Jeff Bogue - Navigating Governance in Sumter County

Jeff Bogue - Navigating Governance in Sumter County

Insightful Conversations with Sumter County Commissioner Jeff Bogue

This episode of 'Open Forum in The Villages' features an engaging discussion with Jeff Bogue, Sumter County Commissioner for District 4. Host Mike Roth delves into Jeff's extensive background in emergency services, his achievements on the county commission, and his commitment to rural heritage and informed governance. The conversation touches on key topics such as road improvements, county budget management, and future growth plans. Jeff also shares his plans for the upcoming re-election and his vision for balancing residential and commercial development in the county.

00:00 Introduction to Open Forum in The Villages
00:33 Meet Jeff Bogue: Firefighter to County Commissioner
01:36 Jeff Bogue's Commitment to Sumter County
03:41 Challenges and Accomplishments in Local Governance
05:36 Advanced County Commissioner Certification
09:37 Road Infrastructure and Development
12:28 Discussion on Property Tax and Funding
19:26 Rural Roads and Maintenance
21:47 Healthcare and Hospital Development
23:22 Future Growth and Economic Development
25:31 Conclusion and Call to Action

For question or comments: Text 513-646-6523, include your name and email address
 
 

Villages Vitality Listeners, I've got some good news for you. In season 8 most new episodes will released as both audio & video versions. Videos on Apple Podcasts, Busssprout.com and YouTube. If you're listening via our Buzzsprout feed, you can ask questions via the Fan Mail button or leave me comments as a text or in our new feature, you can send it as a voicemail. If you'd like a response, make sure you leave your name, email address and cell phone number.

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Jeffrey Bogue -  Navigating Governance in Sumter County

[00:00:00] Judith: Welcome to Season seven of Open Forum in The Villages of Florida. In this show, we talk to leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live in and around The Villages. We also talk to people who have information vital to seniors. You will get perspectives of what is happening in The Villages, Florida area.

We are a listener supported podcast. There will be shout outs for supporters. 

[00:00:29] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in The Villages, Florida. I'm here today with Jeff Bogue.

A dedicated public servant, conservative leader, and longtime Republican. Now serving his first term as Sumter County Commissioner for District number four.

Thanks for joining us, Jeff. 

[00:00:47] Jeff: Thanks for having me. 

[00:00:47] Mike Roth: Jeff's got a distinguished background as a firefighter and a paramedic. How many years did you do that, Jeff? 

[00:00:55] Jeff: I was at the fire service for about 12 years and 23 years with Tampa General AED as

a flight 

[00:01:00] Mike Roth: Is that how you wound up as a healthcare executive for Advent Health?

[00:01:04] Jeff: When I retired from Tampa General, I moved up here and then somebody in the industry conned me into coming back to work for 'em. So I ended up back in Wesley Chapel at one of the local Advent Health Hospitals. And then from there moved forward with creating the emergency medical services department, and grew that into a division-wide, organiTation and service line. 

[00:01:24] Mike Roth: And you've lived in Bushnell which is in Sumter county since 2014? 

[00:01:29] Jeff: That is correct. 

[00:01:29] Mike Roth: Jeff has been married for 32 years to his wife Amy, and they have three adult children and a grandson.

He's currently the only commissioner in Sumter County to earn the Florida Association of Counties, Advanced County Commissioner II designation underscoring his commitment to be effective and informed government.

How long did it take you to earn that designation, Jeff? 

[00:01:55] Jeff: I've attended classes at the University of Florida over the last two and a half years. Started out as a county commissioner, certified county commissioner, and then advanced certification number I, and then advanced II.

[00:02:05] Mike Roth: What did you learn when you did that? 

[00:02:07] Jeff: It was very enlightening. The first couple years as a county commissioner being the first time in government, it's like drinking from a fire hose. 

Just takes a couple years to figure out how to govern and actually how to navigate in the waters.

It's very different than in the private sector. You learned how to 

work with the land development codes, how to revise, policies, plans, how the state government works for funding different opportunities and avenues that you can develop for funding, taxation, how to work with the taxing policies.

It's just a really basic roadmap to how to govern. 

