2 house property

>> primary election day in florida is just four weeks away. >> it's time to meet the candidates. >> this original program is provided as a public service by wsre. the league of women voters and pensacola state college.
l ♪ >> good evening, welcome to rally 2016. i'm mollye barrows with wsre-tv. >> i'm sandra averhart with wuwf, public media. >> tonight is the second of three nights of rally 2016,
election coverage on wsre-tv, pbs for the gulf coast. >> rally allows you the opportunity to meet the candidates in primary races in escambia, santa rosa and okaloosa counties as well as candidates in the state races that impact these counties.
>> the spotlight tonight is on the race for florida senate district 1 and the race for florida house district 4, both districts cover parts of okaloosa county. then we'll focus on local races in okaloosa county. beginning with race for county
commission district 1 and then sheriff, property appraiser, superintendent of schools and school board districts 2 and 4. >> thursday we will cover five primary races in escambia county for county commission districts 1 and 5, tax collector, school board, district one and sheriff.
>> now the questions that will be put before the candidate this is evening were provided to us by the league of women voters from the pensacola bay area as well as okaloosa county. >> the candidates have not seen the questions, they will each be asked the same questions and
they will have 45 seconds to respond. and following the question and answer session, each candidate will have an additional 45 seconds to deliver a closing statement. >> and it is time to get started.
bebegin with the race for florida senate district 1, parts of okaloosa county, walton holmes, washington bay and jackson counties. >> there are two candidates in this state race, both are republican. in alphabetical order they are
mr. doug broxson who resides in gulf breeze. and mr. mike hill, of pensacola beach. welcome to o both of you. >> let's begin with the questions starting with mr. broxson. the federal government estimates
300,000 people died from gun violence between 2004 and 2014. what is your position on banning sales of assault weapons and high capacity magazine? >> my position is people that legally own guns should have the right to have those guns. as you look at the numbers and
you probably are not quoting the statistics that people that belong to the nra or have a concealed weapons license are some of the safest in our society. they're not the problem. the problem is people unlicense and have illegal guns that are
doing the violence. so my position is very clear people because of the second amendment gives them the right, they have a right to bear and use arms and in a safe manner. >> thank you, mr. broxson. mr. hill, turning now to you, federal government estimating
assault weapons and high capacity magazines? >> i would be completely against that. we have an inailable right, a god given right codified in our cobs institution by the second amountment to be able to defend ourselves and protect ourselves
our family and property. i think that in order for us to be able to do that, we should be able to possess the weapons that we feel we are comfortable with, that you have been trained to use. that we should not need government approval at all in
order to defend ourselves against those who might commit a crime against us. >> thank you, mr. hill, this next question to you first. over 500,000 working poor florida citizens remain without health insurance. would you support tapping
federal dollars to cover these people if not, what kind of plan do you support? >> if you're referring to expanding obama care medicaid in florida, i'm completely against in fact that came before the legislature last year, the florida house voted against
for a couple of reasons. number one, we simply can't afford it. it becomes too costly for us. right now healthcare is a third of our budget in the state. and over a third of that, 37%, is medicaid. just ten years ago it was only
20%. that's a trajectory we cannot afford to continue. how we should do it instead is to make sure that we have competition in our healthcare system to allow people to choose the doctors and hospitals that they prefer.
>> thank you. mr. broxson, this question to you now over half a million working poor floridians remaybe without health insurance. people and if not, what plan would you support? >> we're already tapping federal dollars.
60 cents of that every dollar for medicaid and now the burden is so great for the citizens of this state, it is tapping into our money for education, roads and all the things that give us quality of life. i wish we could solve all the healthcare problems but we
simply cannot. and we do have a safety net. our -- by constitutional you can go to the emergency room, you can see a doctor there. we will continue to provide that, that's one of the major expenses we go through every year, making sure our safety net
hospitals are properly funded. >> thank you mr. broxson, turning now to question number 3 starting with this question, due to rising sea levels florida risk of residing on the coastlines in some parts is greatly impacted. what is your opinion on the
current resources deads kateed to this issue in the state and what actions will you fake to further address it? -- will you take to address it? >> in some parts of the state we allow construction is a big problem. i live close to the water and i
have not noticed there's been a considerable sea rise. there are construction areas around the state that when they were built they knew they would be a problem. frankly that's great concern to the people that live in the interior part of the state is
why should they be subsidizing people that build too close to the water and not high enough to protect themselves. so i think we have a flood insurance program that takes care of most of this but we have to do a better job making sure we build higher and further back
from the coastline. >> thank you m broxson. mr. hill. question to you. what in your opinion, what is your opinion about the current resources dedicated to the issue in the state and what actions will you take to further address
this issue of florida's increased risk of flooding along the coastline? >> first i reject the premise of the question, which goes back to this false narrative of climate change. that it is causing our sea levels to rise.
there is no evidence of that at all happening. in fact, living along the coastline myself, i do not see sea levels rising, i don't think anyone else sees it. there are occasions where there will be flooding that happens, this is a rare occurrence from
either rains or perhaps those along the coastline as representative broxson said have built too close to the beach or water line. but there is no rising sea level at this time. we should instead direct resources toward education and
those things that really matter. >> thank you, mr. hill. >> our next question will go to from broxson. a human rights watch report found 12,000 children over a five year period were transferred to adult court. -- i'm sorry, it is to you,
first, mr. hill. thank you very much. i'll begin again. florida law allows the prosecutor to transfer a child to adult court without a hearing or input from a judge. what would you do to change this system?
>> first we need to look at, back up and look at what is causing this problem of crimes committed by our youth. i say it's the breakdown of the family unit. we need to instead strengthen our families, we need to have a man and a woman raising their
children in a way they should go and when they grow old they won't depart from it so that we don't -- they don't become a burden on society. instead what we should do is strengthen the family, strengthen those values that keep families together.
we know in a household where there's a man and woman raising a child, the incidence of crime committed by those children is greatly diminished. that's the real answer. now to you, mr. broxson. what is given florida law allows the prosecutor to transfer a
child the adult court without a hearing or input from a judge >> i believe in the system. i believe prosecutors and state attorneys and public defenders are elected by the people and they are in most parts, i have talked to many, they're sensitive to the situation when
it involves a juvenile. however, at the same time, there is a tremendous burden on our judicial system right now. especially with teenagers and younger people. so we have to depend on our public defenders and prosecutors to do the right thing, and put
these people that even though they're youth, in a place they can be properly adjudicated and dealt with at that level. >> mr. broxson next question to you. florida uses a closed primary election system meaning a voter must be registered republican or
democrat, what's your position on changing from the closed primary system to one where no party affiliated voters can participate? >> i like the system as it is. if you want to be a republican you can register as a if you want to be a democrat,
and in fact, even between the primaries you can change back and forth. if people want to be involved in this race, if democrats or independent, they can qualify to vote in this race. so we have a system, we work on it every year.
to make sure it's fair. but you really do not want people that do not have a core value of what you believe participating in your race unless they are people that believe in your values. and republicans have certain things that i believe in,
democrats have certain things that i believe in. i believ the separation is good. >> mr. hill, to you for the same question. what's your position on changing from the closed primary system to one that no party affiliated
voters participate in >> one of the largest voting blocks growing in our nation right now are the independent voters. the independent voters i believe do share our values, i think it should be an open primary. we shouldn't disenfranchise more
than half of our voting population with a closed primary. and in fact, our primary was open between representative broxson and i until the 11th hour, he was able to get a write in which closed the primary. he was for that, but i am
against it because it disenfranchised so many people and even though willing to vote with our conservative values. >> mr. broxson rebuttal. >> we have two write in to say that i was involved in that would be a misstatement. i would have to direct the
question back to mr. hill. did you get a write-in candidate in your race? next question to mr. hill. in a radioteen sampling of one area of voucher vol scholarships. florida state auditors found more than $1 million were given
to students who did not qualify for the money. how will you make sure these private contractors comply with established regulations? >> whenever you have a program in place whether it's for vouchers or anything else, it needs to be transparent, it
needs to be accountable. which means that you need to audit it on a regular basis. i think vouchers are an excellent program to be able to allow children to go to schools of their choice, that their parents choose. i was proud to be part of the
legislation this past session which passed that said that as long as there is room in another district or at that school, a child can go to any school that they want to in the state of florida. i think a voucher system to help those who need to go to perhaps
the private schools or other is a really good thing to do. we should keep it in place. question to mr. broxson. how will you make sure that established regulations regarding the funding of vouchers scholarships? >> when you start quoting stats
in florida you have to be careful, who you're talking about. if you look at some of the big problems that occur in the state of florida, it's not in the panhandle. it's in the southern part of the state.
we have massive fraud problems in many, many areas. the state is doing all they can to make sure we validate those qualified candidates but even at that, there are people that find a way to game the system. luckily we are not the ones that are having problems.
it's the people in the southern part, social county it is tip counties around tampa and other areas because there is too many problems they cannot take care of because the complexity of problems. >> thank you very much, mr. broxson, next question
beginning with you. what additional steps if any should the legislature take to save guard military presence in the state? >> that is a phenomenal i'm proud to say that i have been on the veterans affairs committee for four years.
two years ago we passed the most aggressive pro veteran, active and non-active retired in the we will continue to do that. we want people trained by the military, the government has spent thousands and thousands of dollars to train them to stay here and be part of our
community. i believe in that. i will continue to work to make sure we make it possible to not only stay and live here but have good paying jobs. mr. hill question to you. our state? >> as a graduate of the air
force academy and spending ten years active duty i understand the military situation in our area. i have requested and received briefings from the commandser of pensacola nas, commander of whiting field, and also the commander at hurlburt air force
base cyber security. an additional step we should take because it's a large military presence is to make sure that we stop refugee resettlement from happening in this area, that is a direct threat that we do not give florida driver's license to
illegal aliens as representative broxson voted to do, but we need to do instead is take care of veterans direct resources towards them. >> next question to you first, mr. hill. what is your opinion of d
escambia countyp decision to allow less stringent restrictions on carcinogens such as benzene used in fracking? >> i'm a big proponent of fracking. we have seen what it has done in our nation. it has lowered the cost of fuel,
the cost of gasoline, we see it at the pumps. it created an economic boom not only in our local area in florida but across the united states. we have become an exporter of energy. that's what fracking has done.
fracking still needs to be looked at closely to make sure it is it is dub safely not affecting our environment but i'm a big proponent of that, and we should continue it. what is your opinion of the dep decision to allow less stringent as benefit scene used in in
fracking? >> i don't think the -- they have made those decisions, that puts safety of public at risk. i'm proud to say i'm from a county that produces 90% of all energy produced in state of if you visit jay, i encourage you to do that, you will see a
vibrant small community with healthy children, healthy plants, healthy animals that have been doing that for over 60 years. the idea that we would allow there to be safety issues with producing the oil, we have perfected on land drilling.
