by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Workspace: Jacksonville Beach Mayor Fland Sharp
Fland Sharp grew up in Jacksonville Beach, doing what many teenagers did at the time: he surfed a lot and served as a lifeguard for the American Red Cross Volunteer Lifesaving Corps on Sundays and as a Jacksonville Beach lifeguard the rest of the week.
Politics never really crossed his mind, but he was on a different page than many of his peers.
“It never occurred to me. I was mostly thinking about girls,” said Sharp of his many hours in a lifeguard chair each summer. “But I was always interested in politics. I always read the paper and to this day I read three papers online every day.”
Sharp was born in 1950 and has lived in Jacksonville Beach his entire life. He’s a 1969 graduate of Fletcher High School and was elected to two terms on the Jacksonville Beach City Council before being elected mayor in 2004. Due to term limits, Sharp will only serve until 2012.
“I had been thinking about it for a long time,” he said of running. “We have had a lot of good mayors and I learned a lot from all of them, like how to run meetings.”
Like many, Sharp ran for office because he didn’t like what he saw or what was going on around him. In the early to mid-1980s, Jacksonville Beach was a mess. Its downtown was virtually nonexistent and its infrastructure needed a major overhaul. Along with several other like-minded residents, Sharp ran for Council and won. Through the group, the revitalization of Jacksonville Beach began.
“In the late 1980s, Jacksonville Beach hit rock bottom. There were a lot of problems with the government,” explained Sharp, whose full-time job is as a partner in Geometric Marine Services. The company supplies shipyards all over the world with parts.
“It was a blighted area. It was awful. Everyone was fed up with the direction things were going. We put together a group to run and see if we could do a better job. We won, but it was not easy,” he said.
“It took years to get rid of the problems. We decided to do what government does best: provide infrastructure, lights and police.”
A major component of the revitalization effort was actually a push to have much of the city officially declared “blighted.” That designation allowed the Jacksonville Beach leadership to take advantage of Tax Increment Financing.
Through that, Jacksonville Beach got back from the City of Jacksonville the amount of the increase in property values every year. However, that money either had to be spent or allocated annually or it was lost.
Sharp is quick to point out that City Manager George Forbes and Finance Director Harry Royal have played integral roles in the 15-year redevelopment plan, a plan that continues today.
The results are a new pier, mixed-use developments, new hotels, a Seawalk Pavilion that draws several festivals and thousands of people a year and a downtown area full of bars and restaurants.
“Our finances are in great shape and we have fewer employees than we did 10 years ago,” said Sharp, adding that retiring employees are seldom replaced and cross-training has helped hold down the need for much more than 350 employees for the city of 21,000 people.
As for his political future, Sharp has adopted the “never say never” mantra. However, he isn’t eyeing anything.
“I’ll just go surfing,” he said. “I just don’t see myself on the Jacksonville City Council or in Tallahassee. I just got back from Washington and I don’t see myself there. I am interested in the port. There are exciting things going there and it’s part of my business.”
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