[00:02:43] Mike Roth: I understand that you're committed to protecting Sumter County's rural heritage as well as ensuring future growth for residents and local businesses. 

[00:02:51] Jeff: I'm a farm boy at heart. I grew up in Kentucky on a hog farm.

[00:02:55] Jeff: Just outside a little place called Eastview, Kentucky, which was outside of Elizabethtown, most folks know as eTown on highway 65, 

[00:03:03] Mike Roth: I was in Cincinnati for 25 years. And the southern part of Cincinnati was called Northern Kentucky.

[00:03:08] Jeff: Yep. Absolutely. when I moved up here to your point about the rural piece of this, I purchased a small farm I guess you'd call it a hobby farm. I don't make a living at it, and I certainly spend more, but I have hogs cattle, horses, chickens. My wife has goats. We've got a little typical ranch going on down there.

[00:03:28] Mike Roth: So you don't have goat yoga? 

[00:03:30] Jeff: Actually my wife did goat yoga for Advent Healthcare system for a couple years.

[00:03:35] Mike Roth: Now, you've been on the county commission for how long, Jeff? 

[00:03:37] Jeff: About three and a half years. I'm up for election. this coming, election cycle. 

[00:03:41] Mike Roth: What are your major accomplishments as a county commissioner that make you proud? 

[00:03:45] Jeff: My proudest accomplishment is that I've been able to encourage the current county commissioners to become more open and communicate better with our citizens.

I used to come to the county meeting. I always hated it how the five commissioners would sit up on the deus and they would never talk about everything. Everything come across their board and they would just, staffer recommends approval and they'd go, yeah, yay. We vote for it. So I always felt like there was not a lot of communication.

Now that I'm in the role, I see that, the communication that the commissioners have is a week before that meeting. They've already reviewed all that stuff. But they don't talk about it at the open meetings where the citizens can see it. So I've worked very hard to encourage the commissioners to communicate openly more so that the public can see that we're talking about it 

[00:04:30] Mike Roth: It's been invisible.

[00:04:31] Jeff: It has been. And so this, being able to talk about it makes it feel more like we're informed. Although they always are and have been informed, but the citizens didn't always see that. 

[00:04:42] Mike Roth: Now, if you were elected to a second term. Which I understand will have to be your last term because of term limits.

[00:04:49] Jeff: And the county commissioners are not term limited yet. It will be my last term because I,

blame my wife for getting me into this county commission role. She's the one that encouraged me to go out and volunteer on a county board when we were having some. Questions about the EMS system a number of years ago.

I did that. Then I felt like there needed to be some private sector type leadership with common sense, since this is where I want to retire in the community, I moved up here. That's how I got into it. if elected, again, I would do the four year term. My intention at that point is to self limit myself. 

[00:05:20] Mike Roth: How old would you be?

[00:05:22] Jeff: I'll be 65 

Okay. Yeah that's a good age to retire. 

yeah, I just bought my first fifth wheel RV and started doing some traveling, so I'm looking forward to those days. 

Yeah. I made the mistake of working till I was 70 and

I should have quit when I was 65.

 Can you explain, how the Advanced County Commissioner certification is going to

help you and help Sumter County. 

as we previously discussed, having. Earned that designation. I have a better understanding of how to navigate the governance of a community or county. I understand how to obtain funding and how to interact with the Department of Transportation or the Department of Environmental Protection.

You are taught how to navigate with the Florida statutes. You learn how much. Commissioners and local home rule have been taken away and what you can and can't govern. There are a tremendous amount of issues that local citizens think county commissioners have the authority to govern over.

but we are actually restricted by state statute. 

[00:06:23] Mike Roth: Can you give us an example of that? 

[00:06:24] Jeff: So if we wanted to, let's say increase a particular 

impact fee.

We've done our studies and we say, okay, we need X percentage

Of a fee to be an impact fee if it's greater than 12%, the state statute does not allow us to do that.

[00:06:39] Mike Roth: Increases 

[00:06:40] Jeff: Correct. but even other things, like if I had 

[00:06:42] Mike Roth: Let's say you wanted to build a north ,

South, limited access highway. Adjacent to The Villages inside of Sumter 

County.

Could the county commission do that? Assuming you had the money? 

