Gene Brown will be Bradenton’s third mayor in 40 years. This is his plan for the city
Voters chose Bradenton’s third mayor in 40 years on Election Day and Gene Brown says he’s ready to continue serving the city.
Brown was previously elected in 2012 to serve as a councilman representing Bradenton’s Ward 2. He stepped down earlier this year to run for mayor, defeating Councilman Harold Byrd Jr. and Dimitrie Denis in the process.
He will be sworn in Jan. 5.
On the campaign trail, Brown made huge promises, vowing to keep taxes low, solve traffic issues and replace Bradenton’s aging infrastructure. In a Q&A interview with the Bradenton Herald, Brown detailed his approach to leadership and how he plans to improve the quality of life for the city’s residents.
Herald: What would say is the biggest issue in Bradenton right now? Redevelopment? Economic recovery? Or something else?
Brown: I think it’s going to be a combination of things, especially as we get through the end of the year with COVID-19. It’s making sure our businesses stay open and start to thrive as the new year comes in.
Obviously, the trends that are happening are going to make a big difference in it, but keeping our businesses open and letting them continue having the least government intrusion from the city and then processing through the redevelopment of downtown throughout the whole city.
Herald: How would you distinguish yourself from the last two mayors Bradenton has seen in the past 40 years?
Brown: Obviously, the first mayor (Bill Evers) is related to me — my dad’s cousin. I wasn’t as active in his term as I was through Mayor (Wayne) Poston’s term, but both of those gentlemen loved our city, and that’s very important. They may have governed a bit different, but they loved our city, and I have that same passion that they do for loving our city.
We want it to keep thriving and growing. Forty years ago when Mayor Evers started, things were different. Twenty years ago when Mayor Poston started, things were different, and now with this pandemic, things are different when we’re starting out, but I believe our city is going to come out on the other end of that stronger than it ever has.
We’ve got Riverwalk East that’s going to really start developing now. The Riverwalk itself obviously is a beautiful amenity we have, and hopefully, once we get through the pandemic, we’ll be able to start utilizing that again.
With the regatta being canceled this year, I’m looking forward to getting that back in 2022. It’s going to be very important for the economic development of our city, and I believe the businesses want that, especially the downtown businesses. I think we can grow that to be more of a positive light, as well as other events.
Herald: You’ve mentioned infrastructure as a big issue throughout the city. What are some examples of the improvements you have in mind?
Brown: I think we’ve got to continue the programs that we have. You heard (Public Works Director) Jim McClellan talk about what’s going on right now. We’re in the seventh year of the infrastructure plan for the sewer and water lines. We’re in the seventh year of the road repaving. We’re in the seventh year of the stormwater.
I think all of those have to continue to be funded and go forward, so we can continue on the cycle we’re on to do that. Road repaving, for example, is a 15-year plan, but obviously, when the 15 years is up, we’re going to have to start over again. I believe it’s very important for our city to continue that process while not raising taxes. I’ve said that a lot, but we’ve done a great job with the administration, the clerk and the treasurer to figure out how to do that and to continue to grow our city.
I think there’s a lot of possibilities to continue our growth downtown and keep doing that. It’s important for our city, and I think our citizens have noticed that over the years. We’re not paving a road and then six months later coming back to put pipes underneath it. We’re putting the pipes and then the paving. Our Public Works Department has done a great job at planning that.
Herald: How can the city continue to revitalize and attract business downtown?
I think it’s important that we show businesses that we’re pro-business. With the CRA and the different ways to do things, you can actually give incentives, you can work with the council. Obviously, it’s very crucial when you’re working through that.
I think our economic recovery coming out of COVID-19 is going to be important with that. I think it is going to be to tell the government to stay out of the way of small business and let them work.
Some of the planning department incentives will have to be in there to make them easier. I think it’s going to be important to support our business. Hopefully, with the organization part of the city, we’ll have an economic development director, and I think that’s going to be very crucial to get that person in there and have them start working to bring business to us.
There’s some developments, I believe, that are going to happen downtown that will bring people. You need more people. You need more restaurants. You need more amenities. I think we’re on the verge of exploding, and I think that’s been a great tribute to the councils that we’ve had over the past many years for that impact.
Herald: Affordable housing is another issue. What can you do as mayor to attract more of that?
