I was first elected to Naples City Council in a special election on April 3, 2019 and reelected to a full four-year term on February 2, 2022.
I appreciate your confidence and support and hope I can earn your vote again in our next election on February 3, 2026.
Throughout my time on council, I have focused on strengthening our public safety, protecting our environment, supporting responsible growth and redevelopment, and improving the city's infrastructure and resilience.
- I was a leader on Council to secure the first significant compensation increases in nearly 20 years for our police, fire and EMS workforce, allowing us to gain traction and retain talented first responders.
- I led the effort to secure a permanent conservation easement on 105 acres of the Naples Beach Club property, protecting that land from future development. I also provided key support for the long-delayed Gulf Shore Boulevard Beach Outfalls project. Now underway, this project will bring much improved flood protection and water quality across 265 acres of our city.
- I have been a consistent voice for enforcing and tightening where necessary our land development code while also backing key community projects such as the NCH Heart, Stroke and Vascular Institute, the new Gulf Shore Playhouse Theatre, and the expanded Sugden Community Theatre.
- I chaired the City's Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) from 2020-2022 and returned as chair in 2024. Under my leadership, the CRA is now embarking on a major, much-needed $20 million infrastructure project on 10th Street and 1st Avenue South to reduce flooding and improve the streetscape in the City's Design District.
- Prior to my election to City Council in 2019, I led the effort to create, through a public referendum, the Naples Ethics Commission and a new, improved city ethics code.
- I bring to my City Council work a lifetime of relevant public and private sector experience. I have a Business Degree from Florida State University and a Masters Degree in City Planning from the University of Pittsburgh. In my career in local and state government I led Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority and served as Pennsylvania Secretary of Commerce. My career in banking has included leading the Federal Home Loan Banks of Pittsburgh and Atlanta.
- These experiences and others have a common element of seeking collaboration - bringing people together in common cause to achieve practical results. In that spirit, I want to continue to work for you, Naples residents, to move us forward.
- My wife, Eileen, and I began in the 1980s to regularly visit Naples through family and have owned our home here since 2003. We have three grown children and one grandson. We have watched Naples evolve and change over time, as many of you have. It remains a wonderful community and I am committed to keeping it that way - protecting its character while preparing for the future.