FORT WALTON BEACH — This year’s mayoral race pits an incumbent who told people he was going to step down but didn’t against his hand-picked successor.
Mike Anderson, the city’s mayor since 2005, said last year he did not intend to run for a third term.
Then in December after business owner Al Stearns and former City Councilman Mike Minich pre-filed to run for the seat, Anderson reversed field and jumped into the race.
“I love the city and I really love being mayor,” Anderson told the Fort Walton Beach Kiwanis Club on Tuesday to explain why he is running again.
Stearns told the same audience “I want to be a participant in my community.”
“I’ve been preparing for the job probably for 30 years, since I set foot in Fort Walton Beach,” Stearns said.
He said he saw his opportunity “last spring, when the mayor approached me and said he was not going to run and ‘why don’t you?’ ”
Minich backed out after Anderson joined the race but Stearns decided to press on. He and Anderson shared a podium for the first time Tuesday.
The election is March 12.
The candidates didn’t disagree on much as Kiwanis members peppered them with questions.
Both favor the much debated Landmark Center, a 122,000-square-foot mixed-use development at the corner of Perry Avenue and U.S. Highway 98 that finally got its development order last week.
“People have said, ‘What a crappy place for a hotel,’ but they’re not in the hotel development business. The people that have been doing it for years, they like that location,” Anderson said. “I’ve been proposing to do something to get rid of that crappy corner for a long time.”
Stearns said, “The downtown when I came here in 1978 looks very much like it looks in 2013.
“I would like to see downtown get a shot in the arm, and the Landmark Center provides that,” he said.
Anderson and Stearns said they are enthusiastic about consolidating Fort Walton Beach’s recreational centers. They said they believe the cost savings realized by closing the aging Docie Bass, Fred Hedrick, Chester Pruitt and Creative Senior centers and opening a new recreational center on Jet Drive will be important, and that concerns about transportation to the new center will be addressed and overcome.
Anderson and Stearns said they support increasing the amount of light industrial work that is done at the city’s Commerce and Technology Park. Anderson announced that the city is working with BAE systems to bring 150 more jobs to Fort Walton Beach.
Stearns said his spending priority for any funds that come to the city from BP fines would be recreation.
Anderson said his focus would be to work regionally to get a handle on storm water runoff.
Stearns is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who has owned a handful of businesses over the years, chaired the YMCA board of directors and worked for the Greater Fort Walton Beach Chamber of Commerce. He told the Kiwanis Club in parting, “I truly want to be your next mayor.”
Anderson, also a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, called himself an ambassador for the city.
He said part of his desire to serve another four years stems from successes he’s had working with other cities in Okaloosa County and Northwest Florida.
He also cited his accomplishments in lobbying for Fort Walton Beach with the Legislature.
“I will continue to work with Tallahassee to keep us on the right track,” he said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.