[00:06:53] Jeff: It wouldn't be a highway. I could have a local regional road that only I maintain.

Yes, we could do that. We'd have to own the land now. So then you get into the whole, 

how do, 

[00:07:04] Mike Roth: Let's assume you had title to the land to build this. 

[00:07:08] Jeff: So then I have to obtain funding. Most people don't have any idea that roadway funding runs about a million dollars a mile. most of our roadway repairs and new roads are put in place in this area in The Villages by the developer. 

Who those to then county specifications and then turns 'em over to us for the maintenance.

The maintenance is the long term expense involved with roads, 

[00:07:30] Mike Roth: We've had problems in the past with tremendous amount of maintenance dollars being spent unnecessarily. To make the roads

look prettier and ,ride smoother. 

[00:07:43] Jeff: That's, one of the hard decisions to make is where do you put the dollars?

When you have limited dollars, where do you put them? Some citizens are upset because the road's greys and not black. 

[00:07:54] Mike Roth: Who cares about that? 

[00:07:55] Jeff: But there's some that really do they're concerned about the investment they put into their home, Very particular about things and it's Greys on one side and then black. ' because they didn't spray the sealant in the same place at the same time. They don't necessarily worry about whether or not it's effective but it doesn't look good. Folks will call and complain.

We'll say, here is the protective layer, this is the date when it won't be effective anymore, and we'll be back out to reseal. 

[00:08:19] Mike Roth: The major roads like Moss Boulevard or 466A.

[00:08:23] Jeff: You have to choose between county road regional roads that we manage, and then there's also the state road and what the DOT has to say on a lot of these issues.

any of the state roads, we have to go into a partnership with the state to develop or to build out. 

[00:08:36] Mike Roth: Let's take a quick break here and listen to an Alzheimer's tip from Dr. Craig Curtis.

Dr. Curtis, can you give, our listeners a tip on keeping their brain healthy? 

[00:08:50] Dr. Craig Curtis: Absolutely. My favorite tip is, involves a change in eating patterns, but it's not a drastic change. It's simply increasing the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, other white meats, and lowering the amounts of red meat.

Sweetss and sugars, and also carbohydrates. It's essentially following a Mediterranean type diet plan. 

[00:09:20] Warren: With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr. Curtis's goal is to educate The Villages community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website, craigcurtismd.com, or call 3 5 2 5 0 0 5 2 5 2 to attend a free seminar.

[00:09:36] Mike Roth: Thank you, Dr. Curtis.

We were talking about roads here in The villages area and the road that

bothers me most right now and probably a lot of our listeners is state Route 44 and Moss Boulevard, which used to be a fantastic intersection.

Now with the Walmart coming in and a new street called Waxman with two traffic lights, one on 44 and one on Morse going south. It takes six minutes to exit Osceola Hills, go through a traffic circle and then you come to a dead stop for six minutes waiting for the traffic lights to clear twice before you can get down to

Morse Boulevard where you can either take a left, or right turn blocking traffic or go straight south.

I know the county has done a study

I think was that $50,000.

[00:10:26] Jeff: We paid for a study, which has been completed.

They're moving forward with a design phase,

a preliminary design by the Department of Transportation has been completed. Understanding is we're, as the County Commission will be presented with that on the 27th in our BOCC meeting, 

[00:10:43] Mike Roth: of. 

[00:10:43] Jeff: Feb 

[00:10:43] Mike Roth: January, 

[00:10:44] Jeff: yeah. So not tonight, but a week from tonight at our board of county commission meetings will be presented with the preliminary, 

[00:10:52] Mike Roth: You don't even know what the design might cost 

[00:10:54] Jeff: No, it estimates, the county portion will be three to 4 million to build it out.

The state will partner, adding the additional 50% and we'll end up at six or 8 million for the whole. Intersection. My understanding is that we don't have to purchase any additional land, which is good when you don't have to get into buying easements or domain.

The design, and I haven't seen it yet, I'm waiting to see it will include turn signals, two lanes east and west. 

And lengthening all of the turn lanes.

[00:11:23] Mike Roth: Will Walmart be billed for that? 

