Former Pinellas County Commissioner Norm Roche is running for Tallahassee City Commission Seat 3, one of six candidates seeking the seat ahead of the August primary election.
WFSU’s Tristan Wood spoke with Roche on Candidate Convos, a digital series of one-on-one interviews with local candidates in Tallahassee and Leon County ahead of the August primaries.
You can watch Roche’s full appearance on Candidate Convos here:
During the conversation, Roche said political divisions at City Hall are driven by partisanship
“Politics, man. Partisanship. Ideologies, and that's the problem,” Roche said. “When you walk through the doors at City Hall to take a seat on the dais, you leave all that at the door. You're there to work for the citizens.”
Roche also discussed Tallahassee’s future growth, saying development should be balanced with quality of life and better coordination between city and county planning.
“I think we're at sort of a stagnant position right now, we're not growing,” he said. “So, it's about intelligent growth. A lot of people will use the term smart growth, and I think it's deeper than that.”
He said Tallahassee should focus on building on its unique identity, including its arts, sports, and university communities.
“We need to find those niche things,” Roche said. “I think it's the arts, I think it's sports, with two amazing universities and a college here, we should go forward with that.”
The Seat 3 race also includes PJ Perez, Maxwell Herrle, Talethia Edwards, Tom Derzypolski, and Darryl "Dar" Alfred. The primary election is scheduled for August 18th.
