District 4 commissioner Everett Phillips is seeking re-election, facing three opponents, Chris Dicks, Glenn Keen, and Robert Lane. Columbia County’s commission elections are non-partisan, meaning candidates run without party affiliation, and the race appears on the August ballot for all voters in District 4. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two vote-getters will advance to the November election.
News4JAX sent a questionnaire to each candidate asking about their background and their views on several issues. Scroll down to read the responses of those seeking your vote in their own words.
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Note: Responses are sorted alphabetically and are presented exactly as submitted, with no editing by News4JAX staff.
| NON-PARTISAN CANDIDATES |
Chris Dicks
Occupation: Engineer for the Florida Department of Transportation
Age: 51
Family: I just celebrated my 27th anniversary with my beautiful wife and mother of our four boys.
Education: Columbia County Public Schools, Florida Gateway College(formerly Lake City Community College) and the University of Florida (BS in Civil Engineering)
Political experience: To-date I have no elected experience. But, through my work as an engineer for the Florida Department of Transportation I have communicated and collaborated with officials in 18 different northeast Florida Counties to deliver a multitude of transportation improvement projects.
What do you see as the top three issues in this race, and how do you plan to address them?
Providing Public Safety and Emergency services,
Infrastructure maintenance and expansion,
Business attraction for job growth.
Currently Columbia County ranks among the top 15-20 highest crime counties in Florida.
The County did increase the Law Enforcement budget for this last cycle by 3 million dollars. I would continue to support competitive pay in order to hire good officers. I would also support stiffer penalties for violent offenders.
The Board of Commissioners has recently admitted that their contract providing for Emergency Services is weak and insufficient to meet adequate response times. I would support bringing these services back in-house and redistributing the locations of home bases to provide better coverage to the County with reduced response times.
I’ve been an engineer, designing, signing and sealing plans for the Florida Department of Transportation for the last 25 years. I’ve ensured that designs complied with State and Federal safety criteria. I’ve estimated projects, managed budgets and schedules. I’ve coordinated with State permitting agencies, Local municipalities, County and City governments, as well as Utility agencies.
I plan to use my extensive knowledge to help Columbia County better manage, plan and execute their Infrastructure program.
I plan to partner with the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce to solicit business needs and recruit those businesses. As well as collaborating with our local education partners to provide vocational training to develop a workforce capable of meeting those needs.
How can you help voters in a way that others running for this office cannot?
I am a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Florida, with extensive experience designing and building roads and transportation improvement projects.
What would you hope to be remembered for accomplishing after serving in this office?
That I helped make Columbia County a better place to live and raise a Family!
Campaign website: (None given)
Campaign social media: Facebook
Glenn Keen
Campaign website: None found
Campaign social media: Facebook
This candidate has not responded to email and telephone invitations to complete the News4JAX candidate questionnaire. If responses are received, they will be promptly posted in this space.
Robert Lane
Campaign website: None found
Campaign social media: Facebook
This candidate has not responded to email and telephone invitations to complete the News4JAX candidate questionnaire. If responses are received, they will be promptly posted in this space.
Everett Phillips
Campaign website: None found
Campaign social media: Facebook
The incumbent has not responded to email and telephone invitations to complete the News4JAX candidate questionnaire. If responses are received, they will be promptly posted in this space.