we're not very good with the deep proven with bp but we can drill on land safely. >> mr. broxson, final question with you. what steps will you take to bring more industries and jobs into our region? and today the governor flu in, i
was proud to stand with him, if we celebrated the fact that florida in five years since i have been in office and since he's been in office has produced over 1 point -- 1 million new jobs. that came at a cost. florida had to participate.
we're in a bordered state that deals with the state of alabama, alabama spent 3 hub million dollars to get air bus and we're in competition with them. the reason we have navy federal is because we were willing to step up and make sure they didn't transfer back to virginia
the 10,000 jobs they're going to have here. we will continue do that because it's too important the people that have good paying jobs. m. i will h, same question to to our region? >> i would do instead of using capital cronyism and picking
winners and loosers to come into the state i would create an environment to attract all businesses to come here, which would -- the simple formula for that is to reduce taxes, to reduce unnecessary regulations, that creates the environment for businesses to want to move here.
not taking taxpayer money and giving it to corporations to come here because that is taxpayers' hard earned money. representative broxson voted for that, i voted against it. i support those things which we know work. loring taxes and -- lowering
taxes and getting rid of unnecessary regulations. >> all right. mr. hill thank you so much. that concludes the questions for florida senate district 1. time now for closing statements. we began the question-and-answer session with mr. broxson so
we'll now begin the closing statements with mr. hill. you will have 45 seconds for your closing statement. >> i understand that it is my responsibility to provide good public policy to the citizens who i represent. good public policy for me
consists of -- is it constitutional? is it fiscally responsible? will it fix the problems instead of creating a problem, and is it morally sound? constitutional is so important for me because i have a legacy of serving the military in my
family, my grandfather served in world war i, my father in vietnam. i served active duty air force, i have a son now united states marine corps actively deployed. we have an oath to that constitution. that's why it's so important to
me to be fiscally responsible. we should use the money to spread out ads much across the state evenly instead of giving away to corporations. mr. broxson your closing 45 seconds. >> in 2015 if my opponent would have been senator navy federal
would have gone back to their property in virginia. we would have lost potential of 10,000 jobs. florida spends almost $20 billion for taking care of the poor, the charity, healthcare. many of those people want to be
working, to have a good job but if there are no jobs available or no training available for good jobs we have handicapped our system and force people into a system where they have to be dependent on the government. that's bad government and i am against that.
we have to be more proactive and make sure that people that want to work can work. thank you both, gentlemen for joining us tonight. as we wrap up the first race of the evening we remind you you're watching rally 2016 here on wsre-tv.
where candidates in upcoming primary election have the opportunity to answer questions about some of the issues. >> the questions were prepared by the league of women voters of pensacola bay area and okaloosa county. up next we move to florida house
of representatives district 4. we'll return in just a moment. here is a look at some of our upcoming races. >> there is nothing more important to our democratic process than having an informed elect trait voting on election day.
good evening. i'm ed meadows, president of pensacola state college thanking you for tuning in to this rally. a joint presentation of league of women voters, wsre-tv, and rally allows you the opportunity to watch and listen as this election year slate of
candidates answer the tough questions concerning the needs of our community. wsre, a service of pensacola state college, is proud to bring this program to you as a public service. and as always, we invite your comments and suggestions about
how we can further fulfill our community obligations. let's all remember the poshes of participating -- importance of participating in the government's process by voting in the upcoming election. s >> thanks for watching rally on
i'm haley richards. ellen ross and i seven as co-presidents of league of women voters of pensacola bay area. for nearly 30 years the leagues here and okaloosa county have provided questions for events like tonight's forum as a service to our local
communities. our democracy is based on active participation by informed citizens and voting is an important way to participate. the league of women voters is a non-partisan political organization which means we don't support or oppose parties
or candidates. we work to increase understanding of major policy issues and encourage informative participation in government. this rally is a way to make accurate non-partisan information available to voters. you can contact us for
explanations of amendments and other ballot issues. we invite women and men to attends our public events or join us as members of the league. for more information, visit lwvpva.org or lwvokaloosa.org. please be an informed voter this
year. >> welcome back to rally 2016 on where you are hearing from the candidates in upcoming primary election. moving now to florida house of representatives district 4. >> there are five republican candidates on the ballot, one of
them wayne r. harris is not able to attend tonight. the four other republican candidates in the primary are here and in alphabetical order they are, ms. lori bartlett. mr. armand izzo. mr. mel ponder, and mr. jonathan michael tallman.
candidates, welcome. >> it's now time for your first we will begin the questioning with ms. bartlett. first question to you. please describe your positions on the legislative responsibility for protecting the public interest, education,
healthcare and criminal justice systems. do you have any specific proposals to improve these systems? >> big question for 45 seconds, i'm a very strong proponent of protecting our education and furthering it.
i'm also very strong proponent of getting common core out of our system and putting education back into our local government. i'm very strong proponent of getting our parents involved in their children again, i think over the years we have moved away from that.
your second question was healthcare? >> healthcare. >> with any system that we have today, i think we need to take a step back and i think we need to look at the processes that we are using currently as we look at healthcare and look at our
fraud and see where we're at, not necessarily start over. thank you. all right. next to you, mr. izzo. i'll repeat the question. describe your positions on the legislative responsibility for protecting the public interest
in education, healthcare, and criminal justice systems do you have any specific proposals to improve these systems? >> i'm a huge proponent of education. specifically education the choice the parents get to make. so as s laytor fight for that,
greater ability for the parents to choose. in terms of healthcare, it's important the take care of the people, but we have to also be considered what the growth of entitlement programs so i would keep as s laytor that in check -- as s laytor as -- as --
the question opt judicial system. the concern is and where i would focus on, what's the revolving door, i would focus on that, letting the criminals out too soon. >> the biggest is common core. we don't need a push down
education system of one size fits all, a lot of decision should be made local level by parents and teachers involvement, that's critical and important. also working with teachers and current school system to train children up so they're equipped
for jobs on day one. work with that regard. from a healthcare perspective we need to do what we can to stop obama care and added costs from the costs right now are expected -- we're supposed to have as manier o more people uninsured by 2025 than we did when it
first started so you have to look at things like section 1332, taking advantage of wavers, we'll start that in january and other things like >> thank you, mr. ponder. finally mr. tallman, do you need me to repeat the question? >> no, thank you.
as far as education goes i think we need to make sure that we -- i'm a proponent of school choice, we need to make sure we keep that and protect that for florida's children. also as far as healthcare goes we need to make it more affordable, because of failed
policies of brac about ma, preaches are up, deductibles are up and it's costing everybody more. so that's definitely something one committee i would like to serve on is the healthcare committee to try to stop this increase.
as far as the judicial system goes, we need to plook at it from a business perspective. and we need to look at reforms but make sure that it's effective and costing the taxpayers less money and -- >> our second question we begin with mr. izzo.
what is your view on the state versus local community responsibility for funding public education? >> i believe that the very lowest level, that's where the funding should take place, it can happen at the kitchen table that's correct.
county level, city level, that's the right place. when we begin to expand and increase the coverage from state, even to nation, we begin to then put in standards that maybe don't fit. so i'm a proponent to have education funded at the lowest
level. mr. izzo. before we continue just a reminder when you hear a ding, it's a five second warning that your 45 seconds is coming close and we will allow you time to finish a thought. there's no hooks that take you
off the podium. next to mr. ponder, your view on the state versus local community >> great question, it's more a really partnership between the state and local level, the biggest thing i'm concerned about is where it turns to a situation of unfunded mandates
that come back and really can have a sting at the local level. i think the cost, because of taxes are generated local level, that's why i'm a big believer making sure decision making with parts and superintendents and teachers and fa faculty are handled locally since funding is
there. right now i believe's a partnership that's working. that's what i believe. mr. ponder. mr. tallman, need me to repeat? >> i'm for local control schools. i think the state has too much
bureaucracy within the state education system. if we were to eliminate some of the state positions, we can really free up more money that can go back into the classroom for the students. i think sometime it is standards that are placed upon from the state
to the local school board districts, hurt innovation in the classroom and don't allow teachers to teach at their fullest level. sometime there's things you can't test on f cat or fsa or end of course exam but can be helpful for the student in the
long material. -- long term. >> ms. bartlett, now turn to you for this next question. your view on state versus local responsibility? >> thank you very much. we have funded this year 7,000 per children and added another
3,000 per child which i think is great from the state. i -- as i said before i'm a great proponent for parents getting involved but i also think we need to look at our local school systems to see if we are overridden with the administration inside of it
because a lot of money i believe is going to administration when it should be going into the children we create programs inside the community for children. >> excellent. q. all right. question 3 to mr. ponder, the
question is, the florida constitutional revisions commission will convene in 2017. how will you ensure that the panhandle is adequately represented on the commission? >> great question. i'm adhere to the constitution is paramount whether state or
federal. and i believe as i have been saying throughout my campaign, that northwest florida is significant. we're often overlooked by other parts of the state but i believe there's significance here in northwest florida.
one thing we don't have we need to create is a stronger relationship or coalition of sorts with other state representatives and senators up and down the coast so when we come to things such as this, we're not just one person represented but a vice that's
represented, so i believe as we come together as a united front we'll have a much stronger seat at the table talking about things like florida to you, mr. tall map, this how will you ensure -- mr. tallman, how will you ensure the pan handle is adequately
represented on the florida constitution revisions commission when it convenes next year? >> my biggest thing, we need to work together as a team here in the panhandle. the problem is that the florida legislature is population based
z representation. so take herb in central time zone we represent less than 5% of the population in the state of florida. so what we need to do is reach out to our partners in south florida and central florida, i visied over 60 counties so far
since getting into campaign and learned i think the way to do is learn about different areas and build those relationships with those other representatives and senators. i visied the ever glades, the indian river lagoon, tampa bay, bay port at jacksonville and in
the panhandle here too. so i think that's the best way to do is to build those relationships. >> thank you, mr. tallman. ms. bartlett this question to how will you ensure the represented on this particular commission?
