Leon County Commissioner Rick Minor, District 3, recently appeared on The The Steve Stewart show to discuss his re-election campaign and the crucial issues facing our community.
Minor, who has lived in Tallahassee for about 20 years, was elected in to his current position in 2018.
On the issue of growth and development, Minor said that he supports growth, but cautioned that “sprawl” should be minimized, as it impacts government infrastructure such as roads, schools, and hospitals.
Minor was asked about the North Monroe Corridor, which is in District 3.
“The North Monroe interchange has more people coming into our community through that interchange than any other point in the county. It’s the number one gateway to Tallahassee,” Minor said. “Now, what has happened over the last years, is we’ve seen a gradual, steady decline in that part of town.”
Minor said that his goal is to revitalize the corridor.
Minor noted that he helped establish a “task force” to complete evaluations and suggest solutions to the problems. Since then, the county adopted the recommendations by the task force into the five-year strategic plan, which means action can be taken to resolve issues.
Minor addressed homelessness, a significant problem along North Monroe.
He said the issue is complicated, but the county has worked alongside the Leon County Sheriff’s Office to create a street outreach team comprised of trained counselors and deputies. These teams establish connections with the homeless encampments and urge them to seek social services.
Concerning the Amazon project, Minor said he supported it and believes it will have a positive impact on the community. He said Amazon will create over 1000 jobs, with benefits on day one and tuition pay for those who want to attend school. Also, he believes there will be other businesses that will follow Amazon to Tallahassee.
Minor also discussed the Northeast Gateway project, which he supported. He says he supported the master plan to allow the county to coordinate planning and growth for the area, such as implementing traffic and stormwater plans.
Minor noted that the vote also will protect the character of Centerville and Miccosukee roads.
Without the agreement, the land owners could sell parcels to whomever they wanted, with less oversight of the any development.
Stewart asked why Minor voted against expanding the urban services area on the southeast side of Tallahassee.
“We have criteria that’s set that we need to consider” to expand the urban services area (USA), Minor said. One such measure is that there must be a “well-defined need” for the expansion. “The big criteria that I have is making sure that any expansion of the USA is going to help us satisfy the demand for affordable housing.”
Minor explained that when he asked the developers how much of their building would be affordable housing, they responded that the focus was on $300,000 or more.
“In Leon County, that is not affordable,” Minor contended.
Concerning the vote for Blueprint dollars distributed to FAMU and FSU stadium repairs, Minor voted for the funding of FAMU but voted against the funds for FSU’s stadium.
“The FAMU vote came to us first, for $10 million. They would have been condemned, and it was a safety hazard,” Minor said.
Minor said he was initially for funding Doak Campbell stadium repairs. However, many of his constituents voiced opposition to Blueprint dollars going to FSU, so he decided to vote against it.
Leon County Commissioner Rick Minor Explains Benefits of Northeast Gateway, Amazon Project added by Lynsey Kirk on
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@ Barb. Fair enough. My apologies
Thank you fellow TR posters not a one posting in favor of Minor. I have enjoyed reading each of your thoughts on Minor and feel a vote for anyone opposing Minor would be 100% correct. Even if they are flaming liberal idiots like Minor it will take them at least 1/2 of an election cycle to weld the dangerous power Minor has effed things up with. Therefor anyone but Minor = a win for Leon County.
I couldn’t be less impressed with this cat. A classic spineless Swamp Rat if there ever was one. Sorry if that’s a bit harsh, but I call them as I see them.
It’s interesting how most every candidate confirms their support for the BP FAMU handout, but trashes the BP FSU handout and blames it for hurting economic development efforts. Not a very “equitable” position coming from the “equality” gang. My guess is it’s actually all about voter demographics… which makes their statements of support and discontent over the respective decisions transparently insincere. And again, not one of them offering any solution to the BP governance that permits this to begin with… let that sink in a bit.
The Amazon issue is truly moot. Amazon will not hurt small business anymore than the company’s very existence has already done across the country for years. It’s actually the larger companies like Walmart and Target et al… who are struggling to compete with Amazon now.
The “affordable housing” issue is a political ruse and taxpayer-funded futility… and always has been. Save for building taxpayer-funded “projects”, government has absolutely no power or role in “creating” affordable housing. The ability for one to buy any house is predicated and dependent upon ones’ ability to earn enough money to afford the market price of the house the want. All the inane political bluster about affordable housing is just that; inane political bluster… full stop
As for the ever-present “homeless” problem… the solution is quite simple… it’s called tough love. There are “Now Hiring” signs everywhere. Start by requiring the homeless to show ID. If they are from here, then direct them to the treatment they need to once again become a productive member of our local society… if they choose to ignore that help and continue on their path of homelessness, then an occasional sandwich is all the local taxpayers should be required to do for them. If they are not from here, then put them on a bus with a one-way ticket to where they came from with a stern warning not to return… and jail them if they do, just long enough to transport them back to wench they came. Hard-working citizens and taxpayers have been bled dry to help this unsolvable and perpetual problem… enough is enough.
@NE Moderate
Rather than take the Lord’s name in vain, expand your vocabulary.
@ NE Moderate…
Minor also named Mary Ann Lindley as his mentor and person he most admired (cough, cough, cough)…
Minor is a classic spineless career politician. John Dailey and Andrew Gillum were in his wedding party for chrissakes.
Amazon will wreak havoc on our small businesses, biggest Trojan horse in years, and the Northeast Gateway will damage Killearn’s quality of life. Entirely inappropriate for sales tax $ to pay for it up front, most sweetheart deal for Ghazvini developers ever conducted
*No solutions for the homeless problem.
*$300,000.00 is not a lot of money for a home in our area.
*Wants to control who you can sell your property to.
Joey Lamar and Damon Victor are two very impressive opponents.
Although Minor did not vote for the $27 million Doak giveaway he did vote for.Welaunee. Minor failed to stand up to Maddox and accommodated him rather than questioning him and deferred to Maddox so he could win his seat again. Minor also failed to bring to fruition the Monroe Gateway. Minor is a Democratic Party operative where his opponents may put more energy into serving the people and not kowtowing to Democratic Party nonsense.
Voters in this District need to do their homework and vote for what is best for them not the Democratic Party.
Commissioner Minor’s opponents were both interviewed by Steve – when will we see theirs? This is just a reiteration of Minor’s half-truths he’s campaigning on.
He never wanted this job. Run for state house, lose, run for city, lose, get benched by Scott Maddox in 2016 after a year long race to get a plum CEO gig, run for city AGAIN in 2018 only to be benched again for Matlow. When Dailey decided to run for mayor, Rick finally had a chance to win a race!
Amazon was put into motion in 2017 by Blueprint staff – it was secretive over the years and then it was suddenly happening under a secret name, and the public had no opportunity to participate in the process while the Democrat ran hero pieces on all the players.
Comm. Minor’s task force was also a public relations farce they were there to rubber stamp staff recommendations that were already in motion.
And he voted for the biggest expansion of the USA ever – Welaunee. Now he wants to get picky on Southside expansion? Welaunee was and is the most damaging thing our elected officials ever did and he voted for that.
Taxpayers already funded North Monroe via Blueprint only to see a 2014 project go uninitiated while Minor votes for Welaunee during a zoom meeting in 2020.
So sure, let’s create more layers of bureaucracy and drive more of our public dollars into private hands.
People need to know they have a choice here – Looking forward to reading summaries of the other candidates in this race – thank you!