Early entry into St Augustine city commission race

Elections are a year away, but St Augustine business owner and Certified Public Accountant, 39-year-old Todd D. Neville, has announced to Historic City News that he has become a candidate for the St Augustine City Commission, Seat 4.

Neville has never held elected office, but served as campaign treasurer for House of Representative candidates Bill Proctor and Mike Davis. Neville is a registered Republican; however, the city elections are non-partisan and all registered voters within the city may vote. Seat 4 is currently held by Don Crichlow; an appointee who is serving out the remainder of the vacated term of former commissioner Bill Leary.

Professionally, Neville began his career as a certified public accountant auditing hedge funds and non-profits in Chicago, Illinois. In 2003, he became Partner at an established St. Augustine CPA firm where he learned the value of providing first class service to clients. In 2011, he, and long-time audit manager, Justin Breidenstein, founded Neville Breidenstein, CPAs which is located in North City.

Neville is a dedicated and accomplished amateur athlete. After running several marathons, he finished with a personal best time of 2:30:12 in the 2009 Chicago Marathon and in 2011 finished as the ninth amateur in his debut Ironman with a time of 9:24. He qualified for the Hawaii Ironman and competed there in October, 2012. Locally, Neville served as President of the Ancient City Road Runners for six years and he has served as treasurer of the Road Runners Club of America. He is one of the founders of the Ancient City Road Runners’ summer running camp for middle school and high school students.

Neville told reporters that he first moved to the St Augustine area with his family in 1991. He graduated from Indiana University in 1997 and then returned to St Augustine, professionally, in 1999.

Since that time, Neville has been active in the community and its civic organizations. He has been a Rotarian for over 12-years, and serves as President of the St Augustine Rotary Club. Currently, Neville serves as Vice Chairman of Flagler Health Care Systems.

Past community service has included treasurer and vice-chair of the St Johns County Chamber of Commerce and board member of the St Johns County Visitors and Convention Bureau. Neville was president of St Augustine Young Professionals, and a founding member of 450Next. He was a member of the Policy and Funding Committee for the St Johns County School Board strategic planning process, a mentor in the Take Stock in Children mentoring program, and a pro-bono accounting adjunct at Flagler College.