Santiva Chronicle Staff Report
Six candidates will contend for three open Sanibel City Council seats in the March 2 election. The deadline to qualify was noon Friday, Jan. 15.
The non-partisan candidates are Mary Bondurant, Scott Crater, Tim Drobnyk, John Henshaw, Jason Maughan and Mike Miller.
Mayor Mick Denham’s term expires in March and he will not seek reelection after 16 years of public service. Kevin Ruane and Jason Maughan resigned their seats to run for higher offices. Maughan lost his election bid for the Florida House and has thrown his hat in the ring for a second term on council.
Maughan also sought reappointment in November and December when council appointed two members to temporarily fill his and Ruane’s seats. Three of the six candidates – Bondurant, Henshaw and Miller – likewise submitted their names for those appointments.
Council said at the time it was important to appoint people who were not running in the election and let the voters decide who should serve them on council without tipping the scale.
Following the election, council will appoint a new mayor and vice mayor in the March 16 meeting when new members will take the oath of office. Council members serve four-year terms and without pay.
I encourage all Sanibel voters to focus upon five of the six candidates, not Jason Maughan. In July 2017, just months after his election to the Council, he told three COTI Board members he wanted to run for higher office. I was one of those who heard him. The City Council was just his stepping stone. He resigned last fall to run for higher office, but failed. Now Maughan wants to return to his “stepping stone”. Don’t enable him. Sanibel is lucky to have five other well qualified candidates from whom to choose, who will focus upon the needs of Islanders not their own political goals.