Leon County Commissioner David O’Keefe is seeking re-election, facing challenger David Hawkins.
WFSU’s Tristan Wood spoke with O’Keefe on Candidate Convos, a digital series featuring one-on-one interviews with local candidates ahead of the August primaries.
You can watch O’Keefe’s full appearance on Candidate Convos here:
During the conversation, O’Keefe addressed frustrations surrounding the City of Tallahassee’s three-two voting split, but said voters ultimately choose who serves.
“Everyone up there was legally voted into office, and so that's who the voters have picked, and that's who gets to vote how they want to vote,” he said. “As I sit there at Blueprint meetings, especially, and I think voters are so upset with some of the votes that are being made, and it's wild because the voters put them there."
O’Keefe also defended keeping arts grant distribution at the county with the Council on Culture & Arts. He does not support giving its granting power to Visit Tallahassee, the county’s tourism development arm.
“Our local community does not attract big events and does not have, if you will, supplemental arts and culture activities for people to do for here today, the weekend, if you don't have these smaller, consistent local events that are attracting visitors on their own,” he said.
When asked about how Leon County can retain younger people, he said elected officials should work to build a more affordable and livable community with stronger quality-of-life options.
“We have to focus on building the community people will want to live in. It's about having arts and culture. It's about having affordable living. It's about having affordable rental housing for when you get out of college. It's about raising a family being affordable. It's about having good multimodal public transportation, all of these things that this generation values,” he said.
