Candidates
District 4
Incumbent Amy Lockhart, a Republican and former School Board member, said her campaign is about “protecting and improving our environment and the quality of life for our children.” She wants to continue leading the county’s efforts to redevelop the shuttered Rosenwald School property in East Altamonte into a campus with a community center and affordable housing. Lockhart said she would protect Seminole’s rural boundary.
Patricia “Patti” Smith, an adjunct professor of biology and environmental science at Seminole State College, is running for the seat without party affiliation. Her top concern is the county’s future growth and that residential developments are approved and built in the appropriate areas with a consideration as to how they would impact roads, schools and other government services. The county also should encourage developers to build more affordable housing. Smith said she would protect Seminole’s rural boundary.
SCHOOL BOARD District 2
Sean Cooper, 49, served for more than two decades as a pastor at Northland Church in Longwood and now works for a youth organization that promotes non-violence and community reconciliation. He wants to work on discipline issues, academic and mental health help for students and an ongoing teacher shortage. He signed the Moms for Liberty parents’ rights pledge, saying he views it as a way to boost parental and community involvement in schools.
Kelley Davis, 55, is an attorney and a former Seminole High School math teacher. She wants to increase mental health services, help for children with disabilities and teacher pay and find ways to decrease discipline problems. She opposes new state laws that curtail what can be taught in schools, including the one dubbed “don’t say gay,” and did not sign the Moms for Liberty pledge.
District 5
Dana Fernandez, 47, a former New
York City teacher, moved to Longwood from New York last year. She is campaigning against a “woke agenda,” including “critical race theory” and “critical gender theory,” and COVID-19 protocols. She wants more career and vocational programs. She signed the Moms for Liberty pledge and says on her website she wants to protect children and parents’ rights.
Autumn Garick, 56, is a longtime school volunteer who ran an educational theater program that performed in many Seminole schools. She wants to focus on mental health services, teacher retention and recruitment and ensuring Seminole schools remain top-notch. She wants parents to feel welcome but did not sign the Moms for Liberty pledge, saying if elected her loyalty would be to students and residents, not a special interest group.
Sanford Mayor
Incumbent Art Woodruff said Sanford’s success at turning its once-stagnant downtown district into a thriving area filled with restaurants, microbreweries and other businesses has resulted in a lack of parking and too much noise for nearby
residents. Those are issues the city should focus on in the coming months. He wants to scale back on the number of new apartments and rental housing being approved in Sanford by modifying the city’s land development regulations. Woodruff wants to raise salaries for city employees and negotiate better contracts with the police and firefighters unions.
Charles Davis, owner of an insurance business and president of Sanford’s community development district, said Sanford needs to offer its city employees — especially police officers and firefighters — better pay. Otherwise, Sanford will continue losing employees to better-paying jobs with other governments. Davis said the city should do a better job in planning for growth along East Lake Mary Boulevard. Davis said Sanford’s agreement with a developer to turn the vacant two-block area near the county’s civil courthouse into a mixed-use development is “not a good deal for the city.”
NOTE: All of the Orange and Seminole races are runoffs made necessary after no candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the primary.