>> i think we do -- we all agree we need to pull together three the state of florida as the vice chair of the republican executive committee i have been very involved in -- with our legislators the last couple of but it's not only making sure we're represented, we need to
continue to educate our own as we educate our county, our county becomes stronger and stronger and our voices collectively are heard stronger at the capitol. finally mr. izzo. >> appreciate it. we have to work as a team and i
would start building this team at the lowest level. the fourth district is a fairly small geographic but very diverse from destin area with tourism there to where i live in niceville, it's linked to the military. what we do is bring different
members from those the stronger members and begin to expand that team to encompass more of the panhandle towards pensacola, towards panama city beach to have the right representation because we're all independent little communities that have something special to offer and
each should be afforded a voice to speak. mr. tallman, we begin the next question with you. in light of the very expensive four years of the litigation following the last redistricting effort, would you support formation of a bipartisan
redistricting commission? if so why? if not, why not? >> at the current time i wouldn't support that. i don't think we need to worry about redistricting for another ten years at the senate level. about redistricting until 2018.
but whenever we do, i think looking at it from a bipartisan perspective, is very important. and it needs to be a transparent process. everybody needs to come to the table. mr. tallman. ms. bartlett turning to you.
in light of expense would you support formation of bipartisan redistricting commission, why or why not? >> not at this point. i think our state is facing a lot of issues that we need to look at. we talked about education,
we need to stop what we're doing, take a little break, look at where we are and then we can spread out, i think we take on too much too often too many times and everybody gets lost in the shuffle and here we are today asking questions how we're going to solve these problems so
we need to solve the problems first and then we can move out to redistricting if we need to. >> there's so many problems and prioritizing them is the right approach to tackling. for me the redistricting is not a a priority.
more importantly would be looking at infrastructure, the life blood, the communication lines. the ports, airports, roads, that's more important to me than spending money or looking at the cost that's involved and putting together a partisan or
bipartisan committee to think redistricting. more importantly, we should begin to think higher priority infrastructure is one. when i get to tallahassee that's one i'll focus on. >> mr. ponder. >> i don't believe looking at a
redistricting right now is a priority nor should it be. there's high expense as you talked in the question to do that, i don't think now is the time. if an event takes place in the future full transparency needs to be on board.
i believe the ground rules should be fully understood on the foresight, because at this point things became convoluted in the back which caused litigation and trouble. there's so many more priorities right now. creating jobs coming against
illegal immigrants, terrorism, infrastructure, water quality, those are the priority not another round of this. >> thank you so much, >> we're midway through our questions for the candidates. running for florida house district 4.
>> we will continue right after this short break. stay with us. the league of women voters is non-partisan, which means we do not support or oppose parties or this rally is one way for us to make accurate and non-partisan you can also contact us for
explanations of amendmentings merit retention of judges or ballot issues. we incite women and men to attend public evans or join us as members of league. for more information see our website and you can contacts there too.
please remember to be an informed voter this year. >> there are three ways to cast a ballot in okaloosa county. by mail, early voting or at your precinct on election day. to vote by mail contact the okaloosa county supervisor of election office.
you can write, phone, fax, email, log on to their website or visit the supervisor's office locations in crestview or if the walton beach. ballots must be received by 7 p.m. election day. early voting takes saturday august 20th through saturday
27th at the five locations on screen. hours for early votek are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day. opt primary election, tuesday august 30th voting takes place at your polling location from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. you must vote in the precinct you live
and registered. bring your photo and signature id with you. >> welcome back to wsre rally 2016. we are focusing on the candidates for the upcoming primary election. we are wrapping up a
question-and-answer session with those running for florida house again, mr. harris is not able to attend rally tonight. >> let's continue now, we began with mr. tallman for our last question and so we'll be back to ms. bartlett. your turn.
the florida constitution provides that one-third of the revenue from real estate transactions will be used for land and water acquisition. however, the legislature used a portion of these funds for salaries. how should this diversion be
corrected? >> interesting question. i don't know how it should be diverted. it needs to stop immediately. that's not what the funds are used for. i'm sorry, i don't know the process that needs to happen but
it does need to happen. mr. izzo, this question to you in relation to the diversion of some of these funds from the transactions used in part for salaries, how should this diversion be corrected? >> it should be stopped. i'm opposed to developing a tax
and having the tax pay for multiple things that apart from what it was initially designed for. as a country we're seeing a real problem in social security, because we built up a fund and now we're using that money for something else.
if this money is earmarked for environmental protection, for infrastructure, that's what it should go for and shouldn't go for other things. i would fight that the tax that we collect goes for the specific person reason we're collecting that tax.
first i'm glad they found it. i believe strong system of checks and balances when you ever have anything legislatively done in a county wise from that standpoint, it's good to have a system of checks and balances. secondly they need to right the ship.
when there's funds dedicate ford a bucket they don't need to be robbed from to pay for something else. the real estate transactions of our state are a big funding source, not just this but the sabouski fund things like that for low income housing we need
the make sure the integrity of the funds were intended for what they were designed for. whatever audit process, we need to lo longer allow it to happen and put funds back where they go. >> finally, mr. tallman, do you need me to repeat it?
>> i have it. as far as amendment 1 dollars are concerned i think they should be used for their intended purpose. and one of the things we can use those dollars for is storm water management. if you look at our area that's
one of the large infrastructure needs that we have in our area, a $50 million need in okaloosa and from a business perspective, if we look at how we can make sure that we're good stewards of environmental issues like making sure we keep choctahhatchee bay clean that's a plus because more
tourist also come to our area and use those things so we need too to use the dollars for intended purpose for storm water. >> time now for question number 6. mr. izzo with you, do you support amendment 4, why or why
not? >> do i support amendment 4? i just read about that today. i do, i do support it. and catch me at the quick and -- on energy that's to allow the greater funding of solar power is what it is, so i believe in that, that we should focus,
actually what we're going to see is it's on the ballot. we will see what the floridians think about that. i think that's an excellent way to do things. whether we want to think about expanding gambling or other issue, is to make it a ballot
initiative. so it has to do with expanding the energy, solar energy. tank you so much, mr. izzo. >> simply, i do support it. as mr. izzo said it will come to a vote by citizens. we should look at diversifying ways of energy, solar is one.
i'm glad that the state legislator saw upon himself to bring before a vote before the citizenry, so therefore i'm glad. >> i do support amendment 4. i think that amendment 4 make sense from a business perspective, endorsed by the
florida chamber of commerce and makes sense. what it does is allows for tax exemptions for solar energy not to be counted as real property values. so if a company wants to come to florida and install solar panels like tesla for instance has done
in nevada, that could -- would not be included in the cost of their taxable tangible property taxes. so i'm in support of it. >> excellent, thank you very much, ms. bartlett. >> i'm not in support of it. we have become a great country
because of the free market. we need to honor our if we keep putting amendments up to the constitution to break the constitution, away from what it was designated for originally, then we lose. solar energy should be a free market, not everybody wants to
buy it, not everybody wants to put panels on their house, we cannot decide which way an economy is going to go because we give them tax breaks. >> thank you, ms. bartlett. our next question will go to mr. ponder first. t in in light of recent events
in orlando and elsewhere, what is your position on open/campus carry? >> the foundation starts with protecting our second amendment. i'm a big believer that's a constitutional right to preserve and protect that. so that's at the core.
there's an onslaught of attacks any time there's a shooting of some ooh kinds the first thing to do is knee jerk reaction. a lot of times by media what not is to say it's the gun's fault. it's a charge fault, it -- a character fault, it's an issue with the person at time.
foundation we need to first protect second amendment, regarding open carry i'm a supporter so that's a second tear. in florida they tried to pass it last year. next year should i have the honor to win we will push it
through next year. we need to preserve and protect concealed carry and next step pursuing open carry. mr. tallman, this question to what is your position on open/campus carry? >> i support both. constitutional carry open carry
campus carry. i'm endorsed by the national rifle association. because the national rifle association believes that out of every candidate here, that i believe in the second amendment panned in the strongest advocate for gun owners' rights.
as far as looking at some of the issues associated with it, instead of looking at firearms or the weaponry, we need to look at mental health issues. mental health is significantly underfunded in florida compared to our neighbor to the north, alabama.
it's double the amount of funding in alabama as we have in so i think that's a big issue. it affects one in five floridians. so mental health is the issue. not firearms. now that question to you, on your position regarding open
and/or campus carry. >> i am for open carry, i am for however, our world is changing and i think it's important that we start educating our children from a very early age, gun safety, the importance of of -- the importance of gun safety and how to use it.
i think it's unfair to the population just to lay out for everyone to have open carry, we need to have stringent illegals, we cannot have illegals carry open carry, we have to train our children from an early age, it's a changing world and we have to recognize that.
>> thank you, finally to you, >> i am for open carry campus carry. i devoted my life to defending the entire constitution, all the articles. all the rights. i think that what we should do or where we ends up going is
opposed to attacking the amendments and restricting our rights is look at the criminal aspect of it. and the rules, the laws, the amount of time a criminal spends in jail when they commit kindses, focus our attention there as popessed to attacking
one amendment or all the amendments or the constitution for that matter. >> that concludes the questions for candidates for florida house we turn now to closing remarks. each candidate has 45 seconds for closing a statement. continuing our rotation we begin
with mr. tallman, 45 seconds. i was born and raised in okaloosa county, grew up in okaloosa county and just want to bring conservative values and principles to tallahassee, i want to run florida more like a business. please visit my website,
votetallman.com. we appreciate your vote august 30th. if you have absentee ballot we appreciate your vote absentee, if you want to vote early we appreciate your vote early too. please visit my website >> now closing statement from
as a long time okaloosa county resident and being very involved in the political system inside of okaloosa county, i think it's important to keep okaloosa county extremely conservative and very strong, i believe the stronger that we grow as we'll become a beacon of light for
other communities that want to grow in a conservative manner that they can come and look at us and follow that model and that pattern. and we can keep florida very strong in the conservative arena and free market. now mr. izzo.
i'm a 22 year air force veteran with deep ties in the community. my over 34 years in defense industry sets me apart from others running in this race, it's vital because the economic engine of the fourth district is the military. i have been knocking on doors
for months, and too often i hear when you get elected please don't do like the others an forget about us. not me. i won't. i'm going to continue to knock on doors, continue to listen to but your concerns for our
please contact me at as i seeforrep.com p. thank you, elect a vet. >> now mr. ponder, your closing i was born and raised in ocala, third generation floridian. my wife was raised here we raise your children here. i'm a registered conservative
republican since i was 18. a long time. i believe in conservative values, tallahassee needs more of what we can bring to the what you nights us as oppose to divides us we achieve more together. let's work together.
that runs throughout my campaign bringing people together to work on unity and have a stronger voice in tallahassee to fight for things that ra really ours. mel forksorhouse.com is my website. if you vote early i would be honored to keep me in mind.
all 30 is final date. melforhouse.com. i would be honored to have your vote. >> thank you, mr. ponder and much more to come this evening including races in okaloosa >> here is a look at what's ahead here on rally 2016 on
wsre-tv, pbs for the gulf coast. # we work to increase major understanding of policy issues and encourage informative this rally is a way for us to attend our public epis or join us as members of the league. rwvpba.org or lwvokaloosa.org. be an informed voter this year.
