Nonpartisan Candidate for Belle Isle City Council, District 5
Education: Valencia Community College 1999-2001
Occupation: Entrepreneur, automotive restoration, real estate management
Home: Belle Isle
Age: 44
Past Political/Civic Experience: Volunteer with Nathaniel's Hope & Straight Street Orlando. Previous youth coaching experience: Pop Warner football, Little League baseball, Orlando Youth Roller Hockey, RDV Sportsplex Ice Den house coach, Travel hockey coach, team captain adult ice hockey at RDV.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/VoteForLarryMiles
Email: VoteForLarryMiles@gmail.com
Q: What is your top priority if elected?
Communication with our citizens is paramount. Transparency must be increased and all forms of communication utilized to keep our citizens abreast of all aspects of the city, it's resources and public safety initiatives. We must also hold the line on taxes.
Q: What makes you the best candidate in the race?
I'm a fresh face with fresh opinions and views on government. My opponent has been in public office for three terms and has failed in keeping the city residents informed of the actions of the city commission and the city. I have a strong background as a successful entrepreneur and business owner as well as a record of community activities such as coaching youth athletics in our community. It is my opinion that we have a divided council due to divisive influences that erode our citizens confidence in their elected officials. I have the ability to unite our city council so that we can all work together to improve our great city. I will seek to bring opposing forces together through positive discussion and interaction and seek to improve the public view of our government.
Q: Please list important issues and briefly state your position on those issues.
Crime is a real problem in Central Florida in general. We must support the Belle Isle Police Department and provide them with the necessary tools to combat the rise in robbery's and thefts in the city. I'm a strong supporter of our independent police department. They do a fantastic job for our citizens.; Education is something that I strongly support. In Belle Isle, we are fortunate to have our own "A" rated charter school. It is the pride of our community. We must continue to support Cornerstone and its quest for excellence.; The quality of our lakes, the water and shorelines are very important to Belle Isle and its citizens. We are blessed with several great recreational lakes and we must do what is necessary to maintain and protect the water quality in those bodies of water.; Taxes must be kept as low as possible. I favor maintaining our tax rate as it is and to look for ways to cut waste and duplication to save the taxpayer's hard-earned tax dollars. I will not support tax increases without prior voter approval.
Q: How can you improve Belle Isle?
It's important to have the correct priorities for the city. I believe that the city should conduct a customer satisfaction survey to gauge citizen viewpoints on the issues facing our community and neighborhoods. Communication and transparency is vital for proper representation.
Q: If you wish to address some issue not listed above, I invite you to submit a brief statement on that matter.
Recent documents obtained from the Orange County Sheriff's office show that there were discussions between Commissioner Readey and Sheriff Demings regarding the elimination of the Belle Isle Police Department. Internal Sheriff's Office documents state that "some believe the timing is good to consider eliminating their police department......The commissioner believes our staff of deputies would be able to work out of the existing Belle Isle Police Department's building for a 24x7 operation." As recently as December 16, 2014, emails show that Mr. Readey was cooperating with the Orange County Sheriff's Office to obtain a proposal to provide law enforcement services to the City of Belle Isle. The resulting 11 page proposal is dated December 30, 2014. These discussions between Commissioner Readey and the Orange County Sheriff's Office took place without the knowledge of the council or our city manager. These dealings show a lack of transparency on the part of Mr. Readey and appear to be a misuse of position and responsibility with no communication to the Council, the City Manager, the Mayor or the public. I fully support the Belle Isle Police Department. It is my priority to protect our sworn Belle Isle officers by making sure they have the equipment and funding necessary to properly combat crime in our city.