Two seats on Lake Wales City Commission to be decided in Tuesday's election
Lake Wales voters will choose a replacement for the longest-serving member of the City Commission in Tuesday’s election, while the second most experienced commissioner will seek another term.
Terrye Howell, first elected in 2014, chose not to seek a third term for Seat 3. The commissioner in that seat must live in a north-central section of the city, though voting for all seats is conducted citywide. Two candidates, Keith Thompson and Michelle Threatt, are running to succeed Howell.
Commissioner Robin Gibson is seeking a fourth term in Seat 5, which covers the southern part of Lake Wales. He faces a challenge from Danielle Pride Gibson.
The winners will earn three-year terms. Lake Wales commissioners receive $6,323 a year.
Seat 3 candidates
Threatt, 53, is a Lake Wales native and a graduate of Lake Wales High School.
Threatt said she retired from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in 2017 after 15 years in law enforcement. She is now an entrepreneur and owner of a food truck, Topsy’s A Taste of Love, which specializes in soul food.
A first-time candidate, Threatt said she serves on the Lake Wales Housing Authority Board and is president of the Northwest Neighborhood Association. She has lived her entire life in the Northwest Neighborhood, an underserved community that is one focus of Lake Wales Connected, the city’s long-term revitalization project.
In 2020, Threatt began offering free meals to local children through a project called The Village, which she plans to turn into a nonprofit organization. Threatt said that Howell asked her to consider running for the City Commission after deciding not to seek re-election.
Threatt said she has been attending City Commission meetings regularly in recent years and has built relationships with city officials. She said she would focus on unity if elected.
“As elected officials, I can't speak for anyone else but the people is my main concern, making sure that I hear and listen to the people,” Threatt said. “No matter what my decision is, no matter if I vote on something and say ‘yes’ or if I say ‘no,’ I'm not going to please everybody. But if I'm transparent and honest and taking the time to listen to the people, even if we agree to not agree, the transparency will still get you, I feel, respect and understanding.”
Lake Wales has faced tensions in recent months over rules for public comments at meetings and the fast-growing city’s approval of new developments. A proposed pipe-manufacturing facility on a former citrus grove at the south edge of town has generated opposition from some residents.
Under current rules, the city’s planning division will decide on issuing a permit to Advanced Draining Systems for the plant. But the proposal has become a main topic of public comments at City Commission meetings.
“Right now, for me, I just need more information,” Threatt said. “The biggest concern for me is the people's concern, the citizens. Will there be any toxic things? Just the concerns of the citizens have me concerned.”
Thompson did not respond to interview requests made by phone and email.
On his campaign website, Thompson said he is a U.S. Navy veteran and works as an account manager and salesman with PalletOne of Florida in Bartow. In a recent candidate forum, Thompson, 54, said he has lived in Lake Wales his entire life.
Thompson said his campaign platform is “to inspire and elevate a better conversation.”
In response to a citizen question at the forum, Thompson said that he thinks the entire City Commission, rather than just the mayor, should decide whether to issue proclamations. A controversy arose last year when Mayor Jack Hilligoss rejected a request for an LGBT Pride proclamation, something the city had issued in previous years.
In written responses to questions posted on the website Connecting Community Resources, Thompson emphasized his Christian faith.
“I’m neither naïve nor cynical about the challenges that face our community, and I genuinely have no personal agendas that I’m advocating for,” Thompson wrote. “I just want to serve the community that has given me access to runways of growth and development with dignity, decorum and optimism.”
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Seat 5 candidates
First elected to the City Commission in 2016, Robin Gibson isn’t ready to leave.
Gibson, 86, operates a law firm that he founded in 1973. He said he first ran for the City Commission out of concerns that the city’s leaders were diverting money from the Community Redevelopment Agency, which he had helped create in the 1980s.
Since joining the City Commission, Gibson said, he has helped ensure that the CRA’s funds are being used as intended and not funneled into general revenues.
At this point, Gibson said he wants another term to help implement Lake Wales Envisioned, a planning strategy that follows on the release in 2019 of Lake Wales Connected. Both frameworks, prepared by outside consultants, draw upon a city blueprint created nearly a century ago by famed landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.
The plan includes dozens of projects, including a redesign of Park Avenue in downtown Lake Wales. Gibson said it is “a thrill” to see the changes occurring in the city.
“And so now I'm running for re-election to see that thing through,” Gibson said. “I think I can play a role in making certain that it is successfully done right.”
Gibson acknowledged that the proposed pipe factory has become a contentious issue in Lake Wales.
“We’ve got a community of people that get along well, and then every once in a while, pulse rates come up and then people get excited and go in different directions,” he said.
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While the project won’t require approval from the City Commission under the current rules, Gibson said he has been educating himself about the facility. He and other commissioners have made trips to an Advanced Drainage Systems facility in Sebring, and Gibson said he has created a checklist to address questions about the proposed plant.
Gibson said he is concerned that some opponents have spread false information. He pointed to yard signs planted around the city that show a factory with three smokestacks and noted that the ADS plant would not have any smokestacks.
Danielle Pride Gibson, 36, has lived in Lake Wales for most of her life and graduated from Lake Wales High School in 2005.
Gibson, the wife of former City Commissioner Curtis Gibson, said she is an insurance agent specializing in customer retention. She is a mother of five children ranging in age from 2 to 16.
Gibson said she is the vice president of the Whispering Ridge Homeowners Association and a member of Rotary on the Ridge and the NAACP Lake Wales Branch.
Why did she decide to run for the City Commission?
“I just feel like our district deserves better, and I said, ‘Why not?’” she said. “I was already doing things in the community, but not just on this scale. So I just felt like, with my background experience, just dealing with all different types of people, that it would be fitting right now for the community.”
Gibson said she doesn’t think Robin Gibson is well connected with residents of the Seat 5 district.
“I’ve lived in his district for four years, and I've never met him — only seen him at commission meetings,” she said. “There's just a lot of things that are going on, and I think that we could do better communicating with our residents. I like getting out and talking to people. So if I was to be elected, I'm going to be out talking to people. You just won't see me in the office.”
On the subject of the pipe factory, Gibson said her research has eased her concerns about potential pollution.
“My only concern is that I know that we've been advised it is going to bring so many jobs to Lake Wales,” she said. “But what I've noticed with this industry is that they're doing smart energy and using robotics. And I want to make sure they're going to come to Lake Wales, that they're going to actually be able to offer our residents jobs.”
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Lake Wales voters will decide Tuesday on two City Commission seats