# >> welcome back to rally 2016 counting down to the florida primary election coming up in four weeks, august 30th. we turn our focus now this evening on contests in okaloosa up next the race for county commission district 1.
there are three republican candidates in this race. one of them is not with us tonight. james walker is not attending rally this evening. introducing the other candidates, alphabetically, the first in the race for county
commission district 1 is mr. thomas gerald cannon jr.. and seated next to him is graham fountain. welcome to you candidates. it is now time to begin with the questions. question number one will be posed to you first, mr. cannon.
do you support expansion of public transit service in the county? if so how do you propose to fund and implement expansion? if not, what is your proposed alternative? >> i don't know that we need it expanded, it can be run more
efficiently. we may need to use some different vehicles, right now we're running larger vehicles that aren't full. we may need to rethink how we call the vehicles rather than trying to run around: we need to continue with it.
there's a lot of people that use it to get to work and to the doctor. they pay a user fee, i don't know that we can increase that much. but that is a possibility also. now to you, mr. fountain. if so, how would you propose to
fund and implement expansion? if not, what is your >> in okaloosa county we have public transportation now. one time we ran it very much in house today we have a contract with a subcontractor that does the job and it will be an experiment over the next year or
two to see how that works. i only very interested in seeing -- i'm interested to see if making new alternatives with commercial ventures such as ubeer and other paid services to see if they may provide that service cheaper than running these buses up and down the road
as mr. cannon spoke to, some have one or two that are not filled up so i look at alternative means that maybe can save must be and also nurture other businesses that are coming on line here in northwest >> thank you, mr. fountain. this question, the next question
will go to you first. how would you propose funding the repair, and/or replacement of deteriorating storm water infrastructure in the county? >> storm water infrastructure is tied to our roadways and transportation systems. we are suffering because of lack
of fuel tax revenues. florida's fuel tax revenue is going down much dependent or because of smaller vehicles and less fuel being purchased. we certainly are applying for special grants through dot and look at other avenues to try the get funding for the storm water,
we have to look at different methods to do that. some areas are looking at actually doing referendums to teal with 40 or $50 million, we probably could use tomorrow to fulfill our needs in that. >> thank you, mr. fountain, now to mr. cannon.
the repair and/or replacement of deteriorating storm water infrastructure in okaloosa >> hopefully we can convince the state we do need some grants as mr. fountain said. because our revenues are dropping on the fuel as they are nationwide.
because of epa regulations. fuel tax is our avenue. so one day that may have to our next question to you first, mr. cannon. in in light of threat of the zika virus and other mosquito borne viruses what is your plan to bring latest research and
development advances to county mosquito control and/or elimination in the county? >> i believe that the state should take the lead. mosquito control and filter down through through us. we have our own spray people and we have to use approved sprays.
but it's probably more of an educate the population. we need to do that standing water aside from ta state needs to take the lead and let us know the best meths and if there is something better than what we're using no, ma'am >> thank you -- using now.
>> the question now to mr. fountain. what is your plan to bring latest research and developments to county mosquito control? >> the state of florida department department of health working with our county health
departments are already very much involved in this at this point in time though our incidence of zika is small in florida compared to what maybe in south america, for instance. but they are doing it, there's probably very little scientific research done jet as far as
genetics and long term testing on that. but we do have a plan, we publicized our plan as far as taking care of areas where mosquitoes breed. we identified high risk zones in okaloosa county and they publish those areas people live they
need to pay extremely more attention in those areas. so we're already on board and working to do just about as much as we can do in florida right now. we're up to question number 4, first to mr. fountain. would you support lobbying
forest ration of gulf coast passenger rail between new orleans and jacksonville with a stop at crestview? why or why not? >> we definitely support amtrak continuing to come through i actually went to the show we had where we came and brought
the train through and visited with professionals. we definitely want to see them and support that. and certainly making crestview a stop and we will build them i think the is building a new building. that's great thing for our
to you, mr. cannon, would you support lobbying restoration of gulf coast passenger rail between new orleans and jacksonville? and with a stop in crestview? >> yes, i would. hopefully they can have a stop that's not middle of the night.
that's why they dropped us low use, because you have to catch the train between two and early in the morning. but it would be a wonderful thing. the down side is more people using trainings, we have less gasoline revenue.
but even still the train would be a wonderful thing for the county, yes, i would support it. thank you, mr. cannon. the next question will go to you, first. how do you propose to fund the repair and/or replacement of aging school infrastructure and
expansion to accommodate overcrowding due to new home development? >> we're probably going to have to look at sales tax to fund the schools a lot of schools in okaloosa county are my age, that's not the best. i have been in a lot of them and
they need work. so we will probably have to do a referendum and see about a sales tax because we're getting to the critical point we have roofs leaking, and other issues at our local schools. mr. fob train, that question to you -- mr. fountain, the
question to you how to replace or repair aging school infrastructure and accommodate and expansion to accommodate overcrowding due to home development. >> in okaloosa county, is the overcrowding is not guy to home development per se.
we have a great school system and a lot of facilities. we have schools that reached capacity and they need to be added on to, then the actual age is a e -- as mr. cannon spoke of, is causing problems with maintenance. our school system is constantly
and right about now debating some methodology of putting on some referendums possibly for a sales tax. but as we know in some of the counties they pass sometimes they don't pass. last time we had one it did not pass.
we have to see if they make a case to the pub public if it's worth increasing sales tax to fix the infrastructure. thank you candidates. now each of our candidates will have 45 seconds to make a closing statement. and continuing as we were, we
began with you, mr. fountain. >> thank you for having us. we have enjoyed being here. i am graham fountain, candidate for district 1. i'm uniquely qualified to take over as district 1 county commissioner with over three decades of law enforcement
executive public safety experience and also small business experience. i have led thousands of men and women and managed over half a billion dollars in work programs and budgets in the state of everything from being under sheriff in okaloosa county to
being a statewide law enforcement director in tallahassee. i have worked in the legislature, i worked in front of our county commissions, i know the legislative business and most of all i know how to lead and develop oversight of o
our county commission. so i want to ask you to give me a chance on november 30th, vote graham fountain. mr. cannon, your closing >> i am tom cannon, i want to be the okaloosa county commission. i believe my over 30 years of business experience and
ownership and management of businesses would qualify me to manage the county, i have taking accounting classes, and i know how to look, i believe what we need is some transparency and oversight in okaloosa county. and i know how to accomplish so i would ask you to please
vote for me on august 30th. >> thank you, mr. cannon. those were the candidates for county commission district 1. in just a moment we'll move on to the race for sheriff. rally 2016 we'll return in a moment. amendment 4, solar devices or
renewable energy devices exemption from certain taxation and assessment, ed reads as follows. proposing an amendment to the state constitution to authorize the legislature by general law to exempt from ad valorem taxation the assessed value of
solar or renewable initialing source devices subject to tangible personal property tax and to authorize the legislature by general law to prohibit generation of devices in assessing the value of real property for ad a valore taxation purposes.
this amendment takes effect january 1, 2018 and expires december 31, 2037. for more detailed non-partisan information you can access the florida league voters guide, log on to the floridavoter.org, the website for the league of women voters of florida.
this died will at this play a synopsis of the systemedment and explanation what a yes or no vote will mean. a boll lot in santa rosa county. voting by mail contact the santa rosa county supervisor of election office by phone, mail, fax or email, ballots must reach
the supervisor of elections office by 7 p.m. on election early voting takes place from monday august 15th through saturdays august 27 in milton, pace, and at two locations in the greater gulf breeze area. early voting hours each day are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m..
on the day of primary election, tuesday august 30th, voting takes place from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. you must vote in the precinct in which you live and are recommendationserred. be sure to -- registered. bring photo and signature id >> well cop back to rally 2016.
i'm mollye barrows with wsre. thank you for joinserring us as we question the candidates in the primary election on up next is race for okaloosa county sheriff, there are two republican candidates on the ballot, this is a universal race and open to all registered
voters in the county. the winner of this primary will win the race on election day. it is time to meet those candidates for the seat. seated alphabetically, we first meet the incumbent, mr. larry ashley. and his challenger is mr. brian
cokonougher. welcome to you both. i'll ask you a number of questions, you'll have 45 seconds to respond. in alphabetical order. we begin question number one with mr. ashley. so mr. ashley, would you support
bringing gun safety workshops and educational presentations to this area? and providing train deputies to conduct them? if so why, if not, why not? >> great question, yes we already do that, we proside a citizens firearm safety class,
one of most popular courses among our citizens we have literally trains hundreds just in the past year. it's citizens to wants know how to use a firearm to protect the themselves whether target acquisition or weapon retention, what are the laws regarding
self-defense. and so they can maintain that, and we'll continue to do that. we do that with your explorers program, with our youth, that those that want law enforcement profession, we also support the nra's gun safety program for our youth and adults.
>> thank you, mr. ashley. mr. cokonougher, would you support gun safety workshops and educational presentations ands having deputies conduct them? >> absolutely, as the sheriff says he conducts that now, and as your sheriff million dollars continue to do that.
that is a win win situation for law enforcement. an the community. any time we can promote gun safety, it's good idea. we begin our next question with mr. cokonougher, do you support additional training or buddy system for process servers?
why or why not, what alternatives do you propose to ensure safety? the safety of process servers? >> i -- to answer that, i don't know that that's fiscally possible at this time. i would be supportive of looking into that and making a decision
based on that, that would be a extremely cost heavy situation to have a buddy system work like beyond that that's something to have to look into. mr. ashley? >> we have our change in policy here recently is a red sheet, and a red sheet that the judge
views and the officer also views is threats made in domestic violence threat or injunction searched we'll send -- served, there's two officers if there's a preve yous threat. if not, we'll sends one officer, that's been working for us. >> question number 3,
mr. ashley. do you support the stand your ground law as it's currently written and if not, what amendments to it would you propose? >> i certainly support it. i sat on the stand your ground task force the citizen safety
and protection task force. i went around state of florida talking to every citizen in state of florida, every group whether left or leaned right, once the ability -- wants the ability to defend themselves. the only change was basically take the castle doctrine that
says my home was my castle and i can protect it and the intents is built into law if you break into my home whether there to rape rob or murder or steal my microwaive i have a right to defend my home including deadly force. i support that and that ability
to do that without having to retreat. >> thank you, from ashley. -- mr. ashley. >> mr. cokonougher, do you support stand your grounds laws written now and would you make amendments if you don't? >> i absolutely support it.
i don't believe that any amendment needs to be made to that law, it is well written. and clear from what i read, it's a clear law. you have the right to defend yourself in your home. i see no reason to change anything in that.