[00:11:25] Jeff: So Walmart paid an impact fee, which is set by, price per square foot. I couldn't tell you exactly what that is without looking it up. But yes, they've paid an impact fee that pays into that road design.

[00:11:36] Mike Roth: And who paid for the traffic lights on Waxman Way. 

[00:11:39] Jeff: Typically traffic lights are owned by the Department of Transportation, and then they contract with our county and we manage the for the Department of Transportation.

All traffic lights are authorized and put up by the Department of Transportation

[00:11:53] Mike Roth: As part of that study, or maybe it was another study I saw there was an improvement for the residents of Chitty Chatty. 

[00:11:59] Jeff: So we're putting in some directional turn lanes there.

I know that a lot of folks wanted to have a roundabout put in. But it doesn't meet the traffic volume numbers to justify that under DOT simply because there's a finite number of homes there that are already built out. They're not gonna build anymore.

[00:12:15] Mike Roth: Landlocked.

[00:12:16] Jeff: Exactly. They are landlocked.

So it's hard to, without assessing. Every resident individually for that, to build it out above and beyond is really not justifiable. 

[00:12:28] Mike Roth: Do you see there's a movement in Florida, run by Ron DeSantis to eliminate the property tax.

In general do you think that's a good idea or a bad idea.

[00:12:39] Jeff: From a personal standpoint or from a board of county commissioner 

standpoint? I like, you don't like paying property tax, right? I'm a Republican. I believe in small government, small tax, personal freedoms.

[00:12:50] Mike Roth: Right?

[00:12:51] Jeff: Don't we all? 

[00:12:51] Mike Roth: And your property is probably homesteaded. right? 

[00:12:54] Jeff: is because I raised livestock are exemptions that are there, and that's where the property is now. From a board of county commissioner standpoint, 60% of my budget is spent on public safety.

That's what 60% of our tax dollars go to. 

[00:13:11] Mike Roth: Public safety meaning the Sheriff, Fire Department, 

[00:13:13] Jeff: office, emergency services. 

The number if we eliminate property tax and I'm not opposed to it, but I wanna see a plan and I've yet to see a plan presented that says if we eliminate the homestead property tax, this is how we're gonna supplement.

Because the services don't go away. You don't want less service, you want the same service. You don't want your roads to be taken care of less. You want the same service. So those still have to be paid for. So we have to figure out, 

[00:13:42] Mike Roth: Doesn't the county government contribute to the school tax or is that a separate addon?

[00:13:46] Jeff: So if you look at your trim notice, you get a tax for the board of county commissioners. Then you get a school tax, then you get a city tax, depending if you're in a city.Is 

[00:13:55] Mike Roth: the property tax an ad valorem tax? 

[00:13:58] Jeff: The property tax is the ad valorem and then there's a non-ad valorem tax or fee for the fire service.

[00:14:03] Mike Roth: I've seen several proposals. I know there are six floating around. 

[00:14:07] Jeff: em as well. 

[00:14:08] Mike Roth: Okay. The one that I saw that seemed interesting

was one that eliminated the property tax and imposed an additional sales tax. 

[00:14:18] Jeff: Correct. 

[00:14:18] Mike Roth: Adding an extra.

we paying 7% here and they said it was gonna go to 11%, so that's extra 4 %. If that goes into effect and the state allocates by county where the sales taxes came from and that extra 4 % of sales tax came to the county of Sumter, would that be enough to cover the 60% that you guys need to run the government?

[00:14:41] Jeff: So let me answer that question with a question. 

How do you know what the sales are gonna be each year? How do you know what the sales tax is gonna come from the retail sales? I have an idea of what the ador tax is gonna be because it's based on your value.

So I'm able to build my budget based on knowing what my potential revenue's gonna 

be.

[00:15:00] Mike Roth: But someone in the state of Florida must know what this total sales tax revenue was

for the businesses.

[00:15:07] Jeff: I've never seen somebody break it down by county or even by municipality. what is the, city of Wildwood gonna get?

What is city Bushnell gonna get? 

There's a lot of unanswered questions. And this isn't just a Sumter County problem, this is a state of Florida problem. if you talk with the Florida Association of Counties, all of are saying, okay, we appreciate the idea to eliminate property tax.

