Safety Harbor voters will have a decision to make in March on who will represent them on the City Commission.<\/p>\n
Candidate qualifying period for the 2026 municipal election ended Dec. 8.<\/p>\n
Mayor Joe Ayoub ran unopposed and will continue serving the city for an additional three-year term.<\/p>\n
Two candidates qualified for Seat 4 on the commission: David Gallagher and Kevin Shanks.<\/p>\n
They will be facing off to replace Commissioner Carlos Diaz, who is not seeking reelection.<\/p>\n
Ayoub is in his second stint as mayor. He held the post in 2013-14. He regained the post in March 2017 and has held it since.<\/p>\n
He is president of J.S. Ayoub & Associates and is a certified public accountant.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am truly humbled by the trust this community continues to place in me,\u201d Ayoub said in a statement on his Facebook page. \u201cI remain committed to working hard every day to keep Safety Harbor one of the best cities in the state \u2014 and the country. And to those who may not support me, I want you to know that my door is always open. I welcome your feedback, your ideas, and your perspective. We are all neighbors, and our city is strongest when we work together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The City Commission race will be between Gallagher and Shanks.<\/p>\n
According to his campaign Facebook page, Gallagher and his wife have two children and have been residents of Safety Harbor for the past 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have owned a business, led sales organizations, and been an active member on multiple local boards over the years including educational, nonprofit, and church,\u201d he wrote on his Facebook page. \u201cI am running on the pillars of accountability and financial stability, efficiency, and green spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shanks, who is also married with two children, has lived in the city for a decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs both a downtown business owner and a parent raising my 3- and 5-year-old kids here, I believe I\u2019m uniquely positioned to help balance our small-town charm with a strong, thriving business community,\u201d Shanks wrote on his campaign website. \u201cI hold a degree in economics from the University of Illinois, and I\u2019m ready to put that experience to work for our city. I\u2019m running to help keep Safety Harbor a special place for generations, so my own grandchildren \u2014 and yours \u2014 can cherish it the way I always have.\u201d<\/p>\n
The election will be held Tuesday, March 10. The last day to register to vote is Monday, Feb. 9.<\/p>\n
Residents can learn more about the candidates at a forum 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15. It will be held in the second-floor meeting room of the Safety Harbor Public Library, 101 Second St. N. A meet-and-greet will be held before the forum at 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Safety Harbor voters will have a decision to make in March on who will represent them on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2715,596,8617,54661,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-106217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-elections","9":"tag-pinellas-county","10":"tag-safety-harbor","11":"tag-safety-harbor-elections","12":"tag-st-pete","13":"tag-st-pete-headlines","14":"tag-st-pete-news","15":"tag-st-petersburg","16":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","17":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}