>> next question to you. do you support open campus >> i do not support open carry. on campus. i support concealed carry on any state campus. i believe if the darier receive it is permit and is legally acceptable to receive that
permit, they should be allowed to carry a gun, in order to degree defend themselves if necessary as if they are off campus. >> mr. ashley. >> i support open carry, -- concealed carry. i'm sorry.
on campus, if we were to separate adults from youth, then i might be more inclined by right now the requirements to in order to get a concealed weapons permit, they're pretty lax. i can drive fire into the barrel and now certified to carry conceal without training
necessary regarding weapon retention or the type of ammo you use. target acquisition. so defending myself does not relieve me from obligation of not being grossly negligent in dedefending myself so i can't shoot attacker and hit somebody
in a bus down the street and say that somehow that was my right. our next question with you. okaloosa county of course home to largest us air force base in the world, and air force special operations command how do you modify the okaloosa county sheriff's office emergency
response procedures in light of an increased threat of terrorist attack? >> we have also added joint strike force f-35 group, special forces group, 2010 our residential population has grown by 10%, our tourist population by nearly 85%.
military is the backbone of our economy. and i think it's why we have one of the lowest crime rates in the state of florida because we have so many military members there and our counter surveillance and anti-terrorist units and intelligence gathering is second
to none. we are well prepared for the inevitable. > mr. cokonougher, the question, home to a large military presence including air force special operations command. would you modify the sheriff's
office emergency response procedures in light and how would you do that in light of increased terrorist attack? >> modifying perhaps only in more training. specifically some training with i know years past the srt team for okaloosa county sheriff's
office has done training with the military units, however that's very limited, if we can open that up and do more training with them and get a little more clear idea how they operate and what they do, and how they will operate in such an emergency, then we can be better
prepared. >> next question with you. if elected do you have any changes in mind for current okaloosa sheriff's office hiring procedures? if so, what are they? >> i do. we can begin by changing our
recruiting standards and what we're doing to recruit from outside the area. it's very hard for the sheriff to find enough capable people here in okaloosa county that want to be a deputy sheriff. so we need to move outside our comfort zone, outside the
county, perhap by advertising and even by paying to train those people under a contract program where they come in and contract work with us guarantee they work with us for two years and in exchange for us paying for basic recruit training and then taking them an through
field training. >> thank you mr. cokonougher. mr. ashley, if re-elected any sheriff's office hiring procedure? >> we already offer the two year program, if you stay with us for two years we pay for your training.
we already have an exmorers program if you go through the explorer program we pay you to go through the academy. we try to attract minorities and others from around the state and the region. to come work. the problem we have is trying to
finds those individuals that meet our standard of that high standard and especially that integrity standard. that the wage of $36,000 so we demand professional product, we demand professional training and we pay a vocational price. so that becomes a difficult task
but there are -- we have plenty of people that want to come work in law enforcement and we'll continue to seek those good ones. beginning our last question with you, mr. ashley. does the sheriff's office have adequate budget to support
qualified staff and operation? >> if anybody knows me the answer to that is no. we have not had an adequate budget we have a more progressive county commission that certainly seen this importance especially in light of crime rates and population
increase, call for service. we operate at the same budget today 2016 as we did in 2007. ten years. so we have had a -- again 10% increase in residential population, nearly 80% increase in tourist population an operate with the same man pour and same
budget we did ten years ago. that is after working ourselves back from having been cut by nearly 20% during time when our crime rates were out of control. >> mr. cokonougher, do you have the sheriff's office has adequate budget to support staff and operation?
>> i believe they do at this point. in to 2010 through 2013, sheriff ashley cut $3.9 million out of his budget, however since 2014 through 2016 his budget increased $4.6 million so we're actually about $700,000 or more aheads where we were when we
started the cuts. there's cost of living expenses and such that will go up but i believe we are more than adequate at this point to have units replace we have lost during these cuts. none of those units are replaced at this no traffic, no pop quad, dui
squad. those need to be reinstalled. time for closing statements. beginning if last question. mr. cokonougher will begin the first closing statement. you'll each have 45 seconds. mr. cokonougher. the sheriff election is about
your safety. it's about your family safety. for my 25 years in law enforcement, i spent 90% on the streets working patrol as a patrol deputy, a patrol supervisor and finally as watch commander. any opponent spent majority of
his career blind a desk working hard to become a good politician and he's done so admirably. the okaloosa county sheriff's office needs a leader that will lead them into the next term extending a series of training and programs that will bring about a stronger community and
safer community. >> thank you, mr. cokonougher. mr. ashley, 45 seconds. >> i think i'm uniquely qualified. thank you for having us here, when it comes to being sheriff there's a lot more to it than making arrestings.
you have a 30 plus million dollars budget and allegation of resource, i'm -- i have a bs degree in criminal justice, a masters in public administration, a graduate of the fbi national academy, less than 5% law enforcement agencies achieve that, we did this past
yearment we achieved state accreditation. less than half law enforcement agencies are state accredited. we're a national model agency of the year, this past year. our school resource officer program is best in the state of florida, we have achieved and
achieve and reachieved. as your sheriff will continue to do that. thank you both general men for those are the candidates for okaloosa county sheriff. we're taking a short break for important voting information. and sandra will have questions
for okaloosa county property appraiser right after this. stay was. which begins with voting. nonpartisan, which means we do explanation of amendments merit retention of judges or other ballot issue, we invite women and men to attend public events
or join as members of league. for more information, please see our website and you can contact us there too. please remember to be informed voter this year. >> there are three waying to cast a ballot in okaloosa mail, early voting or at your
precinct on election day, by mail contact the okaloosa county supervisor of election office. write, phone, fax, email log on to their website or visit the supervisor office location in crestview and fort walton beach, ballots machrees by 7 p.m. election day.
saturdays august 20th through saturday august 27th at the five locations listed on screen. hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each on the day of the primary election tuesday august 30th voting takes place at your polling location. from 7 a.m.
until 7 p.m. you must vote in the precinct in which you live and are registered. be sure to bring your photo and signature id with you. >> welcome back to rally 2016. i'm sandra averhart with wuwf public media. we're asking questions of the
candidates running for office in if upcoming primary election. our questions were prepared by league of women voters, we will now turn to the race for okaloosa county property appraiser. candidates on the ballot. this is a universal race and is
open to all registered voters in the county. winner will take the seat on time now to meet candidates in alphabetical order start welcome mr. mac busbee. next to him is ms. janet fugate. third candidate is mr. john holguin.
thank you for joining us. we're ready to begin with five and you will each have 45 seconds to responds. mr. busbee will start and then we'll rotate between candidates as we go along in alphabetical order. mr. busbee, first question to
what are your credentials to be a property appraiser, speck specifically do you have a license or certification? >> yes, ma'am. i worked with the property appraisers office the last a 15 and a half years, i have also been a license in the state of
florida as certified appraiser for over 23 years. i have dub ales in the public and private sector. ms. fugate, to you now. on your credentials, do you have a license or certification? q. no, ma'am i don't have a license or certification but i
have over 30 years of experience in administration and handled the tax roll for over 20 years for okaloosa county. finally that first question to you, mr. holguin. >> i'm certified on the tax collection side. i'm currently with the tax
collector's office, i worked there for ten years and handled everything that's tax related with that office. i manage over 65 people in six branch offices so qualifications are in the tax side and attacks collector's office we work daily and weekly with the property
appraisers office. we'll address the next question to you first, ms. fugate. do you have plans to use modern technology to improve operations in the appraisers office, if so, what are some of those technologies? >> absolutely.
currently we are working on getting tablets for our field officers that go out in the field to appraise your property. and we are also going to be putting in place a new mass appraisal system that we have been advised that we will no longer be supported next year so
we're putting that in place which will be a new windows based software that will help our technology. >> mr. holguin, what are your plans to use modern technologies to improve operations in the appraisers office? >> we have to get windows based
in the property appraisers office and away from the dos based to think about getting mobile in the field. we have been mobile in the field for eight years now but one main thing is going to bring a lot of services online, currently we collect over 100 million
services online at the tax collector's office, i can tell you it's being used. that way we give citizen as choice to come in the office, or do business on evening, weekends or during the day online. mr. busbee, your opportunity to talk about the modern
technologies to improve the >> we can get mobile in the field with the current software also, we would bring services online, we would start to try to do tangible personal property returns online. fairly quickly. this next question will go to
mr. holguin first. how would you operate the appraisers office, specifically do you have any changes in mind? >> i do, technology we touched on, customer service is a big one, it's passion of mine, i teach at the tax collector's office now.
customer service reaches out more than customers coming in through your office or door every day. we'll take the service out. i have plans to put up mobile offices during busy times homestead times and workshop, possibly we can go out and
educate the community on exemptions that are out there, maybe they qualify for them, if they do, we can sign you up right there. at workshops we are holding. >> what changes do you have in mind for appraisers office? >> i don't have any large
wholesale changes in mind for property appraisers office, it's being run very well over the last few years. but i do have some changes i believe we needs to reach out to some of the people that deal with people buying new homes and make sure they get the correct
information, i have worked with a few closing agents and realtors to do that, i think that's one thing we needs to do. we also need to make sure we get better information on our we have great information in our office, we have a lot of users in that website and we need to
make sure we >> keep correct information on that website. finally ms. fugate, your plans for operating appraisers office, any new changes you have in mind? >> i feel every office can make some type of changes and our
office runs very well. our customer service gives 110% to citizens of okaloosa county. i do handle the website and we deal with the realtors on a daily basis. and we are updating that website nw with the new gis and the new aerial so we always have the
first technology out there to take care of our citizens. >> i think i got a little out of order so i think ms. fugate you get this question first. , i'm sorry, we are moving on to question number 4, back to mr. busbee. what if any plans do you have to
address homestead exemption fraud in the county? we address homestead exemption fraud now in our office. we will continue to address that, i think it's very important that for someone that doesn't deserve the homestead they don't get it but we also
want the make sure the people that do deserve those exemptions get it as well. we also use people out in the field to make sure we find those homestead exemption fraud. customers. now to you, ms. fugate. what plans do you have to
the >> actually that's a great i formed fraud department for the okaloosa county property appraiser and we have collected over three million dollars actually right now right at topping 4 million and served over 2000 homestead liens on
fraudulent taxpayers. so that is a good thing and people that don't deserve the exemption we need to take action because the statute say it is property appraiser shall take the action. >> many holguin. >> this is an issue i differ
with two candidates in the race with me. i think 3 million is way too much. i think that number needs to be lower. i don't think that's a number that we try to raise. and i think we do that and i --
throw education. educating -- through education. educating people on the phone calls i get on the other side are customers that are paying these bills so i get to deal with the customer. my opinion is 80% of homestead liens are just mistakes that are
made. t they're not fraud. fraud is a very strong word. i would say possibly 20% is fraud, the other 80% handled through education programs and letting these customers know whether they're widows or widow ers that their partner has
always done paperwork let them know ahead of time. our final question for you candidates, it will go first to ms. fugate. would you support adding more homestead exemptions, why or why >> currently we have enough exemptions in our county, the
only one we really don't have adopted is the one you live 25 years in your home. we serve our community well with exemptions and with the military base, we have over 45,000 parcels that are exempted. so i think we do pretty good on exemptions.