Brown: We talk about affordable housing, but I think we need to define what affordable housing is because we have a lot of low-income affordable housing in the city of Bradenton, and the county has quite a bit. But when you look, we need more workforce housing.
We need to be able to have a place for our starting out nurses, our starting out firefighters, our starting out police officers — basically our entry-level workers that want to start their lives with their spouses but they can’t afford to go spend $200k or $300k on a house right now. If you look throughout our whole county, those are selling as quickly as they build them, so there is a need for those.
But we need more workforce housing, and I think there’s going to be an opportunity. I do believe there has to be a lot of private-public partnerships. Government can’t do it all. It has to be working together.
We do need some of our developers to come in and be willing to take that chance. I know there’s some things out there now that the city has heard.
The city has always been willing to work with them, but the city can’t build it. It’s going to take some developers willing to take a chance and put some things downtown, as well as the outskirts. It doesn’t have to be exactly downtown, but maybe close enough where it’s walkable or bikable. One of my big things is going to be how we work together with the county and the city of Palmetto to figure out some of these traffic issues we have. That’s a big concern I heard on the campaign trail.
The city of Bradenton in and of itself can’t solve that because we only have so many streets that we control, but we can actually work with the county. I have good relationships with all of the (new commissioners) coming in and also with (PalmettoO Mayor (Shirley) Groover Bryant, so we’re going to work together and that’s going to be one of my biggest things right away — working with the Council of Governments to ask for a workshop from that standpoint.
The city of Bradenton gets blamed for a lot of that, and in a good way because it really is in the middle of our heart, but we’re going to try to work to solve some of that. I don’t think we can completely solve it, but we can maybe work some trends and work some ways to help the alleviation of it but also make it safer for our citizens.
Herald: One of the biggest items on the ballot was oversight of the police department. Are there any changes or plans in mind for BPD?
Brown: I think the citizens have spoken. That was one of the things that the past council wanted to have. They wanted citizens to speak. The citizens, I believe, did a great job, obviously electing a mayor and working through it.
My opinion has been known since day one on that. I did not believe the police department should work by committee. It should have one boss and work through that. I believe that’s the best operational way to do the city police department.
One of my campaign things early on was police cameras. Now that’s already been approved by the council and that’s working through the process, which is a great thing with the body cams.
The police department has had video in the vehicles for a while, so I think that protects our citizens. It protects our officers. It protects the department, which is very important. Once I meet with the chief, I have some ideas I will work with the chief on to figure out the direction of the police department and that will be coming, to be determined as we work with them.
That’s important that we come out and it’s very important for me to be transparent through the police department and be very honest and hold all of the people involved accountable for when good things happen and when bad things happen. You’ve got to be accountable. I think that we saw when it went through this council talking about the policy for the police cameras.
I was impressed by our chief where she was willing to say ‘Hey, I’m going to hold them accountable if there is a situation.’ I appreciated the council’s comments, all of them, that asked questions. That’s important.
If you know me at all, you know I’m a very accountable and to-be-held-accountable person.
Herald: The council also has several newcomers. How will you all work together to improve the community?
Brown: I’m very excited about our council now. If you look at June 10, when I resigned from the council — the way it looked then and the way it’s going to look on Jan. 5 is very exciting.
We’ve got five great people. You don’t always have to agree with everybody when you’re working together, and that’s not going to happen. It shouldn’t happen. You shouldn’t always agree, but I’m very excited for the challenge our city has to move through the pandemic that we’re in to going forward and working with this council.
I was very glad that the majority of the council reached out to me, as I reached out to them when we all won. We can’t talk now because of Sunshine, but we’ve got great relationships with everyone I’ve talked to.
Herald: What can voters expect from you as mayor?
Brown: I want to be the people’s mayor, the listening mayor, and if you’ve known me for the seven and a half years I served on the council, I’m very accessible and I will be in our community working for our community — what I’ve done my whole life for us. I’ve always said ‘us’ because it doesn’t change. Obviously, (Friday) we’ve got the Manatee-Southeast football game. That’s going to be a huge community event and obviously we want to keep everyone safe at that event, but we’ll be helping our community and supporting our community like we always have.
This story was originally published November 7, 2020 at 12:00 AM.
