Smith joins County Commission as Vice Chair

The St Johns County Board of County Commissioners held its reorganization meeting yesterday morning following the November 4th General Election. The City of St Augustine will install its new commissioners on December 1, 2014.

One county commissioner returned to his seat, another, who made the mistake of referring to members of the public, including Historic City News editor Michael Gold and a just-announced candidate, Dan Abel, as “outsiders” before the election, now finds himself on the outside.

Jeb Smith took the oath of office administered by Seventh Circuit Court Judge Howard Maltz Tuesday, along with County Commissioner Jay Morris.

Although Morris served as chairman for the past two-years, the gavel was passed to District 5 County Commissioner Rachael Bennett who will serve as chairman for the next year. Jeb Smith was selected to begin his four-year term in office with a one-year stint as vice-chairman, as occurred with County Commissioner Bill McClure; who has two-years remaining on his first term.

Defeated in the Republican Primary Election in August, former county commissioner, Ron Sanchez, says he’s going to make a run for the Florida House of Representatives District 24 seat being vacated by Travis Hutson.

Hutson, who was just re-elected for another two-year term in the House, without opposition, faces Republican Ronald “Doc” Renuart in a contest to fill John Thrasher’s former seat in the Florida Senate. Others may join that race. Thrasher resigned, after being re-elected, to take the position of president of Florida State University — triggering a high-stakes game of musical chairs; some of which will be filled in an upcoming special election, others, like the remaining two-years of County Commissioner Cindy Stevenson’s seat, will be filled by gubernatorial appointment.