But where is that money gonna come from to run the services? it's different if citizens say, I'm willing not pay property tax, and I'm willing to wait 20 minutes to get fire engine. nobody wants to do that. 

[00:15:41] Mike Roth: 20 minutes to get a fire engine means you're gonna accept your house burning down.

[00:15:46] Jeff: But those services, whether even road repair, aren't free. it has to be paid for somewhere.

[00:15:51] Mike Roth: So what I'm proud of 

[00:15:53] Jeff: Sumter County is number one. we're one of the five lowest. Taxed counties, one of the most efficient counties.

We have a tremendous number of consolidated services from interlocal agreements with all of the five cities. We don't have duplication of services like so many of these counties and cities do. So we actually run very lean. 

[00:16:15] Mike Roth: Before legislation should pass, each one of the counties should know where their revenue is gonna come from,

if the sales tax money collected in this county was returned to this county and it was less than the property tax was in the prior year,

The state. should Kick in the difference from other counties where it was over. 

[00:16:36] Jeff: You , hope so, but that's not a solid plan. 

[00:16:39] Mike Roth: No one,There’s 

[00:16:41] Jeff: too much ambiguity out there. 

[00:16:42] Mike Roth: The other ambiguity that bothers me in the legislation that I reviewed, it seemed that the counties were allowed to add other fees back onto property owners like a police or fire fee per household.

We already have a fire fee in this county. They could put a flat fee of a hundred bucks a house for policing, even though officially here in unincorporated sumter County where we are, there is no police department. 

[00:17:13] Jeff: Sheriff's Office 

[00:17:14] Mike Roth: Yes. But he's not the same as the Wildwood Police Department.

[00:17:17] Jeff: No. And the Wildwood police department's jurisdictions within the city limits of Wildwood. Now, the sheriff can assist the Wildwood Police Department in their policing the City of Wildwood Police Department asks us to bring in and provide X amount of deputies, and we do that

[00:17:31] Mike Roth: So in flipping back to roads for a minute. There's an impact fee that the builders, whatever they're building, residential or commercial pay to the county to put up those buildings. What percentage of that road improvement fee is that you guys collect? That The county is actually expended in the year that it's received?

[00:17:50] Jeff: It's the misconception with impact fees, we only have one, which is the road impact 

[00:17:55] Mike Roth: They 

[00:17:55] Jeff: That road impact fee cannot be used for maintenance. 

That road impact fee is only for new roads. 

It can only be new road used on, when I say new roads, they are expansion of roads.

You can't take and renew a road with that property, 

[00:18:12] Mike Roth: But you could add an extra lane. 

[00:18:13] Jeff: We can use it to add extra lanes or increase the volume. typically we use that as a percentage that we're allowed to roll over, in, some of the new subdivisions outside of The Villages, we have put a fire impact fee in place. they'll collect those fees until we build the fire station for that area. Similar thing with roads, we can accrue a certain amount of dollars I don't know the exact figure 

I'd have to get that from the administrator. But it's generally spent pretty quick. We don't have a lot of money laying around. 

[00:18:40] Mike Roth: You're not responsible for the city of Wildwood, but it seems like Wildwood has been on a crazy expansion

of their residential units along Powell road without any real improvements

to Powell Road, who would pay for improvements on Powell Road.

[00:18:57] Jeff: If it was an expansion, that would to come from an impact fee.

[00:19:00] Mike Roth: So if they wanted to, increase.

[00:19:01] Jeff: If they wanted to increase it to four lanes, That would have to come from impact fees. 

[00:19:05] Mike Roth: Impact fees, 

[00:19:06] Jeff: that's my understanding, 

[00:19:07] Mike Roth: Okay. that would be a county problem?

[00:19:09] Jeff: It would be a, I dunno. I haven't asked that question yet. 

[00:19:12] Mike Roth: And I've been accused of asking good questions. 

[00:19:14] Jeff: That's, a good question. I'd have to get back to you on that. I don't know, without talking to 

[00:19:17] Mike Roth: That's another, squeeze 

[00:19:18] Jeff: the county, 

[00:19:19] Mike Roth: That's another squeeze point.

