In Their Words: Manatee County Commission Candidate Terri Wonder

Why are you the best candidate for the District 6 Commission seat?

The people of Manatee County have spoken loud and clear: they want change. They want a county-wide commissioner who stands up for All Dogs and not just the Top Dogs. They want local government and administration that is responsive and responsible to all citizens, that is willing to change course when it has made bad policy decisions such as those that led to the raid on the Indigent Care Fund and thus put the poor at risk, that holds its enforcement arms--such as animal services--accountable when those divisions fail to discharge their duties properly, and that respects the traditional conservationist ethos of its people. I am qualified to help bring about those changes. Because I have a diverse background and because I have worked with people from all walks of life, I will be effective in helping to move Manatee County in a direction that focuses on all citizens. I have conducted applied anthropological fieldwork in some of our region’s most desperate communities in an effort to bring about much-needed policy changes. I have risked my life as a US Army Civilian in Iraq, where I was a key advisor to top military commanders about the needs of frustrated, discontented local populations. And I was one of the key leaders in the movement against the overdevelopment of Long Bar Pointe, where land owners sought and still seek to dredge and fill in a Coastal High Hazard Area. When I say “changes,” I’m not talking about drastic alterations. I am talking about bringing all citizens into the fold and addressing their concerns: disenfranchisement, a county governing body that disrespects them, a lack of transparency in dissemination of tax monies, unevenly applied standards of free speech, and an unwillingness to address legitimate concerns of the general public.

When called upon to access information, I have an extensive background that has contributed to my expertise in research, specifically applied research aimed at making policy recommendations. My acumen in this area will be beneficial for taxpayers; I will ask the right questions of those whose task it is to make appropriate decisions, i.e. research proposals and studies the county is considering commissioning. I will make sure people get their money’s worth. Although research is mostly an individual process, I also enjoy working with teams. For example, as a research associate at The University of South Florida, I worked with a team of academics from across the country and the Republic of South Africa to assist in reforming RSA’s education law system. During that time, I was also writing academic articles, delivering papers at academic and intelligence conferences, studying for my doctorate, planning and going on extended offshore cruises on my husband’s and my sailboat.

I would add, in nearly eleven months of grass-roots campaigning, I have an earned reputation as someone who is willing to research the issues and to reach out to people of all political stripes in an effort to discern where the common ground lies. People also know me as someone who will fight hard for everyone’s rights and for just causes. Last year prior to becoming one of the key leaders in the Long Bar Pointe Opposition to the overdevelopment of our shoreline, I had spent three months helping a veteran at my former university contend with a hostile university administration that had applied a two-tiered standard of speech rights against her. Aside from a full-time commute to my job at MacDill Air Force Base, where I worked with Central Command, that’s pretty much all I was doing in my spare time. I didn’t do this for any monetary gain; I did this because she was a friend, a veteran, and she deserved justice. We were totally successful: all charges were dropped.

Some would perhaps assume that because I have a PhD that I’m out of touch with people who live lives of quiet desperation. But the truth is, I come from two generations of poor rural North Florida stock. My father was the son of Polish-immigrant sharecroppers. A B-17 ball turret gunner in World War II, he was, through the G.I. Bill, able to get a technical education and rise above poverty. He became a small businessman and managed a small farm. We have people here in Manatee County who live as my father lived in his childhood. It would be a betrayal of his legacy if I were to ignore them, so I will certainly listen to their voices as well.

What is the most critical issue facing the county?

The current county government and administration has a history of not responding to the concerns of its citizenry. I will work hard to remedy that tacit shunting aside of the very people who have been ignored for so long, people who exhibit over and over their collective knowledge on matters such as tax policy, healthcare reform, environmental issues, transportation, and animal welfare. The BOCC would do well to pay attention to them and bring them into the fold of decision-making, instead of shutting them out, which has angered citizens and made them mistrustful. Such treatment is all too evident in BOCC meetings when they are misled and fed information that is not accurate or true. And when they verbalize their concerns, they are often publicly humiliated and then ignored or in some scenarios, forcibly removed from chambers. All this disconnect needs to end. As a commissioner I will work with staff to ameliorate this marginalization. In addition, I will demand that the county not let six years pass before finally granting golf-cart riders in Parrish to formally petition their elected officials to pass an ordinance to allow them to ride in a designated, thus helping to ease their lives. Also, and I have been quite outspoken about it, is the need to reform Animal Services, which has been derelict in enacting the “No Kill” policies the BOCC ordered the department to enact in 2011. The people of Manatee County deserve more respect from their elected officials and county employees than has been shown for the past several years.

What is the reason that made you decide to run?

The August 6th Long Bar Pointe decision to change the map of the property to Mixed-Use was most certainly the triggering factor. The pay-to-play politics and other political skullduggery behind the scene that the Long Bar Opposition discovered also contributed to my decision. Someone had to step up to the plate. The opposition to that map change consisted of at least 6700 citizens representing every zip code in the county who signed the petition, and if you look at the language of the petition, the grievance was not just about “the marina.” Yet somehow, the spin on the dais that night and afterward by my opponent and her surrogates was one along the lines of, “See we did the right thing. We removed the 300-berth marina from the application.” This self-congratulation rang hollow with the collective voice of the Long Bar movement. The problem with what the developers wanted was the entire shooting match, the obvious plan to destroy a significant regional natural resource, a major fish nursery that services West Central Florida’s fishing industry and a federally registered historic fishing village, one of the last of its kind anywhere on the Gulf Coast. I have neighbors who have raised several generations of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren on those grass flats. Either our land use decisions respect the values of the people of our county or they don’t. The vote was disrespectful to the people of this county. If it ever happens—and if elected I will do everything in my power to see that it does not—it will establish a very bad precedent in other areas of the county, such as Terra Ceia, Duette, and Myakka.