mr. holguin. >> we do have a lot of exemptions. again, educating the public, making sure they know the exemptions that are out there. and if one does come up, that you agree with, support it, last november i went to tallahassee
to support senate bill 160, a military bill if you are stationed or overseas in harms way or combat zone that you don't pay property taxes during that time. happy to say that after lobbying and speaking to the finance and tax committee they did pass
that, it is law now. so we do have a lot of exemptions but by all means if you see one that you support, go out there, support it, go to tallahassee, and actually fight for the citizens and your taxpayers. that's who is paying our
mr. busbee, would you support more homestead exemption? >> i would support more homestead exemptions if they were the right exemptions and they reached more people. i don't think we select a few out for exemptions it needs to be fair across the board.
we have exemptions now were very good ones but i would support new ones if they were the right now it is time for closing statements. for closing remarks. and continuing the rotation from our question-and-answer session, mr. holguin you get the first
shot, 45 seconds. >> thank you, thank you to everyone that's put this more importantly, thank you to the viewers out there that tuned in that want to get educated on candidates, find out our platforms and pick who you want to vote for on august 30.
as your property appraiser i will bring better customer service, better technology, more importantly fair assessment across the board for everybody. it's reality we have to pay taxes but that doesn't mean we have to pay more than our fair share.
i'm john holguin. h o l g u i n, voteforholguin.com. please check the website. phone number email is on there, i am available and will get back to you. most importantly, i hope i earned your vote tonight and
hope i earned your trust. august 30, please vote. >> thank you, mr. holguin. >> yes. thank you again for having us hee tonight. it's been an honor. i'm a property appraiser that's running for the okaloosa county
property appraiser. my career is rooted in property appraising both in the public i believe it's very important that we put a property appraiser office. as a professional real estate property appraiser, i will be a hands on property appraiser who
will not rely solely on other people to understand and perform the vital duties of this office. duties that touch each and every taxpayer in okaloosa county for mack busbee, okaloosa county >> thank you, mr. busbee. finally, you get the last or, -- word, ms. fugate.
>> thank you for having us here tonight. it was a great pleasure being here. when you vote for me for appraisers office you will not have to do on the job training. i'm fully trained in the administrative process of the property appraisers office, that
is my current job as administrator, director of administrator, i handled the tax role over 20 years and never had a late tax role or never one rejected from the department of revenue. i appreciate your vote, august 30th vote janet
fugate for property appraiser and please go to my website janetfugate.com. >> thank you, those were the candidates in the race to have we're taking a short break. when we come back we'll hear from the candidates for okaloosa county superintendent of
stay with us. prosets than having an informed elect trait on election day. good evening, i'm ed meadows, president of pensacola state college thanking you for tuning to this rally. a joint presentation of the league of women voters, wsre-tv
and pensacola state college. candidates answer tough questions of the needs of our wsre, a service of pensacola at a time college is proud to bring let's all remember important of participating in the governance process by votening the upcoming >> there is one amendment to the
florida constitution on the august primary ballot. a 60% margin is required for passage, here is a brief look what that amendment covers. amendment 4 solar devices or renewable energy source devices, and assessment, the ballot summary reads as follows.
proposing amendment to the state constitution to authorize the legislature by general law to exempt from ad valorem taxation the assessed value of solar or renewable energy source devices subject to tangible personal property tax, and to authorize promeant accordance of such
devices in assessing the value of real property for ad valorem january 1, 2018 and expires on december 231, 2037. -- 21st, 2037. for more detailed partisan you can assess the florida league votessers guide. log on to florida voter.org.
follow the steps to the florida guide amendments. this will display synopsis of amendment and synopsis of what a yes or no vote will mean. >> welcome back we continue our questions for candidates in the upcoming primary election we focused on contest for
florida senate district 1, florida out district 4 and several okaloosa county races. next up the race for okaloosa this is an another universal race open to all voters an there are two candidates for this contest both are republican. it is time to meet those cabbed
dates. alphabetically, the first candidate is the incumbent mary beth jackson, her opponent is ms. marline van dyke. thank you both for joining us this evening. time now for questions. there will be a number of
questions and you will both have 45 seconds to respond. we will begin question number 1 with ms. jackson. question number one, in light of the new accounting procedures that project a $75.3 million deficit, in the okaloosa county balance sheet for school pension
how do you propose to raise funds to cover that short fall? >> we have not seen all of that information as of yet. the pension fund is one thing that we have some control over. we now contribute 3% per employee to that pension fund. i also think the most important
thing that we can do is lobby the folks in tallahassee to get them to work with us to shore up or put more money into that pension fund. all us depend on that, our lives depend on that, futures depend on that, i think that as we move through the next three or four
years it will become an even more important issue for us. ms. van dyke. question again in light of the new accounting procedures that project a short fall, how do you propose to raise funds to cover that short fall? >> unfortunately that will be
somewhat out of our control. first i think knowledge is power. simply informing our teachers our support that this is a problem, the squeaky wheel gets the attention, we have to lobby, we have to go to tallahassee. and it's going to take many,
many h voices to get this job done. teachers have a tendency to sit back and not and for things for themselves. this is a time they need to stand up together united and lobby with legislature to make something happen.
they do contribute, we contribute 3%, it's not enough. they will fall short. together we can do that. thank you so much ms. van dyke. being our next question with you, easing the cost of fees for extracurricular school activity, what are your plans to create a
level playing field that permits all children and opportunities to take part? >> we have to create that level playing field. we also have to recognize that people including our children, our students have differences, things they're interested in,
that other students may not be interested in. so i think offering lots of various opportunities allowing different areas to bring in, i know there's a large group of people that want to see la cross into our school system, we have to step back like school
uniforms in some high poverty some of those expenses for extracurricular activities have to be provided for the students. a quick reminder to the candidates when you initially hear a bell that's your five second warning that you're 45 seconds is about to be up.
there's multiple rings you know it's time to lock it down. so moving on to our next question, question for ms. jackson. how -- i'm sorry, go ahead and if you would take that second question for me a, yes, in light of easing the costs for fees of
extracurricular activity what is are your plans to level the playing field so everybody can take part? h >> one thing we do know is those extracurricular activities are sometimes the only reason to be in school.
if they can be in a band, a sport a club, they will participate. i watch clubs and our schools struggle raising money for things that are so expensive. and the last four years we have put the money back to music and arts programs, it had been
stripped from those programs over the previous few years. as a result of that, children were having to raise money to get piano tuned in the chorus room. we have to figure out a way and it maybe through more fun razors.
>> thank you, ms. jackson. how do you ensure equitable distribution of funds among male and female school sports teams as required by title nine? whether enwe started four years ago -- absolutely, when we started four years ago that was a problem for me.
having four boys and one daughter i saw a few things that i didn't think were quite right. so what we decided to do is i called together our staff and i said gentlemen, we are going to do our own in house assessment of this. we do have paperwork that we
turn in to the state every year to say that we are compliant. but we wanted to do our own program so as a result of that we started flag football in okaloosa county which has been a fun thing to bring more of our young ladies on to the playing field and giving them as much an
opportunity to participate in in those sports as our young men. >> thank you ms. jackson. ms. van dyke same question for as required by title 9 in >> first we need to do a needs assessment and really see where the needs are, because we have some areas that want more
sports, more female students that actually that particular sport is not there yet. flag football for girls was african americaned, but there needs to be a needs assessment, as far as distributing the funds i believe some of the money a portion of proceeds that come in
for support needs to go to a central pot so to speak because as we all know, football is our big money maker. and some of those will have to go into a central pot to be districted. >> thank you so much. you as well.
if elected do you plan the address adjusting the school start times for high school and middle school students? if so how? >> i absolutely do support later school start time for high school and middle school students.
in doing that, i believe that we can make an adjustment that will be somewhat of a minor adjustment by shifting all of the start times slightly later. so that no one is waiting for the bus when it's dark outside and then making sure that we're following the guidelines that we
know our professionals have provided to us, we have the list, that goes on on why this is important and why we need this for our students. so i believe that we have to be cautious with our rural areas. >> thank you, ms. van dyke. our next question, we start with
or i'm sorry, the same question. if re-elected do you plan to address school start times for high school and middle school students? >> we addressed that four years ago, i made a commitment to look at that. we brought together a team of
about 15 district employees. we devised a way to be able to move that school start time from 7 o'clock to between 7:30 and 7:38 be no cost to the district. that was rejected by the later school start time group and i said well, we have to be able to buy buses if we're going to move
so we have put together a team at the direction of school board, this will include dot military as aspects of community, we do a study during this year and will present our findings to the school board in may of 2017 with hopefully a >> thank you so much
next with you. more than half county schools are over 50 years ole in what are your plans to fund replayer replacement of school infrastructure and expansion to accommodate overcrowding to a new home development? >> we have dealt with that quite
often over the last four years. i'm very well aware that our buildings are very old. and it is the infrastructure that we have to worry about, the plumbing, the electrical, the air conditioning. extremely expensive to replace. there are only a few options out
there for us. all the counties around us have a sales tax and that can provide for us the capital dollars we need to repair and replace things in the schools. if we can get a half cent sales tax passed in this county for five years that would generate
$12 million a year in revenue. we would be able to fix the roof at choctahatchee high school and replace the air conditioning system at fort walton beach high school. ms. van dyke same to you, so many schools aging in need of repair, replacement due to aging
accommodate growth in the area. what would your plans be to address that? we simply do not have the funds to do the repairs necessary and to do additional building that is necessary at this moment in i would fully support a sales tax but with that sales tax we
must put in a sun set clause, it would have a start and a stop time and we would have a list of exactly which projects would be and the list would be prioritized, agency that comes in to do the evaluations, prioritizing the list. roofs and plum having to come
first on the list and go onto make sure that each school has the same -- as close to the same facility safety and presence as possible. >> thank you ms. van dyke. some county school buttses run nearly empty while others are overcrowded what is your plan to
improve school transportation safety to include hiring and retaining qualified bus drivers? >> we actually have a software program that the district purchased sometime ago, that software program is the answer to our problems. as far as the busing the routes
are concerned, it gets very complicated to try to make sure that students who have to have door to door pick up and those that don't but moveed to new areas have a stop that might be in an area that no longer has enough students at that stop to warrant a bus stopping there.
