First Endorsement - Jonathan Duda

“I have been very impressed with the maturity and devotion to responsibility of our youngest Alderman, Jonathan Duda. Not only has he been vocal in meetings but has been eager in seeking out information to bring to the Board in an effort to bring about positive changes. Neither does he seem to be trying to draw attention to himself in his activities.” - Charlie Schoenbrodt

Early Voting Begins this Friday! I will not be voting early this time (for the first time in a long time) because there are still FAR too many unanswered questions. I think that we actually have a lot of very good candidates in this election, but I am not very sure about the top of the ticket quite yet and I am fairly sure I will walk in to the voting booth somewhat mixed in my decision.

At this time, there is only one person that I can publically support. I am sure that it will come as no surprise to many of you that have been paying attention for the last 4 years, but that person is Jonathan Duda.

I am still somewhat saddened that Mr. Duda is not running for mayor, because he is by far the most qualified, intelligent, thoughtful public servant to lead our city right now. I think Southern Exposure Magazine had it right in declaring Jonathan Duda is “One of the four individuals who most exemplified leadership in Williamson County.” As one commenter stated recently, Mr. Duda will not publicly tout his accomplishments on our BOMA, Planning Commission, and Historic Commission, so I will do it here for him.

Lets take a quick look:

• Mr. Duda personally executed his own audit of city finances, and started the state audit. All of this information can be viewed on the city website. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for bringing this to light and bringing about this transparency and the measures that have since resulted. Had it not been for Jonathan Duda, I am not sure if we would even be aware of the situation our city is now in and working out of as we speak.

• He along with Eliot Mitchell were the catalyst on the BOMA for Re-apportionment. This has created tremendous activity and excitement in this election and the previous one, re-shaping OUR representation and involvement for the better.

• Mr. Duda and Mayor Leverette were the two most active and involved members of the BOMA in our fight for a Spring Hill Hospital. I cannot count the number of times Mr. Duda visited other municipalities and county government meetings to plead our case with well prepared facts and figures to urge neutrality or outright support for our cause. This was in my opinion even more important than the petition drive (which he was also an active member).

• Mr. Duda led the charge for the development of a Historic Commission, preserving our historical heritage. He is now Chairman of the Historic Commission. This was a tremendously controversial topic with our previous BOMA.

• Mr. Duda was the driving force behind the need for a comprehensive city plan, and thoroughfare plan. These changes have brought the City of Spring Hill out of the dark ages in terms of our long term planning. This was also an extremely controversial topic with the previous BOMA and City Manager Ken York.

• Mr. Duda was the driving force behind making our city government as transparent as possible though the use of our city website. He personally scanned every resolution and ordinance, as well as other applicable documents dating back years in order for it to be provided on our website for citizens to view. He was also instrumental in posting agendas on the website for citizens to view in advance of a public meeting.

• Mr. Duda was also intimately involved in changes on the Planning Commission that would require INCREASED notification by the developer to nearby citizens that might be affected. This has and will bring about increased community involvement in our city.

Quite frankly, I could talk to each of you for as long as you care to listen about why we should re-elect Jonathan Duda to represent us as Ward 2 Alderman without even mentioning his opponent. I will however close with this quote from one of Charlie’s newsletters…

“I have been very impressed with the maturity and devotion to responsibility of our youngest Alderman, Jonathan Duda. Not only has he been vocal in meetings but has been eager in seeking out information to bring to the Board in an effort to bring about positive changes. Neither does he seem to be trying to draw attention to himself in his activities.” - Charlie Schoenbrodt
I am not sure that I could have said it much better myself.

Please check back later this evening as I will start to discuss the other great races in this city election, including our Mayoral race. It should be interesting!