Lord, Gilbert up for St. Cloud Council seat

The Nov. 8 election ballot in Osceola County will feature races at the city, county, state and U.S. Congressional level. The Osceola News-Gazette is profiling the candidates looking to serve their neighbors for the next two or four years.

Downtown businessman Dave Askew is not seeking a third term on the St. Cloud City Council, so his seat 4 is an election between Tom Lord and Ken Gilbert, a pair of longtime city residents and businesspeople.

St. Cloud-raised Tom Lord, a business manager for the last three decades, said he’s watched the city change first-hand over that time, and more. He’s sat on committees like the Economic Development Advisory and Parks and Recreation committees, and is ready to take it to the next level.

“I volunteer in the community all the time. I’ve watched just about every City Council meeting, County Commission meeting and School Board meeting for the last four years,” he said. “I think combined, doing all of that legwork ahead of time to get an understanding of the processes and the inside view of our local government and how it works, makes me the best candidate to come in and make changes. Not to mention the fact that I’ve grown up here and was raised here.”

He raised common concerns of city residents: traffic, infrastructure and its water issue.

“Traffic and infrastructure go hand-in-hand, and right now, our water is going to be managed by Toho Water. I’m willing to give them a chance to see if they can succeed, but at the same time, I’m not putting that on the back burner,” he said. “But, traffic and infrastructure is the number-one issue here. Out-of-control development plays a role in this but these three issues are intertwined. With the infrastructure and traffic, you can see it every day. I’ve dealt with it for the last 15 years that I was going out to Orlando to work. Bad planning, lots of development, cookie-cutter housing going up as far as you can see in every green space available.

“They’re all coming in and out off of one major road, whether it is Old Canoe Creek, Hickory Tree or Canoe Creek Road, they all dump out onto these roads. What used to be a 10-minute drive from Deer Run Road to 192 could be a 30 or 40-minute drive now. We need to figure out something really fast and it doesn’t seem like the developments are going to stop coming. My issue is that we need infrastructure first and we need it now.”

Here are Lord's email responses to News-Gazette questions:

In regard to the pandemic recovery, I would like to thank our Governor’s leadership first and foremost for allowing Florida to stay open which has allowed our local recovery to be way ahead of a lot of municipalities across the country.

My personal metric for a successful recovery would first start with the success of our local small businesses which are the backbone of our community. A lot of these businesses are still struggling to find workers and with the current implementation of the state mandate to raise minimum wage to $15/hr in the next few years, we as city leaders need to adopt a more pro-business friendly mindset.

Our local regulations seem to hurt small business owners more than they help. I can tell you personally, as a Store Manager of a major retailer in the Central Florida area, these ongoing issues caused our corporate office to close local stores, including my store, which left a lot of families at risk of homelessness and food insecurity. We must do better to ensure our city has a vibrant local economy to make sure our brighter days are ahead of us.

Growth seems to be inevitable, but the way it is managed and planned seems to elude our current city and county elected officials. This notion, we can build our way to long term wealth, has not bared any fruit after 20 years plus of this vision being executed.

I think we need to take a step back and ensure our infrastructure is in place prior to approving any new land use changes or mass zero lot home developments within the city growth boundaries. I would also like to take a firm stance when it comes to the county’s approval of mass home developments on the city borders, which negatively impact our citizens.

The Kissimmee Park Road Overlay is a prime example. The County has approved mass home developments with more in the pipeline without forcing developers or the state to address the traffic issues caused by the congestion at  Kissimmee Park Road, Old Canoe Creek, and Turnpike entrance. Additionally, the schools zoned for this area currently are at 115% capacity prior to these developments being built out.

If this continues, as a council member, I would make a motion to take legal action against the county to force an emergency injunction to protect the residents of the City.

Our role as city council members is to provide an environment for businesses to start, grow and succeed. This allows for livable wage jobs to be created within our city limits, grows our local tax base and the long-term positive impacts will live on for generations.