this software takes hours and hours and hours of human time to put it together and spit out out for us what's the best approach to the routes. >> many thank you, ms. van dyke. ms. jackson, same question to what are your plans to i dress bus safety when i will it comes
to overcrowding including hiring and retaining qualified bus drivers? >> two part question. a couple of years ago we purchased that software. we realized that the manual calculation of school bus routes was not as efficient as the new
software that was out there so we purchased that software, we spent a year doing all the data entry, putting in the geo codes, we are now this year going to test that software to see did it work better, or well? are we able to pick our children up?
hopefully in doing that, we will be able to be more efficient but quite frankly, we run a three tier bus system which means our buses run three routes every morning and three routes every afternoon. but i will say the retaining and hiring of bus drivers is a money
issue and we are going to have to look at that. last question with you. can you speak to the excess among teacher population in okaloosa county and plans to hire and retain qualified replacements? >> we are very excited from our
county, we are number 8 in the state in average salary, our average teach herb time in our school is 15 years. we do a very good job retaining our teachers. the problem is colleges and universities are not producing teachers like they once produced
teachers. we have the opportunity to work with our colleges and we do work with northwest florida state college, excellent, excellent teacher training program there. but i can say right now today, we have a teacher shortage in critical areas.
our ese populations, our higher order math and science courses. >> thank you, mrs. jackson. ms. sapp dyke, last question to you, can you speak to exodus of current teacher population plans to hire qualified replacement? we unfortunately have seen in the last two to three years more
first and second year teach efforts leaving okaloosa county schools than in the history of okaloosa county schools. that exodus is huge and it's drastic, has a huge impact on a variety and comes down to dollars and students success as welch to retain the teachers the
very first thing we have to do is recognize them, appreciate them, let them know we appreciate the job they do, we have to take the paperwork load off of them. and give them the power and the tools to teach the students and develop relationships with those
thank you both candidates for answering those questions and answer sessions. it is time now you will each have 45 seconds to deliver a crowing statement, since we began with ms. jackson we will begin with ms. van dyke closing remarks 45 seconds. >> okay.
thank you so much for having us here this evening. and i do want to ask for y'all to come out and vote, this is a primary election, vote. we have to have every single person voting casting your wishes. and as your superintendent of
schools, i can promise you that i will take the over-abundance of money we're spending now in our district office and put that money using site-based management backs into the schools and empower our principles and empower our teachers, put the money back
where children are. i will listen to the people. i will have an open door policy, i will be accessible for you and again, i ask that you come out and vote van dyke. >> thank you so much ms. van dyke. ms. jackson, 45 seconds.
>> i believe the best judge of a person is what they have done; not what they say they'll do. moved academically from number 11 to number 2 in the state. we have put 94 cents of each dollar into the schools. more money to the schools than has been there in 15 years.
we have decreased out of school suspension by 80%, i don't believe children should be suspended out of school. we have managed very well. in fact the district administrative office under our administration has the lowest average number of administrators
in any time in the last 15 we have 62.0, 64 the previous and 65 previous before that. we're getting it done for less. thank you for joining us again that was race for okaloosa when we come back the last races of the night. okaloosa county school board
districts 2 and 4, sandra and i will begin those questions when we come back. organization which moans we don't support or oppose we don't oppose or support candidates. we work to encourage informed active participation in government.
other ball hot issues. attend public events or join as members of the league. toker more information, visit lwvpba.org or lwvokaloosa.org and be an informed voter this to vote by mail, contact the escambia county sup vie sr. of election office, you can write
phone fax, email, log on to their website or ask in person at the supervisor's office in downtown pensacola. ballots much reach supervisor of election office by 7 p.m. saturdays august 20 through saturdays august 27 at the 7 locations on your screen.
early voting types are 8 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the supervisor of election office and 9 to 6 p.m. at all other locations on the day of primary election tuesday from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. you must vote in the precinct in which you live and are registered.
to verify your precinct log to escambiavotes.com. >> well cop back to rail hi >> this is second of three nights focusing on candidates running for office in the august 30th primary let's get started with the last races of the night.
>> they are the contest for district 2 and 4. both are non-partisan and open to all registered voters in >> the seats are also elected at large and accordingly questions are identical for both races and we will be interviewing the candidates for both districts
>> these races will also be decided on the primary election day and since there are two candidates in each rates, someone will get 50 pest plus one majority needed to win. let's meet candidates in the race for okaloosa county school board district 4 in alphabetical
they are mr. tim bryant. and our second candidate in district 4, mr. charles cawthon. >> in the race for okaloosa county school board district 2 the first district is incumbent dewey destin. his challenger mr. mark williams.
thank you all for being with us we will ask each of you a number of questions, and you will have 45 seconds to answer. we will question again in alphabetical odor beginning with mr. bryant. >> mr. bryant we'll give that qestion to you.
according to the northwest florida daily news, the tricounty area has nearly 2400 homeless students. what is your plan to ensure their attendance in graduation, and advocate for adequate shelter for them? >> homeless is a big issue in
every county in the united as a community we need to come together and we need to find those people and get them into the schools. there's numerous ways through different private agencies that we can do it. also through the school
district, we can identify those students and get them in there. it will take a community to get us together and find students to ensure they get quality public education due them though they might be homeless. now mr. cawthon. the tricounty area has nearly
2400 homeless students, what is your plan to ensure their attendance and graduation and to advocate for ad at what time shelter to serve them? >> i actually worked in this capacity as the district attendance officer for a number of years and i worked with over
400 judicial cases involving students who are not attending and five different judge, it's important to get into the schools and be accessible to the parents, find out what's going on in that family, work with them through our other agencies in the school district and get
them back on track. they are struggling of course as you said economically so we need all the support we can to these students and understand specifically what problems they're facing with them and work with guidance counselors and other school specialists to
get them back in school and on track. >> thank you, mr. cawthon, now mr. destin. what is your plan to ensure the attendance and graduation of the many homeless students in the county or in the area and how would you advocate for adequate
>> we have a number of programs that address those homeless we try to track how they attend school through guidance and attendance people, we have subsidized lunches so we track on that. program, more important than that we want them to participate in the system and
become academically excellent. we can do that by instituting some programs that find these kids in the pre-k to first -- to third grade and give them the extra help they have been denied because of their economic status and we want to advocate that, during my next term, i read
about these programs that are quite effective. foonly to you, mr. williams -- finally your plan for advocating attendance and shelter for the >> homelessness for a family is a sad thing a parent to endure not knowing where their children not going to lay their head at
night. it's a sad situation. i have not been homeless but i did grow up in poverty and i know what this is to live on a meager income. there are social programs in the cities about counties that's what the whole community has to
wrap themselves around to help families, there are free food programs in schools an something as straight forward as the school choice program and opportunity scholarships. the rich people can take children to private school but poor people can by using
vouchers to take them there. they're doing much more these days. we began our next question many cawthon. if the newly revised policy on school prayer is legally challenged how do you respond? >> well, personally i'm in favor
of prayer but at the school board meetings, we need to reelize if we open prayer up, we have to open to all religious entities and that presents a i'm in favor of continuing as we have in the classroom with a moment of silence so that each individual at the meetings may
recognize their own faith and i do believe we need to continue with a moment of silence as we are doing. >> mr. destin the if legal legally challenged the revised policy on prayer at meetings how would you respond? q. we worked with liberty
council toe draw up our new plan. and we also researched extensively federal law, liberty council said that as long as they helped us write the law to follow federal guidelines as closely as possible, that they would defend our new policy proo
bono. so if we are challenged i expect that we will have their full support. as i said earlier we wrote that as close as we can guidelines if ed rail court system put out the last few years ands we believe we meet the course mandate.
>> thank you mr. destin. mr. williams. >> as i walk around okaloosa county and talk to voters the single greatest issue is erosion of christian values in our school system. it's saddening. and for the freedom from
religion foundation to come in with deep pockets bully the school system into changing the christian prayer they were doing in the opening i think is wrong, i don't fault school board members, i would offer my own christian prayer before the beginning another meeting and
anyone that want to join in would be welcome but i would also move as soon as i get on the school board by repealing the multi-faith prayer because of problems here in pensacola, i don't want to go thank you that mess in our school board. >> thank you, mr. williams.
>> the original intent of the school board led prayer was exactly that, the school board member led prayer. i went to many school board meetings and the prayer would last maybe 15 seconds now you get this group in that will bully the school board, not just
our school board but other government agencies throughout the panhandle and now what's happened is it's not a school board led prayer, it's a multi-faith prayer and i would also say that that's going to cause a lot of issues and disrupt what the meeting is
as a christian i would go in before and say my prayer and ask the lord to guide me but the original intent was that it was a school board led prayer and it's in the that no more. >> thank you mr. bryant. >> question three to mr. destin. how would you ensure inequitable
and female sports teams as required by title 9? >> we believe we're in full compliance with title 9 and keep a sharp eye on that. we as ms. jackson spoke, we have tagged football for all male and female. our swimming sports are all
co-ed. we have made an extra effort to make sure that we offset predominantly male football games with other sports that include both male and female. and we keep track of that closely because title 9 is pretty serious and they watch us
closely. from williams. that question to you. how would you ensure equitable and female sports teams required by title 9? >> title 9 ensures we don't discriminate on sex. they have as i suns as
mr. december ten said, they have the appropriate number of sports, sports attended to or maybe followed with the same vigor, there is not the same investment. the school football program versus a tremendous investment, they get a lot of attention,
some needs to be paid to which sports programs offering for the females and how much backing we're putting -- how much investment we're making. to you, mr. bryant. title 9 compliance within the district. >> again, title 9 is something
we have to follow. i believe the school district has done a good job of ensuring that all female and male students get adequate number athletics available to them. as as far as the funding that geese to them, -- goes to them, football funds most athletic
programs, my son plays soccer and we depend on football to fund our soccer team. so we need to look at ways that we can help ensure that all the money that comes from one ma i your sport is diversified to all the other sports. and i think ads parents we need
to come together with schools to figure out a way to make it easier for us. >> thank you, mr. cawthon. >> working in the past in the department of health athletics and discipline i have close conversations with and frequent occasion with our guidance
counselors and also our athletic directors and our district level athletic director. making sure they are having contact with the guidance counselors and teachers and everything in school if there's complaints from the students and also making sure that we were
accessible to the parents through the athletic directors within each school. accessibility is the key to the students, the parents, the community, to make sure we are in compliance. we'll hear more from our candidates in just a bit.
