donnabenton4fortpierce.com<\/a><\/p>\nAny family connections with city staff? No<\/p>\n
Political affiliation: Election is non-partisan<\/p>\n
District 2 resident: since 1981<\/p>\n
By Kathy Jessup<\/p>\n
For Hometown News<\/p>\n
FORT PIERCE \u2014 Donna Benton says as a long-time, local real estate owner\/broker, her job is to \u201csell Fort Pierce on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Benton, the product needs improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwelve years ago, Fort Pierce had such a good reputation. Then, the city was pristine. I\u2019ve seen it go downhill consistently. Look at what\u2019s happened in the last year\u2014our deteriorating neighborhoods, crime has increased and our taxes have gone up and we don\u2019t have anything to show for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benton\u2019s husband, Robert, was Fort Pierce mayor from 1996-2012.<\/p>\n
Benton calls the 2024 arrest of former city manager Nicholas Mimms on charges of bid tampering and official misconduct and the July arrest of former city commissioner James Taylor III for online solicitation of a minor as \u201cthe most important reason I\u2019m running.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order for Fort Pierce to change its reputation, we have to have top-notch integrity at city hall, from the (commission) dais to every city department. We\u2019ve had a time over the last 12 years or so that we haven\u2019t held people to the highest standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benton ran for Fort Pierce mayor in 2020 and lost to incumbent Linda Hudson. Benton said her husband told her then that she could be more impactful as a city commissioner than mayor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a grip on what was transpiring then. I could see there were a lot of disconnects because I was going into the building department, the clerk\u2019s office, code enforcement, planning department at least once a week. I had people telling me about Nick (Mimms) and the nonprofits.\u201d<\/p>\n
Groups like Lincoln Park Young Professionals and Incubate Neighborhood Center are being scrutinized for leases they were awarded by the city and their accounting for grant funding they received.<\/p>\n
Benton said her experience in real estate gives her a background to help make good decisions about future development in Fort Pierce. It\u2019s also shown her what she says are the weak links in city staff and processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDevelopment is coming to Fort Pierce and we have to be able to set the direction for it. The commission has consistently voted to change zoning for higher density and taller heights. We gave away waterfront property owned by the taxpayers for King\u2019s Landing that probably is worth $20 million. They have no understanding of the value of real estate. I want to bring some of my experience to the table so we don\u2019t sell ourselves short.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benton said her other top priorities will include creating a \u201cmore customer friendly experience at city hall,\u201d cleaning up the downtown and city-owned properties, improving public infrastructure prior to new development and improving and expanding housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to bring in quality housing if you want to attract quality jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wants to address downtown homeless issues and manage growth to increase the tax base, lower taxes and \u201cmaintain the charm and history of Fort Pierce.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not looking to make this position a career,\u201d Benton said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping people can see I\u2019m vested in Fort Pierce and that I have a desire to maintain the charm and history of Fort Pierce and capitalize on the fact that we\u2019re a neat coastal town.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1365 Bayshore Dr., Fort Pierce Age: 67 Occupation: Real estate company owner\/broker for 22 years; owner of business…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172,563],"class_list":{"0":"post-25370","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\/25370","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=25370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}