My plan is simple: (1) create a business advisory council to help the city enact positive regulation to help businesses succeed. (2) work with our state representatives, County Commission, and the city of Kissimmee to create a regional approach to offer tax incentives for profitable businesses looking to relocate and/or scale. The idea we focus all our efforts on NeoCity ($350M in taxpayer investment with less than 100 jobs created) seems to lack long term sustainability. We must ensure ALL our local businesses have to same opportunities to succeed and not try to use taxpayer funds to pick winners and losers.

I believe the city’s procurement process should be based on ensuring goods and services are purchased and contracted, protecting taxpayer funds and liability There should be a metric scoring model grading potential City vendors based on (1) past performance, (2) local preference, (3) financial ability to perform the scope of work of contract and (4) eliminate awarding contracts based on nepotism and personal relationships that are identified with city staff or council members. I also believe in full transparency, meaning a council member should have to state on record when voting for a company or entity which have given political donations to their campaign.

Boards: I am currently Vice Chairman of the City of St Cloud Economic Development Advisory Committee. I am also a current Board Member of Helping Hand Community Outreach, which helps foster youth and their foster families. I am a founder of Keep Osceola Beautiful, which organizes clean-up efforts of our local parks. I am also a former member of the City of St Cloud Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and a former member of the Osceola School Board SRO Task Force.

Ken Gilbert, who has owned a host of businesses in the city, currently runs A Place for Grace Ministries, a non-profit that benefits folks in need of basic supplies. He said he wants to bring that business background to the municipal level.

“I’ve been successful in my businesses and I think bringing that [makes me unique]. I also want to serve the people of St. Cloud. I know this may sound weird, but I’m a servant — for the Lord and I’m a servant to the people, and that’s why I believe I could do best by helping the citizens of St. Cloud. In December, I’m retiring from the company that I own, and my son will be taking over, so my time will be available for this job. Right now it is a part-time position, but it really needs to be a fulltime position. The city is growing exponentially and they need some counsel that can dedicate that time.”

He also admits that “growth” is St. Cloud’s buzz word.

“We’re building 5,00010,000 homes a year. But the real thing is, how do we plan the infrastructure?” Gilbert said. “How do we ensure our health and safety – our police officers and firefighters? That needs to come first to have the people of St. Cloud feel safe and healthy. That doesn’t happen overnight, but meeting and being endorsed by both the fire department and police department – I back their growth and their benefit packages because we want a safe environment to grow.

“I think we need more businesses — 93% of residents travel outside of the city of St. Cloud to work and I’d like to see that number go down and have people live and work in St. Cloud.”

For the full answers to questions posed by the News-Gazette, refer to our online edition at www. AroundOsceola.com.

Here are Gilbert's email responses to News-Gazette questions:

We’re still recovering from the pandemic. What would a complete recovery look like as it pertains to the city? We need to rebuild our local economy and ensure the city is fully staffed particularly in public safety related positions.

“Growth” — it’s a buzz word in town. What would be your tactics to help the city grow in a managed way? We need to make sure we have the infrastructure we need in place before we allow new residential growth. We must ensure we have enough roads, drainage, water, parks, and fire stations prior to approving new development. I want to focus on attracting businesses not additional housing.

If bringing new businesses into the city is high on your priority list, what are the best strategies for enticing them? If it’s not high on your list, what issue(s) would be higher? First maintaining a strong quality of life is key. That’s why I have been such an advocate for parks, youth activities and public safety. Second, we need to make sure we have adequate transportation in place. Third, we need to set aside land for commercial and industrial activity before it is consumed by residential development.

What should the leading consideration be when the city considers vendors and other business contracts. The process must be fair and transparent with the vendor selected being the one that provides the highest quality of service for the best price. I also support selecting local vendors to keep our dollars here in St. Cloud.

What boards or local organizations have you sat on or joined that would enhance your abilities on the City Council? I have worked with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Osceola and continue to assist their expansion in Osceola County. I also sat on the board of A place for Grace Ministries that my wife and I founded 12 years ago in St Cloud. I resigned from that board when I decided to run for City Council as not to have appearance of special treatment as the City and County have given Grants to APFG in the past. I have also worked as a youth coach in Osceola County for over 26 years.

Next week: A look at the County Commission district 2 race.