About

To my fellow Alachua County Citizen,

With great pleasure and humility, I announce my candidacy for the Alachua County Soil and Water Conservation District, Seat 4. I look forward to serving you in this capacity, and striving to implement responsible, accountable measures to ensure the conservation of our precious county resources.

I am a first-year Law Student at the University of Florida. I graduated in May from UF with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Classical History. It is my intent in life to be a public servant. I would like to be a new breed of politician: an accountable, accessible, and responsible guardian of the citizens’ money. I believe in the importance of the free markets, the power of the individual, and the necessity of technological innovation.

I have worked as a Loaned Executive for the United Way of North Central Florida, and am a strong advocate of non-profit charity within the community. I own my own non-profit political newsmagazine, the Florida Frontier.

I am also a business owner. I own and operate www.cheaperbyastudent.com, a website devoted to helping students find jobs in college towns. My experience in owning and operating this business has taught me invaluable experiences in financial accountability, management, and organization.

This office is extremely important to me. It is an unpaid position, and I am willing to put the time, effort, and energy into it without reservation. I have been to every single Soil and Water meeting since March, and my opponent has not been to any of them. I seek to actively work, in the position, to reduce regulation and bring a higher level of communication to the citizen regarding Conservation issues. I also want to shift the primary action towards conservation from blind top-down, wasteful government regulations to citizen based, bottom-up best-use practices that have been developed by the people they will affect. This is extremely important. I commit, wholeheartedly, to this standard and know with my experience thus far with the Soil and Water Board that I can deliver on this promise. I am not making unfounded, whimsical campaign promises, I am ensuring the voter decisive action on my part.

The Alachua County Soil and Water Conservation District is currently predominantly funded by the sale of zoning maps. However, money exists from the state and federal level in the form of grants, a resource which we currently under-utilize. I intend to devote my abilities in applying for grants to improve the funding of our Conservation District to accomplish more within our county.

If you own land in Alachua County, this election is important to you. The State of Florida and large government entities are constantly adding large, blanket regulations to land and resource use without heeding local needs or concerns. If elected to be your conservation district representative, I would work to voice the district’s specialized needs to the state and amongst the countless agencies created to oversee resource usage in the county. I believe that the conservation district should be operated with a focus on localized, accountable programs; constantly striving to be as mindful of the will of the citizens as they are of the conservation of the county’s resources.

Please take a second to explore my website. I have included information about the Conservation District, the duties of those who hold the office, and some ideas I have to improve our operation.

I hope to have your vote in November. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please email me at griffinswcd4@gmail.com. I thank you for your time and support.

Sincerely,
Bryan Griffin
griffinswcd4@gmail.com