Sumter County Commissioners General Election
 

There have been dozens of posts here regarding the apartments proposed in Spanish Springs and Lake Sumter Landing. The Developer has already obtained several approvals for the projects, but actual building permits haven’t been applied for or issued. The authority for the issuance of building permits lies with the Sumter County commissioners and actually issued by the Code Enforcement department. Code Enforcement, among many other administrative departments, report to Bradley Arnold, the Sumter County Administrator.

The terms of the five county commissioners are staggered, with three being elected in the 2020 general election and the other two in 2022.

The three incumbent commissioners were soundly defeated in the recent primary election in spite of massive financial support by the Developer and The Villages Republican Club. The winning candidates won with very little paid advertising, a real grass roots effort to defeat the Developer-supported incumbent candidates.

Obviously, for those interested in changing the Developer-supported board, what is now necessary is that the successful candidates win four-year terms in the general election. If the three successful challengers who defeated the incumbents win, they will control the majority of the board of commissioners, the oversight and control of the County Administrator, and have substantial control over development in The Villages.

For those planning to vote by mail-in ballots or by using early walk-in voting, the names of the candidates who successfully defeated the incumbent commissioners in the primary election are:

District 1 - Gary Search
District 3 - Craig Estep
District 5 - Oren Miller

Commissioners for Districts 2 and 4 will be elected in 2022.

The chance of their not being elected is very slim with this predominantly Republican area. I hope they do not have plans to be obstructive to this well run place, The Villages. I hope they do not plan to undermine the CDD way of government. I am really worried.

the new commissioners live here and doubt they would want to do anything like that.

Especially if they want to get reelected down the road

Well, I think the commissioners that were defeated lived in The Villages. See how well that worked for them.

Don’t bet on it.