we're taking a short break right now and we'll wrap up questions and present closing statements when we return. >> thank you for join us for wsre rally 2016. electate on election day. i'm ed meadows president of pensacola state college,
thanking you for joining in to rally, a joint presentation of and pensacola state clem. rail -- college. rallies allows you the opportunity to watch this as this election year slate of candidates answer the questions of the needs of our community.
state clem is proud to bring service and as always, we invite your comments and suggestions about how we can further fulfill our community obligations. let's all remember the importance of participating in the governance process by voting in the upcoming election. there
is one amendment on the august primary ballot. 60% is liared for passage of here is a look what that amendment covers. amendment four solar devices or renewable energy source devices. and assessment. the ballot summary read as o
follows, proposing amendment to solar or renewable energy source devices subject to tangible personal property tax and authorize legislature by general law to prohibit consideration of such devices in assessing the value of real property for ad valorem taxation purposes.
january 1, 2018, expires on december 31st, 2037. on to the floridavoter.org the website for florida league of women voters of florida. follow it is steps to guyed the florida amendments. this guide will display synopsis of amendment and what synopsis
of yes or no vote means. >> we are wrapping up our the candidates for okaloosa county school board districts 2 and 4. this is a non-partisan race and the seats are elected at large. the questions are identical for both races and we are
interviewing the candidates mr. williams is -- it is your turn to take the next question first and mollye. >> we begin with question number four. can you speak to exodus among current teacher population. specifically how would you
propose hiring and retaining qualified replacements? >> there's a significant erosion of teachers in the school system, i think the ago best problem is we don't treat our teachers with great value. i campaigned on treating our teachers as greatest see.
here is what's important. teachers inspire students every day, and we have to do more to value those teachers. that greatest asset gets up and walks out of school every day on two feet. we have to do more to get them to want to walk back in the door
the next morning. i suggest less overwork, respect the teacher in the classroom, do a survey, a county wide anonymous survey needs to be done of the entire school system annually. and let's get feedback and reward teachers the a plus
school bonus money put teachers and staff where it needs to go. >> mr. bryant that question now to you, can you speak to the exodus among current teacher population? a specifically what you would do, how you address hiring retaining qualified replacement?
>> it's something in okaloosa county has not become a big problem yet but it is nationwide problem and it is shoally coming to okaloosa county and some will have to address the next four okaloosa county is a heavily military county so some exodus is because of military but a lot
is because teachers are fed up. they don't enjoy teaching any and as a school board member, we are going to have to bring our community together and hold elected officials in tallahassee more accountable so we can take the burden off the teachers and give them the ability to teach
again. the teachers in there now love their job but hate the red tape with it. we need to lift the burden off of them. >> mr. kaw thorn, how would you -- cawthon, how do you propose retaining qualified teachers in
>> having worked in all the schools i have a comprehensive background working with teachers at each level, the main thing they want is respect just like any profession. we treat them as professionals give them all the support they can.
encouragement, compensate them. as they should be. okaloosa schools are an a school district and this last year and have been many years so let's give them the respect and compensation they deserve and encouragement and reduce the paperworks that's what i hear
from surveys teachers say we're burdened with too much testing, we need more instructsal time and we need goat away from so much documentation. >> thank you mr. cawthon. >> all four of us have come up with the same conclusion we need teach our teachers we need to
treat the teachers with respect. we in fact did the survey anonymously last july. we got 357 responses from teachers and over 60 pages of suggestions. the number one complaint was paperwork. they need to have secretaries we
have done our best over the last year to act on those -- i'm sorry, did i -- do i -- >> that was a different -- >> we are reduced the paperwork, the lesson plans are due much less now. we have reduced some of the mandated exams and mandates we
get from the state that causes all this paperwork. >> nigh, mr. destin. mr. williams, you had a rebuttal? >> mr. destin mention ad teacher survey, it was not anonymous. from what i have been told about 350 teachers responded.
i talked to dozens of teachers who never saw it so it was not county wide. and it certainly has not been an annual survey, if they did it, it was one time. >> in fact it was anonymous and every teacher that i spoke to was aware of it.
o and we had 357 respond dents which is quite a good statistic number. we do plan to do it every year and did it july of 2515. >> thank you, gentlemen. turning for the next question. >> question five to mr. bryant first.
how would you address the lack of technology such ads computer hardware, and wifi in some okaloosa county schools? >> well, i think a lot of that has to do with over the years the school district has site based management and the money that comes to the schools you
had some schools like niceville that would get a lot of money and schools like laurel hill that didn't get any. since the district implemented the central site based budgeting, more mop is getting districted to those schools that lack the technology.
i think that's a good thing. still work to go. i think over the next couple of years you will see more money into the schools that don't get the money in the past and you will see technology growing in those schools. we need more partnerships with
the outside community too that are business minded. mr. cawthon, how would you address lack of technology in some of our county schools in >> the big part of the problem with technology is it changes so fast, to stay on top of cutting edge of technology, at this time
we have about a two to one ratio of the students who one out of two who do have computers they have immediate access to. and those are at the higher level at the high school hopefully in the future we'll work work with business partnerships to come up with
ways to increase technology. mr. destin. >> in fact we have made improvements in our technology repeatedly over the last few years, we lease our computer equipment in our support and they no -- there's a refresh clause in the contract in which
they refresh devices every three years, i believe so we're making great strides and we have -- very close to meeting the mandate, state mandate we have one device for one student. we're now at one device for every two so great progress on it.
we will continue to upgrade as we go along. >> finally mr. williams of your plans for addressing lack of technology in our okaloosa county schools. >> no one on the current school board has the technology experience that i do.
i have had information technology for a fortune 500 company. mr. destin says they're headed towards one to one, i heard the superintendent say two to one was good enough half a computer for each student doesn't make sense to me.
they also need broader bandwidths heighter speed internet and digital class room. most school books are online already. when i go to versionero florida and i sit down with my grandson and read stories, pick up his school ipad he looks up the
story, he reads them, he taked a test and he submits it all on lion. no dog can eat that home, who. >> that home work. the final question of the night, mr. cawthon, we begin with you, for students who do not plan to continue to go to college how
can we best prepare them to join the work force? >> we have a choice program in our school district, it's in the past has been referred to as the vo tech program, it's an excellent program, it's also offered to young adults who are also out of the school district.
and we must continue with this program, we might even be able to do this through magnet schools dispersed throughout the district which might help with growing process of needs for schools where we need to expand. we have to stay in touch with guidance counselors and parents
to make sure they other on track is they're suckessful in their educational endeavors. mr. destin, students who don't plan to go to college, how to prepare for the work force? >> we have the choice school which special ices but in addition we have tried to spread
out to our other schools we have a bio medical program at ft. wall top beach high school that teaches kids to enter the medical profession. we won a statewide war award. we have a drone program that teaches kids to operate drones which is an upcoming technology
and in fact we won our girls drone team one number one in state of florida, number three in the united states, so we are trying to get those choices to put people on down the career paths spread out not only to our choice school but to the other schools in the system.
>> thank you, mr. destin. mr. william. >> i started picking tomatoes at 13 and graduated there to farms and factories and construct jobs as teenager, i know what it like to work without skill. for me to put people through to jobs we need to start looking at
more choice like things like commercial driver's license would be key. more association, future farmers of america, rotc two biggest employers in nation. and certainly more jobs out there, where we look for how to place students in better jobs.
>> first as the only candidate here that only has a high school diploma, i'm very proud of my career choice but i also see out there that there's childrn that we expect them to go to college and they are not college material so we need to offer programs we have now choice and
expand it more. there's so many opportunities out there for children that we haven't untapped yet. i think if we invest our money more into the choice programs, 67% will go outs type the work force and we need to prepare for i think we have a wonderful
program but need to expand more. >> thank you, gentlemen for participating in that question-and-answer session. it's time now for closing you each have 45 seconds. mr. destin, it is your turn in rotation. you have 45 seconds.
i appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight. we have one top rated school districts in the state of florida, out of 67 we're in the top three, one of only three in the state rated a schools. and some areas were rated number one, we have the highest act
scores in the state. we have done all this with one lowest tax rates in the state. we have done more with less, on many programs, that are models for the rest of the state. in fact, our resource officer program where we have an armed deputy in every school has been
looked at by districts all over please vote for dewey destin and we'll keep up our excellence. next to mr. williams, 45 seconds for your closing statement. >> why vote for me? business, engineering construction and experience as an air force veteran are exactly
the skills that are needed on our school board today. second, this school board has not been an effective watch dog for the public, from the lack of criminal background checks that weren't conducted on school employees to excessive piling on of standardized testing.
these board members are all good people but you need the right experience on your board. i care about education. one of ability children raised in northwest florida by a devout christian mother in poverty and without education. i know what it's like to have to
work for a job. please vote for mark williams, school board because our students' futures are too important to continue. mr. bryant, 45 seconds. >> first, thank you very much for having us here and i humbly come to you tonight to ask for
your vote august 30th. as a parent, a business leader, a community leader in our -- in okaloosa county, i have seen the firsthand effects of how wonderful the school district that we have but it's only been as good because we have been involved as parents.
we have had active say in what goes on in our child's as your school board member it's important that we bring the business community together with our educators and let's work to solve problems. you have heard along the way the last couple of years, that we
have issues with infrastructure. we need to address those issues and stop kicking the can down the bucket. august 30th, i ask for your >> now the final word to mr. cawthon. 45 seconds for closing >> thank you for the opportunity
to be here. for 37 years i served this school district. ten as teacher 15 in school based administration and 12 ads district office. i worked with 20a schools a district record. i only missed one full week of
work in 37 years and total of 34 that's because i love mid job, i came to my job, i love the students i love this district. i earned five degrees in including a doctorate in education, management, the school board manages the i ask for your vote on
>> thank you very much for those were candidates for okaloosa county school districts 2 and 4, thank you for joining using in, there's one more night to go. >> one more time, thursday we will turn our attention to local races in escambia county
including escambia county commission districts 1 and 5. >> and we'll also meet the candidates for escambia county tax collector, school board district 1 and escambia county sheriff. >> and that's a wrap for this night sedition of rally 2016,
our thanks to league of women voters, okaloosa county and pensacola bay area for their participation in rally 2016. >> our thanks to pensacola state college and reminder that rally will be available shortly for viewing online. you can find it at wsre.org.
please join us again thursday night for morally 2016, right here on wsre-tv, pbs for the gulf coast. have a great night. [captioning provided by wsre-tv and coastal captioning]