By Fallan Patterson
Staff Writer

Ken Smith is as legendary in Osceola County as cattle ranching, fishing tournaments and the rivalry between the St. Cloud and Osceola high school football teams.

The Osceola County commissioner will serve on the dais for the last time at Monday’s meeting.

Smith had been consecutively elected to the district 4 County Commission seat for 14 years. He will be replaced by newly elected Frank Attkisson after the swearing-in ceremony Tuesday.

Smith never lost an election and credits his longevity in the community as aiding him professionally and politically.

“Our Founding Fathers believed in citizen involvement, they didn’t believe in career politicians,” Smith said. “Fourteen years is long enough, maybe even too long. It’s time to let someone else do the job.”

As he sat in his office on the fourth floor of the administration building in downtown Kissimmee, from which photographs, mementos and books were removed a month before the swearing-in, Smith recalled why he thinks he was consistently elected to serve Osceola County.

“The people know me; they trusted me to teach their kids,” Smith said. “I’ve been here so long, they know what my life is. The people of this county have been so good to me, I’ll never be able to repay them.”

It’s the small details that dot Smith’s political career and outline the people’s feelings about him.

One of his first campaign contributors wrote “because we love you” in the check’s memo. A St. Cloud resident cried, thanking him after the road she lived on for 35 years had finally been paved.

For Fred Hawkins Jr., district 5 commissioner and chairman of the board, it’s Smith’s experience that makes all the difference.

“My time serving with Ken, at times, has been like a conversation with your dad. When you think you know what you need to, he shows his experience and shows you another side of an issue,” Hawkins said. “I always noticed that Ken’s decision-making was always what was best for the long-term. It may not have been popular to make that decision, but Ken stood by his decisions.”

Smith has a variety of reasons he is retiring. Among them, his health. Smith has vertigo issues, which has destroyed his hearing over several years.

Additionally, Smith wants to spend more time with his wife of 35 years, Jennifer, and spend more time at their church, First United Methodist in Kissimmee, and playing golf.

He does, for now, plan to stay on as president of the Education Foundation of Osceola County, where he has been since the foundation’s 1985 inception.

Smith has been a constant in Osceola County government — on charitable organizations’ boards of directors and rallies, as a teacher, mentor and friend since settling in Kissimmee in 1965.

Originally from Zellwood, Smith took a position teaching history and American government at Osceola High School fresh from Asbury College in Kentucky. For 13 years, he taught historic and current events as well as the workings of governmental bodies to his students, many of whom he still runs into daily. Osceola County Sheriff Bob Hansell and County Attorney Jo Thacker are former students.

“Commissioner Smith has a passion for ensuring the youth in our community have a brighter future. His dedication and commitment to our citizens and his community involvement have made a significant impact in Osceola County,” Hansell said.

After retiring from teaching in 1978 to become a real estate agent for C.H. Lucas, Smith also began his career in Osceola County politics. He served as a Kissimmee commissioner from 1978-79 and was mayor of Kissimmee from 1980-81.

Smith dropped out of “party politics” after his term was up to focus on his business and was appointed by then-Gov. Bob Graham to the Valencia Community College board of directors. It was then that the plans for the college’s Osceola Campus were formed.

“It’s exciting to look and know the impact the college had on the young people of this community,” Smith said. “I’m very proud I had a little bit to do with that.”

In 1996, then-district 4 County Commissioner Larry Whaley became clerk of the court and Smith was elected to serve the remaining two years left on Whaley’s term.

Since that election, Smith was re-elected in every race he ran for and served one year as chairman and two years as vice chairman of the commission.

Smith’s greatest accomplishment on the commission, he said, was helping to establish the professional administration with a county manager, auditor and attorney.

“Through the County Commission, the community can now set the policy, direction and vision,” he said.

He regrets the unintended consequences of his actions as commissioner. For example, passing impact fees to encourage growth but finding they may depress the local economy.

Although he is retiring from the commission, Smith said he is going to stay involved with the community, just to a lesser degree.

“They won’t even miss me. It’ll be ‘Ken who?’ and that’s OK,” Smith said. “That’s how it should be.”