbent Patrick Roff and political newcomer Cornelia Winn has been largely cordial.

Other than taking a couple jabs at the “like-minded” men who have sat too long in their seats on the council during a Sept. 20 debate, Winn, who turned 30 on Friday, said the respect being shown between the two candidates was discussed from the onset of her campaign.

“I reached out to Patrick in a short amount of time after I announced,” Winn said. “I told him that I understand the culture of politics is to be nasty and attack one another but ultimately we want the same things for the city, so I have no intention of being nasty. It’s just not the campaign I’m going to run.”

Roff, 61, in turn, has said nothing but nice things about Winn, going as far as to say that her sincerity will make her a good city councilwoman one day, but she’s not ready yet.

“She’s a very nice young lady and I’ve met with her several times,” Roff said. “I believe she’s sincere, but the biggest difference right now is experience. I believe, at this point in time, I’m the best candidate.”

Roff was first elected in 2006, just before the Great Recession, which forced city government to layoff employees and suspend redevelopment efforts.

“I didn’t anticipate spending my first two terms dealing with the economic disaster,” Roff said. “Between that and the rate of foreclosures in the city, it ate up a lot of my time. But in the last four years, I’ve been gaining a lot of regional status, networking and getting accreditations. In my opinion, I’m set up for my best four years ever.”

Before joining the city council, Roff was involved in efforts to turn the Historic Ware’s Creek Neighborhood around. As a councilman, he spearheaded the effort to get state and federal funding for the Ware’s Creek flood mitigation project and has since helped the Ballard Park neighborhood move forward with redevelopment and the creation of the John & Rebecca Neal Park.

Roff now wants to focuse on revitalizing 14th Street West.

“I’ve never been more prepared,” Roff said. “And I think I can get it done in the next term. If you saw 14th Street 20 years ago, you’d know it’s come a long way, but it’s not anywhere close to being done. I want to capitalize on the strong market. The difference between 14th and Ware’s Creek is that project was all government agencies. Fourteenth is a whole different ball game when dealing with the real estate market and getting other people to do the redevelopment.”

Winn said politicians take too much credit for the successes in the community.

“Hard working taxpayers are the ones who fund all of our improvements and special projects” Winn said. “Entrepreneurs, who often risk their savings and livelihood to open a new business, are the ones bringing the jobs and revitalization to our community. It is the members of each individual community who truly know what their neighborhoods need.”

Winn said the city’s biggest issue has been the lack of communication to its residents.

“Communication to the community from the city on things that are going on is No. 1 for me,” Winn said. “They know they do the bare minimum and it’s superficial. There is no common sense. In the private sector if you wanted to communicate, you’d use every method possible but they as a government probably don’t want the people getting heard.”

Winn said she would be an elected representative eager to listen to the people, “Rather than pretend to have all of the answers. If we gave credit to the people, rather than politicians, we would have stronger neighborhoods because they would be filled with people who realize they have ownership of their community, and are more than just voiceless spectators.”

Winn has implied Roff is a career politician, which makes him chuckle.

“I know she keeps saying that, but I don’t like career politicians either and don’t want to be one,” Roff said. “Government doesn’t move at the same speed as the private sector. It took me two terms to get Ware’s Creek done and in the next four years I believe there will be a noticeable difference, particularly on 14th Street, where someone can pick up the ball and run with it. I really do want this for the city.”

Both candidates agree that traffic solutions are paramount to quality of life in Bradenton, and both agree that the proposed flyover replacement for the Desoto Bridge is not the best option. Both also agree that the city should continue its aggressive infrastructure replacement plan.

“Cities are trying to figure out how to get their infrastructure done,” Roff said. “Well, the answer is, you start.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2018 at 6:00 AM.