The Leon County Commission has a new set of leaders and with them, some new priorities. As of Tuesday night, Brian Welch is the commission chair and Christian Caban the vice chair.
Welch is returning to the commission for his second term. He was recently re-elected in his northeast Tallahassee district with 61 percent of the vote. Now that he has the gavel, Welch wants to focus on building better relationships with Governor Ron DeSantis, who as Welch notes, lives in Leon County year-round, and with lawmakers who are part-time residents.
Welch says Leon County commissioners have nonpartisan jobs, and that he doesn’t care about politics. Historically, the county has had Democratic leadership -- but Welch doesn’t think that should prevent a good working relationship with state leaders.
“We want to make sure that they feel a part of our community," he said. "We don’t want to take shots at them, and sort of draw these divisive, political, ideological lines, because at the end of the day, we want Leon County to be the best it can be, we want to serve our citizens to the best of our ability, they have a lot of resources across the street in the state capital, and we don’t have those resources in Leon County.”
Welch also points out that Republican Senator Corey Simon could well help Leon County, which is a big part of his district.
“Senator Simon’s re-election in the Senate -- I would hope to also create some partnerships with him to see if we can’t bring home some bacon to Leon County," he said.
In her remarks, Commissioner Carolyn Cummings, stepping down as chair, was emotional. She said when she had been sworn in four years before, her mother was still alive. She called her mother her "very first public servant role model."
She said that during President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, her mother defied threats to open the first Head Start school in the poorest county in Mississippi.
“And I want you to know that through that program, many poor children in Perry County for the very first time received dental care and vision care and in some instances, health care,” she said.
Commissioner Christian Caban will be serving alongside Welch as the vice chair of the commission. He was first elected in 2022 to complete the term of the late Jimbo Jackson. This year Caban was re-elected more or less without opposition -- his lone opponent dropped out after about a month.
Caban has been all about the needs of his southwest Leon County district: sidewalk projects, for instance, including one outside the Fort Braden School. He also hopes to create a storm shelter in Woodville, which is currently 15 minutes from the nearest one.
“So, we want to look at right now -- we have staff, we have board support -- to have a cost and feasibility study in-house to look at how much would it cost, what would it look like, what would the location be for Woodville to have a storm shelter?" Caban said. "I think it could serve as a regional storm shelter, right? We could probably get some buy-in from the state because it would also help Wakulla County folks.”
Rumors abound that Caban has ambitions to be the mayor of Tallahassee, but he says he’s intensely focused on his district.
And Welch, after this year as commission chair, is in line to chair the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency, since he’s currently the vice chair of that agency. He says four of Blueprint’s projects will be in northeast Tallahassee, and he’s looking forward to cutting some ribbons.
