My name is Danny Glidewell and I would like to announce my candidacy for the Republican nomination for the District 5 seat in the Florida House of Representatives. District 5 encompasses all of Walton, Holmes, Washington, Jackson and northern Bay counties.
I have been involved in public service most of my life. Beginning in 1984, I served for 22 years as a deputy sheriff in Walton County, starting as a corrections officer, then a deputy, Sergeant, Lieutenant and finished my service as Captain over Administration. I was also the first school resource officer at Paxton High School. In 2006 I was hired as the first Corrections Director in Walton County after the Board of Commissioners assumed operations of the county jail. Shortly after the department was organized the downtown jail was closed and a new 584 bed jail north of DeFuniak Springs was opened. In three years the Department became the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] criminal justice organization in Walton County history to achieve state accreditation. The Department also moved forward with the implementation of an inmate work program and a joint agriculture project with Walton Correctional Institution. I retired in 2010 and currently officiate youth, middle and high school athletics across the Panhandle and south Alabama. I belong to both the Florida and Alabama High School Athletic Associations. I also substitute teach in the Walton School District.
I have a B.S. degree in Criminal Justice from Troy University and have also completed the FDLE Chief Executive Seminar and the FBI’s Florida Senior Leadership School. I completed the law enforcement academy at Washington-Holmes Vocational Center and have over 1000 hours of advanced criminal justice training. I am a 1979 graduate of Walton High School and the sixth generation of my family to make Walton County home. My wife Theresa and I have four children: Kayla, Ashton, Thomas and James.
I have coached little league basketball and baseball in both Freeport and Paxton and in 1989 was President of the Freeport Little League. I am a past president of the Walton County Fair Association and am currently on the Board of Directors. I have also served in the past as a trustee for Walton Academy. From 1993-2001 I was Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Liberty. Currently I am the minister at King Lake Chapel, a non-denominational church on the grounds of Sunset King RV Park.
I share the view of many in our area that the state government in Tallahassee has drifted off course and needs to return to its core principles: the ideals of limited government, the notion of fairness and freedom for all, personal liberty and the rule of law. I have always believed that government service was a public trust and was an honor bestowed on those servants by our citizens, not a birthright for anyone.
Thomas Jefferson said that the best government was that government closest to the people. In order to fulfill the destiny behind those words we must return our government to the bedrock principles it was founded on. All of us have a role if we are to restore our state to the promise of economic growth and fundamental fairness.
Many think that this is an impossible task and that the march away from liberty has gone too far; that Florida has become so bound up by special interests that we no longer possess the will to cope with our problems. I don't believe that. And I don't believe the people of the Fifth District do either. That is why I am seeking this office.
Our economy continues to be stagnant and many of our citizens cannot find a job that pays a living wage. The people are not responsible for the decline in our economy; government is. It has overspent, overtaxed, and over-regulated. It has failed to deliver basic services within a fair and reasonable budget. At the same time, our leaders have cynically forced our loyal public servants; our teachers, firefighters and policemen, to pay a de facto 3% income tax and told our people this contribution will in some way "solve" the problem and allow the average taxpayer to pay less. Is spending so out of control and our political will to make difficult choices so weak that we must balance our budget by taking money from our loyal employees who have not had a meaningful raise in years? How can we look those long-term employees in the face when we turn around and give high ranking bureaucrats and political cronies large pay increases at the same time? These ill-conceived policies must be repealed immediately.
Our state, like our local and federal governments, needs to cut the waste out of our budgets. This does not mean sacrificing essential services but simply cutting out duplication and removing the state from interfering with our local governments. Our legislature continues to pass laws that allow bureaucrats in Tallahassee to have more control over how our teachers are paid and even how their job performance is evaluated than our elected local school board. They have passed laws that allow those same bureaucrats more say in whether our children are promoted from one grade to the next than our local teachers, administrators and Superintendent. I will work to repeal these laws and return the authority over our schools to our parents and local officials.
Those same elected officials who have placed a stranglehold on local education are simultaneously attempting to privatize one of the most basic of government services: the care, custody and control of those who break the law. They do this in a callous attempt to jettison state workers and force those who guard our safety to work for private companies at poverty wages. What we need is for the state government to acknowledge its responsibility as far as prisons and release control of education back where it belongs: the local school board.
We must force the state bureaucracy to live in the real world of reduced spending, streamlined function and accountability to the people it serves. We must review the functions of government and ensure those functions are managed closest to the people.
All these things are possible; none of them will be easy. But the choice is clear. We can elect a clear voice fighting for our principles or an echo of the Tallahassee power-brokers
I hope in the coming weeks to get a chance to talk to each of you and ask you for your vote and support.