[00:19:20] Jeff: I think there's a lot of squeeze points in our county, to be honest with you. And we haven't even started to talk about the rural roads.

[00:19:26] Mike Roth: Let's talk about the rural roads 

[00:19:28] Jeff: They've been forgotten about. 

[00:19:29] Mike Roth: They're important.

[00:19:30] Jeff: They are very important because they're what feed, the traffic into The Villages. The Villages is our largest concentration

Of residents. 

But let's look at 471. That's the main supply route from Lakeland. North to The Villages. And who comes out of Lakeland?

Publix main warehouses in Lakeland. 

[00:19:51] Mike Roth: Oh, I didn't, 

[00:19:51] Jeff: So if you sit in Bushnell on 471, you can literally watch semi after semi from Publix coming up 471 because it's a direct shot from 48 and Lakeland So the rural roads are important. 

[00:20:03] Mike Roth: 471 is a rural road that is totally responsible by the county.

[00:20:08] Jeff: it's a county road now. there's an improvement going on currently road improvements are through the county fund or state and county joint funding typically.

State roads are typically Determined by the Department of Transportation where we manage the smaller county roads.

We'll determine, how and when we need to renew those roads, refresh them, or whether it's a full rebuild or just a surface build. Sumter County, back in the early eighties, SWIFT mode came in and said, we're gonna change how, who?

Swift Mud. 

[00:20:36] Mike Roth: Most of our. listeners have no idea what Swift mud is. 

[00:20:39] Jeff: South? Yeah, the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Okay. they're the ones that determine how much runoff space you have to have, how many retention ponds you have to have. they came out back in the eighties, and said, we're going to change how we determine.

How much roadway runoff you need to have. any road that's not paved prior to this date will fall into the new policy. So this county went out and paved a bunch of roads. 

Just so that we wouldn't have to build a whole road structure. a lot of those roads haven't been touched for 30 years.

Oh, there's a lot of dilapidated, old county roads that just don't get a lot of traffic, so they don't meet the criteria to spend the tax dollars to renew 'em. this year, this board had an initiative where we didn't roll back our tax rate.

We kept our millage rate the same as last year.

that difference that we're gonna collect is dedicated strictly to road maintenance. that's how we're moving forward with maintaining some of these rural roads and renewing some of these roads. 

[00:21:35] Mike Roth: And some of the rural roads that need widening, like 471, 

[00:21:40] Jeff: 471 one's not being widened.

It's just being rebuilt because, when you run semis over it, it'll break down quickly. So it's just a reconstruction.

[00:21:47] Mike Roth: Let's talk about hospitals since that's your background. Three or four years ago, we were told that UF was gonna build a new hospital down at 470 And the street that became Central Parkway, that never happened. I understand that was a UF

decision. not a county decision. Are there any bright lights on the horizon for a new hospital down south? 

[00:22:08] Jeff: I don't know of any specific organization, whether it's, HCA university of Florida Healthcare System advent Health I'm not aware of.

Any plans for anybody immediately to build a hospital. There are a number of offsite

emergency departments, which are tied to hospitals. We've seen three or four of 'em pop up here recently. I know just across the county line in Lake County, there's a couple more offsite eds one off of 466. 

[00:22:34] Mike Roth: At Fruitland Park. 

[00:22:35] Jeff: not aware of any hospital systems looking to build a hospital in Sumter County yet. 

[00:22:40] Mike Roth: Is anyone in the county government soliciting hospital systems to build here? Because we certainly have a need in my opinion. 

[00:22:47] Jeff: We haven't solicited, we don't typically go out and solicit for a hospital. 

That's a really a healthcare network problem. And those healthcare networks look at reimbursements. 

[00:22:57] Mike Roth: So what happens to the land that was allocated to the hospital 

[00:23:00] Jeff: That, would be sold by The Villages? it's not land that's given to the hospital. That's land the hospital would have to purchase from The Villages Corporation that owns the land. 

[00:23:07] Mike Roth: The Villages Corporation that owns the land could decide to put retail in there, for 

[00:23:12] Jeff: If it met the zoning, yes. 

[00:23:13] Mike Roth: Okay.

