chrisforcommissioner.com<\/a><\/p>\nAny family connections with city staff? No<\/p>\n
Political affiliation: Election is non-partisan<\/p>\n
District 2 resident: since 2003<\/p>\n
By Kathy Jessup<\/p>\n
For Hometown News<\/p>\n
FORT PIERCE \u2013 Fort Pierce City Commission candidate Chris Dzadovsky says the city is in a \u201ccrisis mode\u201d and it will take \u201cexperience,\u201d not on-the-job training, to have an immediate impact on \u201cfoundational policy changes that need to occur.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dzadovsky represented city constituents as part of his St. Lucie County Board of Commissioners district for 16 years before losing re-election to his county office in 2024. Over his career, the former volunteer firefighter said he\u2019s had policy experience in public safety, code enforcement, budgeting, zoning and development.<\/p>\n
\u201cRunning for city commission wasn\u2019t on my bingo card. But when the vacancy came, I had hundreds of phone calls, texts, people stopping me on the street, encouraging me to run. Experience matters in a crisis and I\u2019m obligated to try to make a difference from the start.\u201d<\/p>\n
The District 2 commission seat became vacant when James Taylor III resigned after his arrest on allegations of online child exploitation of an Illinois minor. He has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.<\/p>\n
Dzadovsky supports the recent vote of confidence for City Manager Richard Chess after Chess\u2019 first six months on the job. Criminal charges of bid rigging and official misconduct against former top administrator Nicholas Mimms led to the vacancy and Chess\u2019 hiring. Mimms has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the first priorities is the naming of a new police chief. Then there are fundamental issues with the city\u2019s planning and development, purchasing, encouraging new economic growth and a projected budget shortfall in 2026 that need to be addressed quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dzadovsky said he doesn\u2019t advocate Fort Pierce mirror the development of Port St. Lucie.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be Port St. Lucie in density. Fort Pierce can\u2019t take that kind of development. But retirees and a failing citrus industry do not fuel a local economy. Fort Pierce needs to attract higher-wage jobs, private investment and create a higher tax base to take pressure off the residential side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Besides his background in government, Dzadovsky says he volunteers in local charitable and public service endeavors. That includes as president of Little Feet, working with firefighters to purchase shoes and socks for children in need, and with Big Heart Brigade that prepares Thanksgiving meals.<\/p>\n
The semi-retired real estate professional is urging a majority of Nov. 4 voters to get behind a single candidate, eliminating the need for and cost of a runoff ballot in January. If elected Nov. 4, he\u2019s pledged to donate half of his first-year salary to help offset the cost of the balloting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in this crisis mode, it makes sense to choose to give one person a majority so that on Nov. 5 they can get started right away. The issues are too critical to have to wait another three months to have that commission member on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Election law requires the city to run a primary because there are three candidates on the ballot. If one receives 50 percent plus 1 vote Nov. 4, that eliminates the need for a Jan. 13 runoff where voters would otherwise choose between the highest two vote-getters advancing from the November primary.<\/p>\n
City elections are nonpartisan; candidates are not affiliated with a political party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1002 Jamaica Ave., Fort Pierce Age: 64 Occupation: Semi-retired realtor Official endorsements: Florida Alliance of Retired Americans, Professional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25104,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-25103","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news","11":"tag-st_lucie"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25103","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=25103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}