I have been involved in public service most of my life. Beginning in 1984, I served for 22 years as a deputy sheriff in Walton County, starting as a corrections officer, then a deputy, Sergeant, Lieutenant and finished my service as Captain over Administration. I was also the first school resource officer at Paxton High School. In 2006 I was hired as the first Corrections Director in Walton County after the Board of Commissioners assumed operations of the county jail. Shortly after the department was organized the downtown jail was closed and a new 584 bed jail north of DeFuniak Springs was opened. In three years the Department became the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] criminal justice organization in Walton County history to achieve state accreditation. The Department also moved forward with the implementation of an inmate work program and a joint agriculture project with Walton Correctional Institution. I retired in 2010 and currently officiate youth, middle and high school athletics across the Panhandle and south Alabama. I belong to both the Florida and Alabama High School Athletic Associations. I also substitute teach in the Walton School District.
I have a B.S. degree in Criminal Justice from Troy University and have also completed the FDLE Chief Executive Seminar and the FBI’s Florida Senior Leadership School. I completed the law enforcement academy at Washington-Holmes Vocational Center and have over 1000 hours of advanced criminal justice training. I am a 1979 graduate of Walton High School and the sixth generation of my family to make Walton County home. My wife Theresa and I have four children: Kayla, Ashton, Thomas and James.
I have coached little league basketball and baseball in both Freeport and Paxton and in 1989 was President of the Freeport Little League. I am a past president of the Walton County Fair Association and am currently on the Board of Directors. I have also served in the past as a trustee for Walton Academy. From 1993-2001 I was Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Liberty. Currently I am the minister at King Lake Chapel, a non-denominational church on the grounds of Sunset King RV Park.
I share the view of many in our area that the state government in Tallahassee has drifted off course and needs to return to its core principles: the ideals of limited government, the notion of fairness and freedom for all, personal liberty and the rule of law. I have always believed that government service was a public trust and was an honor bestowed on those servants by our citizens, not a birthright for anyone.
Thomas Jefferson said that the best government was that government closest to the people. In order to fulfill the destiny behind those words we must return our government to the bedrock principles it was founded on. All of us have a role if we are to restore our state to the promise of economic growth and fundamental fairness.
Many think that this is an impossible task and that the march away from liberty has gone too far; that Florida has become so bound up by special interests that we no longer possess the will to cope with our problems. I don't believe that. And I don't believe the people of the Fifth District do either. That is why I am seeking this office.
Our economy continues to be stagnant and many of our citizens cannot find a job that pays a living wage. The people are not responsible for the decline in our economy; government is. It has overspent, overtaxed, and over-regulated. It has failed to deliver basic services within a fair and reasonable budget. At the same time, our leaders have cynically forced our loyal public servants; our teachers, firefighters and policemen, to pay a de facto 3% income tax and told our people this contribution will in some way "solve" the problem and allow the average taxpayer to pay less. Is spending so out of control and our political will to make difficult choices so weak that we must balance our budget by taking money from our loyal employees who have not had a meaningful raise in years? How can we look those long-term employees in the face when we turn around and give high ranking bureaucrats and political cronies large pay increases at the same time? These ill-conceived policies must be repealed immediately.
Our state, like our local and federal governments, needs to cut the waste out of our budgets. This does not mean sacrificing essential services but simply cutting out duplication and removing the state from interfering with our local governments. Our legislature continues to pass laws that allow bureaucrats in Tallahassee to have more control over how our teachers are paid and even how their job performance is evaluated than our elected local school board. They have passed laws that allow those same bureaucrats more say in whether our children are promoted from one grade to the next than our local teachers, administrators and Superintendent. I will work to repeal these laws and return the authority over our schools to our parents and local officials.
Those same elected officials who have placed a stranglehold on local education are simultaneously attempting to privatize one of the most basic of government services: the care, custody and control of those who break the law. They do this in a callous attempt to jettison state workers and force those who guard our safety to work for private companies at poverty wages. What we need is for the state government to acknowledge its responsibility as far as prisons and release control of education back where it belongs: the local school board.
We must force the state bureaucracy to live in the real world of reduced spending, streamlined function and accountability to the people it serves. We must review the functions of government and ensure those functions are managed closest to the people.
All these things are possible; none of them will be easy. But the choice is clear. We can elect a clear voice fighting for our principles or an echo of the Tallahassee power-brokers
I hope in the coming weeks to get a chance to talk to each of you and ask you for your vote and support.
