Election 2022: Ted Noftall challenges Volusia County Councilman Danny Robins in District 3

Incumbent Volusia County Councilman Danny Robins faces a challenge from Port Orange resident Ted Noftall in the Nov. 8 election for District 3, covering southeast Volusia. Here is how they responded to questions posed by The News-Journal.

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Ted Noftall

Name: Ted Noftall

Age: 70

Occupation:  Moving and storage, property management

Political experience: While I have run twice unsuccessfully for elected office in Port Orange, I believe my most important political experience has been as a government watchdog in our community. With my background in accounting and familiarity with the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests, I have served taxpayers by exposing multiple instances of government waste in Port Orange, and I would hope to do the same as a member of Volusia County Council.

What are your top three priorities?

1. Stopping overdevelopment by ending the taxpayer subsidies that encourage it.

2. Ending annual tax increases.

3. Ensuring that our drinking water supply is never supplemented with treated sewage water.

Three questions:

1. Why are you running? 

To place quality of life of Volusia County residents before special interests. I believe that the opinions of our residents are as important as those of rich and influential developers in determining the future of Volusia County. Residents are outraged with the traffic congestion unplanned overdevelopment has visited on them. Up-zoning to provide for higher density is not a property right but rather a gift bestowed on developers by the very council members they financed as candidates.

2. What is a life accomplishment that illuminates the kind of county councilman you will be? 

I have run a successful business for over four decades, and this practical experience in meeting bottom line expectations will inform my fiscally conservative approach in prioritizing expenditures to meet needs and guarding against higher taxes. Our Declaration of Independence makes clear that the primary purpose of the government we establish is the safety and happiness of the people. Government must be held to the strictest standards of transparency and accountability because it is the ordinary working folk who bear the cost of government and every tax dollar prudently saved or carelessly wasted makes their lives more abundant or meager.

3. What is something about Volusia County you treasure and will fight to protect, and conversely, what is something you will fight to change?

I will fight to protect the natural beauty of our beach, rivers and swamps that comprise our local ecology. I treasure that Volusia is a great place to raise a family and that we are a happy mix of high-brow and honky-tonk, and I especially treasure that the large metro centers of Orlando and Jacksonville are no closer to Volusia than they are. There is little that I desire to change about Volusia County beyond the erroneous developer-fed notion that Volusia residents are eager for more development, more traffic congestion, more pollution, higher taxes, and declining water quality.

Danny Robins

Name: Danny Robins

Age: 37

Occupation: Business owner (sporting goods)

Political experience:  2 years County Council District 3

What are your top three priorities?

1. Public safety — Properly funding our first responders.

2. Fiscal responsibility — Efficient and effective with our tax dollars as possible.

3. Conservation — maintain a high level of conservation, restoration and protection efforts through grants and funding sources like ECHO and Volusia Forever.

Three questions:

1. Why are you running? 

To show my children to be part of the solution and not the problem. If they see an issue, step up to the plate and address it. Don't just complain. I want my kids to see that hard work pays off and that nothing in life is free. Everything in life is a battle and I want them to know if it comes easy, most likely it isn't worth having. Serving your community and / or country I believe is a duty we all should experience as Americans.

2. What is a life accomplishment that illuminates the kind of county councilman you will be? 

There's actually several. Being a parent, a business owner, police officer and avid outdoorsman.

3. What is something about Volusia County you treasure and will fight to protect, and conversely, what is something you will fight to change?

I will always fight to protect our way of life as Americans. Protect our God-given rights and ensure equality within our laws. I will push back against policy that I feel violates public trust, increased bureaucracy, unnecessary laws, policy that doesn't involve common sense and policy that I feel isn't in the best interests of the residents of Volusia County.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Volusia Council District 3 election: Danny Robins against Ted Noftall