[00:23:14] Jeff: If it met the zoning. I don't know what the specific piece of land is, whether it's zone commercial, 

[00:23:19] Mike Roth: Is there a special zoning for 

[00:23:20] Jeff: I think it falls under a commercial zoning. 

[00:23:22] Mike Roth: In terms of the development in the county as the developer builds more homes further south do you see that as a good thing?

[00:23:30] Jeff: For many years Sumter County has been blessed by the relationship with The Villages Corporation.

The growth has been tremendous. It has been an economic engine for us if I looked at the economy as an ecosystem, I don't want so much heavy residential and no commercial or industrial because then the tax base, the funding for all of the roads and the services lie on the shoulders of the residents.

So we're moving as a county, towards encouraging and trying to recruit some industrial and commercial business. While maintaining the rural section as much as we can, certainly, I can't tell somebody not to sell their land to The Villages Corporation. 

And I cannot tell somebody who's purchased a piece of land if they followed all of our ordinances.

I can't tell 'em that they can't do something. There's landowner rights, do I want more growth? No. Do we probably need to diversify our growth And do it smartly? Yes, That way there's not a heavy burden on the residents and if our economy falls and housing sales fall revenue for the county falls.

We want to maintain that balance and that's what we're working towards now with our economic development plan. 

[00:24:44] Mike Roth: Are you saying you're looking for more commercial development here in the Villages? 

[00:24:47] Jeff: And we have commercial areas that we've centers of development and industrial.

Such as Marlene O'Toole off of the 3 0 1, that's the new industrial park. Just south of Coleman that's being developed now. 

And then economic centers around the four 70 and I 75 area

as identified as also in as zoned appropriately. 

[00:25:08] Mike Roth: you brought up Coleman

is there a plan to relocate three o one so it doesn't go through the heart of downtown?

[00:25:14] Jeff: There 301 is in the process of being realigned and moved outside of the Coleman city limits. It'll basically take a little jog just past 70 and come up the north side across Coleman and connect just south of Warm Springs. 

[00:25:29] Mike Roth: Yes. That's a good idea. 

[00:25:30] Jeff: It's what the citizens wanted. 

[00:25:31] Mike Roth: Is there anything else you want to tell our citizens about Jeff? 

[00:25:35] Jeff: I'm a very open and transparent guy. I encourage everybody to come out to the board of county commission meetings. We're county has commission meetings on the second and fourth Tuesday.

The third Tuesday is our workshop day. I'd love for people to come out, talk to us. Certainly call us. Our phone numbers and emails are listed on the county website 

[00:25:55] Mike Roth: Where are the county meetings?

[00:25:56] Jeff: Currently the county meetings are being held at Everglades.

Recreational center. the workshop is held on Powell Road at the county building. In the future, we're building a new facility at 47301, which will be our new Board of County Commission building for meetings. We'll Also have a fire training center there for The Villages Fire Department and the Suter County Fire Department.

[00:26:16] Mike Roth: Thanks for being on Open Forum and The Villages.

with us. 

[00:26:19] Jeff: Hey, thank you very much. don't forget, vote Jeff Bogue.

[00:26:22] Mike Roth: Thank

you Jeff. 

[00:26:22] Jeff: Thank you.

[00:26:23] Mike Roth: This is Mike Roth. Listeners, I'm thrilled to share with you this podcast, which is my passion project, to bring knowledge, inspiration, and things you need to know about The Villages and the people living here. Be sure to hit the follow button to get the newest episode each week, or you can hit the purple supporter box.

Even a small donation of three to $10 a month makes a big difference. And you can cancel your subscription at any time. Your support means the world to us. Stay curious, stay inspired, and keep those headphones on.

[00:27:03] Judith: Remember, our next episode will be released next Friday at 9:00 AM. Should you wanna become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. This is a shout out for supporters, Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams, Duane Roemich, Paul Sorgen, and Dr. Craig Curtis at K 2 in The Villages.  

[00:27:23] Judith: We will be hearing more from Dr. Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at mike@rothvoice.com. The way our show grows is with your help. Text your friends about this show. If you enjoyed listening or just tell your friends . We thank everyone for listening. 

[00:27:43] Judith: The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth Voice 2026 all rights reserved.