Mayor candidate D.C. Reeves believes 'Pensacola is on precipice of such great things'

D.C. Reeves didn't think he'd move back to Pensacola when he graduated from Catholic High School, but 20 years later, Reeves is running to become mayor of the city.

"The one common theme in my life, and the thing I'm addicted to, is being able to have your work really create change in some way," Reeves said.

Reeves graduated from Florida State University and worked as a sportswriter for the News Journal and then Tuscaloosa News. Reeves left journalism in 2015 and returned home to Pensacola, becoming chief of staff for the Studer Community Institute, founded by Quint Studer.

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In 2016, Reeves also co-founded R&R of Pensacola, which opened Perfect Plain Brewing Company in 2017. The success of Perfect Plain led to the creation of other concepts like Garden & Grain and The Well.

Reeves also was named the chief entrepreneur officer of The Spring Entrepreneur Hub in 2019. An offshoot of the Studer Community Institute, The Spring was created to help owners of small businesses grow and improve their business through mentorship programs, additional resources and national expertise in creating and growing businesses.

Reeves said he is running to make Pensacola a place that other young people will want to move to, or return home to and raise families of their own.

"How can I best help the community where I'm from, the community where my daughter is going to grow up, and ensure that we're going to be intentional about where we want to take Pensacola?" Reeves asked rhetorically. "This is not me seeking another hobby. This is not an opportunity for retirement. I want to give Pensacola everything I've got to make this a wonderful place to live and a safe place to live."

Reeves said he believes the role of the mayor means being CEO of the city, which means making sure the city is a place its employees want to work and a place where residents want to live, while knowing the decisions you make aren't going to please everyone.

Additionally, Reeves said he believes the mayor should be a "salesman" not only for the city but the entire metro area.

"I don't think the mayor's role is just talking to people who will only put a business inside the city limits," Reeves said. "Of course, that's the primary focus, but if a 2,000-employee business is moving to Nine Mile Road, that affects Pensacola. If a big business is moving to Gulf Breeze, that affects Pensacola. Pensacola really is the heart of this greater community."

Launching his campaign for mayor 

This campaign is not Reeves' first brush with local politics. It was Reeves, as Studer's chief of staff, who did most of the leg work for Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson's transition team that Studer led. Reeves also ran the campaign to advocate for an appointed superintendent in Escambia County in 2018.

Reeves' father is attorney Jim Reeves, who is a former state legislator and known as a political mover and shaker in local politics.

Reeves has also picked up the endorsements of several local officials including Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons, Sen. Doug Broxson, Rep. Michelle Salzman, ECSO Chief Deputy and former Pensacola Police Department Chief Tommi Lyter and former Mayor Ashton Hayward.

Reeves has handily outraised his other three opponents in the race by more than 10 times with $280,124 raised as of July 22.

Meet D.C. Reeves: Candidate, Pensacola mayor

"Everyone comes from somewhere," Reeves said. "I'm fortunate to have learned a lot about the city. I learned a lot on how to manage organizations from two people that are very well respected in this community. That being said, I'm my own person. I'm raising my daughter here. I had 53 cents to my name when we opened Perfect Plain. I put everything I had into this business, and I'm my own person."

Reeves said it would not be his donors or anyone else who will be accountable for the decisions he makes as mayor, but it will be him who will take accountability.

"I'm not getting into all of this, and all the responsibility that comes with this, to have to feel like I would have to answer to one person or one group," Reeves said. "That's not why I'm doing this. I'm the one up there. I'm the one taking the heat and having to make tough decisions."

The City Charter also requires the mayor to devote his or her full "work time" to the duties of the mayor's office. Reeves said he is already not involved with any day-to-day operations of his business and he is currently "exploring opportunities to have less ownership in the business."

Priorities for Pensacola

Reeves said his top priorities for Pensacola are improving safety, creating affordable housing and creating jobs.

Reeves said his view on creating jobs is to create a place where people want to live.

"I'm a place-based economic developer," Reeves said. "That means we build a wonderful place to live, young people want to move home, and when young people want to move home or move here from other places, businesses follow suit."

Reeves said creating affordable housing is important to the city because the city’s revenue is tied to people being able to live and own property in the city.

Reeves said he believes the city needs to find incremental opportunities to increase the supply of housing in the city such as conducting a review of the land development code to see what exists in the code that could make it tough for affordable housing development.

"It doesn't have to be a widespread change that happens in every single part of the city, but there are so many low-hanging fruit opportunities for us to add more doors and make it more palatable to do so," Reeves said. "It's simple supply and demand. If we snapped our fingers right now and had 1,000 more doors available, whether to buy or rent, at a minimum, it would help plateau these rising rental costs."

Reeves said the city should also take an active approach to create "workforce housing" from city or county-owned lots to build housing that’s affordable for people with jobs like firefighters or teachers.

"If there's a teacher at A.K. Suter or a police officer, or a firefighter that works for the city, that saves lives in the city, but can't afford to live in the city, I just have a real problem with that," Reeves said. "It saddens me honestly, to even think about that, you have people that do such important work for city residents, and we haven't provided them the opportunity to ensure that they can live here."

As far as safety goes, Reeves said his job as mayor is to ensure the police and fire departments have the tools and resources they need to keep the city safe.

"My goal is not to come in and say how things should be done," Reeves said. "It's to make sure that these fine folks have somebody backing them up and to put them in a position to be successful."

Reeves added he will work to act decisively as quickly as possible on homelessness once he gets in office, and he's pointed out that thanks to the work of his mother, Connie Bookman, CEO of Pathways for Change, he's been familiar with advocacy for people experiencing homelessness his whole life.

"She's been a social worker since I can remember," Reeves said. "I'm lucky to have been around this issue my entire life ... but also I had the experience of the negative side of some of that issue as a downtown business owner. We've seen that as well. So I feel like I've got a good holistic perspective on this issue. We will help the people who want help, but we will not give up the vibrancy of 55,000 for people who don't want help."

Reeves said he believes the mayor's position isn't something someone should do when they retire or something to be viewed as a ceremonial job, but rather someone who is able to seize opportunities that will allow others to move to the city like he did.

"Pensacola is on the precipice of such great things," Reeves said. "We've seen our vibrancy increase the last decade or so. We see more and more people wanting to move here. So, I'm running because I just want someone to be intentional about that."

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com and 850-208-9827.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: D.C. Reeves: Pensacola mayor candidate wants to bring young people home