Candidate: Dan Potter

Dan was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1947, a time when kids played in the woods and got dirty climbing trees and playing with critters. The 1950s were his delight when the outside world was full of intrigue with hours of free daily fun and the depth of nature was limitless. In the following years, Dan had a fascination with building things and understanding the beauty of the world through art. As a youngster in elementary and junior high school he displayed an artistic ability of extraordinary proportion. While attending the University of Chattanooga, he placed studies in mathematics and engineering well above socializing and extracurricular activiites. He worked in a factory at night to pay his tuition but he never missed his early morning lecture in Chemistry. He knew the world was being built from engineering and desired to become one. Later, while attending college, he worked as a design draftsman for a renowned German architect, having been hired because of his ability in visualizing what architecture should symbolize. Mixing the beauty of creating and sound engineering formed the groundwork for his ambitions. With a shortage of funds to maintain full time academic status, Dan took a semester off of college and was drafted into the Army during the Vietman era.. After returning to civilian life, he decided to further his military service. He reentered the Army and served the next 22 years, retiring after returning from Desert Storm in 1992. Dan graduated as honor graduate from almost every military school he attended, including AIT through the Advanced NCO course in logistics. He was a scout along the Im Jim River at the 38th parallel which separates North and South Korea. He bacame a Jungle Expert in Panama and graduated Recon School at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He earned numerous medals for service and was the recipient of three awards of the prestigious Meritorious Service Medal. After retirement from the Army in 1992, Dan and his wife, Colleen, operated a small machine shop that specialized in reconditioning automotive and heavy truck cylinder heads. This created a stepping stone for the financial management of a city. After developing a keen interest in local politics and a desire to remain interfaced with the legendary 101st Airborne Division, in which he served for twelve years, Dan ran and was elected to the City Council of Oak Grove, KY, a small city of 10,000 citizens outside the front gates to Ft. Campbell. Two years later he was elected Mayor and served in that position for the next eight years culminating with his relocation to Palm Coast in 2014. A passion for Dan is economic development. Having been trained in that field through the University of Kentucky he has the ability to analyze and prepare a community for economic opportunity by making it shovel ready with updated infrastructure and showcase this to potential investors. He has a track record of drawing the best commercial and clean industry to an area. He envisions Flagler County as a place where residents can work with the great benefits of retirement, medical, dental and excellent pay without leaving this county. This spells lifetime benefits in a job market that we can and will develop. Presently Flagler County has many retail jobs which don\'t offer the much needed benefits of medical and retirement the upcoming generation will require. This cannot be realized with only retail jobs which are currently abundant. Flagler County would become more prosperous with light, clean energy industrial development thus reducing the tax burden on the taxpayer while still maintaining an environment we can be proud of. This can be accomplished without taking away from our image as an excellent retirement community as well as Bunnell, a small city with much of yesterday\'s charm. Dan believes in government, any level of government, being simply structured regardless of the enormouse amount of business resonating through it. Dan also believes the role of government is to ensure each public dollar spent is for the advantage of all, not just a privileged few. Dan\'s desire is to further the ideas of citizen equality while balancing the ability of county government to stay within the limits of financial prosperity and providing taxpayers the best value for each dollar. Rainy day funds keep a county financially stable. There is no such thing as a small amount of money....it is still the taxpayers dollars and each one should be spent wisely.